January 10, 2004 - Marathon, FL

Well, these pictures are from an earlier time.  Gee, what a surprise, eh!   On the left, a shot of what we woke up to when we were in San Antonio, FL, at the Foretravel store getting our awning roller replaced (don't leave it out when it's pouring hard!).  And on the right, the whole gang of SOWERS from our project at the YoungLife Camp in Ocklawaha, FL.  From left to right, Rog (as in Roger) & Char, Don & Gretchen with their goat (story later), me & Barb, John & Margaret, Jim & Elaine, and John and Joyce.  The goat story is from Don mentioning to John W. (on the far right) something about him getting his goat.  Joyce and John contrived a method of getting Don's goat one more time, by telling Don he had to go kill a big palmetto bug that was in one of the closets.  Don really doesn't like bugs, especially a big palmetto (who does - they look like overgrown cockroaches), and had to really be pressured to go into the closet....following Gretchen, of course.  And there was this inflatable goat waiting for them.

Margaret and Char were really into crafts, and Barb likes them too, so when Margaret talked about her bears, well, like they say, the rest is history.  And we're pretty sure that was a red-shouldered hawk that was hanging around for a few days, but we're not positive.  It's sitting on one of the soccer goal posts.

Looks like Barb caught me actually doing some work for a change.  Waxing is a passion for some people, but just a necessary chore for me.  And then she made us stop working for a picture.  We were changing a nice gentle slippery slope into some nicer steps.  And believe it or not, it really did take all five of us to do the job.  When we weren't working with slippery sand, we were working with clay-like sticky soil.

We wanted to get a sunscreen to drop off the edge of the awning, and maybe a mat for the ground under the awning as well, so off we went to the tiny almost deserted little town of Center Hill.  Great place!  Beasley Mfg. is the only business still in operation.  They said that since they owned the building, and business was pretty good, they couldn't see any reason to move.  And the dog, which appeared to be the principal sunscreen tester, seemed to agree.  We bought both the ground mats and sunscreen, and are real happy with both.  We put snaps and grommets in the sunscreen and it's up and doing its thing just great.

The town may be on the  verge of becoming a ghost town, but the local hay dealer has a sense of whimsy about his operation that we appreciated.  The star on the top of the rolled hay Christmas tree with painted-on lights was really cute, we thought.

We're used to seeing cattle egrets looking for insects (disturbed by feeding cows), but this little herd of cattle had more than their share.  When Barb got out of the car to take a shot of them they all took off, so she caught them in the air.  Sure was more than one bird per cow in this field!

Got cold while we were there (into the 30's!) and fear of frost was in evidence everywhere with people covering up their plants outside.  And this field of ghosts turned out to be young citrus trees after all.

The roadways once you get away from the cities and the freeways can be quite pleasant.  This one was always attractive to us, and we knew that on a hot sunny day we'd enjoy driving here in the shade of the old oaks.  The town of Moss Bluff has a set of locks for the river, and a small park and boat ramp.

And they must have had some real "wild"life besides!  We never did hear any of the "...loud devices..." the sign warned us about, and neither did anybody else we could find to talk to.  Maybe just having the sign scared the vultures away.  They're really pretty big, noisy, dirty, smelly birds, even if they are an important part of the ecology of the region (nature's cleanup crew).

This diner was on the road near both the dam (and locks) and the campground where we were working.  Had breakfast there one day, and it was easy to see why the parking lot was so full so much of the time.  Sandhill cranes are big birds; adults stand 52" high.  Seeing them in a flock like this was a real treat.

Well, Merry Christmas to us all.  Jim and Elaine and us didn't have any place special to be for the holidays, so we stayed at the YoungLife campground and shared the special time.  On the left, we're alligator hunting.  Yup, there was reputed to be a 'gator hanging out in the little pond we're facing, so we were hunting for it.  After walking around a bit, we decided to sit and see if we could see it.  We didn't.  And Elaine had asked what pie we'd like with our Christmas dinner, and we said lemon, and she did a great job with it.  And her twice baked potatoes, and the asparagus Barb brought (that had mushrooms and parmesan cheese) went well with the steaks Jim and I grilled.  So much for tradition!

That massive live oak we're standing under, measured 127 feet across with a trunk that measured about 16.5 feet.  That's a lot of shade for one tree to be putting out!  And after tearful goodbye's, off we went to the Thousand Trails park near Orlando.  And as soon as we checked in and were heading out of the parking lot, Barb spotted this tortoise heading out to who knows where as well.