Sunday April 1, 2012
The ride to Jacksonville was smooth sailing. We had expected bumper to bumper traffic with all of the snowbirds heading back North, but thank goodness that nightmare didn't materialize. In fact, the nightmare didn't start until we hit the campground in Jacksonville. There we sat in line for nearly 35 minutes. When finally we saw the check in office it felt like the finish line. But again more waiting was in store for us. We totally expected to see a one armed blind guy running the place. It really couldn't have gone any slower. We get to the check in window. "You will have to come back in an hour or so to check in. Here's your site number. Just go park your RV and come back to the office when you are set up." Patience is not one of my better virtues. By this time I was ready to go postal on someone.
Almost 2 to 3 hours later we finally grabbed our bikes and headed up to the office to check in. Luckily there was only one person ahead of us in line. When we left, however, there were 5 people in line behind us. Sucked to be them.
Since we haven't had to set up the RV for 3 months there were a few things I had forgotten to do inside to prep it for pulling. Double check that all of the cabinets were shut tight. They weren't. The overhead cabinet where we store cereals, pasta and our oats was not latched. And of course, the boxed pasta couldn't have fallen out, no, no. It had to be the oats. I walked in to the RV and the first thing I thought of when I saw the oats everywhere (and I swear this) was where is a friggen goat when you need one? Also, the wooden flat tray that fits in the top of our end table fell out and was sitting on the floor. Normally, this is no big deal but it could be. I can just see it being a projectile piece of wood flying right in to the TV. So, here I am trying desperately to get the slides open so I can get the dogs out of the car. Even though all of the windows were down in the truck the humidity hung like a wet blanket all around. They are such very good little travelers (we never, ever hear a peep out of either one of them) so I want to give them fresh water and air conditioning as soon as possible. Jack is super busy outside doing all of his "man" things; hooking up water, sewage, electric, leveling the unit, etc., etc. We each have our own duties. Anyhow, Sydney nearly jumped in to my arms when I opened the door so I took her in first. I immediately got their water bowl down and tried to get her to take a drink. She refused. Instead she went to the door and scratched. I, like a dummy, thought she was scratching just because she wanted Tanner in. Boy, how wrong I can read my dogs. "Just a minute," I kept telling her. "I'll get Tanner." To that she just puked everywhere. So much for feeding them before we take a road trip. Never have done it before but figured a 3 hour trip wouldn't hurt. Ok. I was wrong. What fun!
But it all turned out fine. We got settled in, sat outside for awhile and enjoyed the serenity of the area. Like we told you all last year, it is like a jungle here. We had to miss a tree on one side of our site by inches and at the same time miss the electric box on the other side by inches. Pulling the motorcycle adds a few extra feet so we are now pulling around 40+ feet. You can see our site in the pictures below. We keep waiting for the monkeys to drop in.
We took the dogs for their final walk tonight down by the lake. I asked someone earlier if any alligators had been spotted this year and was told no. So, I felt pretty safe.....Until I saw a bug the size of my foot and then I was freaking out with every step. But very quickly the only thing I was aware of was the sound of what seemed like a million bull frogs singing in unison. Their sound was extremely overwhelming and unless you heard it for yourself you can't begin to understand the deafening noise they were making. Someone could record what we heard tonight and use it for getting military secrets from the enemy. Unbelievable.
Spent some time at the beach today. The water was as warm as bath water so we plan on playing around tomorrow in the ocean. The Gulf side is still very cold so I was happy to feel the warmth of the Atlantic under my feet.
Had dinner with Carol and Lori tonight and enjoyed catching up on everyone's life of the last year. We are having them out Friday night for Jack's delicious shish kabobs! Looking forward to it.
Here are Jack's pictures and captions.
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| A picture looking outside our front door. |
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| A close up of a Woodpecker in the top of a tree taken using the telephoto lens on the new camera we got each other for our anniversary. This is exactly the kind of shot we bought the new camera for. We can get close ups without scaring it away. |
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| Janet took the pics of the dogs. Except for close up below of Tanner the other ones were taken through the back window when we were standing outside looking in at them. |
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| This was taken using the 1000mm lens setting and the helicopter was a very long way away. |
The next few pictures show the site we are in. It took us a while to get in due to the obstacles but once we got into it we really like it. Like your in the middle of a jungle. It's much larger than our Beverly Hills site.
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| Notice the electric box on the left and the tree leaning over on the right. These trees are the worst since you have to watch 13 feet up and not how far you miss them on the ground. |
