Hilton Head Island | Adventures with Doug and Jackie

The last part of our Florida journey begins as we head east out of Destin and Henderson Beach State Park to make a brief return to Falling Water State Park in Chipley. We had planned this stopover as part of our initial itinerary so the trip to the Atlantic coast would be in two smaller runs. Little did we know we would have been evacuated to the park as part of the Hurricane Sally “drive around.” So although this was our second visit, at least it was dry and sunny.

Once making camp we hiked a rather long trail to the waterfall again, turns out that yes, there was still water there. But it did look brighter in the sun and the rest of the 3 mile hike was filled with lots of wildflowers blooming. Fall seems to be a lot of purple and yellow colors: asters, goldenrod, wild indigo, sunflowers and such.

The trip east to St. Augustine took 5 hours, surprisingly, but it was flat, straight roads with little traffic but rain for the last miles. As we made our way around the historic district and across the Bridge of Lions we remembered the last time here when Jeff and Vic joined us for a few days and we met up with Phil and Jennifer, friends from home. But it was in the 90’s then and right now it was 70’s and drizzly.

Not to worry, we got ourselves settled into the Anastasia State Park campsite with no problems, although all we put out was the awning for now. Didn’t take long for the mosquitos to find us. Funny, we have been watching DVD’s the past week or so, since over-the-air TV hasn’t been available, and one of our selections was the first three Jurassic Park movies. This campsite could definitely make you think you were there on the island, with overhanging trees, palmetto leaves, Spanish moss and vines hanging from the branches. Need to watch those puddles for vibrations …

It cleared off and we drove to the beach access. As we did we got a nice teaser (also a reminder from last visit) as two spoonbills flew over the car. Naturally I didn’t have the camera handy. My previous visit here was an unsuccessful attempt to get a photo of the spoonbills. Looks promising? But the next day, as we were scanning the marsh from the beach boardwalk we only saw egrets and ibis. Jackie asked an obvious birder (big camera, pair of binoculars) where we might see spoonbills and his reply was “well, they’re kind of all around.” But he did add that peregrine falcons were migrating through and “there’s one now.” Actually, we did see another falcon but no more spoonbills yet.

Since we had a cloudy day, chance of rain and the surf was pretty wild, we drove back to the St. Augustine historic district and walked around the oldest city in the US. Very quaint and filled with history of the Spanish settlement – and plenty of shops for the tourists. Lunch at the Prohibition Kitchen was a huge burger and beer cheese soup that hit the spot on a drizzly day.

So what else did we do?

One nice, breezy but sunny day at the beach with some wild surf

Another brewery discovery and two flights at Bog Brewing

Dinner on the rooftop of the Salt Life Food Shack (yes, THAT Salt Life) and lucked out with half-price sushi rolls and happy hour beer!

Dark night walks with Kodi around the camp, only to get bit by those darn skeeters

Add another brewery to the list: Old Coast Ales

Beach time watching the shore birds. This time we discovered that the ruddy turnstones (sandpipers, not a musical group) took quite an interest in us – standing around at our feet – looking for a handout? Also marveled at how much the sand was covered in shells and bits.

Searched for the spoonbills every day, with no success

Did see gopher tortoises again

And then we packed up for the road and drove to Hilton Head Island. This was an extra few days we added once we heard from Dad’s community that he needed a bit of help with some essentials. It took us 5 hours, somehow a bit longer than expected, but where we were staying was a very nice private spot: Hilton Head Harbor RV Resort & Marina. We’ve been here before and it really is nice – it’s the closest spot to park the motorhome and also see Dad. So we have the weekend to take care of a few things, meet Dad under limited COVID conditions and visit with my brother Jeff , Vicki, nephew Adam and his fiancé Ashley.

We did manage to get all of our assistive items set for Dad, had lunch of fish, shrimp and calamari on the bay at Hudson’s (saw dolphin but had to run indoors from the patio mid-meal due to a downpour) and met up with Adam and Ashley to see their new home. Oh, and Jeff got his hot tub powered up and bubbling, so we got some time to unwind.

We finally head out for home as this weekend wraps up. Watching yet another hurricane (Delta) hit the Gulf coast we are thankful we aren’t still in the area. This month in Florida has been a bit more rain, a bit more driving for Jackie than we had planned and a whole lot more of Florida than we expected but that’s why we call these things adventures. Great fun in the sun, surfside eats and new breweries to explore – but it’s always nice to get back home, too.

Are we there yet?

Thanks for coming along on the journey. What’s next? Maybe a fall trip to the mountains, a “deep cleaning” of the car and motorhome for sure. Who knows?

Are we there yet?

Oh, you’re back home already?

So when we last checked in with our non-cruise adventures, we were headed back home from Panama City Beach with oil pressure problems (ding, ding, ding – can’t drive faster than 45 mph) and no hot water flow in the motorhome. It was a great beach vacation, and we were welcomed home by our herd of deer (at least 3 – 4 fawns this year), but we did have a few “oops” moments.

The Fixes

Back home we quickly changed gears, put the motorhome away and packed our bags for Alaska. If you read that posting, you know how awesome the cruise and whale-watching were. But soon we were back home again, taking stock and figuring what came next. Well, there were several fixes that were needed, and thanks to a visit by Jackie’s brother John, we had one more adult scratching his head over the hot water problem. We all agreed it must be the backflow check valve, but the solution still evaded us.

