Car Camping, Part Two

Oh wait a minute, the camping part is nearly over--no mind, there's still the morning...

And a very chilly morning it was. Waking just after daylight, I needed to go to the restroom. Putting  my windbreaker over my pajamas, followed by my purple robe, and fluffy blue slippers, I opened the car door to make my way across the little street. With all that on, 34 degrees did not feel bad at all. It felt even more tolerable once Bruce made our morning fire.

Then too, as you can see the sun is beginning to bring its own special warmth. After a nice camp breakfast of eggs, sausage and biscuits, and of course orange juice, we began making preparations to leave. One final spin for me on my bicycle, and we were ready to hit the road, but not before stopping at one of the main features of the park---a very deep ravine, the bottom of which may be reached by a staircase. Maybe staircase isn't the word for concrete steps--don't know. Onward, or downward as this case here:

The photo above this one shows you just how remarkable the plant life in the ravine is--lush, lush, lush, filled with a variety of ferns found nowhere else in the park. That's a little creek you see in the middle, running the length of the ravine. Even more remarkable are the springs literally sprouting from the sides of the ravine flowing into the creek. Yet another picture of yours truly:

Above ground you have pines and some oak trees, below ground, ferns and palms. Super neat.

Rainbow Springs, Bruce's first choice for this little excursion was full. Mind you, he wasn't sure he'd ever seen it before, but there's where he really wanted to go. Well, what was stopping us from at least checking it out? Altering our route, we went West, and then South, following some lovely winding country roads. Not too far from the town of Keystone Heights, we came across the town of Melrose. Should I turn right to discover the Historic District? Of course I should! Stopping at an art gallery along the main road to watch a clay artist at work, we chatted a bit about the town. Although small, she said, there are four art galleries; they were in the midst of preparing for a big art weekend. This cool sign/clock is from there:

Inside the gallery a woman working told me she lives in Gainesville. "Really? I'll be there in two weeks time to do the art show," I said. Enthusiastically, she gushed about what a good show it is....yipee!

Back on the road again, winding, dipping, and climbing, we circled the outside of Ocala affording us a view of the city we'd never seen. Horse capital of the world indeed. Gorgeous horse farms lined the road, neatly encircled by split rail fencing. Terrific!

Finally we saw the sign for Rainbow Springs. Did I mention I was driving this trip? Anyway, RS is a lovely park, despite this funny, what appears to be, homemade sign as you enter.

Attempting to make this as succinct as possible, I left out Thursday's stop at DeLeon Springs, another former  private tourist attraction. Both Rainbow Springs, and DeLeon Springs  brought people from near and far for the submarine tours at the former, and an elephant water skiing at the later. One look at the springs, and you can see why people flocked to Florida:

Above is the swimming area, leading to the Rainbow River on the left. Gardens, with man-made waterfalls, are lovely this time of year with blooming trees and azaleas.

See all that sunshine? Remember the morning temp of 34 degrees? It was almost as if it never happened by the afternoon! So that is just a tiny glimpse of the park, the camp ground turns out to be six miles away! Plus, we had to back track to get there. I have no idea why the campground is so popular because it's practically a parking lot. You guessed it--big RV's with retirees inside! The river is reached by foot, or in our case, bicycles. This was a funny sight until I got closer to see what was going on:

The water, unlike the Suwannee River water, is clear, and I suspect cold this time of the year. On the other hand, perhaps it doesn't change much because of the spring water? Strike this campground off our list!

Onward, this time headed to Lake Louisa State Park outside of Clermont. Some of you know this, some do not--Clermont is where you will find the Florida Citrus Tower, built when we were two years old. Once the tower afforded visitors views of mile after mile of mostly orange trees, now, what with citrus canker, and a couple of freezes, the orange trees are mostly gone. The view these days is of highways and houses. Why the history lesson Gail? To give you a bit of an idea what we saw. Sure, there were big trees and four large lakes, but there were plenty of gnarly old citrus trees as well. Stopping first at this lake, what a funny sight it was to be greeted by the tiny, and I mean tiny dog on the dock,

Where's a dog??? See the tiny speck? The man and his grandson spent all day fishing; of all things, Grandad caught one just as we arrived before 6PM.

