Our plan to take a day off between our two days of Magic Kingdom seems to be working out well. We had a relaxing day yesterday just lounging by the pool, cooking in the Airstream and not doing much walking around. Today, the girls are fresh and ready to rock and roll again.
We learned on our last trip that going back to back while staying here is a brutal undertaking. You spend all day walking and waiting and having your senses overloaded at the park, to go back for a second consecutive day is especially tough for parents like us who have little children. We opted to skip a day and hang out at the campground to enjoy what it has to offer instead.
Our 4 nights at Fort Wilderness includes 2 days at Magic Kingdom. Actually we can go to any of the other parks but with our kids age, Magic Kingdom is the only way to go. For those of you out there with 2 girls under the age of 6, you know what I mean. There is no coming to Disney World and not getting to take photos with the princesses. Oh yeah, and it happens to be Marlene’s birthday.
Last night we slept at our first Cracker Barrel and survived. I can’t even count how many times we’ve slept in Walmart’s parking lots but for some reason we were a little scared of getting a knock on the door in the middle of the night at a Cracker Barrel. They don’t really have signs that say parking overnight is okay or not okay so we are always a little apprehensive about it. Now that we survived our first night without an incident, I think we will consider it as a boondocking spot from now on.
The site we got at Anastasia State Park was beautiful. We would have stayed here longer if it wasn’t for our reservations tomorrow at Fort Wilderness and if Anastasia wasn’t already booked solid. We decided that we would head down to Orlando later this evening and boondock somewhere so we can try to get an early checkin at Fort Wilderness.
So you know how we are trying to stay on “California time” on this trip? Well, this little guy has other plans. He likes the Eastern time zone just fine and has been waking up around 6:45 am. Maybe he heard all the other campers talking crap about the lazy Californians who barley make it out of the campground by 11am on a good day. You can’t call us lazy anymore!!
Last night we met up with an Airstreamer whom we have been friends with online for some time. Casey and his family live just a bit north of here in St. Simon Island, Georgia. We have been talking about meeting up when we made our way out here and he was able to make it out to Huguenot with us for a couple of nights as he pulled in after dark with his beautifully polished 34 foot Airstream Limited.
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.
Our stay at Skidaway Island State Park came to an end this morning as we packed up to head further south into Florida. Our second time here at this park was just as great of an experience as the first. Let’s hope that there will be many more visits here in the future.
We spent our second night in a row boondocking in a parking lot. This time at a Walmart in Jacksonville, Florida. We intended to find a truck stop, preferably a Flying J, but they are harder to come by when you are near a big city. And a big city Jacksonville is. In fact it is the largest city in the continental United States in terms of the geographical coverage at over 874 square-miles.
Our night in the parking lot of the Flying J just outside of St. Augustine was great. We had obviously no hook ups of any kind but we felt safe and had a great connection with our Sprint Air Card which allowed us to get a bunch of work done. Thinking back, I don’t think we have boondocked in a parking lot since the night before our visit to Sanibel Island at a Walmart in Fort Myers. That was a month and a half ago.
After 4 nights at Fort Wilderness, today is finally the day for us to head out. Even though we are sad to leave the happiest place on earth, especially true for Ava, we are looking forward to head out for some more adventures. After all, we have had the last 20 or so days completely planned out. That is the complete opposite of how the rest of our trip has been and we are looking forward to having a little bit of uncertainly in our explorations.
