Sunday, March 9, 2014

We finally found spring!

As we crossed into Alabama yesterday we actually saw flowering trees in bud!  Our first sign was last week in New Bern where we had a dandelion in Mom's yard.

We tried to leave New Bern on Tuesday, March 4, but as we were leaving their community, the guard at the gate was telling everyone that the bridge was closed due to accidents.  It had iced the night before and most schools had a two hour delay or were cancelled.  But it was supposed to be above freezing by 11 and for the next few days, so we thought we could make it.  But there is only one bridge over the Neuse River at that point and the detour would be a long way on country roads.

So we went back and spent another day with Mom and Dad.  Mom got to cuddle with both dogs some more.   Steve got more projects done on the trailer.

Wednesday we were on the road to Winston-Salem, North Carolina for an overnight stop.  Steve's nephew, Brian and his wife Katie moved to Winston last year, so we hoped to catch them for dinner.  To our surprise, Brian's parents and sister Becky were visiting, so we had dinner with almost the whole family.   Steve's niece Kelly was home in Michigan.

The drive through North Carolina was pleasant.  Most of the highways are lined with pine trees, which are somehow more calming than corn fields.  The coastal part of North Carolina is flat and as you head west, hills emerge and eventually the Appalachian Mountains.  Winston-Salem seems to be in the foothills.  

The campground in Winston-Salem was a county campground in a county park.  It seemed more like a small state park.  The campsites were full hookups (electricity, water and sewer) and paved.  There were trees throughout.  Walking, biking, and horseback trails wound through the park and there was a golf course with a nice club house.  Just an excellent facility.  Steve's family met us at the campground, as the park also has a dog park where Brian takes his dogs.  They wanted to see our trailer, so we gave them the grand tour.  We had a very nice dinner with them and then headed back to the campground.

Thursday found us up early and headed out to Johnson City, Tennessee.  Molly and Nick live there with their 3 kids and we hadn't been to see them since they moved from Indiana.  Steve found a campground about 20 minutes away from their house, so we headed there to park the trailer.

I knew we were in Appalachia, but I still expect my campgrounds to be flat.  Surprise!

The road to get to the campground was one lane wide and warned that it was a two lane road.  It was gravel.  We turned uphill to get to registration.  Luckily, the owner and his wife led the way to our site and guided Steve to back in.  It helped that there was a road opposite our campsite!  But it was a nice campsite.  The view out the back was of the small stream that ran through the campground and the woods behind it.

Some of the campsites had small gazebos that sheltered the picnic table and one of those was actually over the stream.  I suspect the campground will be lovely when things green up.  There were daffodils next to our site that were trying to bloom!

After we got the trailer settled, we headed into Johnson City to see Molly's family.  We were so busy visiting that the only picture I took was of Molly's Purdue Tennessee license plate.

Steve asked her how she managed that and she said to ask Nick.  Of course we forgot to ask Nick.  They showed us around Eastern Tennessee's campus and found two restaurants that I could eat at (I had pizza for dinner!)  And we got to play with the kids.  Will's been practicing his guitar and has improved greatly since I last heard him.  Clara and I got to play dolls, but not for nearly long enough and I watched Fritz play Lego's while Molly and Steve picked up Will and Clara from school.  They have a very busy schedule, so we were delighted we got to spend time with them!

Saturday, Molly's family headed for Nashville where Nick was to give a paper and Steve and I headed towards Chattanooga, Tennessee.  (I managed to spell Chattanooga without the spell checker correcting me!)  Originally we were going to be headed home after visiting Molly, but it's still too cold!  So we're headed for Dallas.

We both love national parks, so we keep an eye out for national parks, preserves, forests, etc along our travels.  Tennessee is north of both Alabama and Georgia and Chattanooga is almost in all three states.  Just southwest of that is the Little River Canyon National Preserve.  Steve found a nice campground near there and we reached it in the early afternoon.  They had daffodils blooming!

 We still had enough time after getting set up to hit the park.  Lookout Mountain overlooks Chattanooga and runs southwest from there through Georgia and into Alabama for quite aways.  The Little River runs on top of Lookout Mountain.  At some point, it starts carving a canyon into Lookout Mountain.  This is the falls that start the canyon.

 Steve and Obi at the falls.  Obi didn't like the noise of the falls.