The roads are hilly, which is nice, but the campground, to me, not so much. Campers have to park themselves on gravel! Although it was getting late, Bruce asked if I minded if he had a few casts in the lake adjacent to the campground. Of course not! Too bad I didn't say something along the lines of, "honey, I have to get up in the morning, maybe we should just head home," but I didn't. Well, poor Bruce--I'd gone back to the car to get a bottle of water, and what should happen while I was gone, but--and this is a first in all his years of fishing--his pole had the nerve to fly out of his hand, sinking to the bottom of the lake in front of the dock!!!!!!

Pictured above are aquatic plants, which is what Bruce saw when his pole went down. Ever resourceful, he attached two large hooks to his other pole, somehow bringing it back up! Me, I couldn't even see it down there. Whew! Time to head home ASAP!

Unpacked, showered, fed, we slept well in our bed at home. Before I knew it, I was packing again for the Winter Garden market, followed by Sunday at the market, and you are nearly caught up with the comings and goings of Mrs. Camera Crazy. Great weather=great sales.

Monday I drove Bruce to Lake City for his final inspection of the Olive Garden. I can't wait to tell you all about that tomorrow.

Car Camping

Car camping used to be more popular than it is today, but that did not stop us from doing it. We were, as to be expected, the only folks sleeping in their car at the campground, but I did not mind it at all. In fact, it was super fun, albeit chilly. Actually, the temperature was more than chilly, but we were snug as a bug in our Pilot.

Alas, where to begin? How about the journey? You've probably already guessed that we took back roads rather than the interstate. On this kind of trip, with no set schedule, I can't bear to just zoom there, I want to see what there is to see. And see, we did. Google Maps told me the destination, Keystone Heights was 136 miles from home. I made it there in a little more than that, with the only part of their map we used was the actual road the campground was on. Let's just say that if a road had a 4, or a 2 in the designation, we took it. 41, 46, 441, 42 all were traveled, along with 17 and 21. Some of it was familiar to Bruce because he comes from a camping family. I do not. Taking a detour, we made our way to Clearwater Lake, a place where he camped as a youngster. Although he claims not to have much of a memory, don't believe him for one minute. He remembered the place as if it were yesterday. Shady and lovely, the spaces were mostly occupied by Northerners who spend the winter months in our Florida campgrounds, snug as a bug in big RV's. The lake is lovely, surrounded by big pine trees, with a white sandy beach.

An apt name, Clearwater Lake:

very unusual to say the least. Using the journey as a bit of a recognizance mission, he wrote down the numbers of the most appealing campsites. Continuing on, we made our way through Crescent City where we stopped at a cute little antique shop:

Retro indeed. Unlike some shops of this type, everything was beautifully organized with the merchandise easy to see. There were lots of goodies to choose from, but in the end, I chose only one thing:

Isn't it cute? I paid the full price, $12.99, despite my timidly asking if it was the best price. Once home I discovered the price was more than fair for this covered dish from Universal Cambridge, an Ohio company formed in 1934. I need another bowl like I need a hole in the head, but what the heck?

I may not have gone too many miles out of the way, however, as far as time is concerned, instead of arriving at the campground by around 11, it was nearly 2 when we arrived.  The park was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the depression.

In a radio speech from April, 1936, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had this message for the CCC:

"Idle through no fault of your own, you were enrolled from city and rural homes and offered an opportunity to engage in healthful, outdoor work on forest, park, and soil conservation projects of definite practical value to all the people of the nation. The promptness with which yu seized the opportunity to engage in honest work, the willingness with which you have performed your daily tasks and the fine spirit you have shown in winning the respect of the communities in which your camps have been located, merits the admiration of the entire country."

And here we were, 75 years later, engaging in a healthful outdoor activity, thanks to those hard working men. Throughout our countries most recent financial struggles, there have been many who thought reviving this type of work would be beneficial, however, to date, nothing has come of that idea. I wonder if there was such a thing as unemployment checks back then?

