Florida to Alaska and back again

I’m lying on the bed with Gypsy.  We are relaxing in the cool air of our smaller version of home.  We all had a busy day today.  My baby worked really hard out in the heat and got us on the road.  The waiting is over, someday is here!  The ride in the park was great, we stopped on the side of the road to see the gators and the dear, Bob has a great eye for finding animal far away and mixed in the tall grass, not sure how he does that but I’m glad he can!  Looking forward to a good nights sleep in my new bed and whatever will come our way next on our adventure!

18 May 2010

Got up late today, at least I did.  Had some coffee and got the bikes off the bike rack.  We needed to see if the laptop would connect with the wi-fi available at the park.  We took a short bike trip to the Myakka Outpost and got were pleasantly surprised with a pretty fast connection.  We did our necessary downloads, checked some e-mail and visited the souvineer store.  Went back to check on Gypsy before a longer bike ride.   We were just pedaling at a moderate rage when “whoosh”, an inline skataer came rushing by.  I mean this person just blew by us, must have been going close to 30 mph.  We think it may have been a female because of the long reddish hair, but could have been a dude also.  Anyway this person was hauling!  Saw some wild turkeys eating out in a field.  Adjusted my brakes on the bike, adjusted the hangar on the torsion hitch on the truck, checked the oil and had a sandwich.  Gonna BBQ tonight!  Kim’s reading, Gypsy’s snoozing and  I’m gonna go rest.

Got up early today with Gypsy, her usual 6-6:30am, daylight is just breaking.   Took her out to do her business and fed her breakfast.  Then we went back to bed for a little bit while Bob was still sleeping.  Once Bob got up and had his coffee we took out the bikes for a nice ride.  Bob looks so cute on his bike. Came back about an hour or so later and took a break from the heat.  About 4 o’clock we headed back out on the bikes to the canopy walkway.  A rope bridge high up in the trees.  On the way we saw lots of deer and wild pigs.  After the walkway we took the nature walk.  We heard rustling in the big palmetto bushes, I said “what if we are attacked out here, who is going to miss us, what about Geeps..” Then it stopped and we kept on walking.  Shortly after we heard a bunch of pigs talking to each other just off the path.  Bob wanted to go investigate, I said sure you go and I’ll go back to the bikes, lets get out of here, and so we did.  Later Bob made yummy burgers on the little grill we got.  Gypsy is worried and not relaxed.  I hope she gets used to us being on the road.  

Truck breaks down on highway on the way back to the house.  ‘nough said..

12 June 2010

Went to the beach for a while in the afternoon, it was just too hot for me in the morning, I think the temperature reached 100 degrees yesterday and today wasn’t any cooler.  We came back and rested.  I put the basket on the bike so that at sunset we could take Gypsy along to the dunes with us.  Cooked dinner, let it cool, and rode up to one of the pavilions to watch the sun.  A couple red-wing black birds put on a display for us as the sun set.  Got some great pictures.  Came home, had dinner, got cleaned up, read and went to sleep. 

Got to sleep in today, about 8:20.  Gypsy was so tired from the day before she didn’t wake up me up at the usual 5:30-6:00am time.  I was very thankful for that!  I got up and dress for the beach.  Took my bike down and enjoyed the sun and water.  Came back to the camper and hung out with Bob and Gypsy.  We had lunch and then Bob and I headed to the beach.  Later we took Gypsy on the bikes with us in her cute little basket that Bob made.  I love that he is so crafty and loves to take Gypsy with us.

wild pig (a loud grunt and a flash of black) and of course some more rabbits.   The owls here are a hoot!  Not only do they make the common hoot-hoot sound, but they also make this really funny sound like they are gargling at the same time.  We haven’t seen any owls except at the exhibits.  There are both Barred Owls and Screech Owls here.   We went back to the camper and put the basket on the bike and picked up Gypsy.  We rode some more trails and stopped to watch the deer feeding.

Had a nice start to the day, I slept in!    After Bob got up we took care of some business, phone calls and internet stuff.  Our stop at the Nature Center included a little baby gator that I got to pet. They are really soft, didn’t expect that.  You could hold the snakes too, but I passed.  When we got back to the camper we planned out some more of our trip.  We got a Texas State Park pass and we are trying to plan as many as we can to get our money’s worth.  Looking forward to the northern part of Texas and New Mexico where it will be cooler and no humidity.  We added on another night here in Brazos Bend.  For the amount of water around here there aren’t many mosquitoes, but there sure are plenty of fireflies at night.

