Our Travel Blog

Another beautiful warm and sunny day, I am sure we’re going to pay for this soon.

After breakfast it was time to take down another of the blinds and restring it, I am hoping this isn’t going to be ongoing maintenance, that’s two blinds this trip. Anyway this one went far easier than the first, experience is a wonderful thing. Once I had the old thread out it was easy to see what had caused the failure; one of the metal eyes that the chord ran through had a rough edge, causing the chord to fray.

Once the blind was back up I abandoned ship, Lyn was busy waving a duster around before wielding a vacuum cleaner. My allergies seemed to have cleared up over the last day or so, and I didn’t want to tempt fate with any dust that may be lurking as I know that will set the eyes streaming. While outside there was suddenly a loud sound of an aircraft engine, a Cessna 172 came buzzing over the resort at about 300′, climbed did another pass complete with a wing waggle and disappeared. Not strictly legal, but good to watch anyway.

Another pleasant lunch sitting outside at the picnic table with the temperature somewhere in the mid 70’s. After lunch it was time to do a little more maintenance. I mentioned a couple of days ago that one of the roof vents had got very brittle due sun exposure. After a little searching on the web I found a replacement and ordered it. That replacement arrived today. Taking the old one out was a bit of a challenge, as every time it tried to grip it the thing cracked even more. Finally with the old one removed, fixing in the new one was a pretty simple task. A a result, it is now a lot brighter in the bedroom, as well as being more air tight.

We increased our walking around the resort to 1½ miles today, which combined with the heat should have shed a few calories. I think I may have discovered a downside to weight loss. We are going to a wedding in the UK shortly after we get home, I have a horrible feeling that my one and only suit will be too big for me.

Another blue sky day, with the temperature climbing up to 24°C. After breakfast and a quick stint catching up on blogs and e-Mails, we headed about 35 miles east to the city of Pensacola in Florida. Pensacola is home to the US Naval Air-Station and hosts the Blue Angels aerobatic display team. There is also a good aviation museum on the Air Station, but as we’d been there in a previous trip we didn’t go there this time.

We were in Pensacola mainly to hit some stores, this time there were a couple that were good for me. At Harbor Freight I bought some tools for the metal working I do at home, as well as a couple of tools for the trailer. We also went to another store so that Lyn could get some thread for her new “toy” at home, the long arm quilter. JoAnn fabrics figured in the tour next so I stayed in the truck playing Angry Birds! Lastly was a large Hobby Lobby store that catered to both our interests.

On the way out of the city we picked up some lunch, and them headed down to the shore of the Gulf of Mexico. We arrived by the inland route, so we decided to take the coastal route home.

Of course no trip would be complete without a touch of geocaching, so we stopped a few times and got 3 for 3 including our first in Florida and my 100th find. Thanks to Paul for the 100th find medal he got me!

Back at the campsite we found a lot of new RV’s including two new neighbours. Around this time of year the residents change from long stay “snowbirds” to week-enders. This means there is a lot of trailers moving around, as many of the week end trailers are stored on site and have to be towed to/from the storage area. The guy that moves the trailer on to their sites really shows how bad my reversing is with the RV. Whereas I will take six or seven shots at getting the trailer in the correct position on the site, this guy reverses in first time every time.

Another good forecast for tomorrow, I could get used to this

A beautiful sunny morning, and day, with the temperature climbing up into the 70’s. We’d decided yesterday that we would just hang around the campsite today if the weather was good, as we are heading off on the mighty trek to Pensacola, Florida tomorrow.

As some of you may be aware both Lyn and I have being doing a bit of dieting since  just before Christmas, and we have both lost just over 25 pounds each. Unfortunately, I have also started to suffer from allergies, which I am assuming are pollen related, or could it be the dieting? Maybe I need a few chocolate bars and doughnuts to ward off the pollen!

We actually headed out for a while to do our weekly shopping, but I behaved and resisted the urge to do some geocahing, despite the fact that I am at 99 caches found.

Just before lunch we were plagued with a yapping dog from a nearby trailer; the owners had just gone out and the dog was not amused. This noise carried on for the best part of an hour. I was at the point where I was considering going over to the office to complain when we saw the resort owner driving around. Before we could say anything she stopped and spoke to Lyn saying that the noise was unacceptable. We figured that she would have words with the dogs owners when they got back, but in fact she phoned them and asked them to return to their RV immediately, which they did. I was very impressed.

