March 30, 2014

Little Manatee River State Park

Wimauma, FL

Just after breakfast, as I was putting the finishing touches on the stuffed shells I prepped for dinner, there was a knock on our door.  It was Chris, one of the rangers we are going to working with.  He informed us that the site that would be our home for the next two months was available because the volunteers who had the site left a day early.  

We got packed quickly.

 Monte rolled up our area rug.

While I got the inside squared away, Monte worked on the outside.

Camp Granada, 

the name given to the volunteer camp, is located down a dirt road leading to the maintenance area. 

Each site is separated by split rail fence.  

They are quite generous in size and as an added bonus contain a patio with a picnic table.

Because we are going to be in the site for two months, set-up took a little longer than it would have if we were only going to be here a few days.

 Monte used his new tool he found recently on Craig’s List to aid in setting up the satellite.  

 

 

 

 I tried coaxing Anne outside.

 She wouldn't budge-I think maybe she got spooked when the neighbor's dog came over to visit earlier. 

March 29, 2014

Little Manatee River State Park

Wimauma, FL

We woke up to rain and after watching weather alerts about tornadoes stayed close to home most of the day.

In the late afternoon the rain let up enough for us to venture out driving a few miles to Winn Dixie and Walmart. 

On the way home it began raining again.  

We spent the rest of the afternoon watching movies.  Just before sunset the sun actually came out so we went for a walk around the campground.  When we followed the path for the amphitheater, we discovered there was a ranger program in progress.  So we stayed –big mistake because we became dinner for the mosquitoes.

March 28, 2014

Little Manatee River State Park

Wimauma, FL

Moving Day. 

After four months staying at the same park we are definitely ready to move on. 

While I got the inside ready, Monte took care of all the outside chores including bringing the slides in and out a few times to get all the water off the slide toppers.  

He also had to rearrange things in the bed of the truck before he could hitch up.

Dumping.

My parents stopped by for a final visit and to see how we prep for departure.

Last month we had new landing gear installed.  When Monte saw how flimsy the pins were that came with the landing gear he purchased heavy duty pins.  

Once we were hitched up Monte installed the new pins.

One last pit stop before leaving.

One last hug.

After the short one hour drive we arrived at Little Manatee River State Park, our new home for the next two months. 

Beginning on April 1, we will be working and staying at the maintenance area. The current maintenance volunteers are not leaving until Sunday so we given a site in the camp ground for the weekend. 

Monte had a little difficulty getting into the site because of the soft sand. 

When we were finally situated to his satisfaction, it didn’t take long to do a partial set up. 

I crossed my fingers as we turned on our roof mounted satellite dish hoping to get a signal so we didn’t have to set up the tripod mounted satellite.  To my relief we were able to get a strong signal. 

(We had originally planned on traveling east this spring, summer and fall all the way to Maine, BUT something, that I can't reveal at this time, occurred that caused us to change our plans.  So for the time being we will not be venturing too far.)

March 27, 2014

Tampa, FL

We had an appointment in Tampa scheduled for 2PM.  It was just drizzling when we left Englewood but by the time we crossed over the Sunshine Bridge it was coming down hard. 

 

Luckily the rain let up a little when we stopped at the rest area.

After a delicious sliced pork sandwich at Jimbo’s, 

 we took a ride around Hyde Park because we still had 40 minutes to kill before our appointment.

 Hyde Park is a neighborhood that dates back to the 1880s and has several different styles of beautiful houses including Queen Anne, Tudor, Classical Colonial and my favorite, Bungalow.  

After driving up and down a few streets we drove along Bayshore Boulevard for a few miles.

Luckily our appointment was done earlier than anticipated and we were back on the highway before the start of rush hour.

On our way back home we stopped at my brother’s house for some homemade soup and biscuits.  YUM!

March 26, 2014

Englewood, FL

Just when we got lulled into thinking that winter-like weather was behind us it got cold again.  Granted, compared to some of our northern neighbors who are getting snowed in our weather is not really that bad.  But it was cold enough here last night for us to use a couple of extra blankets on the bed.

Monte spent the morning going through some of his folders to see what he could get rid of and our cat Annie was right there “helping” him.

 

 

We took a ride to Walmart to pick up a few items.  I was impressed by the array of beautiful flowers they had on display at the entrance.

 

In the afternoon, Monte began doing some pre-departure prep.

Bikes secured on the rack--check 

 

Portable ladder secured on rear ladder-check 

 

Monte uses a pulley system to lift our gray tank onto the ladder

 

 

 

Gray tank stored and secured-check 

Bike cover zipped up-check

We have an appointment in Tampa that is going to take up almost the entire day on Thursday so the rest of our packing will have to wait until our planned departure day on Friday.  Luckily we are only traveling one hour so we won't have to rush packing up but we are crossing our fingers for nice weather as there is a 50% chance of rain.