Sorry... have been having so much fun that there hasn't been any time to really sit down and write anything. The weather here in Morgantown continues to improve for the moment and people who have had to wait or had flights cancelled are slowly starting to trickle in.

   For me of course it has been 2 1/2 days of non stop fun since Wednesday night. The evening dances are the main event for me every day, but there is really dancing all day long if you have the will and the stamina to do it. There is usually a workshop during the morning as  well as a short, 2 hour, contra before lunch. Then in the afternoon there may be another workshop on some type of dancing or dancing technique followed by another 2 hour contra. After dinner there is often a concert by one of the bands, or an hour of waltzing and then the main 4 hour evening contra. For those who still haven't been up long enough, there is always a group that sits out by the fireplace after the last dance to talk, tell jokes and drink wine for a couple more hours. It's not a bad way to live if you can do it.

    So right now I just need to get on line and make a hotel reservation in Asheville for New Years Eve. After this dance is over on the 31st I head for there and spend the evening dancing to Great Bear Trio once again while the New Year is rung in. So I need to go  do 'stuff' and then get over to the afternoon dance.

   Made it into Morgantown yesterday afternoon just before the snow began to fall. Stopped and picked up a battery for the truck fob and got that working again as well as picking up some cold/cough stuff for the cough I still seem to have deep in my chest.

Got checked into the resort around 2:30 and promptly took a nap. My night with the 'Hillbillies From Hell' in the next room at the Inn the night before left me in need of a few more hours of sleep. Just to finish up that story; the boyfriend-fiance showed up last night after I assume the girls mother contacted him. A little yelling ensued, inside and out of the room, then it quieted down and conversation continued until I finally ended up falling asleep around 1:00. So I don't know what actually worked out, but I'm hoping for the best for them both.

A lot of people didn't make it into the dance last night because of the snow storm blowing through the area. Those flying in were stopped in Pittsburgh when the airport closed down, and blizzard conditions on the highways in every direction, caused many of them to stop and hole-up where ever they happened to be at the time.

For those of us who made it though, what a joy. Dinner started the week off with maybe 100 of us here in the hotel. Really good to see so many friends again. Our first dance started at 8:00 with two good lines of dancers. The band for the night were the 'Mean Lids' out of Ohio. I have been hearing about them for the past year, but had never danced to them before. The band is made up of 3 young kids playing a variety of instruments. Really good music from them all night and just a great time dancing. Still having a bit of a problem with my cough while dancing. Not sure if is some residual effect from my cold or if it is part of my allergies kicking in. Either way it is very annoying.

Danced all but two dances during the evening. So a good solid 3 hours of dancing considering the break midway through and the two that I sat out. There were only a couple of us that decided to stay up after the dance and hang out. A couple bottles of wine, some Baileys and we were all feeling pretty good in no time. In no time at all it was already 2:30 and time for bed.

Slept really well finally and felt like I caught up. Lunch today was nice, many more people showed up this morning as conditions outside improved. Most of the dancers should be here by this evening. So far it has been a lot of fun, it is already going fun, but there is still a lot more of it to come.

    Another day of driving.... east from Knoxville headed toward Roanoke, then a hard left at northbound Hwy 77. Grey sky's, cold temperatures and even a bit of snow as the road twisted up and down over the Great Smokey Mountains. Towns with names like Bland and Big Chimney and my favorite, Mink Shoals. Most are just a gas station surrounded by few houses, some aren't even that big. Missed my turn-off late in the afternoon and ended up taking the highway all the way into the capital city of West Virginia, Charleston. A nice looking town along the banks of a beautiful river, but today it just looked cold.

    As it turns out, my mistake only added a couple of miles on to my trip counter, so I didn't really care one way or another. But after Charleston it was getting dark and the fog was starting to form along the river again.

    I had a late breakfast/lunch earlier in the day. It was my first trip to a 'Waffle House', a restaurant that seems to be very common back here in the east, though I have actually seen a few as far west as Colorado. A good breakfast of eggs and sausage and grits along with the required waffle. So I wasn't all that hungry til late this evening. I found a Micky D's that was open and had a hamburger and coke before trying to find a hotel for the night.

   Was beginning to think that I might have to go all the way into Morgantown this evening in order to find a place, as there aren't a whole lot of towns out in this area. But I pulled off at the widest part of the highway I could find and there was an old motel there that was still open. It is actually a cute little place with old single rooms and this furnace that makes all those great noises while it is cooling down. Owned evidently by a family, they were all sitting around the kitchen table eating when I checked in. The room doesn't look like much, but it is very neat and clean and the price was right, only $35/night. The only bad thing so far is that I seem to have the Hillbillies from Hell staying in the room next door. So far I've been listening to the non-stop commentary from, I think, the mother of a young girl who broke up with her boyfriend this evening and ran away to the motel until he comes crawling back to her on his hands and knees. I'm not sure yet if there is a baby or a pregnancy in there somewhere, but the 'Wedding is Off' at this point. But mom just left to go talk to the boyfriend so who knows what is yet to come.  I'm just hoping it doesn't last all night long and that talk is all that happens. (I'll keep you all posted).

