There is always a great deal of excitement surrounding the start of camping season. There was more anticipation this year as it started our15th camping season with Rosie, our Airstream trailer. Of course, we had nine camping seasons in our original 2007 Airstream Safari and five in our 2020 Airstream Flying Cloud in the books.
After a long and very cold winter, we looked forward to heading to the Florida Gulf Coast beaches during "Spring Break" season. "Spring Break" is a family tradition because we spent many years tent camping in Port St Joseph Peninsula State Park during March in the days before Rosie. One of goals was to avoid the college students and Port St Joe was far enough from Panama City Beach to accomplish that goal.
We continued to camp in Oort St Joe State Park in Rosie during “Spring Break” until the park closed due to hurricane damage. When it reopened, it was virtually impossible to get a reservation there unless you were a Florida resident because the State change the reservation rules.
That started us looking at other options. Of course, there are private campgrounds near where we wanted to be, but most of these parks were expensive and their sites tend to be too close to each other.
Another option military FamCamps in the Florida panhandle as we qualify to camp in them.
Our new tradition is to make reservations in the Destin Army Infantry Recreation Campground. While it is hard to get reservations there, it is not impossible.
It was fun going to the storage area where we keep Rosie to start getting ready for our new camping season, that was until we found a problem.
We knew one of our propane tanks was probably very low on fuel. I went outside to inspect the tank and tried to use the regulator to switch tanks. The knob fell off in my hand and Becky started smelling gas. We had a problem!
We had used Alabama RV Service and Storage in Wetumpka, Alabama, several times in the past for non-Airstream issues. We called and they said they would try to squeeze us in on Monday of the following week. We must have sounded desperate as we told them we planned to leave early that day and really needed someone to help us before then. The service person asked that we hold on while he talked to one of technicians. He then asked if we could have Rosie there in 90 minutes. We said we could.
We immediately raced home to put the hitch on our truck and returned to the storage area to quickly hitch-up and pulled out heading to Wetumpka. We arrived there with a few minutes to spare. We planned to be there for a few hours, but they said they finished about 30 minutes later.
It was a good thing that we took Rosie to the service center when we did because one of hoses from the regulator to the LP gas tank was also leaking. They went ahead and replace both hoses to the tanks as a safety precaution.
We took Rosie back to the storage facility and continued to prepare for our upcoming trip.
When it was our travel day,
The weather changed on our travel day. We hitched up in cold with wind and s light rain. It didn’t take long to hitch-up and we were on our way for our first camping trip for the year
85 again, but ready
Set up in the cold
Neighbors moved out quickly and new ones moved in minutes later
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