QC41-18 Into the Mountains

March 19, 2014 (Wed) Ocala National Forest (16) 57/73° - It used to be in years past, and even occasionally this year, when we'd sit around all day enjoy being free of the cold, snow and most responsibility. Today was one of those rare days. It makes me think that I really should have something of interest to say about what we did but I don't, and for us, that's good.

March 20, 2014 (Thu) Ocala National Forest (17) 54/78° - This has been another of those do-nothing days. The weather has been sunny and warm but not too warm. The campground has been very quiet, unusually so for the number of people here, especially in our loop. Yesterday afternoon several van loads of late teen/early twenties young people went by and though we knew they set up camp around the bend a few sites away, we've heard hardly a peep from them. In contrast to the groups over the weekend, they seemed to be an organized group with older adult chaperones(?). They had canoes and kayaks and we think they spent the day today on the water somewhere.

At noon Bill and Margaret invited us over to their site for a grilled hamburger lunch (a celebration of the first day of Spring?). What a pleasant change from our usual stay-at-home lunch. And, of course, the company made it all the better.

Lance and Diane, also from Michigan and here for 10 days, joined us at the campfire tonight.

March 21, 2014 (Fri) Ocala National Forest (18) 55/83° - Again the weekend crowds have begun to fill up the campground. There seem to be more families than spring-breakers this time, although there are a few groups of young people. One group on loop D was busy setting up a huge pavilion type tent similar to a revival tent. Oh Good! Whatever that was all about, they were very quiet in the evening - at least during the time we were at the campfire. Another group nearby enjoyed an hour or so of group singing with guitar and banjo accompanying. This, as opposed to last week's noise was quite pleasant - no artificial amplification and not the least intrusive.

Q091976 Alexander Springs CG, Ocala NF #32 dry $10.50 B (x18)

March 22, 2014 (Sat) Ocala National Forest to Midway, GA (267/2213 miles) 63/78° - It seemed reasonable, since this was a family weekend and just begun late yesterday, that the shower rooms would not be busy, especially early in the morning. Wrong. Mark found young men two deep at the sinks and a line waiting for the three showers in the normally empty facility. Tents bloomed three, four and five to a site and many campfires were already heating morning breakfasts. Joy found a tick while she was showering but we suspect it had nothing to do with the change in character of the forest campers.

After calling the Astor post office to see if our mail had gotten there yet - it hadn't - we got off at about 9:15 and made our way out of the forest, up to US-40 and onto US-301. Gas at BP around 10:10, lunch at Wendy's at 11:30 or so and some grocery shopping later in the afternoon was about the extent of our excitement as we drove north. The roadside flora was beautiful though. Spring is just beginning to show in the many variety if deciduous trees making them look fuzzy soft in their pale colors. Blooming red bud, dogwood, azaleas and a mixture of wildflowers gave the highway a colorful sparkle.

We passed a building in Starke with a sign that read "Knuckle Draggers Motorcycle Associates"

We found Larry's small home on the Isle of Wight (near Savannah, GA) without any trouble and he and Kaye came out to help guide us into the small yard.

March 23, 2014 (Sun) Midway, GA to Mars Hill, NC (369/2582 miles) 48/69° - Kaye and Larry sent us off with a wonderful french bread breakfast made from Larry's own homemade cinnamon bread. It was good to see Kaye and to spend some quality time with her and to get to know Larry. The time was too short. We began to wind our way off the island at about 9:30, hooked up Lamont just before getting on I-95 and headed north again.

A stop for gas at Costco in Spartenburg, SC yielded a full tank for both Q and Lamont as well as the discovery of a "noise" in Q's left front wheel. The noise didn't sound serious or dangerous so we went on but Mark began to worry about it. We stopped at a rest area near Asheville, NC to investigate further. Mark took the hubcap off and found that the cap meant to cover the wheel bearing had come off and was rattling around inside the hubcap. Once replaced there was no more rattling.

Hildene led us astray in Asheville! She told us to turn left on US19. We were actually supposed to stay right on US19 and I-26. We've been through the area and knew how to do it but discovered Hildene's error too late to do anything about it. As a result we had to navigate some very narrow roads with very tight curves, steep hills and one bridge underpass too low for Q's 10.5 ft height getting back to I-26. There is no such thing as a simple U-turn while towing a car! It gave some meaning to the slogan we saw painted on the back of a big motor home earlier...

