Wed

Today the weather was still a little too chilly to go on Jack's boat out on the lake their house is on, so RIchard and Jack went to browse the junk yards. Richard was looking for a tail gate for his truck back home ( the one on his truck is starting to rust) so of course Jan and I went --- you guessed it "shopping"! Later in the day we went on another bike trail. This one was in a park, although it looked more like a forest to me. The trail was packed sand through the trees, no alligators, but the farther we went, at any minute I thought some sort of animal was going to jump out of the trees. (I am not as adventurous as the three of them) we then had to go across this wooden rickety boardwalk. It had just a open rail on the sides, & it was long. i walked my bike all the way because it was narrow and I thought it would be just my luck I would fall over the side ( we all know I tend to be a "little unlucky " with things on wheels! ) ALong the boardwalk there was a huge strange tree. It was like twin trees from one root. Of course RIchard had to climb over the rail to get a picture standing in the middle of it. I was so afraid he would slip and fall, but there is no stopping him when he is set on doing something! (See pics to follow) when we got out of the forest trail, we went on another trail which was paved (my kind of ride) Richard and Jack saw a wild boar, Jan & I were farther back and missed it, which was fine with me - I really don't like animals in the wild,I prefer seeing them in a zoo! We relaxed with a good dinner of Italian sausage & brats,fries and salad. And ended the day playing cards.

March 4 - 7 - Mon. - Thurs.

Haven' t blogged for a few days. We were very busy enjoying our 4day visit with Jack & Jan in Orlando. It was a beautiful travel day, weather clear & sunny . It wasn't a very long trip only about 120miles, 2 1/2 hrs. We arrived early afternoon at what we like to call "The J&J RV Resort". Richard had worked all winter on a "panhard" bar, which goes under the RV &will give it more stability on the road & a part he needed he had ordered and had it sent to Jack's, which arrived the day before we did. So he & Jack worked on installing it while Jan & I went and did some girl shopping. The installation of the bar went great! We then had a delicious pot roast dinner jan had prepared. After dinner we played the card game RAKO, which we taught J&J to play.

Tues.

The second day at the "Resort" we packed a lunch, loaded up our bikes in Jack's truck & went to ride a bike trail through the wetlands. And what a ride it was! There were signs along the trail to be aware of alligators and did we ever see them! Every few feet along the trail we would see one laying at the side of the trail in the sun ( the trail ran alongside the water) we saw baby ones and HUGE ones! At one point Jan was in front and saw one & pointed at it to warn us, RIchard hollered "ALLIGATOR" and that thing jumped into the water! I had know idea they could move that fast or that they could leap like that!!! They say they are more afraid of us than we are of them, but that was a little too close for me !!!!!!! It was a 4 1/2 mile trail & I was so glad to get back to the truck! We also toured through an old historic pioneer settlement where you can actually go in the log houses. It is amazing how sparse they lived. On the way home RIchard saw a sign for a pork chop dinner at the local Moose Lodge, so we went. When we walked in we were told that the dinner was just for members. We said we were from out of state &didn't realize that. As we were walking back to the parking lot a fellow hollered for us to come back. Being we were not from the area they wanted to show hospitality. Boy were we glad because the meal was delicious! The people were very friendly to us. ( pics to follow, but the ones Richard took with our iPad of the gators didn't come out -he did something wrong)

March 3 - Sun.

First thing this morning we found a church in Ôrmand Beach. After mass it was too cold for the beach so we went to another huge flea market in Datona, ( Fł has a lot of flea markets!) This one was extremely large, it was a lot of walking, we were both tired and we didn't even walk half of it. And of course Richard wanted to get back to the RV to watch the NASCAR race!! We were leaving in the morning for Orlando, so we also had a lot of organizing for travel to do. (At least I had a lot organizing to do - my motto - "a place for everything & everything in it's place") all Richard has to do is drive the RV pulling our car &making sure we are on the right road to our next destination -not so hard (ha-ha).

March 1 - Fri

We got to our next site at Tomaka St Park in Datona. After we got hooked up we went to our favorite beach Ôrmand Beach, which is only about 15min from the park.It was a little chilly, but we thought we would at least watch the waves. Richard did his metal detector & found 12 cents (1dime & 2 pennies)! I sat & watched the waves roll in, it is very relaxing. But it really got cold by the water. I put on a sweatshirt and had two beach towels on my legs and was still cold, so we went back to the RV. It was already getting dusk. The weather said The Datona area was getting hit with a cold front (of course we must have brought it with us) We couldn't believe how many people were in the park in tents. I can't even imagine how they kept warm. Our heater kicked on last night.

March 2 - Sat

We decided it was too cold for the beach, it was also very windy. We went to this huge flea market about1-1/2 hrs away. We had been there last year. On our way back, we saw huge billows of smoke and was backed up in traffic. There were police directing the traffic. I checked my iPad which I had with us and found out that there was a large forest fire in the Datona area. Thank God it was not in our camp park. When we finally got back to the park, we saw that there was live music at the park store 6-8 , so we went. It was a husband & wife team. She sang and they both played several instruments, guitar, mandolins, banjo. They were very good. Pie & hot choc/coffee/tea was served.(pics to follow)

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!