A: An RrrrrrrV!

Ellen has agreed that we can nickname the Woodwind Prairie Schooner RrrrrrV. Some friends of ours have made other comments.

Everything is actually starting to settle into a routine. We both commented on how much neater we are and how much more organized as well. “Everything in its place and a place for everything” is the tagline for this paragraph. It makes for instant happiness. Remember how we worried about how we were going to fit “all this stuff”? We could’ve brought even more! It’s amazing how much fits into this home on wheels. We only partially filled the wardrobes and the two big storage bins above the bed are empty. Even the rear trunk is only about half full. I’m glad we had weighed the RV during our trip in late Sept. to get an idea of how much weight we can safely add.

After breakfast, we took off in our Focus to Atlantic Beach, which is 8 miles due south of here as the crow flies. But, being that we’re in a tidal wetlands area, you can’t get there by road in only 8 miles. It’s more of a 45 minute drive back to the Jacksonville beltway. Or, the quicker option is to take the ferry, which is a continuance of A1A. The ride is 15 minutes and driving is another 10. Cost is $6 each way. 

Once we made it to Atlantic Beach, we had blue skies and temperatures in the low 80’s. Our destination was to Sherry and John’s beach house. It’s funny that I write here that it’s a beach house because that’s what I thought it was. Oh! Was I wrong. It’s a beautiful 3 bedroom rancher with a man-cave over the large garage. They have a small lounging pool, too. Their dog, Henry, is so cute. He’s a small labradoodle who’s a lot younger than Pogo. With bountiful energy, he just wanted to play.

Lunch out in town was the first order of the afternoon, and we had a great nuevo mexicano meal at the Flying Iguana. It’s actually in Neptune Beach. Atlantic Beach does not have a small village of shops and restaurants, but defers to its southern neighbor for these services a block away.

Post lunch took us to a stroll of the beach where Henry and John play together every day. It felt great to feel the sand on your feet and the sun on your face on such a beautiful day.

In the sand, we spotted a prickly pear plant bearing purple fruit. I’ve never seen these with their fruit before.

 

Next was a visit to the town center, which had an exhibit of old maps and photos dating back to early settlers. It was an interesting exhibit.

After a wonderful visit, on our way back to the ferry, we stopped at the local fresh fish market right near the ferry and bought fresh mahi-mahi for dinner. We managed to get back to our campsite before dark. It’s supposed to turn a bit cooler tonight and Wednesday.

Tomorrow, we head for Fernandina Beach for some errands and to see Ft. Clinch, recommended by Sean Ellis, who worked for us way back in 2001.

 

 

 

Traveling on interstate 95 in a 30′ motorhome plus a 16′ car in tow and another 6′ in tow bar makes for one interesting, yet fatiguing driving experience. You really have to pay attention 100%, maybe more like hyper percent! We had to make several stops for either lunch or fuel. The GPS said the trip to Fayettville, NC would take 5 hours, but all in all, we arrived 6 and 3/4 hours later. The campground we were staying at required us to be there by 6 PM and we made it in time. Whew!

While in Fayettville, it gave us the great opportunity to visit our niece and nephew Abigail and Robert and their 3 year old daughter Grace (who we haven’t seen since she was a month old). We had a bite to eat with them, and their dog (Alice) and Pogo played a bit. But Grace really wanted to spend all of her time with Pogo. It was cute.

So, the title of this post starts with “Rainy”. An hour before entering Fayettville, we were hit with rain. It rained that night, but cleared out later in the morning. It was cool out. We needed to get an early start because this leg to Little Talbot Island State Park was a bit longer time wise. But, first we had the opportunity to fill up our fixed propane tank there on site. It stopped raining shortly after we left.

Again, we had to make good time, keeping up our speed with traffic even though at 70 mph we’re going to burn through gas like crazy. We also had to make it to the park by 5:45. Thus we had a couple of trips to fuel stations.

We made it just in time, again, trying to get to our site in the woods (no escort) and set up for the night. We were so wiped out that the thought of getting back into the car to eat out was out of the question. So, we cooked “at home”. Here we are eating a spicy black bean chicken and rice dish Ken just threw together from scratch, improvising with what we had on hand. It was delish!

