QC31-16 Back to sea level

April 10, 2013  (Wed) Mars Hill, NC (10) 52/82° - An unremarkable day in the mountains.

April 11, 2013  (Thu) Mars Hill, NC (11) 54/74° - The main activity today was getting ready for the party Saturday. Joy helped Bob and Pat clean, shop and fix some of the food. Mark did his best to stay out of the way while he worked at putting our combined iPhone contact list in order.

April 12, 2013  (Fri) Mars Hill, NC (12) 53/72° - This was a day of preparation. Joy and Pat gathered the ingredients for tomorrow's party - not the least of which was the food. This included both shopping and cooking. Mark went with Bob to the weekly men's breakfast at the local greasy spoon (The Wagon Wheel) then went on into Asheville to shop for iPhones. Bob and Pat have resisted plunging this far into the modern world but seeing how handy a
synchronized calendar (on both their phones) could be was the straw that broke the camel's back. Then they picked up sons Tom and Jim at the airport. The gathering of people has begun.

April 13, 2013  (Sat) Mars Hill, NC (13) 40/68° - A cold start to Pat's 80th birthday. In spite of that all went very well. Preparing to host a throng or 35 (at least) people in a home environment is no easy task but it was accomplished and all who attended seemed to enjoy being together. The food was excellent, the conversation spirited and varied. Pat was well honored for having reached the status of octogenarian - though maybe dubious from her standpoint. Even so, Happy birthday, Pat.

Q089152 Bob and Pat's yard (x13)
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April 14, 2013  (Sun) Mars Hill, NC to Winchester, VA (408/3543 miles) 42/68° - The hills were ablaze with the light purple of many, many red-bud trees scattered among pale green budding deciduous trees. It was a beautiful drive up through the Shenandoah valley of Virginia. In spite of the cold start, we had to scrape frost off the windshields of both Q and Lamont before hooking up, it turned into an pleasantly warm day. Traffic was surprisingly heavy most of the way but it moved. The stress level was low. We saw gas at $3.08 but we didn't do that well. The Walmart in Unicoi, TN was our first stop ($3.22 with their gift card) and Harrisonburg, Va our second ($3.33). We arrived here at the Walmart in Winchester, VA at about 4:45 and pulled into a relatively level spot in the parking lot amongst several other RVs. We aren't going to be here alone tonight.

Thanks, Bob and Pat, for an interesting and relaxing two weeks. It was good to see Tom and Jim again for a short while and to spend some time with Ted.

Q089550 Camp Walmart, Winchester, VA
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April 15, 2013  (Mon) Winchester, VA to Home (275/3818 miles) 48/58° - It was a relatively quiet night in the Walmart parking lot. There were about seven other units when we came in and another arrived after we'd gone to bed. One fifth-wheel left before we got up but everyone else apparently decided to sleep in this morning. We weren't even seeing any activity when we left at 7:45. (Although we did see one of our neighbors getting diesel at the Flying J in Carlisle, PA when we stopped there around 10:00) The off and on spritzing rain made driving less than optimal but, all in all, not bad. The temperature didn't vary much as we came up I-81 but it began to drop as we crossed Pennsylvania on I-78.

We normally stop at the Flying J in Carlisle to fuel up, where it is usually at a good price, and to dump our holding tanks. We got the gas we needed but could not dump because Flying J was having problems with its sewer. The Cabela's, a huge sporting goods box store, in Hamburg, PA came to our rescue. Although not allowed to now by regional (city, town, county?) ordinance, this store was set up for over night RV parking complete with sanitary flush facilities. While long term parking is banned the dump facilities are still operative. We repaid them by having lunch in their cafeteria and buying a pocket knife for Mark.

A traffic jam caused by an accident on I-78 in NJ delayed us somewhat but we arrived home at about 3:00. All was in pretty good shape. The winter winds and cold deposited a yard full of twigs and the lawn needs mowing already, these are to be expected, what we didn't expect was our FIOS (our TV/internet/phone connection to the world) being down - since Mid January! (We were recording Downton Abby to watch when we got home. We got only two episodes!) Even so it's good to be home.
 
Q089825 Home

QC31-15 Mountains with city break

March 31, 2013  (Sun) Ocala National Forest to Savannah, GA (241/2790 miles) 54/83° - Two white tail deer ran across in back of our campsite when we opened the door before breakfast. They must have come to see us off! Apparently we were the only ones leaving this morning as we had the dump station all to ourselves. In addition to her other travel preparation duties Joy added brushing the tree pollen off both Q's and Lamont's windshields. No wonder we've been sneezing so much.

We're a couple of weeks later leaving Florida this year and we can see it in the trees. What is normally just a touch of green is now a pale yellow-green haze of young leaves. Spring is coming to the south. Can its coming to the north be far behind? We got gas in Silver Springs (we had to) for $3.59. Prices are definitely dropping. If we could have waited, the Pilot station just over the border into Georgia boasted $3.35 and our discount would have made it $3.33. We finally got a refill for $3.42 at Walmart when we got here at about 2:50pm.

We have plenty of company here tonight. We count 16 other rigs parked around us. And there will, no doubt be more.

Q088807 Camp Walmart Savannah, GA
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April 1, 2013  (Mon) Savannah, GA to Mars Hill, NC (345/3135 miles) 52/77° - We had expected rain, even thunder storms, over night but there was very little. As we drove up I-95 there was evidence of past rain, but just enough wet on the roads that passing trucks caused us to have to run the wipers. Other than that and a general lack of sunshine, it was a beautiful drive. The trees, while not as far along as in Florida, showed plenty of budding green and subtle reds and oranges. The Red Buds and Dogwood sprinkled color along the roadsides.

The Flying J advertised great prices as we crossed into South Carolina so the thought we'd take advantage. So did half the I-95 road warriors. It took us 15 minutes to even get to where we could make our way through the crowd to leave - without getting any. It was just as well because we were able to do a whole lot better at the Costco in Spartanburg, SC. - $3.24

A black minivan pulling a black inclosed utility trailer passed us. On the back of the trailer in large bold lettering "The Hog, the Dog and Me". We guessed there was a motorcycle inside. A large sail boat, "Privateer" out of Newport, RI, passed us taking up more than its traffic lane. The traffic came to a very slow crawl about 10 miles south of Asheville, NC. The CB said something about two trucks and a car. We finally made it to an exit where we could get off and get around whatever it was on the back hill country roads choked with other traffic off the interstate - an adventure in itself with a car in tow! i.e. when the rare 4 lanes suddenly and without warning became 2, no amount of signaling prompted any driver to back off and let us merge. When we finally and with no other option began to ease over, we were rewarded with the angry blare of a car horn.

April 2, 2013  (Tue) Mars Hill, NC (2) 36/54° - Not much in the way of exciting activity today. We enjoyed time with Bob and Pat in front of their fireplace - warm atmosphere, warm fire. Dominoes in the evening.

April 3, 2013  (Wed) Mars Hill, NC (3) 29/52° - Frost on Lamont (and probably Q) this morning. Somehow the cold doesn't seem so bad right now. Maybe because we expect it to be cold this time of year in the mountains. Or maybe it's the warm fire that awaited us inside.

We took off for Chattanooga, TN in Lamont at about 10:00 this morning. It turned out to be a longer trip than we anticipated but with a stop for lunch and gas ($3.24 at Walmart) we got there at about 3:15. Chattanooga is Joy's Mother's "home town" and many of the family are still there. Her cousin Sam and his wife Sallie were our hosts and "inn keepers" - we had the run or their upstairs suite. It was good to see Sam after many many years and to finally  meet his wife. And to meet their daughter Susannah and her family who joined us for dinner.

April 4, 2013 (Thur) - We never got a temperature reading today but it was in the 60s which would not have been too unpleasant for touring the city had it not been pouring rain. Even so we had a great time, with Sam as our guide, visiting some family oriented sites around the city. One such was Joy's grandmother's house where she (Joy) lived for a year or so when she was five years old while her father was on active duty in the army. More cousins and families joined us for dinner at a wonderful local Italian restaurant in the evening. What a treat it was to be able to meet and visit with some many members of the family.

April 5, 2013 (Fri) - All too soon we had to say good-bye to Sam and Sallie. The time we spent with them was all too short - though we made the best of it by talking way too far into both nights. Thank you, guys, for the opportunity to renew family relationships.

Our trip back was uneventful except for one short slow-down which turned out to be a dead white tail deer and the front panel and bumper of a black car in the middle of the I-40 fast lane. There was no sign of the rest of the car. Traffic was backed up for miles southbound out of Asheville, NC as we approached northbound (fortunately).

April 6, 2013  (Sat) Mars Hill, NC (6) 34/64° - It's been rather a slow day. Joy did some laundry while Mark worked on bringing our Quicken (financial) data up to date. This was interrupted briefly so that we could go to the local farm market and grocery shopping with Bob and Pat - and not so briefly with spells of reading and visiting.

April 7, 2013  (Sun) Mars Hill, NC (7) 43/67° - Church in the morning and reading in the afternoon. This was the first time we've been able to don shorts in a long time - and then only in the warmth of the sun. We celebrated the promise of impending Spring by joining Bob, Pat, John and Marty for dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Weaverville.

