WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED ABOUT CAMPING?

When we decided to set out on the road for this six month adventure it was a brand new idea and a brand new lifestyle. Erik had done some true camping many years ago; I call 'true' camping the kind you do in a tent with no amenities at your disposal and braving the elements. Rain, sleet, cold, you're out in it. I believe he even upgraded at one point to a pop up tent trailer. My understanding of a pop up tent trailer is that it's a step up from a traditional tent because you don''t get completely drenched during a thunder storm. Back then he loved that environment and didn't mind the pop up or the getting wet part. In his youth he had even camped outside with nothing other than a sleeping bag, eating beans out of a can.This he did on purpose.

My experience of camping was very limited -  once - in a tent. It lasted two nights, probably the two longest nights of my life. Traipsing through the woods with toilet paper under my arm to look for a likely 'spot' does not rank high on my list of things I would love to do again. I don't travel well without a hair dryer and I do enjoy a shower every day, preferably one with hot water. I also like something a bit more secure than a bit of tarp between me and any wild animals who may wander in my direction.

Neither of us had ever traveled for an extended length of time carrying our home around with us. We really didn't know what to expect; possibly we had no expectations. We knew we had the right ingredients to make this an enjoyable trip. First and foremost, we really really like each other. May sound trite or maybe even obvious to those who know us but it's not. Planning to be in close confines with someone day in and day out for six months is not for those who find their spouse's daily habits grind on their nerves. If it makes you crazy when he/she leaves the toilet seat up/down imagine how irritating that little habit will be after a few months of togetherness. As a couple we certainly pass the first hurdle.

The second hurdle? What the hell do you do all day long? We have now been on the road for close to two months. The first little while we spent a couple of nights here and there so it was easy to fill the days.

On the days when we were traveling to the next destination we were in the truck singing and talking about where we were going and checking on Gladys Garmin to make sure she knew where we were going. We had a paper and pencil in the truck so we could jot down things as they occurred to us. Stopping to give the doggies a break a couple of times and then again for lunch, which we could have in the Fifth-wheel, rounded out the day.

The days when we were stationary we explored the area we were in, planned our meals, took the dogs for walks, I worked on this blog and took pictures and we relaxed. We were getting used to setting up the Fifth-wheel upon arrival at a destination and getting used to taking down the Fifth-wheel upon departure. So for the first little while we were busy. We had fun learning to make really good meals in a small space. When I say small space, it's not miniscule - but can be confining when you put two large dogs into the mix.

This now takes us to the question What Have We Learned About Camping or What Important Information Can We Pass On To You Should You Want to Travel in a Fifth-wheel

1. AN ACCURATE LIST of what needs to be done when you arrive at your destination and what needs to be done when you leave your destination is essential.

2.  MAKE SURE THAT what should be shut is shut and what should be opened is opened. We inadvertently forgot
to open the vent for the fan over the stove and blew a heat sensor while making dinner. No real harm was done but Erik had to phone around for a place that could sell us the part that blew. We do now shut the vent when we are moving and we open the vent when we are stationary. This little tidbit was not on the list - it is now.

3.  ONCE YOU HAVE backed your Fifth-wheel into your spot at the campsite DO NOT unhitch your truck and settle your Fifth-wheel into place until you have made sure your electrical outlet, your water hose and your sewage pipe reach. Removing your blocks, your boards, retracting the Fifth-wheel's legs and hitching the Fifth-wheel back onto the truck in order to move it a couple of feet can be a real drag. Yup, we did it ONCE.

4.  DO NOT STORE anything edible in the storage compartment no matter how well you think it is sealed. Dog food will attract big huge hairy mice. Enough said about that.

5.  ALWAYS PULL YOUR awning in should there be strong winds and/or heavy rain.

6.  WHEN LOOKING FOR campsites to stay in make sure they are rated at least an 8.5 out of 10 across the board. We do this and have no desire to tempt fate by lowering our standard.

7.  AS BEAUTIFUL AS it may seem, you really don't want to be on a site right on the beach. Sand can get everywhere and is difficult to get rid of. Besides, you pay a premium for those sites and huddling inside during a windstorm is probably not a lot of fun. We are currently in a campground that is a two minute walk to the beach on the other side of a road and it's just perfect.

8.  KNOW YOUR VEHICLE and know your Fifth-wheel. Pulling several tons behind you is something that should be taken seriously.

9.  GLASS SHOULD NOT be a part of what you bring on board. It may seem like a smooth ride when you are up front but a glass martini set can break - it doesn't have to do much other than tip over.

10. FIND YOURSELF SOME boxes that wine bottles come in with the dividers and use them to store glass when traveling.

11. TAKE YOUR TIME. With everything. Don't rush your set up or take down of your Fifth-wheel. Don't drive more than four or five hours a day when traveling from one spot to the next.