    On to Morgantown tomorrow. I need to make one stop and try to find a new battery for my truck key fob thingy. It finally stopped doing it's thing and now you have to actually use the key to get into the truck. What a concept.

     The dance starts tomorrow night after check-in and dinner. I'm looking forward to landing in one spot for a couple of days after driving for two days. It'll be good to see some people that I haven't seen for several months now..... plus there's music and dancing!!!!!

    Busy, busy, busy today running around trying to get things put together for my trip tomorrow. I think it will all come together in the morning, but I am sure there will still be dozens of things to do before getting on the road tomorrow.

    Will be putting Esmerelda into storage for a month while I'm off traipsing around the north country. In the meantime I have been busy eating up everything in the fridge that I can as it will be left empty and unplugged while I'm gone.

   Got some new playlists downloaded to the iPod and all of my clothes are packed. Had wanted to do a load of laundry today, but the one thing I couldn't find was an open laundry mat on Sunday. Oh well, will take it all along and see if I can maybe get it all done tomorrow while driving.

   Need to get to bed now though, it is going to be a long day of moving and then driving tomorrow. The one good thing is that I really do like to travel. Obviously!

   Just a short note this evening cuz it's already two in the morning and I'm starting to fade fast.

   Drove down to Tampa Bay this afternoon and on too the contra dance at Pinellas Park this evening. A really fine local band with guitar, fiddle, mandolin and bass for the music and a caller from somewhere in south Florida. I've heard him call before and he did a fine job except for one dance where he could of explained one move a bit better. It was a situation where one move of the dance merged into the next one in what should of been a nice flowing motion. The problem was that you could dance it about 6 different ways based on the directions he gave.... so of course that is what happened through out the length of the dance. Other wise he did very well.

    Good group of people there also, considering it is so close to Christmas now. I was a bit worried there for a bit having shown up at the dance hall about 20 mins before the dance. When I walked in there were already 17 guys there, but only 3 women. It was looking pretty bleak there for a while, but by the time the dance actually started there was almost an equal number of men and women there and it stayed fairly well balanced the whole night. So.... not a great dance, but well worth the trip down there and back even if it does take a little more than 2 hours each way. Sure glad I have the iPod to crank some good tunes out on.

   Very much colder all day today. It may have made it to 55 degree's sometime this afternoon, but for me, other than a short walk over to the lake and back, I pretty much just hung around the trailer with the heater on.

    Read one book this morning and got a good start on another. I had to take a break from reading Gulliver's Travels. I enjoy some of these classics, that for some reason or another, I never got around to reading while younger, but they are certainly written in a much different style, and it takes a bit for me to get through very much of them at a time. I'll finish it up at some point and then get on to another classic, it just may take a bit more time than usual.

    Had a ticket to the theatre again this evening. The selection tonight was 'A Tuna Christmas'. Set in the small town of Tuna Texas, it was done by two guys who took on about 8-10 different roles each. Lot's of fun parts and dialogue, and the costumes were just a hoot. Very strong performance from both guys and a fun evening of humour.

    Was suppose to be on the road early in the morning tomorrow in order to meet a Colorado friend for lunch down in the Tampa area, but her daughter has been bouncing around a couple of northern airports trying to get down here to be with the rest of her family, and noon is when her plane is finally suppose to land. So lunch will have to be postponed until next summer when I get back to Colorado again.

   Will still be going down to the Tampa area anyway as there is a contra dance there tomorrow night and I really need to be up and moving again. So I won't have to get up near as early and be on my way, so a win-win situation no matter how it goes.

     So below are a few photo's from my outing yesterday afternoon over at the Alachua Sink area of Paynes Prairie State Park. Enjoy!

Wildlife at Paynes Prairie State Park near Gainsville Florida - Dec 20, 2012 

There is a lot more water in the area than there was last year. In practical terms it means that the alligators are more dispersed having so many more places to live in right now. If you have a warm sunny day though you will find them pulled out on a bank somewhere. I'm thinking this one is maybe 8'-10' long. Hard to tell without a tape measure.

They always look so content laying there in the mud with their toothy grins.

Lot's of water means lots of birds too. This great blue heron was fishing along a bank when I walked up on it. Managed to get this shot before it took off.

Another large, well fed looking gator. The park staff had actually come in and put up some temporary plastic webbed fencing at a couple of places where they seemed to like to pull out. Not sure if they were trying to protect the gators from the public or the public from the gators. I would imagine that somewhere out there is someone who would think it was okay to 'pet' this one. Not me though. 

I watched these two male great blue herons fish in this spot for several minutes. It seemed that neither one liked whatever spot they were standing in at that time and would soon walk over, and past, the other one. Of course when they got close enough the feathers on their breasts, wings and crests would all pop up in a nice display of 'maleness'. Men are all so predictable.