A late lunch was quickly consumed. While I was getting that together Bruce went about making the bare spot as cozy as possible. He finds this part very relaxing. The sun was high in the sky, with nary a cloud, making the middle 50's temperature very comfortable. Following lunch we went for firewood at the ranger station. Strict rules, and I mean strict, disallow campers from so much as picking up a twig for kindling! We found some outside the park along the road, filling the bag which previously housed the quilt. Finally we went bicycling to see more of the park. Because of our recent dry summers, we had been told beforehand the main lake was dry with no fish. The kayak stayed home for that very reason, however, there is water there now.

On the other side of the lake, reached by struggling uphill, followed by flying downhill, the cabins built by the CCC are lakeside.

Cute! Not so cute were the other dried up lakes:

Yup, this whole area was once covered by water:

I hate to say it, but we need a hurricane to replenish our lakes and rivers--natures way of achieving balance. Bruce, unlike myself, has not had the time to get his legs in shape for bicycling, so after viewing the area, we headed back to the site. Here's how much room we had in the Pilot:

The two layers of quilt felt very good indeed once the sun went down! Reading and relaxing until dinnertime filled the remainder of the day. Bruce fired up the cookstove and we let the beef stew simmer. Our closest neighbors told us that for the last few nights a family of deers walked through the forest behind our site, however, on our night there, they did not make an appearance. Because we've had so many warm days, it is easy to forget that it is still winter with the trees only just beginning to get their new leaves. I wonder what this will look like in a month?

 Although we didn't need it, Bruce put the shade shelter over the back for practice:

Adjacent to the left side of the picnic table is our bag of kindling which by the time we left was all used up. Dinner on the picnic table--dessert by the fire:

He's charring mine, just how I like it! How about you--charred, or lightly browned?

This all sounds like fun doesn't it? Well it was, but perhaps the most wonderful part of the trip was the sky that night. Earlier I mentioned the cloudless sky. Combine the little crescent moon, add to that  nearly freezing temperatures, along with a remote location---what you have is the perfect recipe for stars.

Never, in my entire 59 years of living, have I seen so many stars. It is no exaggeration to say that the entire sky was filled with points of light! Then too, because there were so many, the sky still looked blue. Bruce used the lantern to read a bit while I gazed at the stars through the car window. I was completely STAR STRUCK! Although we slept comfortably, every now and again when I woke up, I used the opportunity to look at the stars. Guess what? You'll have to take my word on this because I have no photographic evidence, not even a poor shot. Why not? I wussed out--too cold to try to figure it out!

This post has gone on forever hasn't it? Sorry about that, however, there's one final funny story I must relate before I leave you....

As we prepared to go to sleep, Bruce locked the car, for no other reason than that's what city folk do. Turns out, this was not the way to go. Soon after we were snuggled under our covers, the car alarm started blaring! Yikes, where are the keys to shut if off?? Hitting the red button did not one thing to stop the blaring--finally, after hitting all the buttons it stopped. Whew! Wondering what the neighbors in their big RVs were thinking about those crazy car campers we once again snuggled up. Not so fast Gail and Bruce. A few minutes later it happened again!! After shutting it off, it happened AGAIN! A lesson for future car-campers out there--do not lock your vehicle when you are in it! By the way, I was giggling like a school girl--Bruce was not.

Stay Tuned!

Forgive the blank space in the blogosphere as far as Camera Crazy is concerned this past week. Either I've been traveling or working...

Here's a sneak preview of what comes next:

Thank you dear readers,
Gail

Frugalista

Do you think Mama Cardinal looks pregnant yet?

Isn't she adorable? Although I thought the recent visits to the Nuttery a few weeks ago signaled nesting season, to date I've been wrong. However, with a blog history such as mine, I see that it shouldn't be long until, once again, I'll be peeping into the Lady Palms, looking for a nest!

