The aimless drive for today took us east through the countryside. Interestingly, we ended up finding the Sebring racetrack and there was a 12 hour race in progress. We drove down one of the roads near the track and ran into a very impressive looking black guy directing traffic who told us what was happening. I quizzed him on the cost to enter and he told me he could let us have two tickets for $100 but if we went to the gate we would have to pay $85 a head. Parking is free.
We declined both offers and drove down another road to the track and found a little pull-out where we could see the cars coming out of a corner and stepping on the throttle. Most of the cars seemed to be DP class although there were some GT (Porsches) which were bringing up the rear. It was quite loud. We figured we would get run out of our spot pretty quick so we took some video with Peg’s Nikon and called it good.
Right after we left the track we encountered another black guy who had a roadside peanut boiler and was open for business. Neither of us had previously eaten fresh boiled peanuts and he was nice enough to let us sample some prior to making any purchases even though we could not understand a word the guy said. He had an accent that we were completely unfamiliar with but, commerce being what it is, we bought a $4 portion from him and commenced to eat them as we continued our drive. They are quite tasty but eating them is messy so we saved most of them until we returned to the Invader. The remainder of the peanuts were promptly shelled and devoured. Parts of the peanuts we could not easily dislodge from their shell we donated to the squirrels in the campground.
I did some minor maintenance on Charlotte and we went to Scab-Mart where we shopped for some food including some business with a miserable deli butcher woman who either hated us, her job or life in general. She was about the surliest Scab-Mart employee we have ever encountered and we sincerely hope we will not be obliged to see her again. No smiley-face stickers for her this week and it seems highly unlikely she will get a non-cash, non-promotional award for customer service in the foreseeable future. In my dotage I decided not to give her a hard time for being such a turd to deal with but it took all my willpower and very few pokes to the ribs from Peggy. Peg also believed her to be an asshat.
Peg and I noted that the faucet in the Invader’s bathroom sink seemed to be flowing slower with each use so I took the faucet apart to find that the cheesy little flow restrictor was plugged up such that almost no water would pass. Instead of trying to clean the crud out of the restrictor, I took the path of least resistance and just took the entire restrictor out of the assembly. Flow in the bathroom sink is no longer an issue. The faucet now spews forth a stream unlike any we have seen since purchasing the Invader.
The rest of the day I mostly loafed and read. Peggy dug in and started processing our taxes for 2014 since the IRS might take notice of us because I earned W-2 income last year. If we get a refund, I suppose her efforts will be validated but next year I see scant reason to file any tax documentation since it is not like the IRS could do anything to us since we will be pretty hard to find if we keep traveling.

Today we took one of our aimless spins about the countryside. We initially went SW through Arcadia and on to Punta Gorda. This metropolitan area lies on the Gulf between Tampa and Fort Myers. It has very new buildings and a population which seems to consist almost entirely of rich, white elderly people like us. The streets are wide, the views are quite nice and all the roads seem to be one-way.
We went down to the Gulf all the way at the end of the road and found Ponce DeLeon Park which is a little parking lot next to the beach. Fortunately for me, they had a restroom. They also had a nice pair of fishing piers with stainless handrails and plenty of wildlife and bizarre flora.
We noted that the beach had something strange about it. Most beaches we have been to have nice white sand, a diverse assortment of humans and waves. This beach has sand and elderly white people. No waves, no kids, no noise, no minorities, no fire rings, no trash cans were visible. According to a sign posted conspicuously in the parking lot, there will also be no skateboards, loud electronic sound making devices, juvenile possession of tobacco, pets or breaches of the peace. I am only slightly surprised that the sign did not stipulate that minorities were verboten because all we observed were old, white-haired people, beach chairs and the Gulf.
From this diversity Mecca, we drove up to Myakka River State Park. The $6 entrance fee we spent may be about the best money we have ever invested. The road in the park passes mostly through pine, palm and oak hammock areas with abundant wildlife. We saw a pond with not less than seven alligators, a water moccasin, egrets, cranes, a swallow-tailed kite, half a dozen deer, an giant mystery fish, chameleons, and squirrels happily jumping through the canopy. We took a walk to a canopy structure which allows the brave to climb a wooden tower and take a suspension bridge to another tower so you can be among the treetops instead of merely looking up. Peg climbed the tower but was not too skookum on the bridge so I walked over and met her after descending at the other end. The drive north from the park has a road that is completely covered with a canopy of trees that extends as far as the eye can see. It has beautiful oaks both sides with Spanish Moss hanging from them. The view is magical even if the road is a bit squirrelly.
Myakka is a wonderful place and I recommend it to all, even if they are required to drive a ways to get there. We got some great pix.

