Feb. 27 - Wed.

Today was a sunny, but chilly morning. We went to the office to pay for the extra night and was told that they could give us the other extra night we needed, but that we would have to move to a different site across from where we were because the site we were on was reserved for that night. So we took it (I'm not all that keen about staying on a Walmart parking lot,although a lot of RV'ers told us that they have) While we were in the office we noticed a sign up for a 3hr river cruise on a pontoon boat for that morning and as luck would have it, they had 2 cancellations while.we were in there. The boat only holds 7 passengers & the driver. It was a very relaxing ride & we saw alligators, turtles, blue heron birds, a lot of big fish and a group of monkeys! Yes monkeys! They were brown & white and there were also babies. The driver said we were lucky because the monkeys were not always visible. He said the monkeys were brought here years ago when the movie Tarzan was being made here and somehow they escaped from the movie crew and have populated and lived here since. It is estimated that there are several hundred here now. A couple on the cruise told us about Rainbow park in Donnellon (about 45min away) where they have river tubing We decided to go check it out. When we got there there was a sign posted at the entrance that it was not opened for the season yet. But it was a nice ride there & back.

Feb. 25,26 & 27, 2013

Mon.25 -Well we woke to a very dark,rainy day, so no beach. We decided to take a ride & check out our next campsite since it was not that far away at a state park. We did not have reservations because they are on a first come basis, it was a good thing we went to check it out. When we checked with the park ranger, she said that there were no openings. At a lot of the state parks you can only stay a maximum of two weeks and she said that was the case there, campers were staying two weeks.

We had planned on two nights there. So we called Wilderness where we were & asked if we would be able to extend for two more nights - they said all they could give us was one extra night be caused they were all booked up (we did notice when we came it was pretty full). So we thought we would have to stay one night at a. Walmart, where you can stay overnight for free in their parking Lot.

Tues. 26 - it rained hard all night and was still raining in the morning ( at least we know our RV does not have any leaks, thank goodness!) We decided to take a ride to a museum we saw signs along the expressway for in Gainsville. It was natural history museum across from a Florida Ûniversity and it also had a butterfly rainforest in it! That was AWSOME! There were so many beautiful butterfly's flying around, I just loved it!! ( pics to follow)

Feb.24, 2013 - Śun.

Well today is a much better day than yesterday! Richard got a good nights sleep &woke feeling better. He is still a little sore, but knowing it is not his heart, makes all the difference. We got an early start and made it to our next campsite,which was only 120 miles before noon. We are at the Wilderness Çampground Resort in Silver Springs (near Ocala).this is the place we stayed a mt at last year. It's a really nice place & it is 62 miles from Daytona Beach. Today is the first day we were able to put shorts on, it was warm out. After we got all hooked up, our TV reception was really good & Richard was so glad that he was able to watch the Datona 500 and actually had to put the air conditioner on in the RV. Since I know the area around here, I went & did some shopping. Later we went to do laundry -- even on vacation clothes have to be washed, what fun!! But they do have a nice laundry room here. We will be here till Wed., so tomorrow if it doesn't rain we will hit the beach!

Feb. 23 - Sat

Well today started out not so good. Richard was experiencing some pain on the left side of his chest when he took a deep breath, of course he didn't tell me until we were on the road to our next site. He said it wasn't constant, but was a little uncomfortable. We decided when we got to our next campsite about 3hours away in Lake city,Fl., we would find a quick care. & have it checked out. At the urgent care not far from the campsite, the Dr. Sent us across the road to the hospital emergency room for a cardiac work-up. They did an EKG , chest X-ray, drew blood for labs, & hooked him up to a heart monitor. The good news was that all the tests came back normal. His BP was elevated some, but we were told that was to be expected, due to nerves. The Dr. Said that because the tests were all within range that it was not his heart. (Thank God) he said it probably was a strained chest ligament or muscle due to all the lifting & etc. he was doing with the RV. & he prescribed a anti-inflamatory, & said it could take a few weeks to completely heal, and that it was okay to continue our travels, but to take it a little easy. (We all know Richard is like the"energizer bunny", he just keeps going), but I am going to make sure he slows down a little! We were there for about 4 hrs & we were impressed with the prompt caring service. We got back to our RV & found a church with an evening mass, had supper and relaxed watching TV. Tomorrow we head for Silver Springs,Fł just about 2hrs away. We will be there for 3days so it will give Richard relaxation time.

