It is really starting to cool down here now that the sun has gone down for the day. The weather guy is saying that it will be in the low 20's by morning. More than cool enough to freeze pretty much everything. So in preparation I took some time and drained the 3 tanks I have here on the trailer, the two grey water and one black water tank. I also turned off the water and unhooked the hose and drained it. Also pumped the lines nearly dry and then turned both of my space heaters on to keep the inside warm enough to keep it unfrozen.
    I grabbed the truck this afternoon and took a drive over to Chiefland just because I was bored. In the back of my mind was the possibility of having the oil in the truck changed while there, but once I reached the Wally World where I have had it done before, the clerk there wasn't having a very good day, so I just passed on that idea. I try to never buy anything from unhappy people, it just seems like you shouldn't start out with bad karma on anything.
   So I turned around and made a big loop back through Ocala where I had some Chinese food for lunch before heading back to the trailer.
   I'm just going to finish this up before turning everything off and settling down to reading my book some more. So with that in mind; here are yet more pictures from last weeks dance on St Croix. Would sure like to have some of that warm weather right now.

St. Croix Contra Dance Week - February 2015

Day trip to Botanical Gardens.

Like pretty much everything on the island the botanical gardens were once part of a large sugar cane plantation. As such there are still a few of the original buildings from that era still standing including this one which was once the head slave master, or 'Bomba', house.

There are a lot of plants and flowers there that I haven't seen anywhere else including this vine like plant growing up one of the old walls.

Moving back you see what the whole vibrant shrub or vine looks like.

A little red puff ball.

Throughout my life I have had split leaf philodendrons as house plants, and always felt proud when one would put out a new leaf or two. So it is a little disconcerting to see one that is semi wild growing more than 50 feet up into a tree and doing just fine with out me around to look after it.

Rima and her new braids. The lady who originally did them came back two days before we were to leave and redid them for her so that they would look good for her trip home.

An old anvil outside of what was once the blacksmith shop.

My sister Cheryl and her partner Mary.

A Kapok tree. These trees provide a light weight water resistant material that was once used to make life jackets before foam ones were invented. My experience with them was that they worked fine as long as the material was contained in a water tight bag, but as soon as the kapok got wet it no longer held you up, but actually got so heavy it wouldn't float any more. No what you really want in a life jacket.

This plant just looked neat.

Cheryl and Mary again. Looking pretty cute.

One more.

A pleasant little wooden bridge over a small stream or 'gut' as they called them on the island.

These ruins were once part of the rum factory on this plantation. The walls are made of coral blocks that were sawed out of formations along the coast. The blocks were, and still are, held together using a paste of crushed shells, (limestone), sand and molasses. Believe it or not is seems to work pretty well.

Another tropical flower I don't know the name of.

Another building there in the gardens. This one is interesting because a portion of it has a group of fruit bats that roost in one of the rooms. It really stinks in there.

The last photo for today... a very nice hibiscus flower.

brk*