Leaving Camp Jean

I've often asked Alea if she had any sort of "bucket list" - things she would like to do or see before she dies.  Aside from wanting to visit Australia and New Zealand at some point, the answer is usually that she has no such goals.  So I was surprised when she recently announced that she had always wanted to go on an air boat ride.  So we crossed that off of her list after a visit to Lone Cabbage Restaurant.  We got a close up view of a few of Florida's 3 million alligators, and saw plenty of cattle and several types of wading birds.  Even with ear protection the boat was incredibly loud.

Alea, Jean, Joe, Steve and George.

So we are leaving Camp Jean for the final time this year.  We are now officially commencing our tag-teaming for 2016, though we will start about a week earlier than we had anticipated when we left Palmetto.  We had thought we'd leave from around the Ormand Beach area, but with spring break it is a huge challenge lining up campsites.  So instead we will return to where we originally met the Atlantic Ocean last November, which is at St. Augustine.  From there we have reservations for one night at Little Talbot Island State Park and four nights at Fort Clinch State Park, which is just a short distance up the road.  After there we will be in Georgia.

Once we leave Fort Clinch we will be a few days ahead of schedule, so we'll likely begin by doing less than our planned average of around 40 miles per day, provided that the spacing of campgrounds allows us to do that.  If not, then we will take a day or two off in the Carolinas in order to get closer to the timing that we originally anticipated, which will allow us to reach Maine around the beginning of the second week in June.

Alea recently suggested that having a touch screen Chromebook might make it easier for her to navigate the online route maps that I created for us earlier this year.  Anything that might reduce the amount of stress and frustration that we experience on the road is a worthwhile investment, so on Thursday we received our new Lenovo Chromebook, which is so equipped.  It is soooo much simpler to set up than my laptop, but then the laptop is a much better option for writing novel-length books.

We've spent most of our remaining time here at Camp Jean getting prepared for the coming months on the road.  We've lubed the water and propane quick-connects to make them easier to use, sanitized our freshwater and graywater tanks, learned how to access the music on our car stereo's USB drive (it takes a mere seven steps to do so), set up our proof of insurance card on my cell phone, reset the trip odometer and average gas mileage calculation, and so on.

We stopped and filled up on gas for $1.99 per gallon (it was $1.57 a couple of weeks ago), since it looks as though gas may continue to creep up in price in the near future, and we'll stop at the local Aldi store on the way out of town in order to get fully stocked for the next several days of traveling.  


Spending the past week with Alea's siblings and nieces has been great.  It has given us a chance to break out of our routines for a while and to enjoy their company while doing some things we probably wouldn't have done otherwise.  But we are happy to once again be heading back on the road.  We've got our fingers crossed that we don't run into too many April showers next month, and if we do, that they are warm showers!