It’s moving day today, we are going to St Augustine.
It’s raining here this morning, which will suck for packing. Our goal is to leave around 9 since we have a long day of driving, and we change to Eastern Time Zone, so we lose an hour on the way. Our driving time will be about 6 hours.
I didn’t have a ton of time to do much in the morning as I wanted to start packing around 7, so I just wrote down some main things for yesterday and turned the computer off and put it away for the trip. Around 7:15 I let Carol know I was going outside to start packing, so I got her up as well. I got everything outside done, before further rain, so we were able to pull the slide out in while it was mostly dry. The area around the trailer is a mix of sand and grass, so the hoses were full of sand as I put them away. Not great, but could be worse. I had left the fishing pole outside hooked to the back of the trailer and with an artificial bait in the water, when I checked it, the line was broke. I’m guessing some big fish got it and was just too big for the line and it broke. I had left another line, just a line with bait tied to a tree and that was gone too. Ha! I finished putting everything away, connected the truck and we were ready to leave by 8:45.
Bella woke up around 6:30 jumped out of the bunk to check the Leuprechon trap, and got her school stuff. She was disappointed that there was no leuprechon under the trap, and the cookie was gone, line was cut, and a note saying” Can’t fool me, I prefer four leaf clovers and rainbows, Big L”. hahahahaha…. She said right away she wanted to finish her school work so she could use her cell during the trip. Hahahah.. She worked on everything she could before we left, and during the trip she finished the online stuff and got caught up with her science work, all in the early part of the trip, so she had plenty of phone time.
Bia was up while I was out, so Carol got her going. She started her class in the trailer, but soon went to the truck and finished her day on the road. It looked as if she was more concentrated today, and was able to get all her math done with no help, and we sent the teacher the work as well. Bia was done around 10 something, then logged in again for her last class around noon.
Carol had done some of the inside routine the night before, like vacuuming and stuff, so she put away what was left, cut up some apples, washed the breakfast dishes, etc and was also ready around 8:45, so that’s when we left. We beat 9am!
Our trip was good today. There was some fog in the first hour or two, but it was not bad. Pretty much all the driving in Florida is flat, so easy. All the roads were pretty good too, a few spots had some holes but it was not bad. We had a long driving day, and “lost an hour” as we switched time zones, so we left at just about 9am and arrived right after 5pm. The girls were playing with their phones or watching movies on the road, after they were done with school. Carol was reading her book, or taking a nap :). We made a few stops, some restroom breaks, a lunch break where we had a bunch of left overs from prior days. I think at least we cleaned out the fridge.
And I made one stop to fill up the truck. Well, I actually made two stops for that. The first one was at a gas station that was showing on the sign they had an RV bay, little circle with the letters RV at the bottom of their logo. I went there, and pulled up to that bay but some doushebag was parked in the filling spot. Parked! No driver there, but I could see some people inside eating. My guess is the SOB was eating and just parked there, so no-one else could fill up. I turned around and went to the truck bay, which is not great because the nozzle is very wide and almost doesn’t fit, and also the fill speed is so fast you need to go as slow as possible so you don’t have a spill. Well, I just put a bit of the nozzle in the tank and pushed the trigger very slowly and it spilled. I tried again and it spilled… I had diesel all over the truck and floor. I got some water inside and watered it all down, and just was so mad I left and went to another gas station. Later, I thought about what could have cause the spill, and I realized or remembered that my tank has two spring loaded covers in the tank, and I only put the nozzle so far to open the first one, so diesel accumulated between the doors and spilled. Ok, I’ll add that to my inexperience. Another 20 minute drive and I saw the sign for a Loves Travel stop, and we went there, and had no issues. Well, only thing I thought was off was the price, I thought we passed the over $3 a gallon places, but this one was $3.25. Ouch. Once we got to Jacksonville, we finally moved off of I-10, and were in St Augustine in another 30 minutes. We have been driving on I-10 since San Diego I think. As I pulled in to the campground, a lady came right up and got my name then handed me the paperwork, and there was a guy ready to escort us to our spot. We have a pull through, so after going around the block, we pulled in and were set. We had to hurry with the disconnect as the truck stayed out on the road blocking it and other cars could not pass by.
This campground is nice, lots of trees, just nice looking and more of a campground feel to it. But, it is a bit packed together in some spots. We had a buddy site, which is one trailer facing the other, so it feels like we have more room. On the other side though, the awning from the motorhome next to us was almost touching our slideout. So far, it does not feel like there are too many mosquitoes here, but we’ll see. We got everything setup as usual. The girls were playing. Bia was outside with Maggie and a water spray bottle and Bella was inside doing some art. After we were setup, Carol started dinner. I went to a gas station nearby to get some beers, there is one like 2 blocks away. After I got back, I took all the bikes down and sprayed the chains with this 2 in 1 product I got at Walmart that is supposed to clean the chain and lubricate it. Carol’s bike needed it the most, it was full of gunk. I have to say this product was pretty amazing. As I sprayed her bike’s chain, while turning the pedals backwards, I could see black stuff falling and the chain turning from black to silver again. Amazing! I left it there for 2 minutes or so, then wiped it down, and pretty much all the hard gunk that was on the gears also all came out. I sprayed a bit more in it and left. The other bikes were not dirty, but were kind of corroded, looking pretty stiff too, so this was more for lubrication for the other ones. All bikes are ready to go now. I stayed outside a little longer as the sun was setting, then went inside as we were ready for dinner.
The girls had showered just before dinner, so we ate and got the TV tuned to the local channels. Bia chose something and we watched some TV after dinner. Carol washed the dishes, I dried them, and Bia and Bella put them away. It’s nice that they don’t even complain about the dishes, they just do it, as I think they see it is just part of the way we do things. I got my computer out and started putting some planning together for our time here. We put the kids to bed around 9:30 (local time). We stayed up quite a bit more, Carol was reading and I was looking up places to check out around here. And that was it for today.
We had a nice moving day to St Augustine.