Welcome to Ft. Clinch

September 5 – This was not the best of days.  We had a small issue last night with the leveling leg that was replaced a year ago by Camping World so this morning before leaving we wanted to make sure it was working properly.  Everything was a wet mess from all the rain last night and in our haste to get away, Bill forgot to rinse out the poop hose after emptying all the tanks.  So there was some residual “doo doo” liquid pouring out when he put it back in its holder and it poured all inside the compartment.  Nasty.  It was his job to mop it up.

 

Then we got on the road and the weather was great all day.  Bill called Jean and Paul to see where they were and poor things, they left after dinner last night to drive part way to avoid love bugs this morning but had a tire blow out on I-10 and finally got the spare on and to a garage where they spent the night.  They waited for them to open today to get 2 new tires but they didn’t carry what they needed so they were on their way to a different place.  We still thought they would get to Ft Clinch before us.

 

We stopped once at Love’s to top off the tank mainly so Bill cold get a jar of his favorite beef sticks that we have only found at Love’s Truck Stops.  The rest of our ride into Ft Clinch was uneventful.  Bill went in to register and I was waiting and saw the Fed EX Ground truck pull in and around the building.  I watched him open the rear of the truck and he got out a box that I was sure was our replacement cooler.  I locked the truck and went in and Bill was coming out and I said I thought that box delivered was ours and the ranger said it sure was, so that was great timing.  However, later when we opened it, the part we needed was not in that one either.  That leaves us to believe that it won’t be in any of the boxes.  Now I need to call Wal-mart online AGAIN.

 

The road to the campsites is over 2 miles into the area of the campgrounds and there’s a warning sign about the canopy of  over the road might cause clearance issues.  We did not want to hear that after our first bad camping trip to Tomoka State Park.  I proceeded with extreme caution, going to the left, to the right, in the middle and all over the road for 2 miles.  I did stop once and wave the 2 cars behind us to pass.  We made it without harm to our camping loop only to find it was not the ideal shape for our RV and we had to be more in the middle so we could open our slide.  It took some maneuvering but we managed to get in and have just enough room left for the truck.  Bill had asked at check in if Jean and Paul were here and they had not checked in yet and were to be right beside us. 

 

We did hit a patch of love bugs and Bill has some cleaning to do before we leave here.  We got set up, had lunch and it was thundering out but Bill rode his bike up to the volunteer village to see the couple we just met at Sherando.  He was forever coming back.  Jean emailed at 2:11 that they were 92 miles away.  We found out when they finally got here that he had to have some brake work done at the same time and that took longer than planned.  They are still having some problems so will see how it goes.

 

We decided to go out to dinner and Cedar River Seafood was recommended and we all enjoyed it.  Bill had gator tail and I had frog legs.  It was delicious, every bite.  There was a Diary Queen next door so we walked over there for some soft serve to top it off.  We were all more than ready to get some sleep for a full day ahead.