Back to Penney Farms - #33-02

July 11, 2003 (Fri)
Englewood, FL to Penney Farms, FL (338/1665 miles)

Our time with Joy's mother (6 days) was very relaxing and restful. We hadn't realized how much we needed that time to unwind after the events of the last week. We started each morning with a long bicycle ride and a swim. In the evening Mark retreated to the bedroom to practice his guitar while Joy and her mother played SkipBo - a card game. In between there were a few errands but it was mostly naps and reading. It was a lot like a vacation.

This morning, instead of our morning bike ride, we packed up Q for the trip home. After a swim and breakfast we were ready to hit the road - well almost, we had to make a stop at Bealls Outlet and Walmart. At 9:38 we were on our way for real - 85 degrees and breezy. We had a relatively uneventful trip up to Starke with only stops for lunch and for gas. Gas prices have jumped 4 to 6 cents over the last week!! The summer travel season must have begun.

In Starke we stopped to pick up a U-Haul trailer and learned that we need an adapter for the electrical connection. The nice young lady at U-Haul sent us back across Starke (horrendous traffic) to Auto Zone, an auto discount store, to buy one. (Why doesn't U-Haul carry items like that to sell themselves?). Back at U-Haul (horrendous traffic) we found out it was the wrong part. Back to Auto Zone (horrendous traffic) to exchange it. But found they don't carry the part we need and they didn't know where we could get one. Back to U-Haul (horrendous traffic) to cancel our contract. The nice young lady - it turns out she's really not so young, she has a son who looked to be in his mid twenties - made a few phone calls and found a place that knew just what we needed and presumably had one in stock. So again we battled the traffic back across Starke to a Napa store. They didn't have the part after all! Back at U-Haul we finally managed to cancel the contract. As they did the paper work, the young lady's son reluctantly told us about the U-Haul Service center quite near Penney Farms that should have the part and if not they could "wire it direct" for us. Two and a half hours shot and we barely made it to the funeral home in Green Cove Springs in time to pick up Mother B's ashes.

The day ended well though. We met David, Judy, and Jake (Mark's brother and his wife and son) in St. Augustine and shared a delicious seafood dinner at the Santa Maria Restaurant on the water. Since parking is scare in this tourist laden city we were subjected to walking through several blocks of the beautiful alley ways with their most interesting and fascinating old buildings and gardens. It was well worth the walk - and getting lost trying to find the car again. It was good to have some time together with some of Mark's family during this tough time

Q051403 PRC RV area w/e $7.50
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July 12, 2003 (Sat)
Penney Farms, FL to Darien, GA (157/1822 mi)

Another eventful day started at 6:00 am - when we got up. Mark caught up on the email and checked phone messages at home while Joy cleaned up from breakfast. Then together we cleaned dead ants out of the basement compartment!

While parked in Englewood a large contingent of ants moved in, set up house keeping and began to generate and nurture the next generation. Mark sprayed ant poison into the compartment before we started out yesterday and it was enough to lay down a fair pad of carcasses but some ants survived. It turned out that many survived. We took everything out of the compartment - discovering a huge cache of eggs in the back corner - hosed it out and washed ants and ant poison off everything. We think we got them all!

We found the U-Haul service center on Orange Park's infamous (and dreaded) Blanding Avenue and an hour and a half later we pulled out with a trailer tagging behind. A nice young man, after a thorough search, discovered they didn't have a compatible adapter either and offered to replace our unique connector with one more willing to accept electrical connection. We said "Do it!!" He then proceeded to hook up no less then five of the six small trailers they had until he found one with working lights. In the process he checked out all of Q's fuses and traced wire integrity all the way back to the connector. I guess he couldn't believe that they were stocking so many nonfunctioning units. Neither could we! They were. It wasn't Q's fault.

Back at Penney Farms we ate lunch and loaded up the trailer. At 1:10 we were on our way. Other than a three mile parking lot on I-95 - CB radio chatter reported an accident with helicopter evacuation at milepost 12 but there was no evidence of problems when we got there - the first leg of our trip went smoothly. This "pack um in" campground - across I-95 from our favorite fudge store - is very clean and, so far, uncrowded. Our air conditioner is drowning out any noise that there might be outside but it seems to be quiet. The temperature got up to 111.5 degrees on the sunny side of Q before starting back down. It would be that inside too without A/C.

Q051560 Tall Pines Campground #4 w/e/s $10.00p B