The canyon drops about 400 feet from the ridge.  The sides are steep.  There is a road that follows the canyon and all the trails are labeled arduous and steep.  Its a very unique landscape on top of a mountain.  Because the park preserves the canyon, specifically, it's fairly narrow and sometimes you can see fields and houses through the trees.  

Sunday we headed for Tupelo, Mississippi, birthplace of Elvis and the park headquarters for the Natchez Trace Parkway.  I didn't know a lot about the Natchez Trace, but had always been intrigued by it.  The Natchez Trace was the trail used to return to the Midwest after goods were floated down the Mississippi to Natchez or New Orleans in the 1700's.  It actually was a migratory trail for buffalo first and then used by Indians for centuries.  The Spanish even used it to explore the south in the 1500's.  In the 1700's it would have taken a week to float goods down the Ohio and Mississippi and four or 5 weeks to walk from Natchez to Nashville, TN, where they could use the Cumberland River to get to the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Portions of the original trail still exist and most are within the Natchez Trace Parkway boundaries.  We'll be driving the parkway from Tupelo to Jackson, Mississippi on Monday.  Tonight we are staying at Trace State Park outside of Tupelo.  We have a site overlooking the lake.  Obi, however, wants nothing to do with that much water!  He plants all fours and won't go near it!

So, tomorrow we head south to Jackson, making stops along the trace.  I'm looking forward to it!

More later.

Deb

Sunday, March 2, 2014

Sorry for my long absence.  I caught a cold in Disney World and am just now getting over it.  We're at my parents in New Bern, NC.

We left Disney on Tuesday, February 18.  We headed for New Bern and wanted to be there by Friday, as Steve had a flight out of New Bern for Indiana on Saturday.  We drove across Orlando to pick up Obi at the kennel.  It turned out to be a great kennel.  They thought he was wonderful and while he was glad to see us,  he wasn't frantic as he usually is.  They had also him groomed, so he looked and smelled good.  He would still rather not travel, but has mastered both going up and down the trailer stairs and even once tried to jump into the truck, but it's just too high.

We stopped at an RV campground in Brunswick, GA.  It was just off I95, which suited us as we were hitting the road the next morning.  We used to wonder who would stay at an RV campground next to an interstate, but find them very convenient.  And our RV seems well enough insulated that I don't hear the traffic.  Steve, of course, hears relatively little after he takes out his hearing aids.  It was perfect for us.  We had a pull through site, which along with the new automatic jacks, made setup time minimal.

On the road the next day, we stopped at a truck stop for diesel.  Truck stops can be amazing places.  This one even had laundry facilities for the truckers and a 25 person TV lounge.  Food was provided by Denny's, Subway and the normal truck stop hot dogs and pizza.  Showers are fairly common at truck stops and this one had plenty.  Our normal routine at truck stops is first to figure out where they want us to go.  Sometimes RVs go where the semi's go, sometimes with the cars and occasionally they have their own pumps.  Once we've figured that out, Steve pulls in to fuel and I give Obi a potty break.  Then I head in for the restroom and anything we need.  Truck stops are a good place to pick up milk or OJ if we need it for morning.

Now, with a big blue pickup pulling a white trailer, Steve's usually not hard to find when I exit the truck stop, even if Steve's moved away from the pumps.  Blue pickups are somewhat rare.  But I came out one time and couldn't see him, so I called.  He was pulling around and would be out front in a minute.  I saw him and headed that way, only to realize it was the wrong kind of trailer.  So I stopped and looked around.  Oh, there he was.  Headed that way again, only to realize that wasn't him either.  There were three blue pickups pulling white fifth wheels at that truck stop at the same time.

We took I95 to I24 to Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, outside of Charleston.  Steve's nieces, Jennifer and Meredith live there and we set up a time to have dinner with them.  We had a day in Charleston.  I was still babying my foot and nursing my cold, so Steve took a walking tour of downtown and went out to Fort Sumter.  There's lots of history in Charleston, so we hope to return to it.

Leaving Mount Pleasant, we headed north on US 17, which will take us straight into New Bern, NC.  It also took us right past a church in Wilmington, North Carolina, where a friend of ours is assistant pastor.  We met Mark for lunch.  Mark used to be the Lutheran campus minister at Purdue before he moved to North Carolina.  He and Steve have kept in touch and we always enjoy a visit.

