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..