St Joesph Pennisula

Saturday March 15, We weren't in a hurry  to leave St George to go over to St Joe cause it's only about an hour away. Didn't want to get there early to wait for our site. As we were loading up we had a couple snags. First Jeff was gonna put a little water in the tank and saw that it was completely filled...surprise,surprise. A few days before he had to prime the pump and apparently something after that went wrong. The city water back fed through the check valve and filled the tank. That took some extra time to drain the water out. Don't want to be driving with all that extra weight. After getting that taken care of we hooked up and went to bring up the big foot jacks and our battery just didn't have the power to do it. With the battery so low it locked up the Bigfoot system. So had to come up with a plan for that. Definitely gonna get a new battery, that's tops on the list. Well after all that aggravation it was nice to have a nice easy trip over. The weather was so pretty, the roads quiet, not busy but kinda a slow easy pace. We rolled into the park and right to our spot. It was a easy set up, for a change, it was really windy though  I hurried to get everything put away inside. I wanted to get to the beach. Jeff was in a hurry to get the internet set up and the TV programmed. This site has 30 amp service and water hookup. The TV seems to be pretty good. The internet here requires us to use our booster to avoid roaming. My phone service is not that good unless I use the booster as well. I went to the beach and it's beautiful, the water is blue /aqua and the sand is sooooo white and fine. I didn't stay too long cause the wind was a bit much for me. I went back to the site and it was really nice to sit outside here. After Jeff got his work done we took a walk around the campground. We are in site #1 and away from all the other campers. As we walked I saw a camper/truck with Iowa plates and Linn county on them. Out walked the people and I asked where they are from...Cedar Rapids. We got talking to them and found out they've been coming south for 5 years for the winter. It never ceases to amaze me how small this world is.

Sunday March 16, Well according to the weatherman we have some serious weather heading our way. Our top priority today was to get a battery. We are in the forgotten coast so we had to drive a ways to find a Walmart. We did, and made the trip worthwhile getting supplies we needed. On our way stopped at the doughnut shop about 4 miles away from the park. They have the best doughnuts, well glazed croissants. We had them last year and I was excited to return. I had to get warm ones and they didn't disappoint. Well we made it to Walmart and back before the weather came. I guess now they say it's suppose to arrive around 5:00 PM. About 4 o'clock it started raining, raining, raining. Once it started it wouldn't stop. We had thunder, lightning, and rain rain rain. It was crazy how much. Jeff went to take out the dogs around 10 cause the rain wasn't letting up and the dogs couldn't wait much longer. That step off the camper steps was really wet. We probably had 8 inches of water. Our rugs were literally floating. It was a good thing we had staked them down. Jeff saw that most of our campsite was under water. He had to get our electric stuff up before the water got there. The next thing was to watch the wheels. Didn't want to get stuck here. Jeff told me to get things picked up in case we need to make an emergency exit. We stayed up for awhile and about midnight it finally slowed down. That was kinda scary, we were ready to pull out if we needed. Needless to say we didn't have a very restful night.

Monday March 17, Happy St Patricks Day! Well it didn't look much better out there this morning. Our campsite is under water. We have to wade through water to get in or out of the rig. It was still very cloudy and sprinkling on and off. The water is going down but it's going very slow. We did get the dogs out and walked. It was gonna be an inside day. We decided to make it a movie day. Our grandson surprised us with a FaceTime call. He usually doesn't talk to much. At the end of the day we still had plenty of water outside.

Tuesday March 18, It's suppose to be nice out today....but when I got up it was still very cloudy. The wind died down some but the temperature was still chilly so Jeff made us a campfire. Since the clouds were taking there time clearing out we decided to hang around here and clean up the mess. The sun did finally come out but didn't get as warm as they said. Jeff went for a long walk and said there are lots if sites still under water. We are pretty much good now. We got our bikes down and took a ride around the park. Just as nice as we remember. It was really nice to get outside and enjoy the sunshine. Hoping this weather continues.

Wednesday March 19, It's gonna be a pretty day. I started my day with a walk. I saw some deer, they aren't even afraid of you. When I got back Jeff & I loaded up the kayaks and rolled them up to bay. The suns out, the wind died down and temperatures are rising. We got in the boats and made our way out. Soffee was my passenger. We did some fishing, didn't have much luck but the day was a success. We did find some pretty red starfish, I just took pictures and put them back. We spent about 4 hours in the bay. On our way back the water had dropped, we had to walk the boats back a little. We came back hosed everything off and made us some supper. We worked up quite a appetite. So nice to be out on the water even if we didn't catch fish.

Thursday March 20, It's another perfect day, so gonna spend it outside. First I walked to the other camp loop. It's got lots more pine trees but seems more compact. I only spotted a couple big rigs there. I think it could be a tight fit for us. We had the boats still loaded on the wheels so just added some snacks and drinks. We went back to the Bay Area. This time we went the other way, as we went over the deep section I got a fish. This time it was a Spanish mackerel, to small to keep. We continued looking, fishing but not much luck. We saw a sandbar so we floated up and got out to stretch our legs. We decided to head back and I was way behind Jeff. All the sudden I spotted dolphins, well I'm off and going to try and get close. They cooperated with me, not that I caught them, they let me. It was crazy, I bet there were 6 at one time. I watched them feed. There were 3 that swam together and a baby with her mama. I took a bunch of pictures. I tried to yell at Jeff before I took off but he didn't hear me. He did end up coming out and got to see them before they headed out. How exciting was that.....VERY!!! I love dolphins. Then we headed back to shore. This time we had enough water to paddle in instead of walking. We loaded the boats back up on the wheels and Jeff had a bit of a problem with his wheel. We made it back and cleaned everything off. I wanted to go over to the beach for awhile. It was beautiful over there as well. The wind had picked up but not bad. The water was very calming. Jeff decided to stay back, enough sun for him. After a yummy supper I went over to watch the sunset. The temperature seemed to have dropped, I had to put in a sweatshirt. It's gonna be perfect sleeping weather.

Friday March 21, Another good day to be outside. Decided a bike ride would be the way to enjoy it. I loaded up Soffee in my basket and we headed towards town. Jeff wanted to make it to the lighthouse, it's about 8 miles. I thought that was doable as long as we stopped at the doughnut shop. We made it to the doughnut shop and got us croissants, the are fried and glazed. So good. Jeff also got a cake doughnut. He said it was better than the croissants. I needed to get off that bicycle seat if you know what I mean. I went into the market that's right there. Jeff asked about the lighthouse and found out it's not open to the public right now. I'm glad we found out before going there. It was about a 10 mile round trip. It was a nice adventure. It was such a nice day that I wanted to go to the beach. I headed over and Jeff joined me a little later. Jeff doesn't do the beach too much unless he has a fishing pole. He just happened to bring it with him. We did get to do some dolphin watching. The fishing has been really slow. That's what everybody is saying. I guess it's been a little cool for the fish. We had a couple stop to chat when all a sudden Jeff got a bite.... Fish on!!!! He brought it in.... It's a shark! Probably about 3 feet, a black tip. I help him get it back to the campground. He bleeds it and cleaned it. Looks like we will be bringing shark home to share. What a great day, lots of good memories....bike ride, beach, exciting catch....loving this forgotten coast. One week down one week to go. Can't believe our time in Florida is about over.