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
QC31-09 More forest time.
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)