The previous week I took the motorhome back to the folks who changed the oil just before we winterized and they said the only thing they could figure was that there was too much oil in the engine, causing oil pressure problems for the regulator. I confessed to adding one quart, but they drained an extra 5 to 7 quarts out of the engine (which by my reckoning was their fault for not properly draining and refilling the oil in the fall). They did find a bad spark plug and performed a tune-up, so now the engine runs much smoother and we don’t seem to have the oil pressure problems. One problem solved, then.

Back to the hot water — it seems the check valve is at the very back of the hot water tank and nearly inaccessible. We could barely reach around the tank and found the elbow fitting as it left the tank, but beyond that, pretty impossible to mess with. John took a small hammer and tapped at the elbow a while, hoping to dislodge the ball valve, but no luck. On to the slideout problem then.

You see, just as we were packing up to run ahead of the tropical storm that was about to pound Panama City Beach, the slides barely retracted, squealing all the way. Something was not right with the hydraulics. But it took us several YouTube videos and internet searches, plus looking all over and under the engine and chassis to actually find the hydraulic fluid reservoir. Some mechanics we are! Once found, it was very low on fluid. So three quarts of transmission fluid (recommended) later and we had operational slides and jacks that worked just fine.

But still no hot water flowed through the pipes. Plenty hot in the tank, just not leaving the tank. “Hand me that hammer one more time,” John said. Tap, tap and presto! We finally had hot water flowing through the pipes. Yes, that was one tricky problem that was finally solved. I still wasn’t happy with the water pressure using the water pump, so I ordered a stronger, quieter replacement, and we had much better water pressure while off city water service. Ok, then, we were ready for another short trip to be sure everything was working fine.

On to Hilton Head Island …

Campsite at Hilton Head Marina RV Park

It was time to check in with Dad in Hilton Head anyway, so we booked a couple nights at the HIlton Head Marina RV Park. This is a park where the sites are owned but rented out by the owners when they are not in town. Very nice location of the Intracoastal Waterway just as you land on the island. Found a great spot and hooked up, leveled up and checked in with my brother and Dad.

Some sites have dock access

Low tide at the dock

We were lucky that Jeff wanted to head out in his boat, so we spent Saturday on the water. He put the boat in from the Oyster Factory in Bluffton, ran down the May River and we met him at our dock — what service! Vicki and her sister Sharon were onboard and we headed out to Harbor Town and South Beach on the Sea Pines tip of HHI. Nice sandy beach along the inlet, with very refreshing water to bob along in. We gazed at the houses along the shore of Daufuskie Island and then along the waterways of Hilton Head Island on our way back. The tide was up as we motored down Broad Creek and into Shelter Cove marina to drool over the gorgeous boats in the harbor.

… and the Frisky Dolphin

As we passed under the causeway bridge we spotted some dolphin, something we are all pretty used to seeing. Except that these were very active. It must have been a pod of 20 to 30, with youngsters mixed in. They were tail-flipping, rolling on their backs and just pinwheeling all around us. A little chat back at the dock and we learned it was mating season, so that explains the frisky behavior. We really had not seen that much activity from so many at once before.

Frisky Dolphin Video: Click HERE

Next day we met up with Dad at his apartment for brunch (two omelettes!) and shared stories. Good visit followed by some time in the pool at our RV park and talk of maybe spotting some manatees in the marina (no luck, however). While floating in the pool with some good craft beer (Holy City Pluff Mud Porter) we struck up a conversation with some other craft beer lovers from South Carolina and Virginia. A lot of suggestions were shared, plus good reports of the campsites at Devil’s Backbone Basecamp. We are going to look at that, since we already planned to stop there on our way back from Maine this fall. Always fun to make new friends in camp!

Later, while taking pictures of the beautiful sunset, a father and son were at the fish-cleaning station working on some nice size Cobias. Never caught them, but they were reminiscent of some of the big bluefish and tuna we would catch off the New Jersey shore.

I couldn’t stop snapping sunset pictures, since it was such a great evening on the water. Nice time so far, even though the temp was in the 90’s.

Oh, but we did have another one of those “didn’t expect that” moments.

It was almost too good — engine was running nice and smooth, slideouts working just fine, hot water flowing in the shower and sinks. Life is good. Oops, the fridge doesn’t feel so cold, in fact that beer is almost warm! Hmm, looks like an error message on the display. Try to run the fridge on LP gas – nope, that didn’t work. Go back to AC or Auto – nope, still a “reset” error. Oh, the book says that one requires a technician to repair. Great. Ran to the store, bought a cooler and ice and did things the old-fashioned way. So, everything is cold, just not the way we expected. And another trip to maintenance shop, since I don’t think I can solve this one by myself. The more I read about it, it seems to be a lockout problem, where the power board needs to be reset. Well, at least this didn’t happen on the first day of our fall 6 week trip to Maine and back. Now THAT would have been a big down arrow.

Not complaining here, just explaining how life with a motorhome goes, for all the newbies who might be reading.

So goodbye until the next “oops” moment, or better yet the next amazing adventure! Be sure to roam around the site and check out all the photos of our past adventures. Our next trip is north to Maine and the fall colors, but I can’t guarantee how quickly I will be able to post about it. Just “follow” us and you will get a note when it happens.

See ya ‘round.

Doug