Man Plans-God Laughs

OK, so I'm not really blaming God for our delays, but we did feel a bit snake-bit for a day or so there.  Tuesday, after I blogged, we got ready to leave.  We went outside to still-freezing temps and found the first problem.  Our sewer hose was frozen solid.  Yes, 3" diameter corrugated plastic hose full of grey water (sink and shower, NOT toilet), frozen.

Ice over (and in) our sewer pipe.  Now abandoned in Perdido Key.

We had disconnected it didn't think through the fact that we had little slope to the drain and the water remaining in the hose was frozen.  After a number of attempts to thaw it with hot water painstakingly boiled by Robin in the electric tea kettle, we agreed to abandon it in place.  A nearby camper was happy to claim it and would wait for it to thaw to do so.

Next up - a frozen lock on an outside electric bay that prevented us from opening it and stowing our power cord.  Several (many) minutes with an electric heater held close to it and a few squirt of dry lube and we finally got that open.  We got everything stowed away, including the cats, pulled in the slides and started to raise the jacks and were stymied again.  Much swearing, lowering and raising, pushing, shoving and then, with an audible pop, the recalcitrant jack went up.  Just about 90 minutes behind schedule we were finally out of Perdido Key and on to better (we hoped) weather.

Luckily we were only going about 180 miles to a campground west of Tallahassee for the night.  We arrived safely and slid into a nice long pull-through site.  Freezing temps were predicted again for overnight, so we didn't hook up to city water, didn't put down the jacks and didn't unhook the car.  We were feeling pretty confident about dealing with the cold for the night.  We put the trouble light in the wet bay, turned on the water heater, ate Indian food from the freezer for dinner and relaxed.  Then, at bedtime, I turned on the faucet and, crap, no water!  Frozen lines?  Possibly.  Probably!  Back outside in the freezing cold to hook up a heater to join the trouble light in the wet bay and we went to bed, hoping for the best.  Luckily we had gallon jugs of water for toilet flushing, etc.  The next morning we found the wet bay nice and toasty warm but the water pump still wasn't working.  It appears it's either fried, or perhaps a fuse is blown which we have yet to locate.  Unshowered (too much like camping again), we headed out on to Cedar Key, a comforting 100 miles south with warmer temps predicted.

Where in the world are Robin and Katie?

We arrived without incident, hooked up to city water (no need for the pump now), got set up and went into the charming town for dinner. It's a great campground, great location, good price and best of all, we're here for 4 days.  Yippee.  And it's 55 degrees today.

Not quite warm enough yet, but soon!

OK, it's raining a bit, but it is warm and beautiful here.

Chuck, damp but warm in Cedar Key