Just "Froggin" Around

MONDAY - Every so often, one has to take care of the necessities of travel trailer camping life.  The furnace and the stove in the trailer run on propane.   I figured we'd better see how much the rig had used after three cold nights.  We traveled west along County Road 42 to the town of Weirsdale to the local A.C.E. Hardware.  Now this particular A.C.E. had a lot of items for the farm and horse ranch included in it's possible purchases.

But the best part for us is that the propane was priced reasonably.  About $.80 per pound.  We had used 17 pounds since February 9th.   Not bad, not bad.

We had ARBY'S coupons with us.  Craving a French Dip sandwich, I punched in the search for the nearest Arby's in the TomTom Gps.  I told it to use the "fastest routing."   It did.   And we went out of the way about 6 miles.  BUT - it was a really fast 6 miles.

After being "nutritionally satisfied," Walmart beckoned.  I found a new printer-scanner-copier for $39. The ink replacement cartridges for my old one for over $40.

One more stop - at the Aldi Store for some special sugar-free vanilla-flavored coffee creamer for Sheryl.

Now, Aldi's creamer supplier doesn't just ship a box of "X" number of the things to each store.  They throw two, three, five sugar-frees - whatever the guy on the assembly line is feeling good about that particular day into the box.   So when I, the customer, go to the cooler to pick some up, I may have to nearly climb into the cooler to find a box in the back that hasn't been picked over and still has one or two in it.  Have you ever wondered why some companies do what they do?

I've been going to shoot some pictures of these flowers for two years now.   We pass them in our travels from the campground to civilization a lot.  I have no idea what they are.  But the are simply "pretty."

TUESDAY - IT WAS TIME!

We visited the "trailer bathroom."  The gray area toward the back of the trailer is the actual "dump area."  All three holding tanks got dumped.   But then we re-filled the wash water tanks by Sheryl doing three loads of laundry in our portable-castered "mini washer."  We just hook the washer into our bathroom sink and the dirty water goes in the shower stall.  It does a 15 pound load.

I handled the outside chores, like making sure there was fresh water in the fresh water storage tank to do the laundry.  We just sorta "stayed there" because no one else came to the dump site the rest of the day.   We even took showers at the dump site.  Correction:   We took showers INSIDE the travel trailer while it was parked at the dump site.:)

When we were done, the laundry got hung out at the campsite to dry.

Later, while out for a walk, I thought:  "I have never talked about the Live Oak Trees that permeate Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana."  So -- what is a "Live Oak" anyway?  Is it the opposite of "dead oak."   Not exactly.   The Live Oak Tree doesn't loose it's leaves in the Winter.  Hence the name.   And because of the natural curves in it's branches, it became the wood of choice in the South for certain parts of wooden sailing vessels - parts that need to be curved, like the bow of a ship.   Just find a Live Oak with the right dimensions and proportions.   Live Oaks are protected now.   You can trim them - but you can't cut them down.

Google "Live Oak Tree" if you want more.

WEDNESDAY - Gas today in Umatilla (about 10 miles away) was up to $3.94 at some stations.   We paid $3.86 but it was going up at the station we were at too.  Stopped at a Farmer's Market.

Tomatoes were a little pricey but the cabbage was spot on.

We also stopped at the thrift store and picked up a lid for a pot and a couple of books.

This thrift store had some tables out front with everything on the tables priced at $.25 each.

Did I tell you we did the errands today - Wednesday - on the motorcycle?   And just for a challenge, we took the back way to Umatilla - County Road 450 - lot's of curves and nice scenery.

We wait to see what God will bring our way tomorrow.

Sunday in Florida

It's Sunday in Florida.. in spite of the cold temps overnight (30 degrees), the Sun is shining and when you are "in the Sun," it's warm.   The solar system is putting out lots of juice.  God is good.

We Skyped with our son Phil last evening.   In spite of going between two cell phones for Internet (his and ours), the connection was pretty good.   We got caught up on our mail and how the new furnace is running.   We got a letter that from the guy we rent hanger space from that stated that we're needed to move our airplane to a new parking space by the end of the month.  

This is our 1970 Aero Commander Lark 100-180 at the Pontiac airport.  We have a couple of fold-up bikes that we can put in the luggage bay.  The guy we've rented hanger space from for over 10 years has need of the space occupied by our plane, so we will be on the phone tomorrow, looking for a new home. 

When we bought the Lark a long time ago (for not much money), it needed wing repair and a lot of other TLC before it would be able to fly.  When the work was finished, we found hanger space for it at Dalton Airport in Flushing only 2 miles from our house.  We've enjoyed flying it ever since. 

Our latest repair over the past couple of years was a COMPLETE re-skinning of the wings.  They re-skinned wings were put back on the airplane this Fall and the airplane received it's "clean bill of health." We've enjoyed the hanger we've been in but we look forward to what God has for us in a new place.

Back to Florida.   When we left Flushing for Florida this Fall, Sheryl brought her "herb garden."