We walked for about a mile around the resort, it’s amazing what a burst of good weather does, there were a lot of people out cycling, walking, working on their RV or truck or just sitting around relaxing outside. On the cooler days we can walk around the place and not see anyone.

Back at the RV I did a little work on the roof, cleaning the bedroom vent. Unfortunately a little repair work is needed as the vent cover has been affected by the UV from exposure to the strong sun and has got so brittle that it is starting to crack.

There’s no rest for the retired.

A little disappointed to hear the furnace going at times during the night and when we woke up. Combined with the fact that it was overcast I figured we were in for another not so good day. However as the morning wore on the clouds gave way to blue skies and the temperature started to climb. After lunch we headed out to a State Park down on the coast, this park is probably 5 or 6 miles long by 1 or 2  miles wide. It contains an RV site which has full services and pretty good rates. Also on the north side of the park is a new walk / cycle path. We “discovered” this path as a result of seeing a number of caches in the area on the geocache map. It was obvious that this path was where we were going to get our exercise today.

We finished up walking just under 2 miles and getting 7 out of 8 caches. The one we didn’t find was in a lightly wooded area with a couple of small decomposing trees on the ground. The only clue given was “Acts 7:59” Even after reading the reference in the hint I still had no idea what to look for.

After the walk we headed down to a store further down the beach to get some more (can you guess) craft stuff.

Back at the resort it was still warm enough to sit outside and drink our coffee. Tomorrow is forecast to be even warmer.

Cooler overnight and a few lingering showers. After breakfast we headed out to the stores as Lyn needed some stuff for her crafts this afternoon and I needed to get a parcel mailed. Unfortunately, when we got to the post office I found out that I had left the address at home. Before anyone asks why the parcel wasn’t already addressed, it was because I hadn’t got the mailing box yet. All was not lost as I picked up a (free) box from the post office.

I now withdraw some of my praise for the US postal service from a couple of days ago, when we got back to the RV I went on line to pay for and print a label for the parcel. All went well until it came time to pay. It appears that the US post office (and many other institutions) will only accept US credit cards! Not to worry, the post office will also accept payment from PayPal. Guess what, even though PayPal is an internationally recognised form of payment (like credit cards), the US post office will only accept payment from a US PayPal account. Looks like another trip to the post office is needed.

After lunch Lyn headed over to crafts and I headed back to the post office. I didn’t take the direct route, instead I did some geocaching on the way. I managed to get 5 out of 5 today and at the post office I finally managed to get the parcel on its way.

Once Lyn returned we headed off around the resort for our exercise. The forecast is promising for the next few days, so hopefully we will get out and about.

It was 18°C when we went to bed and 21.5°C when we woke up. As we prepared breakfast the first few drops of rain fell, then some more, then some more heavy ones, then a lot more etc, etc. Finally we got some nice thunder and lightning activity and a tornado warning thrown in for good measure.

In between the really heavy bouts of rain Lyn walked back and forth to the laundry. Problem was the rain had let up when she left the trailer, but inevitable intensified when she was on her way back. There was a bright side though, no one else was using the laundry!

By lunch time over 1.5 inches of rain had fallen and the concrete pad that we are parked on had a couple of inches of water on it. After lunch the rain let up for a while and we took an abbreviated walk around the resort, there is a large fish pond at the back of the resort; it had overflowed its banks onto the road. There was a large pump there that was losing the battle to lower the ponds level.

Just after we got back the rain started up and is is forecast to hang around until sometime tomorrow.

A couple of weeks ago I asked the Canadians to keep the cold weather up north where it belongs, this appeal goes out to the Brits, please keep your rain to yourselves.

This years weather, like just about everywhere, is not the best. Overcast but still warm this morning. After breakfast the sewing machine came out for Lyn’s work, and I started playing around with the rear camera radio setup. I managed to get all the connectors soldered, and put power to the system using an old camera. Amazingly, it worked. All that is left to do now is to order a weatherproof camera for the trailer. That will finish the trailer install, then I’ll have to do some work on the truck to install the monitor

After lunch the drizzle started, but then let up so we decided to go for a drive and do some geocaching, unfortunately about 5 minutes into the drive the rain got heavier, so we decided to head back to the trailer.

I had to return a purchase from eBay, so I needed to do some research on how to send a parcel down here. It turns out to be simple, and cheap. You go to the post office and pick up a box of the size that you need, in my case it was a small box and the cost was $5.80. For this price I could send anything that would fit in the box, as long as it weighed less than 70lbs, to anywhere in the continental US. This price included internet tracking. Take note Canada Post.

