Our Travel Blog

Warm again! Up to 72 this afternoon although the breeze made it feel cooler. This morning Lyn headed off to do the laundry and took her laptop along so she could catch up with reading her blogs while she waited. Unfortunately there was no WiFi where she was (Actually there was, but you’ll have to ask her about that!)

After lunch we headed out for our walk about the campsite, then settled down for a peaceful afternoon of nothingness.

About 4 o’clock I looked up and saw a couple walking through our campsite, not very polite. I was about to say something to Lyn when I recognised them; the couple who had the trailer next to us last year had dropped by for a visit. We had a very pleasant time catching up with a years worth of talk, and will probably try to to go out for a lunch or dinner before we leave.

Again a nice warm day, shorts weather.

After breakfast it was time to put an end to the problems with the vent cover on the roof. Armed with a bunch of tools I headed upwards, and Lyn was the volunteer down below. After much theorising I decided the cause was due to the positioning of the vent hood over the vent. Problem was I needed to move the hood forwards but there was a vent stack in the way. I managed  to move the brackets on one side forwards a little, and as it turned out that was all that was needed. We are now able to fully close the vent with the vent hood in position.

After lunch we headed down to the local flea market, not overly spectacular!

Back to the campsite, and picked up some more mail from the office, seems US mail provides deliveries on Saturday. I must admit to being impressed with the mail service down here, it is cheaper than Canada Post and a lot quicker.

Even warmer today, 60°F at wake up time, rising to 72°F. 72°F is a critical temperature at which point jeans are replaced by shorts!

Lyn cleaned out the truck while I did some more work on the roof vents. Unfortunately for Lyn I needed a second person inside the trailer to help at times so the truck cleaning took a little longer than it should have.

As a reward for all this work it was decided that a seafood lunch was in order, so we headed out to a place about 20 miles away close to the Florida border,

Once seated at the table a visitor arrived and stayed close by for the rest of our meal.

As we were leaving after a delicious lunch of shrimp and scallops we saw a very large 2 barge combo on the canal behind the restaurant.

The blue objects in the barges appeared to be huge tanks, with the whole lot being pushed from behind. The canal is part of the intra-coastal waterway, which is a sheltered waterway  running down the eastern seaboard of the US from New Jersey, as it enters Florida  it then heads west along waterways just north of the Gulf of Mexico to Southern Texas.

We stopped at a few stores on the way home  where Lyn managed to pick up some craft supplies, and I picked up a stainless steel nut to replace the one that committed suicide by jumping off the trailer roof this morning.

Back at the campsite we spotted some more wildlife in the grass just outside the trailer

This particular creature was a rare wooly croc, who apparently also enjoyed a large lunch.

Guess who is into toy making!

It’s that time of blogging where titles are getting hard to come by!

Again another warm morning, and even warmer day, we hit 72°F by mid afternoon. This morning we took the bikes out onto the back roads for our daily exercise. 3.5 miles later we made it back to the camp site. This was the first time either of us had been on a bike for well over a year, and our legs knew it!

After lunch it was off for the weekly shopping expedition. In general food is about 15% cheaper down here. Beer is way cheaper at $18 for a 30 pack and Lyn has even found some wine at $3 a bottle that is drinkable! Gas is $3.20 / US gallon or .84¢ / litre or 53 pence / litre.

Back at the campground we stopped at the office to check the mail, Lyn has recently (re)discovered eBay  and I always do a lot of eBay shopping down here for a couple of reasons; we can take back $750 worth of purchases each when we go into Canada, but more importantly a lot of the items are shipped for free to US addresses. Many of times at home you find a real bargain on an item, say costing $8 which would cost $15 at home, but the shipping to Canada is another $8. Lyn had a package of material waiting and I had 2 packages of tools.

We meant to do a bit more work on the badly fitting roof vent, but that can wait until tomorrow.

