Florida Friends...Moving Through the State

Florida Friends…Moving through the State!

From where I left off on the previous blog... Leaving Big CypressNational Preserve in early morning, we were close to Fort Meyers Beach just after lunch. We just had to stop and say hello to Jeanette and Henry Turgeon. Henry was Helen’s first boss. She was only sixteen working at the “City Diner” back in Berlin, NH. Jeanette is recovering from health issues and is doing just fine. She always amazes me with her digital know how. I guess being a former Librarian must have something to do with it. Henry is also a gentleman and gifted musician. He is keen on remembering people from our home town.

From Fort Meyers Beach, we headed towards MacDill Air Force Base for an overnighter, at the Famcamp. We stopped there to look around for any possible “good deals” on a used 5th wheel camper. Yes, we are looking for a 5th wheel camper to stay a longer period in Key West.

Mind you, we still really enjoy the truck camper, but for an extended stay in one spot, we simply need more square footage. There is no way that we could have explored all of the places we’ve been to on the North American continent without a truck camper. We didn’t find anything that met our needs.

The sunset at Mac Dill is comparable to Key West, but instead of sunseting into the Gulf of Mexico, the sun sets with St. Petersburg skyline as a backdrop. We attended mass at the base chapel that evening and finished the evening reading in the TC (truck camper). Sunday morning our checklist was to drive to Lazydays Super RV Store. It’s only a short distance to Lazydays, nearly at the intersection of I-4 and I-75. Wow! Lazydays is massive! They have every make, model and what not in the RV world. We did find a couple of used 5th wheels, but I wasn’t ready to commit. I just don’t impulse buy and I wasn’t ready to trade-in our trusty truck camper. It was still a good experience to see 1,400 RVs for sale. They are so large that they have their own Flying J truckstop and a Cracker Barrel restaurant on their property.

After lunch at Bob Evans, just across the street from Lazydays, we decided to head a little further north to Zephyrhills and visit Bob and Cathy Lettre.

They recently made the commitment and bought a winter home in the sunshine state. The visit was short, but Helen got to chat with her high school classmate and I had a good time talking to Bob about his new home. It was time to move on again and visit with a former Berlin neighbor, Henry and his new bride Marge. Henry & Marge are always fun to visit. We overnighted in their driveway before leaving in the morning.

The next stop was also just a short ride up the road to Inverness to visit still another former

NH neighbor. Father Sergious Gerken of the St. Raphael Orthodox Church. Fr. Sergious was having a meeting when we called him ahead of time, but he insisted that we come right over. He was meeting with a couple who were in the process of joining his congregation. Well wouldn’t you know that we were all in deep conversations with the three of them. Christy and Charles were native Southern people and they were sort of surprised that us Northern people are very similar to them including hunting and fishing.

This chance encounter was a blessing for us! Christy and Charles told us of this secret Florida jem that is overlooked by

99% of tourist that come into Florida. They were talking about “The Stephen Foster State Folk Culture Center” Ok, most of you, including me probably would have said, "Who in the heck is Stephen Foster”? If I would have asked, “Did you ever here of the following song”?

• Beautiful Dreamer
• My Old Kentucky Home
• Jeanie With the Light Brown Hair
• Oh, Susanna

Stephen Foster wrote hundreds and hundreds of songs. Four of Stephen Foster’s songs may be found in the movie “Gone With the Wind”…"Beautiful Dreamer” can be found in the first of the latest release of the “Batman” movie.

Stephen Foster's death was in 1864, which tells us how celebrated this song composer was and still is. And now for the “Jem" in a little place called White Springs, Florida.
Located just north of I-10 and off I-75 is the Stephen Foster Folk & Culture Center State Park. Beautiful grounds, an old southern mansion coverted into a museum, a very tall Carrillon tower, campgrounds, forests, flowers and best of all the Suwannee River. I could write several chapters on all that we experienced in this charming southern plantation setting.
We spent a day exploring this area before leaving on our journey

to the West, that is before heading North on the westerly side of Georgia.