"We came. We saw. We got lost"

We got to Bob and Pat's at about 5:45 exhausted, irritable and ready to hang out for a while.

Q97612 Bob and Pat's yard

QC41-17 More Fun in the Forest

March 15, 2014 (Sat) Ocala National Forest (12) 49/79° - We started today in the hospital emergency room. Joy woke up during the night with a minor, recurring, easily treatable problem. She did need a doctor issued prescription though. An internet search revealed the closest walk-in clinic to be in Miami! Well, that wouldn't do! So we set out bright and early in search of something closer. The emergency room was at the Florida Hospital Waterman in Tavares (just west of Eustis). Joy gives the hospital high marks. The facility looked clean and well maintained and the staff was fast and efficient (in spite of the apparent high volume). Above all, they seemed to have dispatched her discomfort in very short order.

There is no end to chutzpah on weekends in a public park as loosely managed as this one is. Kids biking, walking and playing ball in areas meant for vehicle traffic is a normal and expected part of the weekend camping experience but, the total disregard of one-way/do not enter signs and other traffic and vehicle rules as well as loud intrusive music should not be. And blatant indiscriminate, sometimes intentional, fouling of the public rest rooms is beyond unacceptable. There are signs posted here and there throughout the campground stating that vehicles must stay on paved roads and pads. For the most part this rule is respected but yesterday afternoon a large class C motor home blazed itself a new campsite, hitting overhead tree branches in the process, several feet from the site's paved pad. Chairs were put out and the young couple went off to spend the rest of the afternoon somewhere else. We half expected one of the cruising campers to pull into the empty pad and claim it their own. Someone must have informed the couple of the infraction because as soon as they got back late in the afternoon they moved the motor home over to where it belonged.

This afternoon several large groups of spring-break aged young people took over some of the sites around us. At one point we saw four sturdy young fellows lugging a rather sizable generator into one of the sites and we thought the worst - with good reason, it turned out. They must also have brought along stage sized amplifiers and speakers too because as the evening wore on the volume of the music rose to unbelievable heights. Campground security came around a couple of times and made them turn it down and were there, if a little late, to insure that the 10:00 quiet time was honored, but for a while they were entertaining the whole campground whether it wanted to be entertained or not. And the folks on the other side of us contributed their own music. But the quality of their sound equipment distorted it badly trying to handle volume it was not designed to produce.

March 16, 2014 (Sun) Ocala National Forest (13) 59/83° - An early run to the Publix in Eustis yielded a New York Times and a couple of bagels for lunch. Then it was back home to, hopefully, watch the exodus of the party folks. And leave they did - but not without a parting shot of aggravation. Joy reported that a large group of girls (can't call them women although they were probably 20 some) had taken over the women's restroom completely, occupying every space and more with activity that could well have waited until they got home - cars, fully packed and ready to go, overflowed the small parking area outside. After they left the floors in both restrooms were covered with mud and littered with toilet paper. We feel no envy for the voluntary staff whose responsibility it is to keep these ares clean.

March 17, 2014 (Mon) Ocala National Forest (14) 62/84° - We woke up to spritzing rain. The weather guessers are saying we're in for some heavy stuff later on today and into tomorrow so we had some decisions to make. The first was what to do about showers. This wasn't really a hard one. A little more water in the form of light rain as we went to and from the shower rooms wasn't going to hurt anything. And it's warm enough, this morning, not to have to wait for it to warm up later in the day. The second decision was a little more complicated. We weren't in dire need of a sanitary refresh but we were close. Under ordinary circumstances we could wait until the weather cleared tomorrow afternoon but if the predicted severe weather, complete with thunder, lightning and high wind (we were under a tornado watch!) actually descends upon us, we're not going to be wanting to traipse through the woods to the public restrooms. We chose to be prepared. What little rain there was at the time gave us a break.

The expected violence never materialized but it did rain all day - sometimes as downpours. By the time we were ready to go to bed there was a nice big puddle in our back yard. And it was still raining.

