Florida is the sunshine state!

I haven’t had to use my heater since I got to Florida! In Pensacola I went back to Cordova Mall, where I maintained the mobile kitchen during Hurricane Dennis. The Panera Bread manager was the same one that provided the WiFi for the disaster, when the Red Cross was unable to put me online. I have now stopped using the truck as my main means around town. I geocached Pensacola, Crestview, Marianna, Quincy, Crafordville, High Springs and Tallahassee on the bicycle. It is great exercise and it is saving gas money too. I went to Tallahassee because of a serviceman’s travel bug that wanted to go to all of the places he had lived. Now it needs to head to Texas. More and more people are asking about my Casita now that gasoline prices are so high. I am in the Sumter Oaks SKP park near Bushnell, waiting for my mail to arrive. The facilities here are pretty nice – large spaces, and an indoor, heated, swimming pool. Here are some pictures of the park. As you can see, this is the off season in this beautiful park that is usually full in the winter months.

I will post this from the Library WiFi and go visit some more geocaches today (Saturday) when I go to get the mail.

To blog or not to blog – that is the question.

My life has not been too exiting lately. It wouldn’t inspire many of you. Yet I am doing just exactly what I want to do – and enjoying it. I think that it is best if I reduce my blog inputs to once a week unless there is something very urgent to write. Therefore this is notice that you will only have to check once a week to know what I am up to. I will probably publish on Friday or Saturday, since those are the days that I usually catch up on thing like laundry, shopping, and ignored mail.

My traveling has come to a point where I had many things to take care of that were just too inconvenient while moving every day. It came to a head when I came across a Schwinn Sidewinder bicycle at WalMart that was marked down 35%. I have been looking for some way to cut down on the geocaching miles on the van (definitely not the travel miles) and so I made the plunge. The $52+ dollars that I saved pretty well covered the incidentals that you need, like a water bottle, helmet, lock, tool set, cargo bag and speedometer. I have spent the last few days adjusting and outfitting the bike, and yesterday I actually did some riding. I did a good thing! My doctor will be happy with the extra exercise that I am getting.

I am currently at Rainbow Plantation Escapee Park in Summerdale Alabama. This park has a mixture of travelers, snowbirds, leaseholders, and some people that live in funny structures made of sticks and bricks. These last folks spend all their time either inside or fixing up their property. Oh well, that’s their choice!

I have geocached the area on my way to church and back – and I have downloaded the Florida caches – so I guess it’s time to move on.

Highs and Lows and Moving on

The river is high – 42.5’ over the normal – almost the highest recorded. The temperature last night was the lowest ever recorded on 4-14 – 36 degrees. Yesterday I visited the grave of President Zachary Taylor’s daughter Ann. She was married to Jefferson Davis, before he was the Confederate President. She died young – 21. The state has made this cemetery a historical site and it has a geocache to entice you to come. Quite a few notable people are buried there in a place apparently seldom visited. Now it is time to move on to better geocaching and some visits that I want to make before going to St. Augustine. I plan to go to the 3 eastern SKP parks, JFK space center, and revisit the places that I worked on disasters in recent years when they are operating normal. Of course, I will have geocaches along the way. After St. Augustine and the end of the Woman Tour, I will head back to Texas and Oklahoma, probably on I-20.

Caching my way through life

Sunday, I woke up early in DeRidder and was at the park to get started on the two caches that I had left yesterday. Then I did another on the road to Opelousas and a whole bunch in that great old town with lots of history. After I cached Washington I spent the night in Simmesport – a cacheless town. On Monday I proceeded to go to Baton Rouge and then on to St Francisville LA. There were caches in the Port Hudson State Park and I also did the complete park tour – very interesting Civil War history. It was the longest battle of the war, ending when the Confederates were starved out. I have now done all but one of the St Francisville caches and the Woman Tours is expected in just after I complete that one. It is another day off for them and there are lots of old antebellum homes to go see. Here I am in front of the Myrtle Plantation home, which even hosts a ghost (so they say).

The tour is staying at two of the old homes and I have arranged to park behind one of them.

Washington to Washington

A few days ago I left Washington TX. Tomorrow I will be in Washington LA, a suburb of Opelousas. Yesterday I cached out Kountze and stayed the night at the Martin Dies Jr. State Park, so that I could shower and clean up after caching several quite mucky bayous.
Today I cached in DeRidder LA, but I couldn’t finish because it was Saturday at the park and there were too many muggles to complete my last two for the day. Arda and Jan took the traveler’s dispensation from mass, because at 4:15 they had just gotten in from a 92 mile day, and needed to clean up and rest for another long day tomorrow. I went to church alone and stayed the night. I had to move from the back lot, up to the rectory because of the rowdy K of C hall in the back. I will go out early in the AM to get those last two caches. Then on to Opelousas – Mississippi – Alabama – and Florida.

