Slow, slow morning today. Woke up to a very cold, for this area, day. About 30 degrees outside at sunrise, which just seemed to mean it was a good idea to go back to sleep for another hour or two. Maybe it would warm up a few degrees by nine or so. It did finally warm up to the mid 50's this afternoon, and with the sun shining, and very little wind, it was nice enough to spend some time outside.


    Drove up the highway a couple of miles and into the south portion of Payne's Prairie State Park. I have camped there several times over the years and one of the nice things about it are all the trails they have wandering through the woods. Nothing particularly remarkable about any of them, but they are all well marked so you aren't likely to get lost, and you are never sure what type of wildlife you might see on any particular day. Today there was a good variety, having seen white tail deer, turkeys and armadillos while wandering through the woods, and then out over the prairie part, there were several pairs of sand hill cranes, a couple of osprey, lots of buzzards and a couple different hawks.


   After a couple of hours of walking around out there I went on into the town of Gainsville and did some grocery shopping. Needed some fresh fruit and veggies and a couple other specific items I wanted for some meals I had planned. One involved a couple different types of peppers as well as a piece of pork of some kind so I bought a small pork roast for that. The other meal needed some boneless/skinless chicken thighs, cremeani (sp) mushrooms and some sour cream.


    So tonight, after I made it back to the trailer, and while the movie, 'Ice Age', was playing in the background, I put together a nice big pot of green chili. Roasted both Problano and Serrano chillies over my gas burners, and then put them in a bag to steam the skins off of them while browning the cut up pork roast in some oil along with some onion and garlic. A few spices, a can of chopped tomatoes, some water and an hour or so on the stove and it was ready to eat with a couple of warmed up tortillas. Tasted pretty good to me and I have enough for maybe two more meals. The other meal with be chicken fricassee, but I don't plan on doing that one for a couple more days yet.


   Read a book and a couple magazines this evening as well as caught up with some news on the computer. The RV place here has free WiFi so at least I don't have to go out all the time to find some. It even works pretty well, although I tried to watch a 'This Old House' video and had trouble waiting for all the pauses while it streamed. Guess I shouldn't complain too much though. Right now I think I'll go see about getting some sleep. It is suppose to be even colder tomorrow morning, down around 25 degrees I heard, so I am glad I have some heaters in the trailer with me.