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Published: February 22nd 2013
Kathy is just around the corner
I missed her kayak launch. The people on the shore told me she was 'just around the corner. The One About Catching up AGAIN!!
Gosh how time flies! I can’t believe my 2 weeks here is almost up. The days have settled into a pleasant routine which includes walking Winston, eating, cleaning the RV, eating, riding my bike, eating, you get the idea. Despite all the eating breaks, I have not gained any weight. My pants still fit the same as they did when I started the trip, which is NOT good, I need to lose weight before I go back to the MD in May.
Lots of random thoughts and events will follow.
Garbage is an issue here at TT Orlando. There is a green dumpster positioned in front of each rest room where campers deposit their own trash. The dumpsters are emptied twice a week. The dumpster in my area is often overflowing by the night before collection. This happens for several reasons. I know this because when I am sitting outside I can watch the people making their trash deposits. The black cover on the green dumpster is heavy! In the early morning it is wet with dew. I find it difficult to raise the thing high enough to throw my trash toward
My view in the morning
just gorgeous. The reason I come to FL in the winter the back of the box. So, the trash just falls right down the inside front of the dumpster. If you are tall enough or strong enough to open the black top high enough you can throw the trash to the back of the dumpster. The front fills up, blocking anyone getting trash to the back. So, what do they do? Instead of walking to another bathhouse/dumpster, they leave it on the ground in front. I am the rarity here, I do not have a car. All these people with cars could bring their trash to the central HUGE dumpster that you have to pass on the road out of the park. Today I noticed a new sign on ‘my’ dumpster. OUR NEW TRASH COMPACTORS HAVE BEEN DELIVERED AND ARE PLACED BY THE REC HALL. PLEASE SEE THE OFFICE TO GET THE COMBINATION. This is a good thing. I hope they remove all the green dumpsters and force everyone to visit the compactors. But….A COMBINATION????? There is no recycling here, and I know how badly that irks all the northerners who are so used to doing it. I heard via the ‘grapevine’ that recycle bins are on the way as well.
It certainly would cut down on the trash.
Bingo this week was fun, but, again, I am a loser. I didn’t even come close. In 20 games, I never got closer than 3 numbers away, and some games I had multiple cards!!! But, it was fun, and I had a lot of good conversations. Ginne attended Bingo in Wauchula and won again. $17.
NOTE: DO NOT READ THIS PARAGRAPH IF YOU HAVE A SENSITIVE STOMACH. Speaking of TT Peace River in Wauchula, I have some gossip. Please keep in mind this is all third hand gossip…….It seems one of the older campers who had been having serious health issues used a gun to his head to end his life while his wife was at the rec hall getting him the ice cream he asked her to get. I recognized who was his wife by Ginnie’s description. How awful is that? Again, third hand gossip, but the rumor mill said the wife cleaned up her rig herself rather than pay the $2500 costs of the cleaning company. Also, another man camper was found deceased in his rental cabin when his neighbors noted they had not
seen him for several days. Yuck.
Kathy and I tried a new restaurant. Sweet Tomatoes, a new place for both of us. I have seen their ad signs and new it was a salad place. What I didn’t know is that it was a salad buffet. $8.95 for lunch, $2.99 for a drink, 10% senior discount. The buffet was large and contained every known vegetable and lettuce type to create your own, OR a wonderful Caesar salad, OR a wonderful oriental chicken salad, in addition to macaroni and potato salads cottage cheese, croutons, bacon, you get that idea. In addition, there was a HOT buffet containing 3 different excellent types of pizza, hot bread and rolls, and 5 or 6 different kinds of soup. I tried it all, and enjoyed the Irish potato leek soup, barbecue chicken foccacia bread while Kathy raved about the corn bread with real pieces of corn. Deserts you ask? Soft serve ice cream with chocolate or hot butterscotch sauces and a few different types of toppings AND a brownie with a molten soft center AND low sugar chocolate mousse. We rolled out of there, and surely got our monies worth.
Tilikum
look at the size of him!! We ate that at 2:00, and I did not eat dinner that night.
And, what blog would be complete without a dog story. I have a good location in this campsite for Winston on his long lead. I have it positioned so that fully extended he is about 6 inches from the edge of the road. When dogs or people pass by, he stretches it out to bark/greet them, then comes back and sits under the rig (to get out of the sun) until someone else passes. I am out there with him sometimes, or am inside, but always close. When he really barks hard and long, I go pull him back, but pretty much everyone understands that he just wants to say hello. A funky looking black Cairn terrier passed by, and Winston was very happy – a relative. This dog was funky looking because his coat was thick in spots, thin in other spots, some places were full of underhair, and others had beautiful long silky locks. He was groomed like a Cairn, but just looked…..funky. His eyes were ringed by white hair, making him look like he had glasses on. His story? He is 10, he
was rescued 5 years ago by his mommy who got him after he had been emancipated from performing as stud at a puppy mill. He had been in a cage all his life, and was shaved all over instead of groomed. Yuck. He was sooo sweet, played with Winston, tried to lick me (which didn’t happen because I don’t like licky dogs). Winston did his manly stuff, smelled him all over, scratched the dirt with his hind legs, then picked up his leg and pee’d on this poor thing. I pulled him, and Cairn’s mom pulled him, and only a drop or 2 got on the Cairn, but, WTF? Ginnie told me to look it up on my fancy smartphone, and I did!! 2 different articles (and none was Wikipedia) said it usually is done by unneutered males (Winston is 7 and was only neutered when I got him 3 years ago, so he had plenty of years to learn all those testosterone related obnoxious ugly habits) and is a way dominance is shown over younger dogs. Both articles said if a dog pees on another dog he is probably peeing over where another dog has already peed. That part
I find fascinating. Did you know when a male lifts his leg on a vertical surface, he will try to place his urine higher than the last dog who pee’d there? I often marveled at how high Winston can get his leg on those green trash dumpsters. I also looked up a dog called Leonberger – a new addition to my neighborhood. This large dog breed was ‘created’/bred to resemble the lion on the crest of the town of Leonberg in Germany, and it sure does look like a lion!!! His owner told me he was one of those breeds you don’t see that often, as if I didn’t know what that was already. Winston was inside, so he didn’t get a chance to see him. I love my smart phone.
