2025 Dave and Cathy Dieter Journey

Late February - More of the Same

2/28/2026

Continuing our volunteer work at Residing Hope, we took on some new tasks and continued others. With doctor's appointments in Jacksonville at month-end, we did more work on the van to ready it for another “shakedown” trip and learned more in the process.

Four of these columns needed to be replaced

Residing Hope

Working in a place that has been here for over 100 years, there is always something more to be done. Residing Hope offers lots of things to keep us busy. After Dave and Fred finished making furniture repairs, they shifted to outside work, replacing 4 columns that support the porch roof on one of the buildings, just in time for the first open house of the year.

With the temporary post in place, Fred and Dave remove the old column.

At least one of the columns had weakened enough that a temporary post had been put in place to support the weight it would normally carry. The other 3 were not far behind. Placing the new columns required cutting the new heavy fiberglass composite posts to length, jacking up the roof with a bottle jack and a 4x4 post, then carefully securing the new one into place. Measurements taken to ensure the new post was plumb helped ensure a good fit, and the resulting columns blended with the original columns seamlessly.

The Day of Hope offers an opportunity for others to see the work done at Residing Hope and to learn ways that they can help continue its mission. There would be 2 events this year, with the first happening on an unseasonably hot Saturday in February. While we had done work to prepare for the day – preparing mailings, cleaning Spanish moss out of hedges, cleaning common rooms in the main hall, individually wrapping over 100 cookies, and, yes, replacing those columns, we were also asked to assist on the day itself. We joined the Nomads team to help with parking duties and then helped serving lunches.

The praise band performs for the Day of Hope in the gym.

With the number of volunteers greatly exceeding the work to be done, we took some time out to tour a residence and take in a break-out session before sitting down to lunch in the gym and enjoying the presentations for the day, This included the Home’s praise band, and a testimony from one of the home’s former residents.

Our new bargain windshield cover.

Covering up

When we purchased the van, it came with covers that could be mounted inside each window to provide privacy and insulation. But they are bulky and heavy. Always concerned about space and weight, we were looking for a lighter alternative that could be deployed outside – at least on the front of the van. Cathy was zeroing in on a style of windshield cover made by Adco, that would fit the van and have the additional feature of cutouts with screens to allow light into the RV, if we wanted that option.

A scrap of matching material from Cathy's supplies covers the tear.

While debating whether to buy the cover or make one that was similar, Dave stumbled across one that had been returned to etrailer.com, that was listed as “dirty” for $15. It took no time to decide to order it. Even if it was unusable, it would be a great pattern. When it arrived, it had only a few scuff marks, and one small tear above the driver’s side window. However, it fit well and was otherwise in great shape. Cathy was able to patch the tear easily and also covered the velcro straps with some webbing, which took a lot less time than making a cover from scratch.

Bugs out. Breeze in.

Another make vs buy decision involved the screens for the rear and side doors. These wouldn’t be privacy screens, but would allow the doors to stand open in good weather, blocking any bugs from getting in. There were a few different styles, some attaching with velcro and others with magnets. It was hard to justify the expense and time to create these from scratch, when we could order them to match each door’s dimensions for not too much more. Our van would require the magnets to attach them to the door openings, with a magnetic opening in the middle. The 2 screens arrived in time for our trip to Jacksonville, and worked great, allowing a nice breeze without any pests.

That sink cover is HEAVY.

One final sewing project was a simple pocket to hang under the galley sink. It would hold the sink cover when the sink was being used.

Powering Up

The van’s small Dometic drawer fridge was undersized for the type of traveling we hoped to do. However, there were no spare DC outlets to plug in another, larger fridge. So, while we had the van’s compartments under the bed opened up, and with clearance from Waldoch that the warranty should not be affected, Dave wired in a new outlet.