The day was coming to a close and Tallahassee was our turning point to start heading up route 27 into Georgia. We stopped at a Walmart in Bainbridge, GA for the night. From this point North, we would be in a more rural environment. I had no real clue as what to expect to see or do from here. The only reason for exploring this part of the state of Georgia was a stop, on our way down to Florida,

at the Georgia Visitor Center. Here I had seen a spectacular picture of Providence Canyon. It reminded me so much of Bryce Canyon in Utah.

That is what we saw and did!

On The Slow Crawl North

Slow Crawl North…by Choice!!

On March 19th 2015 we pulled out of Trumbo Point RV campground. This was just a few minutes after 7 am. The last thing I did there was to pull the start cord on my neighbor, Gene's generator. I’ve been doing this for a week or so because I’m an early riser and when Gene and Carol get up the coffee is ready in their 5th wheel camper. One last stop in Key West was to attend mass, which we had been doing daily during lent.

Route US 1 heads Northeast and by 8:15 am,the sun had already moved a little more East and we had no problem with the sun in our eyes. Leaving town is always a little sad. We met a lot of friendly good folks and some were already heading north, but some were staying until the end of April. By May 1st, this campground is shut down until October 1st. The reason being that it gets too darn hot and humid. There are no full hookup sites at Trumbo Point, hence when it gets too hot,the military will not allow the generators to run all night for the A/C units on the RV’s. This is not as drastic as it seems because three miles down the road, the Navy has another RV campground called “Sigsbee” they have full hookups and in the summer there is always plenty of sites.

The ride back to Homestead, Florida always seems to go faster than going to Key West. As we moved closer to the mainland, familiar places peaked our interests. McDonalds coffee break in Marathon was the first stop for both coffee and restroom needs. After that, we were in Homestead at the first Wal-Mart from Key West for less expensive resupply of food stuff. So far this doesn’t sound to much like an adventure story, does it?

The adventure really started at the Miccosukee Resort and Gaming. Back in the Keys, we had been told to stop overnight at the Casino. You just had to get an overnight permit. The Casino gives each person a $30 ticket (for the slots) and bargains on food for first timers. We did the above exactly, with the only requirement that we had to play the thirty bucks voucher on one machine. We followed directions and played the slots. I jumped up to $64 dollars and Helen jumped to $62 dollars. "Quit while your ahead", that’s what we did and walked out with $126.00! It was early afternoon and we had no intentions on really staying overnight. Our game plan was to headout on US41 and than take US 94 (the loop road) and find a campground. Mitchell Landing was our destination. We headed down this dirt road for a short distance and found this motorhome with a camp host sign in front. “Yes”, the camp host said, “$12.00 with a

senior pass", which I had. There was only one other camper in the campground and he was in a tent. After backing in and getting set- up we took a walk to visit these endangered snails that are only found in this site. The camp host had given Helen direction and just a few yards away I was taking pictures of these very unusual snail shells. Moving along to the boat landing, a sign said boat landing closed due to low water levels. Ok, I didn’t have a boat, but I settled for pictures of vultures and other birds hanging around the marsh. It was now time for a bite to eat. Helen is always good at coming up with something scrumptious. Later, we walked up to the camp host and they invited us to sit and chat. It was interesting to learn all about volunteering in the NP system. They were leaving to take up their summer volunteer jobs up at the “Great Smokey Mountains National Park"

In about an hour or so, the bugs started to come out. Another camper showed up and we started walking back to our campsite. The camp host was just returning in his golf cart and stopped just about fifty feet past us. He said, “Did you see that snake”? “No" I said. We turn around and walked toward him. There was the snake! A “Cotton Mouth” also called a “Water Moccasin” right on the trail. We must have walked right over him! He grabbed his four foot snake grabber and went towards to the snake. It jumped, for sure, two feet in the air! He moved it along to the edge and it took off into the vegetation. Our luck held out on this night. He figured that the evening was getting cool and the snake was very passive. The camp host had just finished showing us his 410 revolver a little earlier. It fires 410 shotgun shells or 45 cal. slugs. This is some firepower and I guest after this snake encounter, not a bad defensive weapon. We crawled into bed after dark and my plans for doing some star gazing and photography in the middle of the night were a thing of the past with the snake incident.

