As usual, this trip morphed a few times before it finalized. Originally, Rick and I were going to drive down to the Fort Friday afternoon, Oct 28 and arrive really, really late. Last year we did that and it worked well. Rick drove, I slept. I dropped Rick at a hotel about 1am, and went to the Fort and checked in and set up overnight. Then picked him up the next morning. That was the plan for this trip. However...... as they often do, things changed.
As many of you know, I've been working crazy hours. My boss also doesn't like me to plan long vacations way in advance, so I've learned to shorten my initial plans, then extend as time (and a clearer definition of workload) gets closer. So since I finished the last project, and nothing was looming on the horizon, I asked for a few extra days at the beginning of the trip. No problem!!!
It turns out my T@B group was having a Halloween rally at Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine, FL. I did not sign up initially as I knew that the Fort was the only place I wanted to be for Halloween. I soon learned that some of the folks would be arriving as early as Wednesday, so I looked at the website and a site was available for Wed and Thur night in the loop that the T@Bs were gathering, so I booked it!!! I also booked the KOA in Forsyth, GA, as that is a good stop for me when I leave home after work. This new plan now gets me to the Fort pretty early on Friday, so have more choices for a good site!!
Rick didn't want to go to Anastasia, so we found him a flight directly to Orlando on Saturday.
Another wrench was then thrown in. I needed to be BACK in Sterling, VA on Monday, October 24th for an audit of our files on the project I just did. I played around with pulling the camper up there, and getting some of my mileage down to FL paid for, but then decided that would be 4 straight days of driving 400+ miles, and just didn't feel it.
So Monday morning, flew up to Sterling, had my audit, then Tuesday, flew back home, hitched up the camper and headed South!!!
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
My first stop was the KOA in Forsyth, GA. Due to the work travel, was able to leave a bit earlier than 5pm, so had some time to relax once I arrived.
Here are a couple of pics.
Wednesday, October 26th
Continuing on, I head out Wednesday morning to arrive at Anastasia by checkin time at 3pm. Only one picture on the drive.
I tried something a bit different this time. Even though it was a few more miles, I cut across Georgia on I-16 over to I-95, instead of going straight down I-75 to I-10. I wanted a bit different scenery. I-16 is a nice, uncrowded interstate.
Once I arrived at Anastasia, I unhitched, and did almost NO setup.
So then as I was snapping pictures, it said "memory full". I then discovered I had left my SD card in the desktop at home from the last time I downloaded pictures, so off to the store for a new SD card.
Here are a couple of pics of the Radio Shack to make sure the new chip worked in the camera
Continuing on, a few of the T@B folks discovered that I was there. (I didn't tell anyone) and we decided to go to dinner in Old St. Augustine.
Some pictures of our stroll through the streets.
After dinner, we head back and settle in for a good nights sleep. I think I got online. That was fun. I found one spot on the site where I got a good enough signal for internet, so drug the picnic table over there and ran an extension cord and a power strip for the phone and computer and chatted with fiends.
Thursday, October 27th
The next morning, I was really lazy. I wandered the loop and got pictures around the loop and ran my mouth with other T@B owners, both old friends and new. There was one brand new T@B owner and we gave them T@B information overload!!!
Here are some pics.
This lady did the Halloween decorations up good!
These folks own a T@B, but get much better gas mileage in the Roadtrek coming from New York
A few shots from my chair
That evening we had a fire and gab session with the folks that had arrived.
Friday, October 28th
The next morning, it was planned to go watch the sunrise on the beach. Too much cloud cover, but still pretty.
OK, after coming back from the beach, I hitched up and continued South.
I decided to once again take the long way and took 417 around Orlando. I have heard horror stories of the parking lot that I-4 can become, so I paid the tolls.
A couple of road shots.
I got on Disney property and had to use the restroom, and also needed gas. Decided to swing through the Hess Station at DTD. Big mistake!! That parking lot is too small!!
Almost there!!
I'm in the checkin line!!!
I was assigned Site 547, which according to the site assigner, was only 7 sites away from the comfort station, well, I think this site was the ABSOLUTE farthest from the comfort station.
That's probably enough for this entry!! Part 2, Site pics and our first few days at the Fort!!!
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