Trouble on the road!

Today is Wednesday and we did not make the progress we wanted to today. In fact I am writing this from BlackWater River State Park, only about 70 miles from Falling Waters.
We got away fairly early, but had to stop at Walmart for supplies, that took an hour.
Just as we were about to stop at a rest area for lunch we had a blow out on one of the trailer tyres. Fortunately I was able to stop without any damage to the trailer, however the tyre was a write off. We limped into the rest area and changed the tyre, but after lunch felt we had to buy a new tyre to replace the blow ou. We drove to the next Wal-mart, which was only 3 miles down the road. They took more than three hours to change two tyres (one of the others was badly worn as well), so we did not leave there until 5.45. Too late to go much further we stopped at the newly refurbished Black Water River State Park. Cath had cooked chicken and rice and we relaxed round the camp fire. We are getting to bed early, hopefully we can get a good start and make it to New Orleans tomorrow.
BlackWater River State Park has been recently refurbished with large, wide sites and full facilities. Near to River play area: tubing etc. Quite busy, book for weekends. $20p.n.

Our link with Florida Continues

Jim and Cathy had invited us to call in for a couple of days on our way to New Orleans. They have a house in a forest by the Santa Fe River. It is a beautifully decorated double wide home set in a couple of acres of woodland. They have several porches you can sit out on. It is a really peaceful place. Just when we thought that we would be leaving our friends in Florida behind, Jim and Cathy (who we were staying with) announced that they would like to come with us to New Orleans!
This was great, they are going to travel with us for about a week before going back to Florida for a HOG Bikers Meeting (Harley Owners Group) next Wednesday, so we had a quick turnaround at Jim and Cath's on Monday to do the washing and left in convoy for New Orleans on Tuesday. We made great progress on Tuesday and stopped overnight at Falling Waters State Park near Marianne in Florida. Here is a quick pic of our campsite while we are gettig ready to eat.We sat round the campfire as the sun went down. When we lokked up the setting sun made the tress glow red, as though they were on fire.


Falling Waters State Park is a small park with fairly naoorw roadways, sites cna be small. It is not busy, but book for weekends. 2/3 facilities on site. $20 p.n.

Soggy Bottom Weekend

We travelled down to Soggy Bottom, other wise known as The Sertoma Youth Ranch, on Wednesday. This followed a bit of a scare with the van.
On the Tuesday I went to start it and found it would do nothing! So we checked the battery, took the battery out, took it to Walmart to see if it was no longer servicable,but it was OK. Tried to jump start it, finally left it charging overnight. Next morning, no joy, changed the battery. Finally Jim tried to start it, wiggled the Auto shift stick and away it went, we were relieved!
Because of various difficulties we have done a lot of eating out, on Wednesday we ate at Remmingtons' Wesley Chapel, as this is the favourite eating place of Brenda's (who's birthday it was), however Brenda was not with us, still we had a great meal. Thursday a number of other people showed up-, some people we had not seen for more than a year. So we had a great time sharing gossip and jamming together under Connie's awning. Friday,we out to Remington's again, this time we took Brenda (because it was her birthday and it was her favourite place to eat). Saturday we relaxed and talked with more friends. In the afternoon there was the Soggy Bottom Auction, which was fun.
Last night we had a big jam session at Connie's When Sally retired to bed I had a bit of a wander around the campground and played with a couple of other people. It was another great night at Soggy Bottom.
This morning we will meet together inthe pavillion to share a Gospel Hour before breaking camp to leave Soggy Bottom behind.
We are moving on with Jim and Cathy Mobley to their house near Fort White in the north of Florida, hopefully to have a bit of a relax before moving west to the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. This will give us the chance to provide a first hand report about this summers oil spill in the Gulf

Connie's Fall Party

It’s been along time since I last wrote on the blog, but then lots seem to have happened.

First, we are still at Connie and Jim’s. When we arrived last week Connie told us that she had invited all our old friends up for a party on Sunday for both us and for Brenda, her sister, as it was her birthday. This turned out to be a whole load of us camped in their field and having a great weekend. We had already been there for several days, getting our trailer cleaned out, so we waited excitedly for friends to arrive. First came Larry and Jan, in their big blue bus, then Jim and Kathy, our friends from White Lake. Soon after Christina and Geoff arrived in their brand new Hyundai. Later on, Marilee arrived in her old Chevy Jamboree, closely followed by Ed with his 1985 Ford, with a camper on the back. Last of all Lois arrived with her daughter Liz, as she had picked her up from Orlando Airport. So went to The Oakwood at Lady Lake for supper and then we jammed together on Friday night.

