Sara, Kevin & 3 year old Claire, have a new addition to their family….Emma Yvonne McLean!!! We are so thrilled & excited to have another grand daughter! Born February 6th & everyone is doing great! I’m also cooking up another adventure with my travel buddy Jill. She was sick & missed out on our California trip, but it didn’t take us long to put another trip plan into action! We’ll be meeting up at the end of my two weeks with Sara & her family & the end of Jill’s two weeks with her husband Greg. This trip is especially adventurous for Jill…she’s towing a brand new travel toy!
Day 1
Emma was born on Tuesday & I packed up the car & left mid morning the following Saturday, trying to avoid some icy crappy winter weather headed our way. I love road trips & don’t have any trouble driving long distances. I put a book on, then switched to a couple of podcasts, then my road-trip playlist of music, then did that all over again & repeated it until I stopped in a rest area about 12 hours later. I have my bed ready for ultimate comfort in ‘Camper’—my 4Runner- so I settled in to grab a couple of hours of sleep. I wasn’t expected in Orlando until Monday morning, so I decided it would be worth the 1.5 hour detour to head over to the coast for a restful Sunday & a little beach time. I drove through the night & arrived in St. Augustine, FL around 11am.
Day 2
I don’t usually stay in campgrounds, & this time of year in Florida, it’s fairly difficult to score a site, but I showed up at Anastasia State Park Campground right about check out time & was lucky to get a spot. This park was really nice & the sites pretty private—surrounded by trees & the beach just a nice walk away. I went to the beach for the afternoon, walking & looking for dolphins or whales along the coast, but only saw other beach-goers enjoying the wonderfully warm & sunny Sunday afternoon. I DO NOT MISS WINTER IN KANSAS…other than some pretty special people & two awesome cats, I really never miss anything about the state even in good weather, but I’m tired of winter —& more so every single year. When the sun set, I went back to camp & parked, then walked all around the camp loops enjoying being out in the evening ocean air. I spent the rest of the evening reading, having a beer & listening to the sounds of the waves against the shore. I tucked myself in bed, with the hatch open & continued to read. I slept great1
Every year I fine-tune my camper-vehicle a little bit. Last year I bought a compact size battery charger so if I run down my car battery (which I’ve done twice on trips) I can jump start it myself, no matter where I am. This year I bought a new inverter to charge my laptop with & fairy lights to go all around the back inside of the 4Runner. Tonight was the first night I’d get to see how I liked those tiny twinkly lights….I love them!!! Here’s a few pics from today!
The weather was perfect & way better than the 20 degree ice storm I escaped from!
I feel so fortunate to have seen the Pacific & Atlantic within 3 weeks…I never get tired of such a beautiful sight!