Lake Placid #2

We left Lake Manatee State Park near Bradenton, FL on Saturday the 21st and came back to Bob & Sandy White's in Lake Placid. We call their place the "White Folks Lake June RV Resort"!

Sunday we went to church again with Bob & Sandy and then to Bob Evans Restaurant in Sebring (if you check back, you will see this is a repeat -- they serve breakfast all day and we love it!).

Monday we all went to Ft Myers for the day. Went to an RV dealer and looked at some new motorhomes, to BassPro looking at guns, and to a fantastic seafood restaurant, The Shrimp Shack, for a late lunch. On the way back we saw a dead 'gator' lying in the emergency lane and Bob (being an FSU alum & diehard) allowed that there were probably some Seminoles hiding nearby that had something to do with that.

Tuesday was a work day -- LaVerne borrowed Sandy's washer & dryer and took care of some laundry. I helped Bob work on his sprinkler system. The well diggers from a couple of weeks ago had dug up a couple of the sprinkler lines and we found and replaced the broken sections.

After working all day on the sprinklers, we went to a local restaurant called Schoonie's for their Tuesday night special - $1 tacos! Delicious!

Wednesday was movie day -- We had heard from a few folks about the movie "Do You Believe", so we went to see it in Sebring early in the afternoon. It was really good and we would recommend it to everyone! Back to Schoonie's for supper - fried chicken wings night, 45 cents apiece. Later we went with Bob & Sandy to their small group Bible study - here's a picture of two beautiful ladies headed out!

There are several resident Sandhill Cranes in Lake Placid. One lady seems to have about 4 of them in her yard all the time - we know she must feed them. Also, there is a pair (male & female as God ordained) that has a young chick (cranelett?) that just roam around through the neighborhood. We saw them several times - once they came through Bob & Sandy's front yard.

Thursday was a day of R&R - made a grocery run to stock up for traveling and got in a lot of 'back porch time' watching the birds and lake.

Today (Friday) was travel day -- we have really enjoyed our 3 weeks with Bob & Sandy at both their home and also camping at Lake Manatee. We are going to miss them tremendously, but it's time to move on. We pulled out early headed north and rode all day. We took Hwy 27 straight up through middle Florida to the Florida Turnpike and must have hit every red-light in every small town along the way. It took us over 3 hours to go the 100 miles to the turnpike. After that it was a good ride up the turnpike, I-75 north, and I-10 west. After a 375 mile day, we stopped for the night at Torreya State Park near Chattahoochee, FL west of Tallahassee. Tomorrow we'll make the second leg of the trip to our next destination - Dauphin Island, AL.

　
　

Lake Manatee State Park

Monday, March 16th, we left Lake Placid and moved about 60-65 miles west to Lake Manatee State Park near Bradenton, FL. This is a very nice campground - we have stayed here before several times in the past and really like it. Didn't take LaVerne long to find some flowers to spruce the campsite up.

We had a couple of hawks visiting in a dead tree near our campsite. We put up our birdfeeder pole and it didn't take long to start drawing customers - Pine Warblers, Cardinals, Blue Jays, Towhees, Catbirds, and Titmice (not pictured).

We also had a few critters that visited from time to time. Thank goodness we don't have Armadillos at home (yet).

There's always interesting things to ride that people take with them when they go camping. Here is a homemade three-wheeler with a Corvette engine that is in our campground!

Bob and Sandy came over on Tuesday to camp with us and we had a great time the three days they were here. On Wednesday we had the opprotunity to make the drive up to Clearwater to visit my sister Jenny and her husband Ken. She lives pretty close to her son Andrew and his family so we also went over to Andrew's house and visited with him, his wife Lindsey, and their 2-year old son Max (who we had never had the opportunity to meet). We had a great visit - wish we all lived closer so we could see each other more often.

Here's a picture of Andrew, Lindsey, & Max and another of Max and Jenny (Meemaw).

Thursday we went to the Ellington Premium Outlet Mall a few miles up I-75 and spent the day shopping (well, the girls shopped and Bob & I got in a lot of bench time in the shade). It really is a nice place -- lots of palm trees, shade, and about a zillion stores.

Today Bob & Sandy headed back home to Lake Placid and we made one more shopping trip -- LaVerne wanted a new Bible, so we went and found a Family Christian Book Store in Bradenton where she found one she thinks she will like. The rest of the day we just relaxed, watched our birds and animals.

Tomorrow is moving day again -- we're headed back to Bob & Sandy's in Lake Placid for a few more days before we head north to Dauphin Island, AL.

 

 

Lake Placid, FL

Monday, March 9th (Happy Birthday, Jody!), we left Silver Springs State Park near Ocala and traveled about 160 miles south through citrus country to Lake Placid, FL.

 

 

We have some very good friends, Bob & Sandy White, who live here and they are kind enough to let us park our motorhome in their yard and visit for awhile. We met Bob & Sandy in 1996 when we were in West Palm Beach for the Atlanta Braves Spring Training and have been close friends since that time. They have a motorhome and we have done a lot of traveling and camping together (along with another couple of very good friends from South Carlina) for many years.

Bob & Sandy live on "Lake June in Winter" (called Lake June in most cases) and have a beautiful place. Here are a couple of pictures -- from the front, from the back, and from the back porch! (reminder - you can click on any image to get a larger view).

We've had a really nice relaxing visit. Bob & Sandy were having to have a new well drilled, so for the first 3 or 4 days we had a lot of entertainment watching the well drilling operation. We went to Bible Study with them Wednesday night and got in a little sight seeing on Friday. As mentioned above, this is in the middle of citrus country and you can ride for miles down Hwy 27 with orange groves on either side of the road.

We also got in a little birding time. We saw a Florida Scrub Jay, a big flock of White Ibises, and an immature Bald Eagle.

Today (Sunday) we went to worship service at The First Presbyterian Church of Lake Placid with Bob & Sandy, then to Bob Evans Restaurant in Sebring, then to a big flea market. Tomorrow we're moving about 60 miles west to Lake Manatee State Park near Bradenton. We'll be there for a week and Bob & Sandy are coming over in their motorhome to camp with us.

Silver Springs, FL

Well, several folks said they hoped we do a 'blog' for this trip, so here goes. Eventually, this will wind up in a full-blown birding trip when we get to Dauphin Island, AL where we hope to catch the bird migration in full swing. For the first several weeks though, we're just going to be visiting friends & family and getting out of the (hopefully) last of the cold weather.

We left Monday 3/2 and went a short way to Lake Allatoona near Acworth, GA. Did some visiting with kids & grandkids there. Then on Thursday 3/5 we traveled on south to Perry, GA and visited with a dear friend that we used to work with and her husband, Pat & Champ (he's a dear friend too). On Friday 3/6 we traveled farther south to Silver Springs State park near Ocala, FL and spent the weekend. This is a very nice park that we have stayed in several times before as we were travelling through. Today (Sunday) we attended the First Baptist Church of Silver Springs and had a very good worship service. Here is a picture of our campsite at Silver Springs State Park.

Tomorrow we'll be moving on farther south.