April 8, 2013  (Mon) Mars Hill, NC (8) 47/68° - There's a great yarn shop (Friends and Fiberworks) in Asheville. Joy likes to see what they have whenever we are here. We don't always make it but we did today - well Pat, Kaye and Joy did. Mark and Bob spent the time checking out the Dollar Tree store as they usually do. Then we all went for lunch at Pappa's and Beer, our favorite Mexican Restaurant in Asheville - can't get too much Mexican. Maybe!
When we got back we  found Lamont's right rear hoof was very hot. Tomorrow morning we'll have a mechanic check it out.

April 9, 2013  (Tue) Mars Hill, NC (9) 49/76° - The mechanic could find nothing wrong with Lamont's wheel or any reason why it should have gotten so hot. He took it for a long test drive without a repeat of the problem. Pulling the wheel revealed nothing. Oh well, something else to worry about!

Joy enjoyed hanging the laundry on the outside lines - makes for nice smelling sheets. Mark finished up our tax returns with far less enthusiasm. Then, in the evening, we all went over to Kaye's house for a delicious spaghetti dinner and dominoes.

Q089152 Bob and Pat's yard

QC31-14 Starting North

March 24, 2013  (Sun) Ocala National Forest (6) 70/82° - As fast as they came, they left. There was much activity around the campground this morning as the folks around us packed up and, one by one, headed out. And we were practically alone here again - for a whole. Then more came to take their places. Ebb and flow. These seem to be mostly families though - little kids running around and bicycling all over the place. Easter week. School is out.

March 25, 2013  (Mon) Ocala National Forest (7) 60/72° - Joy's smartphone was having trouble with the camera close focus. i.e. it wasn't doing it. So a trip to the Verizon store in Silver Springs before their no cost exchange policy expired was in order. They said they couldn't help! They were a retail store, they said. We bought it from a corporate store. We'd have to go one on them. How does one tell the difference? Try to exchange something I guess. Anyway off we went to a "corporate store" west of Ocala where after intense questioning (the guy apparently couldn't believe there could be anything wrong with an iPhone) and much testing, rebooting, software updating and phone calling (help line?) he gave us a new phone - that focuses!

March 26, 2013  (Tue) Ocala National Forest (8) 43/59° - Weather. Everyone's talking about it but no one is doing anything about it. It just keeps getting colder. It's almost April in Florida and they are predicting possible frost tonight! The folks in tents, and there are a lot of them this week, are going to be shivering tonight. We remember many a night when the penetrating aspects of the cold made for very uncomfortable nights for us as we gained our camping legs. We learned to be prepared. The feather bed comes out tonight!

March 27, 2013  (Wed) Ocala National Forest (9) 35/62° - No frost this morning but we debated where we'd take our showers. At 35° we turned the furnace and water heater on, waited for things to warm up and showered on board. It was actually 1° colder here than at home, 1000 miles north!

We met Mark's sister Dorcas and Mike in Mount Dora and poked around in some of the shops of this touristy little town for a while. Lunch at The Frog and The Monkey with time to catch up on family and other news was a welcomed relief from walking and elbowing our way through crowded shops. It was so good to see them again and to hear more detail about their grandson's serious health incident. Thanks, guys for sharing and for our time together. Maybe next time we can find a campground closer for both of us.

March 28, 2013  (Thu) Ocala National Forest (10) 36/67° - It's been a long time since our last Costco fix - oh, and we needed some things we can only find at Costco - so we took off for Altamonte Springs this morning. It was also a way to get away from a cold campground and sit in a nice warm car for a while. On the way back we checked out the Wasabi Buffet Restaurant, a new for us (and maybe actually new) place south of Eustis. It turned out to be one of the best we've eaten in. The selection was smaller than most but the quality was excellent.

We welcomed Rudy Rooster to our family today. He is a most colorful traveling companion.

We spent the afternoon enjoying the relative warmth of our campsite. We are assured by the forecasters that the worst is over. (We've heard that one before!)

March 29, 2013  (Fri) Ocala National Forest (11) 39/72° - It's interesting how campground atmosphere changes. During most of the winter season solid sided RVs (trailers, motor homes, 5th wheels etc) prevail. But as the weather warms (most years!) the bigger rigs begin to thin out and tents take over, families with children replace retired senior citizens. And in the last few days rigs hauling dirty ATVs have invaded this part of Juniper Springs campground. And for some reason these groups seem to consist of at least two haulers with trailers and lots of children. We saw a sign on the road not too far from here advertising a "Mud Fest" - what ever that is. Could that be what it's all about? Anyway, the traditional camping season has begun in spite of the weather. We like the nontraditional kind better.

March 30, 2013  (Sat) Ocala National Forest (12) 42/81° - A cold start but the showers were hot. Our laundry trip to Silver Springs was uneventful except for learning how much the price of gas has dropped since we last ventured into Silver Springs - down to $3.59 in most stations. Our last afternoon in Florida was a gift, warm and relativity bug free. We took advantage and got a lot of reading done.

We spend tomorrow night in the Savannah, GA Walmart parking lot. Woo Hoo!

Q088566 Juniper Springs CG, Ocala National Forest #13 dry (x12)

QC31-13 More time in the forest

March 15, 2013 (Fri) La Belle, FL to Lakeland, FL (132/2447 miles) 43/72° - Another cold morning! It helped to be busy. After breakfast we scurried around and got ready to leave Ortona Locks. At 8:30 or so Joy threw the laundry into the back of Lamont and headed out for La Belle 8 miles to the west to get started on that dreaded duty while Mark finished breaking camp. His dreaded activity was dumping the holding tanks which he did and then met Joy at the laundromat. We hooked Lamont to Q in the parking lot of the out-of-business Save-a-Lot and we were on our way (64° clear). The best price we found for gas was $3.59/gal in Sebring, FL. This was down a bit from last week but not by much.

March 16, 2013  Lakeland, FL to Plant City, FL - Q is sitting this one out as Lamont takes center stage. This morning, we packed him up and headed 12(?) miles west to Plant City to visit Gordy and Ruth. We spent the afternoon and evening catching up on family doings. It's always great to see them when we are in the area.

March 17, 2013  Plant City, FL (2) - More visiting today interrupted by a jaunt over to a big mall south of Lakeland. Our intent was to see if Books-a-Million had the book Joy has been looking for and to see if Bed Bath and Beyond had the OrGreenic frying pan - it has a ceramic lining rather than Teflon - that we've been considering. Books-a-Million didn't have the book but they did have the frying pan (go figure!). We bought one. While Ruth and Joy went shopping in some of the clothing stores, Gordy and Mark went to the Verizon retail store to begin looking into getting smart phones (for us). In spite of the pretty young saleswoman's personal attributes, Mark resisted making a purchase.

March 18, 2013  Plant City, FL to Lakeland, FL - Now that we had some idea about what we wanted to do about reconfiguring our phone situation - Joy has been wanting a cell phone of her own for a while now - we thought we'd get a second opinion. The nice young salesman in another Lakeland Verizon store convinced us that an iPhone was really the best way to go, even though he himself had a Droid. We took the plunge. Joy now has our old home number, Mark has our old cell number.

Interesting (though irritating) sidebar: When we began to seriously think about upgrading our communication, we could get some models of smart phones free from Verizon. By the time we actually did it, the "sale" was over!! The cost of procrastination.

Q088464 Ed & Kathy's yard
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March 19, 2013 (Tue) Lakeland, FL to Ocala National Forest (102/2549 miles) 61/84° - What a difference a few weeks make. When we were here last the campground was nearly full and on weekends it was jumping. Now there is hardly anyone here. We pretty much had our choice of any campsite we wanted. Being completely overwhelmed, we choose the site we were in the last time, #13. It is roomy and provides a choice of sun and shade depending on the weather.

March 20, 2013 (Wed) Ocala National Forest (2) 64/78° - Normally we would have taken today to recharge from the past busy period but this was the day Shane was to have surgery on his ear so we thought distractions would be healthier for us. So we drove into Silver Springs, did a laundry and indulged in a Chinese Buffet. Even then it was a couple of hours after we got back before we heard that the surgery was finished. Apparently it was more involved than the surgeon had expected but it was successful. More surgery may be needed though. Shane and parents are doing well and recovery is under way.

March 21, 2013  (Thu) Ocala National Forest (3) 47/64° - This has been a lazy day. Other than a bicycle ride around the almost empty campground our only productive activity was entering data into our new smartphones. It's amazing how much miscellaneous data - calendar, address book, shopping lists, book lists, to-do lists etc we are going to be able carry around in our pockets now. We will even be able to make phone calls from anywhere and take pictures and videos of catastrophic events to sell to the news media. Life is good!

March 22, 2013  (Fri) Ocala National Forest (4) 43/70° - We thought seriously about our showers this morning - whether to take them or not. Two months ago using the unheated public showers when the outside temperature is 43°  would have been out of the question. This morning we thought we might. It's interesting how we've been able to use this trip to Florida to become acclimated to the cold. Even so, we opted to wait till afternoon when the temperature was predicted to reach well into the 70s. It barely reached 70° - outside. The shower rooms weren't even that! - but we're used to the cold now.

March 23, 2013  (Sat) Ocala National Forest (5) 57/76° - From nearly empty to nearly full, the weekenders piled in late yesterday. There are many sites with gaggles of young people here to celebrate Spring. Fortunately, we are far enough away from them to not be bothered by their festivities - except when they walk by on their way to and from the springs to swim (or to look for wild turkeys as one group reported).