The only surprise came when he cut the wire to the existing fridge after pulling the fuse that should have removed power. When the "dead" wire produced a spark, it was pretty clear the fuses weren’t labeled quite right. After installing the outlet, we discovered the correct fuse had been labeled “water pump”. We replaced it with a good fuse and confirmed with Waldoch that we could switch the labels and the fuses (which were different amperages) so the panel made more sense.

Off the Clock

The Nomads team that is working at Residing Hope graciously included us in some of their gatherings, including some strawberry sundaes and a soup potluck. While we didn’t have any soup to offer, we instead brought some smoked baked beans, which were a big hit. However, preparing them was a little more difficult than normal.

That’s because our smoker caught fire.

When we had finished smoking a pork butt a few weeks earlier, Dave raised the temperature for a few minutes to clean the grates. However, as we looked out the window at the smoker, the smoke was pouring out of it. This was a lot more than normal. By the time we reached it, the paint was peeling on the outside because it was so hot. We managed to douse it with water inside and out, but at that point, it was toast.

It didn’t take Dave long to order its replacement. And it was the new one that allowed us to smoke the baked beans for the get together. It seems to work great. And we’ll be careful about raising the temperature from now on.

1 Comment

Early February - Residing Hope

2/14/2026

1 Comment

Dave and Fred making furniture repairs

We put in another couple of weeks of work at Residing Hope in the beginning of February, continuing with some of the same tasks, and shifting gears a bit to new ones. In our off time, we continued to work on the van and 5th wheel, addressing issues discovered in recent weeks.

The new drawers in place

Residing Hope

With some assistance from Pat and Cathy, Dave and Fred finished making drawers for the furniture going into the resident cottage that was being refurbished. One of the more complex tasks, given the limited tools available was to get the angled drawer pull made. But after a few false starts, the guys figured out a method that they could make work.

Cathy with her work behind her.

Cathy broke away from the wood shop for a few days to help out again in the mail room. One of the sustaining sources of income for the school are the 5th Sunday appeals that churches all over Florida participate in. When a month has a 5th Sunday, that day has a special offering for Residing Hope. This involved packaging materials – bulletin inserts, posters and pew envelopes – for nearly 350 churches in varying quantities. Cathy packaged the various items into counted quantities and then packaged them into the right-size box.

Not a green thumb, but a green index finger?

While she finished in good time for the next 5th Sunday, she got off to a slow start. While cutting some labels to attach to the mailings, her left index finger got in the way of the paper cutter. After a trip to Urgent Care, she would be sporting a green finger for the next few weeks as it healed.

On a campus filled with Spanish moss, much of it where it shouldn't be, Pat had her work cut out for her.

While the Residing Hope campus is lovely with dozens of old live oaks with their signature Spanish moss, this natural draping plant was wreaking havoc in the rest of the landscaping and vegetation. So, Pat and Sandy took on the challenge of removing as much as could be done before the upcoming Day of Hope open house. While they made lots of progress, this is a pretty-much endless task.

Fred supervises while Dave works to change our tires.

Tire Saga Continues

With all of our tire drama as we made our way south to Enterprise, we were committed to replacing all of the trailer tires before we headed out again. Both tires on the driver’s side had been replaced – one last August and the other on our trip in January. So, we needed to replace both of the passenger side tires, but we didn’t want to drive the trailer to Discount Tire to do this. So, Dave removed one tire at a time and took it to be replaced. The better of the two became our new spare.

Fender skirt damaged by our tire failure.

There was just one more thing before we could put the tire issues to bed. The passenger side “fender skirt” (i.e., a plastic cover over the trailer tires) had been badly damaged when the tire blew in January. It took some research and a call to Keystone to find the exact part number for our fender skirt and a vendor that would sell to us directly. Installation should be easy since it is the same part number. But maybe not.

New fender skirt in place.