I wish I could tell you that Mr. Bruce is excited about his pending retirement, but if I did so, it would not be the truth. What he is feeling is more along the lines of "what will we do without a steady paycheck?" I keep reassuring him that we will be fine just as we've always been. If we had lived our lives waiting to do things until we had money we would never have had four children I can tell you that much! In the spirit of what I've just told you, I am now having to adjust myself to having another frugalista in the house. One is more than enough! Whereas before he hardly looked at the price of a purchase, now he's doing some comparison shopping. Just last night he returned from Wal Mart with some bags of Smarties, the candy I give out when I'm out selling. "Do you know how much I got these for?" Yep, I do because that is where I prefer to buy them when they are in stock. Lately, however, I've had to resort to Walgreens where they cost about 75 cents a bag more which doesn't seem like much, but when you give out as many as I do, it all adds up.

While Bruce does still have a paycheck we are getting things done. Among them was the eye exam we both had at Costco on Monday afternoon. I'm still good to go, his prescription has changed a little bit. New glasses are in the works. I'd made arrangements with Sarah to stop by Sun Dance on our way so Bruce could see the operation. I knew he'd be just as impressed as I was when I took the tour some months ago. Graciously, we were shown around the facilities. Here a guy is using some sort of cutting machine:

And here, pictured on the upper left, Sarah is showing him some of the products they produce:

Sweet, sweet, Alejandra is pictured on your right. As you can see Sarah doesn't have long until her next baby is born!

My sunglasses broke on our way to Costco. Well, more accurately, while pulling them out of my handbag they broke, so we stopped at Ross on our way home for a replacement. Except, in our new shared frugal existence, I bought four pairs for the price of one.

Seriously, can you believe how cheap they were? Who has ever heard of a pair of sunglasses for 99 cents?? This little $9 purchase should last a long time!

This is sounding really kooky isn't it?

With nothing really in mind for dinner, I looked around the kitchen to see what I could fix. Why, how about cabbage soup?

Kathy, our market neighbor, asked if I wanted a cabbage from their garden on Sunday. Apparently, they are nearly cabbaged-out following their bountiful harvest. As a child I hated cabbage with a passion. Why? Our school cafeteria cooked it to death, basically turning it into green slime. And then there was the smell! That said, somewhere along the line I tried cooking it myself, and I fell in love with cabbage. This is my first attempt at cabbage soup, and by golly it was pretty darn tasty.

Potatoes, some left over corn, diced carrots, along with some celery and onions gave it more flavor. This would make a nice vegan meal had I not put the chopped bacon on top. A rainy, dreary day, made it the perfect lunch yesterday.

And the frugal ways continue as we leave in the morning for a little overnight camping trip to Gold Head Branch State Park in Keystone Heights, Florida. Never heard of it? Neither had I until Bruce found it in one of his books. Four years have passed since our last camping adventure which is just plain shocking to me. It is going to be super cold however, as in overnight lows in the middle 30's! Once again we are going to sleep in the car which sounds super weird, but isn't. The Element was comfortable, the Pilot will be more so because it is roomier. Using the little mattress from our fold up bed, we'll be nice and cozy. The cost for the campground? $20. The gas will cost way more than that! Despite the cold, I'm looking forward to seeing a part of Florida that neither of us have ever visited before.

In not so frugal news, our bike rack did not fit the Honda, thus a spiffy new one that hooks into the trailer hitch made its way to our driveway yesterday afternoon. I can hardly wait to ride my bicycle on the small hills there, in what should be brilliant sunshine, and coolish temperatures. Sounds perfect, right?

Trying to remember how we did use our old bike rack that time, I went back into my photo library to check it out. While there I found this photograph of what our home looked like back then, before the tree had to be removed. Made me a little sad...

Of course, had the tree never been removed, I would not have my bird obsession because the tree was so gigantic I never could see what they were doing up there. Although I was tired of that color scheme, looking back on it now, I wonder why?

I'm sick of this frugal stuff, aren't you? Let's do some nature shall we?

Just when I thought I would never see my eagle again, Monday morning, as I was nearing the home with the tree, he flew right over me!!! Parking my bike in their driveway, I ran into the backyard to get a shot. He did not stay for long, taking off for parts unknown.