It has warmed up to pleasant again. We are back in shorts and t-shirts - an encouraging change even though it has rained off and on all day.

Q088566 Juniper Springs CG, Ocala National Forest #13 dry

QC31-12 Supplemental

March 20, 2013 (Wed) Ocala National Forest - At 12:30 am this morning we woke to a strange ringing sound. It turned out to be Verizon Wireless with a welcome text on Joy's new iPhone. What great folks they are at Verizon wireless - working all night just for us! So now Joy has her own cell phone and a number all her own. It's the number we both had on our land line (we no longer have a land line). Now when you call thinking you are calling us at home, you'll get Joy - somewhere. Mark has adopted our old cell number as his own. He too now has an iPhone. Oh, the learning curve!

QC31-11 College softball

March 7,2013 (Thu) Lakeland, FL to Labelle, FL (131/2315 miles) 40/77° - We said good-bye to Ed & Kathy (and shelties) at about 9:00 - thanks again guys for everything - and headed over to the Publix to stock up for a week at Ortona Lock Campground. This and hooking up Lamont took about 40 minutes then we were off down US 98 through Lakeland. Although we had a cool start the temperature was up to a clear 53° at 10:00 and 59° by 11:00 when we stopped for gas (USA Murphy $3.65). Lunch was in-house (a sub we'd picked up at Publix in Lakeland) in another Publix parking lot, then it was back on the road. Smoke from several fires - we never learned the sources - made for hazy driving down SR 60 but it had cleared by the time we turned onto US 27 South. By 1:15 we were in our campsite and ready to enjoy our view of the Okeechobee Waterway.

March 8,2013 (Fri) Labelle, FL (2) 44/76° - When we bought our bicycles five years ago or so we were told that the tires were designed to not have flats. We knew that was probably an exaggeration but it seemed to be true. We've had no flat tires in all the time we've had them. As we were coming back from our ride out to the main road today Mark discovered that his rear tire was going flat! Since we've been so many years without having a flat tire, we didn't have a repair kit with us so we ended up having to walk the mile plus back to our campsite. It turned out to be a sticky valve. A little silicone spray may or may not have fixed it.

March 9, 2013 (Sat) Labelle, FL (3) 48/78° - It didn't fix it! The tire was dead flat this morning. On to plan B. It really needs a new valve but lacking the tools to remove and replace it Mark put in a whole new tube.

 A retired salesman(?) for Blue Ox (the RV tow bar people) gave a talk on RV safety in the pavilion in the late morning. We learned a couple of things.

We like being where we can watch the wildlife. As do most of the folks who spend a lot of their time one the road. At the end of our bike ride this afternoon, we took a spin up around the rest of the campground. We were curious to see if the site we will be moving into tomorrow is still empty - it was earlier today. As we approached the site we saw a crowd of people on the road taking pictures of a rather nondescript, rather uninteresting fifth wheel trailer parked near-by. It turned out there was a huge, maybe even super huge, swarm of bees covering one of the storage hatches. We learned this evening that the swarm has moved inside (the storage space?). The folks who live there have taken a room in nearby Labelle, FL.

March 10, 2013 (Sun) Labelle, FL (4) 54/77° - Moving day - for us and apparently for half the campground. We are now up in the eastern loop in the site next to the one we were in back in February. It's a clear bright day with a few clouds in the sky. We have a beautiful view of the waterway out our dining room window. In the afternoon the wind began to increase. We're told that a cold front is coming in, though the temperature won't drop much. I guess that's what the wind is all about.

A class A motor home just drove by with it's windshield completely covered. The driver must have been able to see out, apparently not very well because he was driving on the wrong side of the road, although it looked pretty opaque to us. I guess he was moving to new site too.

March 11, 2013 (Mon) Labelle, FL (5) 61/78° - The temperature this morning was the same as it was when we went to bed last night.  We took off for Lee County Sports Complex (about 50 miles West) at about 10:30 to watch Jackie's college softball team. They played 2 games, unfortunately won neither. Jackie played in the first game and got one hit in two at-bats. After the games we took her to a Buffalo Wild Hot Wings restaurant for nourishment. They are off tomorrow but we'll be going back over on Wednesday.

And speaking of wildlife, there was an osprey nesting on top of one of the ball field light towers. Every once in a while he would come swooping down over the field and glide off over the terrain beyond. It was interesting in that he came down so low he could well have been hit by a fly ball if the timing had been right.

March 12, 2013 (Tue) Labelle, FL (6) 63/71° - Took a walk out along the waterway to the east this afternoon. We've not thought to do that before - actually we're not sure we're allowed since there is a gate we had to climb over to do it. We followed a roughly mowed dual path (for vehicles) completely devoid of human habitation on our, the south, side of the canal. Farms and a small village decorated the north side. Mark worked on taxes and Joy mostly read in the morning and late afternoon.

March 13, 2013 (Wed) Labelle, FL (7) 49/68° - Cold this morning. Mark reports that the shower in the men's room barely got above lukewarm which didn't do much to improve his body temperature. Joy says hers was hot.

We spent another day in Fort Myers watching Jackie play softball. It was another disappointing day for them although it looked for a while that they would win the second game. As disappointing as it may have been, we could see considerable improvement demonstrating to us how beneficial the concentrated schedule has been for them. There were ospreys on the light poles in these fields too (we were in a different sports complex today) but they were more interested in talking with one another than buzzing the field. It was sea gulls who handled dare devil duty there.

It has been wonderful to be where we can get to watch a few of Jackie's ball games. And seeing her and spending some time with her was a real treat.

March 14, 2013 (Thu) Labelle, FL (8) 46/70° - Mid March in Florida isn't supposed to be this cold. Here we are camped beside a beautiful waterway with boats both large and small, power and sail occasionally going by, destinations unknown, on their way to and from the locks. We should be enjoying the view and the wonderful warm sunshine but the wind, gusty and strong sometimes, has a chill in it that makes 70° seem colder than it should. It's our last day here - tomorrow we begin our slow trek north.

The excitement for the day here was a fairly long confab outside the public rest rooms. The Park Ranger and three other rather official looking gentlemen with clipboards seemed to be discussing changes to the rest rooms. Although they are clean and in good repair, they could be larger to accommodate the number of campers in this area of the campground. We hope that expansion was part of the discussion.

Q088332 Ortona Lock Campground #36&26 e/w $12g (x8)

QC31-10 A stint in civilization

February 27, 2013 (Wed) Hudson, FL (116/2128 miles) 63/76° - Domestic discussion: "They said they'd start [working on Q's back window] at 6:45" "I know but that was just to make sure we were up and ready when they did start. We could go on and eat breakfast." "I don't want to be in the middle of it when they come." "There are a bunch of other motor homes here. They won't start with us even if they do start at 6:45." "Wanna bet?" At exactly 6:45 a young fellow came to our door. "Ready for me to take your window out?"

Before noon we learned that we'd be spending another night in beautiful downtown RV-repair-parking-lot-ville. Apparently the type of seal needed for the door window requires a 24 hour curing period before it can be reinstalled. We celebrated by going to a Walmart to buy a gas can. Oh, and we found a Panera Bread for lunch. The good news is that they happened to already have a piece of tempered glass of the right shape to replace the bad one so they didn't have to have one especially made - which would have taken a week.

Q088145 Hudson, Fl Suncoast Designers parking lot(x2)
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February 28, 2013 (Thur) Hudson, FL to Lakeland, FL (56/2184 miles) 58/69° - We assumed that we didn't have to be up and prepared for a 6:45 am knock on the door this morning. They said yesterday that all the windows to be repaired are removed before the finished windows are installed. So we spent most of the morning watching young men carrying motor home windows on their shoulders parade into the shop. When we saw them carrying windows out of the shop we knew it wouldn't be long.

We got off at about 11:00 with our brand new rear window. Mark reports that a glance in the rear view mirror gives a momentary shock impression that the door had been left open. It's wonderful to be able to see traffic back there again. Joy likes being able to see what's going on out that way while we are parked.

When we got gas in Silver Springs we paid $3.91/gal thinking that was the best we could do. Wrong! Prices north of Tampa are running around $3.69. We even saw one station selling it for $3.59 this morning but we really didn't need any. We should have topped off anyway. Prices in the Lakeland area are $3.79. Grrr!

March 1, 2013 (Fri) Lakeland, FL (2) 49/68° - Ed and Kathy had to work today so Joy took the opportunity to do some shopping that she has been wanting to do. Unfortunately we couldn't find the Beall's Department Store where she thought it was. We ended up going all the way to the south side of Lakeland. Good news is that we found a Chipotle Mexican Grill near there where we had lunch. The rest of the day was spent relaxing.

March 2, 2013 (Sat) Lakeland, FL (3) 47/67° - We made another run to The Book Bazaar in Lakeland this morning. So now the five bags of paperback books we brought south to exchange have been reduced to one, producing about one and one half bags of new books to read. On our way home we stopped at Ling's Chinese Buffet for lunch.

Before we left home we had tried to suspend our subscription to Netflix as we have done in the past but found that this option is no longer available. It so happened that the movie we could not keep them from sending to us was the very popular Boomerang. After holding it out of circulation for 2 months we finally got the chance to watch it tonight. It was awful. 20 minutes into it we turned it off.

March 3, 2013 (Sun) Lakeland, FL (4) 39/64° - Other than going to church this morning, hanging out with good company during the day and dominoes in the evening, it's been a pretty unremarkable day. COLD!!

