Mayport, FL to St. Marys, GA

We enjoyed our week-long stay at the Navy family campground in Mayport, Florida, watchin’ the ships roll in, then watch 'em roll away again. The weather was sunny and warm and we had some amazing sunsets. 

Last Thursday, our last day in Mayport, we drove about 35-miles along the Atlantic coast down to St. Augustine. We enjoyed dinner there at the Columbia Restaurant in the St. Augustine Historic District. It was our first visit to a location other than the original Columbia Restaurant in Tampa, Ybor City. 

We enjoyed the sparkling white sangria and the famous 1905 salad, as well as our dinner selections.

We departed Mayport on Friday morning and drove through straight west through Jacksonville to get to a truck tire shop. We had the torque checked on our front wheel lug nuts to ensure they were okay.

Then we headed north up I-95, crossed the state line into Georgia and got off at Exit 1 to head east towards St. Marys, Georgia and Navy Submarine Base Kings Bay. We had heard a lot from other military campers about how nice the Kings Bay campground was. The Eagle Hammock RV Park had won Campers Choice awards in 2009, 2010 and 2011 as the best military campground (Eastern USA). It is very nice, situated on a small lake, with pristine facilities.

The weather during our 4-night stay has been mixed. We had some sunshine one day, but rainy the next few days. We did however, spot one Navy submarine yesterday. 

We head out on Tuesday and drive two-hours north to Savannah where we’ll spend five-days.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

San Antonio to Jacksonville

We arrived in Castroville, Texas on Friday, March 29^th and spent a few days visiting Julie’s mom. Julie’s sister Cindy and her brother-in-law Terry joined us for dinner on Saturday night with Julie’s mom at the Sky Lounge bar and restaurant. The views from there are fantastic.

We “moved” to Kerrville on April 2^nd and hung out a week at Buckhorn Lake RV Resort. one of our favorite places to visit.

On April 9^th we “moved” to Neiderwald, Texas for our first stay at Longhorn RV Resort. We wanted to visit Lockhart, the BBQ Capitol of Texas, but couldn’t get into Lockhart State Park where we usually stay. However, the Longhorn RV park was only 10-miles from Lockhart and only 10-miles in the other direction to Buda on the south side of Austin. 

We visited the three best BBQ places in Lockhart during our stay. The last time we visited, in October 2017, Black’s BBQ was my favorite, but this time I thought the smoked brisket was better at Kreuz Market.   

After an overnight stay in Beaumont, we headed east to Scott, Louisiana where we stayed two nights at a KOA. The new area at the KOA was really nice with a view of their small lake. 

On April 16^th, we drove to Avery Island, Louisiana to visit the Tabasco factory and museum. 

It was a very interesting self-guided tour and well worth a visit. The company grows its own Tabasco peppers, ages their mash in oak barrels, and their sauce recipe is simply Tabasco peppers, salt and vinegar. They’ve been in business since 1868, over 150-years.  

After lunch at their café, we decided to visit the Avery Island Jungle Gardens, a 170-acre semi-tropical garden along a bayou. You have the option to drive or walk, and we decided to do the three-mile walk. It was a beautiful day and we saw alligators and many different kinds of birds.

We overnighted last Thursday at Tallahassee RV Resort just east of Tallahassee, Florida, where we have stayed overnight many times. We noticed a restaurant, with a parking lot full of cars, about a half-mile from the RV park the last couple of times we’ve stayed there. We decided to give a try. It’s called the “Backwoods Crossing”, a “farm-to-table” restaurant where they grow their own vegetables in an adjacent garden. The food was absolutely delicious.

We arrived in Jacksonville, Florida last Friday for a 7-night stay here at Pelican Roost RV Park on Naval Station Mayport. We snagged a front-row, water view campsite where we see the St. Johns River as in flows into the Atlantic Ocean. We regularly spot dolphins swimming by and watch Navy ships, cargo and cruise ships pass by.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Rio Grande Valley

We spent a week in Donna, Texas at Victoria Palms RV Resort, arriving last Friday, March 22^nd. Julie’s sister Cindy and her brother-in-law Terry are retiring so we stopped by to celebrate with them.

That Friday, the Canadian residents (Winter Texans) of the park hosted a “Taillight” Party to signal the end of the winter season and their departure headed back north. There were grilled burgers and live music by Leslie in the parking lot across the street from our campsite.