Today was a travel day. We left Oxford or Wildwood or whatever they call the place and drove south towards the TT park called Peace River Preserve which is between Wauchula and Zolfo Springs, FL. I have no responsibility for the names of either towns.
Foolishly, we followed the directions from the Garmin which took us through the Lakeland / Highland City / Bartow traffic nightmare. No matter which way you want to go, your route will require that you twist and turn and curse liberally about the circuitous nature of the path. One may be required to turn right at one intersection, left at the next intersection only to be required to turn right again at the next. This may be difficult if merely driving a car but nigh unto impossible if dragging an enormous trailer. The Floridians, in most cases, were nice enough to let me change lanes as required to maintain my path but other motorists were total shitheads that dart into the space you need to get where you think you may want to go. It is harrowing for old codgers like the driver – me.
We also noted, since we had ample time to read the roadside signs as we passed through this labyrinth, that misspelling seems to be a virtue in this part of the world with words like “wife’s” (the plural of wife), bourne (as in food borne ailments) and schcol (school). Perhaps their educational system is not working as well as they may have desired.
We ultimately made it to our destination which is a very large park with about 500 spaces. Most of the spaces allow ample room to get into them but since I am quite talentless when backing up the Invader, we had a little struggle getting into ours. There are numerous trees and carelessly parking neighbors that preclude simple trailer placement for the reverse-challenged morons in our society, like me.
We were pooped and it was hot so, after we finally got the Invader into the spot, we loafed and took naps with both air conditioning units whirling away keeping us cool.

Today we loafed. We went out long enough to get a propane bottle refilled and top off Charlotte’s diesel tank but no other exploring except for an AM walk inside the park during which we got to meet and pet many dogs. They were all quite nice. We prepped for departure tomorrow by doing all the regular stuff – fill water tanks, dump waste tanks, top off the truck antifreeze and reading. We also made a campground reservation in Cape Canaveral for the 23rd through the 26th since NASA’s schedule indicates there will be a Delta IV launch at 2:30 PM on the 25th. I hope it goes off as scheduled.

Today our cruise took us south, then northeast and then west. First, Peg was nice enough to let me go back south to see the dragline in Coleman. Today it was operating and we sort of sneaked into the access road to the quarry to get a photo. No sooner had we taken a video of the dragline working when some of the quarry staff came by to quiz us on what we were doing on their site without checking in with the office as plainly posted at the entrance. They were very nice about it, particularly when I mentioned to them that I would be leaving immediately.
We wandered around through the Ocala National Forest after that. The Ocala is very nice but we did not see many critters. We did, however, find a restaurant called Jan’s River Cafe near the town of Ocala which also had a candy store next to it selling “Whoopie Pies.” The food at Jan’s was terrific. Peg got a half of a lemon chicken with cabbage and beans and mashed potatoes which she said was superb. I got Shepherd’s Pie which was also very tasty. We are figuring out that chain restaurants have mediocre food but little cafes seem to have great stuff. After eating too much at Jan’s, we wandered next door to the place with the whoopie pies to see what they were. They seem to be big cake-sized cookies top and bottom with ice cream in between so we tried some of them, too. They were also good but by the time we left the parking lot we were close to popping from too much of a good thing.
Dinner today was deemed unnecessary. Somehow I lost my neat little pocket knife today although we can’t figure out how I did it.

Today we took a spin to the west to a town called Silver Springs where there is a state park and to Homosassa where there is a state park called Weeki Wachee which they pronounce as “Weeki Watchee.” Silver Springs State Park offers boat rides around the springs and adjacent gulf but there are only two trips per day which means you either have to wait a long time for a boat after working your way up a waiting list or forgoing the ride. We passed on this one because the wait was four hours.
We then headed down to Homosassa to what should be called “Weeki Whackee” based on the spelling of the place. At Weeki Wachee Springs State Park they have a concessionaire that offers shows with girls fitted with rubber tails such that they look like mermaids for those who believe that kind of shit. We passed on the rubber tail show, as well.
On the way home we did spot an enormous dragline scraping lime out of the earth near Coleman, FL. It was operating when we initially went by but by the time we turned around and got to a place where we could get a good photo, they had shut down for the day. Nevertheless, it was a truly impressive piece of equipment.

Driving day. We left Suwannee and drove a couple hours SE to 3 Flags RV Park in Wildwood, FL. We got in pretty early because it was only about a two hour drive so we went to Camping World nearby to find out it closed about 15 minutes prior to our arrival. It must have something to do with it being Sunday and the entire region being infested with Baptists. One of the guys in a park we stayed in told us that “Most religious folks believe that God created the earth but, actually, Baptists created the earth and merely hired God as a figurehead.”
Having failed at Camping World, we went to a local Scab-Mart and stocked up on stuff for the trailer. This chain (Wal-Mart) does, indeed, have some of the strangest looking folks inside their facilities and a great deal of them work for the store. The store is located in a part of Florida known as “The Villages” which we would call “The Various Housing Developments” in CA. There is no town, per se, called “The Villages” but big tracts with names like “Davenport,” “Garden Terraces” or “Golfing Hellhole” but the state refers to the area collectively as Oxford. Many Republicans inhabit the area.