Probably the largest gator I saw for the day. I'm thinking 10'-12' based on a head length of close to 30". All the gators I saw today seem to have this huge roll of fleshy goiter right behind their head. Not real sure what the purpose of this is, or if it is common in well fed critters, but it looked kind of funny. As a friend said.... gator goiter!

They look so content laying there in the sunshine that you kinda want to go up and poke-um with a stick...... a really big, really long stick. But you don't because you're not mean..... or stupid.

 

A nice white egret.

I don't know what kind of trees these are, but they fascinate me with their texture and the shadows all the bumps cast.

This little knob really interested me. I think it may have been the remains of what was once a branch.

Another look at the same tree a little higher up the trunk. Kind of lethal looking. I have seen a few Native American clubs made out of this kind of tree in some of the local museums.

     A nice day here in Florida today.  Was up pretty early and hung around the trailer checking email, reading the comics doing the crossword puzzle. In other words.... it was a normal morning for me. Took off a little bit after lunch and drove over to Alachua Sink which is part of the State Park here, but on the north side, closer to Gainsville.

   Spent a couple of hours out in the sun walking along the hiking trails and canal roads. There is a whole lot more water in the area than there was last year. Whole areas that were dryland pasture last year are now under 1'-2' of water. The waterways themselves held a lot more water and the plant life had exploded along all of them. This had the result of dispersing all of the alligators that had been all bunched together in a few smaller ponds last year.

    The gators are still there though and with the sun out like it was, there were a lot of them sunning themselves out on the banks along the water. In some cases the park staff had to come in and erect some temporary plastic web fencing in some spots because the gators were "right there" along the path. Not sure if the fence was to keep the gators from getting out to close, or stupid people from getting in to close. Either way it did allow for some nice close ups, although I was certainly aware of an escape route if needed.

    Lot's of birds out in the mashes also. Plenty of great blue herons of course but I also saw little blue herons, great white egrets, white ibis, wood storks, sand hill cranes and dozens of types of ducks and swimming birds. Two things of real interest to me were bird related incidents. The first one occurred while I was watching a little blue heron traipsing across the top of the swamp plants. I watched as it caught a small 5"-6" long snake of some kind. It caught it pretty much in the middle of it's length at first and then spent quite some time shaking it hard from side to side and beating it against the ground. It then ended up holding on to it at the tail end and did a bunch more of the shaking and smashing thing. The snake of course is twisting around and biting everything it can get a hold of including; the birds leg, and at one point, it's beak. Didn't even faze the bird which finally flipped it end for end and ended up with the snakes head in it's beak, and after getting the rest of it aligned with the beak.... slurped the whole thing down.... alive.... in less than a second. Which just goes to show you that it really isn't a Disney kind of world out there. Bambi dies's, and in some cases, gets eaten, so something else out there can live.

   The other case was this one wood stork that I watched for a little while. I had noticed it seemed to be having some trouble getting around for some reason. But as it was standing in the water I couldn't see any reason for it's unbalanced gait. It finally walked up on shore and I could see that the whole left foot was missing having been bitten off or broken off or frozen or some other type of trauma. So it had one foot to keep it above the mud and then the left one was like a spike that would just sink into the ground. That being said, the stork seemed to be doing okay having collected and eaten several snails while I was watching.

    So all on all it was a very nice couple of hours out in the sunshine. Went over to Chipoltle's afterwards because I felt in need of a Mexican food fix. Now I know Chipoltle's isn't really, Mexican food, but it's about as close as you can get east of the Mississippi River.

   Got back to the trailer and took a quick shower and got dressed for a night out at the theatre. So basically I just put on a pair of long pants. That was mainly because a cold front was suppose to go through the area tonight and drop the temperature down to about 40 degrees by morning. But when I got out of the play around 10:00 it was still 73 degrees even though it had already rained hard for nearly an hour.

   The play this evening, 'A Christmas Carol', was just a delight. This is the 35th time the Hippodrome Theatre has put it on and the character who plays Scrooge has been doing it for the last 25+/- years. I saw this one last year also while in the area, and it was fun at that time. Pretty much the same play, and many of the same actors this year, but it seemed better this year for some reason. Lot's of kid parts, lots of fun effects and even a nice story and moral to go with it all.

   I have some pictures from today's gator trip, but it is to late in the evening, or morning I guess, for me to try and load them up and annotate them. So perhaps tomorrow I can get to them.

    So-o-o-o much better today than even yesterday. Still not at 100% yet, but felt good enough to get out and about and even feel good about it. Took the truck over to Discount Tires to have the tires rotated and re-balanced as needed. I try to keep up with that bit of maintenance as it seems to make a big difference. Not only better gas mileage, but better handling and feel, plus it was most likely the reason I got so many miles out of my last set of tires, more than 88,000 on that set. If I can do as well on this set, this may be the last set of tires I need to put on this truck before looking for something a bit newer.

