Bright and early, around 11am, we took the paddle board across to the beach. I’m still sunburned and whiney and still too scared to try. But Sam and Aunt Lauren got out there.

And back to the Sugar Kingdom

Finishing up the solar panels, as far as we can go until we get the connectors to change the panels from series to parallel. Air compressor mounted to panel and soon to Battery, which from this point on will be called “Battery” proper, with a capital B.

Did a second day of senior photo shooting for Ava and Erin. And finished out the day with ice cream at Aunt Ebby’s; it was crazy crowded but I’ve never seen a more efficient operation.

Uncle Robbie rented a pontoon boat for the day. Grandma wants to fish. We’ve got the Insta360 camera, our regular camera, and binoculars. Hope to see dolphins. Presumably we won’t have phone or internet for several hours so I’ll update this later. I have our Garmin InReach satellite beacon so don’t worry about the Gilligan’s Island scenario.

Update: we saw LOTS aid dolphins! We were about about two hours. We briefly anchored at Little St George and looked for shells. Eating lunch at Up the Creek Raw Bar which I have to admit was really good. I had the grilled mahi tacos. Sam had the grilled shrimp basket and pretty much everyone else got the chicken tenders, all with good reviews.

We just scooped a crab out of the pool. The kids first thought they saw a spider in the bottom of the pool, a big spider. But it’s a crab.

Josie (and I) made a lasagna for dinner. Ed is trouble shooting his solar panels. Erin and Ava jumped in the ocean and I collected little purple seashells.

Started the day with a little panic. The pool guy came, just minutes after Ed unloaded all of the truck, and kind of flooded that area under the porch where all of our stuff was. So, I dragged everything out into the sun to dry out. Despite Lucy’s warning that it was supposed to rain. Then my watch sent a rain alert. And I joked, hah hah, that after dragging it from the pool puddle, I’d have to drag it again out of the rain. And then it started raining.

And the sun came back out, of course. And Ed is still working on his battery, of course. And Josie and Lucy are back in the pool, of course

Spent most of the day trying to get the wires run through the truck to get Ed’s battery and solar panels all doing their thing. Around 8pm I shot some senior photos for Erin and Ava. It’s 10:30 now and Erin, Ava and Lucy are in the pool.

Lucy and Josie are swimming again. Erin and Ava are still in bed (hello, it’s 1 pm). Sam and Ed went to get some parts for this battery build.

Sugar Kingdom?!?

Ed is already on a conference call, as he has to do every Monday morning while we’re on this trip. This morning I stood at the third level deck and saw some dolphins in the Gulf. The girls have been swimming all day. I can only hope that swimming and sunburns will make them sleep tonight!?!

Kids swam all day and we have varying levels of burns to prove it despite SPF. We rode in the big golf cart to pick up pizza. Then we walked across the street to the beach and Josie and I picked up seashells. Lucy and Josie are back in the pool AGAIN.

Making the long haul to Florida

Back in 2017, while driving through Georgia on the way to Florida, Ed accidentally got off at Fort Benning. As we pulled up to the main checkpoint, we found ourselves surrounded by MPs with machine guns, surveying us while we tried to explain we just wanted to turn around. Well, less than 15 minutes after I asked the kids if they remembered that, Ed did it AGAIN, but this time there was a little turnaround before we had to approach the gate. Needless to say the kids were not amused and actually thought Ed did it on purpose. FYI Fort Benning has been renamed Fort Moore.

Last night around 2am Rocco was convinced he heard “something” outside the tent, crunching twigs and brushing the tent. Ed didn’t appreciate Rocco’s flashlight in his eyes as he searched for the perpetrator. Then Rocco and Erin feverishly texted each other back and forth trying to locate whatever was outside. I guess these two his history worrying about “what’s outside the tent.” They didn’t see anything out there. No bear, no coyote, no raccoon, no squirrel, no Sasquatch. Sam and I compared notes in the morning and were both annoyed at the people who drove to the bathroom all night long (right across from us), parking right outside our car and talking in loud groups all night. And the tents next to us started packing up at 5am without any attempt at stealth.

We made it to the house in St. George Island around midnight. Didn’t really get to see much of what was outside. The 4 girls are in the one room in bunk beds, Ed and I are in one room, Rocco is in the other room and Sam is on a sofa sleeper in the little family room here, all of us on the first floor. Rob and Lauren will be in the bedroom on the second floor, with the kitchen and main living room, and Grandma and Grandpa are in the room on the third floor.

We finished off the night with the Moonshine Mountain coaster.

After a long drive and a delightful 11pm dinner at Denny’s (which was a FIRST for all of the girls) we finally made it to the campground in the Smokey Mountains at 4am. The camp sites here seem pretty well-spaced out, though the guy in the campsite next to us is snoring loud enough that we had to wonder if it was a bear. Erin and Ava are in the rooftop tent on the Lexus. Josie, Lucy, and I are in the Super Pacific. Ed and Rocco are on cots in the tent and Sam is going full-tilt with the camping experience and he’s off a bit on his own in a bivy. I hope I get up early enough to get a picture of that.

Good night!

We had to abandon some projects for later. The road beckons us. The Raptor has some squat.

Ed and Sam are still running wires under the truck for the solar panels and generator to power the battery. We’ve got a few snags and might just try to tie things up for now and finish when we get to Florida.