We Love Fort DeSoto

This is really a nice park. On Friday we went for the 10-mile bike ride on the bike path here in the park, then we took the kayaks out during the afternoon. With the way the park (i.e. the island) is structured - like a capital "L" - there is a nice bay between the campground area and the bottom part of the L. This bay is sort of in the northwest corner of the whole configuration, so, with a light wind from the southeast, the bay is actually fairly protected from the wind. We paddled across the bay - took maybe 45 minutes or so - to the "kayak trail". It's kind of funny - we did this trail 5 years ago when we first got the kayaks and thought the trail was really fun and a little scary - but now that we've been paddling so many times we agreed the trail is actually pretty boring. But it was fun to get out onto the water - we probably spent about 2 hours or so paddling around in the bay. The main thing is that it was SO nice out - it was in the low 70s with a clear blue sky - really pretty! After our paddle, we went a few miles out of the park and went to this cool little bar for a drink. It was actually a nice restaurant named Billy's On the Water, but they had a flight of stairs going up the side of the restaurant to the bar which was basically on the roof. We had a drink but didn't really talk to anyone - it was pretty clear this was kind of a hang-out for the "locals" who all knew each other. We never mind this because we get kind of a kick out of watching people interact - lots of "air kisses" and slightly manic enthusiasm - plus the view from the bar was really beautiful. When we left the bar we drove through this housing development that Dave had found on one of his bike rides - unbelievable homes - they HAD to be 4 or 5 million dollars each. We are just amazed at the money that is down here!

Today (Saturday) was not quite such nice weather - we caught just the lower tail end of the bad winter storm that is moving through the middle of the country. It was cloudy all day with a little rain off and on - but it was still about 70 degrees so we aren't complaining! Since we knew this weather was coming we planned on driving up to Tarpon Springs today. We went up 699, which goes right up through all the beach islands. It was kind of unreal - I can NOT imagine how many hotel and resort units there must be along this 40 mile stretch - it has to be in the tens of thousands. I don't think either of us had ever seen such a long stretch of hotels, restaurants, bars, gift shops, etc. I would NOT want to be around here in March! But right now, since it's not prime tourist season yet, we really didn't have any trouble with traffic and we made it all the way to Tarpon Springs in just a little more than an hour. We really liked Tarpon Springs - we had been told that it was sort of a "must see" place. The appeal is the sponge diving operation plus the Greek community (i.e. wonderful Greek restaurants). When we first drove into town we weren't overly impressed but then we saw the signs to the sponge docks and WOW that was pretty cool. The only disappointment was that we couldn't do the boat ride with the sponge diving exhibition (which we were told is pretty neat) because of the weather. But when we come back this way in two years we plan to spend some time in the Crystal River area which is only about 50 miles north of here, so we'll plan on visiting again. But we DID have a wonderful meal at one of the Greek restaurants - we chose one named Mykonos just at random, but it was great. Dave had a huge Greek salad along with a side of potato salad - which was more like mashed potatoes with "stuff" in it - delicious! (I'm going to try to find some recipes on the internet). I had the Chicken Mykonos, which was chicken breasts smothered with a delicious mix of tomatoes, onions, peppers, feta cheese and Greek spices. It was absolutely wonderful. Neither one of us had eaten much Greek food before, but the menu looked delicious - we're definitely fans. On the way back to our park, we took the same route because it was just so interesting to us. Nice day. The weather for the rest of our time here doesn't look great, but there's a lot to do so we'll be fine. We definitely like being on the St. Petersburg side of the bay.

Park #9 Fort DeSoto County Park

Today is Thursday and is our second day at this park - and what a gorgeous place it is! Unlike our other parks, this one is a county park, but is certainly not like any other county park I've ever seen. The park is actually on an island - in fact, the whole island IS the park. It's just off the southern tip of St. Petersburg. The park is probably 7 or 8 miles long and is shaped like a large capital letter "L". The campground is very nice, with about 200 sites. There are literally miles of beautiful white beaches, with sand the consistency of soft flour. There are a lot of little islands and bays so it is perfect for kayaking, and there are two big fishing piers, one 500 feet long and one 1,000 feet long. There is also an old fort - obviously called Fort DeSoto. But the best thing, for us, is the miles and miles of beautiful paved bike trails running the whole length of the island. The scenery is gorgeous - very tropical and lush - with great views of the Sunshine Bridge, Bradenton and St. Pete's. And the weather so far has been great - low 70's, clear blue skies and just a slight wind from the Gulf. Perfect!