A pleasant detour

I detoured from the Woman Tour’s route and went to Livingston for my “doctoring”. For those who might not know, the headquarters of the Escapee RV Club is Livingston Texas. This is what I consider “home”, so I go here a couple of times a year to get my doctors’ opinions of my health. They cleared me for another 6 months, saying everything is looking good. Now I can get back to the serious things like geocaching my way to Florida. On the way in I stopped at the two rest stops north of Huntsville. They have just been recently opened. They are fabulous! Hiking in the woods trails – the southbound even has a lake! And, of course, the primary reason for the visit was that they both had geocaches. Being on the geotruckers.com list makes them good travel bug places. I traded a travel bug and took the new one to my TB hotel in Livingston.

Accidentally, I came into Rainbow’s End in the middle of the CARE Health Fair and was able to attend the final dinner. It was a great meal and the entertainment – all Escapee – was fabulous. After enjoying the regular Friday morning “big” breakfast, I am now ready to continue on the geocaching trail to Florida.

Here's pictures of the CARE Center and my parking place accross the street.

It’s All in the Family

Sounds like a radio program title doesn’t it? Well these women have really become family in a little over a month. I had Mexican dinner and a Happy (2) Hour with them today and they are quite a group! John, Jeanne Lindberg’s husband flew in from Michigan to be with her on her day off, which just happens to be their 25th anniversary, tomorrow. There were several other male relatives here from as far away as Kenya. Here we are toasting another successful day! Tomorrow I head to Livingston for a few days.

A halt to geocaching

I enjoyed caching with Mary in Wimberley. We had a good Mexican meal while out for the day.

On Sunday, Gary and I attended an AA convention in Pflugerville. I enjoyed the speakers, especially two that happen to share my life as “houseless” Escapees. Monday I cached my way out of Leander stopping at TSC to buy a pair of Justin boots at a muggled cache site. The direct route to Navasota goes through Brenham, home of Blue Bell Creamery. I decided that this would be a good time to become a tourist and take the tour, which ends with a very healthy sample of your choice of 12 flavors. Since the flavor that I wanted to sample was not one of the 12, I went back to the “Country Store” and got a scoop of Peach in Homemade Vanilla for dessert! Continuing on as tourist, I took the tour of Barrington Farm, Anson Jones’ final home near the first capital of the Republic of Texas in Washington. In case you don’t know, Anson was the last president of Texas. The rest of the day was spent in the picnic area, preparing meals for the next week (and, of course, eating one of them). Since I have visited Navasota and Livingston, my next stop, earlier in this season, I have already completed all the caches there. It looks like my caching will take a break until next week after I complete my “doctoring” in Livingston. Since the internet is good here, I will send this out before I go out to look for Dave.

Little Blanco Road – Blanco County 101

I enjoyed eating with Woman Tours at the YO Ranch Resort Hotel’s Branding Iron Restaurant last night. It was very well prepared and all that I could hope for. And the company (Jan, Dave, and Arda) was excellent too. But I decided that I had spent enough time and money in Kerrville, and the hitch itch was coming on, so I geocached my way to my daughter Mary and Matt’s place in Wimberley. If you ever have a chance to drive Blanco County 101, do it! It is very nice ranch land with a Dutch flavor. The road is narrow and winding, with dips that fill with water when it rains, but I went through with no problem with the Casita and van. There are some very nice ranch homes to see and the scenery is worth going out of the way. You can enter from the road to Fredricksburg, just outside of Blanco and then exit onto Hwy 281 south of Blanco. Here's a picture of my rig parked in front of Mary's front deck.

I ended the day today with 1030 caches. Mary said she would go with me geocaching Wimberley tomorrow.

Out of the desert, into the woods

WEDNESDAY
Well, since I was having so much fun with my tax refund, I decided to spend a little on myself. I have not upgraded my wardrobe since Hurricane Rita. I bought new pants, shirts and ordered boots for pickup in Fredricksburg Friday. I went to St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store to turn in my old pants and picked up a book, a pair of dress pants, and some produce from the market next door. Then I went to the park for the relaxation – all before noon.

MONDAY – TUESDAY
Moving north and east in Texas has brought a great change in weather. It is warmer at night and a lot more humid. More rain grows greener grass, and cactus and yucca are no longer the predominant plants. I have cached my way to Kerrville, and today completed several here. I have an ailing tire on the trailer, so today (Tuesday) I am parked at Discount Tire, for my morning repairs. I walked so many miles on the trails today that I think I will spend the rest of my day tomorrow just laying around at Kerrville Schreiner (used to be a State) Park and taking it easy. Internet will be on the way to the park.

SUNDAY
I did mass and parked in the Sacred Heart parking lot as I had previously arranged. It is a very active friendly parish, making me feel right at home. I cached the city and got in before dark!