Hangin' With Friends At The Prairie

We had a GREAT week at Paynes Prairie. Gary and I spent the first three days by ourselves, and then we were joined by some friends we expected, and some friends we didn't expect at all. Here's the scoop. On the "expected" side of this story, Jim and Melodie, along with Rowan their dog (a Pomeranian), arrived on Wednesday afternoon. They don't live too far away from Paynes Prairie, and we have camped together in the past. Jim custom built his fabulous "Weekender" trailer himself, and his woodworking and mechanical skills are incomparable. That is one AWESOME trailer! They hung out with Gary and I for a couple of hours, and Gary later spent some time with them at their campsite during the evening. Also on Wednesday, we had a couple of visitors from the "unexpected" side of our story. A very nice lady (we didn't catch her name) who was camping around the corner from us, walked by with her two adorable Westie dogs. They look almost like Scotty dogs, but are white instead of black. Anyway, Gary has always loved that breed of dog, so he asked if he could take their picture. Aren't they cute? I can see why Gary loves that breed so much. They were really sweet. As Gary and I were hanging with Jim and Melodie, a white car pulled up and inquired about me, asking if I was a Serro Scotty. Answering "yes" to the question, and asking if the people in the car wanted to meet me, they got out to check me over. This is the unbelievable part of the story. The couple in the car were John and Carol Dinning, and we actually camped with them at our Letchworth State Park visit last fall in New York. They live in Maryland, and own a Scotty Hilander. We didn't recognize them, and they didn't recognize us. They weren't even camping at Paynes Prairie. They were in the area and just happened to be driving through the campground when they saw us. How weird is that occurrence? The Dinnings talked with Gary for a little while, took a look at me, and headed out. On Thursday, we had more "expected" company, when Joe and Tina Herald arrived. They live in Ohio, but are currently on a camping tour of Florida. One of the photos shows them arriving with their Scotty Hilander they call the "Snotty Skotty". Gary knew the Heralds from Facebook, but we actually met them in person when they were touring Florida last year. This is the first time we've camped with them. They brought along their new four month old Scotty puppy named "Maizie". On Friday, Jim and Melodie had to leave, but not before Tina and Joe and Gary stopped by their campsite for a visit. Joe was especially interested in Jim's trailer, and the visit allowed Rowan and Maizie to play together. The weather had been exceptionally nice all week, but the rain arrived on Friday afternoon. Gary and the Heralds drove to a nearby town where a big estate sale was supposed to be happening. Most of the stuff was covered up because of the rain, but Gary still managed to spend some money. He came back to the campground with this big metal storage cabinet in the van. He's a NUT! On Saturday, everyone spent the day exploring Paynes Prairie. Rain was expected again this morning, but we made it almost all the way back to St.Augustine before we ran into any. Gary got soaked trying to get me and "Dodge" into the garage. I'm soaked too, and none too happy about it, but I guess I have to take the good with the bad. There's a rain delay at the Daytona 500, but Gary and I are drying out and watching for the race to resume. We've been looking forward to it for a LONG time. All and all, it's a lazy and wet afternoon, but it was the perfect time to catch you up on our camping fun. So there you go!