The herb garden rides in the trailer when we are traveling and when we stop, it comes out in the Sun.  It has survived the trip so far.  We have fresh Basil, Oregano, Chives, and Rosemary pretty much whenever we need them.  Yum yum.

There are a lot of squirrels around the campground (don't go there- LOL - I can tell some of your wheels are turning and you are laughing).   I mean the real kind - gray with a bushy tail.   And this particular variety doesn't sit still hardly long enough to get a pic.  I call 'em A.D.D. squirrels.  One particular squirrel was rooting around the outside of our trailer for acorns (there are a bazillion of 'em on the ground).

I'm glad we don't have to "forage for food."  Sheryl keeps the travel trailer well stocked.  Lot's a canned stuff too, in case we can't make it to town. 

Each day seems to go by quickly.   We get up and wonder what will we do today.  By the time we read our Bibles and pray, cook lunch and/or dinner over the Rocket Stove (precious blog), Go for a walk, adjust the solar panels, refresh the water supply, start the generator, and other necessary things, check our email and write this blog, the time seems to go by.  It's nice not being on a "schedule."

 

Bye for now.

Rog and Sheryl

The Day after Valentine's Day

It probably should be St. Valentine but who remembers anymore.  This blog is coming to you from our dining room table in the travel trailer parked in the Big Bass Campground.  My TomTom GPS says "bass" like the musical instrument-- not the fish.  "Bass" vs. "bass."  The English language sure has some strange components.

We traveled 22 miles to The Villages and Lady Lake, Florida yesterday.  The Villages to the Red Lobster for Valentine's lunch.  The food and the service were good but we don't recommend the Lobster pizza.  The coconut shrimp, grilled shrimp, and scallops were delicious.   We made a few side trips to a couple of thrift stores..

Yup - this really is a thrift store.  We were looking for a lid for our cast iron skillet.

We hit the Aldi - for flavored coffee creamer and milk ($3.29 per gallon), Walmart for a new printer (didn't buy one), and a "Pure" Gas Station and filled up the truck for $3.65 per gallon.  That's a brand we haven't seen in a long time.

We got back to the Travel Trailer round about dark.  It was a nice day..   

The last couple of days haven't been good "solar panel" days.   Cloudy, raining, yucky.  We ran the generator a lot - though we have to shut it down by 10 p.m. in the campground.  There was enough juice in the batteries to run the furnace when needed last night.  

Woke up this morning to bright sunshine with the solar panels pumping out juice like crazy.  OH YES!

It's easy to take a walk in this campground.  Here's what we saw today:

 There are lots of birds.  The trick is getting them to sit still long enough to get the camera ready :)

Parked on the site next to us was this strange looking Land Rover with unique license plates.  We introduced ourselves to the young couple and discovered they were from Switzerland.  They didn't want their picture taken and didn't want to be on Facebook.   They didn't need to worry.  They were very nice and seemed to be travelling the world - currently the southeast portion of the United States.  Mario and Stephanie seemed to understand my "English" as long as I didn't talk too fast. They are planning to be at the Daytona 500.

Later this afternoon, we took another walk.   It seemed like a good excuse to get away from cleaning the top of the stove and working on dinner.  This time, we chose to walk in the forest across the road from the campground.  Here's what we saw: 

"Little flowers never worry..  when the rain begins to fall."  I guess they don't know it is
Winter.

There are mostly Jack Pines growing here as straight as telephone poles..  all except this one.

Betcha ya didn't know there was a natural arch in the Ocala National Forest BUT there it is.. sorta.

One of the trails we walked on...   where we found THIS:

It's about 5 inches across... and probably goes with something big, black and furry weighing around 350 pounds.

It was great to be out in nature in the sunshine with each other.

Then is was time to head "back to the ranch."  We fired up the Rocket Stove with the skillet and 1/2 inch of veggie oil.   Sheryl was working on Chimichangas (sp).  I deep-fried 'em over the Rocket Stove and boy, were they good.  

It's been a great day here and in Flushing.  The furnace guys got the new furnace in and working so Phil is now warmer than he had been for a couple of days.  We are thinking about staying here at Big Bass through Monday.. maybe leave Tuesday.   The weather has been better here than forecast and it's till a little chilly in the Florida panhandle.  

I read a quote this morning on the side-bar of my Worship Bible.  "I used to ask God to help me.  Then I asked if I might help him.  I ended up by asking him to do his work through me."  James Hudson Taylor.  Wow!  

See ya..

We're Travelin' Again!

It's been many months since we've blogged...  but here goes the first blog of 2013.

We had been at home in Flushing from May until November 1.   We had a great summer.   Got the garage and house ready to paint.  We made some trips to Sugar Springs.  Got "the airplane" and "the pilot" flying again after a 5-year layoff.  We re-installed the wings on the Aero Commander Lark and the mechanic gave the "bird" it's annual inspection.  He also did the test flight.  Pilot Instructor WWII veteran Walt Hancook gave me (the pilot) my checkout in the airplane and pronounced me "safe" to fly and carry passengers.