We have the possibility of severe thunderstorms tonight and tomorrow, so I don’t see us doing much travel for a couple of days.

Clear blue skies and warm this morning. We decided to spend the day at the resort, can’t be going out every day!

Lyn was doing her sewing stuff, and I started on a project that will eventually see a few modifications to the rear of the trailer. I want to put a rear view camera on the trailer, as starting next year we plan on driving a lot more, and I just feel happier if I can see stuff directly behind me. Also I’d like to put a couple of weatherproof connection boxes on the back so that I can connect antennas to them rather than poke the wires through little gaps in the sliders.

Today I started on running power to the area where the camera will be mounted. The plan is to use a wireless connection from the camera to a receiver in the truck. I tried it a while ago, but used an el-cheapo radio setup. It worked intermittently, but wasn’t usable. With better equipment now, I am hoping it will work better. The wiring went well, so that is stage one completed.

After lunch it was time to drain the septic tank, unfortunately when I was back-flushing it with fresh water I decided to make a phone call,  the call went on longer than expected. Do you know what happens if you leave the back-flush running too long? Well unless your favourite colour is brown, you probably don’t really want to know.

We walked around the park for a mile to get our daily exercise, and then this evening we headed over to the clubhouse for the Friday evening jam session. It was better attended than previous years with about 9 people playing. Good entertainment!

After a cool night we woke up to clear blue skies, with the forecast of 18°C.

After breakfast we did our usual stuff for a while, then I headed out for some fresh air and cleaned up some more chrome on the truck, unfortunately the wind was a little cool so I didn’t last too long out there.

For the last few days I seem to have developed an allergy to something , probably pollen or the like. I haven’t had this problem before, and don’t really like it! I have been using non drowsy antihistamines but although they seem to improve things, I am not sure about the non-drowsy bit.

After lunch we headed out to the village of Magnolia Springs for a walk and some geocaching. On the way there we went to a geocache that was located in someones front yard. The front yard was Wizard of Oz themed, and the cache was inside Tin Man.

We parked in the middle of the village and went looking for caches. Magnolia springs is named after the fresh water springs that feed into the Magnolia River. Below is the River.

If you look carefully at the picture above you may see something that makes this village unique.

Zoomed in, you will see a mail box on the dock, this is the only place in the continental US that has mail delivered by boat!

In total we found 4 caches and got 2 miles of walking in.

Warm and overcast at wake-up time, the forecast didn’t call for rain but it did look a little threatening. After breakfast we got ready to leave as we were heading off to the Dolphin Cruise today.

We have done this cruise 3 out of the 4 trips down here and have enjoyed it each time. We misjudged the timing a little and got there about 10 minutes before departure (should have been 15-20 minutes before). The cruise was arranged through the resort and we had one boat to ourselves. There was a second boat for the rest of the passengers, which was good news, as two boats are better than one in this case. As I have mentioned before, with two boats they form up in parallel and as they pick up speed their two wakes interact making the perfect dolphin playground. Sure enough after a couple of minutes mum and kid come out to play, swimming in the wake and jumping. A third dolphin joined them after a few minutes. During the 1½ hour trip we did this three times. Evidently there are three reasons the dolphins enjoy this:

1.They like to play

2. The wake gives them extra speed to get from A to B

3.  It’s a way of washing! The dolphins often come out of the water and land sideways rather than the more elegant nose first entry. By landing sideways any build up on their skin is “scraped” off.

Being “veterans” of this trip we have learnt that the best seats in the boat are at the stern, most people instinctively head for the bow, so yet again we got our favourite spot. This time, at Lyn’s suggestion, I didn’t take any photos as we had a number from previous trips. This way I got to see the “whole picture” rather than spending my time trying to get the “perfect shot”.

Some previous shots.

After the cruise we had a shrimp lunch at the waterside restaurant.

As we drove back to the resort we stopped at a couple of geocache sites. One was a cache that we didn’t find a couple of days ago, but after a little research Lyn figured their was something out of place at the site; a cable TV connection. The cache log was actually installed inside the cable TV connector! The other cache was not found, all though there were signs that it had been removed.

Back at the resort we walked around the sites for about a mile. After that we had a call from Catriona, who wasn’t too amused with the fact that there was yet another snow storm outside. We mentioned that it was warm here, but the grass was still brown. Catriona said she couldn’t remember what grass looked like, well for you guys up north here is a reminder.