Saint Augustine, FL

Our next stop was Saint Augustine. Christine recommended it, and apparently it is the oldest city in the nation. When we got to our park, we picked out a sweet spot with lots of shade a a place for the kids to play, and we were greeted by our new winged neighbors. This was a stressful, or amazing, place for Holden because it was full of ducks, stray cats, squirrels, and other dogs. I think at one point he lost his voice from barking so much.

It was a heavy work week for me, so I spent my mornings working, afternoons trying to convince the kids to nap--which they repeatedly ignored--and evenings driving around with kids who had fallen asleep because they should have napped but didn't. So we took a lot of driving tours, but we only visited the city on foot once. Our first stop was the awesome downtown playground where the kids had a blast.

Then we walked through the historic city gates and explored the place first discovered by Ponce de Leon in 1513. It was cool, but more touristy than historic. There was a neat old mill wheel.

And narrow tree lined streets.

After we got our fil of the city, we crossed the street to the channel.

And explored the big fort.

The next day I worked some more while the boys cleaned their rides.

And then we took Judah into town for an upgrade! He loved it! And now Sawyer gets his old one. They spent the rest of the time there riding their bikes in circles around the pavilion across from the RV and taking long bike rides with Mark while I graded papers.

We had a fun time at this RV park, but Georgia was calling to us, so on Thursday we packed up and moved on.

Lake City, FL

I didn't have high expectations for our next RV park. We chose to stay there because it was near the Ichetucknee Springs, which my aunt Kate said was a great swimming experience, and it was cheap. But the reviews said it was basically just someone's back yard. It was. Look in the background of this picture--that's their house. They had a few hook ups installed in their side yard and called it an RV park. Whateves.

So while the set up wasn't luxurious, we did get a handful of channels on the tv, and--if you sat at just the right angle in the back bedroom--there was limited internet connection. And more exciting, still, there were peacocks! After we got set up, we went to go find them. The girls who lived there gave the kids some bread to feed them. They were in heaven.

Then they introduced them to the puppies. There were 10 of them! Sawyer liked to look at them from afar--the lost puppy incident at Mexico Beach made him a little gun shy of pups.

But Judah wanted to get right in there. The girls said it was fine. They even took puppies out so that they could chase Judah as he ran around the yard. He had a blast!

One of the girls gave Judah a peacock feather as a souvenir. He brought it home to surprise Mark, who was, once again, working on the electric.

That evening, the peacocks came to visit. It turns out they roost in the tree right next to our RV. It was in that way that we were introduced to the loud and incessant wail of the peacock. Mark said he felt like he was in Africa. Beans sat in the bedroom window and stared at them forever, and I just laughed.

After another night without electric, Mark and Judah woke up to a game of Go Fish.

Then we said good morning to our neighbors.

And they got comfortable with their new surroundings. This would be a great picture to include in the ad when we sell our car, right?

So Mark finally decided that he needed to break down and buy a new converter/charger box, which converts AC to DC. IT was going to be around $300 for the part, so he had been trying whatever he could before we bought that. But after this many days with only spotty lights and refrigerator, it was time. We found an RV store in town that carried them. But first Mark had to remove the old one. That was not an easy project. It was this huge electrical box drilled into the floor of a tiny compartment. He finally ended up sawing it loose. Here it is...

When we got to the store the guy offered us a couple of options, and then mentioned that he also had a used one that one of the techs just wanted $30 for! So we scooped it up and then went home so Mark could work. And before long, we were up and running again!

We celebrated by cooling down the fridge and then stocking it. That was exciting! Then we went for a walk in the park owner's back yard, and were serenaded to sleep by our new bffs.

Now we had been at this "RV Park" for two nights already, and still hadn't made it to the springs. So we signed on for another night and went to swim it up in some crystal clear water. It actually turned out for the best because the day we went ended up being about 78 degrees. The days before had only been in the low 70s. 

First we walked a trail to the "Blue Hole." The walk was beautiful.

And the spring was amazing! Apparently the water that is coming up into these springs has been in aquifers underground for like 30 years, so it is filtered and pristine by the time it shows up here. You could see everything. It was the clearest water I have ever seen in my life.

The pictures don't do it justice, but if you look closely, you can see a lighter blue spot in the middle of the pond. That is the place where the water comes up. And you can scuba dive down there and explore the underwater caves that it leads to.

After taking in the beauty of the Blue Hole Spring, we headed back to the Head Spring for some swimming. We swam, and splashed, and saw some fish and a couple of snakes coiled in trees above our heads. One of them was actually the biggest snake I had ever seen in the wild. It was pretty exciting.

Judah was having so much fun that I had to pull him out against his will after his teeth started chattering. We all had a really amazing time here.

We went home refreshed and excited by the prospect of a night with lights. The fact that we would get to leave that RV park the next day didn't hurt either.

So on Sunday we said goodbye to the peacocks and puppies and moved on to our next destination.

Lamont, FL

Our next stop was the Econfina River Resort, which bordered the Econfina State Park. It was really beautiful. Really beautiful.  But we didn't have internet, tv channels, or phone service. Also, it turned out we still didn't have lights or refrigerator either. Mark tried again to figure out what the problem was. But he didn't have the tools he needed, so we roughed it for the night and made plans to drive into town the next day for supplies.

In addition to our lack of modern technology, we were also faced with a tornado warning. A bunch of tornadoes touched down a bit west of us. It was scary. But luckily, it broke up before it got to us, so we just got a lot of rain and wind. We made the most of the storm by going outside and splashing around in the rain.

Since we were in blackout mode, we went to bed early that night. The next morning I used a headlamp to put on my mascara so that I would look beautiful when we went to walmart.

The kids splashed in the puddles.

Walmart was a success. We got a digital voltage meter and a battery charger. Then we went to Ross, where we picked up some birthday presents for my dad and some dvds for Judah to watch on his portable dvd player. I guess we weren't totally out of technology. Then we stopped at Moes for burritos. Judah thought it was important to document our lunch. 

When we got home, Mark read some voltage and charged some battery. In doing that, he got the refrigerator to run for awhile. We celebrated our food not going bad by going for a walk.

We discovered the "Real Florida."

It was really beautiful.

We got home and had dinner, which was cold due to our working refrigerator, and then everything cut out again. It was depressing.

The next day we got ready early and headed to the next destination with the mystery electronics problem still looming.