First Time Storing the RV

So we just stored the RV for the first time EVER and I thought that might be blog-worthy.  When we first bought the RV, it smelled a bit musty and we have worked very hard ever since to kill all the mildew and eliminate the odor.  Through lots of dehumidifying and an ozone machine, we figured we'd done it, but I was still extremely nervous about ever leaving the RV unpowered (i.e., without air conditioning to keep the humidity down).  And of course any time without power or propane means I have to empty the refrigerator...a real challenge, but fortunately I was able to use a small fridge my mom sent down to my sister to store a few items I couldn't use up.

We picked a CubeSmart RV storage location because it was cheaper than any other alternative we found, allowed you to make all the arrangements online, and allowed 24 hour access through an automated gate.  Turns out you still had to check in personally to activate your gate code (by happenstance we did stop by the office so we were ok...if we'd tried to go straight to the RV storage location we would have been out of luck!).

The pros: the storage facility was fenced all around with vegetation or cloth preventing any passersby from seeing what was inside; the access road through the center of the facility was very wide; and the 24 hour access did work for us.  The cons (and I think this could be true of any facility): our neighbor had not parked within their designated space, overflowing into ours, which made it pretty difficult to park our gigantic RV, and making us nervous they might hit us if they pulled out with the same carelessness with which they parked.  Since people park these RVs and leave them for months, we really weren't sure what to do with this problem - it's possible the owners were nowhere remotely close to the storage facility to come and move the RV.  I suppose if we actually hadn't been able to park we could have gone back to the office and requested another spot (though there weren't many left), but I don't think having the owners come and move the RV would have been a plausible option, so I hope we don't encounter a slightly worse similar situation in the future...

Aaron managed to roughly center the RV between our two
neighbors while still staying in our spot, but you can see it's 
very tight!  The Jayco is the offending RV.

So I was nervous to see how things would be when we got back a week later.  Turns out the Jayco hadn't moved (I hadn't really expected it to in the space of one week), and apparently our mildew killing really worked because the RV didn't smell at all!  We were fortunate that there was no rain while we were gone and the temperature didn't go above the mid-80s, so things weren't too extreme for the poor abandoned RV.  We moved the RV to our next campground and plugged it in the day before we intended to stay in again, which let the refrigerator cool down (it takes about 24 hours) and allowed us to run the ozone machine once more just for good measure.

So what were we doing all week you might ask?  We stayed at my sister's place to help take care of the kids while her husband was out of town on a business trip.  She likes us to actually stay with her so we can help with the early morning child wrangling.  Before my brother-in-law left, we went to Castillo de San Marcos (another stamp for my passport!) and the Pirate Museum and Colonial Quarter in old town St. Augustine.  The fort was very well maintained/restored and I had fun helping one of my nephews participate in the Junior Ranger program there.  The pirate museum was one of the best we've seen (compared to several we've visited in the Caribbean), and we had an excellent and informative tour guide at Colonial Quarter that really made the visit worth it.

Looking out from atop Castillo de San Marcos

The pillory outside the Pirate Museum

The city park that has it all!

We spent a week and a half at Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park, a city park in Jacksonville, FL.  It's a beachside park that surrounds a lake as well, so there's water for whatever you're looking for!  We stayed here briefly back when we first got on the road, but only for one night during a cold snap.  At that time we determined that it would be a lovely place to stay in warmer weather, and also that next time we visited we needed to stay longer to make the windy roads worth it!  Jacksonville is close to my sister's new home in St. Augustine, and once we decided to do a joint camping trip for my nephew's birthday, Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park quickly came back to mind.  

Our campsite at Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park

We didn't remember anything about the campsite layout in the campground, and we really lucked out that we picked an amazing site that was plenty big for our RV and my brother-in-law's tent (where he slept with the kids...my sister stayed in the cool and dry with us in the RV), while also offering a ton of privacy as we parked the RV parallel to the road.  We had a great time exploring the lake, beach, campground, playground, and splash pad with my sister's kids.  We stayed a week after they left and went mountain biking and actually swimming in the ocean (when the kids were there we were on keep-the-kids-from-drowning duty).

Breakfast outside

Playing games on the picnic table

A modern day see-saw?  I think the
weight was a little unbalanced...

Aaron playing football with the kids

Our oldest nephew went mountain biking with his dad and got 
quite muddy...Aaron helped hose him down

After the kids left we saw a lot more
wildlife!  This guy is drying out after
catching and eating a fish.

At the beach

During the week we went to see nearby Fort Caroline and Kingsley Plantation, both National Park Service sites (more stamps for my passport!).  I'm ashamed to say that until we visited the fort, I didn't know that the French ever had a presence in Florida!  While we were at the fort, we witnessed the Coast Guard practicing chasing boats down in St. John's River, which was pretty cool!  Kingsley Plantation was pretty well preserved and I learned about the 'task' system of slavery, which I don't think I'd heard of before, wherein the slaves had tasks for the day and, once they were completed, the slaves were able to do whatever they wanted with the rest of the day (as opposed to the 'gang' system, which required an excessive number of hours of work each day).  

