2011 - Feb. 17 Day 9 Exploring Koreshan

A New York-born doctor named Cyrus Teed started a new religion in 1869. Teed took the biblical name "Koresh" and, in 1894, moved his following to Estero, FL where he planned to build his "New Jerusalem." It would be a great city where people would come to practice his religion of Koreshanity.

Long story short, even though he believed he was immortal, Teed died in 1908. The last 4 remaining members of his religion deeded 305 acres of their land to the state of Florida in Teed's memory. So the settlement and the park are here today to be explored by people like Marsha and me.

They give tours, demonstrations, etc. See the pictures for some of the stuff we did.

2011 - Feb. 16 Day 8 Arrived at Koreshan State Historic Site

We arrived at about 2:00pm. Blue skies and 75 degree temperatures welcomed us. We got settled in and took a walk around the campground.

Met a couple from Freeport, IL and visited with them for a while that evening. When our bottle of wine was empty, we went back to the camper and slept like babies.

2011 - Feb. 15 Day 7 Lunch with Marsha's cousins

Marsha's cousin, Mary Ann and her husband, Leroy live outside Palm Bay, about 20 miles from my dad. Mary Ann's sister, Marge and her husband, Tom are snowbirds, down from Chicago. So we all went to lunch today.

After lunch, the girls played cards and I pulled the memory out of Leroy's computer. He only had 512MB and was running Vista. Can you say "sssllllooowww?" We went to Best Buy and bought 2GB. He's got 2.5GB now. Runs good!

We checked crucial.com and a 1GB stick of memory was $19.95. It was $49.95 at Best Buy!! He bought it at Best Buy so I could install it while I was there because he didn't want to tackle the job himself and would have had to hire someone to install the Crucial memory anyway.

2011 - Feb. 14 Day 6 The plumber arrived.

No pictures today, but I just thought I'd tell you that the plumber arrived and installed a new shower valve. He charged $155 for the job. My dad thought that was a good price! If I had been at home and had my tools, the cost would have been $69.00 which is what a new valve costs down here at Home Depot; probably cheaper at Menards!

Anyway, the shower works.

2011 - Feb. 13 Day 5 Still at Dad's house

Just putzed around today. Here's a shot of the ol' man and me. He's hanging in there pretty well for a guy who's going to be 90 in April.

2011 - Feb. 12 Day 4 At Dad's house

As you can see, the driveway was pretty jammed up. The plan was to move Dad's car out of the driveway, put the camper into the carport, then put the cars into the driveway. In the midst of the shuffle, one of the neighbors pointed out a vacant house across the street and 2 lots down, and said we could park the camper and our car there.

So I backed the camper into the carport and parked the car in front of it. While I was doing that, two more neighbors came out to check out my plan and gave their blessing. So half the neighborhood's on board with it so I don't think there will be a problem.

Then, from mid-morning until about 3:30, I was involved in trying to fix a faulty shower valve in the guest bathroom. The problem was 1) Only a trickle of water would come out of the shower head and 2) That's where Marsha and I bathe!

After familiarizing myself with the superior plumbing system installed in a 30 year old manufactured home and two trips to Home Depot (no Menards here), we called a plumber. He'll be here Monday morning.

More later!

2011 - Feb. 11 Day 3 Final leg to Dad's house

We got up and ate breakfast in the camper and we were on the road at about 8:30. When we got to High Springs, I found the car wash that we had used before and washed the grime off of the car and camper. Not the best wash job I've ever done, but the rig looks half way presentable.

We jumped onto I-75 and drove the 65 miles or so to the Florida National Cemetery at Bushnell where my mother is buried. I left a small bouquet of fresh flowers and cleaned her stone before we got back on the road and headed toward Barefoot Bay and dad's house. We arrived at the house about 4:20pm.

2011 - Feb. 10 Day 2 Suwanee River Rendezvous RV Resort

Since we clocked so many miles yesterday, we were ahead of schedule, so we decided to check out this campground that was mentioned on the Aliner-Chalet Yahoo Forum. We got here at 1:00pm, so we had the afternoon to check it out. It's on the banks of the Suwanee River and offers a lot of warm weather activities. Unfortunately, today's high was 45 degrees.

Marsha and I took quick (and I mean quick) showers in the unheated shower house and spent some time visiting with the staff. We even had time to take a little hike around the property.

The current owners bought the place in December 2008 and have done a lot of work, but there is a lot more to do. For $17 per night or $300 per month for a site with water and electricity, it's worth coming back in warmer weather to maybe do some kayaking on the Suwanee River.

Tomorrow, it's on to my dad's place with a quick stop at the Florida National Cemetery at Bushnell to visit my mom.

Catch up with you later.

2011 - Feb. 09 Day 1 Home to Jackson, GA.

We left the house at 7:58am with a temperature of 7 degrees. The drive to Marion, IL was uneventful, but things soon changed when we crossed paths with the winter snow storm coming from the west. We drove in snow from Marion to Nashville, seeing several vehicles in the ditches. About 30 miles west of Nashville, we stopped at a rest area and checked the RADAR. The leading edge of the storm was just getting to Nashville and it looked like, once we got to Nashville, we would be ahead of the storm and could stay ahead of it by heading east to Chattanooga rather than south to Birmingham.

The first two pictures below were taken in Nashville, where the roads were clear and dry. We made it to Jackson, GA, about 20 miles south of Atlanta, without encountering any more snow. We traveled about 770 miles today before "camping" at a Flying J truck stop.
When we got up the next morning there was some snow on the camper and a bit on the ground, but the roads were only wet. We hit the road at 8:05am.

2011 - Feb. 02 The Great Blizzard of 2011!

It started snowing about 10:30am on 2/1/11. By evening, we had about 11 inches on the ground. When I went out at 7:00pm, most of the snow in my driveway was as high as the opening on the front of the snow blower. Glad I went out that evening because we got an additional 4 - 5 inches over night. If I hadn't made a dent in it on the evening of 2/1, there's no way I'd have gotten through it the next morning. I took the pictures below after I got back in the warm house on the morning of 2/2. The pictures were taken from various doorways around the house. I'm staying indoors until the snow melts!

Wish I had one of these!
http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=tPg1ZMiC9pA

2010 - Nov. 25 Thanksgiving with the Grandkids

We spent the day a Chad & Faith's house. The place was full of people. Faith has a large family. We just had Chad take a few pics of us with Adi and Grayson. It was a good day.

2010 - Oct. 10 We're home!

We rolled in this afternoon about 3:00. I took some pics of the fall colors as we came across Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. I'm wondering why we drove 3,300 miles to see fall colors. There was more of it out east, but the hardwood colors with the golden corn stubble fields were just as pretty.

It was a good trip. We made it with no problems.

2010 - Oct. 9 Laurel Hill State Park to Springfield, OH

Not a very exciting day. Drove 281 miles and ended up at Tomorrow's Stars Resort in Springfield, OH. Marsha has a splitting headache and is lying down. It's 5:00pm. We'll get home tomorrow. I think everyone is ready.

No Internet here, just like the last several nights, so I'll post when I can.