Feb. 20,21 & 22 - Wed.,Thurs.& Fri., 2013

For the last three days we have been at Eastbank campground in Georgia. We had to back-track a little in our travels because we wanted to go to St.George Island, so this is the route we had to take. It is actually just across the Fl/GA state line. It is a really nice campsite along lake Seminole.(pics to follow) We had a little incident on our way here. When we left our last site at St.George, we stopped at the "dump station" to empty our sewer waste. While we were driving down the road, we experiencing a foul odor, so we opened the windows but it was worse. It seemed to be following us. Well we stopped for gas & Richard discovered the odor cause. After we "sewer-dumped", Richard forgot to close the sewer valve, which meant that sewer waste leaked into the sewer compartment. We had to wait until we got to our next site to clean it out. Poor Richard had a mess to clean up, but he hosed out the entire compartment. As he was doing that he accidentally stepped into the mess with his new shoes on! I didn't mean to laugh (because he wasn't in a very good mood) but it was funny. After he finished hosing down his shoes &jeans &changing clothes, we relaxed by the lake. Thurs. was a nice weather day, in the 60's. We did a little supply shopping in town & had a cookout by the lake. Fri. We woke to rain &it continued ALL DAY! We decided to take a ride into the nearby town of Marianna. We found FL Caverns state park, we saw that they have tours of the caverns, so we went on it. The caverns are amazing, but also a little scary knowing you are in a cave under the ground. The tour was only half of the caverns because the other half was flooded. As I am writing this it is evening and it is still raining. Hopefully it stops by morning, because tomorrow is a travel day to our next stop.

Feb.19 - Mon.

Today was an on/off rain day. There was a red flag up today at the beach, which meant hazard water - the waves were really strong & it was very windy. We decided to take a ride to the nearby city of Apalachicola. We stopped at a marina called Bay Shore. There were a lot of huge fishing boats docked there and Richard wanted to check them out. Well----that was when we had another "I love Lucy" episode. Being that it was rainy out we had the head lights turned on our car. When we got out to look at the boats, we forgot to turn them off -- yep when we got back to our car, the battery was dead! What do we do now.?? Richard went to look around for someone who maybe had jumper cables ( which we had with us -- back at the RV) surprisingly a truck pulled up in the parking lot and it was a park ranger who .... Had jumper cables!! ( Guess God does work in mysterious ways) He jumped our car and would not accept any payment. When Richard checked our battery, he realized it was over 5 years old. Since we depend on our car to get around when we are at campsites he decided we could not wait until we get home, we drove around & found an Àdvanced Auto Parts store & bought a new battery which they installed for free. When we got back to our RV, the rain had stopped so we went for a bike ride. Later we went to the civic center where they have Tues. night bingo, which we went to last year we were here & won 2 games. We did not win this year, but we enjoyed the evening.

Feb.17 -Sun.

Today we drove to St.George Island about 160miles. We were here last year &really liked it. It is called the "uncommon Florida" because it is not commercialized - only one gas station, no fast food. The only access to the island is across a4.5 mile bridge across part of the Gulf. The park campsite is only a few blocks from the beach. Only downsize is the weather which has been really chilly. On the island is also a historic lighthouse which Richard climbed last year. Surprisingly there are quite a few people camping in tents with this colder weather. It was a lot warmer last year when we were here. After we got all hooked up, we drove back over the bridge to East Point,Fl where we were told there was a laundromat, which we are in need of since we have a weeks worth of laundry! When we found it it was already getting dusk, so we decided to do it tomorrow. This time we had the code to get back into the park!


Feb.18 - Mon.

It really got cold last night. We felt sorry for the "tenters" we had our furnace on -are we really in Fl..??? We started the day by doing the laundry -what fun! It is a little warmer today & the sun is out. East Point also has a Piggley wiggley & CVS. After laundry, Richard decided to go down to the beach on his bike to do some metal detecting &i went by the lighthouse where there are a few quaint specialty shops. I thought it was a little too cold by the beach. When I got back to the RV Richard was already there, he said it was way to cold by the water, but there was a gal in her bikini who actually went into the water! Her husband said they were from Canada and she said she had to at least say she was in the gulf -I say she is crazy! It is way to cold. It is supposed to be in the 70's tomorrow (I sure hope so) but a 70 percent chance of rain - oh well, it could be worse, it could be snow!!

Feb.15 - Fri.

It was a short jaunt to our next campsite - just 77 miles, Blackwater St. Park in Holt,Fl. We stayed here last year and "lo & behold" we were assigned to the very same site, it was a nice day, in the 60's. in fact we finally put our winter coats, which we left home in, packed away in our car. We went for a short bike ride in the park. Last year we were able to walk across a bridge to a sandy beach area, but this year because of "Sandy", the water is so high the bridge was under water! But the campground was filled.

Feb.16 - sat.

Woke to another nice, clear day. Our next stop was about 3-4 hours away, about 212 miles, in Sneads,Fl. Three Rivers St.Park. We arrived early afternoon & no one was at the park office to check us in until 4:00 , but Richard had called to reserve us a spot several mts ago, & we had a conf.# & a site #, luckily because the park was filled. After we got all hooked up, we checked to find a church with a Sat. Evening mass. The closest to us was in Marianna,Fl. About 24 miles away. It was a 5:00 mass. It was 2:30 , but we decided to go early being that we had no idea where the church was. We found the church without any problem, thanks to our iPad. It was a very nice,very small church. Needless to say we were the first ones there. Well ----- after church it was dark out & I didn't know how to get the directions back on the iPad to reverse them. We had to go on memory which at our age is not an easy task. We knew the main road we took there, but didn't remember the street we turned from. Richard thought there was a bp gas station on the corner. The road we were on was pitch dark, but we found the bp station &made the turn. Well we got to the park &then we had an "I love Lucy" event -- THE PARK WAS CLOSED!! Because we did not register in before we left for church, we did not have the code to get back in! (Sound familiar???) we could not believe we did this again.!!! So here we were outside the gate & our RV inside the park! We had a small flash lite in the car, and Richard tried to find a way to get around the gate with no luck.our bikes were on the back of the car and Richard was going to ride his into the park and get the code from another camper, but it was a good distance from the gate house to the campground &you can't believe how dark the park is at night. I was worried that a deer or any animal might run out in front of him and he would not be able to see it. Our next thought was just to wait and hope another camper might be coming in.if not --we would be spending the night in our car! After about 20 min. Richard decided to get out and walk around the gate house again and there on the door was the park rangers phone #!!!!!!!!! Luckily he answered the phone, he thought it was pretty funny!! I was never so glad to see our RV!!

