QC01-12 A slow warm up

March 4, 2010 (Thu)  Alexander Springs CG 39/56° (7)  - The fellow across the way, from Quebec, seems not to mind the cold. When we go outside we are bundled up in jeans, turtle neck shirts and sweatshirts. He either doesn't have a shirt or chooses not to wear one. We haven't seen him in a shirt since he got here 5 days ago. He does have long pants though. They were hanging out on his clothes line one day. Yesterday he spread a towel out in front of his car and spent the afternoon sunbathing. The sun was warm but the breeze was enough for us to opt out of removing even our sweatshirts. Correction: we took them off while we were hiking the Florida Trail this afternoon.

When we turned the news on after supper we learned that the rocket launch scheduled for today had been postponed until 6:48. Florida is so nonchalant about the space program that a rocket launch is not news until it has happened, is delayed, scrubbed, or has failed. They have no regard for those of us who would like to see one sometime. Well, we saw that one! We bundled up and hiked up the hill (as high as a hill gets in Florida) to the main road (and East a bit to get a better view) and waited. Finally, through the trees, we saw what looked  like a slow moving roman candle. It cleared the trees and moved out and to the East, apparently out over the Atlantic. It's mission was to place a weather satellite in orbit, not the shuttle, but it was exciting anyway.

March 5, 2010 (Fri)  Alexander Springs CG 34/64° (8)  - Another bad mark for Sears! Last summer, maybe earlier,  we began to suspect that one or both of our batteries needed replacing. So while we were home, we took them out and to Sears for testing - they are Sears Diehard batteries. Both tested good according to the fellow who apparently had more important things to do. Mark suspected that one of them wasn't completely "good" but didn't question the verdict because the tester was already walking away. The cold weather and heavy usage gave some justification for the problems we were having so we put off getting them retested. When we discovered that they were losing voltage even overnight with negligible usage and that we had to run the engine to close up the bed in the morning, we decided it was time. The Walmart in DeLand pronounce one battery almost dead and apparently getting life support from the other one. So now we have a new battery and what a difference! We went the whole evening without having to recharge them . And the voltage drop was only slight with normal use of lights and TV and running the furnace for a little while. Life is good!

March 6, 2010 (Sat) Alexander Springs CG 33/66° (9) - Update on our Canadian neighbor across the way: When he came back in the late afternoon yesterday - he was gone when we got back from DeLand - he was wearing a shirt with his shorts and flip-flops. To protect a sunburn? Had he been on a date? This morning, with the temperature up to 35° by then, he was again puttering around his campsite shirtless. Hardy people, those Canadians. Well maybe. He drives to the restroom 300 feet down the road. Actually it's less than that on a path through the woods.

Joy bought a jig saw puzzle while at the Walmart. It was a challenge to find a surface in our small motor home to work on it but we did and Joy spend the day with it. But even with Mark's sporadic help it wasn't finished before bedtime. Challenge #2: where to put it for the night. There is just space enough on top of the water tank under the bed for the board we are using. Life is good!

March 7, 2010 (Sun) Alexander Springs CG 33/67° (10) - There is a sign on the gatehouse stating that a campsite must be occupied the first night. One of the written regulations additionally states that a campsite can not go unoccupied for more the 24 hours. These are standard rules for most public campgrounds. When we returned from DeLand on Friday we noticed a tent had been erected on a site two down from us. There has been no sign of any one around it for nearly two days now. Rules are made to be broken. There are two young couples with kayaks on their cars next door. This morning the two fellows went over and carried the "unoccupied" tent over onto their site. Could that have been because of a conversation with the campground host yesterday? An hour later they began packing everything up, including the orphan tent, and left.

March 8, 2010 (Mon) Alexander Springs CG 42/70° (11) - The weekend is over and every one has gone. Almost everyone.When we walked around the campground this morning we found that there was no one in any of the 14 sites in Loop A, we are the only ones in our 16 site Loop B,  there is a cluster of 4 or 5 at the beginning of loop C and a hand full in loop D. From where we sit we can see the motor home and a trailer through the trees over on loop C but that's it. This afternoon a young couple pulled into the site across from us and set up a small tent. It reminded us of the time we were sitting  on the isle of an empty movie theater and two people came in and squeezed past us to sit in our row. The young campers were cute and fun to watch. They were obviously inexperienced with camping and reminded us of our first stumbling experiences.

There is a bike trail through the forest near the Florida trail. When we hiked it the other day we saw workers in the distance which let us to believe that they were preparing a controlled burn. And on our way back to the campground we'd seen smoke back that way. Today we saw that the burn had come right up to the trail, which had been cleared to make a fire brake. We were surprised that we had been allowed on the trail the other day.

March 9, 2010 (Tue) Alexander Springs CG 47/68° (12) - It was nice to be able to walk over to the facilities for our showers this morning without feeling like we were flirting with pneumonia. It's been kind of a do-nothing day. The forecasters predicted a chance of rain so we decided we'd just hang around. As it turned out there was no rain - a couple of sprinkles but that was it. In fact there has been sun off and on. More campers came in this afternoon, one right next door to us! As far as we know, there is only one other unit on B loop. We've come to the conclusion, and we've experienced it before, that the gate keepers, for whatever reason, assign campsites like parking attendants fill parking lots. Start at one end and put them in one after the other. The new folks next door are a family, mother, father, two boys (4 & 5) and an other male (brother? grandfather?). The kids are fun to watch, helping set up camp.
 
Q057046 Alexander Springs CG, Ocala National Forest. #45/31 dry $9.50 B- (x12)