Here We Go Again

Hot but breezy
We got another early start this morning and struck out for another adventure. Russell said he was feeling much better. I fixed a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon and toast so we were well fortified to begin the day.
We left for Fanning Springs after nine and took many photos at the park. The springs swimming area is quite large and just beautiful. I almost wished I had brought along a bathing suit. We walked a couple trails while there and ended up at the gazebo on the Suwannee River. What an exciting time it was to watch all the sturgeon jumping out of the water. They are such a huge fish that they make a tremendous splash that sounds like your programmed belly flop at the local pool. I was so happy to catch one of these large fish’s leap on video. See this event on my photo site at Phanfare.
While at the springs, Gini and I watched a little girl’s “rite of passage” on the high diving platform. A petite, delicate little oriental female child wearing goggles reached the edge several times in either a standing, squatting or sitting position and tried desperately to convince herself to make the leap. Her three little friends preceded her each time and were unsuccessful in convincing her to enter the water. Finally with two of the girls in the water shouting encouragement and one friend holding her hand she took the plunge with the support of all her friends. Upon emerging from the depths after the brave leap, the large smile could be seen easily in my camera’s lens without using any of the 24x zoom capability. Quickly she joined her other little friends on the platform eagerly chatting and anxious to repeat her new skill and accomplishment. It was encouraging to note that friends are still the greatest support for both young girls and women of any age. As we left the park we saw a school bus with "O2B KIDS" written on the side. Couldn't help but smile and think that, yes, it is great to be a kid AGAIN at 68.
After we left Fanning Springs, we drove to the small town of Suwannee very close to where the river enters the Gulf of Mexico. We located a restaurant treasure and stopped for a late lunch. We were seated in a window facing the water and enjoyed both food and lively conversation. After lunch, we walked around the area until a light rain started. Driving around the area, we were in agreement that the area would be a great getaway location for a vacation home but too far away from facilities to live in the area fulltime.
Upon return to our RV’s, we joined Gini and George in their coach for cold drinks. We left and Russell took a short nap while I worked on this blogging detail.
We leave tomorrow and head for home. We have so many things to get done prior to our trip west that we will be glad to get back and get started on the “continuing to lengthen” list.
Later:
We invited Gini and George over for the last of the wine we had onboard. I popped some popcorn and we enjoyed sitting around the campfire in a can outside. It was a pleasant completion to our latest trip and nice to share some memories with good friends.

Written on July 17th

Our morning routine of showers and breakfast was devoid of any surprises which was good as Russell was really not feeling very well. Our friends met us at eight am and we started out for Cedar Key for the day. Gini and George drove their car and we enjoyed the views of the Lower Suwannee preserve along the route.
We explored the town awhile, taking photos as we walked the streets, and tried to rent some scooters from a local grocery shop. There were five motor scooters with “For Rent” signs parked in front of the store and five more scooters in the rear of the establishment. The counter person told George they were all broken so were not for rent. When asked if they wanted to sell a couple of them, we were told they were not for sale. Either we looked like we were too old and decrepit to ride and would be a liability for the owner or we just didn’t hold our mouth the right way. Oh well!
Since food is a major priority on any exploring junket, we found a quaint (term often used for broken down or enter at your own risk) café on one of the canals. We ate within a large screened porch at a picnic table. I had a grouper sandwich that was the best that I have ever enjoyed and raved enough about it that I am sure the others wished they had followed my lead when they ordered.
At a local gift and book shop, I purchased Tim Russert’s book, “Wisdom of our Fathers” which I am anxious to read when I finish the novel “Celebrity” that I am currently enjoying.
When we returned to the RV about 3:15 pm, Russell laid down and immediately fell asleep. I woke him at 5:30 pm for dinner and then he went back to sleep until six this morning. During the night, he felt feverish so I had him take a Tylenol and he cooled off within half an hour.

Glad to be moving again!
We had an early start this morning and drove out of the campground at seven AM (just as the sun appeared) after we deposited our trash and dumped our holding tanks. Neither Russell nor I was feeling too swift this morning—a bit achy and fatigued. We took some Tylenol and pressed on. Down the road a bit we stopped at a McDonald’s for senior coffee and Egg McMuffins. It was a sad moment for me to see a member of their crew out back throwing about fifty or more large packages of English muffins in the dumpster. They were probably outdated but would still have probably been welcome at a homeless shelter or church pantries that feed the poor. It seems our country wastes a great deal of food because of FDA regulations. The Freegan population would have been in heaven at that dumpster this morning. For those of you who haven’t heard of the Freegans, they are people who live entirely on food and supplies they can obtain for free outside of restaurants, grocery stores, or any dumpster or landfill. Many are well-to-do and/or educated and just take great pride in how frugally they can exist. Some of the stories that I have read of them have been fascinating.
Back to our trip-----
We stopped every hour (generally at rest areas) to walk for 10-15 minutes and switched drivers each time. We also made a fuel stop and the cheapest gas we had seen since we set out this morning was $4.13 per gallon. Yeow! We are getting better mileage on the RV (towing the trailer) than we expected so we can’t complain too much.
Along about noon we stopped at a Sonny’s BBQ and had their brisket special with baked beans and baked sweet potato with cornbread and sweet tea. We both tried to clean our plates and just ended up feeling too full.
Heading on out----
We arrived at Manatee Springs Florida State Campground at exactly 2:13 PM—just as our trusty Garmin GPS predicted. What a marvelous invention. I think I will update the software on ours when we get home so we will have the latest maps and information. I may even pay to load the information on detours, road construction, etc. before we head west next month. We are both anxious to get our new RV as this one is feeling pretty small inside now that we know the larger one is on the way.
The campground map doesn’t seem to show much of anything in the way of roads to enjoy our scooters so we will probably leave them trailered for now. There are a lot of trails to interest us for the four days we will be here. It is Monday now and we will head for home Friday morning.

