Am afraid I have been a bit lax these last few days, finding lots of other things to do other than sit down and write. Most of it has been just quiet  time spent walking or reading books. But on Tuesday I hopped in the truck and drove a couple hours south to Tampa. Met up with my friends, Tom and Donna, from Denver, there for lunch. They had flown in for a couple of days to be with her father on his birthday, and it was fun to spend an hour or so with them eating fish tacos while looking out the windows at the water. Unfortunately, it was only a couple of hours there before I turned around and headed back up the highway to the trailer. I did stop a couple times along the way to wander around some, but it was for the most part just an easy and pleasant drive there and back. 
   Yesterday I drove into Gainsville and took in an afternoon movie. Went and saw the new 'Hunger Games' movie that came out a few weeks ago. Really well done as far as acting and the actual filming goes. I found the plot rather disturbing, but then, I think that is what the author had in mind when she wrote the original book. Well worth going to see though, especially if you have seen the two movies leading up to this one.
    I also got all of my Christmas wrapping done yesterday morning, so I was able to take them in and get them mailed on the way into town. It worked out perfect as there was absolutely no line at the Post Office when I got there. I was surprised though when the clerk said my envelope and one small box was going to cost more than $20. I just kept asking him what he had that was cheaper until I got him down to about $8, with the idea that it would get there by the 16th instead of the 13th.
    Today has been busy in packing up the trailer and the truck in preparation to heading north tomorrow morning. Got all my tools out of the front of the trailer and packed in the back seat of the truck and then put all the trailer stuff, spare tire, hitch stuff, hoses and such in the trailer. I also took some time to flush the black and grey tanks several times this afternoon. I had the time, plenty of water and a full sewer hook up so it was pretty easy even if it did take a little bit of time. There will still be one final flush in the morning, but it should be good to go after that.
   Still need to get a few more clothes together tonight and pack them away. It has taken me some time to round up my cold weather clothes as they were scattered throughout the trailer. There aren't a lot of coats and such, but there should be more than enough as long as I don't have to sleep outside at all.
    Also need to clean out the rest of the fridge and freezer in the morning and take all of that stuff with me to Virginia. There isn't a whole lot of stuff to take, but I would rather use it up than throw it away.
    The one other thing left to do is to shave and grab a shower yet this evening as well as do all the dishes. It will be a lot easier for me to do it this evening rather than at O-dark thirty in the morning. Not sure when I will get around to writing the next post as the next few days will be very busy. But one final thing for today; in keeping with the TBT, 'Throw Back Thursday' posts on Face Book, here is a picture of me from 1981.

As I said, this is sometime around June of 1981. I'm on a 70+ day canoe trip down the Missouri river from Ft Benton Montana to Sioux City Iowa with 4 other friends. As I recall it actually snowed on us at this campsite and it didn't really get warm until about two weeks later when we were several hundred miles down river. We really didn't care however, we were having too much fun.