We had to take the truck to get to the showers tonight, they are far from our site.  Feels good to be clean and ready for bed, good night!  Easy day today.  Got up and decided we’d go out for lunch.  After inquiring about local Mexican fare, we were directed to the closest town (12 miles away) and to a quaint small restaurant in the middle of town.  Needville is a small town that is the hub of an agricultural area of cow farms, hay, millet and some other low growing crop we had never seen.  We’d have no other reason in the world to go there other than to stop for a bite to eat.  That made it more interesting than it really was.  After lunch I took a siesta.  Kim worked on the route and did a super job again, finding us great places that have electricity included so we can keep poor Gypsy cool in this high heat while we go out exploring.  We’ll soon be heading to higher elevations which should be much cooler.  Just about everything is booked up for the 4th of July weekend, so Kim made some reservations in Santa Fe for the full 4 days.  I’ve never been there and am really looking forward to seeing it along with Toas and possibly Los Alamos.  Heck, I’m talking about New Mexico, we aren’t even a quarter of the way across Texas.  Talking with a fellow camper, we found some great information of things to do in North Texas and of a great steak place in Amarillo (my kind of food). 

 We decided to walk a nature trail as the day cooled down.  Towards the end of our trek we saw a hawk swoop from the tree we passed under clutching his furry evening meal.  To quote the famous dentist office visiting pelican in Finding Nemo, “a Fish gotta swim …. a bird's gotta eat”.  The batteries in the camera died, so I couldn't get any pictures.

23 June 2010

We were into Texas hill country now, and the drive was fun.  Another hour past Lockhart and we came to Blanco River State Park.  We stopped to shop just before arriving.  When we arrived, we checked in, parked, and walked to the river and went swimming.  Beautiful clean water.  No gators.  A warm breeze that actually felt cool.  This is great. I just had to post this photo of Livengood Feed for my pal Bob Libengood.  The other photo is of Lockhart City Hall.Had a nice ride to Blanco State Park today.  The landscape is changing from flat farmland to hills and trees.  Stopped at the local store to pick up some supplies and got some great steaks!  Bob cooked them on our little grill, he’s the best at that.  We asked at headquarters when we checked in where to get good food.  The said the bowling ally has the best!  We said ok we need to try that.  Everything in town is in walking distance.  The river here is clean and cool.  We went in last night and cooled off.  It’s not as hot here and we are able to sit outside.

24 June 2010

We took the bikes into the small town just outside the park.  We headed to the bowling alley which was touted as having the best food in town.   We thought we’d ride around the outskirts of town, but having run out of town going two blocks east, west and north south we headed back to the camp, got changed and went swimming in the river again.  We were the only two that we could see in the entire stretch of river, the water was warm, clear and colored a light jade green.  I tried my hand at fishing, but no luck.  On the way back from lunch, we passed under a bridge and noticed a bunch of mud bird nests attached to the underside of the beams.  Swallows of some type.  Kim noticed a bird feeding a chick.  When I looked at the nest through the binoculars all I could see was this huge gaping mouth.  The chick would just sit there not making a sound with its huge mouth wide open, wavering around trying to balance its big head, hoping not to fall over from the shear size of it before mom was back with the next meal.  It was hilarious.    Gypsy is definitely getting much more comfortable.  She enjoys just being outside, laying in the grass and sniffing the air.  I enjoy the same thing, each time we return to the campgrounds someone has a grill going and the smells are heavenly.  A great thing  to return to each time you're away.

A beautiful morning today with a nice cool breeze.  Well, they were right the bowling ally does have great food.  Had lunch there today with Bob.  The place looks like it was open in the ’60 with little updating and only 6 lanes to bowl in.  They also had smoking side to dine and a non smoking side.  Haven’t seen that in years!    It got a little warm in the afternoon so we took out bikes to the river. It was really nice and refreshing.    Off to San Angelo State Park for the weekend before heading north past Lubbock to Palo Duro State Park. 

25 June 2010

Not too much to do in this park in San Angelo.  I vacuumed and we went to Wal-Mart for shopping and went to Denny’s to use the internet.  On the way back from shopping we saw at the front gate a bunch of Buffalo.  They walked right past us and of course Bob got great pictures.  Later that night we went for a walk after dinner and saw Jackrabbits.   Getting ready for a long ride tomorrow to Palo Duro Canyon, the Grand Canyon of Texas! 

27 June 2010