We got up early on Wednesday in order to get across the Sunshine Bridge as early in the day as possible - the wind seems to pick up by mid-morning and crossing the bridge is a little intimidating, especially in an RV pulling a car with kayaks on top! But we had an uneventful drive over here and arrived about 10:30. We couldn't get into our site - the people in it hadn't left yet - so we pulled the RV into one of the beach parking lots, unhooked the car, and took my bike in to get repaired (...the flat tire that I got on Anna Marie Island). Then we came back and were able to set up camp. The sites are interesting - for one thing, there is a totally separate section for anyone with pets, including just cats - we've never come across this before. The sites are nice - they are kind of narrow, but very deep. We're amazed at some of the BIG rigs that are here - we canNOT imagine how the drivers were able to get into the sites! But we're not THAT big so we had no problems - Dave is really good at maneuvering the motor home. As soon as we got set up we went for a nice long bike ride, then later in the day Dave went fishing and I went for a nice walk. Today, we each went on a bike ride in the morning, but not together (Dave felt like doing one of his "hard" rides and I can't keep up with him when he does that). But I got in a ride of more than 10 miles, so I felt pretty good about that! After lunch Dave put his kayak in the bay and spent the afternoon fishing - he didn't get any fish, but he caught two CRABS! He had me in stitches telling me how he got them off the line. VERY carefully, apparently! In the meanwhile, I went to the BEACH and sunbathed for a couple hours - it's still unreal to be able to do that in January. It was plenty warm enough and the north beach was out of the wind and really nice. I snapped a couple pictures that I'm attaching. We both got back and took showers and then took the car over to one of the piers to catch the sunset - a pretty one, but not spectacular - the clouds weren't quite right - but I'm attaching a picture anyway! Tomorrow is supposed to be nice too so we'll spend the day outside, but it's supposed to rain on Saturday, so we definitely need to take advantage of the good weather. We watched the weather channel tonight and it looks like you folks in Michigan (and Ohio) are getting some pretty cold weather right now. SO glad we're not there (...sorry!). In the meanwhile, though, we are LOVING this park - more to follow.

Anna Marie Island

So yesterday (Sunday) we went back into the Sarasota/Bradenton area, as we had planned. The weather was supposed to be cloudy all day, so we decided to go to Anna Marie Island and take our bikes along and go for a nice long ride up the length of the island - this is one of our favorite bike rides anyway. It actually turned out to be a nice sunny day (...they never get the cloudy vs sunny thing right!) but VERY "breezy" - that's what they called it...we called it WINDY! It got pretty warm during the day - probably in the upper 70's, but a nice day for biking...at least when we were going WITH the wind. We parked at the lower end of Coquina Beach and rode our bikes to the far northern end of Anna Marie Island - probably somewhere between 8 and 10 miles. It's a fun ride, because you're right by the Gulf most of the time and the island is so pretty, with all the tropical trees and plants and the cool resort-type houses, all in pinks and corals and turquoises and greens. Very tropical. We stopped at Holmes Beach on the way up the island and had a drink and listened to a really good duet - a girl and a guy, who played the guitar. They both had really good voices and played the type of stuff we like - some Elvis, some Willie, etc. That's where I snapped these two pictures. Then we continued up the island and went out to the Island Pier for a light lunch - I had crabcakes - delicious. The Pier is a cool place to hang out for a little while - it was built in 1910, so we were thinking they'd probably have some type of 100-year birthday event sometime this year. But, BOY, was it windy out there. So THEN it was time to head back. And, of course, we were headed right into the wind - but it wasn't too awful bad - we just took it slow and kept pedaling! But about halfway there all of a sudden I heard a "whooshing" sound and just like that I had a flat tire on my bike. There was really no choice of what to do - Dave kept biking, to go back and get the car to pick me up, and I just kept walking the bike to try to get as far along as possible. We had already decided to stop at the Drift Inn in Cortez before we left the island, so by the time Dave got back to me I was almost at the circle turnaround in Cortez. He pulled over and we loaded my bike up and went back north a little bit to find a place to turn around to come back to the bar. When we parked in Cortez, I got my purse out of the car so I could exchange my sunglasses for my plain glasses and I suddenly remembered that when we loaded up my bike I had taken my camera and my glasses case out of my bike bag and laid them on the trunk deck of the car so I would have them with me. OH NO!!!! I had left them ON the trunk deck...! I went to the back of the car and by some MIRACLE my digital camera was still on the trunk - it was kind of stuck against the strap of the bike rack. But my glasses were gone - so now all I had was my prescription sunglasses! Dave and I both backtracked the whole route to see if we could spot my glasses case, but no luck. Fortunately, at the last minute before we left home last winter I had put my older pair of glasses in the RV as an emergency back-up, so I knew I'd have regular glasses when we got back to the RV. Thank God - otherwise I would have had nothing but sunglasses until I could get a replacement pair! (My old ones will get me by, but they are an old prescription so they give me kind of a headache, plus they are so scratched up that it's like looking through a fog!)