March 4, 2013 (Mon) Lakeland, FL (5) 37/73° - The coldest night so far in the current cold snap. Our feather bed is doing a wonderful job of keeping us warm. The news this morning is reporting a wild fire burning in the Ocala National Forest. As far as we can determine, it is very close to the campgrounds where we like to go and have been this year. We are wondering if either or both of them have been evacuated. I guess we'll find out when we go back there later on this month.

March 5, 2013 (Tue) Lakeland, FL (6) 47/76° - Most of today was devoted to Disney World Animal Kingdom. It was a great experience in spite of all the human animals. The highlight of the adventure was the Kilimanjaro Safari. We were loaded onto a large safari truck (with all manner of camping and hunting equipment on the roof) and driven out into the simulated (it was Disney after all) lush African savannah amongst such inhabitants as elephants, giraffes, lions, cheetahs  hippos and wart hogs (to name a few). We ate at Tusker House Restaurant which was a pricey though excellent buffet featuring African cuisine. All in all a day to remember.

March 6, 2013 (Wed) Lakeland, FL (7) 53/68° - Except for the enjoyment of hanging out with good company, today has been another one of those do-nothing days. Tomorrow we are back on the road again and back to Ortona Locks.

Q088201 Ed and Kathy's yard

QC31-09 More forest time.

February 19, 2013 (Tue) Juniper Springs CG (8) 43/71° - Mount Dora is a small touristy little town about 30 miles south of here. It would have been closer had we been at Alexander Springs CG but we are here. We did the touristy thing there, wandered the streets, visited small shops and ate lunch at a restaurant in the middle of the action. The restaurant was called The Lost Parrot and specialized in Key West/Caribbean sounding menu items - Mark had an Island Burger (a pineapple slice made it fit the theme). Joy had a Buffalo chicken salad (we're still trying to figure how that one fit). The background music featured a lot of Jimmy Buffet. In one of the shops, Joy got an appliqued, decorated sweatshirt similar to one she'd seen in Key West at twice the price.

One of our missions for tomorrow was to  shop for a microwave to replace the one in Q that was having issues. When we took it out to make measurements we concluded that only an exact replacement would fit. We knew from looking at them a week or so ago that the odds aren't good for finding one of those! So we took it completely out of its hole, dismantled it and Mark with Joy's help (Screw driver, screw driver....flashlight, flashlight.... scalpel, scalpel, etc.) fixed it. We have a microwave again! YES! But no electricity! Boo!

February 20, 2013 (Wed) Juniper Springs CG (9) 55/79° - We found a good Mexican Restaurant in Ocala - maybe not the best we've ever eaten in but the best in this area. We will go back to if we are in that area of Ocala again. And we will be because it is just down the road from Peggy's Quilt Shop - which turned out to be one of the best we've found in the Ocala area as well. Joy reports a fabulous collection of batiks and other fabrics. For those of you who are interested it was large, well lit and beautifully laid out. There were not so many fabrics as to be overwhelming, just enough to inspire (to buy).  And to add to the wonderfulness there is a Panera Bread two doors down!! We also found a very good used book store - relatively small but a good selection.

February 21, 2013 (Thu) Juniper Springs CG (10) 47/78° - Kind of a lazy day. We did take the opportunity to refresh our plumbing system, dump and take on water, after 9 days. A small problem at the dump station, the sewer was plugged up, caused that activity to take longer than we expected. Management had to come and snake it out.

Late this afternoon a fellow, who has been here since December, stopped by and said that he had heard Mark playing his guitar and thought he might be interested in knowing that there is a "Country Jam" every Thursday night at the Civic Center in Forest, FL if he was interested. It was too late to do it today but maybe next time we are here. He also suggested that they might want to get together in the campground and jam some time. He, like Mark, is shy about playing in public, but a small group of two or three might be OK.

February 22, 2013 (Fri) Juniper Springs CG (11) 57/81° - A day of reading and watching people come in for the weekend. As far as we can tell the campground is full again this weekend.

February 23, 2013 (Sat) Juniper Springs CG (12) 67/83° - We got up to take our showers early this morning. Teenagers have a habit of taking over the restrooms when they are here on weekends - especially in the ladies side where one teenybopper is apt to spread her stuff across the entire two person counter. Not a problem this morning though. Instead it was Mark who had to fight for space - he barely beat out another older fellow to one of the shower stalls. Apparently all the long--timers were trying to avoid the weekenders.

A Canadian couple (Bruce & Linda) from near Michigan's Upper Peninsula pulled into the site next to us this afternoon. They came over for happy hour and we really hit it off. It was really good to talk with someone whose mindset about camping and many other things is so close to ours. And they are sailors. They have a 36 foot sloop that they, among other cruises, have sailed from Lake Huron down the inland waterway, with side trips into Chesapeake Bay and The Great Dismal Swamp etc,  and out to the Bahamas (I think that's what he said). It's a shame they will be leaving tomorrow.

February 24, 2013 (Sun) Juniper Springs CG (13) 69/72° - We had our sometimes usual Sunday lunch, bagels with cream cheese. It was a bit more expensive than usual today though. We had to drive 30 miles into Ocala to the Panera Bread to get them. We also got a quiche to try. Delicious.

Larry, the fellow from PA who spends the winter here, came over with his guitar this afternoon. He and Mark "jammed" for a couple of hours before the rain came. They knew only one song in common but had great fun struggling through several others.

February 25, 2013 (Mon) Juniper Springs CG (14) 68/79° - John from Vermont and Wyoming makes guitars (and at least one ukulele). Mark heard him strumming his ukulele as he rode by on his bicycle and stopped to talk. Later he joined our jam so we had three guys who knew no common songs struggling to make music together. Half way through the session it began to rain, I mean RAIN, complete with thunder. They retreated to under the awning and continued to play, although the natural sounds tended to drown out the man made.

The evening news is reporting a tornado watch for our area. That sounds like fun.

Q088029 Juniper Springs CG, Ocala National Forest. #13 dry $9.50g (x14)
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February 26, 2013 (Tue) Juniper Springs CG to Hudson, FL (116/2128 miles) 66/74° - We were still under a tornado watch this morning although there was no sign of any unusual weather - until we began to break camp at about 8:30am. It was only rain and only just enough to make getting ready to travel miserable. By the time we got to the Silver Springs it was almost nighttime dark and raining so hard we had to wait in Q for it to let up before going into the laundromat. I say let up because it was still actually raining as we lugged our laundry bags and soap across the parking lot.

It finally stopped raining and turned into a relatively pleasant day - although the drive itself got harrowing as we approached the Tampa area, heavy traffic and construction. But we made it and here we sit, a little guy amongst the big boys (i.e. class B+ amongst class A motor homes) in an RV repair facility parking lot. At least we're at the end of the row where we have a view on one side better than a huge painted fiberglass wall 3 feet away. We'll be spending the night here so they can start bright and early (6:45) tomorrow repairing/replacing the window in our rear door which has gotten so foggy that we can't see out of it. They have electric hookups here but the reciprocal is for a 50 amp plug, ours is a 30 amp, so another night dry camped.

Q088145 Hudson, Fl Suncoast Designers parking lot

QC31-08 North Into The Forest

February 10, 2013 (Sun) Kissimmee Prairie Preserve SP (5) 64/76° - It's been a fairly pleasant day although a bit windy. Our people watching this morning consisted of watching almost everyone around us pack up and move out. A couple of the sites filled back up almost immediately as if they'd been over in the horse area for the weekend waiting. They probably had been.

February 11, 2013 (Mon) Kissimmee Prairie Preserve SP (6) 60/83° - A completely unremarkable day.

Q087674 Kissimmee prairie preserve state park #13&12 w/e $16g (x6)
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February 12, 2013 (Tue) Kissimmee Prairie Preserve SP to Ocala NF, Juniper Springs CG (188/2012  miles) 74/87° -  Man, is it dark here! New moon and lots of trees. We walked out to deposit trash in the dumpster on the corner and to make our pit stop for the evening and it was good we had flashlights.

We got off from Kissimmee Prairie at about 9:00am this morning (hazy 63°). As we approached Yeehaw Junction, a cross roads in the middle of nowhere where 18 wheelers come to turn left, turn right or go straight, Mark remembered that he had forgotten to lock the bicycles on the from of Q. This is not a problem in itself because we'd be with them for the duration of the trip but the cable and padlock had been temporally hung on the bike rack and might have bounced off or hung down and dragged for 60 miles. We pulled off into what once must have been a parking lot for the thriving community of Yeehaw Junction (an Inn, a gas station and maybe three other buildings) but was now not unlike a collection moon craters. It was no place for a motor home with a car in tow! The cable and lock were found to be unmolested and were properly secured. Q and Lamont made it back out onto the road none the worse for the experience.

Apparently today was the day to pull out in front of other cars - and trucks. It was unbelievable! Most could have waited out that one more car (or truck) and had a clear safe road. We had our share of adventures, 3 or 4. Most required that we only slow down or pull into another lane but one woman almost got Q up her tailpipe. She pulled out, crossing her acceleration lane, right into the lane in front of us. Mark slammed on the brakes, glad we'd spent the money to equip Lamont with a supplementary brake system, laid on the horn and swerved into an non-driving part of the two lane road (a painted median for a left turn from the other direction). The lady was getting off the road as we blasted by. We don't know what happened to her after that because we had to go on but since the traffic behind us also continued on we think she probably suffered little more than a good scare.

