Travels with Snowbirds 2016, January 10 to 16, Bushnell, FL

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The one about chillaxin for a week with fun active stuff thrown in

The ride from Umatilla to Bushnell is through the central Florida doldrums. Cattle farm next to vacant pasture filled with gigantic ant mounds, next to orange grove, next to horse farm. There are beautiful ranches next to shacks. I love travelling the backroads of Florida; I never tire of its monotony and stark beauty. It’s kind of like driving through the Carolina low country for me, very soothing. I do not have to pay attention to the roads too much, no hills, no curves, few stop lights, few towns. It’s relaxing. It’s chillaxin.

After a stop at Publix, then Wal-Mart, then gasoline ($1.819 but now down to $1.769) I arrived at Florilow Oaks. It is a campground that was started by some Loners on Wheels many years ago, and has about 60 lots for full time residents. Most have permanent structures on the sites and 30 folks call this home year round. Others are snowbirds like me and spend 3 months here, and still others spend a few days up to a month before moving on. During my past few visits, I thought the park was deteriorating a bit, things just looked unkempt, but a recent management change has certainly improved the looks of the campsites and common areas. Bushes are trimmed, unkempt campsites have been tidied, and there is a general look of pride at most campsites. I have the first campsite as you enter, generally not the best location, but here it is ok. The only people that pass me live here, and Winston and I get a lot of waves and stop bys to say hello and I like that. I am level, have a beautiful concrete patio and a picnic table. There is excellent free wifi that I can use to stream, and I have been continuing to binge watch The Americans on Amazon Prime TV. No need to use my Apple TV yet, my ipad is working just fine. For a $50 fully refundable deposit, I was given a Direct TV box and remote, and after a few false starts, I now have every station known to man on the TV and more than that streaming on the ipad. 25 of the residents were away on a Carnival Cruise to Nassau, so it was somewhat quiet the first part of the week. They came back with stories of cold and rain, but oh the food.

One day, I went to the RV show in Tampa with a new friend, Dave. Tampa is about 65 miles from here, straight down the interstate; not a bad ride at all. Dave met up with some MidLows, Bobbi, Jeannine, and Rodger who were also there, and I met up with camping buds Ginnie, Joanne, Malcolm and Ginger, and new friend, Skip. We looked at lot of RVs, and Rodger bought one! Congratulations, Rodger! We looked at lots of accessories, but I didn’t think there were any real bargains, so didn’t buy anything. I think Dave has the itch for a different RV, and he went several days later today to look at a used unit in Fort Myers. He asked me if I wanted to go, but that’s 150 miles away, and I just couldn’t do another 6 hour car day. He found someone else to go with him; he said the rig had just been sold right before he got there. Too bad.

Friday morning brought one of those gully washing storm systems blowing through. No thunder, no lightning, but torrential rain and wind. It must have rained an inch and a half in 5 minutes. It did not deter us casino goers at all. We set out at 10:00 am, knowing that driving south towards Tampa would get us out of the rain system shortly. And that happened. But, I75 was flooded in some of the construction zones, and we saw the aftermath of a car hydroplaning into another one causing a multi car smashup. It didn’t look like anyone got hurt, but lots of people were frantic outside their vehicles. Carolyn and Tom and I spent a few hours roaming the game floor. The first machine I played, a multicoin high payoff video poker game, gave me $100, so I was able to play with that for a long time. Overall I lost, but I had a few minutes of glory and it just felt so good to sit in front of a mesmerizing machine. By the time we left for home the sun was out, the sky was brilliant.

Saturday I was blessed with a visit from nursing school classmate, Joanna Krieger who lives in nearby Dunellon. We had a leisurely lunch at Café Rojo, great Mexican food, and great Tres Lecche desert. It was interesting to hear all about Jo’s nursing career, relocation from east coast to LA, and back east again in retirement. We laughed a lot over our aging medical issues, and stories about Lenox Hill and classmates. It was good to catch up and I hope to see her again before I head north.

I finally plugged my Apple TV in and it works perfectly here, but I do have the worlds best wifi. I think I am the only person on this antenna and I can stream on the TV and play games on my ipad with no issues. The only problem is, Apple TV does not offer that much. I can watch ABC, NBC, CBS, some cable channels, all live or on demand, and Netflix (which I just cancelled) but my satellite gives me that. Most of the movies are for pay. I did manage to find the new MadMax movie on HBO for free, and I really enjoyed it. The special effects were great, the story sentimental. I did not understand why the bad guys had a guitar player and a massive drum setup with guys playing them all the time. The guitar shot flames. Overall, I like my Roku device better. It plays Amazon Prime in addition to all the others, and there is some good stuff on Amazon Prime. Apple doesn’t offer it’s own programs. I am totallly hooked on FX’s The Americans.

I heard today that Malcolm and Ginger bought new rig at the RV show – wish I had been there to see it. It’s a Winnebago Vista, same make and model as mine, just larger. Congratulations to them!! I get jealous when someone gets a new rig……….

I leave my friends at Florilow Oaks tomorrow, Sunday, morning. It has been a quiet fun week, with lots of laughs and good conversation. I worked on stretching my neck, shoulders and back to make the blasted tension headache go away, and it does feel a whole lot better. That’s a story for another day.

I leave here to boondock at the Webster Flea Market. Weather forecast is great for Monday. This is probably my favorite flea market in the world. I’m psyched. After I leave Webster, I will hit Wal-Mart, Publix, and a restaurant ?maybe Red Lobster? For lunch before I check into Lake Louisa State Park for Monday night. Lake Louisa SP is another beautiful park in the Florida State Park system. Only problem is, it’s a long walk to get to see any of the sights the park offers – a car is really needed. But, it’s one night, and it puts me very close to my home for the next six weeks, Thousand Trails, Clermont. The weather forecast is for rain on the overnight and tomorrow morning. Once again, my favorite thing breaking camp in the rain. I did pull in my sewer hose tonight, topped off my water tank, and generally tidied the inside; perhaps I won’t get quite so wet.

Talk to you next week.



Kat Out

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