A reconstructed Fort Caroline.  Nothing remains of the original fort,
which would be in a location now underwater, and they didn't have
any architectural diagrams, but this is their best guess based on
some artists' renderings of the fort.

Kingsley Plantation

Remains of the slave cabins at Kingsley Plantation

So we had a great week and a half, and we're making plans with my sister to do another combined camping trip when we head north again at the end of winter.

Migrating South for the Winter!

We just stayed at a couple parks on our way south for the winter.  Last year our experiences in Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas convinced us that Florida is the ONLY place to be during December/January/February...everywhere else is just too cold!  At least when you have flexibility to be just about wherever you want to be :-).  We've been in Arizona over the winter before and it's quite nice as well but farther away than Aaron wants to drive right now...so Florida it is!

Now I'm sure you're thinking...it's not December yet!  Well, the other half of this is that my sister is all set up in St. Augustine now, so we figured we'd spend some time in northern Florida (which is also not quite warm enough ;-)) before heading back to the Orlando area.  So, time to head south!

Our first stop was Lake Myers RV Resort in Mocksville, North Carolina.  This is a Thousand Trails resort, just a little out of our way south, but since it's 'free' (with our paid membership), we thought it was worth checking out.  I have to say, this is the most atypical Thousand Trails resort we've visited.  Most Thousand Trails resorts are roughly RV parking lots, with varying degrees of vegetation between relatively close, uniform, level, and parallel sites set out in a grid.  This 'campground' was spread out over a series of winding one-way roads, with sites of varying size spread throughout.  Most sites were unlevel and it took us 30 minutes to figure out how to park the RV to get it level - and even then we had to use wooden blocks under the wheels.  Most (90%?) of the sites were occupied by permanent residents.  We were lucky to get one of the very few 50amp sites.  Most of the pictures you can find online of this resort are out of date...it looks like it was quite the vacation spot 10 years ago, with fancy water slides through the woods, extensive boat rentals, a grill, and multiple pools open to the public (with paid admission).  Now the amenities are only available to campers, and the water slides are cracked and full of leaves, and they've ripped away the boat docks (only one lonely paddleboat remains).  The pools and grill still look great, but again are only available to campers/residents.  Overall a very odd place, and due to the distance from I-77, winding roads, and unlevel campsites, we probably won't be back.

Our campsite at Lake Myers - very close to the neighbors and
not level at all!

Walking in the leaf-filled former water slides in the woods

While we were there, we took the opportunity to visit nearby Fort Dobbs, which was pretty cool!  The fort dates back to the days when western North Carolina was on the frontier of the country, and it played a small part in the French and Indian War.  They recently (last few years) finished the reconstruction of the fort itself, and with the 45 minute guided tour you can really learn a lot of history about this site and the area.  I learned what a 'mess' was (a group of soldiers that bunked and cooked together) and finally understood how a flintlock worked in addition to all the unique stuff specific to the fort.  We thoroughly enjoyed it!  

Outside the reconstructed fort

Our tour guide demonstrating the use
of a flintlock.

Our next stop on the way south was at the Oaks at Point South, another Thousand Trails park that we've visited a few times in the past, in Yemassee, South Carolina.  This is a standard Thousand Trails park of typical layout, right off the interstate, and we enjoyed our convenient stay as always.  The only downside is that they only had ONE working dryer in the laundry room, so when I tried to do some laundry (in one of four working washing machines) I had to bring it back to the RV to dry...

Nice level site at the Oaks at Point South

Next stop, Florida!

Hungry Mother State Park

After leaving Tennessee we stopped by Hungry Mother State Park in Virginia for a few days.  Both of us had apparently been here in our youth but neither of us really remembered it, so it was fun to explore a bit.  We stayed at Camp Burson, which is a state park campground but accessed before the main entrance to the park.  Online it appeared to be the only campground that could accommodate our size RV, but looking at the other RV campground inside the park I think we could have fit.  Our campsite was decently spacious with a large gravel 'living area' and fire pit, and had easy access to the Lake Trail.

Our campsite at Camp Burson

We were only at the park for a couple days.  The first day we explored the southeast side of the lake trail, and the second Aaron's family came to hang out, hike a little more, and see the RV all set up for camping.

Hiking on the Lake Trail

A VERY unconcerned deer grazing near us

Hiking with Aaron's parents on the other side of the lake trail

This was a nice little stop with a pretty lake and interesting history with the Civilian Conservation Corps - it was one of the initial state parks developed in Virginia.  We enjoyed our short stay and now it's time to start heading south in earnest!