Bushnell, FL - Week of 9/18 - 9/24/11

What a week! Started wonderfully with a visit to Webster, FL’s flea markets with my cousin and friend, Harvey and Valerie Roof. Ended with me getting out of the hospital.
We had a great time at the flea markets with Harvey and Valerie. A huge market that is about ¾ filled since the snowbirds aren’t here yet. Lunched at a little café called Hayseed Café. Could not find that they have their own webpage so here is a link to the Tripadvisor.com information on the café. Hayseed Cafe. It is a nice little place to eat across the street from Webster’s big flea market, Sumter County Farmer’s Market Sumter County Farmers Market. They have a small, yet adequate, buffet that is very reasonably priced. That pretty much ended the 1st half of the good part of the week.
Tuesday came with a phone call from Bruce’s family that his mom was in the hospital and may have to have a part of her foot or even leg amputated due to poor circulation. We decided to pack up and go back to Oklahoma to be with family during this trying time and help his parents during recovery. I’d been have low pelvic pain off and on for a week, thought is was traveler’s diarrhea but not improving. Went to Mayo Clinic’s website and the symptoms pointed to diverticulitis! Can’t hit the road with that potentially being my problem so went into Express Urgent Care in Ocala. That is exactly what I had so off to the hospital they sent me!  BTW, I was very, very impressed with Express Care of Ocala! Could not have asked for better treatment! They sent me to Munroe Regional Medical Center, the care there was also great but just wish they would let me sleep!! There were no private rooms available, long story about room mates but won't go there - LOL.
Then our week improved drastically! We got the wonderful news that Bruce’s mom had a 99% blockage behind her knee that Dr. Woodson was able to correct so it appears that she won’t have to have the amputation now! Praise God!!  I was dismissed from the hospital on Friday and was I ready to get home to my own bed!  Spent Saturday recuperating. Poor Bruce had a very stressful week, couldn’t have asked for a more caring husband!
Shew - What a week!!

Visit to Rainbow Springs, Florida

Drove up to Rainbow Springs today to see Harvey and Valerie who are camp hosting there. We took a canoe trip from the campground to the head springs. What a beautiful trip and a great time!! Makes me want to give a try at kayaking even more. Added to my bucket list! When we got to the Visitor's Center received a big welcome from an ranger/friend that was at St. Andrews when we volunteered there in 2009 - Ranger Kim! She is still a hoot :-)
Harvey fixed us some of his wonderful Low Country Boil - ate way too much! A fun evening of trading war stories and watching the finale of America's Got Talent.

Harvey and Valerie Roof

Rainbow Springs

Bruce taking me down the river

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!

Webster, Florida Flea Markets

Took a short drive to Webster, Florida to check out their Monday flea markets. The first one that we came across was Beville's Corner. A nice sized flea market with a wide variety of vendors. We didn't get there until after noon so several booths were closing up early, guess not enough business until the snow birds arrive. We thought this was "the" flea market but found out that this was the small one. Drove up the road a couple of more miles and found the big flea market and it is big! About half the booths were closed, not sure how many had just closed or just not opened for the season yet. We were told that this place will be a mad house in the next month or so. We plan on coming back and getting an earlier start on our next Monday off. Will try to remember to take some pictures and post them.

Bushnell, Florida - 1st week

Friday we drove over to Rainbow Springs to see my cousin and Bruce's good friend, Harvey and his lovely wife, Valerie who are volunteering there at that state park. We all drove to Summerfield to a RV dealer that was having a garage sale then to Ocala for Harvey to get his satellite system. (If you want to know how to know more about getting satellite without paying the $1300 installation for RVs just email me).  We helped them get their system up and running, Valerie fixed us some dinner and back "home" we came. A wonderful time with them and another one when they came over Saturday to our place for some OU football.




Dade Battlefield Historic State Park - Bushnell, FL

 

Our first official day on the job was Saturday, 9/2. Bruce worked the 9-12 gate then I did the 12-3. Ran a big total of $27 for the day but at only $3 a car before the snowbirds get here and no events, they said that it will be slow.













Fire as it was approaching Skip and Jeannette's home

Good news from home - the wildfire that was in the Wichita Wildlife Refuge is 95% contained and Bruce's sister and brother-in-law's house did not burn. Skip stayed and fought the fire, they would not let Jeannette  back into the area. Such a scary week-end for them! Ten homes in the Mountain Village addition were burned to the ground, 2 were Lawton policemen's homes, the Bishop's and the Crawford's. These families and all involved in the fire, including the firemen that worked so hard in very rough terrain, are in our prayers!

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