Next morning, we were on the road fairly early. The camp host had told us of this watering hole next to the dirt road, where we might catch a glimpse of this 12 foot alligator . I knew that the cold morning temperature was a deterrent against seeing any warm blooded creatures moving around, but we gave it a chance. The sun wasn’t even risen and light patches of fog covered the swamp here and there. The birds were still roosting, but they were coming to life. No alligators were visible, but I could see an occasional bubble indicating they were there and staying close to the bottom in the warmer water. No sightings, but all was not lost!

Big Cypress National Preserve Sunrise

The gravel road was extremely straight, visible for miles in either direction. I looked up and immediately spotted a photographic opportunity. The sun was just starting to rise miles away in the middle of this gravel road. Everything surrounding was still dark and with the sun now beaming, my shutter was going at full speed. My mind was thinking…This would make another contest picture for the 2016 Truck Camper Magazine Calendar Contest. The Truck Camper was in the frame with its lights on, the sun was beaming through a slight haze fog. We'll see how I do this year in the contest!

That is what we saw and did!

Technology is Great...When its Working

Written March 14, 2015

The Death of a Laptop!!

My trusty HP laptop is not so trusty these days. You know when it takes nearly a half hour to boot up. The top of the screen has a 1-1/4 inch black strip across the entire screen making it very difficult to X out of programs. I’m switching over to Apple…Mac Air Laptop. Yup, I’ve had it with the PC World! I nearly bought a Mac Air 13.3” (2014 model) at the Base Exchange here in Key West, but after doing research, I’m going to wait till April and get the updated (2015 Mac Air 13.3). More bells and whistles! It’s not even available yet. All of these technical problems have slowed my creative writing skills and I haven’t been blogging as much as I wanted to. I’ve been cheating and using my Facebook page as my outlet for “What We Did and Saw” blogging desires.

Let me refresh you on what we’ve been up to this month.

First, I must say, one should never try to duplicate a past years’ adventure. This as it turned out was very true of this years’ journeys. Nothing is or was like last year. It was different and actually better in many ways. The many, many friends that we have made here at Trumbo Point will bond us to, not only this place, but to all of their home loca

Key West, Florida..Population 34,000 locals...
4 million visitors to the Keys!

tions across the entire country. As we plan to expand our travels overseas by using Space A travel, we will meet more fellow travelers and share travel stories and adventures! Even the weather was completely different this season. We did have a couple of cooler temperature weeks, when it dropped to 59 degrees at night. Don’t laugh you northern friends who were below zero for a month and a half! The weather was most different in the wind department. A continuous 15 to 20 knot wind kept us cool on hot humid days. This was noticeable on or around the Island bike rides. We made the best of this by circling into the wind as we left Trumbo Point with a full body of energy. By the time we rounded the Northern end of the Island, we had the wind to our backs for a fast ride back to the campground. The wind is still moderate, but I’m told that it will soon die down and the humidity will be more noticeable along with bugs that are now none existent.

We are leaving Key West at the end of next week (March 19th). We will meander slowly northward toward New Hampshire by early April. We had planned to stay here in Key West until May 1st, but because of unforeseen problems up north we will be moving north about a month early. Remember, I always say the Truck Camper has a mind of its own. It is like a canoe going down a river without a paddle. Lets see where it takes us! Be flexible is the name of the game…and so the adventure continues.

The volunteering

Helen preparing for a giant salad!

Ready for the crowd!

This season was rewarding for us in our volunteer work at St. Mary, Star of the Sea, Soup Kitchen. We really enjoyed preparing, cooking and even serving the one daily four o’clock meal. to young and old. Both male and female, some with drug and alcohol problems. Some just ran out of money. They all were very grateful and said so has they picked up their four o’clock meal.

Some people are out of luck. It wasn’t what I was expecting. We only volunteered for Sunday because that is when they were short on personnel. We served an average of one hundred meals a day both

Next Year