The Great Outdoors - #51-04

January 16, 2004 (Sun) Titusville, FL - We took off with Mike and Dorcas for what started out to be a trip to a grocery store. On the way, which was really way out of our way, we swung by Cape Canaveral's Jetty Park Campground. It is just south of the Kennedy Space center and, while there are no launches scheduled that we know of, we thought it might be an interesting place to camp for a couple of days. Our intent was to check it out and make reservations. But after seeing the campground we concluded that someone wanting to spend their time on a Florida beach watching cruise ships come and go (and an occasional space launch) might have thought it worth the the $5.00 entry and $30.00 camping fees, we didn't. The campground itself was cluttered - the maintenance crews must have been on vacation - and very crowded. The camping units were parked nearly parking lot close.

Dorcas had heard of a yarn shop in Cocoa village (on the mainland across the Indian and Banana Rivers from the more famous Cocoa Beach) so we headed there. For Dorcas it's "no yarn shop left behind". The yarn shop was closed on Sunday but it was in what is called the "Historical District" which turned out to be a very interesting place to browse. There was one main street and several side streets filled with little shops - facades all painted in bright pastel colors. The shops were all of the type normally found in tourist areas. In addition to the yarn shop there were antique, toy, up scale clothing, candy, gift, etc. shops. Most of them seemed to have above average quality merchandise and little junk. Many had items we haven't seen anywhere else. There were, of course, several restaurants also. The one we chose for lunch had started life as a bank. The black bean soup was delicious.

January 17, 2005 (Mon) Titusville, FL - The last few days have been cold, rainy and damp. Yesterday we had to abandon our shorts for jeans and sweatshirts. I know, I know, there's little sympathy coming our way from up north but this is Florida. We have the right to complain. This morning the thermometer read 40° - it had probably gotten below that during the night - and we could have used hats and gloves on our walk. It has stopped raining though and the sun is out. Maybe warmer weather is coming. It would be nice to be able to sit outside.

This morning we went to the Walmart with Mike and Dorcas then came back and occupied ourselves with some housekeeping chores (picking up, putting away, laundry, sanitary dumping, financial record maintenance, etc.) This afternoon we just sat around waiting for it to warm up a bit. Joy went over to hang out with Dorcas in their sun room, both with knitting projects, while Mark hung out in Q to read, nap and practice his guitar. This evening we all went to The Plantation House Restaurant (in the park/campground) and had a great meal. We are really impressed with it.

January 18, 2005 (Tue) - Titusville (at least the parts we saw today) seems to be somewhat depressed - not the crumbling building type of depressed that is common in cities but more an out of business closed up kind of depressed. Many buildings along US-1 were empty and boarded up. The Titusville Mall (The Miracle Mall) where we went looking for a small somewhat unknown space museum was so devoid of stores and shopper's cars that we thought it had closed completely. We finally found our way in only to learn that the space museum had moved to the Sears Town Mall about a half mile down the highway. But that mall looked as bad as the first.

The museum was there though and well worth the search. It is operated by a nonprofit group of retired former NASA and contractor personnel who helped launch America’s men in space. They not only volunteer their time to the museum, but they have donated many of its artifacts, which they’ve personally collected over the years. It is said that it's even possible to see an ex-astronaut working there. We didn't.

January 19, 2005 (Wed) Titusville, FL - Our automatic sofa-to-bed mechanism failed last night. It wouldn't convert into a bed - not a good situation at 10:00 at night! Mark spent two frustrating hours dismantling the mechanism, removing the broken part, and reassembling it in a way that would allow conversion with manual help.

This morning Joy went off with Dorcas to a craft get-together while Mark tried to locate a dealer who would fix the bed (and a couple of other things) under Chinook warranty. Apparently (and surprisingly) Lazydays, an RV dealer near Tampa, no longer sells Chinook so will not accept warranty work. When asked where we could get this work done, the answer was "Don't know. Call Chinook." It turns out that their main competitor, less than 10 miles away, is a Chinook dealer. And so starts another story. Mark tried all afternoon to get in touch with the Bates RV service department for an appointment. He could only reach their voice mail to leave messages to call back - three times - they never did.

Q009656 The Great Outdoors RV-Nature & Gulf Resort #440 Oak Cove Rd (x6)