US 17 travels through North Carolina pine forests and isn't a bad drive.  We managed to get to Mom and Dad's in time for dinner.  Dad had arranged for us to park in his neighbor's drive way, which is on the circle at the end of their street.  That gave us extra room to maneuver the trailer into the driveway.  Steve's getting better at backing the trailer, but it's still an effort.

After dinner, Steve started packing for his trip.  He found it odd to pack for a trip home.  He wanted to travel with only carryon, so no lotions or toothpaste.  He has clothes at home.  But he packed his duffel bag and his backpack and I took him to the airport in the morning.   He had a board meeting on Monday in Lafayette and was flying on Saturday in case he ran into bad weather.  Luckily he escaped bad flying weather, but wasn't quite ready to enjoy the low temperatures in Indiana.  I think he had every hour scheduled on Monday, but managed to find time to see friends on Sunday.  Thanks to Mark and Mary Kay Davis, he even got a home cooked meal on Sunday.

Meanwhile, I was at Mom and Dad's, trying to get rid of my cold and helping out as much as I could. There's always plenty to do.  Their dog, Missy, is only 5 pounds but she and Obi mostly get along.  Actually, they mostly ignore each other, until one tries to eat.  Then we have to separate them.  But they will share Mom's lap.

Steve came back on Tuesday and it wasn't hard to convince him that mid March might be too early to return to West Lafayette.  I think we'd have to winterize the trailer unless we ran the furnace in it.  So we're plotting a trip back to Dallas through the northern south.  We'll celebrate my birthday with Natasha's family and say goodbye to Olga.  She's returning to Russia March 27 (I think) and plans to be there for a year.  Hopefully we can get her back for the holidays next winter.

I think we'll be leaving here on Tuesday and heading west.

More later!

Deb

Sunday, February 16, 2014

We arrived at Fort Wilderness at Disney World on Friday, February 7.  We were very lucky with our site, there is a paved path directly across from us, which helped tremendously in getting backed in.  Here's a picture of the parked rig from the path.

Saturday was a hamfest  in Orlando.  A hamfest is a convention/fleamarket for amateur radio operators.  I dropped Steve off at the fairgrounds for the hamfest so I could do some running around.  I headed for one of the outlet malls, stopping at a Walmart on the way and picking up some supplies.

Orlando has at least 3 outlet malls.   One used to have a Pfaltzgraf (sp?) outlet that I found some great bargains at.  Unfortunately, they  have closed all their outlet stores, so I was mainly going for the Disney outlet.  Thanks to Big Blue's GPS, I made it to the outlet mall, only to find it packed.  Literally.  There were no parking spaces.  It was like it was Christmas.

Since I knew there was another outlet mall with a Disney Store, I keyed in the address (thanks to my iPhone) and headed south.  Traffic was terrible.  I made it to the second outlet store, only to find the same problem.  There was, however, a Publix grocery store nearby.  Since they carry gluten free bread, I stopped there for our perishable supplies.  And then I headed back to the campground and Obi.

Poor Obi.  He has not taken to travel.  He doesn't like to be left in the trailer, but he does okay when we do leave him.  He doesn't like driving in the truck, either, although he doesn't shake anymore.  We keep his thunder shirt on him most of the time and it seems to help.

Later I rescue Steve and we plan to head for Animal Kingdom in the morning.  We went on the safari and had lunch at Tusker House.  We didn't know it was a character meal and so were surprised by visits from Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy and Goofy.

Sunday night we met up with Chris Black, a friend from my ITAP days.  He moved down here several years ago.  It was great catching up and seeing his daughter again.

Monday Steve took off for Cape Kennedy.  He had an interesting day, while I did laundry and some cleaning.  Tuesday we went to the Magic Kingdom and had lunch in the Be Our Guest restaurant in the Beast's castle.

Later, we take a break for a cold snack.

 Wednesday was a day for running around.  We dropped Obi off at a kennel for the rest of our stay at Disney, as we expect to be out most of the days.  Obi never likes being kenneled and usually barks as we leave, but this time, after a bit of pouting, he trotted off with the lady without a backward glance.

