5/7/26

Location: Cotton Hill Campground > Stagecoach RV Park, St Augustine, FL, site 27, full hookup

Thunderstorms began around 4 AM and continued until 8:30 or so. At that point it was still raining but not as hard and no more thunder. Checking the weather radar, Skip deemed it was safe for us to be outside. In the heavily wooded campground a rainy day makes it stay dark at the campsite well into the morning. The downpour caused large puddling in the area we had to walk in to get to the truck and the outside Airstream chores. Eventual runoff let us see most of the ground again but of course everything was soaked. 

Our site was at the bottom of a its own driveway with approximately a 7% grade. At the bottom was a level area that suited the Airstream well however the truck remained on the sloping driveway. Skip had a little difficulty getting the two of them separated upon setup but he was successful.

Upon departure the challenge was getting ChILL and the truck hitched together again. The Airstream can only go down so far to meet the hitch ball and the truck can only come up so far to engage the trailer tongue coupler. Just backing up the truck in the usual manner left a 5 inch gap between them. My brilliant husband decided to make a ramp using boards that we keep in the trunk of ChILL to help us level the trailer at campsites. Think about that for a minute. He is backing down a hill toward the trailer in the rain in a giant puddle and needs to exactly hit these boards in order to lift the truck high enough that he could get ChILL attached. It worked! I am so proud of him. Unless you were there to see it for yourself, you probably cannot appreciate how tricky the situation was. The pictures may help. Thank You Lord for providing a weather window and inspiring Skip with the solution to the problem.

As usual I took the first driving shift with the destination being our “home port” in St Augustine. With no deadlines to meet and no mountain road roller coaster segments, we were looking forward to smelling the roses along the way. It was raining but the wipers kept up with it and I was able to see just fine. After an hour I pulled in behind a Dollar General store with a large open area for us to park for a bathroom break and driver change. But it did not have a way out other than backing into the road. We thought it had another exit when we pulled in but that was just a cutout in the parking lot. So once again I helped Skip back us into the road to turn around and we continued our trip. Thank You Lord for keeping the traffic away while we were maneuvering.

The rain continued for the next hour while Skip was driving. The last 30 minutes was heavy rain that made it harder to see. As we were still on US27 with moderate traffic Skip was able to keep us going.

When we came upon a large empty church parking lot we pulled in for another break and had our lunchbox sandwiches. By now the rain had subsided with thunder rumbling in the distance.

With me in the driver’s seat we continued for the next stretch. Behind us were ominous dark clouds and occasional lightning. Thank You Lord that the storms remained behind us with no more rain as we traveled.

In anticipation of a long day we made more frequent driver changes than we had been doing. Skip took over for a while until we took advantage of a convenient rest area.

From there I drove us the rest of the way to Stagecoach. Another driver change wasn’t convenient and we didn’t need a bathroom break so I just kept going.

With about 35 minutes left to go to Stagecoach, traffic came to a complete stop in all lanes on I-295 about 1.5 miles away from the 95 south exit we needed. Because of our later than planned start this morning due to the thunderstorms and Skip’s superhero efforts to get us hitched up, we were in the middle of rush hour traffic, never fun. It caused us a delay of an hour which was inconvenient. However the ones in what appeared to be a serious multi-vehicle crash were dealing with more than just an inconvenient change in their plans. Praying for the best outcome for all those involved.

When we arrived at Stagecoach we were in site 27, the same site we had when we left from Stagecoach almost a month ago. As we made the itinerary for this trip Skip suggested that we plan to return to Stagecoach on the last day of the trip rather than taking care of all of the unpacking and storage chores at the end of a long travel day. What a great idea he had! Knowing we had a comfortable evening ahead of us in a familiar place made our whole day better. 

Setup at Stagecoach was easier because Skip left ChILL and the truck hitched together. He connected us to water, sewer, power and the hotspot so we had all the comforts of home.

As usual a little TV, showers and off to our comfortable beds. 

Early wake up tomorrow so we can wash the outside of the Airstream before we leave Stagecoach to remove the Florida pollen we started with along with the pollen and grime we picked up in 8 different states – Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Carolina again, Tennessee, Georgia again, Alabama, Georgia again and back to Florida before the heat of the day sets in.