So today we went into the Walmart in Plant City and ordered me some new glasses (...about a $400 "oops" on my part!), but because of how strong my prescription is it will take almost two weeks to get them. Fortunately, since I had gotten my last ones at Walmart they have my prescription on the computer so were able to immediately order me some new ones - and, since we will have moved by the time they arrive, they'll call me and then send them to the nearest Walmart to wherever we are - a BIG advantage of having gotten them from Walmart. I actually had never gotten glasses from there in my life, until this last pair and now I am so glad I did. Dave, bless his heart, didn't say one single word about my carelessness. Oh well, we ALWAYS expect to have a few unexpected surprises on our trips and, compared to losing Foster, this isn't even a hiccup. Today was a little cooler - probably high of 70 - so a good day to do laundry with all the migrant workers (...we were the only "white" people in the laundromat and the TVs were all tuned to Spanish-speaking stations), go to McDonalds for a quick bite, and spend the day in the park. Dave is out fishing as I write this - I hope he gets something since this will be his second park to get "skunked" at if he doesn't. Tomorrow is our last day here, and then Wednesday we head over to DeSoto County Park by St. Petersburg, which should be really nice!

Park #8 Alafia River State Park

Gee, I guess I'm a couple days behind here. So - to catch up - we left Hillsborough River last Wednesday and are now at our eighth park, Alafia River State Park. It's about 25 miles south of Hillsborough River, so we're still just a little east of Tampa. The park is pretty - but kind of different from what we're used to. The sites are pretty big and quite private - the camping area is sort of a big pasture, with grass about 4 feet high. There is a pretty little lake right by the campground so Dave's been fishing a couple times but no luck so far... There are two loops in the campground - the one we're in and the other one is an equestrian loop - each campsite has a pair of poles with a line running between them that can be used for hooking horses to - there's probably a name for this but I don't know what it is! So there are quite a few horses out here, including a beautiful yellow palomino. Cute story - Dave was out paddling in his kayak and he could tell the palomino was nervous and kind of prancing around, when all of a sudden his owner came out and asked Dave if he would mind paddling a little closer to the shore so the horse could get used to him. While he paddled up, the owner kept reassuring the horse and telling him it was ok. We got kind of a kick out of that! The other thing that's a little different about this park is that it's a huge dirt bike venue - bicycles, not motorcycles - and has a whole bunch of riding trails. The park used to be a phosphate mine in its "pre-park" days so it has a whole bunch of hills and valleys and tons of little lakes (or ponds!), so apparently it's perfect for biking - in fact, it's the site of the Florida State Championship races. The only bad thing for me is you can't hike on the trails - there's only one that's been set aside for hikers and that one is only a mile long. It's pretty cool, but too short. And, as the name implies, there's also the Alafia River - but YIKES what a nasty river for kayaking (especially compared to Hillsborough River, which will certainly be on our list of absolutely favorite rivers forever!). We did go out on the Alafia, but it was kind of dirty and after a short distance opened up into a much wider river with kind of boring banks - but the worst thing was the SMELL. Because of the long cold spell, apparently a LOT of fish have died and the river was full of dead fish floating everywhere - I even hit some with my paddles - YUCK! We were only out for about 45 minutes before we agreed to call it quits. (But there were some alligators, which we always enjoy seeing!)

The park itself is nice, but not great - but that's okay because the main appeal is its proximity to the Sarasota/Bradenton area. We haven't been in this area for three years so one of our goals for this week was to spend a few days doing some of the things we've enjoyed in the past. So today we went into Sarasota and went to the county park at the end of Lido Key. We took our bikes along, so the first thing we did was take a ride out toward the Mote Aquarium. There's a nice little park out there and it's just a really nice ride with beautiful views of the Sarasota Bay. We stopped at one of our favorite little bars out there - it's a charter fishing outfit with a funky little outside bar. Then we rode our bikes into St Armands Circle - a great place to sit and "people watch" - the residents are all rich as God, with a gob of wide-eyed tourists thrown in for good measure. We grabbed lunch at another of our favorite places - Cha Cha Coconuts. I had the conch fritters, which were excellent. After we ate, we rode back to the park and spent the rest of the afternoon out on the beach. Unfortunately it was kind of overcast, but on the other hand it was in the mid-70's with a balmy breeze, so we certainly aren't complaining! Tomorrow we plan to head back into Bradenton to spend the day at the Coquina Beach on Amelia Island. We finally feel like our Florida weather has finally arrived and we're getting to do some nice things outside in 70 degree temps - sorry, all of you poor frozen Michiganders!

Our Week at Hillsborough River S.P.

