Bushnell, FL - Week of 10/22 - 10/29/11

Yummy dinner of pulled pork and veggie soup

Steve and Linda got here Monday and after setting up we all headed to Webster Flea Market. They came back with all kinds of "treasures". We had a great time! They have decided to spend a couple of weeks here volunteering with us. They seem to really enjoy the park and volunteering. We've taken turns cooking, I'm going to gain all my weight back plus some if we continue this! It has been fun sharing meals with Jim, Brenda, Steve and Linda - the stories have been quite informative and entertaining!

The 6 foot alligator in Spring River

Wednesday we took Steve and Linda up to Rainbow Springs State Park to meet Harvey and Valerie and to canoe down the Rainbow River. I wanted to kayak again but my back was hurting so just rode in the canoe with Harvey and Bruce. Valerie was still recovering from her neck surgery so she didn't get to go. Steve and Linda canoed like pros! The river is so pretty, well, until I spotted an alligator that was about 6 feet long!  Sure made me have second thoughts about getting in the river! We all went out to dinner at a place called Stumpknockers - wonderful seafood restaurant! 

Fun time for all!

Thursday the 4 of us drove down to Lutz, near Tampa to see our friends, Tim and Judy, Rudy and Paula and some other camping friends. Judy fixed us all a wonderful pulled pork dinner then we all went out for an evening of fun and dancing which we haven't done since we were here last year!

Friday and Saturday we all volunteered at the parks "Haunted Trails and Hayride". We helped people get on and off the haywagon. People had a ball and there was a great turnout from the community! We will need a couple of days to recover from this week :-)

Bushnell, FL - Week of 10/16 - 10/22/11

Us is 1835 period clothing - fun!

Dragoon Regiment demonstation

Busy and fun week here at Dade Battlefield Historic State Park! We were only off Monday and Tuesday this week since we had a program here at the park called "A Road Back in Time" that we participated in. Bruce and I dressed up in 1835 period clothing and lead groups to stations where volunteers reenacted what it was like in 1835, the year of the Second Seminole War. The 1st station was an officer of the US Dragoon regiment, 2nd station was a Cracker housewife, 3rd station was 2 Seminole Indians, 4th station was 3 US soldiers and the 5th was a park ranger, Chuck, that wrapped up the the information about the battle that took place on these grounds. Each station provided a wonderful glimpse back in time.  It was a very interesting and fun program that we enjoyed participating in. 

Volunteers Jim and Brenda with Ranger George

Bushnell, FL - Week of 10/9 - 10/15/2011

Harvey, Valerie, Bruce, Kim and Kathy

Harvey and Valerie invited us to come up Wednesday to give kayaking a try. They are still volunteering at Rainbow Springs State Park. We all went to a Volunteer Recruitment Day that was being held at Rainbow Springs and Ranger Kim Dodge was working so she gave us a grand tour of the park and provided us with very interesting information. She is still quite a character, with her heavy hillbilly accent (hence her nickname Hillbilly).
Back to the campground to borrow a couple of kayaks from another volunteer and off we went but without Valerie, she worried that her Meniere's might act up again.
What a blast kayaking was! I was worried that I would have problems maneuvering but that was not the case at all! I'm ready to go again!! Bruce was also in a kayak and Harvey took a canoe. The river was just as beautiful as before and even saw an eagle sitting on a perch, sure wish I had brought my camera but was worried I may end up upside down in the river. We went to Pavarolli's Italian restaurant. Good food at a good price and a very friendly and good waiter.

Rainbow Springs Waterfall

Friday we met Harvey in Daytona Beach for Biketoberfest. Motorcycles everywhere! Hate that Valerie couldn't join us but she had a doctor's appointment in Jacksonville. We walked all around Bruce Rossmeyer Harley Davidson and all the vendors that were set up there. Had lunch at the BBQ place which had a tasty pulled chicken sandwich. More walking and taking in all the sights and sounds of motorcycles. Bruce talked Harvey into standing in just the right location for an interesting photo op. We then went to the downtown area where there were lots more motorcycles! Some pretty wild sights too! We stopped at Michael's craft store to pick up some things we needed for our Advent Calendar before we headed back to Bushnell. When we got back to the pickup it started just fine but when Bruce pushed the accelerator nothing happened! He then noticed none of the gauges worked and here we are in Daytona, 2 hours from our rig! Bruce called my nephew, David, who used to work at the Lawton Ford dealership to see if he had any suggestions on what the problem may be. I was hoping it was just a fuse and started looking in the Owner's Manual for fuse information. In the meantime David had called another mechanic to get his opinion and luckily it was the same thought I had, probably a fuse. I had found in the manual which fuse it probably was and which fuse we could swap out for a temporary fix. Bruce knew where the fuse panel was, of course, and pulled the fuse, put the overhead lights fuse in it's place and hallelujah it worked!! Had to give up the rest of my shopping plans for the evening, didn't want to take any chances. Made it home just fine! Sure was nice to have a nephew to talk to when you feel stressed and stranded! Thanks again David!! And thanks Dad for all the car teachings as I was growing up :-)

Bruce dreaming about the $144,000 rig!

Downtown Daytona Beach Biketoberfest 2011

Harvey providing a photo op for Bruce

Nice looking bike, too bad I don't like them!

My latest favorite bracelet that I made this week. Somehow we even found time to put in our 24 hours this week at Dade Battlefield State Park :-)

Bushnell, Florida - 9/12 - 9/17/11

Bruce named the EZGo - Pearl

Enjoying the quiet park and getting to know the employees and other volunteers. Bruce leaves early in the morning on his gator to do his part in keeping the park beautiful. I work in the office 10-1 doing whatever projects that they need. This week I updated the Events Calendar, logged the daily weather report, stocked the new T-shirts and caps, answered phone calls, assisted visitors, etc. Every other week-end we work the entrance gate, pretty slow but they are working on projects to increase visitations. We were assigned a park golf cart so I spent some time getting it cleaned up and looking all pretty.

Bruce finally got his Corvette and had a lot of fun teasing all his friends...until he finally told them that it was a Corvette bicycle :-)

Before we cleared the brush...

Our site as of 9-15-11

Still working on clearing our site but it's looking better!

Bushnell, Florida - Dade Battlefield Historic State Park



Always raining when we pull into Florida!

We got our usual greeting when driving into Florida - a downpour on I-75! Got into Dade Battlefield Historic State Park and we were met at the gate by the Park Manager, Bruce Whiting. A friendly, outgoing man and he even escorted us back to our site that will be home until Thanksgiving - that is the plan anyway! Got all set up, met the other camphosts, Jim and Brenda, our neighbors and Hector. Spent our 2nd afternoon clearing some debris that was in front of our site, didn't want to look at that for 2 months and what a workout! Bruce W. dropped our schedule off to us - I work the office or the gate 12 hours a week and my Bruce will work the field or gate 12 hours. This looks like it going to be a great place to spend a couple of months! 



Debris before we cleared it




Bruce clearing debris