And so it begins…

Halloween was a strange one this year. In a typical year, we get over 200 trick-or-treaters. This year…39. It was very sad. But the atmosphere was great. Everyone was so happy and thankful, most were wearing masks, neighbors had setups at the end of driveways or on tables so as to allow for more distance. And even better, the adults were walking from house to house with beer in hand to say hi to neighbors. It was a fun (if cold and sparsely attended) Halloween.

Zach pulled out all our decorations from years past and added a few new ones, and it was quite the spectacle. We are crossing our fingers that we win a prize in the neighborhood decorations contest. (WARNING: THIS VIDEO IS VERY LONG)

The girls dressed up as Toph Beifong and Katara of the Southern Water Tribe from Avatar: the Last Airbender. They were thrilled to be recognized by a few people! 

I pieced together a candy slide at the last minute to allow for no-touch distanced candy distribution and it worked beautifully (although it was not nearly as impressive as the 2 story candy chute that our neighbors put together!).

As soon as the trick-or-treaters were gone, Zach and I busted our butts to get every decoration taken down from the yard. By 10pm it was if Halloween never happened. We needed to do this quickly because the next morning we headed off on our big 2020 adventure: an RV trip to Florida!

Early on Sunday, Nov 1 we piled in the car packed to the brim with clothes, food, supplies, and even Zellie. We drove to Richmond, where the rain let up a bit for the two-hour walkthrough of our home for the next two weeks. James is the owner of this 32 foot Quantum RV that we rented from Outdoorsy (like the Airbnb of RVs). He was helpful and patient and thorough. He told us all about the different things that could go wrong and the things that had broken and been fixed in the past and the cost of all of it. For the record, an RV is a giant money pit. As Zach pointed out, it’s basically a boat on wheels. 

By 11am we were packed into a giant moving home and hurtling south on 95. Unfortunately it POURED rain for the first hour that Zach was learning to drive this beast. He somehow managed to stay amazingly calm and did great! The rain didn’t last too long and by the end of the day we’d logged 5 ½ hours of driving in the RV between the two of us. 

The girls were so excited and loved riding in the RV, munching on halloween candy while listening to our Candymakers book on tape. Poor Zellie was closed in her crate for the ride, but she was still such a trooper and didn’t whine or anything, just did a lot of panting and looking at us in absolute confusion.

We passed through South of the Border and marveled that this racist tourist trap still exists, but I’ll admit, we did enjoy the dozens of billboards. 

Despite our best intentions of arriving at the Santee State Park campground in South Carolina before dark, we had failed to take into account daylight savings time. We were hungry and tired and had to set up camp for the first time in the pitch dark with no one around to help. And you know what? We rocked it! Many thanks to James and his great tutorial. We microwaved hot dogs and ate them with our homemade habanero cortido. Zellie got her own hot dog as a reward for her suffering.

We all slept well, with the only exception being when I woke up to a gagging sound. Zellie was throwing up the hot dogs we gave her as a treat. Ugh. To my horror (and also somewhat to my relief), she gobbled them back up before I could get to her to clean up the mess in her crate. Dogs are disgusting.

Our morning was glorious, though. We saw the sun rise over the lake right by our campsite. Zellie was happy as a clam to sit outside with us. I ran on the trails in the park, Diane biked around the campsite, and Zach and Melina made pancakes with dates cooked inside. Before leaving we all took a 3 mile hike on a trail through the woods. We saw some cool marshes, more of the beautiful Lake Marion, lots of spanish moss, some cool spiders, and even a pair of bald eagles soaring by.

The only issue with the RV so far was with the toilet. I texted James and he agreed it was way too early for the blackwater tank to be full, and he said it must be that the toilet was clogged. I looked up some videos on unclogging RV toilets, and the first one said in no uncertain terms, “It is impossible to clog an RV toilet.” FALSE. Thankfully, another video showed me how to use a stick to “break up the solid matter” (gag) and stuff started once again to flow freely. Turns out, we had failed to teach the girls about toilet paper use in an RV and they were using way too much. Needless to say, they have now been educated.

Today it took another 5-ish hours in the car to get to our KOA campsite here in St Augustine, Florida. The site is clean and spacious and we are right by a pond where we were immediately greeted by mallards and a new one for us: anhingas! We weren’t familiar with these waterbirds but with all the birding we’ve done lately we were all thrilled to identify a new species. There are “beware of alligators” signs, which terrifies Melina. It probably doesn’t help that Zach told her they climb ladders so could easily get to the upper berth where she sleeps.

We didn’t have much for dinner, so Zach ran to the nearby “Discount Groceries” store. Shocker, but it was the worst grocery store he’s been to in his entire life. He fared much better at the fish market next door and the KOA camp store and gilled a delicious dinner of fresh cobia (a new fish for us, very yummy) and brussel sprouts (the only vegetable he could find). It was such a welcome respite from the fast food we had on our long drives! Zellie was so happy to be out of the RV that she rolled happily in the grass and nibbled up the bits of fish we offered. Here’s hoping she keeps it down tonight…