(Warning: Long post ahead, covers 3.5 days!)

We enjoyed lunch outdoors on Thursday, and then in the afternoon we took advantage of some of the amenities at the campground – played a round of miniature golf (which I won!), and then tried our hands at pickleball. We’ve never played before but keep hearing how much fun it is. We don’t know anything about scoring or the rules, so we just hit the ball back and forth and it was definitely fun. We both pulled from our racquetball and tennis knowledge. Might need to take lessons now!

Mark and I found the speed limit at the campground pretty amusing – 7.5 mph. Not 7 mph. Not 8 mph. 7.5. And, we found it nearly impossible to even get RoVer to move at that speed…it’s more like idling.

We also stopped by the office to talk to them about a longer-term stay in the winter – we figure this area of NC would be a nice place to spend some time in Feb and/or March 2022. They are fully booked (I’m sure we’re a bit late to the game on this one – people probably reserve a full year or  longer in advance!), but we are on the waiting list which is apparently fairly long…so our odds are low.

Friday morning was a momentous occasion. Mark has been researching and trying new stuff for a few weeks now to try and get the gray and black tanks totally emptied. When he would ‘empty’ them, the system would still show them at least 1/3 full, no matter what. So, he figured the sensors must have been dirty or blocked. He researched and watched some YouTube videos which led him to buy some new ‘sensor cleaner’; he used that, as well as putting lots of Dawn dish soap down the drain for the gray tank (basic thing like dish soap is supposed to really get in there and clean stuff up!). And, finally, when he emptied the tanks Friday morning, the system showed “empty” for both gray and black! Yay! Success!

We had a few detours to make on Friday’s drive, and overall it was a much longer day than we expected. First was to a campground in Fayetteville, NC – another option for a longer-term stay in the winter. We wanted to drive through and check it out, especially since it wasn’t far out of our way off I-95. Not a bad option, and while they don’t have any full-month sites available, it sounds like we could stay for a couple weeks and then we’d be first on the list if anything else opened up. Although even a couple weeks would be fine – we might spend two weeks each at four different campgrounds to get us through Feb/March – just want to get away from a Rochester winter!

As we approached the South Carolina border, we were seeing all kinds of signs for a place called “South of the Border” – definitely seems like one of those roadside attractions that is really kitschy and silly. Sure enough, as we approached, there was a giant sombrero tower, and we could not believe the size of this place as we passed by…massive. We felt inclined to stop, but in the end, it’s good we didn’t…our day didn’t need to get any longer!

South Carolina welcomed us, and after a longer-than-usual lunch stop (to FaceTime with our boy!), we were back on the road to encounter our first traffic back-up of this trip. The digital sign warned us of an “incident” at mile marker 88, and it turned out to be a 30+ minute delay thanks to a nasty tractor trailer accident.

We made it to Georgia…that really small piece of the state tucked between SC and FL that I-95 runs through…and then stopped in Savannah to pick up a rental car that we wanted to have for the weekend. That was pretty quick and easy, thankfully. I had the choice of a pickup truck or a minivan…neither was ideal, but the minivan made a bit more sense. Then we stopped for dinner because we figured we’d be famished if we waited to cook and eat after we got to the campground. Even though we chose a fast casual restaurant, it was anything but fast…so dinner took much longer than expected, then a gas station stop and we were finally back on the road for the final 90 minutes to the campground. We finally arrived around 7pm. Phew.

We’re at a KOA campground in Kingsland, GA for three nights. It’s literally about one mile from the GA/FL line, so we’re basically in FL. It’s the most crowded, tightly packed campground we’ve stayed at thus far, and being Labor Day weekend, it’s really busy…so not a place we’d want to sit around and relax, which is good given that we really don’t plan to be here much!

My original plan for Saturday had been to drive to St. Augustine – I had a list of places to try and visit thanks to some recommendations from my cousin who loves the area. But, after our late arrival on Friday and some Google Maps routing and quick calculations in my head, I realized that it wasn’t really practical – we’d have to drive almost three hours round trip to spend no more than about 2-3 hours there (assuming we got our butts on the road really early on Saturday, which wasn’t particularly appealing). It seemed like a good idea when I first looked at it in Rochester, but not so much now that we were on the ground in Georgia. So, plan B – find some things to do closer to the Jacksonville area. We filled our day nicely!

We drove out to Amelia Island, which gave us a chance to scope out where we’d be heading for the wedding events Sat and Sun evenings, and then headed to Amelia Island State Park. They have a massive fishing pier and it was packed with people and hundreds of fishing poles. We walked the length of it, saw some cool birds, but did not see one person reel in a fish. Hmmm.

From there, we headed South on A1A to Big Talbot State Park, and then to an area called The Bluffs which was wonderful. We ate lunch at a shady picnic table, and walked along the trail there that overlooks Nassau Sound and Driftwood Beach. The driftwood there is amazing!

Big Talbot State Park has a boardwalk with bird watching platforms, so I took a nice walk along there and spotted lots more birds, as well as some very busy little crabs on the sand.

From there, we headed to a sanctuary for big cats called Catty Shack Ranch. It’s the top-rated attraction in Jacksonville on TripAdvisor, so I decided it was worth checking out. What an amazing place! They rescue big cats (and some other animals) from private places, zoos, etc. where they can no longer be cared for, and bring them here. There must have been a dozen or more tigers (mostly Bengal; one white tiger that I couldn’t get a picture of because he was hiding inside). Several lions, cougars, and even a black bear. Oh my! Amazing what they have accomplished with nothing but donations and fundraising. They have a huge expansion underway, too!

From there, it was back to the campground for a quick rest and clothing change, and then back to Amelia Island for our friends’ Wedding Welcome Party – they generously invited all of us to join them for a pre-wedding celebration. The venue was absolutely gorgeous and the food was yummy (always a treat when you don’t to have to cook)! Beautiful weather, too!

Sunday was a hot and humid one – right from the start. My 7am walk recorded 98% humidity. Ugh. Not a lot planned for today ahead of the 4:30 wedding. We headed toward Jacksonville to Memorial Park at the North end of St. Johns River – a pretty little park with lots of shade which made it bearable to walk around for a bit. Lots of people fishing again – definitely very popular in these parts!

We had lunch and headed to the Cummer Museum and Gardens – another star on TripAdvisor. They display a wide variety of artwork from the private collection of the Cummer Family whose home was once on this site. There are English and Italian gardens, some gorgeous old oak trees with moss hanging from them, and of course, some palm trees, because it is Florida after all! The garden borders the river and with the bright blue skies, it was a picture-perfect visit!

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It was definitely a day for air conditioning, so back to the RV to relax a bit and get cleaned up for the wedding. The ceremony was at 4:30, on Amelia Island, under the live oaks with a view out to the water – absolutely gorgeous venue for a wedding!

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So that brings us to just about the halfway point in our trip. Now we’ll start heading back North, and we have several fun stops planned along the way. Stay tuned!