    Went over the the movie theatre after finishing up at the tire place, and got a ticket to the newest Hobbit movie. Even sprang for the full 3-D, 48 fps, cut just because it seemed like this was what the director was shooting at when he filmed it this way. I was actually rather underwhelmed about any of the 3D stuff, but it was certainly a more clear and crisp view. Boy you could sure see some big ugly zits on some of those orc's. Yuck! I did think the color tint of the film was a little off though. No biggy, I'm sure I'll be seeing it several more times within the next few years. Just not any time soon.

    Still coughing a bit, especially as the night wears on and it is getting closer to bed time... of course. Still not sleeping real well yet, but I must be doing well enough. Hope to feel good enough tomorrow to get out and take a nice hike again. I want to go over to a different part of the park I know of that has lots of alligators, turtles and birds in it.

   Also spent a bit of time this morning on the computer and renewed the trailer license plates on line. Of course the real question is whether or not I'll actually ever get the actual stamps and registration forms, or if they'll  just get lost in the mail also.

    Got a couple of theatre tickets while online too. One for tomorrow night is for 'A Christmas Carol' and then one on Friday is for 'A Tuna Christmas'. Looking forward to seeing them both and having a nice time out.

    Sorry my posts haven't been quite up to snuff these past few days.... still suffering through what ever the heck it is that I have come down with. A cold seems to be the basic component of what ever it is, but there is also a bit of bronchitis and sinus infection thrown in for good measure.

    It felt better this morning after a real so-so night of waking up coughing and trying to breath. I needed to go over to the east coast of Florida though in order to pick up a batch of mail that my friends back in Colorado had collected and sent on to me. Of primary importance was my new drivers license as I've been driving on an expired one for nearly the whole last 4 months. Lucky for me someone at my storage unit place noticed it was in need of renewing otherwise I would still be driving around on it clueless. It was also lucky for me that I could go on line and get a new one sent out without having to go to the DMV in person.

    So I'm now legal as far as a drivers license is concerned. Unfortunately the new tags for my truck license plates were not with my other mail. My best guess is that the DMV sent them to my old address once again, even though I haven't lived there for more than 5 years now and I have changed my address at least 4 different times over the years. Just doesn't seem like it would be that difficult, especially when I sat there in the office two years ago and watched while they changed my address to my new one. Evidently there is some computer somewhere that still hasn't gotten the word. What a hassle!

    It was good to see my brother-in-law, Martin, again today, although we both made a point of staying pretty far apart from each other. He had a kidney transplant a month or so ago and is doing really, really well, so I would not like to be the one to send him back to the hospital with a cold or infection. So we will go do lunch and beer next time I'm over there.

    Picked up some antibiotic's this afternoon and started taking them before heading back to the trailer. They seem to already be having an effect on what ever it is I have. I sure hope so as I am getting really tired of this stuff.

   Need to go get the truck tires rotated and balanced tomorrow morning. It has already been more than 9,000 miles since they went on the truck. My last set went 88,000 miles before I replaced them, and I probably could of got that extra 2K out of them if I wanted to. But you just don't want to mess around with sub-par tires when you have 10,000 lbs pushing you down the road at 65 mph.

  Will see how I feel after doing the tires, but if I seem to be doing okay I want to go over and see the new hobbit movie that just came out. Right now though it is time to go see if I can sleep a little better tonight.

    Still battling this cold, or what ever it is, I picked up nearly a week ago. I thought several days ago that it was nearly over with, only to have it bounce back and go in a whole different direction several times. Yesterday and last night it was a matter of having a sinus infection complete with it's multiple pieces of tissue and lot's of mean, nasty green stuff, that I am happy to say is now pretty much over with. Thought it was going to take some good old antibiotics to kick it's butt, but really all it took was snorting one cup of warm salt water after another up your nose. yuck!!!!

    The coughing deep down in my chest is now nearly over with also, but once in awhile I'll find myself bounding up off of the sofa or in bed and having a terrific coughing fit that just hurts everything from the head down. It may take another day or two before that is totally over with.

    So I postponed a trip over to Orlando this afternoon to meet up with a friend. Really wanted to go see her again and maybe watch the football game with her, or at least go out for some decent Mexican food. But that can wait until I'm back in the state again after my holiday tour to the north. Right now it is a matter of needing to get better so travel and dancing with be more enjoyable. I am hoping once again that one more night will make a difference in how I feel and hope that I wake up feeling better in the morning.

   Still sick today.... better for sure, but not at 100% yet by any means. Feels like the 'cold' part of it is nearly done, there's a cough every once in a while, but nothing like what has been going on these past few days. I'm hoping my ribs can now stop feeling like someone is jumping up and down on them when I cough.

