Tuesday January 29 thru Thursday January 31, Thousand Trails Peace River, Wauchula, FL

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The One About Peaceful Lazy Days (get the pun….Peace River, Lazy Days????)

The days have settled into the peaceful rhythm that I so enjoy on my Snowbird trip. I stay up until midnight, walking Winston at the last second so I can see the stars without any noise and limited light pollution. I sleep late (7:00 has become late), walk Winston again, eat breakfast, shower, then do some type of chore (reorganize closets, sweep, wash windows.) Lunch, General Hospital, crochet, Happy Hour, dinner, long girlie conversations, back to TV and writing or more crochet. I am very, very content.

One night Ginnie and I did Bingo. $3 for 4 cards, 10 games. I didn’t need my new dauber, these thick, reusable cards had slides over the numbers. For 9 games the prizes were $15 to $17, the last game had a $51 prize; all the collected fees went back into prizes. Ginnie came the closest to winning, one number away on the last game. I never did well. I swear there were some heavy balls that never made it up the tube to the top, and all those numbers were on MY cards. Laugh. We sat next to a couple; his embroidered denim shirt was emblazoned with BLUE NIGHTS, Harrisburg, PA. I didn’t find out his exact rank, but you knew from his posture, haircut and overall demeanor that he had been long time PA Statey. He is a big fan of your boss, Autumn. He knows him, and says he is a big supporter of Law Enforcement. Maybe you can figure out who he is and pass it on to Ron. He and his wife are in their first year of full timing, it took them a very long time to see their home in Camp Hill, PA, finally selling it way under value just so they could get out and on the road. Nice People.

I have met quite a few other campers. All want to see my new rig. Thank goodness we now have the NEW and IMPROVED Winston on board, he greets everyone with a tail wag and doesn’t seem quite so possessive of his bed or my bed. It seems EVERYONE has a Sandy story, and wants to share how the storm affected their peeps on the Jersey Shore. I share my story of the Cicalese clan successfully riding it out at their fortress on the ocean in Monmouth Beach.

For 3 days in a row now, I have taken Winston for a bike ride. I have adjusted the seat downwards so my feet can flatly reach the ground. I push myself along rather than pedal to get him used to what we are doing. He has always been sensitive to tugs on his harness leading him to the proper direction, and I use those same tugs while bicycling. I now use words with those tugs, RIGHT, LEFT, and the already perfected HEEL. The hard part still is keeping him from lunging towards oncoming dogs, but he is getting better. I need to be vigilant and keep my eyes moving in all directions. I just encourage him along and do not stop. It’s not a perfect system, but it does work. I guesstimate we travel about .5 miles all on paved roads; I am not ready to put rutty dirt roads into the mix just yet. The last little bit I pedal all out as fast as I can and put him into a full gallop. I would like to go further, but this low to the ground position makes pedaling hard on my knees; I need the seat to be so high that I cannot reach the ground, even on tippy toe, to achieve full leg extension for my knees to stay pain free. This means if I need to stop I must jump off the seat or lean far to the left or right to attain balance, and I am still clumsy at accomplishing this without putting the seat painfully in the lady parts. It ain’t pretty but it works. I love my bike. I have lots of exterior storage, and can easily collapse it and put it into ‘the basement’ of the Vista.

The weather has been perfect. Warm sunny days, cool nights, low humidity, gentle breeze. I am under the canopy here and am very happy about that. Ginnie is out in the open and must have her A/C on all afternoon. Her rig is positioned with the afternoon sun on her right/door/passenger side, rendering it uncomfortable for her non sun loving self to sit outside. Kathy is next to me, kind of hidden by me and the larger Class A and Park Model around her. It’s not the best site, but she seems ok, she likes her solitude, and says she achieves that with us around her. We enjoy the afternoon shade here, but can find a sunny spot of so desired.

My corner location is great for me. I have Winston’s long lead staked in just the perfect position. When extended he just reaches the edge of the road, and both trees on ‘my property.’ All dogs that come by pee on these trees, and he pees over that spot immediately afterwards. This is a good thing, it keeps him peeing away from the rig and where I walk. There are people here who don’t understand that there is an unspoken, invisible, property line between RVs. They cut thru rigs for shortcuts to the bath house, or friends, or the rec hall, etc, and let their animals wander into your private space. Winston makes sure that doesn’t happen here, tee hee. These scofflaws get frosty glares and throat clearings when they get too close. As Ginnie says… “ 1That’s my property, I paid for the land from water spigot to water spigot and you get off it!!” I wish she would say that to some people.

Has anyone seen the show “Right This Minute?” Here in the Tampa broadcast area it is on ABC between 10 & 11 am. It shows the current viral videos and digs into whether they are real or phony. There are some incredible feats, beautiful proposals, and very funny flubs. It’s kind of like AFHV, but faster paced and younger hosts. It makes me laugh, catch it if you can sometime.

Thousand Trails ran a trip to the Hardee County Wildlife Refuge one afternoon. The refuge is located at Pioneer Park located just up the road. Admission is $4.28 Yup, I got $.72 change. According to their very limited web site, Guests move about freely on the elevated boardwalk to view Florida wild animals in a natural habitat. All of the animals are non releasable. Did you catch that….Florida wild animals. They included: 2 Ostrich; 1 Spurred African Tortoise; and a cougar. The real Florida animals included raccoons, alligators, 2 of the biggest black bears I have ever seen, gray foxes, deer. It actually was a kind of cool place, with a beautiful boardwalk to wander thru the well maintained habitats. Yes, some of the animals were a little funky for Florida, but we really were able to get close to the ostrich and it was neat hearing the cougar howl. We were escourted thru the tour by 2 ?(feral)? Cats from the group of 10 outside the gate. We agreed they were looking for handouts. I guess they were friendly things, but I don’t do feral cats. Winston did ok while we were gone; he must have barked some as they were new spittle marks on the inside of the windshield, but so far, knock on wood, he has not gotten into any trouble, and he has not barked incessantly once since I have the new rig. Speaking of which, Thursday is the one week anniversary of BLANK; I still need help with a name.

Kathy’s sister DeeDee flew in today from NJ for a week’s visit. She will share a few days with us, then go on with Kathy to Fort Desoto on Sunday when we all break apart for a few days. DeeDee owns property on the Jersey Shore, and she has her share of Sandy tales of woe.

Giving a shout out to Rebecca, the recreation Director at Myrtle Beach Travel Park. Rebecca found my blog on travelblog.org, I am assuming by web searching MBTP. So glad I love the place and talked nicely about it!!!! Yes, Rebecca, I will try to stop in on my way north for a night or 2, I do love the beach camping, it depends on the weather and how much money is remaining in the budget.

The tail end of the winter storm that havocked the country passed over us Thursday night. We had 10 minutes of intense wind, 2 hours of rain, and the temperature dropped 20 degrees. While still a glorious day in the low 70s, it will go down to low 40s tonight. Time to check the furnace out.

I made dinner for the girlies tonight. Crockpot chicken over brown rice and cauliflower. A white meal. Followed up by the last bit of my celebration fruit tart. Another great meal.

Ginnie and I are going to Orlando airport tomorrow to pick up Joanne who will stay with Ginnie for a week. 5 matured ladies. Wonder if we can get into any trouble.

Kat out

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Photos

Peace River Alligator
Picture taken by Kathy E. right at the river at the end of our street. Does his belly look big or what....

Cougar
His meow was impressive