2018-02-07 - 14 Silver Springs State Park

We had a huge campsite at Silver Springs State Park. We could have parked three class A motor homes in it with no problem. Seems like we spent the whole first day at Walmart, which was about five minutes away. 

On Saturday, Don and Dennis came from The Villages for a visit. Dennis' wife, Susie, had gone back to Nashville and Don's wife was busy with one of her clubs, so they brought brats and beer and we sat around and had a nice lunch while we visited.

On Sunday, we went to visit Thom and Kara in Ocala. Kara is our friend Susan's (who lives in Arizona) daughter. They have a beautiful home. We hung out there for a while before going to the Ale House for a nice lunch.

Turns out, our neighbors across the road in the campground, Joe & Delores, are from Riverton, IL. Susan taught middle school there about a hundred years ago and she had their son, Jeff, and maybe their daughter, Jodi, in her class! Small world!

On Monday, even though the forecast was for rain, we went over to Silver Springs and walked around. When it started raining, we sat in the Adirondack chairs under a shelter and watched the rain hit the water for about an hour.

The cormorants were doing a bit of "gang hunting," but it looked like synchronized swimming. Pretty cool!

We left the campground on Wednesday morning for the three hour (+) drive to Long Point Park in Melbourne Beach. The park is on one of the barrier islands near the Sebastian Inlet. More on that later.

2018-02-04 - 06 Super Bowl Party & Stuff

We woke up on Super Bowl Sunday to a blue sky and pleasant temperatures, but as we made the hours and fifteen minutes drive to the Villages for the Super Bowl party, we got into the rain and cooler temperatures. It rained into the evening, but we didn't care.
 
Carolyn usually goes to bed at 7:00, so the party turned out to a a PRE Super Bowl party. The party broke up and Marsha and I went to Dennis & Suzie's house, also in The Villages, to actually watch the game! We got there just in time for the kick-off. After the exciting game, I didn't feel much like driving back to the camper, so we accepted Dennis & Suzie's invitation to spent the night.

Monday morning, we sat around and visited for quite a while before heading back to the camper. We stopped on the way to eat lunch at the Square Meal Cafe in Salt Springs before going back to the camper and getting on the bikes for a ride down to the Springs. We saw some blue crabs and a couple of snorkelers there.

No pictures, but Tuesday (today), we did laundry and packed up the bikes & stuff in preparation for our departure tomorrow. We're headed for Silver Springs State Park which is probably less than an hour away, so we won't have to be in a big rush to hit the road.

See you at Silver Springs!

2018-02-01 - 03 At Salt Springs Recreation Area, Salt Springs, FL

We actually arrived at Salt Springs Recreation Area about 5:30pm on Wednesday, 1/31 after stopping in Satsuma, FL for a quick visit with friends Larry & Kris who used to live in Illinois many years ago. The campground here is very nice. It's a federal park with full hook-ups for $19.00 per night with our geezer card. 

On Thursday, we explored the park. Not much here that you can get to by car. We went down to the Springs and checked for manatees, but didn't see anything that looked anything like a manatee. There was a guy snorkeling at the mouth of the spring, but I didn't get a picture of him. I'm sure I'll get some before we leave because it's quite common for people to swim the despite the alligator warning signs! 

On Saturday, Larry and Kris came over with friends Jim and Jeannie who arrived Thursday from Quincy, IL. We had lunch at Bass Champions, a local sportsmen's restaurant. Then we drove down the road a ways to Rodman Recreation Area that is a state run facility with a very nice campground. We'll keep it in mind for next year.

Tomorrow (Super Bowl Sunday), we're driving down to The Villages to attend a Super Bowl party at camping friends Wayne & Carolyn's new house. Dennis & Suzie and Don & Anita will be there that we know of.

More later!

2018-01-27 - 31 The first five days of the 2018 Florida Trip

Although there are no pictures for a few of the first five days, I thought a little narrative might be appropriate. We drove 640 miles in the rain to get south of Atlanta, so it had been a long day. 