12. TAKE CELL PHONES. We brought one cell phone from home with a plan for unlimited texts and phone calls anywhere in the US or Canada. We now realize that both cell phones would have been even better to get in touch with each other.

These twelve points apply if you are pulling a trailer behind you, have a Fifth-wheel like ours or choose to travel in a motor home.

Some of the important information that we can impart to others who decide to take the leap of faith and travel for extended periods of time? It's fun. It really is fun. You can meet as many or as few people as you wish. We enjoy the day to day relaxed lifestyle that we are currently living. We have been in St Augustine for about six weeks, the longest stay in one place so far and I must say that both of us are happy to move on in five days time to a brand new destination. The next month we will be going into uncharted territory; places neither of us has been to before and we find that pretty exciting. We've been to St Augustine before (twice) and all the places in between before but our next stop, Carrabelle Beach, on the west coast of Fl. is new. After that, as we head west through Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, and New Mexico it will be the first time for either of us to see those States. It's something to anticipate and savour and enjoy.

Compared with traveling by car and staying in hotels or inns or even bed and breakfasts this is way better. You feel at home, even in a new environment. It's nice to go out sight-seeing for the day and be able to come home and put your feet up with a martini/manhattan and then make some dinner in your own kitchen. Eating out in restaurants can get costly after a while and even boring. Home cooked is the best.

There's plenty to see out there and you can opt to go from one place to the other via Highways or you can choose country roads.

I would certainly recommend it as a great way to see new places while taking your time doing . I know that we aren't even half way through this trip yet but I have a feeling we will both feel the same right up to the end.

ST. AUGUSTINE, PART DEUX

St. Augustine is a really interesting little city. It's very walkable and there are probably four, if not more, tours that will take you around and explain what you are looking at if walking is not for you. Driving can be a bit of a challenge as the historic area (that's where everyone is walking and the tour buses are going) is made up of very narrow streets with little or no parking. The few parking lots all seem to charge a flat fee of $10.00 whether you are there for an hour or for ten.

Magnolia Avenue

According to a popular legend, Ponce de León discovered Florida while searching for the Fountain of Youth. Though stories of vitality-restoring waters were known on both sides of the Atlantic long before Ponce de León, the story of his searching for them was not attached to him until after his death. There is, however, in St. Augustine a 15 acre park devoted to the fable/myth of the Fountain of Youth and it is well worth a visit. Please don't be discouraged if you look the same upon leaving as you did upon entering; remember it is fable/myth.

On the way to the Fountain of Youth, this street, Magnolia Avenue, is touted as being one of the 10 most beautiful and photographed streets in the United States. It is lined with live oaks that are covered with Spanish moss that form a canopy over the street. We were told that the native Indians of Florida said it resembled the beards of the Spaniards who claimed Florida, hence the name Spanish moss. It is neither Spanish nor is it actually a moss; but, folklore is much more interesting than facts.

Entrance to the Fountain of Youth Park

The main centre of Old St Augustine is a warren of little streets crowded with trendy eating places, specialty shops, pubs and amusements. Each street you enter is more intriguing than the street you just left with plenty to see. Interspersed with the usual tourist attractions, of which there are many and all (IMHO) are worth a peek, are the historical buildings that can be seen as you walk around or take one of the many tours offered to you.

Castillo de San Marcos, The Oldest Wooden School House, Oldest House Museum, and many others are within walking distance of each other. The Flagler College, voted in the top ten of southern colleges, is dotted about the city. Flagler features in many buildings and in the history of St. Augustine. Henry Flagler was an American industrialist who founded Standard Oil and was instrumental in the development of eastern Florida.

He was born in New York in 1830, and had very little formal education but found himself acquainted with Rockfeller.  In his rags to riches story Flagler made buckets of money, married Mary Harkness, and on the advice of his doctor went to Jacksonville, FL for the health of said Mary who, subsequently, died there. He married the woman who cared for Mary, Ida Alice Shrouds, and they visited St Augustine. While they found the quaint little city charming they also felt it had a distinct lack of proper amenities in the way of

Flagler College

transportation and hotel accommodation. A few years later he started construction on a 450 room hotel, parts of which have since been taken over as parts of Flagler College. He also built transportation systems from new York to Florida so that wealthy people could travel south in great comfort to escape the northern climate. He is credited with establishing the city of Palm Beach where such notables as the Kennedy family, Pulitzers, Trump, Wang (that would be Vera, the haute couture designer) and many other famous and infamous people either live year round or at least for part of the year.

Sample of some cool streets.

Just a downtown house

Shops in one of the side streets.

