A Long Weekend in North Florida, Near the GA Border; Nov 5th, 2019
Yep, we still have our Winnefred Mulligan, our 1991 Toyota Winnebago Warrior. Since we've been back from our epic Arctic Circle adventure we've been pretty busy. We bought a house that needed a TON of work, just to be able to live in it. It was built around 1890 here in St. Augustine, FL. No one had lived in it for 40 years, or so we'd been told. We made a space for our little RV and built one of those tarp and pipe canopy covers to keep the rain and sun off the roof. We have an electrical outlet beside it so we can keep a trickle charger on the starting battery. We run her once a month, take a drive for a few miles to keep her in shape.
Also, when we got back from our Arctic trip, we had to repair the support beams under the back of the RV. Toyota made the original support beams that extend a couple of feet beyond the back wheels. Winnebago added 3 or 4 feet to that. You can see the weld where they were extended. Well, we had too much weight on the back of her. A hitch mounted carrier held 2 - 6 gallon jugs of gas, plus 2 folding chairs and a small propane grill. Also, we had 2 full-sized spare tires mounted to the bumper. Well, that was too much. The support beams buckled right at the Winnebago weld where they were extended. We were probably 700 or 800 miles from home. We took the carrier and spare tires off the back and into the RV. It was crowded but we managed to make it back.
Once we got back, we found someone to repair her. Ideally, we wanted new extensions properly welded on. Our welder was reluctant to weld with the RV's propane tank so close. Instead, he bolted oversized steel plates to the weakened area and pronounced that it was stronger than the original. We won't be using that hitch carrier again and 1 spare tire is plenty for what we will be using her for.
Adam and I have both been busy and it's difficult to find time to escape. I started looking for a camping destination that was fairly close by so that we wouldn't spend so much of our free time driving. We decided on Huguenot Memorial Park, just east of Jacksonville, on the northern side of the mouth of the St. John's River.
We booked a waterfront site with our own little strip of beach maybe 50 feet from our RV door. We really lucked out on the weather. It was blessedly cool and breezy for our 4 days. We didn't need to use our air conditioner at all. The coolness and breeze kept the mosquitoes away too.
To get there without using the interstate, we took a route that used a ferry to get across the river. We basically took A1A north to the ferry and the park was a couple of miles from the ferry. Perfect!
We had a few maintenance items to do first. Fill our propane:
Turns out we only needed a little over a pound :-)
Check the tire pressure:
Checked the oil and gave her a bath. We also had a ton of cleaning to do on the inside.
We arrived fairly late in the evening after dark, much later than we had planned. Time to start a fire:
Early to bed to our big comfy RV bed. We both had forgotten how comfy it was.
Our first morning was lovely and cool.
Also, when we got back from our Arctic trip, we had to repair the support beams under the back of the RV. Toyota made the original support beams that extend a couple of feet beyond the back wheels. Winnebago added 3 or 4 feet to that. You can see the weld where they were extended. Well, we had too much weight on the back of her. A hitch mounted carrier held 2 - 6 gallon jugs of gas, plus 2 folding chairs and a small propane grill. Also, we had 2 full-sized spare tires mounted to the bumper. Well, that was too much. The support beams buckled right at the Winnebago weld where they were extended. We were probably 700 or 800 miles from home. We took the carrier and spare tires off the back and into the RV. It was crowded but we managed to make it back.
Once we got back, we found someone to repair her. Ideally, we wanted new extensions properly welded on. Our welder was reluctant to weld with the RV's propane tank so close. Instead, he bolted oversized steel plates to the weakened area and pronounced that it was stronger than the original. We won't be using that hitch carrier again and 1 spare tire is plenty for what we will be using her for.
 |
| Repair to the support beam. An over-sized custom-made plate was bolted to the weakened area on both sides of the RV. Good as or better than new. ***Read about our update Feb 28, 2021, new repair to same problem |
 |
We booked a waterfront site with our own little strip of beach maybe 50 feet from our RV door. We really lucked out on the weather. It was blessedly cool and breezy for our 4 days. We didn't need to use our air conditioner at all. The coolness and breeze kept the mosquitoes away too.
To get there without using the interstate, we took a route that used a ferry to get across the river. We basically took A1A north to the ferry and the park was a couple of miles from the ferry. Perfect!
We had a few maintenance items to do first. Fill our propane:
Turns out we only needed a little over a pound :-)
Check the tire pressure:
Checked the oil and gave her a bath. We also had a ton of cleaning to do on the inside.
We arrived fairly late in the evening after dark, much later than we had planned. Time to start a fire:
Early to bed to our big comfy RV bed. We both had forgotten how comfy it was.
Our first morning was lovely and cool.
Time to start another fire
The location of the park created a number of choices for beaches. We had the St. John's River at our doorstep. We had calm water bays with a drive-on beach behind us and another drive-on beach on the Atlantic coast - all within the park! All in all, it was a very nice getaway and we will definitely come back here soon.
There was a constant stream of shipping traffic, sailboats and cruise ships passing right in front of us, day and night. Plus, porpoises, sea turtles and sea birds. The Jacksonville Mayport Naval Base is directly across the river.
Nothing quite as good as burgers on the grill for dinner:
Then it was time to pack up and drive back on to the ferry and head home to St. Augustine.
We will definitely be back. We loved it there! Adam is an airplane aficionado and we both love watching wildlife and hanging out at the beach. Perfect place for us!
Comments
Post a Comment