Full time RV Park Living: Thunderbird Airpark

As I mentioned in the last post, our goal was to move the RV to a park a close drive to the property we're still attempting to buy.  This is Thunderbird Airpark, primarily of course an airpark, but they have 7 RV sites that they lease out for quite a reasonable rate.  They don't advertise the RV sites anywhere that I've found, so as far as I can tell these sites are full completely due to word of mouth or the occasional person like us that happened to drive by.

Our site at the airpark - still pretty tight!

Standing in front of the RV looking down the row of RVs - 
the grass strip is about 2/3s of the way between the RVs and the fence

We did spend some time at the property measuring out the driveway, house site, and septic field so we could finish our site plan, since that will be necessary for the building permit.  Our house plan is still underway, but we know what the footprint will be so we can go ahead with the site plan.

Measuring out the septic location at the bottom of the property 

I did drag Aaron to explore one site in the area - Ravine Gardens State Park.  The park has a couple of hiking trails and even a driving trail around the ravine (much to Aaron's delight!).  It's not a huge amount to look at, but it was serene and close!

At the bottom of the ravine

Aaron's parents came to visit for a weekend and we explored nearby Welaka State Forest, including Mud Spring, which was beautiful!

Mud Spring!

With Aaron's parents at Mud Spring

At Orange Point on the John's Landing Trail

 

We also checked out 12 Below Zero Ice Cream Bar in Pomona Park and went birding at Welaka National Fish Hatchery.

Enjoying waffle bowls at 12 Below Zero

Watching birds at the Observation Tower at the Beecher Unit 
at the Welaka National Fish Hatchery

We went to my sister's house for Easter and had a great time as always.

Dressed up for Easter dinner with my sister's family

My parents also came to visit for a few hours to see the property, visit our fun local hardware store (Hill's Hardware), and take us to lunch at 3 Bananas, an awesome place on the water in Crescent City.  They had come to Florida to visit my sister, so a few hours wasn't as crazy as it sounds!

The view from our seat at 3 Bananas

In local news, our new neighbors at the airpark took us to the local Fraternal Order of Eagles here in Lake Como, and we liked it so well we became members!  Turns out most of the people in RVs at the airpark are also members...I'm seeing how the word of mouth must have gone around for people to know the airpark accepts RVs!  

Helping our neighbors serve dinner in the Eagles' kitchen

I worked the register while Aaron washed dishes

Back at the airpark the baby sandhill cranes are growing up!

The last excitement for the last month-ish was when we were surprised by a burst drainage pipe under the sink after I did dishes one night!  I always thought it was remarkable that it didn't split before... since our sink is on the main slide, there is a flexible pipe that connects the sink drain to the inflexible drain in the rest of the RV, and it flexes back and forth and back and forth all the time as we bring the slide in and out.  So we had a late evening trip into Palatka (with the closest open hardware store) to buy a new pipe and fittings.  Fortunately it was a straightforward fix once we had the right materials!

Broken pipe!

Aaron working on fixing the pipe - access
was not easy

All fixed!

In land news... our latest update from the lawyers is that it will take another 2-3 months to resolve probate, determine the legal heir that needs to sign off on the revised legal description for the property, and get that signature.  Since Aaron can't stand to just sit in this park so close to the property he can't work on, we've decided to head back north for the summer.  We decided to go on a two week Alaskan cruise to use up some cruise credits we gained last summer during our COVID adventure, and then we'll spend the rest of the summer escaping from the heat in Virginia.  As soon as we actually own the property we'll head back to Florida and get to work!