February 13, 2013 (Wed) Juniper Springs CG (2) 71/74° - Every Tue, Wed, and Thu is "free dry day" at the laundromat we use in Silver Springs. We'd forgotten that until the attendant came over and started feeding quarters into our dryers. What a surprise. We needed hair cuts so we took advantage of the barber shop next door to the laundromat and the beauty salon two doors down. Lamont needed a bath after following Q so closely on that 5 mile gravel Kissimmee Prairie access road so we treated him to an automated car wash. We also stopped at a used book store and exchanged some of the books we've both read for some we haven't. We celebrated all these great accomplishments by patronizing our favorite Chinese Buffet in the area.

February 14, 2013 (Thu) Juniper Springs CG (3) 56/61° - Rainy day, the first since we left home six weeks ago. We've had sprinkles now and then but no real rain. We were looking forward to a do-nothing day without guilt and it was good for a while but it got old and has made for a long day. The high temperature for the day (61°) was showing on the thermometer when we got up. It went down as the day went on.

February 15, 2013 (Fri) Juniper Springs CG (4) 48/64° - It's getting cold! It was 48° when we got up and the forecasts are for it to get down into the 30s by Sunday. As Joy fixed lunch she discovered that we'd neglected to get an essential ingredient when we shopped the other day. We decided to run in to the Winn Dixie (not our first choice in supermarkets but the closest) to get some. As we walked into the store a young lady stopped us and asked if we'd like to give blood. We said we would but our doctors had told us we couldn't, Joy because she has had cancer, Mark because of his blood thinning medication. The young lady said they weren't problems so we did our duty. It has been many years since either of us gave blood. It feels good to have done it.

February 16, 2013 (Sat) Juniper Springs CG (5) 48/82° - A Dodge Caravan (a minivan) with Florida plates pulled up at the head of our drive-through pad in front of Q. A man got out of the driver's side and put on gloves. A woman got out of the passenger side and put on gloves. Three young kids (ages maybe 6 to 12) got out of the back and put on gloves. They all started walking toward us. Do we know these people or do they have something sinister in mind? It turned out to be more sinister than friendly. They went into the woods across the road and began to collect "fire wood". They must have discovered that it was pretty rotten and soaked from the rain yesterday because they abandoned it and chopped down a small living oak, which is illegal, and took it away even though it probably wouldn't burn any better than water soaked rotten wood. The young man in a nearby campsite was so incensed that he must have reported it because about a half hour later the authorities began circling.

February 17, 2013 (Sun) Juniper Springs CG (6) 35/48° - Atypical Florida weather. Our thermometer reads 35° but the official temperature in Ocala, 30 miles west, is 30° with wind chills as low as 20° along the coast. The cold was the lead story on the local TV news this morning - it even beat out the overnight shootings, killings and car crashes.

We like to get the New York Times newspaper on Sundays - and bagels to have for lunch if we can find good ones. Today our quest took us into Ocala where we eventually found a Panera Bread, which has consistently good ones if not completely up to New York area standards, on US 200 west of I-75. And lo and behold there was Peggy's quilt Shop two doors down. It being Sunday it was closed! If Joy has her way, we'll be back before we leave the area.

February 18, 2013 (Mon) Juniper Springs CG (7) 28/64° - 28° on our thermometer this morning (25° officially in Ocala). It took over a half hour for our furnace to bring the inside temperature up to a "comfortable" 37­° so we could get up and get dressed. Mark commented on the weather to a family down the road packing up their tents at 7:30am. The response wasn't a happy one.

After our hike on the Florida Trail loop today, we stopped to watch a rather sizable group of teenagers (probably the ones making so much noise the last couple of days) board their canoes and start down Juniper Run. The start of the run can be a challenge for even moderately experienced canoeists - we know, we've done it - but some of these kids didn't even know how to hold a paddle! We wondered how many of them would reach the take-out point without getting wet. It did look like they were having a good time.

Q088029 Juniper Springs CG, Ocala National Forest. #13 dry $9.50g

QC31-07 Kissimmee Prairie

February 6, 2013 (Wed) LeBelle, FL to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve state park (96+70/1824 miles) 55/83° - Up at 6:45, showers, breakfast, dump and off at 8:50. Q behaving himself - started every time! The drive up along the west side of Lake Okeechobee was relatively uneventful. There were only a few very small communities (don't blink as you pass through or you'll miss seeing them) along the whole 96 miles. Except for the sugar cane fields which looked ready to harvest and the endless cattle ranges the land was pretty much undeveloped - not from lack of dreams though. Through the prairie streets and avenues were planned but never constructed. i.e. we'd drive 5 or 6 miles with nothing but an occasional drive to an unseen cattle ranch then we'd come to a high street number, sometimes in the thousands. 197th street turned out to be sharp right turn - no turn to the left, no straight through road. Some of these turns even had stop signs!

Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park campground is in a palmetto, palm and Spanish moss draped live oak hammock in the middle of the absolutely flat "Florida dry prairie". The campground is 5 miles (at least) into the preserve on a dusty washboard gravel road. Whereas folks camped at Ortona Locks were mostly retired folks hanging out waiting for warmer weather to develop up north, the residents here seem to be more into birding, photography and hiking. And astronomy - there is a small group of tents and pop-up trailers set up away from the the rest of us to avoid even our light contamination.

February 7, 2013 (Thu) Kissimmee Prairie Preserve SP (2) 66/80° - We don't watch TV in the morning at home but while traveling we often do. We have come to prefer CBS's CBS This Morning with Charlie Rose. Whenever we lite we do a scan with our TV to locate available channels in the area. Our scan last night netted two regular broadcast channels (among many many aimed at more targeted audiences) - both are ABC affiliates which airs our least favorite morning show. We watched for a while this morning and were able glean a little real news amongst all the fluff but we soon got bored and turned it off.

It was pleasant (and refreshing) to have the wind behind us as we biked the 2 mile+ access road back to Q this morning. Usually it's behind us on the way out so we're not aware of how far we're going and struggle to get back - when we are already tired.

February 8, 2013 (Fri) Kissimmee Prairie Preserve SP (3) 63/79° - Moving day - for us and apparently most others in the campground. We moved from site #13 to #11 (across the road). Another unit, a trailer, moved one site east. We think some moved from this, the family area, to the other (the equestrian) area. But most left the campground altogether. And to complete the cycle, outsiders have come in to fill the emptied sites. Other than that it's been a restful day reading and people watching.

February 9, 2013 (Sat) Kissimmee Prairie Preserve SP (4) 55/78° - Get to know your neighbor day - of sorts. A couple of fellows stopped by as we were reading this afternoon. One, the owner of a Chinook Destiny a year older than Q, was curious about our TV antenna. The conversation went on from there. It turns out he is a wildlife photographer, his specialty being moths. When the other fellow learned that Joy is a quilter, he retrieved his wife who is also a quilter, and the two got along quite well.
     In the category of people watching: Late this morning a small pickup, driving the wrong way on the one way road pulled into the site across the road from us. The fellow, single as far as we can tell, set up a small tent then backed quickly out - into a tree! It looked like he hit quite hard but he never bothered to look at the damage he did either to the tree or to his truck, instead he corrected his aim, backed out and drove (the wrong way) out of the campground and was gone for the rest of the day.

Q087674 Kissimmee prairie preserve state park #13&12 w/e $16g

QC31-06 From swamp to civilization

January 30, 2013 (Wed) Big Cypress National Preserve to Hobe Sound (178/1658 miles) 64/78° - Off at 6:40am for a mostly uneventful trip to Hobe Sound and Jonathan Dickinson State Park. We were buzzed by a small Helicopter as we approached the Big Cypress Visitors Center. It suddenly popped out from behind the low roadside trees and passed over at near eye level. Had it been a car pulling out onto the road, a blast from our horn might have been in order.

The Wendy's parking lot looked too small so we pulled into the motel parking lot next to it. Bad move! There was no way to loop around the building and making a U-turn seemed too tight. So we were left with the choice of unhooking Lamont or backing the rig up a little way (not a recommended maneuver with a car in tow 4 wheels down). We backed up and made the swing easily. Sometimes it's the little things that make travel interesting.

January 31, 2013 (Thu) Hobe Sound (2) 68/72° - A beautiful sunrise out our breakfast room window this morning but it didn't last long. Storm clouds to the west were darkening the skies and the temperature was dropping. Sprinkles of rain, the first in weeks, began spotting our windows. The rain let up, it never really got very heavy, as we did our laundry on the way to visit Mark's friend Jack in Stuart. Jack introduced us to the Dolphin Bar & Shrimp House, a terrific restaurant in Jensen Beach, FL. Good food and good conversation. Thanks Jack.

In the evening we were treated to one of the most spectacular sunsets we've seen out our living room window. The foreground was far from photogenic but through the trees the sky was a brilliant red that seemed to last forever.