In my last post I mentioned my gerbera daisy, but did not show you the evidence--well, here it is:

Lo and behold, here's what it looked like after yesterday's rain:

I'm pretty darn excited to tell you the truth because I thought it would never bloom again!

Most of yesterday afternoon was spent signing prints, new ones, and replacements for those sold. Here's a stack which represents what I sold over the weekend.

Unbelievable. Who knew I could make something of this? As we were leaving Sun Dance Bruce remarked that they all loved me. "Really, is that the impression you got?" It is all like a dream sometimes....

I've made a little fun of our frugal ways, but really, it is the smart thing to do, whether you have a steady paycheck, or not. Using resources at your disposal, re-using, smart shopping, these are practices everyone would do well to adopt; perhaps our economy wouldn't be in the mess it is, if, both private citizens, and our governments got into being frugal!

A Tale of Lost and Found

Or perhaps, better said as, left and recovered.

First thing is this: I'm having a heck of a time with my keyboard, so I'm going to do the best I can with the post before it goes haywire once again. The good news is, I still have some months left on my Apple Care, and if all goes according to plan, I should have a new one later today. Or, so I hope.

Friday evening a friend of mine was doing a live art demonstration, as well as a showing, at a gallery at Pointe Orlando, a big place on International Drive, otherwise known as the tourist strip of Orlando. Because we had a gift card to Capital Grille, located in the same general area, I thought it would be a great evening out. And it was. Renee looked super, the gallery swank, and the weather ideal.

For our evening out I decided to dress up a bit, wearing a purple dress Bruce likes, high heels (gasp!), and instead of my usual handbag, I carried a small clutch. Bruce, on the other hand, was all set to wear jeans, in fact, he had them on, when I requested he wear nice clothes as well. This middle-aged couple looked pretty darn nice.

So far, so good. Seated in one of the private dining rooms, we enjoyed our luxurious meal with a lovely bottle of Sequoia Grove, a winery we visited all those years ago in Napa Valley. I mentioned the purse earlier because, no matter how small my Olympus is, there is no room for it in a clutch. I took it because I wanted a few photos of Renee, so once that was done, I set it on the floor adjacent to my chair which was against a wall. And that is where it remained once we left the restaurant....

Of course I did not realize that until Saturday morning while preparing my bag for the market. Trying not to panic, I searched the house, and then it sunk in. Immediately, following my departure for Winter Garden, Bruce drove out there only to discover they do not open for lunch on Saturday. To make a long story short, eventually, we found out that, indeed, it was turned in and was waiting for me in the safe. Whew! I would say that I'll never do that again, however, never is a pretty big word. I HOPE I never do that again!

We certainly have had all kinds of weather this month. Rain out, freezing temperatures, and this Saturday I got a sunburn! In another location this week, I was out in the bright sunshine all day. Not without a benefit however, as sales were pretty darn good. Plus, the Goldsmiths picked up their Stik figure canvases and were as pleased as punch.

Joseph Martens is performing for the crowd, which got larger as the day progressed. Don't those bright green trees look awesome??

For Christmas Jonathan got us season one of Mad Men which we finished watching Saturday night--what a show! I'll be looking for the rest of the seasons at the library. Next I think we'll dive into Downton Abbey and see what all the fuss is about.

Sunday was beautiful. I met some new folks, I talked to some folks I know. This little girl was playing a little hide and seek in my booth before I turned my camera on to her:

She asked if she could try my camera, so making sure it fit securely in her hands, I posed and this is what she got:

Almost made it! Despite our weather challenges, March has gotten off to a great start. Between both markets I believe I sold 46 items---lucky gal that I am.

I have a scad of prints with some sort of heart theme, mostly because it's worked out that way. This swan nearly fits the bill in that regard, although my dear readers are the only ones who will ever see it.

Neat isn't it?

The other morning during my bike ride I came across a lovely shade of Gerbera daisy growing in someone's garden:

Which reminds me, my solo gerbera plant is fixing to bloom again, very surprising indeed because it was in the ground for nearly a year before it did so, and that was around Christmas. Happy days.