Another random thought. I am using about 1 Gig of data a week between my iPhone, iPad and laptop. So, my plan of 4 Gig/month should work just fine until I get home and can get back on my wifi. I am certainly not going to watch many TV shows on my phone as that really uses a lot of data, but I can surf for a long
time without using much. Uploading photos for my blog eats a lot, so I select what pictures I want to use then ‘resize’ them to the fewest pixels my edit program will allow. That’s why there are so many in today’s blog; they have all been resized to 640x640 or smaller.
The highlight of the week had to be our trip to Sea World. I can’t remember whether this is my fourth or fifth of this winter, but I sure got my monies worth. I still have not seen all the shows and exhibits. Today we did the Dolphin extravaganza which featured about 9 different dolphins doing incredible leaps and twists and turns. There’s also a segment in this show with divers and gymnasts dressed as birds, which features trained parrots flying all over the place, and the brief flyover of a condor, boy is he huge. Then on to The Arctic for their helicopter simulator ride over Antarctica which had some mechanical issues closing the doors so our ‘show’ could start. The Walrus who in previous visits has been pretty frisky with his manhood was a good boy this visit. Then on to Shamu stadium for the Orca
Kathy picked an oyster out of the diving tank
And said a 'magic' spell over it hoping for a good pearl. Show. These animals are so big, but so beautiful. Their black and white markings are stunning. I don’t like that they call them killer whales. I had to refresh my memory about the drowning of a trainer a few years ago and did that when I got home. This info is mostly from Wikipedia as it was the best organized.
Sea World Orlando now has 9 resident orcas, and all were in the show at the same time today. The trainers do not get into the water with them at any Sea World. There were 9 trainers……one for each whale, I guess.
Tilikum SEE PICTURES is the largest. He has been involved in three deadly events. He measures 22.5 feet long and weighs 12,000 pounds. His pectoral fins are 7 feet long, his flukes curl under, and his 6.5 feet tall dorsal fin is collapsed completely to his left side. He was caught in 1983 and estimated to be 3 then, making him 33 now, one of the longest lived in captivity. He was kept in one of those awful non Sea World aquariums in a pen too small, and my guess is that’s why his dorsal fin
flops, just like “Free Willy’s.” He is the largest orca in captivity and also the most successful sire in captivity, with 14 offspring, 10 of which are still alive. Tilikum returned to performing on March 30, 2011 after about a year off. The trainers have continued their policy of doing no water work with the whale. High pressure hoses are used to massage him, rather than hands, and removable guardrails have also begun to be used on the platforms. There are plans to install false-bottom floors that can lift trainers and whales out of the pools in under a minute. Tilikum is kept alone and separated from the remaining whales, but lately he has been paired with his grandson Trua and performed with him the day we saw the show. Until I researched this, I would have thought it was mother and baby their relationship was so close! He has on occasion been kept with his daughter Malia, or both Trua and Malia at the same time. According to what I read, he is the most successful sire of any orca captured anywhere, anytime, and it has been decided that for that reason only he should not be ‘put down.’
Pre-show included interactive texting games. I texted our name KatKat to Seaworld and they posted it on their huge screens. Then they asked for a photo, and I obliged. Kathy managed to get pictures of all this!!! Very cool.
Kathy picked an oyster from a pool, when opened it was blue! She had it set in a pendant, then also bought a white pearl and had it set in a starfish. Both beautiful pieces of jewelry. See PICTURES.
I think I jinxed myself when I said in previous blogs that the ants were gone. As I write this I went to the sink to get a drink, and found about 100 around the sink edge in the moisture drip from my ice filled glass. Expletive deleted. Once again, I opened all the cabinets and sprayed inside, sprayed around the stove and everywhere I could find. Sigh. Guess I will relocate some ant traps, check outside and under the sink and spray, spray, spray.
My time here at TT Orlando is winding down, as is my entire Snowbird trip. Yes, it’s time to go home, but I am not ready to do that
Self Portrait by Kat
some day I will learn to do this well just yet. Next week Kathy and I will be at 2 different FL state parks, then she continues on to the FL panhandle before returning home to PA, and I will continue north. Camping on the beach is calling me again, and if the weather is nice and warm and wonderful, Myrtle Beach Travel Park could be my final destination. But, it’s too early to make a decision that will totally be based on weather. I miss my grandkids, I miss my house, but I sure do love Moya. I know she and I will be seeing a lot of each other in 2013. Gas at $4/gallon. Why did it have to be this year?
Kat Out
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Kathy Watson
Kathy Watson
Great pictures, great time.