Lake Louisa, Day Three

What a great weekend! We have had perfect weather for being outside. It might have approached eighty today, but the humidity has been low. Barbara and Jocelyn went canoeing before lunch as planned. The wind was blowing strong enough that we elected to rent the canoe from the dock on the upwind side of Lake Dixie where they could paddle in the sheltered lee of the trees on the upwind bank. Yesterday I wrote that there were three lakes in the park. I was way off. There are six lakes and several good-sized ponds; all fishable.

While the ladies were paddling I took time to do a little RV work. I installed the remaining elements of a battery watering system. This motorhome has three deep cycle batteries for the “house”. All lighting in the RV is 12 volt, as are fans, the furnace, and other accessories. They are powered by the batteries, which are charged by 110 volt shore power when hooked up in a campground. When stopped in areas without electrical hookups we would run off batteries alone, or run the generator. These batteries are “wet”, which means they are lead acid batteries that require occasionally adding water to them. Remember the days when your car did not have “maintenance free” batteries? Same thing. These batteries are on a pull out tray, but it is hard to get to the middle and back battery. What I installed today amounts to new caps for the battery cells and connecting tubing. A squeeze bulb is then used to pump distilled water from a container through these new caps by way of the tubing and stopping when the water reaches the proper level. The job is easier which means it will be more likely to be accomplished routinely and the batteries will be happier and last longer.

After working on the RV and packing up some of the things that we were not going to need again I drove back to Lake Dixie to collect Barbara and Jocelyn. They had a ball. It turns our Jocelyn is a nature paddler and picked up on the paddling techniques right away. She says she learned by watching the summer Olympics! Go figure!

Returning through Mugwomp Swamp

We did the campout ritual of grilling hot dogs for lunch. We could not let Jocelyn miss out on that! After a little napping we headed out for an afternoon hike. It was a nice circuit and brought us more spider and deer sightings. No deer pictures this time, they were too quick to run deeper into the woods. The spiders were slower.

They turned out to be Black and Yellow Garden Spiders according to the Florida Audubon book. I sure am happy they aren’t in my garden. These suckers are big!

Disregard the portion of the track in red. We were almost a mile down the road in the car before I remembered to fish the phone out of my pocket and stop the App from recording our hike. When I did it congratulated us on “our fastest 5K to-date”. Little does it know.

We returned to camp as the sun was setting. THAT is sure happening early these days! Jocelyn got in another round of quizzing with the math flash cards for homework before packing up for the ten-minute ride home.

Barbara and I are now enjoying the relative quite of an evening to our selves. Tomorrow we return the motorhome to the barn and return to our normal routine. Lake Louisa State Park is great and has a wonderful campground. It should be on your list of places to visit if you are coming to the Orlando area and like the outdoors.

Lake Louisa, Day Two

After a leisurely morning and enjoying a nice cup of coffee and some cinnamon raison toast we set off on the first of two nice hikes. We circled around Hammond Lake and started around Dixie Lake. We were watching for wildlife, but there was not much in evidence other than a few vultures circling us. I know I am old, but I am not that old. 

Dixie Lake

Hammond Lake

We did see a whole lot of what should be the official State Critter here in Florida. FIRE ANTS!!! God, they were everywhere. Saw some pretty big spiders, too. Sorry the pictures of them are poor. They were about the size of my little finger! Sure made me happy to NOT be camping in a tent.

  

The shorter legged among us started to balk. Barbara and Nia (who has the shortest legs but four of them) continued on around Dixie while Jocelyn and I returned to get the car and meet Barbara at the canoe launching area.

While Barbara and Nia got at least three miles in, Jocelyn and I got a little over two miles. Poor Nia was so pooped she needed help up the steps into the motorhome.

Yep, there is an App for that.

