It's Got To Get Better Than This!!

O.K., as I said on Wednesday we were for sure leaving early tomorrow morning. (Thursday) Sure enough we got up early, did the last minute packing, unplugged all the electrical appliances etc. and we were OFF!

We made it out of the drive-way when we both agreed that the hitch on the truck was too low for the camper. It made the camper lean too drastically down towards the truck. That is not a good thing because it puts too much weight on the hitch. So, Rainy suggested that we switch Matt's hitch with the one we had for the Oydessy. We had to completely de-hitch and re-hitch but the result was that we had a level camper.

We were off at about 8:00 a.m. We stopped and got coffee and hit the road. We headed up I-75 until Ocala and got on 301 which led us to I-10 which led us to I-95 where which we got off in Georgia at exit 1. Along the way, we stopped at a Georgia rest stop and had a picnic lunch (Rainy had made pimento cheese sandwiches for the road. The park was the best we have been in as far as providing a nice area for the dogs and their masters in the same area. About seven hours from the time we left home we were checking in to the Jekyll Island Campground just south of Brunswick Georgia. Jekyll Island has a lot of history ranging from the first shore that slaves were brought to the United States to, at one time, one sixth of the wealthest people in the world had cottages here where they spent their winters. We'll get to more of that later.

They assigned us back-in spot #C-3. When we got to our spot we were pleased. It had three trees that would provide shade morning, noon and night.

Rainy guided me and I backed in like a pro the very first time. But. (We've come to realize there is always a "But".) The trees were situated so that if we got way back in our spot where we wanted there was not enough room to pull the rear bed out. I pulled out and moved a little to the left. It looked good. We were happy. So we un-hitched the camper. Rainy got out her revised set up check list and we began leveling, putting down the stablizers, raising the roof and unrolling the canopy when,Uh Oh. One of the trees was closer than we thought and we could not extend the canopy all the way. And it has to extend all the way or nothing due to rain runoff. We had to unchock, unstablize and re-hitch just to move it 12 inches.

I must mention that even though we were only 2000 yards from the Atlantic Ocean there was no sea breeze and the heat and humidity was probably in the 100 degree range at 4:00p.m. Sweat was pouring and tempers were getting a little short, oh yeah, and just for kicks, mother nature through a quick thunder storm, complete with lightning and rain, but we did manage to get it set up and the truck partially unloaded before dark but everything was just piled in the camper. By this time, it was almost 6:30. We fed the dogs and made our bed and then left to go get some dinner because we were just too tired to even think about cooking ourselves. We at dinner at The Sand Bar & Grill - just mediocre - but at this point we didn't care. Got back to camp, set the TV up, watched a little and crashed.

(Friday) Got up around 8:00 walked the dogs then I went down to the camp store and bought some bacon and eggs while Rainy started unpacking. I cooked breakfast on the electric griddle outside on the grill table. The griddle is the ONLY way to cook breakfast. It was fast, easy and a snap to clean up. After breakfast we continued to unpack and trying to decide if we wanted to rent bikes or a street legal electric oversized golf cart thing. We decided on the electric thing because we thought that it would be fun to explore the island in the thing.

We drove down to the Clarion Hotel where the Red Bug Motors rental place is and rented a two seater Red Bug named "Herbie". Ours was not red but white. It seemed to take forever for the rental guy to tell us everything we needed to know about Herbie and showing us on a map all the sites on the island. I drove Herbie back to the campsite while Rainy followed with the truck flashers on. The bug will only go 26 MPH the speed limit on all the roads is a max of 35 and drivers are driving 50. We parked the truck got the camera and took off on the intercoastal side of the island with really no destination in mind other than we wanted to see the rich dead millionaires winter cottages, like Vanderbilt, Goodyear, Rockefeller and many others whom I just can't remember right now.

Back in their hay day they formed the Jekyll Island Club and only the very wealthy could join. They built these cottages here and the men came down to do the manly bonding thing while their wifes either stayed in the Hamptons or came along and bitched the whole time they were here. Making it dificult for the men to have a good time fishing, boating, hunting, drinking, etc. etc. Of course the cottages were huge homes. Nothing short of an "everyday mansion". We didn't go into any of the homes as we've seen enough to know basically the very wealthy's are usually pretty much the same.

We continued until we got to the south end of the island and started up the ocean side. We stopped at a little shopping center so Rainy could get some postcards. Then we stopped at a beach access point and looked at the Ocean for a minute then came on back to the campsite because we needed to plug Herbie up. He is only good for about 25 miles before he needs a charge. I was instructed to plug into the park outlet that is provided, but the plug didn't work so I plugged into one of the camper's plug.

We leashed the dogs and walked them. By this time it was about 5:30. I fed the boys and fired up the grill and we just sat & talked while the fire was getting hot. I was making hollandaisse sauce on the grill and I asked Rainy to plug in the microwave to start cooking the potatoes. She did. Then pop. The microwave stopped. The fan stopped. We put everything on hold so we could figure out what happened. None of the electrical outlets outside or inside the camper would work. After checking the outside electrical box and all around the camper we couldn't find anything - so out came the "Manual." Rainy read while I continued looking and found where there was a reset button. The button itself was not popped out and I couldn't get it to reset. Rainy kept reading something about a converter box but it didn't tell where it was located - this manual is for all Fleetwoods regardless of model - you just have to decide what applies to yours and what doesn't. When it reach 7:00 pm, Rainy suggested we just finish dinner and then work on it some more. I cooked us a rib-eye steak with some asparagus with hollandaisse. We ate but didn't enjoy it for worrying about the electrical. We started cleaning up and while we were inside the ceiling lights started flickering and the radio started coming and going and we thought "oh shit" everything is going to go. Rainy said "if the air-conditioning goes we go!" We read the manual somemore and figured out that certain things were using the battery since we only had partial electricity. So I backed the truck up and hooked up the electrical pigtail so the battery would recharge. And, then, an angel was sent to us. A couple stopped to talk to us because they wanted to see the pop-up so as we started talking we found they had owned a pop-up and I told Jim my problem and he said well I know where your converter is - you probably just blew one of the circuits. He went right in the camper - right to the converter box - opened it and viola the 15 amp circuit was popped which was caused by using the microwave in the wrong outlet. After, one million thank yous, we were back in business. Once again, I unhooked and parked the truck. By this time it is 9:30 pm, we're exhausted but not to be held back, especially what we paid for renting "Herbie" for 24 hours, we took off for a late night ride. We drove about half the island again and it was cool and relaxing from what we had just gone through. We came back to camp and Rainy went to take her shower followed by me and we settled in for the night - Rainy went to bed and I started this blog but just got too tired so I climbed into bed about 11:45 pm.

So now, even though this is Saturday morning, I will wait and blog tonight. Hold your breath for us - this morning seems to be going normal and we are very much hoping and ready for a nice relaxing, fun-filled day - going to the beach!!!

Until tomorrow. . .

P.S. In case we haven't mentioned it before, please forgive us for any misspelling or improper grammer as we're not even trying!!!