Tuesday - Discovery is Launched

Well we have seen it. This morning we went down to the water side with our chairs and binoculars and cameras and settled down to watch the shuttle Discovery take off at 11.38 a.m. A number of people had radios, so we could to listen to live broadcasts. The launch was a very impressive sight. You needed binoculars to see it properly, but I managed a couple of pictures. The only problem we had was that there are 2 shuttles on launch pads, one obvious, the other hidden by trees, so of course we were almost all watching the wrong shuttle, still we realised the mistake in time to see it lift off.

If Sally feels well enough we plan to tour the space centre this week. In the afternoon we went to Cocoa and Cocoa Beach to do some sightseeing. (Me, Carol and Ron, John and Anne), then we had a BBQ in the evening. A very pleasant day.

Move up the Coast to Titusville

Sunday

We packed up and headed north to Titusville in preparation for the shuttle launch. We have camped in Manatee Hammock Campground right on the edge of the Indian River and directly across the water from the Shuttle launch, only about 10 miles away. Sally is not feeling very well and has found the journey difficult. Amazingly and quite by coincidence an English couple, John and Anne, who Carol and Ron had met at Tampa East RV were again camped right by us.

Monday

Washing Day

Today we intended to relax and recover, but we also did a laundry wash, which was quite exhausting as it is still warmer than it should be for the time of year. I don’t know whether to complain or not!

Saturday night out at The Log Cabin

Sandy and Don, a very nice ouple that we had met originally in April at the bluegrass weekend and who first introdued us tothe Log Cabin, came over to our campsite in the afternoon and after a BBQ we drove down to the Log Cabin for an evening of Gospel Bluegrass Jamming. Once again we were all made to feel really welcome and had a great time. Some people remembered us from our previous visit in April. Half way through the evening the pastor welcomed us and congratulated us on our wedding anniversary (34th) and Ron and Carol for their Ruby wedding anniversary. They all sang ‘Happy Anniversary to the tune of happy birthday.
It was quite a special evening.

Friday

We hit the beach again today, this time to swim. On the way we stopped to say ‘Hi’ to our favourite local alligator. We went to a local beach where there were real life lifeguards and real life beach babes. The sun was hot and the sea was warm and quite rough, (we are on the Atlantic coast, not the Gulf Coast) so we found it quite tiring and came home for a nap, as we were eating out in the evening. Sally and Carol went and did an Auto Tour of the State Park, where you get a cassette with a tour guide giving information as you drive round the park, they enjoyed this a lot.
We had asked the local rangers for a good place to eat, the consensus seemed to be that ‘Harry and The Natives’ was The Place to eat, so off we went. There was a fabulous sky, it had been building all afternoon. Half the sky (inland) was filled with a huge thunder cloud, while the other half (coast side) was still blue and clear. The cloud was slowly moving towards the coast, against the wind. It filled the sky, not because it was over us, but because it went so high. We could see lightning in the distance. We had a lovely meal at Harry and the Natives. It seemed to be a bit of a local institution, it had been there since about the fifties, run by Harry’s Mum (who still worked there part time, at 93). It had been a café, a motel a gas station and then back to a restaurant, all under the same ownership. The food was good as well. Carol and Ron had a Philly Steak Sandwich each, with salad as a ‘side’, (which always comes before, not along side), Which Carol says was more like a meal for six, Sally had a chicken breast coated with bourbon sauce and crushed pecan nuts, while I had a Prime rib beef. While we were eating the storm broke and the heavens opened.
The puds were not so good, still you can’t have everything (why not?). We had to wait for the rain to slow before we could get back to our car, which would have meant walking about 10 feet in the open, we would have been soaked.
We came back and watched the John Candy film ‘The Great Outdoors’ which I had found when we were in Wal-Mart. We all found it very funny, especially after our experiences with Racoons.

Friday

We hit the beach again today, this time to swim. On the way we stopped to say ‘Hi’ to our favourite local alligator. We went to a local beach where there were real life lifeguards and real life beach babes. The sun was hot and the sea was warm and quite rough, (we are on the Atlantic coast, not the Gulf Coast) so we found it quite tiring and came home for a nap, as we were eating out in the evening. Sally and Carol went and did an Auto Tour of the State Park, where you get a cassette with a tour guide giving information as you drive round the park, they enjoyed this a lot.
We had asked the local rangers for a good place to eat, the consensus seemed to be that ‘Harry and The Natives’ was The Place to eat, so off we went. There was a fabulous sky, it had been building all afternoon. Half the sky (inland) was filled with a huge thunder cloud, while the other half (coast side) was still blue and clear. The cloud was slowly moving towards the coast, against the wind. It filled the sky, not because it was over us, but because it went so high. We could see lightning in the distance. We had a lovely meal at Harry and the Natives. It seemed to be a bit of a local institution, it had been there since about the fifties, run by Harry’s Mum (who still worked there part time, at 93). It had been a café, a motel a gas station and then back to a restaurant, all under the same ownership. The food was good as well. Carol and Ron had a Philly Steak Sandwich each, with salad as a ‘side’, (which always comes before, not along side), Which Carol says was more like a meal for six, Sally had a chicken breast coated with bourbon sauce and crushed pecan nuts, while I had a Prime rib beef. While we were eating the storm broke and the heavens opened.
The puds were not so good, still you can’t have everything (why not?). We had to wait for the rain to slow before we could get back to our car, which would have meant walking about 10 feet in the open, we would have been soaked.
We came back and watched the John Candy film ‘The Great Outdoors’ which I had found when we were in Wal-Mart. We all found it very funny, especially after our experiences with Racoons.