About the third week of October we were planning on heading out to Florida.  Got my doctor's appointment in.  But a tooth started aching.  We decided to set up a tooth pull in Florida so with meds from our dentist in Flint in hand, we made the trip to our mobile, arriving November 1,2012 The offending tooth was extracted and I was very happy.

After the tooth event, we enjoyed the rest of November, Thanksgiving, Christmas, golf on the Cow Pasture, the Marysville City Reunion at Lings Buffet, and oh.. did I tell you - We went on free-style cruise December 2, 2012 (We got a GREAT two-weeks-before-sailing DEAL).   Our son Phil dropped us off at the terminal in Tampa and off we went on the Norwegian Dawn.

Our cruise was seven days:  Two days at sea plus Roatan, Belize, Costa Maya, and Cozumel. We visited Mayan ruins that we thought we'd never see.

 We relaxed at Cozumel:

We were sad when it came time to depart the ship back at Tampa.   If we could get the same deal, we'd go again in a heart-beat.  We're thinking next December - maybe you could come along?

We've upgraded our solar system since last years travel.  We are now sporting 3 solar panels permanently fastened down to the roof of the travel trailer. 

I started by bolting down the solar panel we travelled with last year.

I secured the panels to the roof using a modified hinge purchased from Harbor Freight.  I can tilt the panels in any direction and secure them in a way that they "catch" the most Sun.

For those of you who notice details, I did caulk the hinge and the screws on the roof.   I upgraded the size of the feed wire to #6 to the new controller and #6 wire from the controller to the batteries.   We've already noticed a difference.   The batteries charge  more completely.   The new controller is a little more high tech than the last one.   I can adjust it's settings via my laptop so I can fine-tune the system.

We stayed at Light and Life Park in Lakeland until February 9, 2013 when we started out on another adventure.  The mobile home is rented for two months to some nice folks from Ohio.  Phil is back in Flushing, babysitting the house there.  It's a good thing too...  a new furnace is being installed tomorrow..  we're sure glad Phil was home when the old furnace conked.

This is our first camping stop 9 miles west of Altoona, Florida.

We are also about 22 miles east of The Villages.  The rate for a senior citizen with the special card is now $5 per night (up from $4 per night last year).  There is fresh water and a dump station for the travel trailer. The camp was nice last year and it still is.  Oh.. You can camp here for up to 120 DAYS STRAIGHT PER YEAR!  Here's the front of our site.

Here's the rest of our campsite behind our camper.

The little red guy that hangs around our campsite really owns the place.

 

We have met some interesting people who are also camped at Big Bass:

• The friendly married couple from Beaverton, Pa who have been here since December.  They have a big motor-home and two motorcycles.
• The married couple from Maine who've been coming to Big Bass for 15 years.  Nice people and we got to talk solar and visit with them.   They have a brown Chou Chou dog that reminds me of the Chou that I had when I was in high school.  A Chou is a one-family pet.  All others beware.
• There are at least four single men camping in various places.  At least three of them used to be married.  Sad that their marriages didn't last.
• One of the single guys has lived in Minnesota but is a resident of Florida now.   He is an avid bow hunter and has been president of the Florida Bow-hunters Association.   He also makes custom crafted knives.   He makes the blades out of old metal files.  They are great looking and of course, each one has the individual look. 
• There are two families tenting who are here from Traverse City.   It looks like parents and kids with kids.  I have no clue yet how they can be out of school (maybe home schooled) but maybe not.

There are always interesting people out there to meet.

As many of you might know, we like to camp self-contained.. not hooked up to power, water, electric, etc.  We try to minimize the use of propane too.   Why spend money if you don't have to.   We were introduced to a new way of cooking by Richard Osborne's daughter this summer at Covenant Hills.   The Rocket Stove!!!! (it's sitting on the grill - I'm about to light it with a propane torch).

You can google "rocket stove" if you're interested in how to make one.   The NEAT THING about a rocket stove is the fuel it uses:   SMALL STICKS and TWIGS.. stuff no one else would bother with.   Usually campgrounds are full of them because they are too small to use in a campfire.   But the rocket stove "eats 'em up."

The RS is a one-cooking pot type unit.   We use a cast iron fry pan for everything from frying to warming to boiling water (Sheryl and I made spaghetti in the fry pan yesterday and it was GREAT!)   We made pizza bread too.

Here's are two videos of the Rocket Stove in action:

We are enjoying the quietness of the park.. the campfires at night..  the walks around the trails.. 

Trail behind our campsite

And, we are on the lookout for BEAR.  People have told us that bears have been in the park.. but we haven't seen one yet.   Maybe tonight.

For you that might be interested, I'm shooting most of the pictures this year with a Sony Cybershot DSC-HX10V.  It comes with a 16x1 zoom and does a great job with video too.  It's a small hand held with a lot of power and picture quality.

We're not sure when we are leaving Big Bass..  we talked about this weekend but that could change.  The price is right and the temperatures are good.   It's been raining some today but that gave me a good excuse to get going with this very first blog of 2013.   Hope you enjoyed it.

Rog and Sheryl
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