One of the places we used to visit is Skycraft Parts.  This place has a little bit of everything.  The only thing we found that we needed was a set of funnels.  But its a fun place to poke around in.

After Skycraft Parts, Steve and I tried a restaurant recommended by Chris, 4 Rivers Smokehouse.  It was delicious!  We also made a stop at the outlet mall, which was only somewhat less crowded.  I did manage to find a top.

As we headed back to Ft. Wilderness, a front moved through.  The clouds were thick and threatening and soon the skies opened.  The rain poured for hours.

Thursday we had an appointment to have new front jacks installed in a town about an hour from here.    Steve drove the trailer down, while I went to the All Star Sports hotel to wait for Natasha's family to arrive.  Here's my little Maria!  She talks with her hands already!

Thursday afternoon we went to Epcot.  Steve called with the bad news that the trailer wouldn't be done that day.  We scrambled around and were able to get a room at All Star Sports.  Steve packed an overnight bag for us and headed back for Disney.

Friday we headed for the Magic Kingdom.  After lunch, I listened to the piano player at Casey's Corner.  We've stopped and listened every time we've been at Disney since our first trip in 1973.

 The kids around started dancing and were having a great time.

Then Steve and I headed to pick up the trailer.  It's fixed and now has automated front and back jacks and leveling, which turned out to shorten our set up time by quite a bit.

Saturday the group went to Disney Studios.  I've been struggling with a sore foot and decided to take the day off.  Resting my foot proved to be a good idea and I got lots of rest.  I was ready to hit Animal Kingdom on Sunday.

Sunday Mike had to leave and head back to Dallas.  The NBA All Star break is over and the Mavericks have a game on Tuesday.  Natasha, Olga and Mari go home on Tuesday, we leave on Tuesday also. (Mike is the director of player development for the Dallas Mavericks.)

So, I'm up to date.  We just finished watching Downton Abbey and it's time for bed.  Natasha has decided to go to the Magic Kingdom tomorrow, so we'll meet up with them there.

Stay tuned!

Deb

Thursday, February 6, 2014

We just spent the day at Lion Country Safari.  It was nicely placed for a stop between the Everglades and Walt Disney World.  They have a KOA campground next door and tickets were included.  They have a drive through safari and apparently conditions were right as a lot of the animals were active, running and playing.  The two male lions even had an altercation while we were there.   There was a keeper in the area in a pickup truck who drove between them when they broke apart and visually separated them.  They each settled down with a female lady near by and all was well.

But most of the animals seemed frisky today.  The zebras were kicking up their heels and most animals were up and moving around, sometimes blocking traffic.  Even the chimpanzees were active.

The drive through part of the  park is divided into 6 sections.  The first section was labeled Las Pampas, named after grasslands in South America.  

 They had Llamas and storks

 Ostrich's cousin the Rhea, the South American Tapir (behind the white Rhea) and large Aldabra tortoise.  The tortoise around the park were especially active compared to what we are used to.

The Nile Lechwe were new to us.  From the Nile valley, the mature males are dark. The females are light.

Also new to us was the kulan from central Asia.  They look like donkeys and are a relative of the horse.  They can run up to 45 mph.

Here is one pair of the lions after their altercation.  All is well.

This was the sign as you entered the lion area, which was double fenced.  I don't want to be there when they have to close the gates.

We haven't seen any camels at zoos for awhile, but there were two here.

There were lots of ostriches, most of whom had their feathers all ruffled out.

  And the Watusi cattle were there.

 There was a large herd of white rhinoceros and one black one.

 They also had a large herd of frisky zebras.  I picked a picture that just showed one, as the group shots made me dizzy. Too many black and white lines!

The giraffes were too far away to get a decent picture.

After the drive through safari, we had lunch at the restaurant in the walk around area of the park.  There were other animal displays, more birds, parrots and flamingos.  We listened to one animal talk on flamingos and attended a small animal show, where we got to see a small hedgehog.  They are cute!

All in all a fun day.  Tomorrow we head for Disney!

Deb

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

I forget how many stars there are that we just don’t see in populated areas.  We stayed two nights at Midway Campground in Big Cypress National Preserve and will be here at Long Pine Key Campground in the Everglades for one more night.  The clear skies are filled with stars at night.  At Midway, there are about 30 trailer sites around a pond.  When I took Obi out at night, there were a multitude of stars, the sliver of a moon hanging over the horizon and a few trailer lights reflecting in the pond.  It was peaceful and serene.