SHIT! The first night on the road, we arrived at exit 201 off I-75 in Jackson, GA where we always get a bite to eat and spend the night at the Flying J truck stop. I had the bright idea to explore the area before going to the Flying J and see if there were any other restaurants in the area. Well, we quickly ran out of possibilities and turned into a rural subdivision to find a place to turn around. It was dark and when I tried to turn around, I jackknifed the trailer into the side of the truck, putting a nice crease in the rear quarter panel. SHIT! 

So, we went back to the Flying J and ate at the Denny's like we always have, and should have in the first place. We got some sleep, although neither of us slept well, and ate breakfast at the Waffle House across the street before heading for Crooked River State Park in St. Marys, GA. 

We got to the park about 3:00 to find that they were in the midst of a big campground refurbishment and only about one third the usual number of sites were inhabitable. We were lucky enough to get a site, albeit a handicapped accessible one. We got set up, I played my didgeridoo for a while, we had munchies for dinner, and hit the sack early.

Monday morning, as I was eating breakfast, I noticed that there was water dripping from the place there the water spout connects to the body of the fixture. Upon further inspection, I discovered that the compression nut was made of cheap plastic and there were several cracks around its perimeter. Fat chance I'll find a replacement in St. Marys of the neighboring town of Kingsland! I checked Ace Hardware, then went to a nearby KOA hoping they would know where there was an RV supply shop. They did. The nearest one is in Jacksonville, FL., but he suggested that the local Lowe's might have something that would work.

Of course, Lowe's didn't have the chrome replacement part, so I got to thinking that a compression nut of the correct size should work. After about ten minutes of rummaging around the fittings section, I came up with a Brass Reducing Coupling 3/4 in. FIP X 1/2 in. FIP. It worked perfectly! There's a picture of it below. Kind of gives the sink that industrial look!

So that took up a good part of the day. We had bought a bundle of firewood when we registered at the campground, so we decided to build a fire and cook some burgers. I had hopes that the wood we bought would actually burn, but in keeping with the majority of the wood be have purchased on this trip in past years, there were only one or two sticks in the bundle that could rightfully be called "firewood." After unsuccessfully trying to identify said sticks, and burning up two fire starters doing it, I just dumped the whole bundle into the firepit and torched it with a third fire starter. The burgers were great!

Tuesday afternoon, we had a couple of beers down the road at The Bloody Bucket, a bar that's about the size of my backyard shed. After that, we went into St Marys and took a quick walk along the waterfront. The hurricane earlier this year caused so pretty severe damage which was in the process of being repaired. It was cold and windy, so we headed for Seagle's Saloon. We knew Cindy wouldn't be there because her parking place in front of the door was empty, save for the red traffic cone forbidding others to park there.

We went in and took what have become our traditional seats at the corner of the bar. Normally, Cindy would have been there on a Tuesday evening, but she had taken the week off. Stacey was very friendly and took good care of us. We had a couple of drafts before heading down the street for dinner at a seafood place we like.

Tomorrow, we head for Salt Springs Recreational Area, our first park in Florida. Stay tuned!

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2017-12-26 Christmas With the Kids

The kids arrived at our house around 11:00. They had their private (just them) family Christmas on Christmas Day and Christmas with Faith's family on Christmas Eve.

We all decided to go to Engrained Brewery for our "Christmas dinner." Lots less fuss and mess, and it gave Marsha and me one more thing to get the kids for Christmas. Only problem is that the only leftovers are what you bring home in a Styrofoam box. The food was good, as usual, and the beer was better!

There are no pictures of it, but Chad got me a didgeridoo. I played one in Australia and, evidently Chester, Santa's elf who keeps an eye on us to see if we're naughty or nice, saw that I enjoyed it and told Chad about it. I haven't quite got the circular breathing mastered, but when I do, the people in the campgrounds will really be impressed!