Q087567 Johnathan Dickinson SP #4 w/e $26 A+ (x2 )
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February 1, 2013 (Fri) Hobe Sound to LaBelle, FL (107/1765 miles) 48/68° - Although we didn't really need it, we thought it a good idea to get gas before we struck out for the wilds. Going north on US 1 we passed several gas stations that looked to be severe challenges for a motor home towing a car. The prices were pretty high too. The station with the lowest price was so clogged with cars that we would not have been able to get off the road had we chosen to wait in line. The Sunoco station on Cove Rd (SR 76?) looked relatively reasonable in both price and access. The price did not disappoint but. . .  Q bumped his tail getting up the grade into the station (no damage) and an out-of-service school bus decided to park in the space we needed to loop around to get back out. We ended up having to squeeze, with about 2 inches clearance on each side, between the gas pumps and a big SUV parked way too far from his pump. We're hoping the SUV driver saw and worried about the error of his ways.

After shopping in the Clewiston Walmart, Q would not start - not even a click from the starter. Nothing! A boost from Q's house batteries, a Chinook feature for such occasions, had no effect. A thorough investigation revealed nothing. Even the batteries were OK. As Mark was dialing our road service company, Joy switched the refrigerator for DC power to propane. Before hitting "send" on the phone, Mark tried the starter one more time. Q started! There is no known reason why turning the refrigerator to propane would have had made any difference at all. Probably just coincidence. There has been no problem since.

We got to Ortona Locks campground just before 12:00, unhooked, and took Lamont into LaBelle to see if our mail ever got there. It had! Hooray!

February 2, 2013 (Sat) LaBelle, FL (2) 49/72° - Another day to relax in a beautiful campsite. We are again overlooking the canal just a few sites west of our favorite. It's been one of those days that is comfortably warm in the sun but chilly enough for sweatshirts in the shade. The breeze is mild but strong enough to disrupt the pages of our books as we try to read. Boat traffic on the canal has been surprisingly light for a Saturday, we think. There haven't even been any fishermen in small boats that normally hang out off shore without going through the locks.

February 3, 2013 (Sun) LaBelle, FL (3) 49/71° - It's been an other beautiful day to sit by the canal and read.

February 4, 2013 (Mon) LaBelle, FL (4) 44/72° - The Costco in Estero, FL (south of Ft Myers) is laid out a lot like ours at home but just enough different to be disorienting - kind of Twilight Zone-ish. We found what we wanted though, in spite of all attempts to confuse us. Lunch at Pincher's Crab Shack (a small chain in southwest Florida) was pricey but good. We had grouper sandwiches with enough french fries to make Five Guys portions seem small.

February 5, 2013 (Tue) LaBelle, FL (5) 47/87° - We thought we'd do a laundry and get some last minute provisions today because tomorrow we will be 30+ miles away from civilization deep in the Kissimmee Prairie.  Since Q's propane was low, he would be our transportation of choice this trip. But he wouldn't start!! There was only a click from the starter solenoid! No amount of looking, jiggling of wires, worrying or swearing seemed to help. To get a service truck here, the lady at Coachnet said she needed to know where the campground is. We said the local truck driver would know where Ortona Locks is. She wanted the name of the closest cross street. We said there is no close cross street. She said she needed one anyway. We said State Route 29 which is 8 miles west in LaBelle. She said that was no help. (We knew it wouldn't be!) We said go East on State Rt 80 from La Belle and there is a sign for the campground. She said she needed the name of a cross street. Impasse!! Computers sometimes cause problem!

We finally worked it out and a repair truck came. He tried all the things Mark already tried and got the same result. Bad starter, he said. He finally got it started though and we took off for N. Ft Myers for repairs. It turned out not to be the starter but a loose connection inside the battery. So Q now has another new battery - this one for the truck. That's 4 new batteries this trip. Ugh.

Meanwhile, on the way back to the "ranch" Oops! Q had problems starting again!!! This means an interesting day tomorrow!!

Q087674 Ortona Locks Campground, LaBelle, FL #25 w/e $12g (x5)

QC31-05 And Key West

January 22, 2013 (Mon)  Big Cypress National Preserve (4) 64/74° - We have encountered a rare species - a 5th wheeler who is not addicted to his generator. It's been our experience that where there's a 5th wheel trailer there's a  generator standing guard. Some folks are more courteous about when and how long they run them than others but run them they do. We've become more tolerant in our old age but we still prefer the the songs of birds and the wind in the trees to the drone of a generator (or loud radios) when we think them unnecessary. The folks with the big Montana with 3 slide-outs who came in next to us Saturday afternoon and left this morning never ran a generator at all! Evidently some 5th wheels do have batteries after all.

And speaking of batteries, our new ones seem to be doing a great job of hanging onto the charge given them by the solar panel each day. We've been here 4 days now without electric hookup and they don't yet really need to have a boost. We ran Q's generator for a while this morning more to exercise the generator than to recharge the batteries (thought it didn't hurt) because there was no one anywhere near us to hear it.

January 23, 2013 (Tue)  Big Cypress National Preserve (5) 59/72° - Why anyone would make a conscious decision to move to the Miami area is beyond comprehension. We didn't actually go into Miami, we had no reason to and it was probably full anyway, but skirting it on the major highways was bad enough. One has to assume that people are still moving there because the roads are being made bigger and bigger to accommodate them. What a nightmare! Even Hildene (our GPS) which we updated just before we came south had a hard time keeping us from getting lost in the tangled roadways. A sign for one road we were supposed to take read "Davies Rd has been moved". That was helpful! Where did they move it too? California?

In spite of the problems getting there we had a wonderful time with Dorothy, Joy's quilting buddy. After lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, a fresh salad buffet, she and Joy perused a great quilt shop in Margate and talked quilts until we had to again tackle the traffic to get home.

January 24, 2013 (Wed)  Big Cypress National Preserve (6) 59/74° - Windy and a bit on the chilly side this morning. When it's sweatshirt weather in south Florida, it must be really cold back home. And from what we hear on the news, it is - we hear maybe even sub zero in New York.

Smoke from the prescribed burn in the Everglades was coming closer all afternoon. It finally got close enough so that we thought it might be interesting to go up to the main road to see what was going on. It turned out that they were about to set fire to the swamp right across the road. It's amazing how hot a "forest" fire gets! And how high the flames. We could see the glow, and even flames, from the campground well into the evening. The smoke made for a beautiful sunset.

January 25, 2013 (Thu)  Big Cypress National Preserve (7) 55/76° - Another relaxing day sitting around and looking forward to our adventure in Key West.
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January 26, 2013 (Fri) BCNP (8) Monument Lake to Key West, FL (204/204 miles) 53/74° - We got off in Lamont under clear blue skies. It was a little on the chilly side but we had been promised that it would warm up - and it did. By the time we got to the laundromat in Homestead, shorts and t-shirts were plenty warm enough.

Several years ago we started down the road connecting the Florida archipelago intending to see Key West. We wisely turned back thinking it was really too far for a one day trip. It's a long, often slow, albeit interesting trip. Today we got to the Key West Naval Air Station gate at about 4:15 where we called Jim and Lois to escort us onto the base. After settling into our typical (less than luxurious yet totally adequate - it had electricity, a shower, and a comfortable bed) military housing apartment quarters we headed out to the Sunset Lounge on base for grouper sandwiches and to watch the sunset. When we got there, we found that they had run out of grouper - somebody said it was that the chef walked out - and would have to settle for hamburgers (huge with a more than adequate portion of french fries). After waiting in line at the bar to place our order, they announced that they had just run out of hamburger meat too! with the person in line just ahead of us getting the last order! So it was onion rings and beer. We got some great pictures of the Key West sunset though.

January 27, 2013 (Sat) BCNP (9) Key West, FL (2) - This morning we walked over to the tourist area of Key West - which was about what you'd expect a dense tourist area to be like - and boarded one of the "Conch Trains" - an ATV type vehicle dressed up like a steam locomotive pulling 5 small (15 seat) observation cars. The "engineer" gave us a running commentary of the history and architecture of Key West and pointed out the homes and hang- outs of some of its famous residents - John James Audubon, Harry Truman, Ernest Hemingway, Jimmy Buffett etc. This was a good way to get a quick education.

Lunch was Cuban sandwiches - similar to a sub but toasted on flat Cuban bread with special spices. At 1:30 we boarded the schooner America 2.0 (2 masts, 107 feet long and a crew of 3, normally 5) to race 3 (at least) other schooners and a ketch in one of the Key West Classic Regatta 2013 races. We won by a good margin even with a show-off "360" half way through the race. Interestingly, like Bill and Gail's sloop Regalo, the America 2.0 has no shrouds supporting its masts.

In the late afternoon, we wandered one of the many (throughout the year) street craft festivals. We found the work of the craftsmen and women from all over the country, even as far away as California, of excellent quality. In talking with some of the vendors we learned that the response and sales have been very good. I guess they would have to be to justify enduring the logistical problems of getting inventories to a venue as remote as Key West.

On our way back to the base (walking) we got to the fish market 15 minutes after the kitchen closed. However, they were kind enough to cook up some Hog Fish for us to take home. Delicious!

January 28, 2013 (Sun) BCNP (10) Key West, FL (3) - This morning we drove over to one of the two fabric stores (and the only one that could remotely called a quilt shop) in Key West. It was closed! This is Sunday. Duh! So we decided to hit the fabric printing place. That one would be open for sure, it's in the middle of the tourist area. It's been closed for five years!! Oh well.

There are many art and craft galleries. So after getting lunch at the Wine & Craft Festival site near the base (more Cuban sandwiches) we wandered through three of them and took the tour of the Audubon House and gardens. John James Audubon never lived there. Although he is rumored to have painted some of his famous bird renderings from the upstairs balcony this apparently is not true either. He often stayed there as a guest in the home, though. It has been called the Audubon House for almost its entire existence - much to the chagrin of the Geiger family, owners of the home until it was turned into a museum.

