April 17 to April 21

We finally got going Friday morning at 11 am April 17, 2009. We were delayed getting started because Charlie got the flu at the end of February, the same day Joyce, Larry, and Mom left our house for home. The flu left Charlie with his asthma and it took a long time before he was feeling good again. Then we needed to get the RV repaired. So we left on Friday and drove up to Tallahassee to visit my second cousin Ann Morgan, her husband David, and my third cousin Becky who is our age. They have a beautiful place and an ideal living arrangement. Their single family house is really two separate living quarters including separate kitchens and master bedrooms. Becky also has two additional bedrooms. They have a couple of acres with wonderful live oaks, and they have plans for a greenhouse for Becky's orchids, a vegetable garden, fish pond, and fruit trees. They have been there since July 2008 and they are enjoying their big screened porch that adjoins both sides of the house. Toby made himself right at home. He took advantage of the fenced yard and the doggie door from the porch to the yard. Just like home, only better! It was so great to spend time with Ann, David, and Becky. We haven't seen each other in over 25 years, and they are just as I remembered them. They were so nice to Joyce and me when we were kids spending the summer with Gramma in North Port. I really enjoyed their company back then and it was the same on this visit. Ann has kept in touch with us over the years and I am so glad she was kind enough to do that. Our first evening there, David grilled chicken and shrimp kabob and we had lots of vegetables and a different kind of coleslaw that was all good. We shared a little family tree information; an interest of David's. I was particularly interested to learn about an ancestor on my Great Grandmother's side. Allen Wylie Prather was a Colonel of the 120th Indiana Volunteers in the Civil War. He was born January 15, 1836 and died November 19, 1891. He was wounded in the battle of Franklin, TN on November 30, 1864, by concussion of a shell, leaving him paralyzed on the right side, and leading to dropsy which eventually caused his death. He is buried in grave 82 of the Civil War section of Arlington National Cemetery. Next time we go to Arlington we will visit his grave. Saturday morning we looked at family pictures that Ann has and that I brought along on my computer. I was able to copy the pictures onto a CD for Ann, most of those pictures belonged to Gramma Terry. There are a number of people in the pictures that I don't recognize. Ann helped with some, but most remain unidentified. Oh well. The Morgans had another guest for the weekend. Raphael, a friend of Becky's. Becky raises and shows orchids and there was a show in Tallahassee that weekend. Raphael is from Sarasota and he is in the orchid business. He has a large facility in Sarasota, 15, 000 square feet of orchids. Raphael and his family also have acres of orchids in Venezuela. I would like to see that! Becky and Raphael went to the show at 7:30am and we went later in the day. It is quite something to see so many varieties of orchids at one time. Becky and Ann and David took us to Wakulla Springs, but first we went to lunch at a Greek restaurant. The food was great and I learned that Gyro is pronounced 'hero'. How come I didn't know that? Anyway, that is what I had and we all enjoyed our lunch. The Wakulla Springs were very interesting and there were lots of young people swimming and jumping off a high platform. They must have been northerners, the water was cold! We had a nice boat trip and saw lots of wildlife including birds, gators and turtles. There was a great variety of birds. The Morgans say that the experience is always different especially when the birds are migrating. Becky bought me my first magnet of the trip so I am starting a new collection. Then at Charlie's request they took us into Tallahassee to get a look at the capitul. We took pictures of the capitol building and the dolphin fountain. The fountain was beautiful with the water shining in the sun. Before we headed home we ate out again at a small family Italian restaurant called Mom and Dad's. That was good too. Boy did we eat good that day! When we got back we looked at family pictures again and visited and then Raphael came back and we visited with him too. Becky and I took Toby for a walk and we all had a good time. Sunday morning Raphael made blueberry pancakes and we had bacon too. When I got up I noticed that the fridge in the RV did not seem cold enough, in fact my breakfast drink was not cold at all. Charlie was sound asleep so Toby and I went in the house and left Charlie to discover the problem. Just as we sat down to eat Charlie came in and said we have two problems. The fridge is not working and our black water is leaking! I was mortified. The