Water Filter Problems at Bulow

We just spent week at Bulow RV Resort, the closest Thousand Trails resort to St. Augustine.  Aside from the multiple 90 degree angles in the road to get into the park, Bulow RV resort was lovely - well maintained, a lot of decent sized sites (including ours), friendly staff, and nice amenities if you want them.

Campsite at Bulow RV Resort - note the odd pull-in style!

Now, the first few days we were there we were singing a different tune, because the water pressure when we arrived was low and continually dropped throughout our stay until eventually we had no water at all.  Before calling the office to complain, I had Aaron run out and double check all our connections just to make sure it wasn't something on our end...good thing he checked!  Turns out our water filter was COMPLETELY clogged.  I suppose this is something you would expect to happen over time, but we'd only replaced this filter a month or so ago, so we weren't expecting it yet!  We used to use a CAMCO water filter that lasted indefinitely as far as we could tell, but we changed it every 6 months-ish for good measure.  Aaron had seen a Clear2O filter at WalMart and wanted to try it out, and this is the one that clogged in no time flat.  Now, the obvious reason for this is that the Clear2O filter has a 1 micron filter, whereas the CAMCO has a 20 micron filter...but we're thinking this is much more filtration than we need, as most of the time we're camping with nicely treated city water!!  So, back to CAMCO for us, and a warning to everyone else out there: if your water pressure steadily declines and stops, check the water filter before assuming something else has gone wrong!

An alligator on the opposite bank of 
the creek from our campground

We explored a few nearby sites while at Bulow.  First we went to Bulow Creek State Park to see the Fairchild Oak, a live oak somewhere between 300-500 years old.  It was very impressive, we think there were some branches that had been covered by the ground but then reemerged at other points...but it was kind of hard to trace those.  The sign suggested that happened.

The Fairchild Oak - I am standing in an orange shirt under the
tree, believe it or not!

Next we drove up to Fort Matanzas, a National Park Service National Monument near the site of the massacre of Frenchmen from Fort Caroline that we learned about earlier.  Getting to Fort Matanzas was fun because you had to board a ferry at the visitor center to cross a very narrow inlet to the fort's island.  We showed up at park opening (9am) and got the last two tickets on the first ferry at 9:30am!  This was in the middle of the week...so be warned, you have to show up early for those free ferry tickets!  We had a couple of park ranger guides who told us about the fort, which was established to guard the southern water passage to Castillo de San Marcos.  Apparently it was extremely successful and rebuffed all potential attackers.  It was a tiny fort manned with 6 soldiers and 1 officer - it didn't take much to fire cannons at the narrow inlet to deter offenders.

Atop Fort Matanzas

There was a very narrow space with a ladder to get to the top of the fort!

Looking at the inlet that the fort protected - 
back in the day it was a bit closer

On the way back from Fort Matanzas we stopped at a curious little place near our campground - the Flagler RAMS airfield.  This was a club and their airfield for radio controlled model aircraft enthusiasts.  They welcome spectators, though you have to be a member to fly your plane.  We sat for almost an hour watching about 5 different model aircraft - the aircraft were all very different and the pilots did lots of fun tricks.

At the airfield

A crazy powerful gas-powered aircraft (the only gas-powered
one we saw)

This one kept flying upside down!

Our final outing was to the Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park, immediately next to our RV resort.  Here we learned that all these 'Bulow's in the area were named after the owner of this plantation, who grew sugar cane.  The park was VERY well done, especially considering it was unmanned!  They had blind-friendly descriptive displays all around the sugar mill ruins and a nice interpretive center kind of reversed from normal - all the items were inside a glass building and you walked around the outside to view the displays.  There weren't any ruins to speak of of the plantation house itself or the slave cabins, but the sugar mill, made from coquina, was still somewhat intact.  We learned a lot about sugar cane production and a little about sugar cane plantation operation.  It's a small park with really just the mill to see, so I wouldn't go way out of your way to see it, but if you're passing by on I-95 it's definitely worth a stop.

The sugar mill ruins

Looking out over Bulow Creek near the original plantation house site

We had a delightful and relaxing stay...after we figured out our water problem ;-).  At the end of the week we went to my sister's place to trick or treat with our nephews and niece!

With my sister's family at their house in St. Augustine