Home Again

On Monday we made the final arrangements for storing the trailer and truck, which we hope are going to be safe and secure over the hot and humid Florida summer. Dear Paula very kindly took us to Orlando Airport, where we duly boarded our plane, flew back to Manchester overnight, picked up our car and were sadly back home by about midday, with many happy memories and a big pile of washing.
Oh, and some plans in our heads for our next trip in the Fall.

Hope you have enjoyed being with us on our journey. This blog will return ........

The Party - Day 3 Sunday

Sunday morning in the States is chill out time. No less so at the Harpers Hide-a-Way Party. A great breakfast buffet had been assembled by a great team of cooks. By now the numbers at the party were assessed as 69 Units and about 250 people. Connie had organised to feed them all brunch. The menu was almost endless. Sausage, bacon,fruit, pancakes, muffins, biscuits, hash browns, juice, coffee and the amzing DIY Omelet, organised by Jim! How do you cook omelets for 250 people? Well Jim can. I will reveal the secret now. A big bowl of egg, smaller bowls of whatever you want in the omelet. Ziploc bags. Ladle the egg in, add your fillings, seal the bag, write your name on the bag. Hand it to Jim. He places the bags into a large water boiler. The omelet cooks in the bag. Voila, a perfect omelet. Jim your a genius.
After a very liesurely breakfast we all sat round in a circle for a Gospel Hour (or two), this was a lovely time of sharing and singing.
Lunch followed, well it was really a continuation of the breakfast buffet, and then the inevitable, it was time to say goodbyes as people packed up to leave.
What a wonderful weekend we have had. Connie and Jim are the most amazing hosts and all round wonderful people.

The Party - Day 2

Today was a time for everyone to sit around and talk, or get out instruments and play. Connie provided lunch and a large number of deserts. In the evening we had a 'Pot Luck Supper' where everyone brought a 'covered dish' to share, this was a great time for people to join together. Unexpectedly, Marilee had approached me at lunchtime and asked if I would play guitar for her band, which was performing at the evening concert!! The Saturday Evening Concert was when the proper bands got the chance to play for everyone. Now I was happier doing this than the Band Scramble, as I could stand on the back row, and wouldn't have to sing. I could probably fake the guitar playing bit and we had time to practice. So in the afternoon we had a bit of a practice. Marilee had assembled some really good musicians and we were called The Front Porch Pickers, as we were an offshoot from her band The Back Porch Pickers. Unfortunaely Marilee's idea was that I would sing with this band and even have a guitar break. I was intent on helping make this band sound as good as it could be, so having played around with Amazing Grace in practice, Marilee and I started our performance off with a slow harmony version of Amazing Grace. At the end of the first verse the mandolin and banjo came in over the top with a double time rendition and Fred's great voice really raising the tempo for the rest of the song. That went down really well. At the end of the song Marilee and I returned to the original tempo to really hang out a harmonious repeat of the last line. It sounded great and brought the house down (I kid you not, though the great banjo, mandolin and fiddle may have had a lot to do with it). We followed this with a great version of Foggy Mountain Breakdown - always a favourite with audiences. In all we played a set of 20 minutes. I really enjoyed it, as I felt compfortable in that setting with such good players around me. When we had finished we got many compliments many of which said we were as good as anything they had heard at Sertoma. I think that being in vited to play with the Front Porch Pickers was one of the highlights of our time in Florida this Spring. (I still keep thinking "We really did fool them this time").
The concert was a great success, helped in no small measure by Connie's Strawbery Shortcake at half time.
After the concert some of us again assembled on the porch to have a bit of a jam. Another great day at the party.

Friday - The party starts

Friday - Today the party starts. People rolled in all day, until by the evening there were about 50 units on Connie and Jim's fields. After a meal the first event started. This was to be a Band Scramble. Six pots have been put out. One for each instrument in a bluegrass band - Bass, gitar, mandolin, fiddle, dobro and banjo. Put you name into whichever pot you want. Names are drawn out - this makes the band line up. OFtn you have tie to practice, but not at Connie's. Its straight onto the stage and play together. This was a nerve racking experience. Terry was in a band with onother six people. The only problem was tahat none of us had much experience of bluegrass performance!!!!!! Still we did our best. Dorothy sang tall pines, Jim sang. I can't remember what I sang, it was a crazy blur, I think it was 'Will The Circle Be Unbroken'. Then we ran from the stage. People very kindly said they enjoyed it. I think they enjoyed seeing us squirm and suffer on the stage! On reflection the scramble was a great success as many other bands sounded really good. Following this we sat on Connie and Jim's porch and played into the night. That was fun.

The Day of the Party draws near

Today is Thursday and activity has hit manic proportions. There are a number of peopl who have turned up early to help. Some are preparing meals, others setting out the pole barn. We are working hard to clean the trailer and make it ready for storage. I didn't see Gandalf, so I figured that there would not be firewaorks at this party.

Monday: we reach the Peaceful Shore

Today dawned fine and clear and warm. So we packed up and drove south to Connie and Jim’s house, where we will spend our final week of this trip to Florida. It almost seemed like coming home just to drive up their driveway. We have been parked round the back of the pole barn and have electric, water and sewage.
We are preparing to pack up and come home. I have drawn up a Gant Chart of our preparations, so hopefully we will have time to enjoy ourselves as well as clean the Trailer and Van

Sunday: A wedding in the Spring, in the Spring

We should have got a quick getaway from Yellowjacket, it was the first time we had left the car hitched to the trailer also our first one night stop. However the clocks went forward last night, so we were an hour behind ourselves. We are now only four hours behind the U.K. We did have a web cam link to Andy, Marie and Ben, which was very nice. We moved on to Manatee Spring State Park, while we were waiting for our campsite to be made ready we went down to the spring to have our picnic lunch. There we found a group of 16 manatees and a wedding taking place, in the water of the spring. Lots of good allegory there, but quite chilly. My observation was that they bride and groom were up to their waists in water, but the groom was very soon going to be in it up to his neck. Still it was a very pretty site and gave a whole new meaning to ‘A Spring Wedding’.
While having our lunch we got talking to a couple from Bournemouth who had previously bought an RV in Canada and toured the States for a year. We had a pleasant conversation swapping tips and anecdotes.
Once on our site we relaxed in the sunshine, then in the evening we went back to the spring to watch the sun set, it was very beautiful and peaceful.

Saturday: Moving Faster

Our return home is now looming larger. There is almost a feeling that we are just sitting around waiting to go home. This is not true as there are still tings that we want and need to do. Today we are going to travel on to Yellowjacket Campground, near Old Town. We hope to meet up with the friends we made in November. The drive takes a couple of hours, on arrival we find that our friends left on the previous Wednesday, so that was a little disappointing. Still it gave us time to catch up on the washing. The weather is sunny, but cool as soon as you move into the shade. We notice that the Suwannee is about 4 feet above normal, which seems to be the only evidence left by the storm of Friday, which is now moving northward to Canada, causing snow in Atlanta and havoc in the North East States.

