Summer Travel Map

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

September 19-25: Great visit with Dave & Sandy

September 25, 2013
New Smyrna Beach, Florida

We continued our trip south and had a great (and somewhat overdue) visit with our friends Dave and Sandy at their place in New Smyrna Beach. Or “NSB” for those “in the know”.

Things got off to a good start and then we hit our first “speed bump” before we even got there. As always, we have to be prepared for times when “life happens” (or “stuff” happens). In this case, it was a medical emergency of the canine kind, and of the first order.

We had an uneventful trip for most of the day, retracing our route back US-278 from Hilton Head Island to I-95, traversing Georgia with a stop right before entering Florida for (cheaper) fuel. We made our lunch stop at the Florida Welcome Center and continued south, making a rest stop about an hour north of NSB.

As the pups were getting back in the coach, Merlin started to get sick, and within minutes had made a mess (“both ends”, if you know what I mean) from the front of the coach to the back. I was able to find him under the bed almost unconscious. He couldn’t hold his head up, his eyes were rolling, his tongue was lolling, and his breathing was very erratic. At two points, we thought we lost him right then and there.

While Geri wrapped him in towels and held him on a pillow, I started a search for veterinary help. Not seeing anything close to where we were, I called Dave, which turned out to be the smartest decision I could have made. They were lifesavers. He and Sandy sprung into action, contacting their vet, assessing options, and arranging for us to get in right before closing. We met them at their vet’s office in a local shopping plaza (fortunately, there was enough room for us to park) and we were whisked right in.

After some quick blood tests and x-rays, Dr. Cox was able to report our first good news: it was pretty clear that Merlin was in the throes of a bout of pancreatitis. Why and how? We’ll never know. But, the path forward was clear: they took Maya Lynn while we parked the RV at our selected campground (it was close to the vet) and transferred Merlin to the best animal hospital in Daytona Beach for medication and IV fluids overnight.

It was after 8:00 PM by the time we got back to Dave and Sandy’s, and they had dinner waiting for us. Not exactly the way we wanted to start our visit, but at least we had a cautiously optimistic outlook.

We’d planned to stay at their house during our visit to ease logistics, but decided to spend the first night at the coach since we needed to be up at oh-dark-thirty to pick Merlin up around 7:00 AM. Friday morning, we accomplished that, brought him back to Dr. Cox for more IV fluids and observation during the day, and were back at the campground right after the office opened to pay up and officially check in. We had arrived after hours, so our site information was taped to the door.

We headed over to Dave and Sandy’s, and were finally able to catch our breath. We managed to shoot back to the coach, do some cleaning, eradicate a small ant infestation we’d picked up in the jungles of Hilton Head, pack a couple of bags, and pick Merlin up around 3:00 PM. He was still quite wobbly but definitely on the mend. We put him on a bland diet and monitored him closely, and he got stronger each day. By the end of our visit, he was back to 70-80% of his normal self.

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Whew. By Saturday, things started to settle down. We were able to relax a bit. Dave and Sandy have moved since we last visited them in Florida, with their “new” house being on the western side of the Intracoastal Waterway (“ICW), right on the water. It’s a great location, close to the Yacht Club (for some reason, Dave is not “Commodore” yet), and positioned for great sunrises (for the early risers) and moonrises when the weather cooperates. And nice flowers!




In the afternoon, we headed over to the Flagler Avenue shopping district (the kind of place I’d call artsy-fartsy) for lunch and some poking around, followed by a Daytona-area tradition: a drive on the beach.

We decided on Sunday that Merlin was feeling well enough, and the weather seemed good enough, for a boat ride. Dave called the marina to ready the boat, and off we went. After venturing out into the ocean for quite a ways, heading north toward Daytona, we returned to the calmer ICW. We had lunch at Inlet Harbor, a dockside restaurant and made a stop at the “Disappearing Island”, which I incorrectly called “disappearing beach” on Facebook. Yikes!

We are all actually happier than we seem to be in this shot...

Ready to explore the "Disappearing Island"


We headed back as we started to see some storm clouds on the horizon, typical for Florida I suppose. Much of the ICW in this area is a “Manatee Zone” which requires slow speeds, but we made it back to the marina before the rains. Dave has his boat stored inside, which you might think is a complicated process. Not when they have an 80-ton forklift on premises! The operator dropped the forks into the water, Dave pulled the boat back over them, and the extraction was done in less than two minutes. After a quick wash, it was ready to be stored on inside racks about 35 feet in the air. Always use the right tool for the job, I say!

"Power tools; Yeah"!
And, speaking of tools, we got to use a few over the next few days. They are having substantial renovations done to the main living areas of the house starting next week (new kitchen cabinets and island, new tile throughout, new stairway to the second floor), so I was able to help Dave with some of the preparation that was better done with two people. We removed some of the backsplash on the existing counters, placed some of the heavy furniture in its temporary location out of the way, and dismantled the fireplace façade. (Get it? Dis-“mantled”?) This last one was interesting to say the least, and the whole brick face just slid out into the room and we were able to break it up brick by brick.

Tonight (Wednesday), we all went out to dinner at the Riverview Grille, having a great meal and a nice wine while watching a beautiful sunset. It was a fitting way to close out our visit! After dinner, we headed back to the coach and completed what little travel prep was required. We’ll be heading out in the morning.




As always, we had a great time visiting good friends. We don’t get to do it but every few years, so it’s a special treat for us!

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