Removing the old fender skirt seemed simple enough, until we tried to remove the silicone from the textured metal side of the RV. No solvent seemed to make any difference, just lots of scrubbing. Then installing the new one started out OK, until we realized that the holes didn’t line up. We made as many work as we could. Then we realized that we had lost 2 of the screws. Sigh. After a trip to the hardware store for the screws, we finished up with a bead of a non-silicone sealant and it looks good as new.

Dave gets his first look at the systems under the van's bed platform.

Van Stuff

We also had some problems to address with the van. After more tests, we were now convinced that the starting battery did have a problem. In discussions with the local Ford service department, we learned that the battery should be under warranty for the first year, but our warranty start date was back in early 2024, almost 2 years of it having been used up. It took a few more phone calls to learn that the dealer had to complete a simple form to reset it to our purchase date. Once complete, we were able to take the van in for service. They replaced both batteries under warranty.

Since the van itself was almost 4 years old, our tires were even older. Given our problems with our Cougar’s 5-year old tires, we also asked to have the van’s tires evaluated. Both Ford and Discount Tire said they were good for our planned trip to Newfoundland. So, fingers crossed. We don’t want any more side-of-the-road tire changes.

With some warmer weather and some time on our hands, we finally dismantled the bed platform to understand the van’s systems that were installed under it. Access to these compartments answered some questions and raised others. There’s still more to do before we are ready for a longer trip, but we still have time.

We prepare to board our river excursion in Blue Spring State Park.

Valentine’s Day at Blue Spring State Park

Our location in Enterprise puts us less than 10 miles from Blue Spring State Park, a place for manatees in the cold of winter. We decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day there and had a surprise rendezvous with Evalyn, who drove south from Jacksonville on this lovely, warm day.

The winter cold draws manatees to the warm spring waters.

To the surprise of Pat and Cathy, the guys had booked a trip on a river cruise from the park’s landing on the St. John’s. Traveling several miles on the river, we saw many different birds, some manatees and LOTS of alligators.

Come along for the ride.

Parting Shot

We don’t have to get on a boat to see lots of birds. The campus has lots of osprey, sandhill cranes, and some wild turkeys that like to take a stroll each morning. This guy was trying to impress his potential mate.

1 Comment

Late January - Many Moving Parts

1/31/2026

1 Comment

Preparing to move the fifth wheel had some bumps in the road

We began the 2nd half of January separated by several hundred miles with Dave in Pennsylvania and Cathy back in Florida. By month’s end, we were back together but had moved 90 miles south of Jacksonville to Enterprise FL to begin our volunteering at Residing Hope, formerly known as the Florida UMC Children’s Home. In the process we had to manage 3 flat tires and a dead battery between our 2 RV’s.

Into the Cold

Dave’s trip north was short but productive. His train to Philadelphia actually arrived early enough for him to scramble to make an early bus to Allentown. Over the next day and a half, he met with the funeral home, lawyer, bank, and court as part of his executor duties for his mother’s estate. What he hadn’t expected to do on his visit was shovel snow over and over and over again, including one last time on the morning of his departure, while the snow continued to fall. Despite the weather, he had smooth connections to the bus and train, arriving in Jacksonville on time on the Monday morning 5 days after he left to head north -- to warmer weather, but not that much warmer.

"Jr" on our site at Fort Clinch

Meanwhile Back in Florida . . .

Cathy spent the few days on her own back at Fort Clinch getting used to life in the van, spending time with Pat and Fred, and catching up on computer work – and responding to several random tasks from Dave while he was away. While the weather was not nearly as cold as Dave’s up in PA, the heat was running most of the time, which brought its own surprises when Dave returned.

One of his first questions when he returned was “why is the heat off in the fifth wheel”? Which, of course, Cathy hadn’t seen since he left, but could have monitored on the app if she had thought about it. Oops. So, instead of heading to Fort Clinch from the train station on Monday morning, we headed back to Faith to check on it. The concern was that our In-Command control system was having a problem, but that turned out to be wrong. Dave was convinced we couldn’t be out of propane, given the temperatures since we last filled the tank. But sure enough, the tank was empty. While we switched to the other tank and filled the empty one, we were scratching out heads about how fast the cold weather had drained the tank.

