Heading Home

Well, the last four months have flown by rather quickly and sadly our stay here in Florida is coming to an end. I guess when you are sad to leave a place it means you had a good stay, right? We sure were enjoying the nice weather that central Florida provided although the recent weeks have been a bit too warm in the afternoons for our liking, but absolutely great for the folks sun tanning on the beaches. There will be some goodbyes to the great community we got to know and apparently within the next couple of weeks many more RVers will be heading home. Last Saturday there was a party at the community hall for the departing snowbirds. Papa Johns Pizzeria made 30 large pizzas for this park and a huge rectangular cake with beverages topped this feast off. Those pizzas were delicious and we all got to choose two large slices (some took more J) from the different toppings that were provided. A “Thank You” to the staff of the Snowbird South RV Park.

 

For one last peek at the wildlife here on and around the pond I took some photos of the five newly hatched Moorhen chicks that where following their mom and dad begging to be fed. They were so cute to watch. A week later I took a few more photos just to be sure there were still five fledglings in the family and none had gone missing.

 

I find looking into the pond quite interesting with all its inhabitant creatures and I will miss that. The gator seems content lazing around on different areas but most of the turtles were skittish and would jump off their perches as soon as I would make my appearance so I had to kind of sneak up to them. As to the dark grey snake on the old wooden platform I didn’t want to come too close as it was slithering towards me.

 

So, as we’ve done in previous departures, again the truck and the travel trailer got tire pressure and wheel nuts checked, then washed to look presentable although that might not last until they are on our driveway back home. The truck got filled up with gasoline, but the prices have gone up 10 cents from last week. The outdoor mats were washed and packed up and our hydro bill for last month got paid. We are semi hooked up but there are still a few more chores left for tomorrow morning before we are rolling out of here.

 

Just in case you hadn’t guessed it from my last post, another birthday for me was celebrated with a few creations from the pastry chef of the Yalaha Bakery. What a treat that was!

 

You might not hear from me until we get home in a few days and hopefully the weather will be good for traveling up the I-75 interstate to Detroit, otherwise we will wait it out somewhere parked. So I thank everyone for dropping in again until next time.

 

Upper-class Motor Carriages fit for the Florida weather

In less than a couple of weeks it will be already April and our time in Florida will come to an end. Mind you the temperatures here are quite warm now if not saying it is hot, because it is relative to what you are accustomed to. Well, I like it as long as the air-conditioner in our travel trailer is working and the same goes for the truck. 

 

Temperatures are Celsius to the left and Fahrenheit to the right

Reggie and Elsa got a shower today to help rinse off the dust and to make them more comfortable on their walks around the park when their fur is more fluffy in this heat.

 

Elsa was enjoying the rinse

Reggie is not so keen to have showers

All cleaned up and dried enjoying the sunshine

Yes, we are checking and making sure the little gator is still in the pond as well as all the other creatures we encountered on our strolls. We will miss those walks but I am sure back home there will be other photo opportunities for us.

 

Speaking of photo ops, here in this RV Park there are several high-class motorcycle owners and those bikes are all very neat to look at and they are well kept. As a matter of fact, the tricycles have their own utility trailers used for their garages and the snowbirds hook those up when they head home at the end of the season. 

 

Sandy & Sonny backing out

Here are some photos I took of the gang as they headed out in a little convoy. I am sure they had people turn their heads as they drove by and not because of noise, as they are very quiet.

 

The red one is Gayle & George’s Honda Goldwing Trike Motorcycle, 1883 cc, 6 cylinder, 97.9 hp engine and the rig weights a nice 382kg/883lb

 

The middle one is Bonny & Bill’s Harley-Davidson Trike, 1886 cc and not a thunder machine, very quiet.

 

The yellow one belongs to Pam & Randy and theirs is a BRP (Bombardier Recreational Product) Can-AM Spyder RT like the ones below.

 

And then our other neighbors from across our travel trailer are Sandy & Sonny’s Bombardier BRP Can-Am Spyder RT Roadster with a Rotax 1330 cc, 3 cylinder, and 115 hp engine.

I caught them with my camera in the morning as they were heading out on their 41^stwedding anniversary.

 

And last but not least, our neighbors one rig over are Karen & Larry’s super nice Bombardier BRP can-am Spyder Roadster 3-wheel touring motorcycle, 1330 cc.

 

Let me tell you all of these folks have big smiles on their faces when they return from their outings on these fun bikes!

 

As well we do have several extreme proud owners and well-cared Harley-Davidson Motorcycles with thunder mufflers here that are showroom quality. 

Tomorrow will be a special day, but I won't say what it is. So until next time...

Thanks for dropping in again.

