Myakka State Park

Sarasota, FL

We were slow to get up and getting around as it was an exhausting day yesterday.  Once we finally were awake the sun was out and temps were warming up nicely.  We went to meet Heidi and Peter at the campsite. 

were exploring Myakka State Park .. first was a walk thru the woods.
 
Isn’t this a beautiful trail?  I am so fascinated with the palmetto trees

Oh my the hanging bridge is within site and they are expecting me to go up there?  UMMMM
 
Well here is the hanging bride and it’s longggg .. a couple of times it started to sway and i back off .. finally i braved the courage and made it across.

After i made it across the bridge i headed back down .. hubby, Heidi and Peter headed up the rest of the way .. no way was i going up there. 
 
the view is beautiful up there .. Of course hubby took these pictures while i was safely on the ground
       
Wow 76.1 feet in the air .. so glad i didn’t go any farther
 
  
Here are our friends Peter and Heidi .. we are having a blast with them .. It’s been way to long since we’ve seen them
 
After touring the canopy walk we headed to the Marsh to look for gators.
 
we saw lots of birds ..
 
We enjoyed walking out on the board walk but birds were all we saw there.
 

On our way back to our camper we came to  a bridge and behold we finally got to see some gators!  Here is a big boy sun bathing
    
This is a river here in Florida .. it’s more like a creek compared to Illinois Rivers and creeks.

These signs are out with the warnings

We grilled out and had a nice dinner with Peter and Heidi and we enjoyed a campfire.  After a late night we headed home to get ready for bed time.  It’s been a wonderful, yet exhausting day.

Sarasota Florida

Sarasota, FL

I was tired Sunday night and neglected to post about our afternoon so your going to get a double post for Sunday.  Exciting huh?



Look at our campsite .. it’s huge and i love having all this nice gravel!  I can’t get a picture to do it justice.  We have a beautiful gravel spot and then it’s surrounded by trees and brush to give us a great seclusion.  Our neighbors can not see us .. we can see our neighbors behind us but they can’t see us :)  Were on PR 51.  Hubby has satellite and my internet works even though it’s very slow.   Sometimes it’s so slow it will not upload photos that is why this blog post is so late. (just a few days .. snicker)


After we arrived and got settled in and visited a bit with Peter and Heidi we headed to check out the park some

It was late in the afternoon and a cloudy day so as you can see the gators were not really out and about

  
this big boy was laying about as he found some sun .. he must of haved a full belly because look at this ...
 
Yes lunch was out in front him and he could of cared less
  
this little guy was out and about and he is a fast little thing.  Then we received this warm greeting and he really wasn’t to afraid .. Guess he see’s weird looking humans all the time

the outpost has a gift shop, small fast food place, and you can get free wifi here .. wonderful huh?
 
It has a wonderful picnic area and being it’s a Sunday it was pretty crowded with people
 
So far we are very impressed with this park and are looking forward to seeing much more of it.  It was a beautiful warm day here in not so Sunny Florida today.

were on the road again

Wow it was a very late night last night.  We didn’t get to bed until after 12.30 AM!  We’ve had lots of company coming to tell us good bye.  We got the truck hooked up, the slides all but the bedroom were pulled in so that all we’d have to do in the morning is put the front jacks up and unhook our electrical cord.  We needed to get an early start to get out tanks emptied and on the road before anyone started arriving at church and blocking the dump area. 

We were on the road heading farther south by 7.23 AM.  We stopped at Paynes Prairie rest area and walked the snake walk .. it was really neat but i forgot my camera in the truck :((

   

We arrived at Myakka River State Park around noon and got setup in our site.  It was a bit tricky as we had to fight a satellite dish across the road from us but my hubby did a great job getting us swung in and we decided to park closer to our picnic table so we could back our truck in behind the camper.  Other wise we wouldn’t have room for it. 

