Bankhead National Forest

We made it safely to stop three. Didn’t even have to fight the rain. Not thrilled about the sight. It’s a rare pull through and plenty big, but so slanted, to level it out, our front wheels have to be off the ground. A little scary. Also the side is a big drop off. More scary.

View standing beside our RV. It’s a long way down.

After ‘landing’ Bob took a little siesta while Buffy and I checked out the bike trail (on foot). It wound its way down to the lake. Very pretty, nice clear water, but no flowers or animals unless you count the gnats and mosquitoes. 

Came back and I made a quick early dinner as we hadn’t  stopped for lunch. 

The camp site doesn’t come with a sewer hook up (Which makes the cost of a night here a little over priced) so we will be using the bath house which is a ways down the hill. The last run there tonight I was awed by all the lightening bugs. I LOVE them.  The stars were nice, too.  Going to drive to the other side of the Forrest tomorrow in search of the waterfalls. 
    Later...

Lakepoint Day Two

Rain had stopped by morning. I made a big breakfast. Here’s a shot of cooking an omelet in a tiny space.

After breakfast, Bob took the car off the trailer and I went into town to Walmart. Of course I forgot all three of the main reasons I went. *sigh

When I got back Bob decided to check out a local country club and ended up playing golf. Buffy and I explored some more of the trails. This is a big lake. All the trails led to water.

We found geese in the beach area. Most of the other animals must still be snuggled up away from the rain. The rain came back while I was cooking dinner. *sigh again.  

At least I found a few cool mushrooms, thanks to the rain.
Here are two. I’ll put the others on the flora and fauna page.

Lakepoint State Park

(There are a lot of weird gaps in this section. Trying to edit on my iPad with 3g doesn’t work very well. So, when I get to somewhere with internet, I’ll fix it)

        Here we are in Alabama. We were suppose to go to Florida Caverns State Park, But they called and said they were closed due to the storm flooding out the area. I checked my trusty Google maps and found this State Park on the correct route. Of course it rained most of the way in. We discovered that the driver windshield wiper slams against the side of the RV every swipe. No way to fix that until we find a dealer.

      Got to the park, followed the signs AND the map on the wall of the welcome center only to arrive at the grounds where there was a gate that required a code. A woman who was leaving told us to follow her as she was going to where we needed to go to register. They now use the marina for registration. They really need to update the signage...

Our Spot

        We got hooked up and within one minute it really began pouring. Figured it was a good time for a nap. Then time to cook dinner. Easy tonight just BLTs.

  Poor Buffy hasn’t eaten in two days (she’s deathly afraid of storms 
and I guess too upset to eat). I thought I’d tempt her by using a little bacon grease and frying her dog food in it. I added a little crumbled bacon and a pinch of grated cheese. She gobbled it right down. Silly dog.

     The rain finally let up and I took her for a nice long walk. We went out to the ‘beach’. It was posted...”gators, swim at your own risk”. We saw two smallish ones right away. How far inland do I need to go to get away from them?

     We walked to one of the boat docks, too.  Pretty place.

On a later walk we took one of the trails. Water appears to run all through the area.

   I christened the RV shower. First time I ever took a RV shower. Our old trailer camper was so small it didn’t have a closet so we turned the bathroom into a closet and only used the campground showers. There was plenty of hot water and great pressure. It was a little tight but not much worse than a cruise ship cabin.

     It’s about time to turn in for the night. We will be here all day tomorrow. Not sure if we will be unloading the car and going anywhere tomorrow or not.

Lake City

Well, I spoke too soon, it’s raining. Bob said it wasn’t hard to see the road but our dog hates rain storms. She’s trying to crawl up under my armpit and is shaking like crazy.

We got to the RV park fine and checked in. Set up in light rain, but the ground is soaked. I hope we can get out tomorrow.

We have a corner lot and the lake is right outside our door. That’s nice. Also, the internet pole is right outside the door, that’s even nicer.

Rain let up for a minute so Bob is taking Buffy for a walk.
She came back soaked, but didn't seem to mind.

Made dinner. I love cooking on a gas stove.  I don't know why, but I do. I hope it stays with me all summer. Wish I had bought more corn. It was only 20 cents a cob and delicious.

Well, that's all for today.  Tomorrow we are off to Alabama.