Thursday

Today we explored the Amazon. We took the boat trip up the Loxahachee River, through mangrove swamp and cypress groves, where live mythical beasts such as alligator and manatee, trouble was we didn’t see them, finally stopping at Trapper Nelson’s Cabin, whre we given the tour of this isolated dwelling which has remained pretty well untouched since Wildman Trapper Nelson died there in 1968. He lived as a trapper there from 1928. It was quite fascinating. In the afternoon we hit the beach to look at Blowing Holes – an outcrop of oolitic limestone which has eroded to allow the waves to push up through a blow hole, though the tide was not quite right for it to work properly. After this we dropped into Wal-mart, just to look around. On the way back we stopped and looked at a gopher tortoise that was walking by the side of the road. We had a pork chop BBQ. We finished just in time to jump into the van and go down to the boat ramp to watch the sunset over the Loxahachee River, on the way back we saw some deer by the side of the road. We then sat and relaxed with a drink and a sing round the old campfire. While we were sat in our gazebo, at about 7.30, Carol saw something move in the darkness, it was a pair of racoons, looking for bits we had left. They investigated the cool box again, and nibbled bits out of it- we had already learned to put a big bottle of water on it to stop them opening it. Then one looked up onto the table, deep joy fro them we had left an empty potato salad container on the steps of the trailer. They found that and ran off with it. They returned and were wandering around for about 5 minutes as we sat and watched them.

Wednesday

A quiet day to day – Carol wasn’t feeling too grand – she had a migraine. We went out after lunch to for a spot of shopping and to find a wi-fi hotspot. We decided that the Panera Bread shop would be best. Unfortunately I had programmed Mary incorrectly so it was more difficult to find than it should have been. This led to a certain amount of tension between Sally and I, still we sorted it eventually and had a nice cup of coffee and a goodie before we all went shopping for supper. Carol made us a scrummy shepherds pie. It was too humid to sit out so we had a quiet sing around in the van. Not one of our best days.

Tuesday - The Big Chill

The pace of life just dropped about 9 points. (don’t know what that means, but we have slowed down). We had a day doing very little,

We sat outside and read, chatted and looked at the wild life.

Had a cuppa, - and sat outside and read, chatted and looked at the wild life.

Had pancakes for breakfast, and sat outside and read, chatted and looked at the wild life.

We had a shower and sat outside and read, chatted and looked at the wild life.

Wephoned some of our families as we sat outside and read, chatted and looked at the wild life.

We put up the gazebo, sat inside it (just to check it out) and read, chatted and looked at the wild life.

We had a snack lunch as we sat outside and read, chatted and looked at the wild life,

Then we climbed aboard the truck and cruised for an afternoon safari to the concession stand (about 100 yards), where we bought an ice cream and firewood and came back sat outside and read, chatted and looked at the wild life.

We had burgers on the BBQ and as we ate them we sat outside, chatted and looked at the wild life .

We lit the campfire and had a great time as we sat into the night, inside the gazebo and drank a beer or a glass of wine, played the instruments, sang a few songs and put logs onto the campfire.

Footnote

Just to update everybody, after 10 days together we are all still talking to each other.
Ron has read half a book, Carol has read half a shelf (Although she has thought a lot about some films, such as Deliverance and Psycho (We bought the Trailer from Bates RV, though we haven’t stayed in a motel yet), and Sally has finished one book. Terry has read several T-shirts. We are now looking forward to relaxing in the backwoods for a week.

Sunday

Movin’ On. (After Carol Had Said A Fond Farewell To Our Little Alligator Which Had Spent The Weekend less than 50 Metres From Our Trailer)

[Please note: I am not at all concerned about Carol and the Alligator, at least no more than I am about Ron and the Frog, (who by the way Carol thinks is still ugly. {No we will not comment on which one})]

This morning we had a little jam session of our own with Sandy and Don, they were really interested to hear some of the British Folk music which Carol and Ron sang, they even recorded a bit of Carrick Fergus.

We then hitched up the wagon and set sail for West Palm Beach (not mixing my metaphors there at all). We were going to camp at John Prince Park again. I had thought that Arcadia was in the middle of nowhere, however driving across Florida on Route 70 showed me that it was actually only on the edge of nowhere. Route 70 is about 100 miles long and has about 6 bends and 4 towns. One which was of interest to me was called Brighton, unfortunately it was so small it had the towns name written on both sides of the sign. Passing through Okeechobee was like stepping back into a cowboy film. The main street had those shops with big fronts, but nothing behind them, there was an advert for a local Rodeo and you expected to see cattle being driven down the main street. Most people seemed to drive hitch posts and tie them to horses outside the saloons. Okeechobee is on the north shore of Lake Okeechobee (I think this is an old Indian name), which is big, really big, about 40 miles across, which is wider than the English Channel! (for those of you from Yorkshire, that is the bit of blue on the map that keeps us from speaking French). We wanted to see it, but unfortunately there was (sorry, is) a levee all round it which was too high for us to see over and there was nowhere we could stop with the Trailer on, so we still haven’t seen Lake Okeechobee!

Still we didn’t hang around and arrived at John Prince Park in good time. In good time to find out that the campground was closed! This meant that we had to rapidly rethink our itinery and move up to Jonathan Dickinson State Park, about 35 miles north. We arrived as the sun was setting, a beautiful orange sunset over the trees of the Park. Unfortunately the campground was 4 miles from the gates of the park, by the time we reached the campground it was nearly dark so we had to find a space very quickly, which we did, though I nearly drove the car and trailer into the forest as I tried to reverse the Trailer into a gap it wasn’t made for. Still we eventually managed it. We are safely set up, but we don’t know what awaits us at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, we haven’t even seen it in the daylight yet.