Midway Campground in the daylight

Since we left Dallas, we had been having trouble with the right front trailer jack.  Sometimes it wouldn’t go out all the way, sometimes not in all the way.  We had some work done on it in Houston, which lasted for a night or two.  By the time we reached the villages, Steve had decided that he should be prepared for complete failure.  So he and Uncle Eep spent the afternoon  at Home Depot and then in Eep’s garage fixing up a substitute.  Which turned out to be very wise, as the next morning when we were getting ready to leave, the jack would come up only about 4 inches from the ground.  We made it to a local RV dealer, where they removed the jack entirely.  The dealership was great.  They had a nice waiting room (dogs allowed) with plenty to read.  The motor home sitting outside the door was on sale for a half a million dollars  and I swear they had 100 of them out back.  Way out of my league.  But they took good care of us and we were on our way to Bradenton, Fl.

So we are now limping along with a makeshift jack.  Steve has an appointment to have hydraulic jacks installed on Feb. 13 by a dealer who specializes in that.  Hopefully that will solve the problem.  If anyone wants more details, email Steve.

We were late getting into Bradenton (7:30) and it was dark.  The lady at the entry kiosk gave us a map to our site and assured us that there were plenty of fifth wheelers around there to help us get backed in.  We drive around and find the site is a 90 degree back in with a big metal box on one side and a raised picnic platform on the other.  Luckily, two neighbors came out, looked at the site and suggested we call and tell them no way.  There was one pull through site on the other side of the park available and we were able to get parked relatively quickly.  Did I mention it was raining?

It was still pouring the next morning.  We had laundry to do and Steve was taking the truck in for it’s 5000 mile check up.  He helped me get the laundry going and took the truck in.  The laundry was just finishing when he returned.  We were at 4800+ miles and they wouldn’t do the checkup and oil change.  GM pays for it the first two years, but not until after you reach 5000 actual miles.  So maybe we’ll do it in Orlando.

One of my uncles lives in Cortez, just outside Bradenton, so we called him and had lunch with him and Shelia.  They were going to take us to an outdoor fish market, but it’s outdoors and it was still raining.  So we went to a restaurant on the beach.  It was fun to watch the ocean and catch up with family.  We had dinner plans with Ken and Rochelle Burns, so it was on to their place.  They have a condo that overlooks a wilderness area and has a launching spot for their kayaks. It’s a great location.

Then we headed for Big Cypress National Preserve and the Midway Campground.  Big Cypress is just north of the Everglades and might as well be part of it.  It has finally stopped raining.  We see lots of birds and alligators along the canals.  Various attempts to drain the Everglades have occurred over the years and the canals seem to be remnants of that activity.

While at Big Cypress, we stopped at a photographer’s gallery, Clyde Butcher.  He’s the Ansel Adams of his day.  He only shoots in black and white.  While he takes pictures around the globe, he has focused on the Everglades.  He has some beautiful pictures.  Check them out on line. This sculpture is out front.

This is supposed to be the dry season, but it has poured buckets.  I think that, as well as the higher temperatures, has contributed to fewer wildlife sitings.  But we’ve still seen egrets of many kinds, anhingas, white ibis, white pelicans, brown pelicans and the endangered wood stork.  We even have a cardinal that was attacking our back window.  We saw the white pelican this summer on our road trip.  They summer on the lakes in the west and winter at the ocean.

I’m sitting at our picnic table in Long Pine Key Campground.  Steve has managed to get us Internet access, although it’s the only utility we have.  It’s shaded and there is a nice breeze which is good since it’s 85 degrees.  We drove down to Flamingo today, which I think is the furthest south you can take a car in the park.  It’s campground has electricity and a reputation for lots of mosquitoes.  Some lots also have a distant ocean view.  This campground requires a reservation and was booked up when we were looking for a place to stay, so we returned to Long Pine Key, where we stayed last year.  It has a picnic table, fire ring and paved spot for a trailer at each site, but nothing else.  There are central restrooms and a dump station and potable water available.  With the senior discount, it’s $8 a night.  We can easily manage dry camping for several nights, although I managed to run our batteries out last night with the vent fan trying to keep cool.   Steve will charge them up again today with the generator and we’ll see how long they last tonight.  He thinks they probably need replaced.