Here is our wonderful site and it’s so nice to be back on full hookups and 50 Amps!  Oh how i have missed my full electric!  I got a load of laundry going and then we went to meet our friends Peter and Heidi.

It’s been a great day and we are looking forward to some great friendships reconnecting after not seeing each other in person for almost 4 years. 

Satchel’s Pizza

Gainesville, FL

I spent a lazy morning and around lunch time Vicky called and invited me to lunch with her and the girls!  I was excited to be invited so later in the afternoon i went with Vicky and the girls out to a late lunch.  It’s Vicky’s 23 rd birthday!  We went to a Pizza place and it was definitely different. 

This place is called Satchel’s http://www.satchelspizza.com/ and it’s decorated with other people’s junk they bring in .. you see chains made of any kind of plastic cap you can think of even medication caps. 

There is so much stuff to see it’s hard to describe.  Behind where you eat there is a store you can shop for trinkets and some neat gifts.  
 

We ate inside of this van Yessss .. the back of the van has a long and round table and we sat inside and had our lunch!! 

We had an awesome time and the pizza was fantastic!!  You can buy a slice or whole Pizza we decided on a whole large pizza to share and half had pepperoni, mushrooms, onions and extra cheese, the other half had spinach, meatballs, ricotta cheese and basil .. yes i didn’t try that but the girls all loved it.  Oh if you ever get into Gainesville, FL you have to stop and try out this place. 


It was a great day and thanks girls for making my afternoon a great one .. i so enjoyed it.  Once again Happy Birthday Vicky!!

A Rainy Day

Gainesville, FL

I was woken up to the sound of rain hitting the roof.  So i did what i do best when it’s raining.  Yep, i rolled over and snuggled farther into the warmth of the covers and went back to sleep :))

Once i decided the rain wasn’t going to let up I got up and got online and turned on the news .. their saying it’s going to let up anytime.  Well the weather men missed that one big time.  It has rained all day and evening .. guess even in Florida the weather men are wrong :) 

There wasn’t really much to do since it was a dreary day and going outside was out.  At least i can say it’s a warm rain and it’s not cold.   Later in the afternoon we decided to go ahead and get stocked up on grocery’s since we will be heading out of here on Sunday and it’s about 20 miles to a store where were heading next.  For us with us being a big rig we prefer stocking up on things before or after we hit the road rather then stopping while were in between destinations.

Wow, Florida is not a cheap place to shop .. ughh we spent over $100 on food!  Our meat supply was getting low and so i needed to get some back in the freezer.  I purchased 5 lbs of Hamburger, 3 packages of pork steaks, 2 whole chickens and polish sausage, frozen mixed veggies, ketchup, chips, soda, and all the other things we were going to need for the upcoming week.

I’m have to admit i have enjoyed being here in Gainesville, but i am ready to move on again.  That itch hitch is definitely setting in.  We have several more days before we hit the road and we have not even begin to start packing .. that’s on the list for the next few days.  When sit for longer periods of time you tend to get more things out and leave them out.  For example all my electric appliances and things you use on a daily basis.  Where when your only parked a few days you put them back as soon as you finish with them.  Hmmm maybe we should do that all the time as it makes for a cleaner home .. oh well we are living life not trying to impress anyone.

Dinner tonight was a home made taco salad and it was very good .. not really much to blog about today.

Where does the time go?

Gainesville, FL

Sunday we went to church and didn’t get home until almost 3 PM.  Yes, it was a long but very good service.  There was a family there from Israel and they did some type of dance and it was very moving.  After church we  came home and just relaxed as neither of us were feeling the best.


I thought i would take pictures of our electrical setup inside our rig .. very redneck huh?

Monday was a beautiful day and we spent it doing some errands .. on the list was going back to the laundry mat to wash bed sheets and covers.  Lexi must of had what we did although she threw up and yes it was on our bed :(( 

look at this cactus .. it’s behind where we are parked at. 