March 18, 2014 (Tue) Ocala National Forest (15) 57/73° - The rain kept up most of the night - we had to wonder how the folks in tents were making out - but was reduced to a light sprinkle and the trees shedding the accumulated water by morning. The forecasters were predicting the return of the sun but there was laundry to be done and a lunch at Wasabi Buffet to be eaten so off we went to the big city. There is a new bakery in Umatilla, a tiny one not open on Sundays, that we stopped to check out. The folks who own it must be transplants from New York because the bagels looked as if they came from there and the blueberry muffins looked to die for. Other bakery items looked just as tempting but aside from a tri-chocolate chocolate chip cookie, we resisted the temptation to buy more.

Q091976 Alexander Springs CG, Ocala NF #32 dry $10.50 B

QC41-16 Orange Blossom Cannonball

March 9, 2014 (Sun) Ocala National Forest (6) 45/77° - The Publix supermarket in Eustis usually has the Sunday New York Times newspaper - we think. The last time we were there on a Sunday they didn't. The Winn Dixie supermarket across the street did. Aside from Panera Bread which is some distance away, Publix is the only place in the South where we can be sure to get bagels that come anywhere near approximating New York area bagels. So Publix was our destination of choice this morning. But we had to go early before the Sunday Times were all sold out. We did and we were able to get one of the last two left and some bagels. We also picked up some picnic supplies, hot dogs, buns, paper plates etc. to celebrate the start of Daylight Savings Time with Bill, Margaret, and Dora at the campfire tonight. We also picked up a couple of cans of cherry pie filling for Margaret who made a delicious white cake, cherry, coconut, almond concoction for dessert.

It warmed up beautifully as the sun came up so our room of choice became the great outdoors. The one concern we had, as we read the newspaper, worked a crossword puzzle, read our books and appliqued a quilt border, was ticks. The approaching Spring was causing the Live Oak trees around us to bud pushing last years leaves out of the way. Seed ticks love to hang out on the tiny leaves and ride them down to the unsuspecting humans below. While relatively harmless (no threat of lyme disease) they are pesky and need to be dealt with to prevent infections. Luckily we found none.

March 10, 2014 (Mon) Ocala National Forest (7) 50/81° - We have found that if we use our water and sanitary facilities sparingly, we need to refresh the tanks only about once a week. Today was the day so we took Q up to the dump station and did just that. As the fresh water tank was filling, Mark noticed that the left rear tire looked a little soft. This could mean it needed air or that it was bearing all the weight meant for two. It turned out that the inner tire was dead flat! There was no question about who would do the honors this time. We drove up to the small parking lot by the gate house, called for road service and waited. And waited. And waited, because the nearest network facility was 64 miles away in Ocala, 2 hours after calling for help, Q was back in site #32 and we were ready to do what we thought we'd be doing much earlier. Hanging out.

I might add here that before the big adventure with the flat tire, Joy thought she was up for a walk around the campground which we did. Then while we were waiting for the road service truck, she walked back to our campsite to get her bicycle so she'd (we'd) have some form of transportation if needed. So she got a lot of walking in with no apparent ill-effect.

March 11, 2014 (Tue) Ocala National Forest (8) 54/84° - One of the things Joy did yesterday afternoon was design a small quilt/hanging with a "Sandy" (the super storm) theme and found she needed some fabric not in her traveling stash. The last time she was in the quilt store near Mt Dora (Sew-mini-stitches) she wasn't all that impressed but it was the closest so off we went. It turned out that the shop had greatly expanded and now well worth the visit.

On the way to the quilt shop we stopped in Umatilla to make arrangements to have Q's tire repaired. Actually all it needs is a new valve stem. Since this failure keeps happening we will be looking into a way to prevent it from happening in the future.

March 12, 2014 (Wed) Ocala National Forest (9) 67/83° - The folks at the tire place in Umatilla wanted us to call to ahead of our arrival so they could be sure there was room for us in the limited work area. They said it was pouring rain there. Since they'd be working outside and would need to fetch the wheel with the now deflated tire from its storage location up under the motor home, a probable muddy crawl, we agreed to reschedule for tomorrow. We had planned to go on into Mt Dora (with Lamont) after Q was whole again and decided to go today anyway. When we were there last year, we discovered the Fiesta Grande Mexican Grill - after we'd already eaten! We vowed to try it the next time we were in town. This was that next time. The food was excellent and well worth the wait.