Hooking up the Car

Well, getting the trailer and car hooked up wasn’t quite as hard as the first time but it’s still not a picnic. That trailer is heavy!
But, it’s all done and we’re on the road. This is a very short run. At least it isn’t raining...(yet)

Practice Run 2: Blue Spring State Park

This area is even closer that our last practice and a pretty easy shot straight down the highway. I packed out swim gear as they have a posted swim area and an area for tubing.

I was very sad when we got there to find that the swimming and tubing areas were closed for the day because a couple of young alligators had gotten into the posted swimming area. Apparently they weren't old enough to read the posted signs.   I took Buffy down the board walk, no one was around because of the water closure and we spotted one of the gators and tons and tons of gar and other fish.

Also, found this friendly little lady who was kind enough to pose for me.

This state park was a little more interesting than the last but still not much to do with the water being closed off.  Bob and I walked to the snack bar and got a sandwich.

I went into the general store to get a park sticker.  Got two.  Would have only bought one if I'd know the plain little suckers were five dollars each. 

This is the area where the Springs well up and the Manatees come for the winter. Of course they are all gone this time of year, otherwise the swimming area would be closed for that.  Swimming when the manatees are in the Springs is not allowed.  It's a very nice board walk tho.

The bathroom/shower houses here are fantastic.  Cool, clean and super nice. I wish I had discovered this park when my son was younger, he would have loved it here.  

Well, ready or not we leave tomorrow for our cross country trip.  First stop Lake City Florida.

It's not a long drive, I thought we should take it easy at first.  Good thing I did it's going to be raining.

RV Practice One: Lake Kissimmee State Park

Lake Kissimmee State Park

We decided to start small and take the RV without pulling the car. Also, we could get to Lake Kissimmee in a couple of hours.  I
packed for one overnight stay.  Since we wouldn't have the car we wouldn't be leaving the campground.

Made a bed for Buffy under the passenger side window with several pillows so she could lay down and look out the window. She was a great traveler last year, when she was just a few months old, so I don't see why this year would be any different.

Once we got there, there wasn't very much to do.  I cooked a nice dinner (steak, baked potato, sangria. Took Buffy for a few walks. The trails were very boring and the water level was very, very low.  It (the lake) was also so far off from the campsite, Bob wouldn't walk with us.  Buffy had a good time tho.

The park is suppose to be the only Florida State Park designated as a night sky viewing area.  It was bright, but I didn't think it was any better than any other campground I'd been to.

This was at the trail head.  I used a Prisma filter on my iPad Pro to give it a little interest.
Got up the next morning and made a big breakfast.  Bob cleaned up (that was the deal we made, I'll cook, but he cleans up) since I do a lot of the cleaning as I go anyway, I figured that would be a good deal for him. And again, as there was really nothing to do we headed home.  We stopped at the dump station first, then traded places and I drove home.  It wasn't quite as bad as I thought (my first time behind the wheel), but it is a little hard to tell when you are in the middle of your lane.  I guess it will come with practice.
Next week we will be heading out for another practice run although this time we will be hooking up the trailer and pulling the car.

We Are Off Again

New camper...New adventure

We traded our one year old tiny travel trailer in for a 27 ft. class A Jayco.  More room...yeah. Scarier to drive...oh, yeah.

Here it is setting at our first practice run.

First things first. I did not like the ugly brown curtains and ‘upholstery’ Who picks this stuff anyway? It’s awful.  I decided to make it my own.
I started with the dining area.  It came looking like below.

I thought the seats were ugly and uncomfortable.  I collect Coke stuff, I decided to quilt and pad covers for them.  I also added matching curtains. Then pulled out my coke dishes and a few decorator items.

I love it.  Later I realized the table cloth got in the way and actually put it away.  I might decoupage the table top next year with coke trading cards.

I thought the kitchen area would look okay to match, and as I have tons of kitchen Coke stuff, I went for it.  Love it, too.

Now off to the sitting area.

I thought about covering this seat, too. But, I had a quilt I'd made several years ago just gathering dust.  I added some fabric to the sides and tossed it on. Then I covered the foot stool, made a couple of pillows and went through my fabric stash to find window fabric.  It's a little busy but it will do.

The bed room is left. (I spruced up the bathroom, but it's pretty much just hooks, racks, rugs, and towels)

I also had a frog quilt that needed a little bit of repair and it wasn't in use, so I fixed it and put it on the bed. I also had a frog wall hanging that I really liked. So I put it on the wall and back to my stash for some frog fabric for the windows.  All set.

Now the summer is booked.  28 stops. Let's practice a little.