Another day at Suwannee River. We took a side trip to Manatee Springs where they also have an elevated wood walkway through the swamp. We did not see a single manatee but did get pictures of two water moccasins that had hauled themselves out of the water onto floating logs. One of the moccasins was big (maybe 5′) and the other one was about the size of a pencil about 15” long. They are impressive but not cute.
After not seeing any manatees at Manatee State Park, we drove out to the town of Suwannee on the Gulf of Mexico. We found a restaurant in town that had great seafood where Peg had a shrimp Po-boy with real good french fries but crummy cole slaw. I had the seafood combo of fried shrimp and grouper with fries and everything was tip-top. We cannot remember the name of the restaurant but since it is the only place in town, I suppose it would be hard to go wrong.
We took a little spin through Suwannee which is quite scenic in a strange way. There are mostly little houses that have canals in their back yards where everyone keeps their motor boats in little boat houses with boat lifts. It is a pretty nice part of the world here where fresh water bumps into the gulf’s salt water.
We headed back to the campground to prep for departure tomorrow morning.

Driving day. Left Tallahassee and drove to Suwannee River Hideaway in Old Town, FL, about 3.5 hours SE. On the way, we were obliged to cross the Fenholloway River. Both Peg and I noted a foul smell that we thought was coming from Charlotte right after we went over the Fenholloway. However, Peg got on the internet and found out that 75 years ago the state of Florida made a deal with a chemical company / pulp mill 20 miles upriver from where we crossed that allowed them to dump their foul shit into the river which really stinks, in more ways than one. As we got further from the river, the smell definitely went away so we had suspected Charlotte and she didn’t do it. Sorry, Charlotte.
We pulled into the Suwannee River Hideaway which is a nice little park with all the stuff RVers need, including a pond with alligators that come up on the nice grassy banks to soak up some rays. They also have what they call a “boardwalk” which is actually a raised wooden walkway mounted on wood piles driven into the swamp. It is about 1500 feet from a trail in the campground over the walkway to the edge of the Suwannee River. It is a very nice walk and they have a great platform at the end where you can just sit down and watch the river flow by the perch. The walk through the swamp views is quite pleasant, as are the platform vistas.
A songwriter named Steven Foster wrote a song about the “Swannee” river but he was mispronouncing the name, perhaps from total ignorance or merely because he thought Swanee sounded better than Suwannee.

We got up really early which was sort of aided by yesterday’s time change and went to the Ford dealership so we could get in line early to meet their obnoxious first come-first served policy. We arrived at 6:45, 45 minutes before they opened and we were the first folks served but it still took three hours out of the day. I love Charlotte but I loathe Ford dealerships.
After dealing with these assholes, however, the rest of the day was wonderful. First we went to Wakulla Springs State Park. The springs pour out 400,000 to 600,000 gallons per minute of fresh water and they are located right in the middle of an area infested with wildlife. We saw big vultures, cardinals, ibises, gallinules, ducks, cranes, some animals with names I can’t pronounce and loads of alligators. It is spectacular, especially since they take visitors out on battery-powered boats to see everything from the water. We also went into the adjacent resort building and ran into the maintenance manager, Neill Adderly, the son of Cannonball Adderly the musician. He took us on a tour of the 1930’s vintage building which is very nice.
From there we went down to St. Marks on the Gulf of Mexico. The area is a federal wildlife refuge so, again, we got in free using our federal access pass we bought in Gold Beach last July. I love that $80 pass; we must have saved about $300 so far and the year isn’t over yet. The refuge is truly magnificent. We saw alligators everywhere, birds of all descriptions and stuck our little mitts in the Gulf. There is also an old lighthouse at the end of the road that is pretty neat considering it is cylindrical but built from brick. We also found that visitors should keep the windows up and run the A/C since there are also quite a few flying insects.
Dana called and spoke with Mom for a while before our miserable Sprint phone took a shit and dropped the call. Nice to chat with Dana.
On the way back to the Invader we found a restaurant called “Savanna’s Country Buffet” which had great food in their buffet for $8.75 a head, including the drink and tax. Good home-cooked stuff and we overindulged disgracefully. On the way home we ran through some thundershowers which only dropped rain at a rate of about 4 inches an hour. We also finalized all the necessary arrangements for our next three stops in Florida which seems to be pretty necessary because not only is it spring break for lots of Florida kids, this area is a Mecca for all the retired and elderly old farts from the entire eastern seaboard.