Eustis is on the way to Mt Dora and The Orange Blossom Cannonball was in town. So we stopped for a closer look and to take some pictures. There was no one around to ask nor any signage to indicate what she was here for but we suspected that the Tavares, Eustis & Gulf was making ready to run excursions between Tavares and Mt Dora again. Last year the track in Mt Dora was in deplorable condition and obviously not in use but today we noticed work trains and crews along the right-of-way installing new ties. A web search when we got home confirmed our suspicions. See www.orangeblossomcannonball.com if you are interested.

March 13, 2014 (Thu) Ocala National Forest (10) 50/71° - Chilly start to the day and the weather guessers say it's going to be chillier tonight. Do we get the feather bed out or not? We'll see.

We've had several flats on Q's rear inner tires caused, we are told, by the valve extenders flexing the valve stem until it fails. Steel valve stems may be the answer, if extenders must be used, but our local tire supplier tells us that rubber and steel are just as good. Apparently they are not. This morning we took Q into Umatilla and had all steel stems put in both inside wheels. As far as I can tell there should be absolutely no flexing now. We'll see.

March 14, 2014 (Fri) Ocala National Forest (11) 37/73° - Thirty seven degrees this morning! I expected to see flakes of snow drifting through the palm trees. What am I thinking? This is Florida. And it's the middle of March. Oh well, It's better than the weather they're getting at home. It did warm up nicely during the day and by afternoon it was warm enough to sit out without sweatshirts.

It's Friday in the park. The influx has begun! By late afternoon cars and campers were going by almost nonstop looking for the "perfect" site. Kids on bicycles zipping here and there risked life and limb in their oblivious use of the roads. One little guy ended up on the asphalt in front of our site. There was no apparent sign of damage to him but his bike took some fixing before it was road worthy again.

Q091976 Alexander Springs CG, Ocala NF #32 dry $10.50 B

QC41-15 Campfires, Rain and Frustration

March 4, 2014 (Tue)  Lakeland, FL to Ocala National Forest (90/1946 miles) 64/73° - Of the three campgrounds we've stayed at in the Ocala National Forest, we prefer Juniper Springs. So why are we sitting here in site #30 at Alexander Springs? Because we have friends here. Bill and Margaret, a couple from Michigan, and Dora, a single lady from New York State, come south and spend most of the winter months here. They are often gone, on their way north, by the time we get here on our way north but this year the weather back home has been so bad they decided to stay down another few weeks. We came here instead of Juniper Springs to spend some time with them.

Bill is a great one for campfires and has one at their site almost every night. Cold weather and rain are about the only things that will keep him from it. His reputation is such that other campers, especially regulars, and the campground hosts, keep him well supplied with wood. All are welcome to come to enjoy the warmth and shared travel experiences. Tonight we and Stuart, a lone bicyclist peddling his way through the forest, were their only guests. But the fellowship was no less satisfying.

Sand Hill Cranes at Ortona Lock South

March 5, 2014 (Wed) Ocala National Forest (2) 57/64° - We had anticipated a long day today. Doing laundry is a chore that has to be done every so often whether we want to or not. And shopping to replenish the larder is no substitute for a relaxing day in the sun reading either. We did reward ourselves by driving a few extra miles to an excellent Chinese buffet in the outskirts of Mt Dora that we found last year. Our mail was due to arrive in the Astor post office today - 8 miles the other side of Alexander Springs! Oh well, we're out we may as well go on and get it. It will save us from having to go out tomorrow.

On the way back to the campground, on the long lonely part of the road through the forest, we heard a loud bang followed by some rather unsettling rumbling. We had a flat tire! A blow-out actually. Unlike the motor home, changing a tire on the Honda CRV should be fairly easy. There should be no need to call our road service provider and wait for someone to come from who knows where. Getting off the shoulder-less road into the wide shallow ditch wasn't fun but it got us out of the way of traffic. The lug nuts proved hard to loosen because they'd been put on with an impact wrench when Costco rotated the tires. The uneven footing and improperly set hand brake allowed the car to almost roll off the jack. As if to underscore our faulty decision to do it ourselves the spare tire cover was next to impossible to get off. A job that should have taken 10 or 15 minutes ended up taking nearly 45. We should have taken a picture to include here but, well, we had other things on our minds. In stead here is one from a more relaxed time.

