Saturday through the following Sunday, January 14-22, 2012—Crooked Creek State Park, St. Mary’s, GA to Atlanta, GA via Jacksonville, FL

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Saturday-Tuesday, January 14-17, Crooked Creek State Park, St. Mary’s, GA

Spent this time hanging out, doing laundry, and a little sightseeing. This park was just north of the King’s Bay Naval Submarine Base and there is a lot of development in the area that shows the significant economic growth from this new base. There were signs everywhere that said things like “Welcome Home, Daddy!”

One day we went into the old port town of St. Mary’s and looked at all of the old Victorian houses, shopped a local farmer’s market, and went to the library to see if they had any books for sale. We had hoped to take a ferry ride out to CumberlandIsland, but because we hadn’t made reservations hikers and campers had taken all of the slots that would allow you to come and go in a day. It was probably a little too cold for us anyway, so we put that on our list of things to do in the future.

Another day we drove around the park itself and spent several minutes at the bird blind watching a variety of different birds feeding. You can see some of them in the photos. The park is really nice with small cabins facing the river as well as a good number of camp spots. They had a variety of activities that would be conducted when the weather was warmer, especially for families.

Wednesday-Thursday, January 18-19, Crooked Creek State Park, St. Mary’s, GA to Kathryn Abbey Hanna City Park, Jacksonville

Finally, the dealer called to say the parts were in, so we made an appointment for Thursday. We broke camp and repositioned ourselves at the Yulee Walmart for the night, which was much closer to the dealer’s. Had lunch at a Chinese restaurant in St. Mary’s and loaded up with cheapo gas at $3.329/gallon—got $40 worth.

It rained all night and there was lots of condensation when we woke. Maybe it was because another cold front moved in and it was 39 degrees at 8am. Off we went with optimism to the dealer’s thinking of our warm beds and house at home that we would have soon. However, the serviceman shortly discovered that they had ordered the wrong rear window to be replaced, and we went ballistic in our quiet way. Not only was the part wrong, but the correct part would have to come from Canada as the wrong one had. We got a promise that it would be shipped air express from Canada and we would have it the next day. Why they couldn’t have done that with the first window we don’t know.

So back to the wifi to find another nice park where we could lick our wounds and still be within a shortish drive back. We found KathrynAbbeyHannaJacksonvilleCityPark south of St. John’sRiver, but almost on top of the Mayport Naval Station. It is quite a large park with Atlantic beaches, sand dunes, and lagoons. It also had lots of hiking and biking trails, and RV and tent campsites. We drove through several loops and angled Rosie in such a way that we could look over a large pond through the front windows. Like all Florida parks, it wasn’t cheap--$25/night off-season rate.

Friday-Sunday, January 20-22--Kathryn Abbey Hanna City Park, Jacksonville to Clarkston, GA

We got started this morning later because we couldn’t do anything at the dealer’s before FedEx got there at 10:00. So, we left at 10:30 and it was 60 degrees and nice. Drove by the naval base to the Mayport ferry terminal and got it line for the short trip across the St. John’sRiver. As you may know, we really like ferry crossings and this one didn’t disappoint. It gave us an up close view of the brown pelicans and many of the boats on the river. The ferry goes back to Ft.GeorgeIsland where we visited Little Talbot and the Kingsley Plantation. Only this time, instead of going east, we went west toward Jacksonville.

The window had come in and the dealer now replaced both of them so we were theoretically ready to go. We still were not wild about how poorly they seemed to seal, but we don’t seem to get cold air or fumes through the gaskets, so we guess we are OK. We pullked out of Jacksonville and headed toward home through Waycross.

For the night and the next night we stayed at The Laura Walker State Park and were pleased to be paying about half of what we were paying in Florida. When we woke up on Saturday, we decided we were just too tired to drive the remaining 4-5 hours to Clarkston without additional rest, so we decided to make Saturday a down day, knowing that our ordeal with the cold and RV dealers would be over for awhile.

Saturday night we had a tornado warning in the campground---Ranger came around with his siren and flashing blue lights to tell us to go immediately to the campground restrooms and into the large supply closet there. We stayed about a half hour listening to the weather station until they gave the “all clear.” Several dogs and a cat held tight in her mistress' arms joined us in the building also. Sunday the weather was rainy and foggy and not pleasant so, we just came on in. We stopped at a Chinese buffet and gas in the town of McGrae. Paid $3.439/gallon and put in $17.5 gallons. It was really nice to get home. Winterizing Rosie in this manner took us longer and probably cost us more than it would have if we had just put her in storage, but then we wouldn’t have gotten the RV work done either.

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