Jan. 5, 2014: Yesterday morning, I walked over to the Park's office/gift shop to let them know that we had arrived. I asked about getting a full hook-up site. The woman at the desk said it would not be possible to change sites since we were already in a site. Luckily, a park ranger, in the next room, heard the conversation and said that if full was available, we could get it by paying the difference in cost. After a brief search on her computer, the woman found two full hook-up sites available. I selected one of them. The cost to change was only an additional $18 for the seven days that we are to stay here. Then the woman casually mentioned that the site I selected was open until Jan. 16. I decided that we would take the additional days. We are now staying here until then.This will give us time to relax and to explore the attractions in the area. The woman said that we didn't have to worry about leaving the site empty when we go out with our truck for the day. 

I went back to the camper, told B the good news, packed up and unhooked to move to the new site. When we backed into the new site, which was just the right size for the truck, I went into the camper to check on the levelness inside. It was nearly perfect in two directions. That is a first! We were quickly hooked up to water, electricity and sewer. 

With everything in place, B and I went for a walk, going first to the office/gift shop--B managed to find a couple of necessary things for herself. It is actually a nicely stocked shop, with clothing, gifts, books, and food items. We then went to the Nature Center, located at the nearby salt marsh. Although it is small, it was a good exhibit of live fish and snakes inhabiting the area. We got to see a horseshoe crab, live, and out of the water. It was the first time either one of us had seen one live--it was quite active. We also learned that there are alligators in this area, in the fresh water marshes. They are in a semi-hibernating state at this time of the year.

We also walked out to the beach front. Very few people were out on it. It is a long, white sand beach. B was happy to be hearing the surf and smelling the ocean.

Back at our site, I decided to pull out the awning over the entrance to the camper for protection against the rain predicted for tonight, tomorrow, and Monday. I hadn't done this since August, when we picked up the camper from the dealer. The awning pulled out easily enough, but I noticed one of the brace arms was not properly engaged; the sliding end had come out of a tubular track. Since the track was closed at each end, the slide was out when it was at the dealers, put not noticed by me then. I found the spot where the the track had opened slightly, allowing the slide to come out, and managed to get the slide back in. Now, I tried to retract the awning's spring-loaded roll to get it set properly over the doorway, in order to be able to open the door. However, the roller spring mechanism would not move. I got out the product manual that was provided. I found that the manual description and drawings did not show what I had in front of me. I called the dealer in NH to find out what I needed to do. I had to leave a voice mail. I continued trying to free the mechanism. After some time doing this, a man from a site across the field came over to offer some help. His extra hands and knowledge of a similar type awning led to us finally getting the spring to free up and allow the awning to retract back to the top--with a bang.

I thanked the stranger, a man from West Virginia. I had been told by the owner of the Colonies campground at Fort Monroe that if you stand outside of your camper and scratch your head, someone will come over to find out if you need help. He was right.

Later that night the dealer did call me back. We discussed the problem and he described what I should look for the next time I pull the awning out. Needless to say, the awning will stay up, rain or no rain, while we are on this trip. 


Today, Sunday, we didn't wake up until 8:00. Last night we had some very heavy rain and the temperature overnight stayed in the 60's. The rain died off in the morning and we had some sun. Not much was planned for today; I paid bills online, which was a new experience for me, and seems to have gone well. 

We did manage to take some time off for a walk out on the beach again. There was fog, heavy overcast and hazy sun, all at the same time. We watched the shore birds working along the edge of the surf. We also found an interesting shell--which some lady on the beach said was a fan-tail clam; B couldn't find it on Google--but it still an interesting shell. We kept it. 

Back in the camper for wine, crackers, and cheese.