It had already started to rain while we were eating. Looking at the radar, it appeared that we were in for a night of waves of rain bands heading eastward across the state. The good news, though, is that it’s WARM out: 78 degrees and AC needed to sleep. Woohoo! overnight brought some really strong storms

The overnight brought large dumps of rain! Our awning would occasionally do a large dump of water. The first time it did this, Ken thought we were hit by something! So, he went outside to check on things. In the morning, we adjusted the pitch on the awning to better drain the rain for future downpours.

The rain stopped mid-morning and when it cleared, the skies turned bright blue as we watched the temperature climb to 82 degrees before 11:00. Today, we’re off to Atlantic Beach to visit with our friends Sherry and John, who have a house here as well as back home.

Sorry we don’t have more photos, but due to long driving times and rainy days, we couldn’t make this page any more colorful.

Woof! It’s Pogo at the keyboard. Mom and Dad said I needed to ride safely in our motorhome so I wouldn’t slide around and get hurt. On our first test weekend, they brought my crate and tied it to the couch seat belt with a rope to prevent it from sliding around on the floor. But, the crate takes up so much room and I really like my donut bed much better. So, Mom researched how to have me safe riding in a motorhome.

She happened upon an article in a RV blog that mentioned the SleepyPod harness. It’s the ONLY DOG HARNESS CERTIFIED SAFE in crash testing. She ordered it and when it came, she tried to get it to fit to me just like the instructions say. But, I didn’t like all the “put your leg in this side here” and “that side here” and all the tugging and yanking to adjust the straps. The first few tries, I wiggled out of it like the best escape artist. Wow! Freedom. But, she stuck to it, determined as she always gets and finally got it to fit. Plus, I found that I didn’t mind wearing it at all because I also get to take long walks in it as well.

So, now I’m safe in my harness lying down on the sofa, or sitting up. And, I like taking long walks wearing it. Do you think it looks good on me?

I spent more than 17 hours in this harness in the past 2 days. It’s not so bad anymore!

We hooked everything up today for a “drive run” before take off on Sunday. Drove the Focus up to the dual tow arms on the hitch on the motorhome and connected it to the tow bar on the “bullets” on the car. Plugged the 7 to 6 wiring umbilical cable in to both vehicles. Plugged in the “breakaway” safety cable from the motorhome to a trigger release slide on the car. Clamped both safety cables (crossed) to both vehicles and then installed the RVI 3 Brake system inside the car. This system is a box with a jaw that presses down on the brake pedal for stopping the car when the motorhome brakes.It’s computer driven so it talks you through the setup process and even reminded us to plug in the breakaway cable pin, too. It wouldn’t allow us to leave without doing that!

Next, we put the car in neutral, let down on the emergency brake, and I sat in the passenger seat while Ken slowly drove both vehicles down the hill in the storage lot. I can tell you that it was a very uneasy feeling seeing the car’s steering wheel turning on its own. But, when Ken came to a definite braking stop, I heard the pneumatic type sound of a whish where the Focus’ brakes were also applied. Good! So, I got out of the car because I did not think it was safe for me to ride in it this way.

We traveled around for about 20 minutes and found no issues at all. All lights functioning well. There’s a key part that comes with the brake system that will be arriving later, which is a dedicated wireless tablet which pairs with this unit only (wifi), and will give us much more feedback as to how the brakes are doing on the car. This is a brand new model so it will be another week before we get it.

We’re scheduled to leave home on 12/4 (a week from today), so Ken is finishing up the installation of the wiring for the “toad” or dinghy, which in prairie schooner parlance, is his Ford Focus, not an inflatable boat. This has become a multi day project due to some learning missteps, but hopefully, it’s getting sorted out. He’s almost done (day 5).

Our living room is now a storage area for what we’re taking with us. We have a long checklist of to-dos. We do need to bring the schooner into a tire repair place to install a new tire stem because one leaks air. Ken tried to fix it with no luck. This is set for tomorrow.

Here’s where most of all this stuff will go (a nice BIG trunk):