Ortona Corp Campground

Brooke Haven, FL

 

We got up this morning and took our time getting around.   It was time to go explore the campground more. 

this is a beautiful and well taken care of campground.  It’s a beautiful morning to explore

 

Lexi enjoyed her morning walk.  It’s still hard to believe 2 weeks ago today we lost our beloved LuLu and it isn’t any easier.  We have seen so many things here that she would of just loved.  She loved going to a new place and exploring it.  Hubby is still having a hard time dealing with his best friend is gone.

 

there is a nice bridge that goes over this creek that runs into the lake

we are parked at the end of this loop.

 

I think this sign is cute .. although i have been to more then 1 although i’m going to have to try to remember how many i have done and how many more to go.

 

We haven’t seen any Manatee’s yet

 

they have the locks open and lots of water flowing

   

My back is feeling better today and so this afternoon we took another walk and did some more exploring

    

this guy caught him a fish, it looked like a big mouth bass

    

It’s been another great day of enjoying lounging in my lounger and reading my book, i finish one book and have started another.  While i was outside reading i had a whole chicken on the grill roasting.

 

I made some rice to go with it and dinner was served .. mmmm another tasty meal.  We took Lexi on her evening walk and the when we got home it was dark so the rest of the night will be spent watching the tube and it won’t be long before it’s lights out for me.

on the road to Lake Okeechobee

 

Moore Haven, FL

 

I didn’t get up to early as i had another ruff night of sleeping with this ole back.  Hubby got up before i did but he let me sleep in.  I woke up around 7.30 AM and we slowly got things around.  I went over and visited with the ladies while hubby finished getting the last things ready to roll.

 

Around 9.30 AM hubby came and got me and we said our good byes and hit the road.  We took Miami Gardens to I-95, traffic wasn’t bad at all which is unusual in Miami. 

  

We exited off I-95 onto I-595 heading North.  It was a scenic view as i always enjoy seeing water.

We had to make sure that we hit our right exit other wise it would cost us $35 for the toll road and i do not like paying to drive on a road if i don’t have too.

 

It’s getting closer

there was the sign for our exit .. we took I-95 (I-595 turns back into it) and then we took US 27

 

More scenic route, we are getting close where we took the air boat ride

Yep, there it is

  

We passed lots of sugar cane and even passed a plant for Domino sugar .. pretty kewl

Wasn’t long we started seeing signs for Lake Okeechobee, it’s a huge lake

   

more signs but not our turn yet

 

Ouch look at gasoline and diesel prices!!

 

We came to a cute town by the name of Clewiston, were getting closer

 

it’s been a beautiful day for a drive and so far things are going pretty good.  I took a couple pain pills about an half an hour before we hit the road and they have kicked in.  My back is aching but so far i am able to ride and I'm thankful we are only going 114 miles and we are almost there.

It’s the first time we have been on the road and our beloved LuLu wasn’t in the truck with us.  It felt weird this morning and usually the dogs are so excited and run to the truck and can’t wait to go.  Today we had to chase them down and put them in, they were not excited and Duke went back to the camper steps and wanted back inside, he wanted his LuLu to come.  Lucy always led the pack to the truck, she got them excited they were going to get to explore new places to sniff, pee and poop.  We hung Lucy’s collar in the rear view mirror so even though she wasn’t there in body she was in our hearts.  Finally i had to take her collar down and let Duke smell it for him to calm down and stop whimpering, it was like he was crying and saying we left LuLu. 

We wasn’t sure which way were suppose to go, our GPS said 78 and my computer program said 80 west, we took 80 west and went a way and i called the campground and yes we were going the correct way. 

We finally saw the sign Ortona Campground sign and arrived.  We checked in, got backed in and all setup in no time.  Here our home is nestled in.

 

Hubby even got the satellite dish setup.  I took a bit of rest as my back was aching.