Sunrise at Fort Clinch

Back at Fort Clinch, we had a different problem with the van. Cathy was surprised one afternoon, upon entering the side door of the van, to get a flash message on the dash about systems that weren’t working. But she wasn’t attempting to start the van. So, what was the message about?

Since we would be leaving in a couple of days, we decided to try to start it, and found that the battery was dead. This had happened when we first test drove the van, but we had been told that the battery had been replaced. Maybe not. Fred had a battery charger that allowed us to get it charged enough to start up, and we were able pull out a couple of days later. But we knew we weren’t out of the woods yet.

Pastor Michael and Dave consult Fred on the boiler problems at Faith

Work at the Church

Our short visits back to Faith during our 2 weeks away were usually a flurry of activity. The Nomads team continued to resurface the courtyard deck, and despite an injury on the team, did some amazing work. The cold weather made the persistent problems with the boiler supplying heat to the sanctuary a higher priority. With Fred on the phone giving advice, Dave spent time showing Pastor Michael what might be done to bleed the supply lines to get it going in an emergency.

With some cold weather imminent after we headed further south and a special service on the weekend, Dave and Fred would drive the nearly 2 hours back to Jacksonville to ensure the boiler would fire to heat the sanctuary on the next to the last Saturday in January.

Tire problems plagued us as we moved south

Hitting the Road

Our stay at Fort Clinch came to an end on Thursday the 21st. We would be moving south to the small town of Enterprise FL north of Orlando to volunteer for a children’s home, Residing Hope. We would be taking both the 5th wheel and the van, so we needed to get both ready to move. We had already worked through the battery issue with the van, but our bigger challenges were going to be with the 5th wheel.

With doctor’s appointments scheduled for the Wednesday before we were to leave, we spent the Tuesday night before and much of the time between appointments packing up the fifth wheel at Faith, even retracting the slides so the next day we could just hook up and leave once we made our way back from Fort Clinch. However, Dave wanted to do one last thing before we headed back to the van, which was to check the tires and add air as needed. That triggered a problem that would plague us for the next couple of days.

Our first tire failure required some assistance

The trailer’s front tire on the driver’s side was losing air fast. The tire stem had failed with a hole at the base. This wasn’t an insurmountable problem. We just needed to swap it for the spare. However, try as we might, we couldn’t get any of our sockets to grab the lug nuts tightly enough to get the tire off. So, we had to call Good Sam to get some assistance, delaying our departure even more. When the serviceman arrived, he ended up using one of our sockets, but had to hammer it on to the lug nut to use it.

Dave getting the spare tire fixed

With the flat removed, installing the spare was straightforward, and we were ready to head out. It was after 5, and we wanted to get to a Discount Tire on the way to Fort Clinch to have the tire stem repaired so we would have a working spare again. We made it in time to get the tire fixed (at no charge) before they closed. After a quick stop for dinner, we pulled into the campground after dark. So much for getting the van ready to go early.

Luckily, the next morning we were able to get the van packed up quickly and it started. The battery was still in question, but that was a problem for another day. Earlier in the week on he day that Dave had returned from PA, Pat had to leave to help out her daughter in NYC, so we made ourselves available to stand in for her as Fred got his rig ready to depart. We were poor substitutes, but we did our best.

After a quick stop at Discount Tire to top off the tires on the van and truck, we drove to Faith to pick up the fifth wheel. Of course, it is never that simple. While Cathy helped out with a few questions in the office, Dave consulted on the boiler. It was then late enough that we stayed for lunch. Finally, after lunch we were ready to pull out. Cathy would drive the van, following Dave and the fifth wheel. The trip was slated to take a little less than 2 hours and was all interstate. Pretty simple. Or so we thought.