Friday: Today we had weather, but not Fried Green Onions

Today started for me at 5.00, lying half awake knowing that there was a storm on the way, but I hadn’t put the awning away. Would it be a wet storm, or a windy storm? Forecast yesterday just said wet, but you never can tell with Florida weather. So I got up to find a forecast on the radio – which is impossible when you don’t know the stations or the time they read out the weather. By 6.40 I had found out that it was indeed going to be wet, not windy, so lay on the sofa to go back to sleep, tricky when the rain is thundering on the roof and there is almost constant lightning and constant thunder claps, though of differing volume from full rumblerama to ground wobbling. It’s a good job that we didn’t have TV or weather.com, because what I thought must be the middle of a storm was in fact only the edge. When I finally got onto the internet it showed that warm air from the Gulf was being sucked northerly on to the cooler south east US, but the centre missed us by about 50 miles. In some places (like Suwannee, where we will be tomorrow night) they have had 10 inches of rain in the last 24 hours. The tornado map showed at least 9 touch downs (no not as in football, think about it), with 4 houses being wrecked about 40 miles north east of us, across to Lake City and south to Ocala. The local stream rose by about 2 feet, but no, we didn’t get any wind, we were very fortunate.
Ocklocknee State Park is hidden behind the Forgotten Coast, just about in the middle of the Forest of Isolation. However, it is just 6 miles south of Heartland City of Nowhere, Sopchoppy. Sopchoppy has a 150 yard Main St, which once had a railroad running down the middle of it. The town has now been completely bypassed by a small curve in the road. It was once the railhead of a mule pulled tram, which ran on wooden boards, between wooden rails, to the mineral spring town of Panacea. Town activity centres on a four way stop junction where there is a general store, a flower and gift shop and what is either an antique Shop, or and Antique shop, because I am not sure if the items on display are for sale or just sittin’ there. It is in places such as this that you very often find absolutely nothing happening. However, Sopchoppy has a hidden jewel, small but perfectly formed, just off the main street. It is called the ‘Backwoods Bistro’. We now state that we discovered it, we may be the only people from out of Florida to have been there. It is not to be missed and is well worth the detour from the main road to eat there. We arrived on a Friday evening at about 6.00 and it was almost empty. It’s origin lies in a small dress shop and café built in 1911, which then became the drug store, chemist, soda fountain and clothes shop. More recently it had been a café. It was shut down and closed up for 10 years until a family took it over. It is a plain, fairly large room, with double fronted store windows. The back of the bistro is dominated by a long and high counter, of which the entire top is a 3D mosaic of an emerald green alligator. The food is cooked and served by a team of three brothers.
We ordered and sat back, we had some excellent chicken wings to start with. The bistro started to fill with people, mostly families. We had to wait quite a time for our main course as by now they were becoming quite busy. People were waiting for take out orders and just wandering round talking to folks, there was a friendly hubbub. We were able to take time to look at a local history book about Wakulla County. The main course was simple, but excellent. I had a small pizza, Sally had chicken alfredo. This we followed with really goo’ey banana and ice cream desert, with a walnut and rum sauce. We left sometime after 7.30 full and happy. This was one of the nicest meals we have had in Florida (Connie’s cooking excepted of course).
If ever you are within 20 miles of Sopchoppy, which is about how far it is from Wakulla Springs, you must visit The Backwoods Bistro. Tell them we sent you.

Thursday: Where Tarzan has dared to tread.(water)

It had to happen eventually. Seeing so many beautiful places that look like tropical jungle (well if you are a film director), we must eventually arrive where the film makers have been before. I am not quite sure where to start in describing the today’s trip. There are three major things about it. Our destination is one of the largest natural springs in the world. It puts out at least 250 million gallons of water a day and has been known to increase that to 1 billion gallons (ok so they are US gallons an smaller than ours, but that is still a lot of water). It is the location where Tarzan films were shot, its biggest film was ‘The Creature from the Black Lagoon’, a good old fashioned horror film from the fifties. It is also an amazing wild life area of outstanding beauty Before I get into this I had better say that our destination was Wakulla Springs, about 30 miles south of Tallahassee.
We arrived and wandered through the azaleas and camellias, which are in full bloom at the moment, to get to the Wakulla Sprngs, which is a lake about 200 feet wide, surrounded by cypress groves and wetland (swamp to you and me). Numerous birds were to be seen in the trees and various ducks and water birds swum in the water, we spotted a manatee and 2 calves. The weather today was perfect clear blue sky and not too hot. The lake empties into the river, where one can take a boat ride, which we thought was wonderful. We motored downstream seeing alligator, heron, ibis and varieties of duck, including the amazing American Wood Duck (no I don’t know why it is called that), which is very brightly coloured. Every turn of the river seemed to bring new vistas of beauty, which I could not hope to describe. As we returned on the far side of the river we threaded in between reed beds, islands and cypress trees in the river. Ranger Bob, our guide, as he pointed out various animals, like a couple of snakes just a few feet from the boat, showed us the very spots where Johnny Weismuller dived into the water in his Tarzan films. Also where the Creature from the Black Lagoon appeared from under the water. He showed us where they filmed Airport 77, the underwater sequence. Why did they make these films here? Well, yes they wanted the jungle effect, but also the water is so clear that filming underwater sequences can be done easily.
Here comes the mind boggling bit: as we cruised back round into the lake, we passed over the opening in the bottom of the lake where the water comes in. The spring lake is 120 feet deep, the cavern that the water comes through is large enough to fit an airplane in. When first investigated by divers (who could see at 120 feet using daylight, because it was so clear) fossil animal bones were found on the bottom, mastodon, sabre tooth tiger, etc. They have a mastodon fibula on display, it is about 5 feet long and about a foot thick.
The cavern then goes to the west and down to 250 feet, divers need to use decompression techniques to dive there. The cave system has been explored, though not completely. Last year they met up with known caves to the north. This now makes it one of the largest cave systems known in the world, 28 miles of continuous underground caves. They have still not explored all of it.
This was an amazing day out, we have been overwhelmed by the beauty of Wakulla Springs. We recommend that you visit it as son as you can.

Our first Year in USA

I note that it is exactly one year since we first flew into Florida on March 5th 2007, to start our adventures which we optimistically entitled ‘Let Hopes And Dreams Take Flight’. In that year we have been in Florida for exactly six months, over three visits. We have bought a Chevy Truck, a Travel Trailer and an electric wheelchair. We have travelled more than 10,000 miles. We have been as far south as you can get, Key West. We have been to West Palm Beach which is the most eastern point of Florida, when we visited friends there. North East to St Augustine and seen the oldest town. As far north as you can go, when we drove over the 31st parallel just north of Sneads. Almost as far west as you can go in Florida, by going to Pensacola. We have seen Everglades, mangroves, cypress and live oak hammocks, coral reef, Florida scrub, barrier ecosystems, karst (limestone) scenery, first magnitude springs, a shuttle launch, a civil war re-enactment, OK so we also went to the Magic Kingdom, lots of alligators, turtles, manatees, dolphin, racoons, bald eagle and osprey. We have swum in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. We have followed the River Suwannee and the Apalachicola. We have been to four bluegrass festivals, four bluegrass weekends (including a hog roast), performed on stage in a bluegrass band and been to the Florida Folk Festival. So far we have been in 35 Florida State Parks. We have written more than 50,000 words on our three blogs and taken more than 8,500 photo’s. I can safely say that we have had a wonderful time, which has more than lived up to our expectations. We have met a lot of really wonderful people, who have made our time here even more enjoyable. We are now looking forward to travelling to other states on our next trip.

