Author Archives: Jill and Bud

I had sent my Uncle Al a copy of our itinerary, which he never got. So I called him to get a new email address and resent it. He commented that he’d like to get together, perhaps with my brother also. Two days before we left our last campground I sent another email to him and to my brother saying where we were and when we would be moving on to be near my brother and asking that they make a plan and let us know when they would like us to meet. Uncle Al got that email and called me.

Turns out we were only seven miles from him where we were at Lake Griffin State Park. So the last day we were there we met Uncle Al and Aunt Fran, went out for lunch then back to their place for an afternoon of Euchre. Al and Bud won three games in a row, but Fran and I won the last one, so she says we won overall. Sounds right to me. In any case we had a wonderful day and I forgot to take any pictures, so hence this description with no illustrations.

For the first two days with my brother I also forgot to take pictures, but Jim took some and sent them to me.

On our first day together we took a hike in Hammock Park near our campground in Palm Harbor. This is Bud, me, Matey and Goody on the hike.

Then they called their son, Gerry, to see if we could meet him where he works. He had left but went back and met us. He works with a crew that contracts to keep weeds out of the docks around Lake Tarpon. Here we are inspecting the boats they use.

Bud and Jim climbed aboard for a ride.

The boats are propelled by side paddle wheels driven by diesel engines.

The front end has blades and then a conveyor ramp to bring the cut weeds aboard.

Gerry told us they do over 150 homes every month to keep their lake fronts and docks weed free. He loves it.

We then all went back to Jim and Goody’s for dinner.

I finally remembered to take a picture the next night when we had them all over for dinner at the camper, so this is the only picture with Jim in it. That’s Gerry and Jim on the coach, Goody and Bud in the chairs. Matey was ignoring me.

We spent today with Jim and Goody playing disc golf and going out to lunch. It was hard to say goodbye, but made easier because they are planning to stop out and see us when we come back up this coast and stop at Hillsborough State Park.

We traveled south yesterday, skirting Ocala and driving down US441 through Lady Lake and the Villages. We aren’t used to this kind of traffic. The highway is four or six lanes and lined with shopping centers and subdivisions.

Our destination was Lake Griffin State Park. Our site was a bit tight.

And a bit slanted side to side. We parked the trailer as far to the right as practical and at a slight angle to minimize the tilt, but still needed three blocks under each driver side tire.

In the end we have a nice shady sitting area.

There is traffic noise and there are a lot of sirens, but the park is full of lovely old live oaks…

including this monster which is the second largest live oak in Florida. (I made Matey pose under it for scale.)

Trish braved the traffic yesterday afternoon to visit one more time. There were three accidents on I-75 making the hour and a half trip take three hours! Thanks, Tricia, it was great to see you one more time.

Bud took Matey and me on a much shorter drive to Palmetto Point Park to a disc golf course.

It, too, was in beautiful trees.

It made the game more challenging. If you enlarge this image you can perhaps see Bud’s green disc flying right down the middle of this fairway.

These beautiful parks are welcome oases in the overwhelming development here.

We also visited Gary and Karen Gaskill. We drove to their place on Sunday and had a fine day talking and laughing. We ordered out lunch from a nearby Mexican restaurant. It was only on the way home that I realized I hadn’t taken a single photo. Oh well, we hoped to get together again on Tuesday, I would take pictures then.

On Monday we moved. Here’s Bud pulling out of site 71.

And here he’s getting ready to back into site 73. We hadn’t been able to book four nights in one site, so had to move about 300 feet halfway through the stay. We did other chores during the day.

Tuesday we did go back to Gary and Karen’s. We needed to replace two pins on our trailer hitch so Gary drove us to Camping World, which didn’t have them, and then to Tractor Supply, which did.

Here’s one of the new pins in use. It doesn’t touch anything but the piece where it goes. And yet, after using this hitch for over 6,000 miles we lost both pins in the first 30 miles of our last trip.

We went back to Gaskill’s for another lunch and more talk and then it was time to head out. And I realized I hadn’t taken any pictures again!

Gary and Karen obliged me by posing in the afternoon sun on their back patio.

I tried out the portrait mode on my new phone and think I got a nice shot.

Then we decided we needed a shot of the four of us together. After a couple of tries we got this one, which proves that old people shouldn’t do selfies, but we all agreed it was too goofy not to go in the blog.

It was wonderful to see them again, I am so glad we came.

The real reason we came to Florida is to see family and friends.

The first friend we visited with was Tricia Goodrich (known to me in school, starting in the fifth grade, as Pat Murphy).

Trish is one friend who has become more precious as the years have passed.