 

After i woke up we took a small walk around where are parked, here is the lake

we got to see this sail boat go through the locks near our home

 

the locks closing

it’s absolutely beautiful here and i enjoy being around some water again.

the park is very well maintained

 

hubby looking for fish

 

several birds were out enjoying the beautiful day and the coolness of the water

Here is our beautiful campsite, we are in campsite 16, the lake is across from us

we have a nice gravel picnic area

this is our front yard nice and big

view out my living room window .. pretty cool huh?

I spent the afternoon lounging in my lounger reading a book.  I haven’t read much since we left Big Cypress.  Around 4 PM hubby dug out the grill and fired it up while i cut up some potatoes, onions, with butter and garlic and put them in foil and on the grill they went.  Later we put a few hamburgers and brats on the grill and it wasn’t long dinner was ready. MMM it was tasty!

After dinner we took another small walk but we had to come back home as my back started in again.  It was back home to lay in the lounger until it got too cool and dark and then i came in and now were relaxing and it isn’t going to be long and I'm going to be heading to bed.  It’s been another great day and our home is parked in new area and that is a good thing for me.

A miserable day of packing up

I was up most of the night with a aching back!  I tried sleeping on the heating pad, taking pain medications and any position i thought i could get relief.  NO luck!  I’m having muscle spasms, severe pain, burning and stinging.  Ughh of all days for me to be down in my back.  I need to pack things up as i have been so busy the past few days running around i barely done much.

I did several loads of laundry (hubby put them in and out of the washer/dryer for me and i all i had to do was turn the dial).  Hubby stripped the bed sheets and helped (he actually did all the work) make our bed back up since there was no way i could do it.  In fact hubby has had to do most of the packing as every time i move and even when i don’t i get muscle spasms.  We had planned to go to the outback steak house with our friends for one last dinner,  But that didn’t happen.   I rode with hubby to fill the truck up with diesel Ouch $4.15 per gallon, on the bright side it dropped 4 cents a gallon over night as yesterday it was $4.19!  Then we stopped by the bread store as it was on our way home and finished stocking up on his sweets and some bread for me.  Our freezer is full of goodies to take on the road with us.  By the time we got home i was in severe pain again and had to head straight to bed and on my heating pad.

Hubby made ham sandwiches and baked potatoes for dinner and then he finished packing things up.  We are hooked up and ready to roll in the morning.  All that is left to do is take down the satellite dish, pull in the slides, put the front jacks up, unplug the electric, on the inside we will just have to clean our morning mess up and pack the computers up.

In our initial winter plans we had planned to leave Miami and head to the Florida Keys.  We scratched those plans altogether as we found out that time we had planned to visit the keys was also Spring break.  No thank you, I did Spring break in Panama City Beach Fl one year and said never again did I want to be anywhere they were having spring break.  trying to get a parking place and the traffic is horrible!  We had thought about moving the Keys to the end of March but then we found out that is Guy pride week there and we figured that would be as bad as Spring break.  So it just wasn’t meant for us to explore the Keys again this year :(( 

We are heading only 114 miles North tomorrow, but if i am not feeling better by then it’s going to be a very long day.  We are heading to Moore Haven, Fl to Lake Okeechobee for a few days. 

St. Patrick’s Day on Hollywood Beach

Miami, FL

We got up and got around so we could be ready to head to the beach.  Today is our last day of seeing the beach in southern Florida.

We found a nice spot that wasn’t overly crowded with all the spring breakers.
 
Friends Ray and Bev relaxing in the sun

Hubby and Donnie getting settled in.

It was a beautiful day for enjoying the beach, there was a nice breeze that kept you cool and the sun didn’t seems as hot as the last time.
 
hubby and Donnie getting their feet wet

Yessss .. i had to get my feet wet.
 
Lots of kids were enjoying the water.  The water temp was 75 degrees.

Hubby was enjoying looking for shells. Dee and I also went looking for shells.

