Day 120: Huguenot County Park in Jacksonville.

One of the biggest pains with life on the road with an infant is immunizations. Luka’s shots at 4 month went perfectly at the health department back in Denver, Colorado. We walked right in and got it taken care of with no issues or questions. When he needed his 6 month shots, the health department in North Carolina did not work out too well. They didn’t believe in walk-ins. Georgia was a bust, too. But today we were in Florida and I needed to get our act together. Especially since Luka is now 7 months old.

As soon as the alarm (aka Luka) woke me up, I got us ready and headed out the door so we could be at the clinic as soon as it opened. Ava saw us getting ready and really wanted to come along too so she got ready in record time. It was amazing. I should head out the door every morning just to speed up her morning ritual. Haha. The clinic we went to was actually just an immunization clinic in a run down strip mall. Very different from Denver where they had a front entrance for immunizations and a separate side entrance for STDs. Thanks, Denver!

Ava did great there. She knows to not touch everything in sight, unlike her little sister, and knows how to take pictures with our DSLR. But no pictures of the actual sticks. Ava had to cover her eyes for that part.

Before we left on this trip, we told our pediatrician that we were planning on vaccinating Luka on the road at county health clinics. Instead of lecturing us, she actually told us that she takes all five of her kids to the local clinic herself. Much cheaper than using insurance. I totally agree. Even when we are home, I am going to take my kids to the health department. Luka’s vaccinations were cheap in Colorado.. and completely free in Florida. I would have probably had to pay a couple hundred bucks for each visit if we went to our normal pediatrician. There was a couple things that threw the Florida clinic off. Their computer system couldn’t accept my out of state address so they punched in the campground’s address instead. As we were leaving, the nurse asked why Ava was not in school today. I told her that we were traveling and that I was homeschooling Ava. That confused the crap out of the nurse and I left her speechless as she walked us out of the clinic.

Back at the campground, Dan was catching up with work, Mila was learning her ABCs on the iPad and apparently Kyle was a closeted pyro. I don’t think he knew that we were taking spy photos of him from inside the Mish and are now publishing his secret obsession to the world!

The campground at Huguenot is great. It does not have any hook-ups and that is probably the reason why we had no problems at all finding a couple last minute spots for the weekend. Our site was steps from the white sand beach and just across the bay from the Mayport Naval Base. It is great to see the battleships parked just across from the Airstream and the huge helicopters flying overhead are awesome too. But it is far from quiet when they are overhead.

Besides from a couple fisherman, we had the entire beach to ourselves. The kids could run safely up and down the strand. And luckily for me, Luka is not crawling yet. Because it he was, he would be shoving handfuls of sand into his mouth. Trust me, I saw the gleam in his eye. This little dude is trouble 🙂

We sent Dan out to buy some firewood from the campground store and he came back with a tiny shopping cart that made the girls jealous. My turn, Dada. Why aren’t you sharing your little red cart with us, Dada. Mama, can you put Dada in timeout?

Since the campground at Skidaway Island had water issues, we did not fill up our tanks there. They warned us that the water supply has not been approved for drinking yet. So that meant that we arrived at Huguenot with an empty fresh water tank. We parked the Airstream yesterday and totally forgot that we didn’t have enough water until this morning. Dan has been lugging this fresh water container all around the country and today he finally put it to good use. He drove his van back and forth to the fresh water fill until we were good to go.

As soon as we crossed the border into the Florida, you feel the humidity. It is so crazy. The state of Florida should issue all visitors a dehumidifier as they cross into the state. But luckily for us, the temperatures are still tolerable. And lucky for our cat, Yoda, too.

Just before we were leaving Savannah, I took the kids to the playground to burn off some energy before we hit the road. Ava removed her sweater from her shoulders and pretended to be a butterfly. And of course, her little copycat sister wanted to do the same. A few seconds later, splat. Mila fell face first on the asphalt with her arms still stuck in her butterfly wings. Thankfully no teeth were broken. But poor kid had to walk a decent amount before we were back at the our Airstream. I didn’t have my baby carrier for Luka on me so I couldn’t pick Mila up too. Poor kid had to walk with her hurt face while holding my hand and crying. It sucked but her upper lip and nose seems to be healing quickly.

Alright, time to put pyro to good use and getting a real campfire started. Some of us have marshmallows to roast.

the end,
marlene