Tuesday: The Forgotten Coast

In the afternoon the weather improved and we ventured out to the town of Apalachicola, which is at the mouth of the Apalachicola River. This is the same river that is fed by the Seminole Lake Reservoir, where we camped at Three Rivers Campground. We also visited Torreya SP, which is on the bank of the Apalachicola. This was a very important town in the 19 century. It was the start point for all the trade up river (remember 200 river boats). It was and still is also the home base for the huge seafood industry of the vast Apalachicola Estuary and Bay area. By seafood I mean loads of fish, but also scallops, oysters, crab and shrimp (prawn to us). It is still one of the prime producers of oysters (provides 10% of US oysters). The industry is largely unchanged in a hundred years, the oysters are grown in sort of iron baskets, the oystermen go out everyday in small boats to harvest them. They are brought back and small factories ‘shuck’ the oysters, where they are packed and sent off to be eaten. The town of Apalachicola also appears to be almost unchanged, a bit more touristy than it was, but structurally the same. The wide main street with its art deco style shop fronts was very reminiscent of The Walton’s meets the sea. There is still a traditional Soda Fountain shop and behind the stores you can see the masts of the larger fishing boats. You can almost smell the mothballs. Either side of Apalachicola is the only coastline of Florida that is still undeveloped (i.e. no access to the coast and large numbers of condominiums and large shops which service them). The map of the coast is a long gentle headland and it is called ‘The Big Bend’ area. Its other title, which is slightly more poignant is ‘The Forgotten Coast’, because is has not been developed, yet. That of course brings catch 22. Because it is undeveloped, the house prices (of reasonable houses) is huge, so a lot of local people cannot afford to live there. The Nearest Wal-mart is Tallahassee, 50 miles as the crow flies, but 87 miles by road. Many people want to keep it that way, though I suspect that many others would like an easier life than one based on bringing in the harvest of the bay. Still it is very pretty, we looked round John Gorrie’s House State Park(don’t tell me you don’t know who John Gorrie was), the famous (if you live in Apalachicola) inventor of the Ice Machine. Unfortunately because it was Tuesday it was closed, so we could only go round the outside. We also went round Ormond House State Park, which was also closed, but is another example of an AntiBellum House (built before the Civil War, come on keep up with the programme). We had a very nice cup of coffee in a little internet café and we enjoyed our afternoon there.

Tuesday: We get weather

Today we were hit by a storm, we could track its progress along the coast by using the radio. Fortunately by the time it hit us it was almost blown out, but it was fun going down to the beach and watching the waves crashing on the shore. So far in our travels we have not really got into spotting seabirds and waders, apart from heron and egret. These islands, however, are stopping places for migrating birds, so we have seen a couple of species blown in by the gale. In particular we spotted Willets, in their winter plumage, Foster’s Terns and Ruddy Turnstone.

Monday: The Seaside Desert

We have moved down the coast to St Andrew’s. I have mentioned before that USA seems surrounded by and barriers and spits, but as we have travelled along Forida’s Northern Gulf Coast this has made mre and more of an impression. We have travelled 150 miles along a coast road (98), which is entirely built on sand barrier or islands, with some fairly long bridges in between. These coastal barriers may be up to a mile wide, but are often only a few hundred yards and in many places less than a hundred yards wide. It is difficult to imagine these barriers almost enclosing many hundreds of square miles of salt water bays. St George is an island which is probably 16 miles long, but only a few hundred yards wide. (St Joe’s round ‘The Big Bend’ as it is called, is probably nearer 30 miles long) There is a complete town on the island, serviced by a single bridge, 5 miles long. It is literally just sand dunes which are is some places covered by slash pine trees and other low cover, but a lot of it is just dune grass (spartina) and nowhere is more than 50 feet high. Almost all the houses are built on stilts, many perilously close to the sea, when we had the storm on Tuesday the waves were crashing on the shore only feet away from some of them, with no barrier apart from the sand! The sand beaches are stunningly beautiful white sand.
Although these barrier islands are surrounded by water they do not have much fresh water as any rain just soaks deep into the dunes and disappears, there is also a high salt content. This situation was brought home to me when the Park Ranger was describing the campground. The State Park is at the other end of the island to the bridge. On passing through the entrance and registering he told us that the campground was just another 4 miles down the road. He told us to watch out for the one large alligator which is ‘still hanging in there’ and lives in the 2 fresh water pools, one either side of the road, just at the gate of the campground – these are the only permanent fresh water pools on the island. When this worked its way through my tiny brain it means that the lone alligator is about 7 miles from the next bit of fresh water, and unlikely to ever leave that little bit of island, even worse, it is even more unlikely that any other alligator will join it. So eventually alligator will die out on the island. It is then that I realised that these barrier islands are seaside deserts.

Sunday

We have spent couple of nights at St Andrew’s State Park. The Campground is fabulous, it gives a lot of sites right on the Bayou, unfortunately ours was not and it was very small, I only managed to get our trailer on because of my excellent driving. The weather has perked up, today was nice and warm. We have doen a bit of recovery as Sally’s body said it was time to stop and recharge. So I have done a bit of bird spotting, it’s a bit early yet for bikinis, but I do my best. On Friday while sitting outside our trailer I heard a rustle in the undergrowth and eventually managed to photograph a male Towhee bird, the female and a juvenile, very interesting as they are appeared to be quite a secretive little bird. I also photographed a Carolina Chickadee (yes all you fans of W.C.Fields, it really is the name of a bird, it’s about 4 inches long is grey and has a little black cap). While out strolling round the camp Sally noticed a bird popping in and out of a hole in a dead pine tree, we identified it as a Brown Headed Nuthatch. We also saw Brown Pelican, Great Blue Heron, Mallard, and Grebe. This afternoon we ventured out to a local mall and ended up at Scampy’s Seafood and Steak Restaurant. Sally had shrimp in a garlic sauce and I had a rib-eye steak. It was simple but very nice. Tomorrow we move on round the coast to St George’s State Park.

Friday –Moving on to Panama City

Today we said goodbye to Fred Gannon State park and drove back eastwards along the coast to Panama City, where we will stay over the weekend. On the way here we passed through a little community called Seaside. It was all very twee and lasid out like a New England village. As we drove through we looked and thought, we've seen this somewhere before. It was the town they used to film The Truman Show. We will try and get some pics up on to google soon.

Thursday - Pensacola at Last

Today we ventured to the point farthest west in our travels – Pensacola. This had been the target for our vacation this time. Because of difficulties booking campsites we are at Fred Gannon Bayou (which is very nice), which is about 70 miles short of Pensacola, further than I had realised. So a trip there would take all day. We set out and made good time. The number one attraction at Pensacola is the National Museum of Naval Aviation (yes another aircraft museum). But this one is big. Too big to take in really, but we booked ourselves onto a walking tour inside and a bus tour outside. This gave us a bit of time to look at some bits in the museum. We walked through three very accurate diorama’s. The flight deck of a wartime Carrier, a Marine camp on a South Pacific Island (circa 1943) and ‘Main Street USA’ (circa 1943 also). The Main Street in particular was fascinating. I did not realise that USA had rationing during the war, I must look further into that one.
The tour indoors was conducted by a retired naval pilot and was very interesting, as each of the planes he talked about were real and had stories about them, which he told and brought to life. Not all war stories, but about how flying boats were operated, how the first plane to cross the Atlantic managed it, how to avoid being shot down by a Zero.
The bus tour showed us some planes parked outside. The bus driver/tour guide was a retired lieutenant colonel, he retired in 1975, two years after I started work! The whole visit was very interesting. But is was time to move onto the other attraction of Pensacola – its fish industry.
We moved into the historical area of Pensacola and visited ‘Patti Joe’s’, a fresh fish shop, built onto a fishing quay. They bring in the fish and sell it straight away. It is very popular. You can walk through the shop and see all sorts of fish, either as whole fish or prepared. You can pick your lobster and have it still alive, or cooked ($9.99 a lb, no extra cost for cooking it), Jumbo Shrimp at $7.00 a lb, Wild Atlantic Salmon at $4.99 a lb. It was fascinating to watch. We didn’t buy anything though.
After this we moved on to the famous Fish House Restaurant, as recommended by Carol and Richard. It was an excellent meal, everything you could ask. We had Crab Claws in a garlic sauce as starters. Sally had Salmon encrusted with pecan and deep fried with asparagus. I had ‘Shrimp and Grits A Ya Ya’, shrimp (big prawns) with a sauce on a bed of grits (creamed corn, with cheese melted in it), which sounds awful, but tasted very nice. We followed that with Key Lime Pie. Yes, it was excellent, good food, lovely surroundings, a great view, warm plates, an intelligent and attractive waitress and good company. It was a god job we had held Sally’s birthday meal in reserve.
This just left the long drive home, we left Pensacola just as the sun was setting over the bayou, beautiful. We had one difficulty, there is a sea side drive, where the road is on a huge (about 20 miles long) sand spit and the road literally is built on the beach. The only trouble is that (although we were warned and only remembered at the wrong time) in one place the road had been washed away during a hurricane and we didn’t realise this until we got to the point where it ended, so we had driven about ten miles only to have to turn back and take another road. Also, because the beaches are so fabulous the whole 70 miles of the coastline is developed with condo’s, houses and shops, which meant it was a very slow road. So the trip home was longer than expected, so we arrived home very tired.