Today has been another fast day filled with more errands and enjoying the warmth and sunshine.  It’s hard to believe how fast the past 2 days have flown by.  Not really sure what all we’ve done but time sure has flown by for us.  On Sunday we will be heading farther south into Florida.

Attending a Birthday Party & more repairs

Gainesville, FL

We woke up to a nippy morning .  The clothing required today was not the preferred T-shirt and short pants.  Instead it was a sweat shirt and jeans.    We had several things on the to do list again today.  First was getting our laundry done so we loaded up and headed to get that dreaded task done.   While our laundry was going we walked across the street to fresh produce place and got some more oranges, grapefruits, bananas, green peppers, lettuce and cabbage.  It’s been great having this store near us and I'm so enjoying it and plan to visit it one more time before we head out next week.

By the the time we finished with laundry the sun was out and about warming temps to the low 60’s and i wasn’t complaining. Our next stop was over to the Napa parts store to get some needed parts.  A cap on the fuel filter was broken by a tech when we got our oil changed and a new one had to purchased.  $125 purchased a new cap and fuel filters.  The cap was $57 bucks for a piece of plastic!  Hubby has decided he is going to start changing the oil and fuel filters himself after this fiscal!
 
We got home and after much attempt he finally got the cap off.  (NO, i didn’t take any pictures i hide inside as it wasn’t a good thing and took him awhile to get it off)  Come to find out the place in Missouri that had changed our fuel filters last had crossed threaded the cap on and they didn’t put a new gasket on it therefore they used a racket to tighten it and caused the problem.  No way could we blame the the yesterday.  The second filter needs a special Allan wrench hubby doesn’t have and we forgot the air filter.  Yep, back to Napa we went and spent another $100!  It's been an expensive week for our truck.  The oil change yesterday was $125 and with today's purchases total was $350 bucks!  Ughh but up keep is a must in our lifestyle.  We got home and hubby didn’t have time to finish his work as we have a party to get ready for.

We arrived at the Party before the guest of honor.  This first picture of Pastor Oscar is blurred i got bumped in the crowd taking pictures .. hehe Pastor Oscar is moving to Gainesville in June 2012 to join the staff here at Ignite Life Center with IHOP.  The church is excited to have them join their team.  Pastor Oscar has a 40th birthday coming up soon.

They did a good job of surprising him.  He thought he was coming to a birthday party for Pastor Mark (head pastor) as his birthday was on Monday.  Oscar birthday is the 29th. 
 
Pastor Oscar is a huge baseball fan, it’s his second passion they say.  So it was all baseball stadium theme .. it was really cute.  We had helped make these boxes on Thursday night (actually hubby constructed and did all the work)  The were used for drinks, popcorn, cracker jacks, peanuts and sunflower seeds.  Just like in a real stadium. 

 
Here the girls running the popcorn stand

Cotton Candy!  No, i was good and didn’t have any as i had splurged on Friday and had to be strict today with myself today.

Drink stand

Nachos

they had a picture display and a brief case full of baseballs that all the guest signed upon arrival.
 
the red carpet where every one gathered right before the guest of honor arrived
 
the tables were setup and numbered with peanuts, baseball bubble gum

the cake was cupcakes and look at this display .. i loved it!!
     
the cotton candy was huge hit with the kids .. well yes even the big kids .. hehe

They had an announcer and the ball game had started and first off was the national anthem

Then the guest of honor threw the first pitch. 

Pastor Oscar wife had shirts made up for their family with their last name and the number 40 .. Fitting huh for a big 40 party.
 
They ended the party with a dvd tribute to Oscar and then they had toast or roast where people got up and said something nice or told on the guest of honor.  It was cute and were thankful we had been invited and enjoyed a great afternoon/evening.
 
Hubby was a hit with his choice of attire .. everyone loved his shirt.  It was another exhausting day and we arrived home around 8 pm in time to watch the Saints get beat and i started watching the broncos and it was not looking good so i headed off to bed.