A Tag Team Teardrop Trailer & Bicycling Adventure: Fifty Nine and a Half

Yesterday, in addition to today being the 50th Super Bowl Sunday, had another reason for being a red letter day: I turned 59 1/2 years old, signifying that Alea and I both now have full access to our IRAs without having to worry about tax penalties. We have no plans to use any of those savings for several years, but it is nice to know that there is no longer the threat of a penalty when we do.

We left O'Leno State Park on Thursday morning. We awoke to some fairly heavy rain, so we opted to hook up and find breakfast on the road, rather than standing in the rain and trying to cook. So I donned my Gore-Tex rain coat and went about making preparations to get under way. In less than 5 minutes, enough rain had leaked through the coat to completely soak my t-shirt and pants. And Alea was soaked nearly as badly. It didn't help that we'd been given the lowest campsite on our part of the loop, resulting in our camper being in a small lake about 3" deep by the time we departed. But we got everything done and headed out for Tomoka State Park, albeit a bit waterlogged.

We checked the weather forecast while en route and found that this was the first of three cold fronts heading our way, each packing plenty of rain, wind and lows in the 30s and low 40s. So about halfway to Tomoka we decided to make a detour to Jacksonville, home of the only REI store in Florida, our best option for finding good rain gear to help us muddle through this stretch of bad weather. We were in luck, and they had a large collection of rain jackets to choose from.

The rain was quite heavy on our way to and from Jacksonville (we drove for a few hours in the rain, most while driving 70 mph). We noticed that it appeared that our Camp Inn camper again had a leak coming from the window condensation drains, though it seemed considerably worse on the driver side (where most of the traffic was passing us) than the passenger side. We didn't check on that until the next day, but found a large amount of water under our HyperVent pads. While it was upsetting to see that we still had a leak problem, it was a relief to be able to mop everything up in less than three minutes - much preferable to having to haul the mattress out to let it air dry (pretty hard to do in the rain!).

With that discovery, we looked more closely at where we had discovered other problems earlier. We had a very small amount of water that made its way into the deep storage via the bottom of the hatch lid. We'll add to some silicone that we earlier had added near the corners of the hatch drain pan, which should block the pathway that the water is using to find its way inside.

And we found a minor leak in the upper driver side of the galley, where the new cap seal/side seal hadn't been fully sealed. We added some sealant and think it is likely that has been fully rectified.

The big problem was that the solar plug is still leaking, a LOT. We had to once again disconnect and remove the battery, then placed our ceramic heater in the deep storage for several hours to attempt to dry things out as best we could. With our lack of earlier success at sealing the plug from the inside, we've decided to seal it from the outside, running a bead of silicone around the edge of the plug. It may not look that great, but it is a small area, and hopefully that will finally solve the problem.

Chief Tomokie Statue.

Once we got to Tomoka State Park, we met fellow Camp Inn owners Chuck and Martha, whom we had met briefly at last year's Camp Inn Camp Outt, right after they had picked up their camper at the factory. They had arrived to participate in a get together of the Saint Augustine Tear Jerkers. It was unclear what was on the agenda, so we decided to go out for dinner a few miles away at Greektown Greek Taverna. We invited Chuck and Martha to tag along, but at the time the weather was good and they declined, as they were getting ready to cook their own meal. We left, and within three minutes the monsoon rains returned. So we were surprised mid-way through our dinner when they showed up next to us. We had a fun time talking, discovering that they had both worked at the Morton Thiokol plant in the middle of nowhere in Northwestern Utah, a place that we had passed several times on trips to and from Salt Lake City.

A couple of days later, Camp Inn owners Terry and Van showed up, but by that time it was cold and windy. So we only had a chance to meet with them very briefly. We looked to see if they were up and about when we left early on Sunday morning, but being intelligent people, they were most likely huddled inside their camper where it was warm.

We took a drive up to Fort Matanzas on Saturday. It was an early Spanish sentry post to protect the approach to Saint Augustine from the south via Matanzas River. Because of the blustery conditions the free ferry across the river had been canceled, so we had to content ourselves with viewing it from across the river.

Halifax River with Fort Matanzas in the distance.

So we spent yesterday in the warmth and comfort of Jean's home in Oviedo, where we played with her fostered dachshund puppies and watched the Super Bowl with the rest of the family. We'll spend the rest of the week here, doing taxes and waiting for the cold fronts to clear out. Then we'll head off to the next campground, wherever that may be.