Back on the Road & Beginning a Year of East Coast Travel

After spending almost all of the Fall and the holidays with our family in western NC, we’re finally back on the road and excited for a year of East Coast travel! While stationary, I joined the gym and went to daily exercise classes with my mom and Michael made some work trips to Raleigh and Richmond.

Our long stay was divided by a trip to Jacksonville to get solar panels, batteries, and an inverter installed by the same people who installed our previous flawless system. Michael also rigged up a water filtration/softener system so that any water coming into our camper from an outside connection or our fresh water tank gets filtered before getting to any of our faucets. Now we’re ready (at least physically, maybe not mentally) to take this beast off-road and off-grid!

Our new rig had a handful of plumbing problems for Michael to fix. Our bathroom sink drain pipe popped out of our grey tank, a waterless valve (used instead of p-traps) needed to be replaced, and unbelievably, a screw attaching our shower faucet to the shower stall went through a threaded water supply line. After a couple of months, the screw rusted and the water line started to leak down into our storage bay.

Despite the issues we’ve had to work through, which are to be expected with any new RV, we love the interior of the Brinkley.

After Christmas, we drove back south to Florida. We spent NYE at Fort Clinch State Park on Amelia Island where there was more beach than we could walk and the nearby town of Fernandina Beach to explore.

Unfortunately, Fort Clinch was followed by two disappointing campground stays. First, we had to cancel our reservation for Anastasia State Park in St. Augustine, one of Florida’s top-rated state parks, because we would have never gotten to our campsite without a few pinstripes and it’s just too soon for that. We ended up at the Clay Co Fairgrounds RV Park instead and the only excitement for the week was watching our niece Eva rock a Volleyball game.

Next, sadly our stay at Hillsborough River State Park near Tampa was canceled because they were still recovering from Hurricane Milton. We ended up at Rice Creek RV Park, which we chose because it is part of the Passport America discount program we belong to.

I left midweek to head back to NC to celebrate my sis-in-law Lynda’s 40th birthday at Wrightsville Beach! Highlights included a dance party, beach walking with my parents, and playing games with all the kids on the beach.

Michael stayed behind to take care of Cody and move our house to its next destination. It was too far a drive for him in a single day alone so he stopped at Monument Lake in Big Cypress National Preserve for a night. I loved this photo of an alligator in front of our rig.

Next up is 6 weeks in paradise, Florida Keys style!