I95 is not the ideal place to change a tire

Not too far south of St. Augustine, Cathy saw Dave pulling off a very busy I-95 onto the shoulder. This could only mean one thing. Another tire had failed. This time it was the passenger side rear tire. While the tire stem was the initial problem, the tire had more damage from the failure and was not salvageable. It had also damaged the fender skirt.

While it is tricky, we have a method of raising the front tire on the same side to allow the rear tire to be changed by driving up on boards. After a couple of miscalculations, we made it high enough. It was also made a little more complex by a technical problem with the phones. Cathy’s phone was paired to the van’s console. Since we needed to keep the van running to ensure the battery would be OK, her phone would automatically pair with the van whenever she tried to communicate with Dave from the side of the highway. Sigh.

We managed to keep the fender skirt on, but it didn't look pretty

So, with the RV rocking from the 3 lanes of passing traffic, we swapped the tire and secured the fender. Dave then backed off the boards so we could put them and the bad tire into the truck bed. We managed to find a gap in the traffic, so we could pull out again. Cathy gave Fred and our contact at Residing Hope an updated ETA.

The rest of the trip was proving uneventful. Cathy gave our contact a heads up that we were 15 minutes away. We pulled off the exit, only a couple of miles from our destination when Dave pulled off to the right. Wait. We need to go left. But, you guessed it, another tire had blown. The spare tire that we had mounted less than 24 hours earlier had failed. And, of course, now we had no spare to put on

Not wanting to leave the trailer unattended, Dave arranged for Cathy to head to the campground with the van to meet Fred. He would bring her back in his car and exchange her for Dave and the bad tire. While Cathy waited with the truck and 5th wheel, they would drive to the nearest Discount Tire to get a new tire mounted on the wheel. Discount Tire’s manager was incredibly helpful in getting the tire ready quickly and very economically. But the infamous I-4 traffic slowed their return, so that we were racing against time to get the tire changed before the light was gone.

Also, using boards to raise the tire off the ground was tricky. Dave had to back onto the boards and we had to add them gradually to keep them from interfering with the rear jacks. With Fred’s assistance, we managed to do that and got the tire changed before it was too dark to see. While the traffic wasn’t as heavy as earlier, we were now operating on the driver’s side with fading light. So, it felt much more exposed as cars flew down the exit ramp.

Set up in our site at Residing Hope

With the tire changed, we pulled into the campground in the dark – something we almost never do. We managed to get set up and breathed a sigh of relief to be in and safe. We had spent the last several days in contact with our son as he made a long trek north with mechanical issues along the way. We kept telling him that we were having our problems for every one he had. In the midst of our drama, we learned that he had made it safely to his destination. And we had too, but we were winning the competition.

"Day of Hope" mailings being stuffed

Residing Hope – What to do?

After getting our orientation on Friday, we started our volunteer work in earnest on Monday. Cathy made her way to the mail room, where year-end tax mailings were stacked by the thousands to be stuffed. These had to be out by week’s end, followed by packets for 729 churches promoting the upcoming Open Houses in February and March. With Pat still in NY, Cathy was the only one on tap to assist the “mail room lady”, Janice. Although Dave helped with some counting and packaging cards one afternoon.

Dave and Fred headed to the maintenance shop, where they began sanding and refinishing desks, nightstands and dressers to be returned to a residential cottage being refurbished. However, many of these were missing drawers. They sold the Maintenance supervisor on their tackling the job of making replacements. So, their efforts moved to the wood shop to figure out what was possible.

Sandy and Sue at dinner

We weren’t the only volunteers staying in the campground. Sandy had preceded us by several weeks. And a new Nomad team began arriving that included some familiar faces: Butch and Cheri, Neal and Sue and Karen and Russ, to name a few. On our first night after work, we met Sandy’s daughter (our friend Sue) and her husband Steve for dinner as they made their way slowly back north after the close of their Nomad project in Tampa.