We have stuff that runs on 12 volts and stuff that runs on 120 and I’m beginning to understand what is what and what I can use when.  Oh, and then the stuff that runs on propane or electric - the hot water heater and the refrigerator.   And I need to make sure to charge my computer when we have 120 or the generator running.  The extra long battery life on my computer will come in very handy I’m sure.

While we were at Flamingo today we had lunch at a shaded picnic table overlooking the ocean.  I could have sat there all day.  There was a strong breeze coming from the ocean keeping it nice and cool. This was our view at lunch.

If you look at the second picture closely, you might see two canoes out on the water.  There is a lot of canoeing and kayaking here.  There are even canoe trails through parts of the Everglades.  I'm not sure I'm up for canoeing in an area with both alligators and crocodiles.  But lots of people do.

The sun has gone down and the generator needs to be shut down soon (quiet hours), so I'll sign off for now.

More adventures later!

Deb

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

I’m writing this (offline) as we travel  US 98 across the Florida panhandle.  It’s 8:30 am and my phone says the local temperature is 39 degrees.  I’m listening to the local NPR station as they announce closings right and left because of the weather coming through.  They expect to have freezing rain later today and have closed all schools for 2 days and are asking everyone to not go out unless absolutely necessary.  Wind chill warning - temperatures will feel like 25 degrees.

They are predicting freezing rain (.1 inch) and snow (up to an inch).   The air base at Pensacola is closing early and may not open tomorrow.  Only essential personnel are to report.  Down here, the real problem is no one knows how to drive in this.  And they have all these bridges over bays and rivers that will freeze.  One accident on a bridge may shut down traffic the surrounding areas for hours.

We think that’s what we ran into as we traveled across Louisiana.  We left Texas in rain and cold temperatures.  Houston stations were encouraging people to stay home and reporting salting and sanding of local roads and bridges.  In the first 87 miles into Louisiana in Interstate 10, we came to stand still stops 3 times.  We got off I10 and headed north to US 190.  That’s when we noticed that there was snow in the valleys on some roofs.  It was cold enough to freeze the bridges, and as one trucker put it online, Louisiana’s department of transportation was no where to be seen.  Steve wondered if Gov. Jindal was consulting with Gov. Christie.   Police were out directing traffic but there was no sign of salt or sand on the roads.

We stayed on US 190 through Baton Rouge.  Steve thought we might need to get back on I10 to cross the Mississippi River, but US190 has it’s own bridge and there was a warning on line that traffic was backed up on the I10 bridge.

As we crossed the river, I could see the I10 bridge and make out the silhouettes of the semi’s, which weren’t moving.  We ended up staying on US190 until we reached Fontainebleau State park after 7 that night in the dark.  A six hour drive took 10 hours.  It would have been longer without the iPhone.   Luckily we had a pull through site and were set up quickly.

I wish we had a day at Fontainebleau, but we extended our stay in Houston.  The park is on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain across from New Orleans and is filled with beautiful old trees dripping with Spanish moss.  When we checked in, the ranger had us take a certain route to the campground and suggested we stay in the middle of the road to avoid low hanging branches.  I was wondering why they don’t trim some trees.  We have a reasonably tall rig, but there are much taller ones.  Well, you don't trim trees that are several hundred year old.  The road wove through the trees and we managed to get through without problems. 

Up early the next morning, Interstate 12 took us to Interstate 10 through Mississippi and Alabama.  Mississippi  had obviously sanded its bridges and we had no problems there.  We stopped at the Mississippi Welcome Center for a break and to pick up a map.  Once again we had a lovely building and a display of Mardi Gras costumes.  (Louisiana rest stops were OK, but suffered in comparison to Texas).  

 

I tried to get fancy with the formatting and was unsuccessful. One of these years I'll know the secrets of blogging!

At the coast, Mississippi is only 75 - 80 miles wide, so we passed through quickly.  Alabama is even narrower.  Looking at the maps, I’d love to know how these two states lost much of what might have been their coast line if the state boundaries were mostly straight from north to south.  I’ll have to research that.