   Most of my problem now is with my sinus's. Seems like it always go this way when I get a cold. Was thinking that it might have moved to a good ole sinus infection there for a while this afternoon. But I kept at it flushing the old sinus cavity time and time again by squirting warm salt water up my nose. Boy do I hate that, plus it's really disgusting...... It seems to have worked though as my nose is for the most part open again and the sinus headache is down to a dull throb now.

    Didn't do anything else for the day other than drink nearly endless cups of hot tea and take short naps every other hour or so. I really wanted to be better by this evening so I could go into Gainsville to the local contra dance. But that doesn't seem like it is going to work out this time. Still coughing enough to know I'm not at all better. Probably no longer contagious, but why take a chance and why make everyone else feel self conscious about not wanting to be around you. I hope to be up and around by tomorrow as I want to go over to the Orlando area and visit an old friend there for the afternoon. Will just wait until tomorrow morning to see if that is going to happen or not.

   Still feeling a bit off today, so it was a very quiet and easy day for me. Stayed in all day and slept off and on all afternoon. It feels like it is starting to break already, but at least one more day maybe to finish it all up. Won't know of course until tomorrow morning. It's pretty boring really and not something you think much about when you start out on an odessey like this. But you can still get sick obviously and dealing with it is one of those things that needs to be thought about.

   For me, when not drinking hot tea, popping aspirin or taking naps I was reading my book. Finished up one and am on to another already. May watch a DVD yet this evening, or maybe I'll just go take another nap again. Hope I feel better by tomorrow, I hate being stuck inside for any length of time.

    Rained once again this afternoon.... hard! The morning was alright, cloudy, a bit cooler, but the rain didn't start up again until about 3:00 this afternoon. Then it kept up for a couple of hours at a good clip and finally slowed down around 6:00.

   I took one quick trip into the city to mail a package, the last one of the Christmas season. But Emma, my GPS failed me once again and took me to a post office that was no longer there. It happened to be the county court house and some guy must of taken pity on me and asked what it was I needed as I appeared to be lost. It was either that or he thought I was there to bomb something...... But I wasn't!!!!! He pointed me in the direction of the next nearest Post Office though, so my errand at least got done.

   I thought my cold was doing better this afternoon, but it seems to have taken a turn for the worse this evening. My throat is all wanked out and I'm coughing more this evening. Still thinking it will pass fairly quickly with just rest, liquids and aspirin. I guess if a person needs to be sick it might be good to do it while you can't really be outside anyway. Hoping to feel better by tomorrow.

   Mostly sunny and warm yesterday so there was time to get out and take a short hike around the park. Because of the nearly 5 hours of rain the day and night before the whole forest seemed to have  turned into one huge swamp in many places. Really quite interesting to look at, but it did mean having to stay on the trail or road the whole time. One good thing about having the rain is that I no longer need to worry about the forest catching on fire some afternoon or evening and burning down around me. This area really needed the moisture. All that water also seemed to have no effect on one of the resident turkey flocks, there was a whole group out looking for bugs and seeds in one of the higher and drier meadows in the park. They can sure run when they want to.

    I took one short trip into town in the afternoon. After all that rain it became evident that I 'still' have not managed to plug my roof leak completely. It seems like it has slowed down somewhat, but with that much rain it was still a pretty steady leak right over the bed. The good news is that the one in the bathroom seems to have been stopped up, but then that one was above the tub and didn't bother me while trying to sleep. Found another can of spray on goop and will try once more to stem the tide. This stuff is slightly different, so maybe it will flow a little better and fill in any remaining cracks. Now I just need a couple of days of dry, sunny and warm weather to put it on.

    In the meantime it rained for another couple of hours last night and early this morning. It does still sound really nice to hear the patter of rain on the trailer roof. It reminds me of being in a tent at times, but then most of my tents don't leak either.

    Noticed my throat starting to go wanky on me yesterday afternoon and by this morning it is pretty evident that I have picked up some kind of a cold in the past day or two. It probably happened over the weekend while down in Tampa at the dance. One thing about contra dancing is that you do really dance with everyone else in the hall. I try to be careful, keeping my hands away from my face and washing my hands after every set. Still; it is hard to believe that you won't get nailed at some point or another. Guess it must of just been my turn. So now I'm sitting here drinking endless cups of tea, popping aspirin and just taking it easy. Hope to be over it all in a day or two.

   Still cloudy this morning and likely to keep raining for the rest of the day. Need to go out and find a post office, but otherwise will just stay in, read my books and maybe watch a movie or two. I am glad it wasn't one of those days where I had to decide if I was going in to go to work or not.

   Moving day again today, so it was up early again to pack up and get on the road. Didn't have to go very far this morning, only a dozen or more miles up the road to Payne's Prairie State Park. Have been to, and stayed at, this park many times before as it is close to Gainsville and has a nice campground with quite a few hiking trails close by. So it was easy to drive up the road and check in and set up again. Only 3 hours from getting up to being set up again in my new camp site. This time though I'm set for  the next two weeks so I can really settle in and enjoy my time here. I did take a short nap early in the afternoon, but there were a few errands to run so I was out and about by 1:00 in the afternoon.

