On the road Again Dec 28

The weather has been fickle.  A day or two of warmish weather and then a few days of bitter cold.  Christmas day was a beautiful 70 degrees, and the next day a frozen 26 degrees.  We left JAX today on a cold sunny day headed south.  We have gone inland into the lake and pine forest country.  One of the features of this country are the many fresh water springs.  We visited Salt Springs and Silver Springs in the Ocala National Forest.  The springs are crystal clear and full of fish.  The water temp is a constant 72 degrees coming out of the ground. 

Silver Springs is an amusement park which started early in the 1900s.  Over the years, it has been used to film many movies, like Tarzan, Sea Hunt, The Creature from Under the Sea and James Bond movies.  Today it features glass bottomed boats, alligators, tropical birds and poisonous snakes.  For the season, holiday music blares over the grounds for our listening enjoyment.

Dec 18, 2010 Finally Florida as Advertised (Sort of)

The last couple of days has been what one hopes for, moderate winter weather in Florida, temps in the 60s and 70s mostly sunny with brief thundershowers. I’m sure the locals are not happy with the slight amount of rain we have had the last few days, it is just enough to be amusing, causing one to think, “I’m going to get caught in this rain”, but in reality it just sprinkled a bit and blew out to sea.


The season has caught up with me, I’ve enjoyed too many meals and not enough prudence and have gained some weight. (Just like Dede did at Joan’s) I have been riding my bike on the beach for an hour or so. I used to ride up and down the hills around Denver for 4 to 6 hours at a time, now I can barely do an hour on the flat sand. Takes me most of the afternoon to recover.

JAX beach is a great beach for riding bikes and for walking. It is a flat wide beach with mostly hard sand. In the good old days, folks used to drive their cars on the beach and many an “old timer” resents the fact that only a few beaches allow that practice today. Lots of folks here use the beach, walkers, riders, joggers and surf fishermen abound. Not the season for sunbathers, no one seems to lie on the beach, but there are a few swimmers, surfers, kayakers and the like. The shore is lined with hotels, condos, old beach houses, and some palatial estates. But there is public access at every block. Some of the neighborhoods are run down and being restored, others are well established upscale communities, but there is a wide mix of folks on the beach who use it for recreation.

Out to sea, there are always a parade of boats and ships plying the water. Close in are the shrimpers dragging their nets along the coast only a couple hundred yards off the beach. Further out are fishing boats and pleasure craft, both power and sail, and then a mix of commercial ships, cruise ships and military craft. Quite frequently a Navy helicopter will fly up and down the beach on patrol. There is a lot of activity at the beach!

December 12-14 Hangin’ Out in the Frozen South

When we last left Florida, it was in the mid seventies and low eighties nearly everyday.  The locals were complaining that it hadn’t rained enough. “Its too hot and dry.” they said.  Well, be careful of what you wish for.  When we returned to Jacksonville, the weather had certainly changed.  There has been some rain, not a lot by local standards, but the temperature has gone way south, lows in the teens, highs in the thirties and low forties with winds blowing a gale.  Not real pleasant to hang out in, unless of course you had ice skating in mind.

We are very fortunate not to be braving this weather in the trailer.  It is still sitting snugly in its warehouse and we have rented a house near the beach, with central heating, hot water, and a fireplace.  It has 3 bedrooms (with king size beds) a nice kitchen, and big living room with  fancy TV and WIFI.  We have been waiting out the weather mostly inside, either in bed or sitting under blankets watching TV, reading books or cruising the WEB.  What few forays we have made outside require hats, coats, and gloves, which really makes one feel kind of silly stepping out into what looks like a sub-tropical locale.  The palms, hibiscus, bougainvillea and palmettos are still here, some of them not looking very good, but in the bright sunshine it looks like it should be warm, but the wind in your face, your frozen feet, and cold hands bring you back to the strange reality that it is dangerously cold out here.  Talk about cognitive dissonance. 

All is not lost however,  Today, (Wednesday) the temp is rising to a high in the fifties,  and by Friday it is supposed to rise into the seventies.  After that it is supposed to stay in the mid sixties.  I hope that is true.  We want warm weather in Key Largo by the time we get there.  (This week it got down to 33 degrees) Not so good.

Enough about the weather.  We picked Dede up at Joan’s and while she was happy to see us I think she rather enjoyed her stay with Joan.  She has gained a bit of weight as Joan did quite a bit of cooking for Dede when she refused to eat her dog food.  It is now back to cold stark reality, or cold dry dog kibble.  Dede still likes to run on the beach, when we can coax her out of the warm house to go down to the beach. 

Pats is doing fine, she has recovered from out trip to Santa Cruz, and is spending some time with her sister and friends, getting ready for the holidays and just hanging out.  We have both been mostly keeping warm in our beach house. We are looking forward to doing more outdoor activities once it warms up.  

Intermission (Santa Cruz) Dec 1 -11

We have taken this time to go home and reconnect with friends and family and to visit familiar places. The flight from Jacksonville to Las Vegas was one of the worst flights on record. Every seat on the plane was filled and sitting next to me was a young man and his year old son who was totally out of control. This kid was a screaming, squirming juggernaut who was in constant agitation pretty much through the whole flight. I survived by turning my I-touch up to full blast and concentrating on my Kindle book. Once we got to Vegas I had the $15 margarita to recover.


Once home we were met by our good friend, Bobbie, who took us to her house, which coincidentally is next door to our old house in Scotts Valley. She promptly put us to bed so we could recover from our arduous journey across the country.

My first significant event was to attend Kischka’s birthday party where I was able to celebrate with Kischka and be with my work colleagues. (the colleagues I had when I used to work) After that event, Bob O and I went up to the campus to visit with more friends we had not seen in a while.

Our next big event was to visit Jackie and hang out on her farm for a couple days. Got to feed the horses, chase the chickens and play with the dogs. We had great meals, conversation and walks in the country.

Back in Scotts Valley, we visited more friends and family and generally over ate at every opportunity. Being home has given us an opportunity to relate with friends our experiences and to think back on all the places we have visited. There were good times and bad, and times when we were feeling far from home, but looking back on the trip so far, I think we can say we are glad to have made the trip. We have driven over 12,000 miles and stayed in dozens of RV parks, but we have seen many interesting sights. We are only scratching the surface in the places we have been, as there is only so much we can absorb at any one place. There are times when we have been overwhelmed with history and detail about the places we are visiting. One cannot possibly take it all in. Writing this blog has been the only way I can keep track of where we have been and when we were there. We are looking forward to continuing our journey, but we are also looking forward to the time when we return to our family and friends.

We will be in Jacksonville for Christmas and then continue on to Key Largo right after.

Have a happy Holiday Season.
e