Well, today (Tuesday) is our last full day at this park - and we LOVE it here. This is definitely on the list of "must return" state parks. The hiking has been great - I'm attaching a picture of me with my new hiking stick! I've done all of the trails and they are really pretty - yesterday I did a 3.4 mile hike that went along the shore of the river for half its length and then cut back through the "jungle" (which is how it felt)! Since we had rain on Sunday, the last quarter of the trail was really muddy and slick so I was actually glad I had picked up the hiking stick - I kind of leaned on it while I circumvented some of the standing water on the trail. Another nice trail goes back to a small set of rapids along the river - I think I read that it was one of the only rapids in Florida - and I would say it compares to the rapids on the Grand River back home. But it was really pretty. The park itself is really beautiful, with the bridges over the water and and beautiful trees and plants everywhere. We've both done a lot of biking here - it's one of the only parks I've seen that actually has a designated bike lane on the roads going through the park.

As I mentioned in the last post, they also have a fort here, called Fort Foster. We did that tour on Saturday (they only have tours on Saturday at 2:00 and Sunday at 11:00). We met at "parking lot #1" and got onto little trams which then crossed over the road and went through some private property in order to get to the fort. Two camphosts conducted the tour and gave a lot of history of the area. The fort was built by a Colonel Foster (hence the name) in the 1830's during the second Seminole War. We had to walk a little way to get to the fort itself and as we approached it Dave noticed some movement through the little slot window at the corner of the fort and wandered over there to see what was inside. All of a sudden a gun barrel came out through the window, pointed right at Dave, accompanied by a loud shout from inside. Dave jumped a MILE and everybody cracked up laughing. When we got inside, we found this guy (his name was "Turkey"...?!) dressed up as a Seminole Indian. The tour was pretty comprehensive - the hosts took us inside each building and explained all the artifacts and how each building was utilized. At the end, we went outside to the bridge that goes across the Hillsborough River and "Turkey" gave a little lecture on the Seminole Indians and their "side" of the arguments that lead to the war. We found out that this was the longest war (7 years) fought by the United States up until Vietname - interesting. Anyway, we enjoyed the tour, although it was a TOUCH lengthy - 2-1/2 hours.

So tomorrow we move onto the next park - we took a little ride down there on Sunday since it was raining - and it will be a good one too. And the weather has been excellent - in the 70's pretty much every day - so we are quite the happy campers! Today we plan to take a last kayak ride (our fourth this week) on the beautiful Hillsborough River and tonight we'll watch our favorite show (The Biggest Loser) and probably take a run into town to the Walmart and to Beef O'Brady's for a cocktail. And that will wind up our week here. The next post will be from Alafia River State Park.

Kayaking on the Hillsborough

Well, we are in kayak heaven here. The Hillsborough River is really gorgeous. It's kind of narrow and very clear and has beautiful foliage on both banks - lots of palms and cypress trees and live oaks and all kinds of other green stuff! We kayaked for about two hours yesterday and more than three hours today. Not only is the river beautiful, but the temperature is FINALLY just right - in the low 70's with sunny skies and just a light breeze. Perfect! I'm going to put some pictures out here, but they don't begin to show what the river is like - when we're out there we have a full 360 degree panorama - whereas the pictures are just a teensy snippet out of the whole thing - but they at least give you a small indication of where we are. Today was sort of "critter" day on the river for us today. We counted about twelve alligator s along the river - one really big guy whose pictures I am posting (although once again I don't think it'll do him justice!) - plus we saw a teensy little baby - it was so cute: we paddled past a log that had a whole row of turtles lined up on it and Dave suddenly noticed that the last "turtle" in line was actually a little tiny alligator - he probably wasn't even a foot long. We thought he was adorable but we did NOT hang around very long - the very last thing you want to do is get between a baby and its momma! We also saw another different thing - normally you see alligators lying along the bank in a grassy and/or muddy area - but we saw one today that was lying full length along the trunk of a palm tree that was hanging over the edge of the water at about a 30 degree angle. That was really weird looking - but I didn't get a picture because as we approached him he suddenly slipped into the water. It's always kind of a strange feeling to have one of them slip into the water and you realize you have NO idea where he is - that's when we paddle kind of fast! Another cool thing we saw today was a big old buck! He was really big and Dave thinks he was maybe a 10 point. We had just come around a bend in the river and he was down at the water's edge drinking. When he saw us, he climbed up the bank but just kind of stood there looking at us. Then he wandered off and we could hear him still moving along the bank, but a little ahead of us. But then we came around another bend and all of a suddent he was clamoring up the bank on the opposite side of the river - Dave had heard a splash ahead of us and thought it might be an alligator but apparently it was this buck crossing over to the other side. Then he stood there and looked at us for quite a while again- it was extremely cool to see him just standing there - beautiful! Plus we saw dozens and dozens of turtles of all different sizes - some really big ones - all sitting out sunning themselves on logs and branches. And we saw a little water snake swimming ahead of us and all kinds of birds, including a really pretty hawk that let Dave paddle right below him and what I'm certain was a sandhill crane - at least, he had the typical red spot on top of his head. We really do enjoy seeing all the life along the river!
Because it's been nice for the last two days now (YAY!) we had a nice big campfire last night and just sat outdoors for a couple hours - this is the FIRST fire where we've sat outside with "regular" cloths on instead of winter jackets, hats and goves! We are FINALLY on our "winter trip"! It's supposed to rain during Saturday and Sunday so we'll find something to do, but so far we absolutely LOVE this park and are having a great time.