She drove out to see us at Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park where she let me drag her along on a walk with Matey.

Tricia has been living in Florida for around 40 years but is still aware of the beauty. You can see that in this shot she caught on our walk.

We had a great afternoon and evening together. Hope to see her one more time before we leave the state.

After being away for all of 2022, we are back in Florida for an extended visit.

Our first stop has been the Suwannee River State Park at the confluence of the Suwannee and Withlacoochee Rivers.

I remember now that state campsites are usually just sand, and soon there is sand in the trailer and sand in the truck.

I also remember that Florida is beautiful.

There are lots of really nice trails…

and big, gorgeous old trees.

I also remember that Florida, despite having people everywhere, has lots of wildlife; like this gopher tortoise that Matey and I encountered on our first walk in Florida. He was calmly munching on wire grass right on the edge of the trail.

I think we will enjoy our visit.

We drove another 250 miles today to Frank Jackson State Park just outside Opp, Alabama. Happily this site was long and flat enough that we could leave the truck and trailer hitched, as we’re only staying overnight.

We got here early enough for Matey and me to take a nice walk. We crossed this boardwalk to the far peninsula,

Then took a second out to a small island.

One trail led around the perimeter of the island.

Another went through the tall trees in the center of the island.

It’s nice to be exploring again, even though I miss Jamie and Adler so much it makes my heart hurt.

On New Year’s morning Matey and I took our last walk over Hot Springs Mountain, coming down to Fountain Street.

We walked down to the elegant, slightly seedy, and beautiful downtown Hot Springs.

Jamie, Sean, Adler and Bria, the dog, came over for lunch. In the afternoon they took Matey and me for a hike on West Mountain. Notice that a week after we’d spent three days below freezing, with a low of 6, we’re hiking in t-shirts!

This was my first hike on West Mountain, just the other side of downtown. Hot Springs Mountain is in the distance with the tower. Downtown is in the valley between.

Bud stayed behind adding air to the tires of our new Dodge Ram 2500 diesel pickup truck, getting it ready for today’s trip. Yep, we broke down and got a bigger truck. The Toyota had been a good truck for us, but we wanted something capable of towing more weight. We didn’t like being on the upper edge of what the Toyota could do. With a three quarter ton diesel we know we can have our water and waste tanks full, add extra stuff and still not be near the 14,500 pound towing capacity of the new truck.

We drove a bit over 300 miles and are now at Roosevelt State Park in Morton, Mississippi with some pretty cool ducks.

This is our Christmas tree, made for me by a coworker in 1976, still shining brightly.

The lights on our trailer sparkle also.

The holiday tableau is somewhat ruined by the contents of our refrigerator and freezer, spread out in the 25 degree cold because our refrigerator quit working, we think because of the cold. It has a cold pack on it that is supposed to keep it working down to 0 degrees Fahrenheit, but we think the 6 degrees did it in. Supposedly the cure is just to turn it off and let it warm. Anyway we intend to enjoy the day, and happily Bud found a convenience store with ice open on Christmas morning.

We had stayed our allowed two weeks at Lake Ouachita State Park.

This morning Matey and I took a final walk. Although it wasn’t sunny, it wasn’t sleeting or raining as predicted. The lake looked beautiful in the morning light.

By two o’clock this afternoon we were all set up at Hot Springs National Park campground at Gulpha Gorge. The spaces are tighter here and there are more campers.

But the setting is nice and I’m looking forward to the trails on Hot Springs Mountain.

Meanwhile, when the sun does shine we’ve been playing disc golf at the local course, Wildcat Disc Golf Course at Cedarglades Park.

We all enjoy that.

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while. We’re just hanging out in Hot Springs for the holiday season (and doing a lot of annual doctor and dentist visits).

We have moved to Lake Ouachita State Park, which is a much nicer setting. We managed to find a site where we have both cell service and an opening for our satellite TV antenna. Only one end of one camping loop gets cell service, and that area is wooded, so finding a spot with a break to the southwestern sky is not easy.

It’s very pretty here, but for the ten days we’ve been here we have rarely seen the sun. It has been clouds, mist and rain almost constantly. And for more than a week we couldn’t visit Jamie as she had COVID, again! This despite being vaccinated and boosted, but when you’re a primary care physician you are exposed every day.

Matey and I have seen deer on our drippy walks.

When there are breaks in the weather we play disc golf.

I’ve put out the holiday lights. (If you look closely you can see a few red and green dots on the camper. This was at dusk, at night they are bright.)

So all in all it has been good. And the rain is supposed to be ending for awhile. This is the sunset last night, so nice to see.