A beach day and a travel day

Sunday morning I woke up in Topsail Preserve RV Park refreshed (I was off duty!) and for the first time since we began this escapade, I went for a jog.  And it felt great.  I really do need to remember to take care of myself or Dave and the dogs will find themselves locked in a giant rolling tin can with a wild eyed woman who is prone to extreme mood swings.

But not everyone brought his healthy lifestyle on the road with him.

To get to the beach, you go down a long paved road (there’s a tram but trams are for wusses) that goes through areas of controlled burn.  The colors are black and orange and the pictures really don’t do it justice.

Then there’s a long boardwalk with huge dunes on either side.

I jogged the whole way there and felt all self-righteous because I did it without stopping, and then on the way back it was uphill and I remembered that beaches are low and RV parks are high so going out was easy because it was downhill.  That put me right back in my place.

Topsail has a lot of amenities, as I said, so I decided to utilize the laundry room.  We had some towels and clothes that were in the laundry bag so, feeling industrious after my morning jog, I took my four quarters to the machine.  In go the clothes and the soap and…. The price of a wash is $1.50, not $1 like at another park.  Oops.  I walked back home and luckily found two quarters in my purse.  But that was all the quarters I had.

Once the wash was through, I needed $1.50 for the dryer and Dave said all he had was three one dollar bills.  No change machine in the laundry room.  Ranger station is a mile and a half up the road.  Time for some problem solving.  I walked around the park trying to spot someone who looked like they’d be hoarding quarters and I passed a woman on the street who said good morning to me.  Bingo.

I smiled and explained that I needed change for a dollar for the dryer and she could barely understand me because she only speaks French.  Whoo boy.  So I spoke slowly and tried to recall any of my high school French pertaining to quarters and laundry and she pulled out a ratty paper towel with four quarters in it.  I gave her my dollar bill and thanked her, feeling a little bad that it looks like I took her last quarters.  Not too bad though because I’m still short two.

I legitimately had to panhandle in the RV park looking for quarters.  One woman said she thought there’d be a change machine so she couldn’t spare any.  One woman just smiled and kept walking.  Maybe she only spoke French too.  I found a couple sweeping the area outside their rig with a standard poodle waiting nearby so I figured if they’re dog people, they’re my people.

I got the quarters from the couple and finished the wash but holy cannoli, is there anything that needs to be done while travelling in an RV that doesn’t require some amount of drama?

After lunch, Dave and I left the dogs and went to the beach for a few hours.  It was glorious.  Warm sun, cool breeze and no dogs.  It was like we were a normal couple doing normal things!  Sometimes it’s easy to forget that when you’re managing animals full time.

We passed the evening by sitting under the awning of the RV and having some wine and chatting.  Tomorrow we’re on to Manatee Springs State Park so we prepped as much as we could and went to bed.

There were huge thunderstorms overnight (see?  Still bringing the rain with us) so after a quick breakfast we were on our way to try to get ahead of it.  The drive was relatively uneventful but we did pass through Perry, Florida which had a restaurant called Fusion Buffet – “Country and Chinese”.  I promise with all my heart that we both wanted to turn that rig around and eat at the Fusion Buffet because how could you pass up something like that?  Do you go through the line and get chop suey and chicken fried steak?  Pot stickers and cornbread?  How could we not have planned our route around the Fusion Buffet?  Maybe in our future we’ll head back to Perry, Florida just for that.

Manatee Springs State Park is - I know I say this all the time but I really truly mean it this time – GORGEOUS.  Where Topsail was a clean, organized, well run neighborhood, Manatee Springs is rustic, rural and wild.  The air is so clean and fresh with no mosquitos, the trees are green and twisted and old, there’s a nature trail next to our site that leads to a huge open area chock full of squirrels for Maiya and Belle to chase after (Brodie is busy ambling and dilly dallying).

We set up the pen, cracked open a beer and I just sank into my chair and felt like it was going to take an act of Congress to get me up.

It drizzled off an on but we have our pen and chairs under the awning so we were safe and snug and dry and comfortable.  Each experience we have is completely different and I’m loving them all.