Overlooking the boat ramp at Lake Monroe Park - a 7 mile bike ride from the campground

And when the temperatures weren’t plunging to record lows, we took some bike rides along the convenient and scenic bike trails that pass by the campus just outside the gates.

Happy 90th Beverly!

Parting Shots

Before leaving Fort Clinch, we celebrated with Beverly on her 90th birthday with a lunch at the Lunch Box in St. Mary’s.

1 Comment

Early January - Work and Play

1/15/2026

0 Comments

Sunset at Fort Clinch State Park

Our year started out at Faith as we prepared for the first period Nomads team to arrive. Their project would be to resurface a large deck in the church’s central courtyard. We would only be available for their first week of work, before we moved north to spend a couple of weeks with Pat and Fred at the northernmost tip of Florida’s east coast at Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island. But before the 1st week was done, Dave was boarding a train north to Pennsylvania.

Sketch of deck used for supply estimates

Decking Out

The courtyard deck in Faith’s central courtyard is large and . . .complex. Its surface has almost no right angles. The Nomads who would take on the project of resurfacing it would arrive just after the new year. We had placed an order for the composite boards that would be delivered the first day of the project, but knowing what lay beneath the existing boards would have to wait until the old deck had been stripped away.

With the surface boards removed, there was good news and bad news. The good news was that most of the existing joists were in good shape. The bad news was that they were 24 inches apart. The composite decking requires joists 12 to 16 inches apart. That would mean the team needed to double the number of joists. So, we placed another order for the dozens of 2x8’s that would be needed. With this extra work a ndthe small team of workers, getting the deck done in 3 weeks would be a challenge.

Cathy stands atop a Jenga puzzle of the old deck boards in the dumpster.

Where we could, we lent a hand to lighten the load. Cathy helped Bud and Charlotte haul the used boards away and carefully stack them in the dumpster. Dave helped removing the boards, and we both spent our last afternoon installing a replacement outlet box for one damaged in the process of stripping the deck. But we needed to pull out the next day, so we would have to cheer the team on from a distance, with only an occasional in-person inspection over the next 2 weeks.

Van and Truck at Fort Clinch

Van Shakedown Cruise

If we were going to take longer trips in our new camper van, we needed to work out any kinks in its systems. So, when we headed up to Fort Clinch State Park, we would take the van, not the fifth wheel. Before heading out, we had some things to take care of.

Power: It’s always about the batteries right? Dave kept watching the battery monitor as the batteries slowly discharged, but the charger didn’t kick in. These were lithium Iron phosphate batteries, which have a different charging profile that he was getting to understand. But he finally became convinced that the Xantrex charger was not working correctly. He made a call to Xantrex support and after following a series of odd instructions, the charger reset and started delivering a float charge to the batteries.

Our new Wifi set up in the van

Wifi/TV: Dave installed a router, wifi extender and TV antenna so we could use the internet, stream TV and get over the air channels.

Water: We had winterized the water tanks before traveling north for the holidays. We needed to flush the antifreeze, sanitize the tanks with bleach and flush them. Over the course of a couple of days, we filled, flushed and refilled the tanks. In the course of this process, we once again had problems with the kitchen sink draining. More borax treatments and we managed to get it flowing again.

The bike cover with lights and license plate in full view.

Bikes: On our trip north, we became aware that our bike cover made it difficult to see the van’s lights. Also, it completely blocked our license plate. We found a solution in a new cover that was fitted with a clear sleeve where we could insert a copy of our license plate, and pockets for trailer lights that could be plugged into the van. The wires for the lights would be long enough to let the hitch swing out, but we needed to corral the excess when underway, which we accomplished with a strap Cathy made. And, of course, we needed a license plate, not the temporary one that had expired. After a call to the dealer, the plate was overnighted to us, arriving 3 days before we needed it to head out. Phew!