 

Friends and Park observations

Unbelievable its already a week ago that we went to our annual get-together with our cruising friends here in Florida. This time it was a small park next to the Rodman Dam and spillway where we met with Linda and Ed who live in Jacksonville, Florida. Linda writes a blog and you can read about it here, and Allayne and Dennis, who reside in Michigan, but were down in St. Augustine for a lengthy vacation. This is always fun meet up and there is so much for us all to catch up on each other’s lives that the time together just zooms by in record time. As we did in years before, we all contributed something for a tasty picnic lunch and there was enough food for another meal.

From our picnic shelter we had a nice view of a bunch of fishermen/women who sat by the Ocklawaha River that seemed to be really successful in catching Mullets that were put into large coolers. We got a kick out of the cormorants sitting in a row all looking in the same direction. By the way the route to the Rodman Dam took us through the Ocala National Forest and that drive alone is worth a trip.

 

After many weeks without any precipitation the weather forecast called for several rain showers today. In-between the showers Benno took that opportunity to wash down our travel trailer that had a lot of grime accumulated especially on the roof. Well, his timing was a little off as he came in pitch wet. The rain helped to rinse off the hard water that we have here in the park.

 

You know I always keep an eye out for any creatures when I walk around the pond. There is an old picnic table overlooking the pond and I must have walked by it a dozen times but never noticed the dead snake hanging from the table until a couple of days ago. I don’t know what demise the snake befell, but I guess it got stuck between the metal supports, poor thing.

 

As a Canadian I marvel at the different vegetation here in Florida. There are many flowers and shrubs in this park that do not grow in the colder Canadian climate. I walk by some cactus/cacti that have started to bloom and they are so pretty that I took a photo. Our next-door RV neighbor has one growing next to his RV shelter and said that it is edible. I recognize the pads as they are sold in Canada at the “Fresh-Co Supermarket” but I have never purchased nor eaten them.  Google told me that this cactus is called Nopalea Cochinellifera or a Cochineal Cactus. Amazingly after the blossoms turn into dark red pear-shaped fruit, they can be eaten peeled and sans the tough seeds raw or cooked and taste apparently like raspberries.  The pads may be peeled and eaten raw or cooked as a vegetable. 

 

But the most interesting part I read was that the Cochineal insect lives off this particular cactus. The red color used in some foods, cosmetic and fabric dyes (natural red 4, C.I. 75470, E120) is produced only by the female Cochineal insect. It takes approximately 75,000 dehydrated and crushed insects to make one pound of red dye. To learn more if you are interested click this link. 

 

That is it for me today and I thank you for dropping in again.

The hot weather is getting to us

Well, I’m not really complaining, but with temps in the 80ties for days on end and not really cooling down very much during the night, we are moving a bit slower these days.

 

Just a couple of photos of the flea market as I could have taken hundreds

This horse head was made from bark

However, that didn’t keep us away from the weekly Monday’s big flea market in Webster last week. That place is so huge and we’ve been before, but it is always new because of the sheer volume of vendors in both the flea market area and next to it, divided by a fence, the open area of the swap meet for individuals selling their treasures. I never got to see everything before we headed home all tuckered out.

 

Since we are here in central Florida, we thought we would have perhaps a chance to get a glimpse in the sky of the next rocket launch of the NASA’s SpaceX launch that was scheduled for last week at the NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida. It was postponed for a couple of days but materialized then a half hour after midnight on March 2^nd. I took that photo from outside our travel trailer here at the Snowbird RV Park at 12:43 a.m. It was visible for a few minutes until the lights faded.

 

Free popcorn, why not

Today we took advantage of the senior discount for the Sumter County Fair in Bushnell, FL. The admission of $1/person included 1 free popcorn & a drink. The fairgrounds are close to the Webster flea market and the area is a fair size for the carnival midway. There were livestock & animal shows and indoor exhibits of crafts from the locals. At the same time the Swap-O-Rama’s Webster Westside monthly Motorcycle Swap Meet and Car Show was in full swing basically right next to it. However, that area had it’s own admission cost of $5/person. We were early at the fairgrounds together with other seniors taking advantage of the cooler temps before the afternoon sweltering heat. The midway was just starting to open up when we were there, but we wouldn’t have gone on any rides anyway, so it was good that not too many folks were there yet.

 

Those balloons looked kind of deflated to me

There were some pretty good rides

Benno and the dogs posed for me!

 

There was a couple that posed for a funny portrait :-)

Not too many people around yet

Benno enjoying some popcorn

On one of my walks around the pond at our RV Park, I spotted Mrs. Turtle with one of her offspring’s keeping a good distance from the alligator that hung around the edges of the pond while in the meantime, perhaps it is Mr. Turtle, took a sunbath on a log. 

 

While taking our nature walks I spotted an apple size kind of gourd hanging from a branch in a shrub. Is it perhaps a wasp nest? If any of our readers knows what this is, let me know as it intrigued me and I don’t want to open or destroy it.

Thanks for dropping by again.