Wednesday: Unexpected friends

Having had a couple of busy days we needed to relax, so decided to stay round the campground. So we put a wash in and explored the area a little, finding a very pretty and secluded little lake just by the campground, which is a part of a nature trail, where we could just sit in the sun and relax. While we were t here we got talking to a lovely couple who were teachers as well. They had spent time in UK, even married there in 1973, the same year as us. We got on like a house on fire, in the afternoon we shared a cup of tea/coffee and in the evening we went out to Anida’s Thai Restaurant, where we had a very pleasant meal, which, much to our embarrassment, but delight, they insisted on paying for. They live in Pensacola, so were able to suggest places to visit, as we planned to visit there the next day. So a quiet day turned out to be lovely, with unexpected and unlooked for joys in meeting others.

Tuesday – Visiting the Fort Walton Area

We had identified a couple of museums to visit, so we packed a picnic and set off. The first was a small local history museum which described how the area had developed since the Spanish settled here in the 17th century, also it showed how pioneers lived. It was very interesting. We then moved on to the Fort Walton Museum of Aviation Armament. This is a collection of modern, but no longer used, aircraft and their armament, such as bombs and missiles. We both found it interesting. I had not realised how long some of these planes have been around. For instance the Blackbird, which is the fastest plane around, was designed in 1956 and first flew in 1964. We came home via a huge retail outlet shopping square, where Sally had a really pleasant, but tiring couple of hours, while I went off to Topsail Hill State Preserve, which is preserving some of the dune land area. It was quite windy on the shore. but very beautiful. When Sally had finished shopping we had a coffee in a Panera Bread café. When we got home I made a soup from the ham bone that was left from the joint we bought last Thursday, though we will have enough ham to provide lunch all week.

Monday – We drive round the Bayou and Sally’s birthday

Today is Sally’s birthday, it was a beautiful morning, cool but very clear and still, the bayou was very still, saw a Bald Eagle fishing and several woodpeckers. We went to the local library and used the internet to web cam with the boys and phoned Helen. We talked to Emma and Ben as well, they are growing very fast and responding so well, it was lovely. We then toured the Bayou, on the inland side it is heavily forested, as we approach the sea it becomes dominated by the dunes. The whole area is developed with lots of condo’s and shops everywhere. Even where the sand spit is only a couple of hundred yards wide. It is a very big vacation area. But it is shoppers heaven. It is called The Emerald Coast and we found out why, when we went down to the beach the sea was green, I don’t know why, but it was. The sand was literally snow white and the water emerald green. It was beautiful. We came back across a big toll bridge. The trip round the bayou was more than 70 miles. We wanted to find a good seafood restaurant to celebrate Sally’s birthday, but we are camped about 10 miles from the big tourist centre and settled for a place called Perry’s Legendary Seafood and Steak’s, which was OK, but nothing special, so we are holding Sally’s birthday meal in reserve for when we find a really good restaurant.

Fred Gannon Bayou State Park

Today we have moved on towards the west end of Florida and have arrived safely at Fred Gannon Bayou State Park where we are camped overlooking the Bayou, which is a very large Bay (ou) just about cut off from the sea by huge sand barriers, dunes and spits. A geomorphologist’s dream (as actually is a lot of Florida)

Torreya State Park

This is on the banks of the Apalachicola River Its claim to fame is an antebellum, plantation house (The Gregory House) which belonged to a man called Gregory (there is a surprise) and was built in the 1830’s. Torreya Park is famous (all things are relative) for a very rare pine tree, the Torreya pine. There are only 200 trees left apparently. It grows in the ravines along the banks of the Apalachicola River. Its numbers have dwindled because it has been cut down by man and also been attacked by some bug or virus. Now even when young trees are planted they die off after about 10 years, thus never reaching maturity, aah, shame really.
Back to the Gregory House. It was originally built on the far side of the river, where Gregory was big in the cotton and corn growing business. Although Torreya State Park is now in the middle of nowhere (it is 11 miles to the nearest shop) in the last century, because it was on the Apalachicola River it was a very busy place. The river had some 200 paddle boats in it’s hey day. So it was the equivalent of the M1. However with the advent of the steam train (which went East to West) the river trade (which went from North to South) died out. The house fell empty and was in disrepair until it was given to the park in 1935. The CCC (Civil construction Corps), which was one of the work schemes developed to provide jobs in the Depression, took the house apart and transported it across the river, up the hill and rebuilt it in the State Park. It took nearly four years to complete the move and renovation. They have done a fine job. It is a lovely house with lovely grounds and a lovely view over the Apalachicola River. We took the tour round it, which was very interesting.

It has broadened our understanding of the background to the civil war and slavery in the US. At some time I must set down my thoughts and understandings of this section of American culture/history.

And The rain Came Down

In the time we were at Three Rivers more than 10 inches of rain fell (well O.K. some of it was the night before we arrived). As well as our wet day in Tallahassee, the Friday poured with rain, so we stayed near the campground, managing to catch up with emails and blog. Saturday promised to be a much better day, by the time we got underway the sun was shining happily. We were going to a neighbouring State Park – Torreya State Park.
Footnote.
The Apalachicola River (ap-a-latch-i-cola - rolls nicely off the tongue that one, though you have to attack it all in one go). is the dividing line for the two time zones Eastern and Central time, although we did not know this. Three Rivers State Park, where we camped is about 2 miles from the west bank and Torreya State Park is right on the East Bank of the river, so they are in different time zones, even though, because the river bends, Torrreya is actually west of Three Rivers State Park!

Up to the Big City

Today it poured with rain, at least 4 inches was recorded at the campground. We took off and went into Tallahassee, Florida’s state capital, for the day. We drove past the Capitol building ( like a mini Capitol, which is in Washington D.C), which is the State’s parliament building. Then we visited a plantation house, called an Antebellum House, which is Latin for Before The War (ante – before and bellum – war). This was really fascina
Plantation houses seem to be built following a particular pattern. As it’s so hot and humid during the summer and, of course, there was no air conditioning, the houses were designed with a wide central hallway on each floor which went from the front to the back with doors or large windows at both ends. The doors/windows could be left open and a cooling breeze would flow through each floor. A grand sweeping staircase would rise from the hall. These hallways were multi purpose. The upstairs one was where the family could relax without being fully dressed – ladies had to wear seven layers before coming downstairs so it must have been a relief to shed a few layers when upstairs- reading, doing embroidery etc. The downstairs hallway was used for similar occupations as well as entertaining visitors. On each side of the hallways would be four or more large rooms also with large windows or French doors to the front and rear and side windows. The doors or windows could be opened to allow cooling breezes through all the rooms. Downstairs rooms were usually a formal dining room, formal sitting room, music room, breakfast room. The kitchen was a separate building to the rear of the house – fear of it setting on fire- and food would be carried into the house and served in the formal dining room. Some large houses had a room in the house where the food could be reheated and arranged before serving. There were no built in cupboards in these houses as there was a tax on each room and a cupboard counted as a room, so they would have very large wardrobes and chests of drawers. There were no bathrooms or toilets either – they had to use chamber pots and washstands.
The houses from the outside looked very grand with extensive grounds, usually with a drive sweeping up to the front. There would be a large covered veranda at the front and usually one at the rear too, which gave plenty of shaded space for sitting outside. They were often painted white.
The plantation house in Tallahassee was started in 1837 by Croom who had come to Florida and started a successful cotton and tobacco business on land he had bought. The only way he could persuade his wife to leave New England was to promise her a mansion. Unfortunately, he and his entire family were drowned in a shipwreck as they were on their way to Florida. His brother took over the business and the mansion. A succession of owners ensured that the house survived the Civil War until it was turned into a museum in the 1950’s. The house was left intact with all it’s furnishings, paintings etc.etc spanning every era from it’s beginning to the 1950’s. It was absolutely fascinating to see how the house had been altered and added to over the years and to see the wonderful collection of fine furniture, porcelain and what nots that had been added to over the years.

ting to visit.

