Welcome to our Adventure!

Al and I are thrilled that you have found your way to our blog. We hope you enjoy reading our journal and viewing our photographs of the natural wonder of our United States of America. Let's hit the road together!
Homer, Alaska

Thursday, January 24, 2013

Another Two Weeks Gone?

Time is flying by down here where it is warm. I am so glad I'm down here, and not up north where the temperatures are freezing and the windchills obscene!

We finished up our few days At Disney, and I'm happy to report my sister finished her first half marathon, and her husband obtained his "Goofy" medal for doing both the half marathon on Saturday and the full marathon on Sunday...Goofy, indeed, but I digress.....:-). Congrats to both of them on a job well done!

Upon our return to Homosassa, we had a family day planned at Crystal River Preserve State Park. We decided to take one of their Ranger-escorted boat trips down the Crystal River to King's Bay. It was very nice!

Up to 24 people are taken on each trip, and they run twice a day on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

This is a "midden", or platform mound found in the Archaeological Park, part of the preserve. 

The area is popular with Bald Eagles, and we saw this huge nest with the presumed occupant watching over it from above.

Ospreys were also hanging around, along with many of the regular shorebirds and wading birds.

Unfortunately it wasn't a bright sunny day, but the scenery is still quite pretty.

We then had lunch at Charlie's Fish House, which was very good and we can give a definite "yes" to anyone in the area who is looking for some good seafood :-).

We also spent a day at the Tampa RV Supershow. Unfortunately, we went on the coldest, wettest day it was running :-(, but still had a good time. We met some blogging friends there, Neil and NancyTom, Marcie Nicholas and Bryce, and met Jim and Dee for the first time. Its so much fun to catch up with folks. We didn't make any purchases, no new trailer, although it wasn't the fault of the salesmen, they tried REALLY hard :-). We did have a long discussion with the Mor-Ryde representative, and depending upon how the repair work goes at Keystone, we are debating an upgrade to the IS suspension and disc brakes. The IS suspension seems like it will be a definite boost in the life expectancy of the trailer,  the disc brakes a definite safety factor. We will keep you all posted on that decision as time goes by.

We were both back at our posts at the  Wildlife Park on Saturday. It was a nice day and we were pretty busy. I'm finding out I really need to learn about all the animals in the park, as folks don't just ask me questions about the panthers :-). I try to remember the questions, and look them up when I get home so I will no if anyone asks me again! One I haven't been able to answer, though, is people ask me if the invasive snakes in The Everglades are a problem to the panthers. I shouldn't think so, except that maybe they are taking away some of their food sources? I'll keep looking. In the meantime, the Caribbean flamingos are right across from the panther exhibit, and boy, those silly birds are very noisy! I'll have to bring my Flip and make a video as it is quite amusing when they all get going.


Flamingos in the park


Some pelicans also flew in to keep me company as well.

The other Karen asked about volunteering at the Wildlife Park, and if they provide RV sites: no they do not have any arrangements for that. As a volunteer, you are able to come into the park anytime you wish for free, and after 100 hours accumulated time you can have a Florida State parks annual pass, enabling you to visit any state park for free. We are strictly volunteering there because we enjoy the park, and feel we are helping out our new "homebase" community. Chassahowitzka Wildlife Refuge, which is also here, does use RV volunteers and has a small area set aside for sites. last year I counted 6 RVs there, but only see three so far this year.

Gail, its a date...hopefully we'll have many games of hand-and-foot together this summer. And we'll teach you marbles and cards, you'll be hooked on that as well :-).

Unfortunately, the last few days we are both in the grips of some kind of cold, coughy crud. Its been very annoying, and I hope it goes away soon! This week we banged out some dental work for Al, a doctor's appointment for me, a vet appointment for Chelsea (she's fine, just a little gimpy from arthritis, but she's going on a management plan for that so she can keep up with us on the hiking trails!) and normal errands. Then tomorrow Al's sister flies in from Texas, and Sunday we're all heading back to Disney World...this time for two full weeks of fun and family time with Al's sisters, mom, several cousins, aunts and uncles....we're going to have a great time! So the next postings will be coming to you from Fort Wilderness :-).

7 comments:

  1. Oh Boy Fort Wilderness blogs. I can relive the fun through you guys. That crud is all over. It seems to hang on forever. It is totally annoying. I think I got it at Disney. Bet you did too. Hard to think about watching out for germs when you are having such a good time.

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  2. Sounds like a cool place to volunteer. Glad you are enjoying it and learning more about Florida wildlife :)

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  3. Yep, we are out and about having a great time at the Magic Kingdom. Wow, two weeks at Disney World...what fun!!! We are all in the 1600 loop, 1609-1611. Not sure exactly what we will be doing on Sunday, but we should be around the rigs in the evening.

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  4. So glad that you guys are enjoying your "time off". Love the pictures and the stories that you post. Looking forward to seeing Y'all real soon.

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  5. Hi guys, we are on the way. Looking forward to seeing everyone in Disney on Monday! Lucia

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