Moving to Park #7 Hillsborough River

Today was moving day...again. We are now at Hillsborough River State Park - and what a beautiful park it is! The park is located almost due east of Tampa, maybe 40 miles or so - about 6 miles south of Zephyr Hills. We have a great site - we can walk from the back of our site and we are right at the edge of the river. The park is beautifully landscaped, with lots of old structures originally built by the CCC in the 1930's. There are a couple of bridges crossing the river, one of which is an old suspension bridge. There are lots of trails, which I'm looking forward to. The river itself is not real wide, but it's crystal clear and very pretty. The current isn't very strong so we can easily paddle both upstream and downstream. There's a canoe launch about two sites away from us, so we already put the kayaks down by the river and hope to drop them in tomorrow. The road through the park actually has a bike path painted on the edge of the road, which makes it nice for bicycling. We took the four mile loop through the park this afternoon and explored - we are really looking forward to our time here! And here's something funny - there is also a fort on the premises, but you have to take a tram to the fort for the guided tour at 2:00 on Saturday or 11:00 on Sunday - and the name of the fort is Fort FOSTER! Isn't that weird? Anyway - the temps are finally beginning to moderate and we were able to stay outside all afternoon with just a light sweater. And tomorrow is supposed to hit 70 degrees. Wonderful!

So - to go backwards - yesterday (Tuesday) we did pick up Foster's ashes and were very pleased with how the whole thing was handled. His ashes were in a tight plastic bag, which was placed in a blue velvet bag, and that was put into a very nice wooden box with a hinged lid and kind of a redwood finish. Very nice, very tasteful. For Dave in particular, having Foster's ashes is very comforting. And now... I'm going to leave Foster in peace for the rest of my blog journal. Once again, thanks for the expressions of sympathy - we appreciate them.

I also wanted to spend a couple minutes wrapping up the time we spent at Manatee Springs and in the "Nature Coast" area of Florida. We probably didn't get to enjoy the park as much as we would have if the weather had been better. But the last two days were warmer so I got out for nice hikes both days - about an hour on Monday and over two hours on Tuesday (kind of by accident - I couldn't find the trail intersection that I was looking for). Dave was able to fish both days and had a really good time - he caught three BIG fish that put up a big fight, which he enjoys a lot. He didn't keep them, but had a lot of fun catching them. The springs themselves were very pretty - there are over 600 springs in Florida, with about 30 of them considered to be of a first magnitude. That means the spring pumps between 50 and 150 million gallons of clear water per day - unbelievable. Manatee Springs pumps around 65 million gallons daily. All of these springs are so pretty - they are crystal clear with beautiful turquoise water that stays at 72 degrees year round (so you can actually swim any time). We agreed that we like this part of Florida a lot and would come back to the area again.

Last night we went to the men's basketball game in Gaineville, at the O'Connell Center on the campus of the University of Florida. The game was broadcast on ESPN and the game was played at 9:00 at night before a packed house. We actually didn't get back "home" until almost 1:00 AM. We had a lot of fun, even thought the Gators lost to Kentucky. We are enjoying our efforts to find basketball games to attend as we travel around - it just adds another fun thing to our normal "to do" list of activities on the road.

A Couple Pictures

I'm attaching a couple pictures of the bike rides that Dave and I took a couple days ago - don't we look like we're having fun? I'm also sticking in a couple pictures of the cats - we are finding that having them with us is a life-saver; they give us something alive to pet and stroke and laugh at - thank God for them! We did go to Cedar Key yesterday - we really like it out there and have decided that on some trip in the future we might just stay on the key for a week - there's a private campground out there called Sunset Isle and it looks like it would be okay for a short stay - nothing fancy, but fine for us. Last night we watched the movie The Proposal - I had seen it once but asked Dave if he'd like to watch it. I warned him that it has a beautiful little American Eskimo puppy in it and asked if he thought that would be okay or would be too sad. He wanted to watch it and you should have seen us oohing and aahing when that cute little puppy was onscreen. But I think he was glad to have seen it. It's supposed to get up to 53 degrees today so we're going to run a couple errands and then Dave is determined to drop a line into the water and I'm determined to get in a short hike. Tomorrow we pick up Foster.

Warming Trend?

