Trick or Treat!

We broke camp early Wednesday to head home to defend the castle against the goblins Halloween night. The departure was not uneventful. Barbara had driven the car over to the dump station and I was to follow in the coach. As I weaved my way out of the narrow space I was able to use the mirrors to remain clear of the palm trees. Except the part of the leaning tree that was not visible in the mirror. The tree curved into the road well off the ground, but not high enough for me to avoid leaning against it in my turn out of the campsite. I ended up rubbing the awning cover pretty hard. I was able to reach Barbara and she came back to help with the intricate guiding needed to back away from the tree and try again. The cover is a little deformed but appears to be functional. We will find out when we try to put it out when we wash the coach next week.

We got home in time to get the decorations back up that we had taken down due to the high winds.

Nia enjoyed greeting the kids. As it started to get dark her eyes lit up just like our mummy? After several groups of kids Nia was pooped!

The kids seemed to have a good time, and we enjoy making it fun for them.

Fort Desoto, Day Two

It’s our second day at Fort Desoto, and the wind is still blowing like stink. Our campsite is cozy. That is being nice. It is actually very tight and it took us several minutes to work our way in. Barbara does a great job as a ground guide in these situations and we work together pretty well since I have been well trained at doing what she tells me.

We were to have friends over for dinner, so we set up a sitting area outside even though the wind was a bit chilly. As it turned out we spent the whole evening inside.

Barbara’s cousin Patty and her partner Jan came over and we had two sailing couples over as well. The coach did a nice job of handling dinner for eight. Good food, good friends, good times! 

Jan, Ted, Pete and Pam

Linda, Patty, and Jan

 Thank you Patty, Jan, Pete, Pam, Linda and Ted for making it such a fun evening.

Fort Desoto Park, FL

Well, we are finally on the road again. Home repairs and dental work messed up the travel budget over the summer. That may have been just as well considering the price of fuel over that period, but we would have liked to get a few motorhome trips in.

We are taking a quick trip to Fort Desoto Park in Pinellas County. This is one of our favorite parks. The camping spaces are separated by foliage ye open up on water so you have privacy and a view. The staff keeps everything maintained very well, too. This is definitely a park to visit if you are in the St. Petersburg area. Entrance to the park and its highly rated beach used to be just 50 cents, but recently they have started charging $5.00 per car. If you are camping here that daily charge is included in your camping fee. I think the $5 charge is certainly still a bargain. This is a large park with several miles of wonderful beach and there is a boat ramp for access to the Tampa Bay and Gulf for fishing. The park is on Mullet Key, but the waters surrounding the park are filled with smaller keys so that it is a terrific place for kayaking.

We are here to see how Nia (our rescue Golden Retriever) deals with being on the road in the motorhome and, more importantly, how she deals with the other dogs in the campground. Nia has issues with other dogs because neighbor dogs attacked her when she was younger. Fort Desoto places all campers with pets in a separate area. This places more dogs in a close area than would be experienced in other parks. If she can handle things here she will be OK elsewhere.

Once we got the coach set up we took Nia to the shore. There is a dog beach here, but she would go nuts with the other dogs so we found a quite area where we could walk her near, but not on, the beach. Barbara took this opportunity to look for shells and beach glass. While there we found two sailboats anchored close-in in the lee of Mullet Key to ride out the high winds we are experiencing this week. 

While we have not gotten a direct hit from hurricane Sandy, we have had a good bit of wind for several days now. With the lower humidity, these winds have created a severe fire situation. Crazy, the northeast is getting a deluge and the southeast is holding its breath in hopes that wildfires will not break out.

After our outing I fired up the grill for sausages and peppers for dinner. Fantastic!

We finished the evening with the girls watching DWTS. Can’t miss that, even on the road.

What is going on around home

I thought I would bring you up to date on some of the goings on around the home front. Barbara is a volunteer at the Golden Retriever Rescue of Central Florida. We are also a foster for this group. Our first foster, Nia, is a wonderful older dog with a couple of issues that have had her pronounced “un-adoptable”. Her age and thyroid condition hamper adoption, but she is also very afraid of other dogs. Together, these issues became a problem for adopting families. We stepped in and adopted her officially, so now Nia is a part of the family. She is a very loving dog and is great with people and children. Dogs, not so much, but we are working on it. She was attacked a couple of times by a neighbor dog when she was younger, and in fact has some scars on her head.

Nia had her eleventh birthday last week.

I reached a milestone, also! I consumed my 50^th different beer at World of Beer in Orlando. For that I was awarded a T-shirt. At one hundred I get a small plaque on their wall. Hey, a guy needs to have goals!

We also took Nia to the motorhome for an introduction. Just like a woman, she jumped right into the driver seat. Such a control freak.