Last September we took three girls (our daughter and two friends) camping at Presnell’s Bayside Marina and Resort. Our camper has plenty of sleeping spots, so what’s a few more kids, right? All the stars align, we get kids after school, and we are ready to roll. Or not.
We had another big hurricane roll through town in early September, and we had moved the camper to the front yard to protect it, since theoretically it would be in the spot least likely to have damage. Always a gamble on that one, but anyways, we had moved the camper around a bunch for that event. Fortunately, no damage occurred, so all good there.
So now we have tons of food ready, three excited girls ready to go camping, we realize that things are not all good in RV land. The electric jack is not working, the lights are not all working and things are definitely not normal… after checking all the fuses, and some additional hand-wringing (among other things!) we decide it must be the battery.
So my husband makes it to the battery store just in time and gets a new battery. We hook it up and – things are still not good. So time for google. After looking at the time, we realize we might not be leaving on the trip that evening.
The good news is – I have stumbled upon an RV forum that mentions the electric jack not working on Jayco RVs. They mention a fuse associated with the jack, but we cannot find any other fuses than in the fuse box inside the camper. Well, thankfully someone on the RV forum had the same issues and posted a diagram and explanation. There is an inline fuse hidden completely out of sight, that is NOT mentioned anywhere in our instruction manuals for the camper or the electric jack! But alas, we found it in the most inconvenient spot, and yes – the fuse was blown. For those that need to know, raising and lowering the jack too high / too low, or while on uneven ground, can cause this particular fuse to blow. And yes, we had the correct replacement fuse and things are now working!
Being that we are now way off schedule though, we get Moe’s for dinner to keep the girls and parents happy! We finish packing and then relax for the evening, ready to go early in the morning.
The hard part is getting 12-year-old girls moving early in the morning since surely they all stayed up really late. But we did get them in the car and we are on the way now!
Upon arriving at the RV park we realize that it looks like perfect boating conditions (rather than windsurfing, which was on the agenda for the day), so we decide it’s time to try out the new Presnell’s pontoon boat. And even though it is scallop season, we luck into an available boat. We load up the cooler, and we are on the water in no time at all. The water is amazing. The boat is brand new. And everyone is super excited! The adventure begins!
We head out across St. Joe Bay towards the St. Joseph Peninsula State Park (Cape San Blas) side of the Bay. Some of the girls with us have never snorkeled, not seen a wild dolphin, not seen a turtle, never kayaked and never been on a boat. So we fix all of that, in this order: get on the boat, cross the bay, snorkel, find sand dollars and starfish and hermit crabs, eat lunch and snorkel some more. Then we motor around the bay looking for a spot that is a bit more shallow and we see dolphin and a turtle, stingrays, and some baby sharks. Next snorkeling spot is also really pretty and we look for scallops and fish among the sea grass.
The wind picked up just a bit at the end, but overall it was a great afternoon. Girls were falling asleep on the way back to the marina and campground, worn out from all the swimming. The day ended perfectly with dinner and a great sunset!
Day two starts with the adults paddle boarding and getting the girls moving at a decent hour so we can kayak and paddle board to explore more of the bay. One our way out, a shark goes under my paddle board, and although the girls didn’t really see it they know it was there. We downplay the shark thing so they are not worried about getting in the water when we snorkel later, and magically everyone forgets about the shark.
We find some great sand flats full of sand dollars. The girls gear up with their masks and snorkels (they are now snorkeling pros!) and start exploring. We see some cute fish in the sea grass and schools of mullet swim through. Each girls gets a chance to paddle board, which devolves into trying to knock each other off the board. We head back before everyone is too tired to paddle, since this time we are not under motor power!
We make it back safe and sound, while a ton of other boats are heading out to scallop – even though they sky looks a bit like a storm is brewing. To everyone’s surprise that was out on the bay, a huge gust front and lightning storm sweeps across the bay, with people and boats scrambling everywhere! We get our people into the camper to ride out the storm for an hour or two, and by dinner the sun is out again.
It is a big weekend of firsts and we get to wrap it up with another one of the best sunsets in the state! And we hope to come back and do it all over again soon! Hope to see you on the bay.
Adventures Near and Far 
Really loved reading about the weekend. Sounds like a great time and made me think how lucky your kids (and their friends) are! Love you
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