OK - they are PROMISING us that a warming trend is on its way. Yesterday we had a high of 38 degrees during the middle of the day! OMG! But now the extended forecast is saying gradually warmer each day and actually up to 70 degrees by next weekend. What a wonderful treat that would be. In the meanwhile we continue to find things to do. Friday we went back into Gainesville again - this time we went to the Florida Museum of Natural History, which is located on the campus of the University of Florida. It's actually quite a nice little museum, especially considering that it is free. They also have a supposedly very nice butterfly exhibit that you do pay separately for - it's a big screened in building with big palm trees and other plants and thousands of butterflies flying free. However, guess what? IT'S TOO COLD for the butterflies so they are not flying - thankfully the kid at the counter told us that when I tried to buy two tickets for the exhibit. After we left the museum we stopped at this little bar in Trenton, about 15 miles outside of Gainesville. We had noticed it coming home from the game the night before and decided to stop in. It was called The Mad Italian and was run by this 65 year old guy and his wife. He was very friendly and boy did he tell us his whole life story - "my life in restaurants" - they are originally from New York, and have owned a series of these restaurants. He keeps them for about five years then sells them - but not the name - just the building and the equipment. But then he got started on the whole issue of "government control" and "big brother" and that's when it was time to go - whew! We love stopping in to these little places and meeting the weird people in this country.
Yesterday the high point of our day was going to the laundromat. Not much excitement there, you say? Well, you haven't been to the laudromat in Chiefland, Florida. Quite the motley crew there, believe me. And right next door was this really big flea market - the kind where there's a big roof top covering everthing but under that is total chaos. What a bunch of JUNK - but they had movies for 50 cents so I bought another dozen for our collection. And there was one spot where they were selling pets - there was an adorable black puppy with white feet and a white bib. And amazingly, he had an American Eskimo father and a miniature Australian sheepherder for a mother. What a little DOLL he was - my heart was stolen. But Dave and I talked about it and agreed that, even if we are willing to take on a puppy (rather than an adult dog) we certainly can't do it in the RV. But it makes me convinced that, when we get home, we will be looking for another dog - not to replace Foster, but to fill the empty spot in our little family that needs to be filled with a dog. When we got home we bundled up and went for a nice walk through the park - it really is quite pretty here - we saw a little bit of a few manatees and some really big fish swimming up the spring run (the short waterway that connects the springs to the river itself). And yesterday when we were driving out we had a big gray fox run across the street in front of us. When you're camping like we are you love to see the different types of wildlife.
Today we are going to take another run out to Cedar Key - we like it there and it's probably our last trip out - it looks like we will not be kayaking around the Key, which we had definitely hoped to do, because of the weather, but it is certainly on the list for the next time we're in this area. Got to run - it's supposed to get up to 45 today! Yippee! (Also, I'll attach a couple pictures related to the previous post.)

Park #6 Manatee Springs State Park

Haven't posted much the last couple days - but we're hanging in there! We've been trying to keep busy, in spite of the continuing cold spell. Unreal! We actually thought we would be able to pick up Foster's remains (we're having him cremated) this Tuesday, but it turns out they only do this once a week, so we have to wait until next Tuesday. Fortunately, we are still in the immediate area for the upcoming week, so that part works out okay. Yesterday (Wednesday) we moved from the Old Town Campground over here to Manatee Springs State Park, which is actually only about 15 miles in distance. It's a nice park - the springs are really pretty - and there are manatee in the springs, which we always love to see. We were disappointed to find out that we would not be able to put our kayaks in at the spring (which you normally can do) - apparently during this cold weather they are very careful not to disturb the manatees in any way. So today (since it was actually in the mid 50's!) we put our kayaks in at Usher Landing which is only a half mile south of the state park (1/2 mile along the river - about 4 miles of driving) and then we paddled upriver for about an hour and a half and basically floated back down to our starting point. It was very pretty - we love the huge old cypress trees with Spanish moss hanging on them. I didn't download any pictures yet, so can't attach them but I may throw a picture on tomorrow. We got home about 4:00 and then headed into Gainsville for the University of Florida women's basketball game, against Auburn. VERY exciting game - the gators won by two points in the second overtime - WOW! It was fun to go to a bigger school for a game - and we're going back next Tuesday for the men's game which is going to be broadcast on ESPN (so look for us - we'll be the ones with the Michigan sweatshirt!).

Yesterday was basically moving day, although we got in a nice little walk around the park. We both really struggled with the move. Since it was such a short distance we didn't hook the car up - we just each drove separately - and when we got to the park it was obvious that both of us had been doing a little crying - it seemed so WRONG to leave the last park without Foster - it was almost like we were forgetting to take him or something. Plus he always loved moving day - he could tell when we were packing up the rig to make a move and he would get so excited! But we did it and we're sure the first move will be the hardest. And each day it seems to get less awful and less painful...