There are just so many charming and worthwhile things to see in and around St. Augustine that I can't possibly describe them all to you or post all of my pictures here in this blog. If you are truly interested in visiting St. Augustine then do yourself a favour and just do it. As we say in Canada, if you can't afford to go to Europe then visit Quebec City and you can pretend you are there. Although I don't think you can quite pretend you are in Europe while visiting St Augustine you can certainly feel as if you have been transported back in time and it really is beautiful back there.

Yes it's a Cosmo.

It's not all history and learning.

Beautiful river looking at St. Augustine on the Lions Bridge from Anastasia Island.

St. AUGUSTINE, FL

We love St. Augustine. We really, really do. From the moment we discovered this very cool city quite by accident a few years ago and could only spend a couple of days here we knew that the appeal of this city would bring us back. And that it did. Two years ago we rented a house on Anastasia Island where we spent a month ensconced in the St. Augustine way of life. We did lots of walks through the old town, visited Fort Mantanzas, took the trolley tour (a perfect way to see any new city), took long walks with the dogs on the beaches of St. Augustine and, of course, did a wine tasting at the local winery.

Beach Shoes. I'm in Blue.

  
This time around we are in the fifth wheel at an RV resort on Vilano Beach, a peninsula just north of St. Augustine and accessible to St. Augustine via the Francis and Mary Usina Bridge - a five minute drive at most. Vilano Beach is unincorporated and has a small population of about 2,500+/- with most homes being on the ocean or within a two minute walk. It is separated from St. Augustine by the Tolomato River so water is always a short walk away for fishing or walking or just sitting in the sun. The beach on the Atlantic side is pretty wide when the tide is out and great for Erik and I to walk the dogs which we do a couple of times each day. We even bought 'beach' shoes for these excursions.

In addition to the many, many seagulls that circle around the beach (especially during low tide) and the pelicans that are constantly diving for food we see Sandpipers. These little birds run out with the surf looking for food and run back when the surf comes back in just in front of the water. Rarely do I see them actually get their skinny little legs wet. The larger of the two species of Sandpiper takes to the air when we intrude upon their space and squeal as they fly over the water and back again onto the shore. The smaller of the two that we see doesn't seem to be as bothered by our intrusion, they simply run a little faster on their skinny little legs away from us.  

Having tried to actually find the name of these two different species of Sandpiper I have only been able to find some pictures of Sandpipers that seem to be the ones we see. Both of the pictures I have posted here are as close to the birds we see on the beach.

We did the tourist thing and started to pick up starfish and other interesting shells that we found along these walks. I imagined a beautiful collection of intriguing shells, starfish, and other beach findings stunningly displayed in a glass container that showed them off to perfection. I considered myself really lucky to have found a purple starfish. I considered myself lucky because I have not seen another one since I picked that one up our first day here. Sadly, Kaede liked the look of the dried up purple starfish and decided the crunchy texture was to her liking and ate it. 

One of the things we really enjoy about St. Augustine is this: it's a dog friendly town. Most restaurants that offer patio dining allow dogs on the patio if you don't need to go through the main restaurant to get to the patio. The servers fawn over the dogs, stroke them, bring them fresh drinking water and tell us tales of the exploits of their dogs. That is something that is important to us. Without these dog friendly restaurants we would never get out for nice leisurely lunches where we can sit and watch the world go by.

Kingfish Grill at the base of the Francis and Mary Usina Bridge on St. Augustine side.

The view of the river and some of the boats.

Pretty nice to look at as you sip on beer/wine and enjoy your lunch.

The bridge to Vilano Beach. We are staying to the left of the bridge on the other side about 5 minutes north.

Erik anticipating his beer and grits with grilled shrimp. Yup. We've gone southern.

Me and the pups waiting for lunch. Can you think of a nicer place to sit and relax while having lunch?

It's not all eating really delicious food and sipping wine and beer. Absolutely not. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States with an incredible amount of history within its walls. There is an abundance of sight-seeing, there is fishing, I have been lucky enough to join a tennis club for the month that we will be here and sand maintenance takes up at least a half an hour daily. Then there are the mediocre day to day tasks that we all do, whether we are at home or on vacation. Laundry. The RV Resorts (so far) have all had a laundry room with industrial sized washers and dryers and shower facilities for those campers who do not have showers or choose not to use their own.

We've noticed that lots of RVers decorate their own personal little space with lights, signs with their name and hometown, time that cocktails are served and flags. We had nothing like this, of course, never having been 'campers' so let me tell you we were pretty happy when some friends presented us with our own lights (little mugs of beer). It's not of the same proportions of other light shows we've seen but in its own way it makes us feel like we're in the know about decorating and, therefore, seasoned RVers.
 

CHARLESTON, S.C. and LOW COUNTRY BOIL

Charleston, a delightful city in South Carolina, really does ooze old fashioned charm, has loads of interesting architecture and a history that is at once genteel and violent. The city of Charleston featured in both the American Revolution and the American Civil War and was a major player in the slave trade industry.

