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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