To space itself

Lots of things happening in space today. A U.S. warship in the pacific managed to bring down an old spy satellite using missile technology.
At 8.06 a.m. Central time (yes we have moved into the Central Time Zone) the Space Shuttle landed and I was listening out for the characteristic double sonic boom as it passed over us. However, I did not hear it.
Virgin announced that they are ordering 4 more Virgin Galactic Space Planes, because they think that it will be commercially viable.
Also at 9.00p.m. there was a total eclipse of the moon. I assume that it was visible anywhere on the dark part of the Earth, So you would have seen it in UK, although it would have been 3.00 in the morning. Now we did go out and have a look at that. It was fascinating to see the moon without direct sunlight on it. It looked quite red. Because of the shadowing it also takes on a really 3D shape. Took some photo’s but they were a little disappointing as it was difficult to get a sharp picture, partly because with a long exposure time (4 sec) the moon keeps moving. I tried some multi-exposure shots, but trees seemed to get in the way. It took a 2 minute delay between shots for the moon to move one diameter in the sky (yes I know that it is really the Earth rotating, not the moon. Well better luck next time.

From the Depths of the Earth

Today we toured Georgia and Alabama, travelling extensively in them both states, well about 200 metres into each one before turning round and re-crossing the state boundaries. We also visited the Florida Caverns State Park in the town of Marianna. It is a limestone cave system that is open to the public. It was not sufficiently accessible for Sally, but I really enjoyed it. As part of a group we walked for some ¼ mile through a number of caves and chambers looking at all the normal limestone features such as stalactites (the ones that hand) and stalagmites, calcite curtains and pools. The temperature was a steady 64 degrees F, so it was quite warm work. Many of the areas were lit up and displayed very effectively. Marianna is also known as being one of the few ‘dry’ towns in the USA. There are also very few shops and restaurants, I wonder why.

Moving into the Panhandle

On the Monday morning we tackled our longest journey so far. We planned to travel 180 miles into the middle of the Panhandle. We are staying at a small State Park on Lake Seminole, called Three Rivers State Park.
We had to drive through rain, but have arrived in sunshine and have a site right by the lake. It is beautiful. We are ready for a relax for the next few days.
We are only about half a mile from Georgia, across the lake, and about 10 miles from Alabama.

The 32nd re-enactment of the Battle of Olustee

The day started fine and bright. The temperature threatened to reach the 80’s. We drove to Olustee State Park in good time, only to find the road lined with parked cars for about a mile before we reached the park. We parked in the handicapped area and made our way through the park. On either side were the tents and encampments of companies of soldiers and on the main thoroughfare, Sutlers Row, there were many vendors selling civil war memorabilia, clothes and equipment. It was here that we found our old friends the Briar Pickers playing songs from the civil war. We made our way to the battle ground, a rough rectangle, about the size of 4 football pitches, was roped off, with stands along the Southern along side. We found a good place to sit, on about the half way line. I estimate that there were about 20,000 people turned up to see the event At either end artillery was manoeuvring, The Union, Blues, were assembling their cavalry at eh East End, s they were approaching rom Jacksonville on the East Coast. The Confederate, Grays, skirmishers were appearing from the west end, as they approached from their stronghold outside Lake City.
The battle itself consisted of a number of advances and skirmishes by both sides as they could see advantages in moving forward. The South send forward skirmishers, the North replied by sending cavalry. The South replied by forming a square, with bayonets fixed. The North countered by firing cannon at the concentration of troops. The square broke and retreated. The North advanced in line. The south concentrated fire on the flanks. The north was forced to retreat. The South ran short of ammunition and was forced to retire. The South then brought up reserves and more ammunition, from Lake City, and forced the North to retreat again. Both artilleries exhnged shells the whole time. The North, having lost men and also running low on ammunition was eventually forced to retire from the field of action. Following this encounter the Union never ventured out of Jacksonville until the end of the war.
After a deafening final volley we all went home

Lake City and The re-enactment

Although the Battle of Olustee took place some 14 miles away as the largest town around Lake City has sort of adopted the battle and celebrates it along with the State Park. You may remember that we visited Olustee State Park when we came to the Florida Folk Festival (FFF) last year, Lake City is only about 7 miles from White Springs (Hi Walter, we do remember you) where the FFF is held.
So we are going to join in the fun at Lake City on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. On Sunday we will go to Olustee State Park to watch the main re-enactment.
Lake City Music Festival
On Thursday evening we went to the School Administration Main Hall and joined the throng to watch Lake City’s finest and best perform. It was a pleasant evening. The main players in the re-enactment were there. The M/C was a local teacher who did a lot of organising for the events. They had a character actor to impersonate Abe Lincoln, though they stressed that the hall, although it had a balcony, did not really constitute a theatre. The evening was a mix of old and new. A veterans entertainment group stirred up the pride by singing a load of patriotic songs, to which we had to stand for some of them. The local high school wind band played, though the musical highlight was the Lake City Community College Band who played a lot of good numbers, mostly jazz style show tunes, they had a couple of good female singers as well. At about half time the Abe Lincoln look-alike was introduced and he then told the tale of the Gettysburg Address, then he delivered the Gettysburg Address, in its entirety (although it is not very long).

Friday was the day of Lake Cities re-enactment. All day there had been people using the stage to entertain us on a stage, local groups and individuals, still it gave a background. Also there were a large number of vendors, each with their 12ft sq gazebo, selling everything from Kettle (pop) corn to bird houses. We found a lovely present for Paula there (no can’t say what it is, she hasn’t got it yet).
The battle activities are in three parts:
1. A re-enactment of the famous sea (or rather estuary) battle between the Merrimac (renamed U.S.S. Virginian, after it was captured from the North) and the U.S.S. Monitor, a floating gun platform.
2. At the same time a detachment of Blues (North) and Grays (South) had a skirmish on the lake side. Using cannon, cavalry and infantry. The combatants loosed their weapons and fired loads of blanks at each other. It was all very noisy and smoky.
3. The local museum put on a little drama whereby they turned the museum into a hospital and we were guided through a number of moving scenarios (either meaning of the word moving) depicting what typically happened to the wounded during the civil war. This was more or less summed up by most of them dying. Interestingly the hospital took in wounded from both sides, but then the surgeon was a woman doctor from the North, while the hospital was in the south!.
So having had fun on Friday we waited for the action to begin on Saturday.

Saturday was the day of the big parade! We got up early and claimed a place on the roadside to await the big parade. The parade consisted of a lot of blues and grays marching, lots of horses and carriages with dignitaries in them and several high school bands. This I must say was a bit of a disappointment. Still the weather was perfect, now up in the 70’s again, with clear blue skies, so it was all good fun.
We had another wander round the vendors and finished up at the Texas Roadhouse for a steak lunch. We are now starting to be a bit more savvy with regards to eating. We ordered a 12 oz rib Eye Steak, with fries and a house salad. We then shared it between us. Sally had most of the salad and I had most of the steak. We were both full, Sally stayed on diet, I had a great steak and it only cost us £10.
We have now returned to the campsite for a relaxing afternoon, before the main battle tomorrow afternoon which is out at Olustee State Park.

