Out Of Business

February 2017 is almost over, so I thought I would check in and tell you the latest news before we slip into the new month. First, we had a WONDERFUL time during our most recent camping trip at Wekiwa Springs. That was our final camping trip until next fall, and we made the most of every single day. We stopped at the gigantic Webster Westside Flea Market on the way home. After Gary got his shopping fix, we were off and rolling. It was an uneventful trip, and that's just fine with us. Unless plans change, it looks like I'll be sitting right here in my usual spot in the Green Acres Garage until next November. UGH!!! Something tells me that it's going to be a long and very hot summer. In other news, the joint business venture between Gary and I (Booth 366) is now over. About 10 months ago, we decided to get a little booth at an antique store in Jacksonville, and sell antiques and collectibles. Gary did all the work, and I gave up my weekly allowance to supply the cash to buy the goods that were sold in the booth. Gary is a really good shopper. He stretches a dollar like nobody I've ever seen, and with diligence and hard work, he was able to make some decent money for both of us. But the catch in this otherwise happy story is the amount of time that's involved to make this work. There's the shopping for goods, cleaning the purchases, tagging them, inventorying them, taking photos for the Booth 366 Facebook page, then going back and forth to Jacksonville to restock the booth. On average, it was taking half of each week to get all of that done. Gary literally has enough ongoing projects to keep him busy for the rest of his life if he lived to be 150. No joke! Things have continued to get further and further out of hand around here, and Gary was no longer having fun doing the Booth 366 thing. So, we talked it over and decided to call it quits. If things start getting done here at home, I think Gary will feel much better. All of these unfinished projects, plus Booth 366, has been wearing on him. The only time he's relaxed is when we're off camping somewhere. But camping season is over, Booth 366 is over, and now it's time for the REAL work to begin. On the bright side, I guess I'll be getting a steady allowance again, so WOO-HOO for that! As things happen here at Green Acres, I'll be reporting in. Love to you all. Your little aluminum pal, Toaster.

Winter In Wekiwa Springs

It's day number one (of five) here at Wekiwa Springs State Park in Apopka, Florida. This is our last camping trip of the 2016/2017 season, but I'm going to try not to think about that too much. There's no need to be sad when this is our last time to have fun and be happy. When we arrived today, our campsite was still occupied. We had to kill some time, so Dodge and I hung out in the parking lot, while Gary wandered around and snapped a few picture around the area where the springs are. He even took a picture of himself, and he rarely does that. His face didn't break the camera lens, so all is well (Ha-Ha!). After an hour or so, we made our way back to the campground, and luckily, our campsite was vacant and waiting for us. We have camped here at Wekiwa on several occasions, and all but once we have made campsite 33 our home. It's obviously our favorite campsite here. Winter in Florida is CRAZY!!! It was 81 degrees and muggy today. Gary planned ahead and brought along my air conditioner, making my interior an un-toaster-like 64 degrees. Nice! You may recall my post from our visit here a couple of years ago, when we didn't have my air conditioner, and all of my windows were open. The super aggressive squirrels that live here at Wekiwa, actually chewed through my screens and partied inside of me while Gary was out antique shopping. I was in shock! They were running all over the place, and got into a brand new loaf of bread, making a BIG mess. As much as I love squirrels, that was WAY too scary for little old me. They will hopefully come around to be fed, but that will be happening OUTSIDE, not INSIDE. Since we are so close to the Orlando area, TV reception here is perfect. There's a new channel to be found with every click of the remote. We'll have something to watch, even if the rain storms come through this weekend as predicted. Well, I'm going to get off this computer, relax for awhile, and enjoy the things that make camping so much fun. If I don't write again while we are here, I'll write from home for sure. Later!