During the American revolution,  General Sir Henry Clinton, along with 2,000 men and a naval squadron tried to seize Charles Towne (as Charleston was originally called) hoping for a Loyalist uprising in South Carolina. When the fleet fired cannonballs, they failed to penetrate Fort Sullivan's unfinished, yet thick, palmetto-log walls. No local Loyalists attacked the town from the mainland side, as the British had hoped they would do. America's Col. Moultrie and his men returned fire and inflicted heavy damage on several of the British ships. The British were forced to withdraw their forces, and Fort Sullivan was renamed Fort Moultrie in honor of its commander.

This, personally, ticks me off as I would have liked Charleston to be part of Canada. In fact, when dividing Canada and the United States I believe a gross error in judgement was made when the division line went from east to west and not north to south. We Canadians would then have either Florida or California and wouldn't have to travel to a 'foreign' country to get some winter sunshine and warmth. But I digress.

Customs House.

Charleston became extremely prosperous in the plantation-dominated economy of the post-Revolutionary years. The invention of the cotton gin in 1793 revolutionized the processing of this crop, making short-staple cotton profitable. Cotton quickly became South Carolina's major export commodity. Slaves were also the primary labour force within the city, working as domestics, artisans, market workers and laborers.

This plaque is about Gadsden's Wharf where slaves were unloaded and held in confinement awaiting their turn on the auction block.

Originally built in 1767, war and natural disaster led to several rounds of reconstruction and expansion. In its final completed state, the wharf could hold upwards of six ships at a time. Once released from quarantine off the coast at Sullivan’s Island, slave ships proceeded onto Gadsden’s Wharf. An estimated 100,000 West Africans were brought to the wharf between 1783 and 1808 – the peak period of the international trade. Gadsden's Wharf has now been declared sacred ground.

By 1820 Charleston's population had grown to 23,000, maintaining its black (and mostly slave) majority. When a massive slave revolt planned by Denmark Vesey, a free black, was revealed in May 1822, whites reacted with intense fear, as they were well aware of the violent retribution of slaves against whites during the  Haitian Revolution and its many deaths. Soon after, Vesey was tried and executed, hanged in early July with five slaves. Another 28 slaves were later hanged. Later, the state legislature passed laws severely restricting manumission and regulating activities of free blacks and slaves^.

One of the interesting things about Charleston (in my humble opinion) is this violent past is not glossed over. It is out there with plaques, images and museums that depict the deplorable conditions at the time that the slaves had to endure for all to see.

The Invention of Wings, a novel by Sue Monk Kidd, is based on the life of Sarah Moore Grimke a young girl born into a wealthy Charleston family of planters. For her 11th birthday she is given the gift of a young slave girl and so the story begins as Sarah wrestles with the morality of owning another human being. It's a very good read and draws on actual events that took place in Charleston during the time of slavery including the Vesey incident.

Charleston is credited with starting the American Civil War. On December 20, 1860, unhappy about the election of Abraham Lincoln, South Carolina's General Assembly voted to secede from the Union. On January 9, 1861, Citadel cadets opened fire on a Union ship entering Charleston's harbour. On April 12, 1861, shore batteries under the command of General Beauregard opened fire on Union-held Fort Sumter in the harbour. After a 34-hour bombardment, Major Anderson surrendered the fort, thus starting the war. Union forces repeatedly bombarded the city, causing vast damage, and kept up a blockade that shut down most commercial traffic.

While there in March of this year, Erik and I visited Fort Sumter, took a boat cruise and got to see a lot of the beautiful downtown area that retains its old Southern style gentility. We also visited one of the biggest and most impressive candy stores I think either of us has ever seen. Pretty much everything is made on premises and it smelled like chocolate/sugar heaven. Thought it was worthy of a few photos. Photos of Fort Sumter you can get on line but not this.

While visiting Charleston this time in our Fifth-wheel we stayed in a pretty impressive RV park just south of Charleston. The original property had been one large farm that was converted, at some point, to a massive RV park with huge dog park, and a fishing pond that warned of the alligator. Erik chose not to fish there.

Behind these truly impressive live oaks is the original house that was built by the parents of the current owner of the RV park.

Mexican corn bread not so good. Grits - good.

One thing that we both truly love about the south is the food. We can't get enough of the biscuits, we eat grits for breakfast, we both will eat seafood or fish over meat any day of the week and the low-country cooking is just delicious. Everything we tried was good. One of our favourite low-country meals is something called low country boil. Simple, delicious, quick, can be done anywhere and is served in most southern restaurants.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/paula-deen/low-country-boil-recipe.html

Last night for dinner we had Hush Puppies with our meal of Shrimp Gumbo. We are what you might call very happy campers.