“Reunited and It Feels So Good...”

Sunday, April 5, 2015

It seems that nothing is easy when it comes to RV's! Our day at the tow package installers was early, long, hot, and incomplete. After a stressful rush hour drive from Gold Head Branch State Park, to downtown Jacksonville, with me following the rig in the stick-shift-driven Yaris, we reached Copeland Welding just after 8 am. Randy set to work on the Yaris. Around lunchtime, Greg checked on the shipping progress of one small part still needed for the bike hitch that we intended to drive back to Green Cove Springs to pick up the next day. UPS reported that it was rejected by our mail forwarder and sent back! We called there and found out the name on the label was “garbled”. They had turned it down, but UPS had forgotten to take it back with them the day before. Greg told them to hold on to the package and we took off in the RV to make the 40 minute drive down to Green Cove Springs to pick it up. One emergency averted.

Installing the tow bar baseplate - Greg is glad he didn't try to do this himself!

When we got back we discovered that the 12-volt wrong outlet had been ordered for the car. Greg came up with a spare from the RV. The Yaris work was finished, but when Randy and Greg tried to fit the hitch on the RV, they discovered that the spare tire was in the way of the bike rack, and that there was too much height between the rig and the car for the hitch. The solution was to call Blue Ox, the maker of the tow package and try to find a suitable hitch to be shipped to Randy. The call had to be made the next morning, and if there was no suitable piece, then Randy would have to weld a new one. Either way we were told to come back Friday.


Luckily, Greg found a cancellation and made a reservation at Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island north of Jacksonville, so we fought rush hour traffic, with me again following behind the rig. We wound up with the wrong directions, and finally arrived after 6 pm. Pulling into a nice site under the Spanish moss-draped live oak trees, we spent a quiet night. The next morning Greg rode his bike back to the entrance to see if there was a walk-in site for Thursday night. Because of Spring Break every site was taken. He was told to come back at check out at 1 pm. In the meantime we walked over to Fort Clinch and the nature trail that connected it with the campground. By 1 pm we vacated our site and parked the RV in the Beach Parking lot. Then we drove the toad to the office to wait for someone to check out.

Fort Clinch guarding Amelia Island at the mouth of Cumberland Sound

Enjoying the nature trail under the huge Live Oaks

No one checked out, and more campers pulled up looking for a site. The ranger took pity on us after we told him we were stuck in the area until Friday. He called all the campgrounds within 50 miles, and no one had an opening. We were told to stay in the Beach lot, enjoy the afternoon, and come back at 5 pm. If no spot had opened up by then, we could spend the night dry camping in the lot.


We spent the afternoon relaxing, walking the beach and the fishing pier, and enjoying the beautiful weather. If we had to be stuck someplace, well, this was a great spot! At 5 pm we went back again to the ranger station and learned there was still no site for us, so we stayed all night for free at the Beach Parking lot, and listened to the surf on the nearby beach as we fell asleep.

Camping at the Beach parking lot

The Fort Clinch fishing pier near our overflow camping spot

The dredge barge was piping sand more than a mile down the beach

Oyster shells attached to breakwater

Nice, uncrowded beach

The park closed at sunset so we had the fishing pier to ourselves

Friday morning Greg called Randy and found out that he would need to weld us a custom hitch drop adapter and we didn't need to come to the shop until after lunch. The ranger had told us to check with him for a walk-in site for Friday night. We left the park late morning with me following behind again. After we were down the road a ways, Greg called the ranger to let him know we'd left and he informed him they had a walk-in. Too late! We had to be there in person to claim it for Friday night. We made a stop at Walmart and then proceeded to join the stop and go holiday weekend traffic on the interstate.


Back at Copeland's the newly welded part wasn't ready yet. Because it was Good Friday and people were off work, Randy arrived to a parking lot full of customers dropping in on their day off to get work done. The part was finally painted and dried while we roasted in the RV in the unseasonably warm and humid weather. Greg took the bikes and the rack off the back of the rig as he had done on Wednesday as well, when he had to reassemble it when the work couldn't be finished. Finally, the new assembly was put on and the discovery made that the electrical brake cable that connected to the rig and the car, had the wrong number of pins in the plug. By this time it was late Friday afternoon and any part to be ordered probably wouldn't make it there until Monday or Tuesday at the earliest. We already had nowhere to stay that night, much less for the Easter/Spring Break weekend.


I jumped on the internet to find Blue Ox dealers in the area and called around to see if someone might have a spare cable. Ben's RV Repair had one fifteen miles west of Jacksonville, or so I thought. Ben was a true Florida native and I could barely understand his accent. I told him the connector was blue, and he said red, so I hoped he knew what he was talking about. Since we couldn't put the hitch on without the cable, after Greg and Randy assembled everything to make sure it all fit on the new hitch adapter, they disassembled it all again, and the bikes and the old hitch went back on the rig. The new hitch, etc., went into the back of the toad. Greg settled up and I followed him again into rush hour, now compounded by holiday traffic onto I-10 and west out of Jacksonville.


We finally found Ben, who worked on his retirement business out of his lovely home. He was gracious and knowledgeable, and hard to understand. He had the part we needed and charged us very little for it. We discussed his cats, our lifestyle, and he invited us to come to the Crucifixion pageant at his Baptist church that night. We politely begged off, and got back on the road. Once again I followed in the Yaris. This time we took Route 301 through the countryside on the northwestern side of Jacksonville until we reached I-95 north. We knew there was a Flying J truck stop we could spend the night in outside of Brunswick, Georgia. We wanted out of Florida and the Spring Break crowds and the heat and humidity.


I almost cried as we crossed into Georgia, I was so relieved to be out of Florida. The truck stop was loaded with other RV's looking for an overnight spot, but we found spaces for the RV and the car surrounded by RV neighbors from Ontario and Quebec. It was a noisy spot, but we didn't care. Flying J has saved us before when we didn't have anyplace else to sleep for a night. We uncorked a bottle of wine and ate leftovers.


Saturday morning Greg rewarded himself with a big Denny's breakfast at the truck stop, and then we spent the next two hours in the parking lot assembling the tow package. Everything was there. Everything worked! I climbed into the passenger seat of the rig and settled my tush into the well worn depression in the seat cushion. Ahhh...”Reunited and it feels so good...” No more driving separately on strange roads, while following Greg in traffic, while using my rusty shifting skills and having my clutch foot cramp up from unusual usage and trying to handle my cellphone at the same time to see Googlemaps! We drove north into South Carolina until we reached Colleton State Park and our two night reservation. We needed some well deserved down time!

It works!