As you can see from the pictures , the beach had lots of people out enjoying the beautiful day.  We spent several hours on the beach and NO, i didn’t get a sunburn this time.  I cheated and put lotion on :)

Around 1. 30 PM we were all getting hungry so we loaded our beach bags and chairs up.  While the guys took them back to the car we ladies went heading for the shopping and food area.

We found a place to eat call Mamacitas.  Hubby  had  the hamburger and fries and i had a steak sandwich.  The food was excellent!  It wasn’t as expensive as some places are on the beach, our waitress was so busy it was hard to get drink refills but she was really busy so we understood.  It was great sitting outside under the umbrella enjoying a nice meal.  I couldn’t get pictures as my camera got put in the car in the beach bag :(

After eating we walked around and explored the stores and did some site seeing.  We enjoyed listening to the live bands playing at some of the local pubs along the beach.  What i love about Hollywood  beach is that there is no road between the stores and beach.  So you do not fight the traffic trying to cross the street.  Although normally i do not like businesses in front of the beach as it blocks the view of the beach.  But for today i let my pet peeve go on that :))
  
Before we knew it our day was coming to an end and it was time to head home.  reluctantly on my part anyway, we left the beach.

We came home and rested a bit before it was time to get ready for church.  Tonight was our last church service here at Trinity.  Pastor Rich gave another great message and sadly we will miss attending this church.  We have been so well feed with messages on the word of God.
 
It’s going to be a bittersweet parting on Monday.  We are looking forward to our journey home to see family and friends that we haven’t seen in several months, but were also going miss friends we’ve made here.  We have had a wonderful time with friends here in Miami, but it has also been heart breaking with the loss of our beloved Lucy.  So the memories here are bittersweet for us. 

I hope you all had a great St. Patrick’s Day, we enjoyed doing what we love.  Spending time with good friends and doing it on the beach!

Mamma Jennie’s

We woke up to more rain this morning.  But by 9.30 AM it cleared off and was a beautiful day.  I spent the morning doing some more errand runs with Bev, it was our last day of us ladies hanging out.  Then i came home and hubby wanted to make a Wal-mart run today.  So we headed off to get stocked up some groceries for next week.  Ughh $78 worth! 

For dinner the RVer’s went to Mamma Jennie’s, it’s an Italian place and the food and service is wonderful.  We both had stromboli, i had the Classic this time and hubby had the meat.  Hubby also splurged for a piece of chocolate cheese cake.  Yes his tummy is feeling better finally and he was so glad he could finally eat some real food.  He said he was starving.  We had a great time enjoying our evening with friends that we will be saying good bye to very soon.

We all came home and sat outside and enjoyed the rest of a beautiful evening.  Before we knew it was time to retire for the night.  Tomorrow is beach day!

Rain and down in the back

It has done nothing but rain today.  I rode with Bev to do a few errands and hubby stayed home and tried to work on washing the 5th wheel.  Although with the rain he didn’t have much luck.  He is still sick and not eating much do to his stomach bothering him.  I did a couple loads of laundry and started putting some things away while hubby napped.  It’s been a bit on the chilly side here today.  It’s one of those blahhhh days.

I was looking at the calendar it’s hard to believe we’ve been here almost 6 weeks!  That’s the longest we’ve stayed in one place all winter long.  I was thinking about the winter this year and all but the passing of our beloved LuLu, if she was still was with us i would say it’s been an excellent winter and one of our best ever.  Since we lost LuLu i can no longer say that because i would take a cold winter any day to have my baby back.

Later in the evening i went over and had a piece of freshly baked Pecan Pie!  OH it was so good.  Several of the ladies did some baking today.  We have finally finalized our plans for our trip toward the North.  We will be leaving here on Monday. 

My evening was spent just relaxing and trying to get this back to settle down.  Rain and chilly weather are bad for my bad back and cause me pain.  It’s going to be a early night to bed.  I had some hamburger i had cooked frozen in the freezer so i thawed it out and made some home made Chili for me for dinner, I made grilled cheese for hubby.