   It was still sunny and warm, 81 degrees, out when I left the trailer for Gainsville. I grabbed a bite to eat in town at a Chinese restaurant that I knew of. By the time I came out of there it was just pouring down rain. Haven't been in a storm like that for some time with lots of thunder and lightning to go with all of the water falling out of the sky. It was nice to be in the midst of it for so many reasons; the outside of the truck is now a lot cleaner for one thing, but more important is that the area around here was really in need of some water. They were really concerned about wild fires breaking out if people weren't carefully. I think they can relax a little bit now, at least for a while anyway. It will let me sleep a little better at night also since I'm camped in the middle of a pine forest.

    Did the last of my Christmas shopping while out this afternoon. Now I just need to get busy and wrap up the last one that needs to be mailed. Hope to do that all in the morning and then take it, and some other mail, in and get it all mailed off.

    Spent the evening listening to the rain on the roof and watching the lightning through the window. It's been a real show this evening, but has pretty much stopped raining at the moment. Suppose to keep having afternoon rain showers for a couple of more days at least as there is a bit of a 'cold' front sitting over the area. Hard to believe it since it is still nearly 70 degrees outside and it is nearly 10:30 in the evening. Time to get a couple more chapters read in my book before going to bed again.

   Spent today trying to recuperate from my long day and night yesterday. I've certainly been up past 2:00 in the morning before, but generally not after dancing for 3 hours and then  having to drive 2 hours home in the dark. So it was nice to sleep in a bit this morning, even though I had an early morning phone call from one of my sisters soon after getting up.

   Didn't really do anything else of consequence otherwise. Read the comics, did the crossword, went for a walk around the town. Hot and sunny and a bit humid all day. Have had the fans running for most of the day and it has stayed pleasant in the trailer. Will probably watch a movie yet this evening and read my book some more, otherwise it will be more ease for the rest of the night.

    In the meantime; here are a few photo's from my trip to the Salvador Dali Museum yesterday in Tampa Bay. You couldn't take pictures inside the museum of course, but I thought the building itself was pretty neat.

The Salvador Dali Museum in Tampa Bay Florida - Dec 8, 2012

One side of the building.

I liked this view because it showcased the glass enclosed atrium's you could stand in on the inside. I don't believe Dali had any hand in designing the building, but it certainly looks like something he would of thought of. This view reminds me of bug eyes, especially fly eyes, which is interesting because flies play an important role in Catalan story telling. Something about flies erupting from the dead body of some Catalan saint and saving the day in some way. Dali uses flies in a lot of his paintings for that reason and it may be one reason why this is designed the way it is.

More fly eyes.

I like how the door to the patio is tucked up under the glass wall. There is a 3rd floor platform that you can stand on inside the museum. It gives you a great view of the garden and the waterfront and bay in the distance.

One last view of the front of the building.

In the garden outside is this Dali inspired bench playing off his melting time pieces theme.

Definitely un-daliesque. A view of one of the trailers here in the RV park I'm camped in. For some reason I like it.

   Made it back to the trailer around 2:00 a.m. last night after spending two nice days down in the Tampa area. It was another hour after that before I finally made it to bed, so it is a wonder that I'm up and about already.

    The dance last night was a repeat of the Friday night dance in that the band was hot, the calling was good and my dance partners were all beautiful and wonderful dancers. Still surprised about how many people know me down there in Tampa as I have only been to that dance one time before. But I guess I have been to their weekend dance, The Snowball, 3 times now and a lot of the people are ones that I have run into at other dance weekends before.

    Had a very pleasant day yesterday leading up to the dance also. First on the list was a couple of hours spent down by the city docks and waterfront strolling around looking at all the sailboats. There must of been a race going on in the afternoon as quite a few of them were getting underway and heading out of the harbor. Really pretty seeing them all out in the bay with spinnakers flying.

   Ate a quick lunch at a little bar/bistro there along the waterfront. A nice fish sandwich and some ice tea out on the deck overlooking the bay. From there I was off to the Salvidor Dali Museum for a couple of hours. Actually spent nearly 4 hours there, and probably could of stayed longer, but that was all the change I had for the parking meter, so I'll have to go back in the near future.

    A fantastic art museum that had been set up by a local couple who had been friends with Salvidor and his wife Gala. So they had at least 100 paintings that they had bought from him in the 40+ years that they knew him. Then there have been many more paintings donated after the museum was built, so it is a large collection of art from this one guy.