Too tired from two days of constant walking to do anything else, we ordered in pizza and ate "in quarters" highlighted with much talk and discussion on many interesting subjects.

L056966 US Naval Air Station, Key West, FL (x3)
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January 29, 2013 (Mon) BCNP (11) Key West, FL to Monument Lake (193/397 miles) - We left the island of Key West at about 9:20 this morning expecting intermittent delays and stoppages along the 109 mile 2 lane road (the only road) connecting the keys and the Florida main land. None developed and by 1:00 we were at the Homestead Race Way gas station refueling. 4 1/2 hours isn't bad. Thanks Jim and Lois for the opportunity to finally see the fabled Key West and for a wonderful time and stimulating conversation.

We found Q completely unmolested in his site here at Monument Lake. We wonder if anyone even knew we were missing for 3 days.

L057159 Big Cypress National Preserve, Monument Lake CG

January 30, 2013 (Tue)  Big Cypress National Preserve (12) 73/82° - This has been a day to rest. Tomorrow we're off to Jonathan Dickinson State Park on the Florida east coast for a couple of days then out into the Kissimmee prairie.

Q087389 Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress National Preserve. #2 $8 dry (x12)

QC31-04 And on South

January 15, 2013 (Tue) La Belle, FL (7) 59/79° - Blueboys, in the RV community, are 10 to 30 gallon (usually blue) plastic portable tanks with wheels and long handles. They are used to transfer holding tank waste from large motor homes and 5th wheel trailers to campground dump stations when they need to be emptied during long stays. Apparently Tuesday is the traditional day to do that here at Ortona. There has been a parade of cars and pickups pulling tiny blue trailers going back and forth by our site all day. Some have passed by so many times that we wonder if it might have been easier for them to just drive the rig to the dump station and be done with it.

Except for the first couple of times we were here we have been able to walk (and even take our bicycles) across the dam to the locks so we can watch the boats go through up close. The gate has been locked this year. The campground host says that the walkway is damaged and unsafe. We've missed this small bit of entertainment.

January 16, 2013 (Wed) La Belle, FL (8) 62/78° - Heavy fog this morning. We couldn't even see the canal until nearly 9:00. Once the sun broke through, though, it was a beautiful day. Warm, almost hot, dark blue sky with big puffy clouds and plenty of sunshine. It has been this way every day we've been here. This is a sunny site with no trees close enough to provide any shade. Sitting in the sun for more than 10 minutes a day isn't an option this early in the season (or trip). Our orientation is such that shade from Q is on the road side which isn't the best place to lounge so we have to chase the shadow of the picnic table shelter roof around our site. This and reading (and knitting for Joy) was pretty much the extent of our activity today. It was also pretty much the extent of our exercise. We never got around to riding our bicycles the 4 mile round trip up to the main road and back.

January 17, 2013 (Thu) La Belle, FL (9) 57/77° - We made a shopping/laundry/mail pick-up trip into the big city (LaBelle) this morning in preparation for a week in the wilds of the Big Cypress Swamp. No mail yet! FMCA said some was sent but it hasn't gotten here. We'll try again tomorrow as we pass through on our way South. We didn't want to have to take Q with Lamont in tow into the very tight maneuvering situation around the post office - but do it we must.

We spent the afternoon watching a cold front come in. The wind came up and the sky got very dark off to the West. Weather forecasts said we might get some rain and it sure looked like it, but we didn't. It got a whole lot colder though. Down to 57° by the time we went to bed.

Q087296 Ortona Locks South CG #21&8 w/e $12g (x9)
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January 18, 2013 (Fri) La Belle, FL to Big Cypress National Preserve (92/1479 miles) 48/60° - Cold! It was 52° when we got up and went down as low as 48° as we got onto SR 80 West. This wasn't the morning for a cold shower so since the one he'd been using tended to be on the cool side Mark, decided to try the other one. Not a good choice! It was a long way from even lukewarm. Joy, however, had a wonderfully hot shower.

Our mail still hasn't made it to the LaBelle Post office! It use to be that we could count on being able to pick it up on Wednesday (it's always sent on a Monday). Last year it slipped to Thursday a couple of times. Now it seems that we can't even count on it being there on Friday. It makes scheduling a mail pickup a little hard to plan!

As we were heading south on SR 29 Joy remembered that the host at Monument Lake last year said that the campground might be closed for renovation this year. A discussion of what we would do if it was closed ensued. The possible solutions were depressing. What a relief it was when we say the motor homes parked around the tiny lake.

January 19, 2013 (Sat)  Big Cypress National Preserve (2) 61/76° - We expected to see the campground fill up in the evening. It often does on Friday nights with folks on their way to the Everglades or Key West - it makes a good and inexpensive stop when Midway campground 8 miles East is full, as it usually is. But very few of the campsites were occupied this morning. The host said that it has been a very light season so far. That's fine with us. We were able to get one of our favorite sites at the south end of the lake.

Swallows, hundreds of them, come swooping in low over Q from the south to skim the lake then circle back around. It's like being in blizzard of huge black snow flakes. 10 minutes later they are gone. Then in an hour or so they are back. This happened over and over in the late morning and early afternoon. Even so the small flies and gnats are plentiful trying every trick available to them to swarm into the motor home with us. Fortunately they're not of the biting persuasion - just annoying.

January 21, 2013 (Sun)  Big Cypress National Preserve (3) 66/78° - The folks across the road from us have a Sun Voyager class A motor home and tow a Jeep. When we came in on Friday there was a trailer with a boat hooked behind the Jeep. We've seen three unit rigs quite often down here, though they usually consist of a boat behind a 5th wheel trailer. What made this rig even more unusual was that the boat was a fold-boat - one that is designed to be folded up and carried on top of a car. Why complicate travel by creating a cumbersome rig like they had when the boat can be easily folded up and put on top of the car? The answer is: they don't. Yesterday afternoon, obviously getting ready to leave today, the fellow folded up the boat and put it on a roof rack on the Jeep. Then he folded up the trailer and put it on a rack on the back of the jeep along with the bicycles. There are those who probably think some of the things we do are strange too.

Q087389 Monument Lake CG, Big Cypress National Preserve. #2 $8 dry

QC31-03 Ortona Locks

January 10, 2013 (Thu) La Belle, FL (2) 69/82° - Ortona Locks, on the waterway between Ft Myers and Lake Okeechobee, is one of our favorite campgrounds. Run by the US Army Corps of Engineers it is much like some of the better run private camping resorts - without their many, often unnecessary and unused, amenities. There is one site we consider the best in the campground and we have lusted after it for the many years we have been stopping here. This year it was available when we were setting up reservations. We grabbed it! We only have it for three days, we'll have to move on Saturday, but here we are for now - panoramic view of the canal and the boats waiting to go through the locks sit right off our shore.  And we have no close neighbors. What a great site! No wonder it is seldom available.

For some reason the designers of the switch panel that controls Q's water heater neglected to include an indicator light so it has been hard to tell whether it is on or off. This afternoon Mark wired a small LED bulb into the circuit that lights up when the hearer is on - burning propane.

January 11, 2013 (Fri) La Belle, FL (3) 62/80° - Since there was no mail for us at the LaBelle Post Office Wednesday when we came through - our mail is usually available on Wednesdays but sometimes Thursdays - we went back to get it today. There still isn't any! We called FMCA who forward our mail to us while we are on the road and they said they hadn't had any to send. They have some now though and will send it on Monday.

We spent the afternoon reading and watching the boats in the canal going to and from the locks.

January 12, 2013 (Sat) La Belle, FL (4) 65/81° - Moving day. This campground is always fully booked 6 months in advance from January to mid March. The only way we have been able to get in is to watch for cancellations in the time frame we want to be here and reserve the vacated site. This means we sometimes have to move from one site to another if we want to stay for any length of time. Today was the day we had to move from the best site in the campground to one across the way and down the road. It's not a bad site, none here are. The pads are angled and spaced such that we have a  fair view (past the motor homes and 5th wheels across the road) of the canal and locks out our port window and the tropical shrubbery forest out our starboard window. Our neighbors are nearby, but not  oppressively close as they would be in most private parks.

January 13, 2013 (Sun) La Belle, FL (5) 64/79° - I'm sitting here looking out at the beautiful park like landscaping and wondering: Why, when most, if not all, the "residents" here are paying half price (golden access senior citizen discount) is this campground so well maintained while National Forest campgrounds like Alexander Springs, where paying full price is the norm, struggle to keep toilet paper in the rest rooms? Could it be that Corps of Engineer campgrounds are maintained from the virtually bottomless military budget pockets while the National Park Service budget gets cut year after year?

January 14, 2013 (Mon) La Belle, FL (6) 62/83° - Soon after we moved a couple of days ago a diesel pickup truck droned by pulling a huge 5th wheel trailer, a Cougar with 4 slide-outs, followed by a little red Honda Civic. We saw the 5th wheel later on that day on our old vacated site with the Civic parked on the pad with it. We haven't seen the pickup truck since and it's becoming quite apparent that it was probably only used to move the 5th wheel into the site. This might be a reasonable practice when the trailer is to be parked in one place for a season but this is a short term park - the rule of being here only 14 days in 30 is supposedly strictly enforced. It seems an expensive endeavor to hire a tow vehicle to move your trailer from one park to another every 2 weeks.