I made it! The keyboard worked perfectly, until it won't once again.

Breakfast time for this blogger....

A Man and His Dog

Have you washed your hairbrush or comb lately? I hadn't either, until last week, when it finally occurred to me that it might be a good idea. And it was. Just saying.....

Visiting the cemetery the other day, I discovered that my parent's joint headstone has a flower opening in the top which looked pretty sad as an empty vessel. Of course, that's saying something right there, but in this life, it looked naked. My mother used to say, "so and so would be rolling over in their grave," a common enough saying for sure, and if somehow she saw me on Wednesday, she might just be rolling over herself because I went to the Dollar Store and bought some fake flowers. Yep, I did.

Next thing I'll be heading over to clean that black stuff off of my Father's grave. Probably not, but there are folks that get pretty carried away with this graveside, dare I say, decoration?

Seeing downtown through the trees is a pretty nice feature of this city-owned cemetery:

While shopping at the Dollar Store, as it was a super windy day, this pinwheel caught my eye. Somehow, the shutter speed was so fast it looks still, when in fact, it was spinning like mad, causing Baxter who had gotten too close for a sniff, to scoot away mighty quick!

He's still sporting his little kerchief from his grooming which was sorely needed. Everytime I vow to be better about scheduling his appointment, and never follow through. I'm lucky she calls me.

The alarm went off at 6 AM yesterday morning, early enough for me to drag myself up and into the shower for my 7AM appointment at the Honda dealership. A call from Honda last week, saying the airbag in the Pilot can suffocate the driver, forced me into it. Once I learned from the service advisor that it might take upwards of four hours, I decided getting in there early was for the best. I canceled my bridge game, which turned out to be unnecessary because around 9:30 I heard my name called and not a minute too soon for me. I'm so accustomed to silence that between the constant blaring from both a tv and overhead music, not to mention all the sales guys having their morning pep talk, I was about to go crazy. Turning my keys over to the service guy earlier, he asked me if I wanted a car wash as well. What kind of question is that? Who doesn't want someone else to wash their car???

I convinced Bruce to quit working a little after 4 in the afternoon so he could spend some time out on the lake. I was lounging around watching the golf tournament. Dressing in a sweatshirt and jeans, he took my advice. My lounging lasted about an hour and then I went into the kitchen to prepare our dinner, something I'm so looking forward to doing on a regular basis soon. As the sun was just beginning to set, I put Mr. Baxter on his leash and walked down to the lake with my camera slung over my shoulder. Finding Bruce near the shoreline, he said he was just about ready to call it a night. Mr. Baxter was going haywire, going so far as to step into the lake a wee bit, barking for him to come in now! Bruce is such a softie when it comes to Baxter, so you know what happened next.

Once on shore, he told me he saw two otters in the lake! I haven't been out on it for years now; ever since Bruce got his kayak, the canoe has remained on the rack in the backyard. It must have been a cute sighting. After dinner we studied some Florida guidebooks; we're thinking about taking a couple day trip next week, nothing definite yet, but we're in discussion.

Oh, I forgot to tell you about this cute little table I found on sale at Pier One:

I love having a couch on both sides of the room, however,  not having anywhere to set a drink has made it less than ideal to sit on the couch in the foreground. It's small ,but perfect. Plus, it has a little birdie on a branch. :)

One of my facebook friends, formerly from Flickr, lives in Massachusetts, and is a few years younger than I am. She's gone back to school, and regularly posts about her travails in mathematics. Obviously, I can feel her pain. Going back years and years in my blog history, I sent her this, hoping to encourage her. Once she read it, she asked me how I was feeling these days? Good, thank you very much. Telling her, that now, it all seems like it happened to someone else. That said, when I read the post I felt sad for me back then, and am doubly grateful to be feeling "right as rain" these days.

The clock tells me it is time to go pick up my prints. Thinking ahead to the Gainesville show, I ordered more than usual, so you know what I'll be doing for the rest of the afternoon.

Thanks for reading!
Gail