    I found it fascinating to wander around and look at all the different paintings. They have a lot of docents that do 45 minute tours of some of the bigger works and then they also have ear phones and tapes that will tell you about a bunch more of them. You need to do both because there is so much going on in some of these paintings that if you don't do it, you are going to miss a whole lot of information hidden within the scene. I was also surprised to see that he had several distinct periods in his life and a type of painting that was associated with each of these time frames. His most famous period of course was when he was doing his surrealistic style stuff, but I actually found the period right after that, up until he died, to be some of his more interesting paintings. Through it all though was this sense of awe about what he saw and how he put it down on canvas. Even the painting he was doing in his teen years was pretty amazing. He would of been a marvelous person to spend an evening or two talking with over dinner and drinks. He either had to be seriously psychotic or a true genius, or most likely... both.

    Part of the appeal of the museum is the building that it is housed in. I don't believe Dali actually had anything to do with the design of it, but it was certainly designed with him in mind. I will post a picture of two at a later date once I get them downloaded and sorted out. They also have one of the best museum shops inside the museum. It was one of the few places I've been in where I wished my living circumstances were different, because there were a lot of things that would of found their way home with me. As it is, I had to be satisfied with one of several  styles of shot glasses they had in the store.

   So back at the trailer here in McIntosh for one more day. Will take it easy here for the day and then hook up and travel up the road towards Gainsville in the morning. I'll have two weeks in the state park, Paynes Prairie, up there before putting the trailer into storage and heading north for the holidays. Right now though I need a shower, then lunch and then.... maybe a nap.

   A fun night of dancing last night here in the Tampa area. A lot of people here that I recognized and even more it seems, who recognized me. A really good band was in from southern Florida and the caller was over from the east coast somewhere. Met another guy here who seems to be a dance gypsy also, Earl. We were talking for a bit and he was telling me about his work for Habitat For Humanity. It seems that there is a group of RV people who wander the country helping out on projects in different locations. They even have there own section on the Habitat web site. I have wanted to get back into working with them at some point, but just figured I would need to wait until I was done wandering around before getting back into it. Will need to check it out as soon as I can.

   Prior to the dance though, it was a very busy day for me anyway. I was up pretty early and got all packed up and on the road. It was only about 2 hours over to the little town of McIntosh where I tucked Esmerelda into the old RV camp on the edge of a lake. Will only be there for a couple of days, but it is a nice place for me to leave the trailer over night.

   Spent a couple of hours there setting up, getting some lunch put together and then taking a short nap. Took off from there around 4:00 and headed for Tampa and managed to get there just in time for the evening rush hour. I just never think about things like that most days anymore. Only a minor problem and I soon found my hotel for the evening and got all checked in. An hour or so there and then it was off to find some dinner and then on to the dance.

   Today I'm just going to take it easy, explore a bit of the town and then go back this evening for another night of dancing. It will be a long drive back to the trailer after the dance, but well worth it I think.

    Busy day around here today... always the case when it gets close to moving day. That happens tomorrow morning, so today was the day to get all the laundry done since the machines are only a 100' or so from the trailer. Still not as convenient as having facilities in your own home, but they don't take up a lot of space either. A couple of loads finished it all up in a couple of hours and since there was really nobody else here in the campground I didn't even have to sit there and baby sit them, just set the timer and check on them once in a while. Still have some putting away to do yet, but it is going to feel so good to climb between fresh sheets again. I try to change bedding every two weeks at the max, but it would sure be nice if it could be more often.

    Had a quick lunch after dealing with that chore and then went out and yanked the used up propane tank off the front rack and ran it into town and got it filled up again. It wasn't quite empty, but close enough that it needed to be filled again. Depending on the price of course, it takes between $25-$30 bucks to fill up a 30 lb tank. They hold 7.1+/- gallons of propane, so you can do the math. It was interesting to talk to the women who was filling me up because she was telling me that about 70%-80% of the tanks with the new shut-off, safety style valve really don't work. It's still really easy to overfill them I guess unless you have them on a scale while filling them up.

   Talked to my brother-in-law down here in Florida for a little bit while in town. Needed to let him know that there was a package or two of mail heading his way in the next week or so and that I'd be over sometime in the next week or so to pick it up and take him to lunch. He mentioned something about beer and fish tacos.....

   Also gave a call back to the Denver area and talked with a friend from my old job. She and I were hired the same week, but she's still not old enough to retire, and still has a kid in high school, so it is going to be a few more years for her yet. Always good to talk to her, but I am so glad to not be doing all of that stuff any more. Don't get me wrong, I really did love my job, I mean come on, they paid me to travel around Colorado to some of the prettiest places in the state. But it still doesn't beat what I am doing now. I still wake up nearly every morning and remember how nice it is that I don't have to go anywhere or do anything I don't want to. I'm so lucky to be able to do what I'm doing now.

    Have been watching a series of movies this past week or so here in the trailer. They are on a boxed DVD set of 'On the Road' movies from the 40's starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour. They really aren't all that great as far as movies go, but what the heck..... they are still a lot of fun.... and Dorothy Lamour still looks mighty fine in a sarong.... or anything else she wears for that matter.