Monday and Tuesday, our last two days at Old Town, were cold - below 50 - but we decided that we needed to keep moving so we got in a bike ride on each day. We did 12 miles on Monday and 14 on Tuesday. There is actually a very nice rails-to-trails bike path in the area - it runs about 30 miles total so we did two different stretches of it. On Monday we crossed an old railroad bridge to get over the Suwanee River - that was kind of fun. It's been so weird to have days and days of cold - it's been getting down to the low 20's overnight, so we turn on both space heaters and turn on the hot water heater (which we normally only turn on when we're going to use hot water - like for dishes) because we think the heat generated by the heater probably helps to keep the "basement" warmer and protect our water pipes - it would NOT be fun to freeze any of our pipes during the trip - yikes!

So that's a quick update on what we've been doing the past few days. Thank you to all of you who sent e-mails and stuff over the past week - we really appreciate it. More to come in a couple days...

BRRRRR!!!

Well, Dave and I are hanging in - we miss Foster terribly and have spent a lot of the last two days crying together. But we are trying to keep active, because we can't just sit here feeling SO sad and heartbroken. We keep exchanging little stories and memories... "remember how Foster used to....?" - and that seems to help. Last night we went onto my laptop and found every picture of him that we could and I did a little cropping and trimming and we printed off some of the pictures and have them hanging up in the RV - that also helps. Right now we're waiting for a phone call from the vet, to let us know if we can pick up Foster's ashes tomorrow. We know it seems silly, but we really just want him back here with us in the RV. I'm attaching a few pictures for those of you who didn't know him - beautiful, isn't he? And his personality was as beautiful as his external appearance. Isn't that why we have pets - they give us unconditional love and just give us so much joy.

Yesterday we took a trip down to Homosassa Springs State Park, about an hour south of us. We knew we needed to get out of here. It was pretty cool - probably just barely hit the low 40's - but we just bundled up and went. It is a really neat place - it's a state park but is more like a little zoo, with a special emphasis on manatees. The center point of the park is the hot spring and of course the manatees come in from the Gulf to stay warm in the 72 degree waters. They built a really neat underground observation room where you can see the manatee swimming around and eating their delicious meal of romaine lettuce. The park also has a lot of other Florida birds and animals, plus one hippopotamus named LU. The story is that the park used to privately owned and had a lot of "exotic" animals, like tigers and stuff. When the state of Florida bought the park they got rid of all the non-Floridian animals, but they couldn't sell or give away poor Lu. They were going to put him down but the people in the area all love Lu so they had a huge petition drive to save him. As a result, the governor of Florida at the time made him an honorary citizen of Florida, thereby allowing him to remain! This January they are celebrating Lu's 50th birthday. Isn't that a cute story?

So the other issue for us is the WEATHER. I'm sure everyone knows that there is just a tremendous cold front moving through virtually the whole country. Last night it was supposed to get down to 28 degrees - that's pretty cold when you're in an RV and have relatively exposed water pipes! Thankfully we always carry two electric space heaters with us, so we use them for the majority of our heating, and just use our furnace to "boost" the temp a little every now and then. We feel really sorry for people who are using their furnaces - they are probably going through a tank of propane every day!!! The Weather Channel (...we have cable at this park, which is nice!) is saying that this cold front is expected to hang out for at least the rest of this week and probably into next week as well. We're about to head out for a short bike ride along the Suwanee River, even though it's not quite 50 degrees, but we know we need to keep active. That's what Foster would want us to do.

Foster

Short post today. We had to put Foster to sleep today - we are truly heartbroken. This morning we woke to find him in terrible pain and unable to sit down or walk - he was just standing there shaking. We took him straight to the wonderful vet that we used on Thursday and she told us the test results had come back indicating that he was suffering from a condition called Cushing Disease which is a tumor on his adrenal gland. The prognosis is very bad for this condition. Foster, a gentleman to the end, spared us the agony of having to make a difficult decision - there WAS no decision to be made. We said goodbye and held him while he went to sleep. We are devastated. That's all for today.

Happy New Year

WOW - I can't believe it's January 1st! Weird to think we've been gone for over a month now. We are still here at Old Town Campground, about 40 miles west of Gainsville. A lot has happened over the past three days. The biggest thing is some bad news - my mother called me last night and told me my sister Patty has been taken to the hospital in Big Rapids and is apparently in quite bad shape. She had a massive heart attack, plus has very severe pneumonia. Last night they had her on life support and doubted if she would make it through the night, but the news this morning seems to be slightly more positive - apparently she opened her eyes and is responding to simple commands. Patty has had some serious health issues for years now, but this is still quite a shock to everyone. Mom will keep me posted as more news develops.