Saturday started with breakfast together, PANCAKES! Then we all went to a big Flea Market at Marion. You could get all sorts there, but I managed to buy a nice socket set. Saturday night we all went to Oxford to a local bluegrass and country get together. Some of the girls got together and reformed The Crooked Halo’s for another performance. That is Brenda, Jan, Marilee, Judy and Connie. They sounded really good. They were then asked to perform at a‘Pickin Parlour’ over towards Sanford next month, so the starlets are on their way to fame, well done!

Saturday night we all sat round the kitchen table and had a great time together just relaxing in each others company, telling stories and jokes, eating supper and really enjoying our time together.

Sunday we started with a gospel jam at about 10.30 and went through to 5.00, with a break for lunch. Some people had to leave, some of us collapsed and watched the Jacksonville Jaguars beat the Indianapolis Colts in one of the most thrilling finishes to a football game. Others just went to bed exhausted.

Monday, more people were supposed to be going home, but Connie mentioned ‘Bealls – 15% off Senior Citizens Day’, so we went to Mary’s Grill for breakfast and the girls piled into one car and the boys into another. The girls set off for Bealls and we returned for a really quiet day back at the house. Sally may tell you about her record breaking day shopping.

Tonight there were eight of us left and we went to the Olive Garden for supper, the company was great, the food was good too.

A WOW of a weekend

Update from Connie's

Well it's Thursday already.
We have been here for five nights. So far we have cleaned out the Trailer, unpacked everthing from the vacuum packs and tidied everything away. Now we are ready to move from Connie's lovely house into our little home on wheels. Much of the time we have spent just relaxing and catching up with the time difference, today was the first time I didn't wake up at 2.00 in the morning and have dificulty getting back to sleep bceause my mind was telling my body that it was 7.00 in the morning. It has been difficult to stay awake after 9.00 in the evening. We have found some time to have some practice sessions with Connie and her sister Brenda, boy are we rusty!!! Connie and Jim only arrived from Rochester, New York two days before us, so they are tired and also sorting our the house here.
Yesterday the news was all about a tropical storm,- Nicole, moving up from the south, fortunately it passed about 50 miles east of us, so we only got one shower, however further up the coast (North Carolina) they have had more than 20 inches in the last three days!
We love seeing the wild life here. Out of the window we can watch the Jays, the Bluebirds (yes they really do exist away from the Land of Oz), the woodpeckers, the tiny Carolina Wrens, Mocking Birds, and the Grackles. There was a big hawk sat on the TV mast above the house. I managed to get really close to a Sap Sucker, it's a small woodpecker, without the pretty colouring.
When I went out on to the patio last night I found a couple of small Praying Mantises. There are also two large, hairy spiders which inhabit one of the window frames in Connie's dining room (outside, not inside fortunately) which are fun to watch.
So todays plan is to move the rest of our gear back to the trailer, then take a shopping trip to Publix to stock up the trailer, before having supper with Connie and Jim and hopefully another music practice.

First Day - How is the trailer really?

I was up early today to have a more detailed look at how the trailer has stood up to the Florida Summer.
As I was going out to the trailer, the sun was coming up and I got some lovely photos of Jim and Connie's house with the trailer safely tucked into the pole barn.
On closer inspection, the trailer was indeed in good condition inside. No creepy crawies, no mold. So I spent some time clearing the inside of the trays of cat litter we use to absorb the moisture.
Then I turned my attention to the Chevy. Again, in the light of day, I could find no invaders apart from the inevitable Mud Dobbers, a type of wasp. So I took the opportunity to give the Chevy a nice wash.
When Sally had got up I drove the hire car back, with Sally following on in the Chevy.
As to the rest of the day, we have been to Golden Corral for lunch, relaxing and then been visited by our great friends Paula and Walt.
Now Connie is planning a bit of a party for us and other friends at the weekend, so that we can all have a good jam together, sounds like fun.
Tomorrow is Monday - Discount day for Pensioners at Bells Outlet! So the girls will be off to the shops.

Arriving in Florida

Well we have arrived safely in Florida. It was a quite uneventful flight, except that we got a good view of the North Wales Coast, I have included a pic of The Great Orm, a headland by LLanduno
For the first time we actually flew over Cape Canaveral on the way in to Orlando. I have included a pic of the fly past showing the Vertical Integration Building and what I think is Pad 39b.
We picked up our hire car and drove north to Ocala, where our friends are storing our trailer and truck. We had to drive by Walmart to pickup some photos which I had ordered the previous day by uploading them from home. It is a very small world these days.
It was dark by the time we arrived, but we had time to check the vehicles. The Chevy had a flat battery, but started easily once hooked up to the hire car. The exterior of both vehicles was covered in spiders webs and various insect 'bits', but nothing serious and the inside of the trailer was very nice and clean, with no intruders or mold, thank goodness.
We had a great reunion with our friends Connie and Jim, but settled in for an early night by about 10.30 their time, 3.30 a.m. our time.