   Will be heading for a private RV place in the town of McIntosh in the morning. Have stayed there several times before and have enjoyed it even though it is a bit run down and seedy looking. It is kind of what you picture 'Old Florida' as looking like. Will only be there for three days before moving back up the road about 20 miles to a State Park just south of Gainsville. I have a two week reservation there so that will take me all the way up to the day I take off and head north for West Virginia for a couple of weeks.

   Actually won't be spending all that much time in McIntosh this time either. There are contra dances down in the Tampa area on both Friday and Saturday night. Since it is more than two hours each way from the trailer, it seemed maybe better to try and find a cheap hotel down in the Tampa area tomorrow night and not try to drive back and forth so much.

    Looking forward to being on the road again tomorrow. I really like this little park where I am at, and will most likely come back here again, but it is always nice to be on the road to new things too.

   Was feeling a bit antsy yesterday and in need of some new(er) scenery, so I loaded up the truck and drove on over to the Ichnetucknee Spring State Park and wandered around on their trails for a couple of hours. I was there last year at about this time and had one of my canoe's with me at that time, so I threw it in the water and spent about 4 hours paddling up, and then back down, the 4 miles or so of river that are in the park. Had a wonderful time of it and got to see many different critters along the way including a ton of turtles, birds and even a family of river otters.

   Didn't get to see that much of the river this time of course, but there were a few access points along the way and I did take a few more pictures. Not enough to really give everyone a feel for what a special place it is though, so I'm posting another batch of photo's today with a few new ones as well as a bunch from last year. Will only be annotating a few of them though.  

    Today has been a bit more low key. Brought one of my propane tanks, I have 2-30 lb ones, in to get it refilled, but the shop here in town was closed today for some reason. Not a big deal as there is still one nearly full tank on the trailer and it takes somewhere between 4 and 6 months for me to go through one of them. Will see if I can get back into town tomorrow though and see if I can't get it filled up and ready to go.

    Also visited the post office and mailed off a couple of things. Still need to hit the grocery store yet on the way out of town as I'm in need of some fresh veggies and fruit again. Otherwise it has been a nice slow day here in Florida.

Itchnetucknee Springs State Park - Dec 4, 2012

 & some from 2011



This is a 'Class A' spring which means it lets out a minimum of 50 million gallons of water per day. In this case it pumps out 65 to 110 million gallons based on how much rain there has been. This year has been pretty good up to about 3 months ago. Still plenty of water to boat on.

 



 



 



 



A white egret.



 



Lot's and lot's of turtles out sunning themselves. They are a little more acclimated to people evidently as a lot of them would stay out until you got quite close.



 



 



 



One of my favorite turtle pictures.

 

 



 



 



 



 



 



 



 The water here is more than 10 feet deep. It is just so clear that it looks like you could wade across it easily.



There are other critters in the park too.

 

    A beautiful day here in mid Florida. Temps up in the 80's, sunny, just a bit of a breeze. To top it all off there was a little bit of a rain shower late this afternoon. It cooled things down to the mid 70's, a perfect temperature to go for a walk. The only down side is that the humidity went through the roof and the under arm protection no longer worked to it's fullest extent.

   It was a great day for a walk though, so that is what I did for several hours this afternoon. I first walked around the county park here for a bit more than an hour and then decided it would be a nice day to head back over to Manatee Springs State Park. Spent several hours there wandering around the spring area and then walking a couple of the hiking trails. Took a bunch of pictures again, mostly of spots I have already shot. But the light was different, the sky was less blue and the colors more pronounced. So as a result there are more pictures of the park below.

   Did stop on the way back to the trailer in order to pick up a few things at a store. Needed to get a couple of mailing envelopes and a box. Otherwise it has been a pretty quite evening here at the trailer.

Manatee Springs State Park - Dec 3, 2012



One of many large 'Live Oaks' in the park, this one isn't all that huge, but I did like the way it all seemed to lean one direction, as if blown by a huge storm.



I finally managed to sneak up on one of the armadillos that seem to be very numerous here in Florida. Based on the size of their head they can't be all that bright, but they do seem to see and hear pretty well so it has been hard to get a decent picture of one of them.



Looking at the site of the actual spring. There were two scuba divers here today and they told me that they could go down almost 120 feet and then horizontally for several hundred feet before it got too narrow to go any farther. Not sure if that is any kind of diving I ever want too do.



This is the actual color of the water. Being crystal clear, and having a white sand bottom, it reflects the sky blue color very well. The darker spots are lines of algae on the bottom.



The red colored leaves are the dead needles on the Bald Cypress trees along the spring run.



One of the divers also told me that there had to be about a thousand 10"-16" long catfish swimming around the deep parts of the pool.

 

A view of some of the 'cypress knees' along the shoreline.



Nice shadows and highlights on the trees along the river.

Looking out towards the intersection between the Spring Run and the Suwannee River. I love how the late afternoon sun shines on the water surface.

Another view showing off the glow on the water surface.

One last view for the day.