water is treated and there was not that much on the ground...but oh how embarrassing. The Morgan's were gracious about it though. Another issue during our visit was Toby versus Becky's cats Lucky and Buzz. Becky kept the cats on her side of the house while Toby kept to the other side and the porch. They could see each other from the porch and at first all the staring was cute. But both Toby and Lucky, a beautiful black cat, were determined to get together. Toby managed it twice. The first time they had a little fight, but both were unscathed. The second time, Toby slipped by and got into Becky's house. Becky grabbed Lucky and Toby ran around and around while Charlie and I chased him. Buzz is mostly invisible and luckily Toby didn't see him. Finally I caught Toby and apologized on my way back to Ann and David's house. Although we tried, we were not exactly perfect guests. Anyway Charlie was concerned enough about the RV's problems that he thought we should head home instead of continuing our trip. Everyone was sympathetic to hear that. They even invited us back for when we do head out again. So I guess we weren't too much of a nuisance. We hung around until about 11am and then we headed back East. Becky gave me a sprig of Rosemary to sweeten up this old RV. We got about 80 miles away and stopped at a Wal-Mart for lunch. There, as hoped, we discovered the fridge was working again. Charlie asked if we got a porta potty, at least temporarily, if I would want to keep going instead of going back home. I said absolutely! So that is what we did. We turned around and headed back to the Florida Caverns in Marianna, west of Tallahassee. We got to the cavern park at about 4pm (one hour time change), but because of all the recent flooding there was no camping there. We went to the Arrowhead Campground which is private and sells and services RVs. So we spent the night and got the RV looked at in the morning. A young man said the black water pipe was not broken but had come apart at a seam. He glued it together and said it should hold. We hope so. Just to be safe we are using the porta potty for a few more days. We left there and stopped at a Wal-Mart (we can't seem to pass those up), then we went to the Florida Caverns. The caverns had also been closed due to flooding until the day before, and were only partially open now. They are always closed on Tuesday and Wednesday, so we hit it just right. There was a Korean church group from Macon, GA on our tour of the caverns and Charlie talked with them a little bit. It was not a long tour but the cavern was very pretty. We left the park and pulled to the side of the road, a sort of dead end behind some fast food restaurants and had lunch. We drove to Falling Waters State Park, still in Florida. We got a nice camping space but it was not quite level. The trouble with the fridge was probably due to parking for two days and nights without moving on a spot that was not level while running the fridge. So tonight we put the RV up on levelers (I didn't even know we had levelers), though it is still tipped a little bit. We took a walk with Toby down to the lake. There is a beach and a netted swimming area. We tried to take a short cut back to the camp but the trail got muddy....so we ended up with a longer walk back. This park is on a hill and the path was a climb to get back. This may be Florida but it sure doesn't seem like it. We saw a lot of pretty long leaf pines and other pines as well. Some areas were burned, but signs said it was done on purpose and very controlled in order to keep it a pine forest. Long leaf pines once covered 30 to 80 million acres from Virginia to Texas, but because they are so useful for building they have been reduced to about one million acres, so foresters are trying to cultivate them. They look like a bush when they start to grow, they grow straight up without branches, then finally they branch out. We got our showers today and we are getting used to this RV and getting better organized, even though we are still stuck with the porta potty. It fits in the bathroom for storage, but we can't use it in there. This morning, Tuesday, we got up early and took the trail down to Falling Waters. It is a 73 foot waterfall down into a sinkhole. It is a pretty amazing sight. A boardwalk takes you to the falls for some great views below the falls but high above the sinkhole. We walked another trail and then headed out. Now we are in Long Beach, MS. Haven't seen a beach but we are at a nice campground with a couple of lakes (more like ponds). It is called Magic River Resort, a rather grandiose name for what it is. But it is part of Passport America which we belong to so we got half price and wifi. I am finally posting these notes tonight. At the end of these days I am pretty tired so I don't know how well I can keep up with this. Note to Joyce: Feel better soon!