After Russell hooked up the water and I hooked up the electric, we walked down to the springs. The water is a gorgeous aquamarine in color and 72 degree temperature year round. The swimming area is roped off and I can hardly wait to get in there. We brought our tubes and will probably spend a lot of time in there as it is a boiling, humid 98.1 degrees outside. There are lots of walking and hiking trails here but I will only be able to hike them early in the morning because of the heat. We took some photos of the springs and headed back to our coach. When we arrived back at our site, there were three deer there eating vegetation in the few trees near our picnic table. A fourth deer joined them while we were taking photos. They seemed totally agreeable to our presence and even seemed willing to pose when I whistled for their attention.
We went inside to cool off with tea (me) and Tequiza (Russell). I finally won a couple games of Farkle so probably won’t hide the dice just yet. Russell is now taking a nap so I decided to tap out my blog. I get no signal here with my Sprint Air Card so am typing this in Microsoft Word and will copy and paste it to my blog whenever I next connect to the internet.
Between the two of us, we have made a full page list of “must-do’s” for when we return home so it will be a very busy 2-3 weeks before we head west.
Later:
We went up to the springs for a swim and, wow, did it ever feel cold! Once I got in up to my neck and moved around a little, it felt great and refreshing. Russell had a very difficult and belabored time trying to get all the way into the cold, cold springs. He finally submerged almost to his neck and spoke in a soprano voice that it didn’t get any warmer once you got wet all over as I had stated earlier.
We had a light supper tonight and will watch a movie in a few minutes.

Humid 84 degrees –Heavy Rain and thunderstorms

After morning showers over at the bath house, the morning became a festival of thunder, lightning and torrential rains. We never mind being cooped up because we thoroughly enjoy each other’s company. We read, played farkle and enjoyed watched the weather’s drama outside.
Our friends, Gini and George arrived a little after noon and the weather had started to clear. We joined them in their coach for coffee, cake and lively conversation. We had eaten tuna sandwiches for lunch prior to their arrival so they also had a sandwich while we kibitzed. We decided to walk a couple trails and look over the springs later so we started out after they watered their dog, Rascal, one more time. We all took many photos and chatted non-stop.
Late in the afternoon, we decided to drive into Chiefland to check out the highlights and enjoy some dinner. By luck, we found a great Chinese restaurant called “The Noodle”. The food, service and price was all of a good quality. I had Cashew Chicken and Russell had Sweet and Sour Chicken. I teased him because he generally just lets me order and then says he will have the same. I wouldn’t tell him last night what I was going to order forcing him to choose something that would taste good to him.
Afterwards we went to the library to be able to get an internet signal as George needed to check on some stock holdings for the days graphs that he keeps. We don’t get a cell signal at the campground so we don’t have phones or internet this week.
We were both very tired when we returned to our RV and turned in right away. It was unusual for me not to load my photos and write my blog until the following morning.

We started out early this morning with coffee, donut and banana. After unleashing our scooters from the trailer, off we rode to explore this area. The trail to the falls parallelled the wonder from top to bottom (see photos on Phanfare). It was great exercise and fun to compare photo shots as we went along. When we completed the falls trail, we rode over to the lake above the dam and enjoyed the antics of the ducks and geese.
We headed back to our campsite where many units were vacating their spots. Being a Sunday, they were probably going home to be ready to returrn to work in the morning. Despite our (becoming more frequent) old age aches and pains, it was wonderful to reflect that we don't have those time constraints now and can make our own schedule. Russell got back on the computer (per his regular Saturday routine) to check how he fared the past week in the stock market. I used the time to fix our brunch of scrambled eggs with ham, orange slices and wheat toast.

He continued to compute while I took a nap to nurse a sinus headache. Somehow he let me forget lunch later (he hates missing any meal) and when I woke, we played farkle again. I should refuse to play anymore since I am sure he must be cheating. There is no way I would be losing so consistently. We had hot chocolate with marshmallows and then watched a movie. Not a good one, but entertainment since it rained all afternoon.

Later I fixed dinner--swiss cheese over grilled chicken breasts, succotash, and cottage cheese with pineapple slices. Russell just went out to tie down the scooters in the trailer so we will be ready to take off in the morning. We had a pull-through site here at the campground so didn't need to unhook the trailer.

Love to all our friends and family.