We had another "health" issue too - although it obviously isn't on the same par as my sister's situation. Nevertheless, it has been difficult for Dave and me. Foster (our American Eskimo, for any of you who don't know him!) has been acting really weird for the last 2-3 weeks. We've become increasingly worried about him - he has virtually stopped eating and has last 5 pounds (from 40 pounds down to 35, so a significant portion of his total body weight). He also seems to be having a lot of trouble with his hindquarters - not able to jump into the car or climb the steps of the RV without difficulty. Yesterday I called my daughter-in-law Joyce (who has been a vet tech for years) and she convinced us that we needed to get him to a vet right away - like NOW! We asked the host here at the campground for a recommendation of a local vet and we took him in yesterday. The vet was GREAT - a warm, caring middle-aged woman who came in and immediately got right down on the floor next to Foster. They took 3 X-rays and did a blood and uring test. The good news is that Foster doesn't have any arthritis at all - wonderful for a dog who's going on 14! - the vet said she was shocked at how good his skeleton looked. She said he has the spine and hips of a 2-year-old. The bad news actually has three escalating possibilities. There is a mass of some sort on his kidney. The best option is that he may have a serious kidney infection so she immediately put him onto an antibiotic and a strong pain med (apparently the problem with his mobility is that he is in a lot of pain, poor boy!). We SO much hope this is the problem. The next possibility is that he is going into kidney failure - this is an irreversible condition but can be treated for an unknown period of time before it would be fatal. The blood work that she did will tell us the answer to that question - the results should be back tomorrow so we'll be waiting for the phone call! The worst option would be that it is cancer. We refuse to deal with that possibility until we know more. In the meanwhile, we THINK he seems to be feeling a little better today. He did eat some food, but it looks like most of it came back up. But that's not really surprising since he's not used to eating hardly anything. We KNOW - he's just a dog - but we love him a lot and we sure hope we'll have his company for a while yet!

In the meanwhile, we are continuing to enjoy our trip in spite of everything. We actually don't mind being here at Old Town - it's small and old and very simple, but the people are nice and Joe, the host, has been great and filled with information for us. Today we took a ride into Gainsville and just drove around - mostly we wanted to find the campus of the University of Florida (go, Gators!) and locate the basketball arena for next week. Being New Year's Day, it was pretty quiet in town which was exactly what we were hoping for. What a pretty campus - all brick buildings with lots of trees and flowers everywhere. We stopped at Beef O'Brady's and got lunch, and then stopped at the mall where I bought a new pair of jeans - BIG extravagance!Yesterday was New Year's Eve, but we spent pretty much the whole day dealing with Foster and his visit to the vet so we didn't really do much else. We did come into town and went to this little sports bar called the Red Brick Bar and got a couple drinks around 6:00, but that's all we did for New Year's. When we got home I picked up the message from my mother about Patty, so obviously we spent the rest of the night waiting to see if there was going to be another phone call.Wednesday was really fun for us, though. We spent the whole day getting our bearings in this area and seeing what was available for us to do. We stopped at Fanning Springs State Park, which is a big natural spring just a few yards away from the Suwanee River. We walked all over the park and got to see FOUR manatees just laying in the basin of the spring, enjoying the warm 72 degree water. It was great to see our first manatees of the trip. They are SO amazing. Then we drove about 40 miles out to Cedar Key, which Joe had told us used to be the Key West for that part of Florida. He told us it would be a nice place for us to put our kayaks in sometime. When we drove around the north side of the key we were pretty much NOT impressed - but then we came around to the south side and WOW what a difference. Lots of condos and shops and restaurants, a big fishing pier and a really cool area of shops, restaurants and bars sort of built up on a big section of pilings. I'm attaching pictures but I'm sure they won't do it justice. But, yes, it would be a really fun place to put the boats in and paddle around. There are some other small islands that would be very easy to paddle out to. We're definitely coming back. We sat out on the deck of a neat bar and shared some nachos, soaked up the sun, had a drink and just kicked back for a couple hours - it was heaven! On our way back to the campground we pulled into Manatee Springs State Park, which is about 10 miles south of Fanning Springs. This is where we'll be moving to next week, so we wanted to check it out. We were quite pleased with it - it's another one of those great Florida springs with a "run" that goes out to the Suwanee River. Normally you'd be able to put kayaks in at the spring and paddle out to the river, but there was a sign that the spring run is closed until March so as not to disturb the manatees - but there are other options for putting the kayaks in so we'll worry about that next week. But the campground looks fine and Dave should be able to fish as much as he wants to. We think we'll definitely enjoy our two weeks in this area and are looking forward to the remainder of our time here. In the meanwhile, we have moved into January, the sun is shining (although it is still about 10 degrees below averyage) and there is NO SNOW! Life is good....