Ibis at South Bay campground

March 6, 2014 (Thu) Ocala National Forest (3) 59/65° - We were expecting heavy weather this afternoon but we thought we could make to Costco in Altamonte Springs (north of Orlando) to get our tire replaced and get back home by the time it hit. While we waited at Costco's outside food concession tables, we checked the progress of the storm an discovered that a hurricane watch was in effect - starting a half hour ago - for the whole Florida peninsula. And there was the possibility of 1" diameter hail! We made it back home in plenty of time, even with a pause at Panera Bread for a soup and sandwich lunch.

It turned out not to be much of a storm, not even all that much rain, where we were but it was a different story to the east on the Atlantic coast. TV news reports showed uprooted trees and flooding in several areas.

 March 7, 2014 (Fri) Ocala National Forest (4) 55/68° - It rained a little during the night but the storm seems to have passed us by for now. It has been a cold (mid 50s and 60s) damp miserable day. If we hadn't been going so much the last few days, we might have considered it an opportunity to take a road trip. In stead we would hang around, spent the time catching up on chores that we have been neglecting and relax. Wrong!

Almost before we began, Mark discovered that we had been double billed by one of out health providers. A phone call to them was unsuccessful because the signal strength here is too weak so we'd have to go out after all. Joy wanted to visit a very good quilt shop in Ocala anyway and we could use a WiFi connection with good, relatively quiet table access (i.e. Barnes and Noble or a public library) for some financial downloads so off we went. The quilt shop was no longer there #%@#*!. It  went out of business suddenly and without notice according to a former neighbor. Several attempts to reach the health provider resulted in an equal number of "Please leave your name and phone number..." messages.  But an hour at a Barnes and Noble across the mall proved successful - Joy got a book and Mark got his banking data. It was a long drive, far longer than we anticipated, and wrought with aggravation, in spite of a few successes. We were glad to get home.

Flowering tree at Alexander Springs

March 8, 2014 (Sat) Ocala National Forest (5) 47/67° - A chilly night last night. We didn't think we'd need the feather bed, it was in the car, and we didn't but getting up and getting dressed would have been uncomfortable if we didn't have the furnace to take the chill off. The sun warmed things up nicely as the day developed, though, so we were able to haul our chairs out and spend some quality time enjoying this secluded campsite - as long as we were in the sun.

A nice warm campfire gathering with Bill, Margaret and Dora closed out the evening.

Q091976 Alexander Springs CG, Ocala NF #30 dry $10.50 B

QC41-14 Rear Window & Northerly

February 24, 2014 (Mon)  South Bay, FL (5) 62/??° - An early morning walk on the levee gave us a wonderful view of the sunrise - and lots of mosquito bites. (Well, lots of mosquitoes anyway, not so many bites.) The fact that Joy suggested that we do it, and as yet feels no ill effect from it, speaks volumes for the improvement in her back.

Jack, a high school friend of Mark's is someone else we try to see when we are in Florida. So our jaunt today was into Stuart, FL to have lunch with him. Our visits are always good to stimulate old memories and catch up on the doings of old friends. And, of course, to hear about Jack's adventures over the past year. Probably the most significant of these is his recent foray into the world of antique cars. He is a new member of The Antique Automobile Club of America with his 1979 Mercury Cougar. The car, as old as it is, has only 9000 (I believe he said) miles on the odometer and is in immaculate condition. As far as he knows, and there is some documentation to the fact, everything on it and in it is original. i.e. it is not a restored antique. The one exception is the tires. He recently replaced the originals (35 years old) with reproductions. (He's hoping the certification folks will allow this for unrestored cars.)  It won a first place trophy for him in a local car show over the weekend.

Christopher Columbus was in town. It's true!! We saw his ships, two of them at least, tied up in the marina in Stuart.

The picture above is of the Pinta. The Nina is behind it. The Santa Maria was nowhere around. We think Chris may have taken it to do some sight seeing since we didn't see him anywhere either. Jack let us out of the car so we could walk out onto the bridge for a closer look at the ships while he turned the car around. There were no signs indicating what was going on so we corralled an official looking photographer (he had several cameras and equipment bags hung over his shoulders). He reluctantly paused in his determined dash up the sidewalk to say there was some kind of tour tomorrow.