Again a warm wake up, and another warm day. Talking to Catriona it seems it is a tad cool in the Great White North. Just checked my weather page and at the house it is -27°C and falling…… Enjoy!

We just hung around the trailer this morning doing odd jobs and then had a lunch of fresh bread and cheese. When Lyn was at the other campsite yesterday someone had spent the day making bread from scratch (no bread making machines involved) so she bought a loaf. It was great, so much better than the airified  (new word meaning pumped full of air) stuff you get down here.

After lunch we drove out to one of the conservation areas that we had visited before. The first stop was at a Pitcher Plant bog, where there was a board walk around the bog that led down to the Fish River. We are a little early for the main attraction, the pitcher plant, which is a funnel shaped flower that collects water in the flower for later consumption. Once down at the river we were glad to see that it was in liquid form and not a large ice cube.

Fish River

Shortly after we got there a pelican decided to keep us company.

Pelican

Evidently this wasn’t a social call, it must have been lunch time.

Bitten Off More Than He Can Chew?

Next we went across to another part of the conservation area and took another boardwalk down to Weeks Bay. Unfortunately there was very little wild life activity, there were more species of aeroplanes to be seen than birds.

On our way back we stopped at an old drug store / ice cream parlour in Foley where Lyn indulged in an ice cream soda, I stuck with a safe mint chocolate chip cone.

Wake up temperature dropped to around 44°F this morning with hazy sun. We struggled up to around 55°F by mid afternoon, but there was a cool breeze.

Lyn decided to give the morning craft group a miss as she knew they would all be doing a craft that she was not interested in.

We have extended our walking time to as far as we can go in the campground without doubling back on ourselves, about 25 minutes.

There seems to be an unwritten rule between us that, if it is sunny out, we will eat lunch outside. Today was classed as sunny and although the temperature was in the mid 50’s the wind made it a lot cooler. See we suffer from wind chill down here as well! It was a very quick lunch.

After lunch Lyn headed out to our old campground for their afternoon crafts session, and I decided to get a couple more small jobs finished, this place is like a cottage, there is always something else that needs to be done.

Now we have maxed out walking within the campground it was time to fix up the bikes. Unfortunately they are both over 25 years old, and showing their age, but they still work! First order of business was to remove the flat spots from the tyres, this was easily done by pumping some air into them. Next some lubrication on the chains and gear changers and we should be good to go.

Next problem, that had been bugging me for a while was the roof vent above the bathroom. This is a small (14 x 14) opening in the roof that hinges up to allow fresh air in. Unfortunately if you leave it up when the rain comes, a second shower is created in the bathroom. To over come this problem a cover  was installed over the flap, so now fresh air can circulate even when it is pouring down outside. Since I installed this cover, there has been a problem with closing the flap fully, it catches on the inside of the cover, this means that the flap is left open about half an inch. Not a really big deal, more of an annoyance, but if we are going to tackle Alaska next year we might be glad of all the insulation we can get! I managed to identify where the obstruction is, but needed a second pair of hands to assist. Work for another day!

The warmth remains, about 55 when we woke up and went up to around 65. There was nothing on our agenda today, we just did what we do best… very little.

Lyn spent the morning on a new creation she had been thinking about, a kitchen apron with built in hot-pads, which may reduce the incidence of burnt hands. I finally got around to cleaning out my cupboard, so that I stand a slight chance of finding what I need. Next job is to try and catalogue what stuff stays at the trailer, and what goes home. That will stop me bringing extra stuff down, just in case it isn’t at the trailer.

Up until the last couple of days we there had been gusty winds, so the awning kept stowed most of the time. Now that the wind has abated I put the awning out and attached some guys to it which will hold the awning down if the wind gets up a little. Now the awning is out full time we can attach the outdoor decorations!

Back to the work week tomorrow

We’re now into our third week here and the weather is finally behaving. Another sunny day with clear blue skies, and a wake up temperature of 55°F. After breakfast Lyn headed over to the laundry, and I decided to strip down the BBQ and give it all a good clean out. The wind has died right down, so the awning can now be left out (got to show it off after all the cleaning it got last week).