While the girls rested I decided to try the honey wagon. I got it out of the storage compartment, hooked it up, and then carefully opened the grey water discharge valve. No leaks! I got most of the water out of the tank without filling the tote completely, and then stowed the hose. Still no leaks and no mess! It was a couple hundred-yard pull to the dump station and I felt like a little kid pulling my wagon. Only in this case the wagon weighed in at about 150 pounds. This model of tote can be pulled slowly with the car, but it would require adding the hitch and ball to the car and I did not want to bother. If it were a longer haul I would have considered it.

Once at the dump station I extended the discharge hose and gravity did the rest. It worked pretty well, but I could see that a 90-degree fitting would be handy for the end of the hose to allow it to mate better with the sewer opening. As it was there was a little leaking as I held the hose end near, but not in, the opening.

After lunch we headed over to the beach at Lake Louisa to hike the nature trail. It was another nice walk, but there was not much nature to observe. We did come across a fitness trail, though. At one station the idea was to hop over some elevated boards. Jocelyn was hopping onto the boards, so Barbara stepped in to show her how it is done.

And here comes the wind-up.

Just two more!

In the car on the way back to camp we finally saw a deer.

Tomorrow the ladies plan to rent a canoe to paddle on Dixie Lake.

Lake Louisa State Park, FL

We are treating Barbara’s grandniece Jocelyn to a weekend of camping. We brought the RV to Lake Louisa State Park outside Clermont, FL and got set up. When all was ready Barbara drove over to Jocelyn’s to pick her up after school. Lake Louisa State Park is only a few minutes south of Clermont. Right in Jocelyn’s backyard, really, but she does not get a chance to get out like this often. So, we thought we would create something of an adventure for her.

The campground has about fifty RV sites on three different loops. Each loop is supported with a clean modern bathhouse, and there are two dump stations. The sites are nice sized and foliage has now grown to the point that there is some privacy between the sites since we were last here.

All tucked in on Site 41

Two families in a trailer next door now. Still plenty private

Not all the sites have sewer hookups so this might be the trip that I test the honey wagon we bought earlier in the year. Our grey water holding tank does not get us much further than three days if we shower. The honey wagon hooks to the holding tank dump valve and allows us to discharge 18 gallons of waste. We then tow it to the dump station to be emptied. Making interim trips with the wagon allows us to leave the RV in place longer. Braking camp to drive the RV to the dump station every other day or so is avoided.

For her part, Jocelyn is foregoing modern electronic entertainment and left her games and such at home. We are entertaining ourselves with music and reading this evening.

Roughing it in the woods!

Tomorrow we will do hikes and other outdoor stuff so I should be able to get you more pictures of the park. It is pretty large, actually. There are three lakes, horse trails, about 25 miles of hiking trails, and of course the campground.

Virginia Tech vs. Miami

Drove to Miami today with a quick stop at the Fort Lauderdale airport to pick up my son, Chris. Chris had scored two great tickets to see Virginia Tech play the University of Miami in this week’s Thursday night football game. He also used Marriott loyalty program points to get a terrific hotel room at the Turnbury Marriott in Miami.

Our room was the third balcony down

After checking in at the hotel and spending a little time sitting by the pool we headed for Sun Life Stadium for a little tailgating. We had a cooler full of beer, but the majority of fans around us had elaborate setups. Many had tent like canopies, BBQs, tables & chairs, and some even had generators powering who knows what.

Chris on the tailgate

Once in the stadium we found or seats. We were only four rows up behind the visitor’s bench. Great seats.

Unfortunately the game did not go our way, and the Hokies lost. This has been a sad season, and the first losing season since I started following them. They meet another Florida team next Thursday night: Florida State. FSU has been doing very well this year so I suppose it will be another disappointment. Just the same, we will be in front of the TV rooting them on.

We returned to Orlando Friday afternoon and enjoyed a little home time with Chris before driving him to the Tampa airport Saturday afternoon for his trip home to Dallas.

Thank you Lisa and Jack for sharing him with us this week!

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.