Q091595 South Bay RV Campground w/e/s/c/w $25 B+ (x5)
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February 25, 2014 (Tue)  South Bay, FL to Hudson, FL (233/1899 miles) 67/83° - We mentioned the broken glass in Q's rear door a few weeks ago. Today we headed for Hudson, FL and Suncoast Designers to get if fixed. The appointment is actually for tomorrow but since they open and start work at 6:45am, we took up residence in their parking lot for the night to be sure we were here in time. The drive here was relatively uneventful except for:

• An osprey flew across the road in front of us carrying a large (3 feet long at least) palm branch in his talons - building or renovating his nest we assumed.
•  A large very long tear drop shaped, obviously old trailer pulled out of a rest area as we pulled in. On down the road later he passed us (he must have stopped for gas) and we saw that it was a "1957 Airfloat antique trailer" per the plaque on the back.

When Mark checked in at Suncoast Designers, he handed the receptionist the paper work for the repair last year and told her we were here to have the window they had installed fixed. "Not covered by the warranty," the woman said. "I thought not, but I was hoping." "Doesn't hurt to hope," she said smiling.

February 26, 2014 (Wed)  Hudson, FL - Lakeland, FL (57/1856 miles) 60/79° - The young fellows from Suncoast Designers showed up right on time at 6:45am to remove Q's rear window. They covered the resulting hole with cardboard to protect us from the elements - though there were no elements to be protected from today - and took the window inside to do their magic on it. We hung out in what felt like a canyon of big class A motor homes pretending we were experiencing spectacular scenic natural wonder views all around.

Just as we began to discuss what we might do for lunch (at about 11:30) the young men brought our window frame back, complete with sparkling new (unbroken) glass. 10 minutes later the told us that as soon as we'd completed the paperwork inside we were good to go. Then came the pleasant surprise - no charge! They had determined that the glass had cracked because of some burrs in the frame that should have been removed when we were here last year, so it was fixed under the warranty. They didn't have to do that since they'd already told us it wasn't covered. But  they did. Good guys!

When we got to Ed and Kathy's, they gave us a tour of their new motor home - a 2013 Newmar Ventana LE. Very nice!

February 27, 2014 (Thu)  Lakeland, FL (2) 59/70° - Lunch at one of the best (and a favorite) Chinese Buffets we've ever experienced with Ed and Kathy was the highlight of our day today. Other than that we made a few shopping stops and pretty much hung out the rest of the day. Oh, we also stopped by an RV dealership to look at small motor homes. Seeing Ed and Kathy's new one made us begin thinking maybe we could use one ourselves. The good news (especially for Q) is; we saw nothing that came close to sparking any desire to have anything other than our trusty little Chinook. While new would be fun (and expensive!) the floor plans we saw just didn't come close to being as functional as what we already have.

February 28, 2014 (Fri)  Lakeland, FL (3) 49/64° - It was chilly last night. I guess we are headed north after all. A cool day was a good day for a road trip. Englewood, FL is where Joy's folks moved when they retired and where her mother lived for many years. Today was the first time we've been back there since Lelia's memorial service 2 1/2 years ago. Jeannie, the proprietress of the group family home where her mother lived before she died was not available for a visit but Doris, her condo up-stairs neighbor was, and we enjoyed a delicious lunch together at the Mango Bistro downtown Englewood. It was both fun and emotional to later visit some of the familiar places in the area.

Traffic on I-75 and I-4 on our way back was unbelievably bad, making the two hour trip exhausting. Apparently it was just as bad east of Lakeland because Ed and Kathy had to abandon I-4 for back roads when they came home from their work day at Disney World.

March 3, 2014 (Mon)  Lakeland, FL (6) ??/??° - On Saturday we packed up Lamont with enough luggage to sustain us for an extended cruise and headed for Plant City for a couple of days with Ruth and Gordy (Mark's aunt and uncle). As always we spent a great deal of time around the dinner table and on their sun/screen porch discussing a wide range of topics from family doings to current events. And, all too soon, we had to say good bye. Thanks guys for your hospitality and a great time.

Q091886 Ed and Kathy's yard (x6)