Supplies: With tools, dishes, linens, food, clothes and other supplies loaded, we felt almost ready to leave.
We did have a punch list of problems/questions that we wanted to address with the manufacturer. We were surprised when we learned we would be part of a conference call with the warranty manager, the product manager(?) and one of the builders of our Waldoch Coya. . After the call, we had some actions to take, but most would wait until we got back. It was time to cut the dock lines.
Cathy would drive the van on the hour drive to Fort Clinch, while Dave took the truck.

But she had trouble getting out of the parking lot.

After starting the van, an alarm was sounding. Probably about the seatbelt. No. Parking brake? No. There were no messages on the display. So, she tried to call Dave who was sitting in the truck 100 yards ahead waiting. But that didn’t work. Why? Because his phone had paired to the van, so every time she tried to call, the phone rang in the van. When we did connect, we fumbled for a while to figure out the reason for the alarm. Until Dave got into the passenger seat -- and it moved. We had not fully locked the swivel seat into place facing forward. Aha.

After a stop at the CAT Scale to confirm we were still underweight, we pulled into our site at Fort Clinch late on a warm, breezy afternoon. We had 2 weeks of living in the van to see what else we could learn.

Dave works to steady the toilet

Van Life

Actually staying in the van was giving us insights into what it needed and what worked and didn’t work. Each day, we learned a little bit more. The insulated window covers are heavy, fit badly, and need to be replaced. The water? Still tasted of antifreeze. It would need more flushing before it was drinkable. The bed? Very comfortable, but the fitted sheet kept slipping. We tried some sheet garters, but the jury is still out. Wifi? Worked well. TV antenna? Not so good. No local channels even though Pat and Fred had dozens.

The toilet? It felt very shaky and the inlet leaked when the valve was on. Dave managed to fix the shakiness with toilet shims, but the leak would have to wait. Shower? Even though we weren’t using it, the shower head dripped, getting things in the bathroom unexpectedly wet.

Some of our hooks were deployed to hang a shelf in the bathroom.

And we needed places to hang things. We put some shower curtain rods inside the shower to hold towels, and Command hooks on the walls to hold shower bags and Dave’s hat. We had a smoke detector, but no CO detector, so we replaced the existing one with a combined smoke/CO detector.

There were other discoveries. How many heaters does it take to keep the van warm on a 28 degree night? Two. How to keep sand out of your van in a beach campsite? A Boot scraper mat. To cook on the table and not the tiny sink top? A short extension cord. Refrigeration? The door fridge has more space than one would think. And the max temp setting would freeze things. There’s a lot more to learn, but we appreciated the time to get know this new “Jr”.

Fort Clinch on the St. Mary's inlet

Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island

Our plan had been to spend much of our time at Fort Clinch riding the scenic bike trails in the park and around the island. And we did some of that. But a few things got in our way. The first was the wind. Being at the northern tip of a barrier island, when it was fair weather, the breeze was pleasant and cooling. But when the temperatures dipped low, the wind could howl and make the cold feel much colder. It was hard to get excited about biking into a biting wind.

Sunset over Fort Clinch beach campground.

Then, Dave got a call from his mom’s estate attorney. As executor, he needed to present himself in person before the court in Pennsylvania. That meant he would be gone for much of our 2nd week at the park. We needed to make arrangements for a train trip to send him north, and ensure Cathy understood the van systems well enough to be on her own for several days. While he was away, while the winds howled, Cathy, Pat and Fred took refuge one afternoon in the history museum on the island which was in the old jail. We had an informative tour of the museum by a volunteer docent during our visit.

Georgia Smoke Pork BBQ Sandwich

Parting Shot

We found an amazing BBQ place in Fernandina near the state park. It was Georgia Smoke. We had more than one meal there during our stay.

0 Comments

Late February - More of the Same

Early February - Residing Hope

Late January - Many Moving Parts

Early January - Work and Play

Archives