Note - I wrote the last few posts, but Richard typed them to the blog --so no punctuation!

Feb.12, Tues.

Woke to a sunny clear day filled up with gas $-33.8 gal we got on the nathez trace parkway which we went on last year. it is 444 miles of scenic driving and goes thru three states Mississippi Alabama & tenn we got on in tn & drove 223 miles on it- there are a lot of historic sights to stop at along the way-at one point Jackson falls we missed last year it is steep 900 ft trail which leads to the base of the falls - of course rich decided to hike it-he took his walking stick,camera,and phone. I was not going to attempt it- I stayed at the top at a picnic table- it took him 25 mins to do the hike & he said it was harder coming back up- but he made it pictures to follow - we stayed at the nathez rv park that night- tomorrow we will do the remaining 211 miles of the parkway.


Feb 13 & 14th
Weds & thurs
Weds we got back to te nathez parkway- it was a nice day-a little light rain in th afternoon-our next night was at a campsite just off the parkway-but we got a little lost trying to find it-we ended up in a part of miss we would have preferred not to be in especially in a big motor home-we had to end up getting back on the parkway and went in a big circle & and ended up in the same place we started from-an I love Lucy moment- I was finally able to talk to a real person at the campsite- but being that we were in Mississippi it was very hard to understand his southern accent I had to call him 3 times & finally we found the park campgrounds- thank god it was around 5 o clock & starting to get dusk - park sites are not very well lit up- but rich was able to get the electric & water hooked up& there were several more rv,s camping near by so we weren't,t alone we were actually able to pick up a few tv stations

Feb 14th - thurs


Happy valentines day!!!!
We realized to get to our next campsite we would have to drive to Hattiesburg miss where the tornado hit last week - we did not want to drive through the area because it may be hectic & have roads closed or detours - so rich had to figure out new campsite & different route so we made it to a campground in Bay St. Louis miss but it was early afternoon & since we needed lp gas - which runs the furnace- ref- & hot water heater Which we needed at night since it was still chilly at night- we found a camping world rv center which was only couple hours away in Alabama so we decided to go there - we ran into a lot of traffic through Biloxi miss and it took a little longer but we made it - they have full hookups on a first come basis& there were 3 openings so we stayed there for the night (best part is that it is free with full hook ups - tomorrow fri we to get to holt Florida.

Feb.10, 2013 - Sun - Paducah, KY

Well Pauper's Pride II is "on the road" again, headed for sunny FL. I will be writing my journal in this blog. You are welcome to come along! We are taking our time stopping at several campsites along the way. I may not be able to post every day because we will be staying at state park campsites which don't have  Wi-Fi, but I will try & post when I can. We had a rough start on our journey. It was pouring rain & windy, but Richard handled it like a pro! We left home around 9:00 a.m. and arrived at our first campsite - Victory RV Park in Paducah, KY around 4:00 p.m. which was pretty good considering we drove about 336 miles almost all the way in the rain. Fortunately it stopped raining a short time before we arrived, so Richard was able to hook up the utilities & drain the anti-freeze from the water lines without having to do it in the rain. So we had lights & running water. We were even able to get one station on the TV! We relaxed with a supper of soup & sandwiches, & by 7:30 Richard was in bed sound asleep! He was beat it was 7 hrs. of hard driving.

Feb.11 - Mon. - Dixon, TN.

We woke to a chilly, but sunny, clear day, thank goodness! I didn't get much sleep because Richard was snoring most of the night, In a motor home it's not like I can go into a different room & not hear him!! But I guess he was finally relaxed after the tension of the drive yesterday. Hopefully that won't be the case tonight. The drive today was great. It was clear & hardly any wind. We arrived at TanBark Campground in Dixon, TN early afternoon. It was only about a 4 hr. drive, about 200 miles. Richard had time to check things out on the motor home, like the tires, generator, emergency break etc.It is a small campsite which we stayed at last year. The lady at the check-in said we looked familiar - I guess we haven't changed much in a year (except for my new "smily face" forehead scar!!) We have free WI-Fi & found 17 channels on the TV. We saw on TV that a tornado hit in Miss. near where we are headed tomorrow. Hopefully the bad weather there will be long gone.