April 8, 2006 - Lovers Key S.P., FL

Going out to watch a sunset, you never know what you'll find.  This time it was some pretty creative sand castles made especially interesting in the light of a setting sun..

Lest you think it's all play and no work, let me assure you that before Brian and Jane figured out how to use the pump, it was real work watering all those little trees and shrubs we'd planted.  Brian and Jane had planted lots of trees down the meridian strip from the ranger station to the tram circle, and we each take a day and water everybody's newly planted whatever's.

See?  We work really, really hard..... at having fun.  Driving the tractor is maybe my favorite thing to do around here.  And this sequence is of a holding tank for some fancy outhouse thing that was being moved from this park to another park.  And what made the whole job interesting was the fact that the tractor wouldn't start every time I tried to start it!  Roger (white shirt, dark shorts, no hat) is our resident volunteer mechanic, and between us we discovered a fuel cut-off valve with a loose connection.  Still and all, we got the job done.  The fellow with the jeans on is the truck driver from the other park and Heath, our assistant park manager, is the fellow in the green "pickle suit" uniform.  First time for Heath to be around working with us when I was driving the tractor.  I think I made him a little nervous, but no harm done.  He's always quite complimentary about whatever "his" volunteers do.

When Barb and I lived in a home with a foundation last, it was in Federal Way, WA.  We sold the home in May of 1998.  About the same time, our dear friends, the McLain's, also sold their home.  Only they moved to Chicago and then to some small town in Minnesota.  We've communicated by e-mail occasionally since then.  Shortly before they moved, they were gifted with a surprise baby, Andrew.  He was born a bit early and it was our privilege to see him on his way from the room he was born in to the incubator room where he stayed until he was strong enough to make it on his own.  What a thrill for us to learn they were coming to the Orlando area to visit Craig's mom and her new husband.  The lovely young lady by the pirate is Samantha, known as Sami.  She was only 12 years old when we last saw her, and we'd not have recognized her at 18.

It was great fun to watch Craig and Andrew playing in the sand together, with mother Kim supervising.  Sami and I were pretty much involved in evaluating the tourists as they paraded by.  She's about to leave home for college, and it was great to learn how well she's doing.  She has an older sister who's getting married this August  who's still in college and couldn't get away for this trip.  Would have been fun to see her as well.

The picture of Craig's arms reaching down to help Andrew is filled with symbolism for me.  I imagine the arms of our eternal Father reaching down like that to help us through our difficult times and praise Him for it.

Sidelight:  The gulls are flying relatively low because someone was throwing food up toward them.  Lest you think these are different kinds of gulls, consider this:  the forward one with the black head is a Laughing Gull because its "haah" really does sound like a laugh.  However, the winter adult of this bird is gray with white head and black bill and legs (which the ones behind appear to be) while the summer adult (it's springtime, they may be in between color changes) has the black head and red bill and legs.  You'd never know it was the same bird!

We had to drive for about 5 hours to get from Lovers Key to Cocoa where we met the McLain's, and it was worth every minute of it.... and then some.  How wonderful it is to have friends like them.  It took us about 10 minutes to adjust to the physical changes we've all made, and then it was as if no time had passed at all.

Oh, one other note.  Sami has a friend who was pitching in a baseball tournament in Cocoa where we met everybody.  His name is Sam.  He had to stay for another game, but it would have been a kick to have Sami and Sam together for lunch.  Thanks for the lunch, Craig!  We sure did enjoy seeing ya'll.

Howard (on the right, close to the camera) and Linda Payne (sort of standing near him) are DataStorm User Group members like Barb and I.  When I checked one day to see if anybody was around, there they were.  With a message about having a canoe and wanting to do some paddling with somebody.  They were in Naples, so I dropped them a line.  Their canoe is an inflatable, and not the kind you want to run into oysters with, so we opted for a beach walk with Pam (of course) and then a bike ride around the Black Island Nature Trail, followed by lunch at Hurricane Charley's, the beach wagon.

While we were on the Nature Trail, Howard pulled out his hand-held GPS and, of course, they're geocachers too.  I'd printed out the coordinates for a cache on Black Island, but never had chased it down.  What better time than now!  And there's Linda wondering what else might be in the cache.  There was another cacher there, who was kind enough to re-stash it quick before we got there, so we all signed the log at the same time.

This female Anhinga was at Slimy's pond.  Glad she hadn't come for dinner!  Slimy's main diet appears to be birds I'm afraid.

There's Slimy, and on our way out to Hurricane Charley's, we spotted a nice Reddish Egret just standing there instead of running around flapping its wings hunting for a meal.  He actually does this (and its quite interesting to watch) to scare up fish to catch.

A ride to the south end of Lovers Key to look at the ospreys there, and a dead jellyfish on the beach on the way home.

Howard let it slip that he'd never caught any fish in Florida.  Well......... can you imagine my response to that?  And to top it off, here came a dolphin.

No, that's not the same fish from two different angles.  He caught ALL the fish.

And there's three of the four of us.  What neat folks they are!  And if you like to read about people pulling up stakes before they're on Social Security for this full-time RV lifestyle, you owe it to yourself to check their website out.  It will blow you away.  Howard posts EVERY DAY!!!!  Not like yours truly, for sure.  They'll be at the Life On Wheels seminar in Bowling Green (or, at this point were there), depending on when it was/is, teaching a class on how to go full time when you're too young to "retire.".  It was March 14th when Howard wrote about their visit with us, and posted his wonderful pictures.  Whenever I post pictures of a dolphin, you see its dorsal fin.  Wanna see one grabbing a fish in mid-air?  Well, when that dolphin above first came on the scene, Howard got his camera, and nailed a prize winning shot.  Check it out by going to their website and finding the entry for March 14, 2006, and looking at all the pictures there.  But by in any event, do drop by www.rv-dreams.com and see what they're up to.  Linda is a "beader" and makes beautiful, intricate jewelry with tiny beads.  We were impressed with them and had a great day together, and hope to run into them again.

Hurricane Charley's needs power and the noisy generator was getting some complaints from the visitors, so Elmer and I built a box for it.  While not soundproof by any means, it does quiet it down a good deal.  The two sides are hinged at the bottom so the engine can be serviced, and the lid is also hinged so the gas tank can be filled.  Styrofoam sandwiched between a couple of pieces of scrap plywood, and that fan to keep things from overheating.  Fun to build even if it's not very pretty.