We made it to Henderson Beach State Park in Destin, Florida, in mid afternoon.  Since rain was predicted for the next day, we grabbed Obi and went on the short nature trail.  

Reindeer moss at Henderson Beach State Park.

I am way out of shape!  But we hiked the dunes and saw the ocean.  Later I walked to the beach from our campsite and put my toes in the water.  It’s cold!

 Sunset on the Beach

Watching the storm come in.

The state park is IN Destin.  Walmart is across the street.  But it’s acres of never developed land and protected dunes and wonderful beaches.  The sand here is sugar sand, pure white.  Its ground up quartz, not shells.  Very few shells, as the shallow area extends for quite awhile and the shells get ground up.  When I took Obi out for his bedtime walk, we could hear the ocean from our campsite.  Each campsite is surrounded by dense vegetation and has a nice wide area to park the RV.  

It did rain the next day, so we headed out for lunch and a bit of shopping.  A search through the AAA guide found us a restaurant on the beach that served blue crab, my favorite food. 

 Two moms were on the beach with their kids near a neat play area.  Of course all the kids wanted to play with was the sand.

 We had a good meal and then hit Walmart for some shopping.  Back at the trailer, Steve attended a bank meeting while I did some more organizing.  By the time we get home, we might have most things stored where we want them.

Obi’s becoming more comfortable in the trailer.  At home, he doesn’t sleep with us anymore.  We disturb him when we turn over, so he sleeps in his bed on the floor.  Since we’ve been in the trailer, he’s wanted to be in the bed with us.  For the last two nights, he hasn’t asked to be lifted up to the bed, so he’s sleeping in his bed on the floor.  He’s also going down the stairs to get out of the trailer, although he’s not interested in climbing the steps to get in.  He’s still not very happy in the truck, poor boy.

At the moment we seem to be outrunning the weather.  The truck says it’s 50 out.  Spoke too soon.  Steve wanted me to drive and shortly after it started raining.   It’s stopped again.

We’ve been passing through Florida cattle country.  Looks a bit like Texas.  Suddenly the scenery changed.  Looks a bit like the everglades with few trees.  We are driving through Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park.  I never thought about prairie in Florida.  I relate that to the Midwest.  That’s whats fun about travel - you’re always learning something!

After the prairie, came horse country.  And this is serious horse country.  We passed at least 3 estates that had their own race track.

My blog mentioning my Mac Book caused some feedback.  It’s nice to know someone’s reading the blog.  Let me start with, whatever frustrations I’m having with my Mac, I wouldn’t go back.  First of all, I wouldn’t be using my Dell in the car on my lap.  The Mac (actually a Mac Book Air to be accurate) is lighter weight, doesn’t generate as much heat and has hours more battery life than my Dell.  It also boots up faster and in whatever state I shut down in.  

When Steve told me the Mac had 8 to 10 hours of battery life, I wasn’t impressed. I should have been.  I rarely ran my Dell when it wasn’t plugged in, so who needs that much battery life?  That has changed.  I’m writing in the car.  I put it on the counter for my cookbook when I cook.  I use it on the bed when I want.  I’ve once run it down to 20% battery, but I am pretty good about keeping it charged.

With my Dell, I had 30 years of experience with some of the software and had accumulated various programs to do things I like to do.  Invitations, scrapbook pages, T-shirts, photo editing, slide shows, no problem.  For the family bridal showers I usually created the invites and thank yous, maintained the guest lists and produced mailing and return labels.  I’m not geared up for all that yet.  So it’s a learning curve and I get impatient.  I also haven’t had the time since I’ve gotten the Mac to spend enough time to know what software I need to get and what’s already on the machine that I haven’t used yet.  So while there are some rough spots, I'm not looking to go back.

One more reason to love my truck - heated seats are better than a heating pad for a sore back!  This is another luxury that I never would have paid for if it didn’t come standard with all the bells and whistles Steve wanted.  And somehow I always need it the mornings we're packing up for a day on the road.

We’re pulled in and parked at a campground near the Villages in Florida.  It’s 75 degrees!  After 6 weeks on the road, we found WARM weather.  I thank Steve regularly for getting me out of the Midwest for what has to be the worst weather we’ve had for years.  We’ll visit with Steve’s Uncle Eep tomorrow and head for Bradenton on Thursday.

Keep warm!

Deb