Moving on to O'leno

We have now packed up and said our farewells to Paula, Connie and Jim, Sandy and Don, as well as a number of other people we have made friends with. We arrived at O’Leno State Park late last night and set up in the dark, thank goodness that the site we had was a fairly easy access. I only had to reverse, more or less, straight. Just avoiding a tree by my front right wheel of the truck and swinging the back of the trailer round the power box, so that the slide out would miss it. It’s funny how we view things differently. I took three goes at getting the right line, then a couple of little goes to get into the right spot. I know that getting the right line is essential to reversing, so it doesn’t worry me to do it several times. But Sally gets really embarrassed when I have to take another go at it. Still my reversing is improving and Sally is improving in letting me take my time over it.
When we woke this morning and opened the blinds we find that we are in the middle of a forest. Sally, lying in bed, watched a large deer pass close to the trailer. We are hoping to take some more time to relax this week, soak up the sun and watch what else the forest has to offer.

The Great Bluegrass Fake

I am sure that by now you have heard enough about bluegrass, so I have one last incident to relate. I have been playing along with the bluegrass pickin’ circle, mostly with Connie and Paula, who have encouraged me to sing as well as play. However, on the Saturday night, since they were just sitting around, I picked up my guitar and wandered through the campground. I sat in on two jam sessions, played the old rhythm guitar and sang a song when it was my turn in the circle and I really felt that I had managed to con people into thinking that I was part of the bluegrass scene, instead of being a tourist. It left me with a pleasant glow of self satisfaction that I had come into the middle of the bluegrass world and could hold my own in a jam session.
We have now packed up and said our farewells to Paula, Connie and Jim, Sandy and Don, as well as a number of other people we have made friends with. We arrived at O’Leno State Park late last night and set up in the dark, thank goodness that the site we had was a fairly easy access. I only had to reverse, more or less, straight. Just avoiding a tree by my front right wheel of the truck and swinging the back of the trailer round the power box, so that the slide out would miss it. It’s funny how we view things differently. I took three goes at getting the right line, then a couple of little goes to get into the right spot. I know that getting the right line is essential to reversing, so it doesn’t worry me to do it several times. But Sally gets really embarrassed when I have to take another go at it. Still my reversing is improving and Sally is improving in letting me take my time over it.
When we woke this morning and opened the blinds we find that we are in the middle of a forest. Sally, lying in bed, watched a large deer pass close to the trailer. We are hoping to take some more time to relax this week, soak up the sun and watch what else the forest has to offer.

About the Bluegrass Festival

I still, after several attempts, don’t feel that I have adequately explained Bluegrass Festivals and I suppose, with my limited literary skill, I never will. The central activity of a bluegrass festival is the concerts. Here there are three days of concerts, each concert is split into 2 parts, before supper and after supper. Each half has a line up of 5 or 6 bands, each does a set of 45 minutes, which usually lasts an hour. Then they do a second set in the evening half. In this festival there are 3 completely different line-ups each day. With bigger and bigger name acts. So the festival may involve watching up to 10 hours of top line bands each day, which of course you can’t do. So you have to choose who you will not watch, so that you can take a break, look at the vendors around the place, talk to people, do some ‘pickin’, or just resting. Some of the music is traditional (mountain) bluegrass and some of it you may call modern, even swing, or jazz. Bluegrass music is about love, death and family, but there is a huge input of gospel music, most bands aspire to produce a gospel CD. No solo artists, but lot of close and three part harmony amongst groups, which can produce some amazing music. Often it slips into the areas of Country music, so the songs tend to be a bit sugary (no, very sugary). Often music will be a tribute to the armed forces. In two days bands asked serving men and veterans to stand and be applauded, bet it happens again today). One group, called The Isaacs, when called to do an encore (they are an exceptionally talented group) sung an amazing version of the Star Spangled Banner. To which everyone stood with pride!!

As I continue this on Monday morning, I Was correct, There was another call for the armed forces to be acknowledged and respected. This time it was by a band called the US Navy Bluegrass/Current Country band. Yes they are all in the navy and are paid by the navy to play bluegrass (a bit like Forest Gump and ping pong). However, they are also very good musicians. So at one point they played a medley of the forces anthems and asked serving and vets to stand as each arm of the forces was highlighted, it was quite moving. Incidentally, there are 5 sections to the US Armed forces, as well as air, army, and navy there is also the marines and surprisingly the coastguard. (Carl, who married our niece was in the coastguard)
This was the festival line up, for all you aficionados:
Thursday: The Grascals, Dailey and Vincent, The Gary Waldrop Band, James King, Paul Williams and the Victory Trio
Friday: The Isaacs, The Gibson Brothers, Carolina Sonshine, Doyle Lawson, Blue Highway and Goldwing Express
Saturday: Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys, Rhonda Vincent and The Rage, The US Navy Band, Nothin’ Fancy and The Lewis Family.
In my opinion the best band was bluegrass gospel band The Isaacs, their music is beautifully thought out, their harmonies exquisite and their voices amazing. Two sisters, a brother and mother, as well as a fiddle and bongo (?) player.

Palatka Bluegrass Festival

The trouble with Bluegrass festivals is that there is so little time to sit and reflect, or write a blog. We arrived on Wednesday and already it is Saturday! We drove up in convoy with Connie and Jim and Paula arrived a bit later. We were so pleased that on the Thursday our friends Don and Sandra, who we had met at Arcadia, arrived for the festival. It was a happy reunion and we were pleased that we could introduce our friends to each other.

Being Amongst Friends

Sunday was time to move on. We have come to Belleview, to Connie and Jim’s house, where they have some hook-ups. We are staying here until Wednesday, when we plan to go to Palatka for a bluegrass festival.
But first the Big Game. Superbowl CX11, I think that is roman for 42, now there is a significant number, also known as 10101010, so JP tells me. Anyway, tonight the New England Patriots, who have won every game this season (17) were set to crush the New York Giants who are rank outsiders, so far outside so as you couldn’t even hear them. They got through to the playoffs as a ‘wild card’, so they didn’t even qualify through the games they won. So guess who won. Yep, Giants trounced the Patriots 17 to 14. It was such a close game that we even watched it right to the end!
We have stayed with Connie and Jim for two days now, yesterday we had a lie in, went for a mooch around the local Publix, to stock up food for the week, then took Connie and Jim and Paula to eat at Sam’s Seafood Restaurant, I have never seen so many prawns on skewers. It was a lovely meal.
Today we didn’t have so much of a lie in, I have spent a lot of time updating the Ridings Website. We now have the dates and information for the Meetings this year, I eventually finished that. Connie’s son-in-law’s brother, wife and mother came over to see Connie and Jim, so we went out to Sonny’s Ribs reataurant, where we ate Pork ribs till they cam out of our ears (no not literally).
This afternoon Sally set about correcting some of the awful workmanship of the trailer builders by taking off all the cushion and seat covers and using Connie’s sewing machine to reinforce every seam. I meanwhile went with Connie t get supplies for the Palatka festival at ‘Sams’, a cash and carry owned by Wal-Mart. So you can buy everything you get at Wal-Mart, but in bulk and at a discount. Very interesting.
Hopefully when Sally finishes the cushion covers we will get a relax in the outdoor spa and jacquoozie (I don’t know how to spell it). Rrelaxing under the stars in the hot water, with the old bubble machine going. I will tell later whether it was as good as it sounds.