After lunch we headed south to the beach, we dropped into the campsite we had stayed at for the last couple of years to see if last years neighbours from Ohio had arrived yet as we were hoping to meet up with them. There was no sign of them or their trailer, so I guess they are still travelling down.

We continued down to the beach, no too much had changed since last year. The area was busier than we expected, but that might be due to the fact that it is a long weekend down here (Martin Luther King Jr day tomorrow). We took a wander along the beach, which is always more of a workout than walking on a solid surface. Being back on a beach brought back memories of where we were just 3 months ago, wandering the beaches of the Cook Is and NZ.

We took the longer way home and drove to the Gulf Shores State Park. Some friends of ours stayed there before Christmas and suggested we take a look. Normally we avoid State Parks as they don’t always have all the hookups, no WiFi and also many have a limit as to how long you can stay there. This park was ideal, it had all that we would need, was close to the beach and I suspect the price was right as well. It’s in the “to try” list for future years.

We drove along the shore the road almost to the Florida border, then turned back and headed up the toll road to the camp site.

Woke up to a warmer morning, 51F (the new outdoor temperature sensor has arrived) together with blue skies and sunshine. The few empty sites started to fill up, and some of the trailers that had been empty during the week were now occupied. I suspect that some people have trailers rather than cottages, and use them only at weekends.

Being the weekend we decided to take it easy! A couple of small jobs needed doing, coincidentally both involved oil. One was a recurring problem with the TV. If you recall  comments from last year, the TV is installed within a cabinet at the rear of the trailer and is raised into position above the cabinet top as required. Being as we are getting old and decrepit manual activity is kept to a minimum and the TV is raised by an electric motor. The whole mechanism needs periodic lubrication or else the motor stalls. That was this mornings job!

Once that arduous task was completed, it was time for a stroll around the campsite. Old and decrepit as we may be, we still manage the daily stroll on foot, unlike a number of residents who take their daily exercise in a golf cart.

The temperature climbed up to 64F, which was warm enough to have lunch outside once more. After lunch it was the turn of the barbecue to be disassembled. The heat control kept sticking making it impossible to turn the heat down, bringing a whole new meaning to charbroiled. After taking the valve to bits and cleaning it, I managed to put it back together with no bits left over at the end; as a bonus the valve now worked as advertised.

The BBQ was put to use for cooking dinner, although it was a little too cool (and dark) to eat outside. It was a clear night and there wasn’t too much light pollution, so I put my Night Sky app on the phone to use and identified a few planets and constellations. If you’re interested in that sort of thing the app is quite neat, you hold the phone up with the camera lens pointing in the same direction and elevation that you are looking, and the phone screen shows the same view as you are seeing with names of the stars, planets, constellations and satellites on it.

If the weather holds, it’s off to the beach tomorrow.

The furnace was on for a short while just before we got up, bit it didn’t seem as cold as previous days and there was a strange yellow ball in the sky to the South East. Finally a clear and sunny day.

After breakfast we got into the truck and headed East to Pensacola Florida. Last night I programmed the GPS with 5 destinations, 3 craft stores (one of which was also a pharmacy), one hardware store and a donut shop. The latter are hard to find down here, and we are both suffering from TWS  (Timmie withdrawal symptoms). The trip was about 35 miles, and was a pleasant drive through small towns and countryside. First stop in Pensacola was the Donut store! followed by 3 craft shops and finally the hardware store. Having finally decided to splurge out out and get some metalworking gear it was time to get some tools for it. Lyn was able to replace her small tape measure that Noah had successfully hidden before Christmas, and she also got managed to buy a couple of small things that got left back in Ottawa as well as some fabric.

As the day wore on the temperature rose into the high 50’s and we returned back to the campsite in the late afternoon via a different route.

In celebration of the return of the sun and warmer temperatures the BBQ was brought back into use for the evening meal.