Florida Day – 4

December 30, 2021

It rained during the night so we had to unhook this morning with water dripping on us from the trees. We are still forgetting stuff and really need to make a check list. I forgot to lock the bedroom and bathroom doors open and Frank forgot to turn off the propane again. We’ll get it together. One of the things we were going to do this morning was refill our fresh water tank but another forgotten chore. We paid for it later in the day when I went to wash my hands, got them all soapy and there was no water to rinse them off with. Frank grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and I got my hands rinsed. At least we can laugh at ourselves as we go.

Frank took the garbage to the dumpster before we left and ran into the owner of the campground. They had a good time visiting about the cool old gas pump he has and how long their family had owned the park. We could of camped there when our kids were little and meet him then.

We had a short drive today and we were glad of it. We have determined that when we become full-time RVers we are not going to travel everyday. You get road weary after a while. I think we will travel a few days, find an interesting place and stay a few days and explore and relax, before hitting the road again. But because we have so much planned for this trip there is lots of driving.

We left the campground at 10 am and were at the Olustee Battlefield before noon. There was no RV parking so we made our own. There was only one other family there when we arrived. This battle site was where Florida’s largest Civil War battle was held. 10,000 men fought a 5 hour battle on February 20, 1864. This included troops from New York State and the Massachusetts 54th a famous colored troop. Every year on February 20th they hold a huge Civil War reenactment there.

We decided to walk the trail that lead around the battle field. There were lots of signs along the way to explain what went on there. We just kept following the signs and arrows. As we were the only ones on the trail there was a peacefulness and you could almost imagine the men who fought and died there and what the battle would have been like. The trail was a bit longer than we expected but we keep going for the entire 50 minutes it took us to walk around the battlefield. It was an experience that we were glad we had. We got in the RV still touched by the experience and forgetting we had planned to eat lunch there. It wasn’t until a bit down the road that we both realized we were hungry. So I grabbed us some snacks to hold us over until we stopped.

When we got to Saint Augustine panic set in as Frank realized he had not been checking the gas gauge and we had less than 60 miles of gas left. We were planning to stop at Wal-Mart and pick up a few things but instead we spent time hunting down a gas station we could easily pull in before we ran out of gas.

We arrived at the KOA here in Saint Augustine around 4 pm and it is beautiful. We found out there is a trolley tour so we bought tickets for tomorrow morning. Took a walk around the campground and visited with our neighbors. Walking by the lake we saw what looked like a snake swimming, then it climbed on a tree branch and it was a bird with a long black neck. The people in the RV near by told us that it was called a snake bird. Glad it wasn’t a snake because I was ready to stare up into the trees when I walked under them to make sure a snake would jump on me.

The gentleman who checked us in at the campsite was very informative about the area. He told us about a food truck court close by so after getting settled into our campground we went for a walk. The food court was a bit further than we thought but the food was wonderful. I had a shrimp taco with honey chipotle sauce and Frank had a giant carnitas burrito and we enjoyed Sangria soda.

Then it was game night and we enjoyed Phase 10. I beat, first time ever I phased on every hand so the game was exactly 10 hands long. Frank is a great sport and we both enjoy our game time. Then it was time to relax. Frank is still trying to learn the in and outs of our GoPro. So far all our pictures have come from our cell phones. Hopefully we will get it figured out soon.