The Hog Roast Meet

We have come back to the Soggy Bottom Bluegrass Club to take part in their annual Hog Roast. We now seem to be like old timers. We waited with anticipation for Paula, Connie and Jim and Brenda and Dave to arrive. When they did we were again given a heartwarming welcome. It was as though we had never been away. Connie again wanted to submerge us in an All American Cookout.
This is a festive weekend, celebrating nothing in particular. This is now a traditional event, having been done for the last 24 years. It is also Soggy Bottoms most popular event. The central event is the roasting of a pig. However all through the weekend there is a lot of talkin’, pickin’ and drinkin’. I set out with the guitar on Friday morning. Sat outside a trailer with a man called Russ and Frank, who was from he trailer next to us. They both play dobro (Slide guitar). We picked for a few minutes then moved up to a covered area (The Pavilion). We played for a bit and were joined by a banjo player. Then a bass player joined us. Followed by Michelle, a banjo player. Soon there were 2 mandolins, another guitar and another dobro player. We played a whole range of tunes and songs, most of them simple three chord progressions, but with a lot of lead breaks in there as well. It was great fun. I backed out after about 2 hours to get lunch. Although there is no central concert there is some amazing playing that goes on around peoples campfires. I saw one group, it was a scratch band, but they were really good. They stood in a tight horseshoe shape, fiddle, mandolin, banjo, guitar, bass, lead guitar and played music which varied from bluegrass through swing to jazz. In the middle was a chair. People took turns to sit in the chair and just listen to this band in surround sound. About 12.30 on the Saturday night, while wandering around I came across a small group of players, three guitars, banjo and bass. They were just playing modern jazz, sounded weird, but incredible. About 50 yards from them was an open session made up of girls (of all ages). Just across the little creek was a campfire with predominantly young people. Their idea of a campfire was to bring a tree stump (about 18inches wide by 3ft high) in on the back of a pickup and burn it (they were sort of in charge of roasting the pig). They did nothing but shout laugh ‘whoop’ and drink homemade ‘shots’ and eat ‘puddings’. Shots are m ore or less neat alcohol + a flavour. Puddings are made up. The recipe varies but is usually miracle whip (like Angel Delight), cream and some sort of alcohol. The mix is then dispensed into little plastic pots similar to the milk cartons you get in café’s these days. These are then carried round from campfire to campfire then shared, or used as forfeits. However they were very friendly and harmless (mostly).

Roasting a Hog.

Roasting a hog sounds quite straight forward, but of course it isn’t.
There are a whole raft of things to do and specialist people to do them. I shall try and explain the basics of this.
The Hog roast is for about 200 people, so first off (American expression) one hog (pig) ain’t enough, so they roast one pig but buy in a load of pork joints. These are called ‘Pork Butts’. The pig must be prepared, by a preparation team. It is slit down the stomach and ‘bits’ removed and cleaned, then stuffed with secret spices and sour oranges. It then has a scaffold pole pushed from one end to the other. It is then skewered on to the pole by what seemed to be about 10 long bolts. Then wire mesh is wrapped round it. This is to hold it together when it cooks.
The pole is suspended over a large charcoal fire inside a huge BBQ. An electric motor is used to rotate the pole. The hog was set roasting at about 4.00 on the Friday afternoon. It is then watched over by a team of Hog Watchers, who make sure that it doesn’t get to hot, but has a good supply of coals. It cooks for about 20 hours, in that time the skin burns and the legs burn off as well. Then is allowed to cool for about 4 hours, so that it can be handled. Meanwhile a team of Butt Rubbers are employed toseason the pork joints, which are then cooked in another large BBQ. This year they cooked 28 pork butts. I suggested that they may like their own T-shirt with ‘Hoggy Bottom Rubbers’(rather than Soggy Bottom) on it.

Band Scramble

A new activity for the Soggy Bottomers was the ‘Band Scramble’. First invented by Connie and Jim at their Harpers Hideaway weekend. 6 pots are put out, one for each instrument (guitar, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, dobro and bass), you write your name on a slip of paper and put it in the pot of your choice. Names are pulled out at random and lo a new band is formed. We have 1 hour to choose music and practice, then all meet together for an impromptu concert. Each band had 13 minutes of performance. We had a stage, P.A. and everything. There were 7 bands, though some had more than one of each instrument. Once the band line ups were put up we all met together at a trailer and pulled out some tunes. We chose Ragtime Annie (fiddle lead), Have You Lost All The Love? (song by bass player, Christie), The Lighthouse (sung by Ed, the other guitarist) and Foggy Mountain Breakdown (Banjo lead). Lots of people thought we were really good (others just kept quiet). This was just an excellent afternoon. It really gave a chance for people to mix together.

Oh for the Simple life

Monday Evening.
Picked up another Chance Card!
Bates RV had said they would put the Trailer onto our site at Tampa East (next door to them). But they didn’t. Oops!
We had to deploy a back up bonus card and stay at a local motel for the night. Motel 6
Not bad, this meant we were forced to go to the Waffle House for breakfast. Surprisingly it was quite yummy. They cooked the food right there in front of you and though it was simple it was good.
Fortified by breakfast we entered the fray at Bates RV.
What ensued there could so easily be full of meaningful detail, but would probably appear quite trite. Sufficient to say that we were underwhelmed by their communication skills and organisational capability. The trouble is that the people who work in the Service Department are really very nice. But their receptionists cannot remember to pass on messages. Their body shop workers, while keeping themselves in a job by damaging panels of our trailer against a wall could not actually fix all the parts, leaving work to be done on the repair, because he forgot that he had damaged one of the trims at the same time. Doh!. They have an ordering system by which given a choice of two sofa’s to replace, because of faulty upholstery material, cannot, even after writing it down about four times, order the correct one! So we have a brand new sofa to replace the one which was not damaged. But they are now going to have to chase us up country to replace the defective one. But a work record system which lost our snagging list about three times, leaving them asking us what they were supposed to be doing! But bless them, they do try. Linda, the manager, when we told her what had happened (she, being the manager said, and I can believe it, she knew nothing of the arrangement to place the trailer at Tampa East, even though we had made the arrangement with her in December. She wondered why we had not phoned on the Monday to remind them. I pointed out that we could have phoned at 5.00 in the morning when we took off from Manchester, but felt that no one would be really interested at that time. We had phoned on the Friday and spoken to Richard (he’s the one that looks like the guy in ‘fifty first date’, is it Adam Sandler?) to remind him. He said OK sure thing, no trouble.) So he is not in on Tuesday (can you blame him), so Linda phones him and says “I have Mr and Mrs Phillippe here, they want to tell you how much they enjoyed staying in a motel last night”. Truthfully though, they did refund our motel cost, which was nice. Meanwhile, this all happened in Linda’s office, and a dear sweet receptionist, who kept saying that Linda was bearable after a good cup of coffee (I am not sure who was supposed to drink the coffee), was trying to calm the waters by making everyone (well Linda really) a coffee, also in her office, however having the standard skills of a BatesRV receptionist, she had no idea how to make ground coffee, so half way through our conversation we could see the coffee boil over, flooding the desk, wall and floor of Linda’s office with strong coffee and grounds, which when we pointed it out to them took three technicians (RV menders really) and a receptionist to stop the flood. French Farce was one theme that kept passing through my brain. We went out to the trailer and went through the snagging list again, and admired the nice new ladder they had fitted. It is strongly attached to the back bumper, the rear walls of the trailer and the roof itself (this was nice and they had done it very cheaply for us. You don’t realise how much of a comfort it is to know that I can get up on the roof now, I certainly sleep easier). One of them tested it first and it seemed OK, so we were happy with that. Good job done.
Anyway, we seem to have got most things sorted out (apart from the sofa which will be delivered some time in March, oh and the electric hot water heater (which died on us in October, which after several hours of them saying “it works” and us saying “it doesn’t” they admitted had been recalled and we would get a new one anyway), which they will refit at the same time). So we said a temporary goodbye and took the trailer on round to Tampa East RV.
As we were just leaving one of the guys, Billy, who is very nice and seems to know what he is talking about, came over somewhat sheepishly over, though I figured he came to say goodbye (because they are all right neighbourly) carrying a nice new sewer hose kit, nice red one, with the 90 degree bend and two lengths of hose that clip together, still in its box. I said “Hi Billy, we are just off, we’ll see you. Do you know we’ve got a sewer hose just like that one”. He said “Yep, I know that, this one is for you, because, you see, as we were fitting the ladder we had to drill through the bumper to fix the ladder to it”. What, good readers from England, you may not know, but which every RV’er in the States knows, (except apparently those who fit ladders to the rear of RV’s) is that the rear bumper is hollow and you use it to store your sewer hose. So we now have a brand new sewer hose, unfortunately at the moment we can’t store it in the correct place because there are 2 large bolts stopping us putting it away.
So today (Wed) as we are packing up to leave, Good Old Matt arrives with a piece of trim (you remember the trim?), which he has lovingly removed from another Starcraft Trailer, and proceeds to fit it while we are packing away. Still, job done!

