Wednesday morning, December 7, 2022 we left Wekiwa Springs State Park and drove a little over 2 hours in a southeasterly direction to Sebastian Inlet State Park. Cindy loves the beach. Not like the getting in the water swimming (who knows what might get you out there…a shark, a jellyfish or even man-eating seaweed) kind of going to the beach. She just really likes to hear the roar of ocean waves and watch them ebb and flow, sink her feet into the sand and watch the sun rise or set against a vast horizon of salt water.
Sebastian Inlet State Park
So, when we were booking our Florida stays last year for this year, she made sure to find an RV campground near the beach. Sebastian Inlet State Park is a barrier island property that has been divided by the Sebastian Inlet for 100 years. The inlet allows the waters of the Indian River Lagoon to mix with the Atlantic Ocean and immense schools of fish, as well as manatees and dolphins can be seen swimming through the inlet. Cindy saw a dolphin fin during one of our walks and sometimes scores of fishing boats (from one-man canoes to larger, multi-engine boats) were crowded into the inlet.
Great blue herons, wood storks, marsh rabbits, osprey, royal terns, bobcats, screech owls and otters all inhabit the area. We did not see any bobcats (kinda glad for that, lol) but we heard owls and saw all the other wildlife mentioned above. During our morning walk on our last day we came across a Corn Snake in the road. After jumping back at the sight of it, we realized it had been run over by a vehicle either earlier that morning or the previous evening. Corn snakes are nocturnal by nature, so it was no surprise that it was caught on the road unawares and ascended to snake heaven.
Our RV campground was on the southern part of the park and the beaches of the Atlantic Ocean were about a mile to the east of us. You could also drive across the bridge to the northern part of the park and walk down to the beach from that section as well. Both sections have jetties stretching out into the ocean, but the North Jetty was closed for repairs while we were there.
Our site was not one of the better ones at the park and the photos of the site online did not make it clear how narrow it was. The road near our site was also quite narrow and this made it difficult to back Nomad into the site. The driver’s side of the road was lined with what I THOUGHT were just soft, decorative bushes, but it turned out they were Sea Grape shrubs and their branches were more of a woody, stiff kind than a soft, bendable kind. I ended up so close to them while trying to back in that I busted my driver’s side rear view mirror extension and scraped the sides of both Voyager and Nomad.
On top of that, we discovered we had to keep the windows and doors closed because the area we were in seemed to be inundated with “no see ums” or biting midges. There were small enough that they could get through our regular screens on Nomad. And their bites were constantly itching our skin. We went out and bought some spray that helped keep them away and some lotion for the bites, but for most of our two-weeks stay we were still itching while waiting for the bites to wear off.
The site did have water and 50-amp electric hook-ups, but you had to use the dump station to offload your black, grey and galley tanks.
New Bed Topper For Voyager
On Friday, December 9th, we had to drive back to Orlando for the installation of the bed-topper we had ordered when we first arrived back in the Orlando area several weeks previously. Of course it came in 2 days after we moved to Sebastian Inlet so it was necessary to drive the 2 hours back to get it installed.
When we first got Voyager back in early 2021, I wanted a Tonneau flat cover for the bed. Cindy thought we should get a topper, but I didn’t really want to have to be climbing on my knees into the back of the truck to get things. And I didn’t think we would have so many “things” that we would need all that room. Well, as usual, Cindy was right and I was wrong. As we’ve traveled the past 18 months we found ourselves having to put more and more things in Nomad because the flat bed cover of Voyager didn’t allow room for them. So we decided to upgrade to a topper.
As you can see in the photos, we have almost tripled our storage room in the bed of Voyager. And I took the opportunity to sort things into separate tubs and label them all, placing the least-used items farther back and the often-used ones close to the tailgate/door. I also lined the bed bottom with floor cushion pads we had left-over from when Cindy made candles in our cabin basement with concrete floors. Now my knees won’t suffer quite as much from crawling in there.
Replacing an Electrical Outlet
We also had an issue with one of our electrical outlets. I was working on the cabinet that sits on the lower side of the desk we put in because the strap that holds the chairs in place (and used to hold our recliner chairs in place) was not secure. The latch at the bottom was pulling the cabinet base out away from the cabinet. So I had gotten some “L” braces to make the bottom of the cabinet more secure. When I took the cabinet facing off to put the “L” braces on I moved the electrical input cord and the outlet started smoking. I immediately had Cindy shut off the breaker, pulled the outlet and saw that one of the wires had crossed over on a bare spot. We went and bought a couple of new outlets (so I’d have a spare if ever needed) and I was able to get everything properly re-wired and the cabinet bottom secured so that now the strap does not pull the bottom out from the cabinet.
Other than the “no see ums” and our not-so-great site, we enjoyed lots of walks around the inlet and on the beach, as well as seeing sunrises and sunsets. Saw lots of waterfowl (as you can tell from the photos), turtles, people enjoying fishing and swimming, bicycling and for the most part our time there was fun.
Cindy Goes To The ER
Then Sunday, December 18th happened.
The day started as most usually do now. We had breakfast, then got dressed and took Bella for a walk down to the inlet. When we got back we each had a few things to do around the inside and outside of Nomad. Cindy had a snack of celery and the last of some cream cheese. Later in the mid-afternoon she told me she did not feel good. She was feeling sick at her stomach, but also her heart was racing and she was having trouble breathing. Then she started passing out, even while sitting in the recliner. Obviously I was getting more and more concerned, but trying to remain calm for her sake. I was worried that some of her symptoms sounded like those women have when they’re having a heart attack. She couldn’t even stand for me to walk her out of the RV and to the car, so I made the decision to call 911.
An ambulance and fire engine arrived within about 20 minutes. The paramedics gave her oxygen and put a heart monitor on her, asked me questions and then tried asking her some questions but she was still falling in and out of consciousness. They brought a special chair in that was able to fit in our narrow areas and out the RV door, put her in it while they gave her an IV drip and then took her out to the ambulance and away to the hospital. Going out the door she threw up quite a bit and they thought she might have food poisoning, but still wanted to take her to the ER because of the other symptoms. I wasn’t in the ambulance but Cindy told me one of the paramedics told her, “I’m glad you agreed to go to the ER, I wouldn’t have felt right leaving you there without knowing what was going on.”
I cleaned up the contents of Cindy’s stomach that were no longer in her stomach, made sure Bella had water, locked things up and headed to the hospital, arriving just after they had brought her into the ER. I stopped to thank the only paramedic I saw for their help in getting her care and then ran inside to the ER desk. After a few minutes they let me come back and they had already started running various tests on her. About an hour later the doctor came in and said after testing her heart, liver, gall bladder and other blood tests and given her symptoms that he was certain she had severe food poisoning exacerbated by anxiety over what she was feeling. He gave her a prescription for some anti-nausea medicine (which we had to rush to get filled before the pharmacy closed at 6pm) and we were good to go.
Once we got home I pulled the empty container of cream cheese out of the garbage and, sure enough, it had expired about 3 weeks earlier. Cindy said it never tasted funny or “off” at all, but we guess that is what caused her severe food poisoning because it was the only thing she ate that I didn’t.
So, all in all, Sebastian Inlet State park was an interesting stay in more ways than one.
Join us next time when we return to Lake Louisa State park for the Christmas holiday and Cindy is back in the ER less than a week after her visit in Sebastian Inlet.
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