Q087296 Ortona Locks South CG #21&8 w/e $12g

QC31-02 To the Locks

January 4, 2013 (Fri) Savannah, GA to Ocala National Forest (231/1260 miles) 49/62° - Up at 6:45, breakfast and over to Walmart for three batteries (2 for Q, 1 for Lamont). Walmart would not install in a motor home so Mark did it and encountered the problem that he was afraid an inexperienced technician at Walmart might - lost a cable down behind the battery drawer. For an hour or so he was unaware that he had lost it. He finally decided this was the only reason things weren't working properly. Finding the cable and getting it out is a real bear. Joy came to the rescue and we were finally back in working order. Off at 10:15.

11:10am first rest stop: A contributor to the internet Chinook forum suggested that our tail light problem might be due to a blown fuse in a separate (Chinook only) fuse panel up under the dashboard. It was. Mark replaced the fuse and the tail lights were working again.

1:00pm 5 Guys for lunch: Tail lights dark again! OK at least we know where the fuse is. Now for the cause. The relatively pleasant skies began to turn dark soon after we got back on the road. We were driving in the rain without tail lights again! At least it's warming up. It got up to 62° before it began to rain.

January 5, 2013 (Sat) Ocala National Forest (2) - Weekends can be very busy here. Since we were coming in on a Friday night we went on and reserved a site (for an extra $9). There turned out to be no need - hardly anyone here. We were disappointed to learn that Bill and Margaret have already been here and gone (they are usually here most of the winter) - Margaret was having a problem with her back.

Three medium sized unleashed dogs wandered around the campground - all around our site and in and out of the woods several times - baying and barking. Joy was inside reading. Mark was outside and but retreated inside until they decided to leave.  Later a lone dog with a strange collar (or two) came out of the forest and hung around. We'd been warned that there were bear around but not dogs. The campground host said they were hunters (whatever that means) and harmless. They didn't seem unfriendly, nor friendly either for that matter, but one doesn't take chances with a pack of unsupervised dogs!

Q086077 Alexander Springs CG, Ocala NF #50 dry $10.50 (+$9 trans fee to reserve the site)
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January 6, 2013 (Sun) Ocala National Forest to Lakeland, FL (85/1345 miles) 59/75° - We got off at about 7:00 after in-house showers and breakfast. Surprise when we were hooking up, three of the four tail lights are working again, without replacing the fuse (we didn't have a replacement). Does that narrow down the source of the problem? We'll see. Laundry in Umatilla and a quick stop at Publix in Eustace and we were on our way. The dominant landscape feature today was miles and miles of nurseries and very young orange groves. We got to Ed and Kathy's at about 1:40pm.

January 7, 2013 (Mon) Lakeland, FL (2) 57/67° - Rainy and somewhat miserable all day. Mark was going to look into the problem with the tail lights but decided that tomorrow is another day and promising to be better weather. So activity was rather on the sparse side. Joy worked on a jigsaw puzzle, Mark mostly read and caught up on some computer work and Ed and Kathy were in and out.

January 8, 2013 (Tue) Lakeland, FL (3) 62/79° - The Book Bazaar (a used book trader) paid us $60+ for some used books we'd read. We bought a bunch and have a $17 credit with them for the next time. Lunch at Chili's then home so that Ed and Mark could track down several electrical problems. As far as we know they found them all and fixed them. They included a blown fuse and a blown diode in line that was supposed to be keeping Lamont's battery charged, two pins in the umbilical connector were out of place and not making contact and a blown tail light bulb in Lamont. We found no cause for this mayhem so we're hoping it was all coincidental.

Q087162 Ed and Kathy's Yard (x3)
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January 9, 2013 (Wed) Lakeland, FL to La Belle, FL (134/1479 miles) 69/86° - The day of reckoning and travel. All systems worked on hookup and throughout the trip. YES!! Even Lamont seemed to be getting nourishment, battery voltage-wise, but we need a longer trip than 134 miles for true confirmation.

It was 75° already when we left Lakeland at about 10:30. Weather reports are promising a record breaking 85° or above. Q's A/C began working early. Gas at USA Murphy (Walmart) cost 3¢ a gallon more than it would have if we had gotten our Walmart gift card replenished ($3.35). Oh well. There is a lot of flat unpopulated land in Florida south of Sebring. The most prolific signs of civilization were miles and miles of orange groves, trees not much bigger than twigs to trees loaded with yellow fruit.  Cattle ranges came in a close second. The skies were full of big puffy clouds and there were birds of many varieties all along the road, cranes, egrets, herons, hawks, anhingas and many we couldn't identify.

Our mail hasn't made it to La Belle yet so we'll have to come back another day.

Q087296 Ortona Locks South CG #21 w/e $12g

QC31-01 South to North Carolina

December 30, 2012 (Sun) Home to Winchester, VA (293/293 miles) 29/36° [12.1v] - It was cold with ferocious cross winds, sometimes blowing snow, as we went northwest and as we came southwest and south! How does the wind know when to change direction? Slow gas pump at Carlisle, PA Flying J, v-e-r-y slow! While it was pumping Joy went in to the ladies room, then Mark went into the men's room and still there was a long, cold wait in the wind. Mark began to think the tank was taking more than it should so he looked down - and saw gas pouring out the fill tube onto the ground! How long has that been going on??? - at $3.49 a gallon!! Good thing it was a slow pump.

We had  gotten off at about 8:25, and except for the wind, the drive went well. Q behaved and Lamont tagged along behind so smoothly that we hardly noticed that he was there. We had a late (2:50pm) lunch/early dinner (lunner?) at Chipotle in Winchester near the Walmart, then did some shopping before finally settling in for the night. At 5:00 and we were the only transient residents. Snow was piled up in large mounds in the parking lot.  They must have had more snow than NJ.

Q086100 Camp Walmart Winchester, VA
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December 31, 2012 (Mon) Winchester, VA to Mars Hill, NC (396/689 miles) 25/42° - The guys don't take compliments well! When we went to give Lamont his pre-trip exercise we found the battery flat dead. Mark couldn't get him started with the jump start battery we carry for such occasions - not even a "click" from the starter. We got the same result when we tried jumping it with Q's battery (after unhooking and turning him around). The road service truck came within a half hour and even he had some struggles. But he finally succeeded. Instead of hooking up then, Joy drove Lamont to the first rest stop south of Winchester on I-81.

Up at 5am and off at 8am.

We ate breakfast at the rest area and hooked up Lamont. That's when we discovered that Q's (and therefore Lamont's) tail lights had stopped working, just stopped working, sometime between the pre-trip electrical check after hooking up and climbing into the Q's cab! Since the brake and signal lights still worked we got on the road hoping we could make it to Mars Hill before dark. We did.

It was a beautiful drive south through the Shenandoah valley. There was snow in the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east but none on the road. In fact there was very little in the fields along the road. There was more, even this far south, than we had on the ground at home though. We got gas at $3.16/gal (with our Flying J discount) thinking it was a good price - until we saw it for $3.05 a few miles down the road.

Q0086496 Bob and Pat's driveway

January 1, 2013 (Tue) Mars Hill (2) 36/42° - We turned the TV on as soon as we woke up this morning to make sure it had become the new year as promised. It had, i.e. the crystal ball had made its way safely down in New York's Times Square right on schedule. We're good for another year.

Joy broke out a jigsaw puzzle (a Christmas gift) and she, Bob and Pat spent most of the day working on it. Mark looked for a piece to put in, couldn't find it and gave up all together. Other than that it was reading, sitting around, visiting and waiting for "fiscal cliff" news. Dominoes in the evening.

January 2, 2013 (Wednesday) Mars Hill (3) 39/43° - Visited Friends and Fiber yarn shop in Asheville with Bob and Pat (well mostly Pat with Joy. Bob and Mark checked out the Dollar Store.) The yarn selection was amazing. Not so in the dollar store. Then it was lunch at Papa's and Beer, Mexican Cuisine. Very good! In the afternoon Mark, with Bob's help, tried to find the reason Q now has no tail lights. No luck. Nor was there for the local garage mechanic.
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January 3, 2013 (Thu) Mars Hill, NC to Savannah, GA (340/1029 miles) 39/52° - When one's vehicle has no tail lights it's best, in fact imperative, to travel in daylight. One should also avoid fog, rain and heavily overcast skies. We started out in plenty of time to get here before dark but we had no control over the other elements. It was heavily overcast all the way south - overcast enough for it to seem like dawn or dusk. Fog limited visibility as we traveled south out of the mountains on I-26, and rain, sometimes heavy, accompanied us the last 40 or so miles down I-95 to Savannah, GA. And by then it was beginning to get dark!

We were behind schedule because Q's house battery low voltage warning alarm pierced the solitude. This should not be. Driving should be charging the batteries not draining them! We stopped and checked for a cause. We found nothing, but we switched the refrigerator to gas because it draws a lot of power on DC. When the voltage was back to normal we switched it back to DC. But 75 miles later the warning squeal was back. A physical check of the batteries revealed that one was sick. OK, new batteries. Tomorrow. In the mean time we travel with the refrigerator on gas.

We pulled into the Walmart parking lot at about 5:17, parked, exercised Lamont, and did some courtesy shopping in the store.
 
Q088846 Camp Walmart Savannah, GA.