Moving on to Sertoma
We packed up our trailer and have moved on to Sertoma Youth Ranch. Some loyal readers may remember that we stayed here last November for the Thanksgiving Bluegrass Meet and then stayed on to join The Soggy Bottom Bluegrass Bunch. We have now returned to join in with their Hog Roast Weekend.
While on the road we saw a fascinating sight. We stopped for lunch at a roadside pull in, a bit like a motorway service centre, but with no petrol station or café. Very similar to the Aires they have on French motorways.
We stopped in the truck section, so that it is easy to park. We were close by a couple of low loaders, each with half a large mobile home on them. As we stopped we noticed that there was a pick up truck which was stopped off the paved area, half hidden in the dense undergrowth and trees. It seemed a strange place to leave a truck. In fact we both commented on it at the same time. As we sat there the driver of one of the trucks and a woman came round from behind the mobile home. They threw there arms up and ran for the truck. It seems that they had got out of the truck and walked away without putting the brakes on. The truck had rolled away, over the edge of the car park and off into the trees. Fortunately nothing but their pride was damaged. They looked very sheepish as they reversed the truck out, clearing braches and leaves from the front. The only casualty was the big flag they have to carry on the front bumper. The pole was badly bent and the flag had ripped off in the undergrowth. This made for a very entertaining lunch.
We arrived at Sertoma in good time and were greeted enthusiastically by Karen, the manager, who greeted us like long lost friends. Yes, it is nice to be back.

In Flight The Travel Bored Game

We are here! Again! Safely!

We had a really good, low stress flight. If you remove the fact that the plane was delayed 1 ½ hours.

Please skip the rest of this unless you want to read about my smugness at beating queues in the airport.

In Flight – The Travel Bored Game.

Anyone can play. For the whole family.
Aim of the game is to move round the board, from home to resort, as quickly as possible, with the least stress, for the least amount of money. The winner is the person/team who gets to their destination with the fewest Stress Points.
Use your skill and judgement to manage your stress by making decisions about where and when to fly, how you get to and from airports., before you start the game.
Free with every pack of In Flight.
The travel version of ‘Airport jeopardy’.
On every throw of the dice you get a ‘Chance’ Card’ or play ‘Bonus Cards’ earned while using the Internet:

Basic rule: if this is your first playing of the game you must wear a blindfold for the whole time.

The game is in two parts. Time spent in planning and on the internet can earn you Bonus Cards which can be used to reduce stress, save time or money.

Read On

Sunday we had a lovely lunch and afternoon with Carol and Ron, Dee, Steve, Beth and Sam. Ron had done a lovely job on the mandolin that was given to me by Paula.
We drove over to Manchester and found the Travelodge – the one at Knutsford Stavely is quite comfortable – only £19 p.r. if you book 3 weeks ahead.
Next morning a quick drive (Threw a 4 for traffic congestion) to Terminal 2 and drop the car (threw a 4 for what to do with the car while we are away) with the Meet and Greet man from Global parking, who are very good.
Picked up a chance card – Virgin Atlantic plane delayed by 1 ½ hours.
Through baggage drop (threw a 4) in 10 minutes. Straight through security (4 again). Though this left us waiting for 3 hours, it gave us time for breakfast.
We had good seats on the plane, right at the back there are 4 rows where the window seats only have two not three seats (I had used a Bonus Card when we booked the flight). This gave us a bit more room and freedom to squirm and move. But it is a long flight.
Moving through Orlando was almost perfect. Right at the back, almost last off. Sally’s wheelchair was waiting. Through to immigration (finger and eye check). Huge queues at all check ins – (bonus for double six) except handicapped. Straight through in about 10 minutes. Now about 10th off flight to get baggage. No queues now. Straight through agriculture and customs (Another 6). Drop off baggage again. One more security check (shoes off and full works job), no queue (another 6). Shuttle train waiting. Baggage appeared 2 minutes after we did (Yet another 6). Downstairs for the car hire. Big queue at Dollar! Went to Express Lane (played a Bonus Card, picked up by using the Internet), Only one person in front, showed card and driving licences and away we went. Crossed the road and collected our Dodge Nitro (Another bonus card – using Dollar Platinum, booked in the UK - £25 a day, all insurances, any driver, full tank of gas, drop off anywhere in Florida). We were underway to Tampa East 1 hour and 10 minutes after touch down. It’s a warm evening and we are safely back, with as little stress as we could possibly manage. Unbelievable.

D Day minus 2

It's only two days before we set off to Manchester. Terry has been working in a local school and doing things for our trip when he gets home. Quite tiring so he is ready for a long break. I've been doing all the necessary things to get ready for the trip as well as having plenty of rest, to try to get my energy levels up again after my relapse. Everything is done now except for the packing which we will do tomorrow - Saturday. On Sunday we will just have to pack the last minute things , close up the house ( dealing with the rubbish - trash- turning the heating down- setting the timers for the lights etc) and then we are travelling to Manchester, stopping at Ron and Carol's on the way. We are going to pick up Terry's mandolin ( thank you Paula) which Ron has repaired and got in working order again. Ron is a wizz where anything to do with wood is concerned - many thanks Ron. It will be good to see them again as it was in between Christmas and New Year when we saw them last. Plenty of catching up to do. Hope we see more of each other when the camping season gets going again. After a night in a motel at Manchester, we fly out on Monday morning arriving at Orlando 2.45 local time. Lets hope the strong winds we are having at the moment die down or we might have a bumpy flight.

Preparations

16th January 2008

We cannot believe that it's only 12 days till we board the 'plane and fly to Orlando again. It's been a busy time since our return on 5th December. Our daughter, Helen, who lives with us, got her H2B visa which allows her to work in the USA. She only had 5 days after our return to get ready for her return to Breckenridge, Colorado, where she is working in the Day Care facility near the ski slopes. There was a lot to do - shopping, washing, packing, Christmas presents to organise etc. etc. Terry drove her down to Manchester in the early morning on Dec. 10th and made sure she got on the plane safely. She is really enjoying working there and has settled in very quickly. This is her second time as she worked there last winter too.
Getting ready for Christmas was a scramble - thank goodness we had brought quite a lot of things from the USA with us. Our eldest son, John-Paul, wife Andrea and granddaughter Emma spent Christmas with us. We were given the best of Christmas presents when we were told that we are expecting another grandchild this year. Lovely. Then Terry and I flew to see the New Year in with our second son, Andrew, wife Marie and our grandson Ben.
I, Sally, overdid things over the holiday period and ended up back in bed for over a week with a relapse of CFS/ME. I'm back on my feet but am having to be careful to rest much more than usual. Hope I survive the flight.
Terry has been his usual efficient self and booked everything for our journey - flight tickets, motel, hire car etc and has booked us into various campsites and music festivals. He's been in touch with our dealer who is doing warranty repairs to our trailer - still not completed, but we are hoping they finish before we pick it up. I've been sorting out insurance and things we need to take.
We are looking forward to our next trip, mainly because we hope to meet up with various lovely people we have met on previous trips. We are getting excited about hearing and playing more Bluegrass and are dying to get back to some sunshine after our dull skies and cold, damp/wet weather here in England.