Last Saturday, the Victoria Palms staff hosted a surprise retirement party for Terry as he retires in two weeks as the RV resort manager.

On Tuesday Julie, Cindy, Don, Claudia, and I drove to South Padre Island to hear Leslie play again at Daddy’s Seafood Market and Cajun Kitchen. There was a good turnout for Leslie’s show but I joked that it was like “spring break” for seniors, myself included.

One of my old co-workers Wayne and his wife Shelley who are also full-time RVers and staying nearby joined us. We last saw Wayne and Shelley in Las Vegas a couple of years ago before they started full-time RVing. It was fun to catch up with them and they too are loving the full-time RVing lifestyle.

Wednesday we went to Nuevo Progreso, Mexico for the day. We park on the U.S. side and walk across the Rio Grande River bridge. I went to the dentist for a cleaning, then met everyone for lunch at our favorite place, Arturo’s Restaurant. Afterwards we all went across the street to the spa for $11 manicures and $12 pedicures. Later we stop at a gift shop to pick up a few items before we head back. 

On Thursday morning we had our motorhome washed and waxed. Julie, Cindy and Claudia decorated their golf cart for the parade that afternoon.

We left Victoria Palms RV Resort yesterday morning and drove to Castroville, Texas for a four-night stay to visit Julie’s mom in nearby San Antonio.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

On the Road to Texas

We left Labelle, Florida a week ago, on Tuesday March 12^th. We headed up to Lazydays RV Resort in Seffner for a 3-night stay and to visit Julie’s Aunt Jo and to visit my sister Cathy.


We started having serious electrical problems with our motorhome the night before we left LaBelle. We smelled what we thought was an electrical wiring burning smell but couldn’t find where it was coming from. The morning we left we noticed that we were getting 120-volts on one leg, but only 7-volts on the other leg of our 50-amp shore power connection. We thought it was a problem with the RV park electrical.


When we got to Seffner on Tuesday and plugged in, we had the same only 7-volts on one leg symptom. When we ran our generator, the AC power was okay. We contacted a mobile RV repair service and the technician stopped by late-Tuesday afternoon. The problem was that our Automatic Transfer Switch (ATS) had gone out. He ordered a replacement ATS on Wednesday and had planned to replace our faulty one on Thursday. Meantime, we had to run our generator for electrical power, except for “quiet hours” in the park (10PM to 7AM).

On Wednesday we stopped by Aunt Jo’s house in Safety Harbor for a visit and took her out to lunch. She turns 92 this month and it’s always interesting to visit with her.

That evening we met my sister Cathy at the Columbia Restaurant in the historic Ybor City area of Tampa. Established in 1905, it’s one of our all-time favorite restaurants. We especially like the 1905 salad and sparkling white wine sangria. Both are handmade at your table. Any of the numerous entrees are also very good. We enjoyed catching up with Cathy. 

We waited all-day Thursday at the RV park for the service technician because he thought the part would be delivered mid-day and he’d have time to do the repairs. However, he called late that day and told us he got the part okay but couldn’t come until Friday morning…the day we were leaving for Tallahassee.  


The technician finally came on Friday around 8AM with the part. Four hours and $800 later, we were good to go.


On Saturday we drove from Tallahassee to Pensacola where we stayed at the U.S. Navy’s Blue Angel Recreation Area for two nights. It was our first time there and it turned out to be a really nice Family Campground with a great view of Perdido Bay on the Florida-Alabama border.

We met Holly and Jackie, their husbands, and children for dinner on Sunday afternoon in Pensacola Beach at Flounder’s Chowder House. Julie used to babysit Holly and Jackie back in 1987-88, when they were 5 and 7, when we were stationed in Woodbridge, England. We saw them in the early-90s in Germany but hadn’t seen them since, over 25 years ago. It was fun to catch up with them and to meet their families.

We drove to Biloxi, Mississippi yesterday for a two-night stay. Last night we enjoyed dinner with our friends Paul and Darlene at a nearby Cajun seafood restaurant. The seafood was okay, but the service was just plain awful.

We leave Biloxi tomorrow morning and head to Beaumont, Texas for an overnight stay, on our way to south Texas and the Rio Grande Valley.


Steve & Julie Cornelius