Midnight Trailer To Georgia

We're home from our latest trip, and as always, it was a FUN one. Here's the story of where we went and what we did. This was our final visit to Georgia for the 2016/2017 camping season. Sad to say, but it's true. We LOVE Georgia. The state parks there are SO different from the Florida parks. It's also a GREAT place for Gary to hunt for antiques, and you know how much he loves to do that. We rolled away from home base in St. Augustine early last Thursday morning. All of our gear was packed, and my four little stuffed squirrels were tucked into what Gary calls "The Squirrel Safety Seat". Actually, they ride on my front bed, nestled between my left front wall and a pillow. With all the bouncing I do as we fly down the highway, they always arrive just as they were when we left. We drove about 70 miles in the dark of night, and stopped at a rest stop on I-10 westbound at mile marker 318 for a few hours of sleep. From there, we headed into Georgia, and arrived a while later at Reed Bingham State Park between Adel and Moultrie. It's located about 6 miles west of I-75. We camp at Reed Bingham on a fairly regular basis, and we once again chose campsite #1 for our 4-night stay. I like that big oak tree. It provides a nice shady spot for me to hang out under. One of the reasons we stay at Reed Bingham so often, is because of the semi-annual car shows in nearby Moultrie that Gary likes to attend. On Friday and Saturday, that's exactly where he spent the majority of his time. He bought some miscellaneous stuff at the swap meet, and fell madly in love with a rusty 1949 Dodge pickup truck that I've included a picture of. I think if he had some extra cash in his pockets, that truck would have ended up as the newest resident of the Green Acres Garage. I hung out and watched the Discovery Channel on TV while he was gone. That's always a treat since we don't have cable TV at home. Gary skipped the car show on Sunday, slept in REALLY late, and then we watched all the pre-game stuff before the Superbowl came on. As for the results of the game, we could almost feel the disappointment in the air from the Georgia fans, knowing their beloved Atlanta Falcons lost the game in overtime. It was a shocker for sure. Early on Monday, it was time to leave. We headed east with Gary's cellphone navigation as our guide, and arrived awhile later at General Coffee State Park between the towns of Nicholls and Douglas. Gary had bought carrots during a stop at Wal-Mart, and we paused on the way back to the campground to feed the carrots to Poncho and Jenny, our two favorite donkeys besides Jack and Diane, the two miniature donkeys that live on Gary's sister's farm. Because of Jack and Diane, we have become HUGE fans of donkeys. They are super cool animals. Once inside the campground, we decided to stay in campsite #32. We camped in that same campsite during our very first stay at the park back in 2013. Since this was just an overnight visit, Gary didn't fully set me up like he does during longer stays. The only reason I got unhitched from Dodge was because Gary wanted to go into town to check out a couple of antique stores, and there isn't any place to park the van with me attached. There is no TV reception at General Coffee, but Gary brought along an AWESOME DVD about the touring years of The Beatles that was put together by Ron Howard. We watched that, and it was SOOOOO great! We slept well, and left the campground around 11 AM this morning. We stopped by to feed Poncho and Jenny some more carrots on the way out of the park, and stopped at an antique store in Blackshear as we headed further south. We cruised down US 1 through Georgia, then into Florida, and finally arrived back home around 4 PM. As much as I love being on the road, it's always good to be home. I think I feel a nap coming on. Catch you later!

A Pictureless Update

Hello, my friends. I hope you all are doing well, and 2017 has been good to you so far. A lot has changed since I last posted. We even have a new President now. WOW! I've been fine, but I sure have missed not traveling and camping. As for my buddy Gary, he has been as busy as usual with projects around the house, and maintaining our booth at the antique mall. In-between all the work, he had some MAJOR dental work this month that put him out of commission for a few days. I tried to make him comfortable while he was on the mend. I think I did a pretty decent job, but you'll have to verify that with him. He's been back to the dentist for two follow-up appointments. In addition to the dreaded dental work, Gary has managed to sneak out of here and have some fun on a few occasions. He's been to the gigantic Webster Westside Flea Market twice this month, the Renninger's Antique Extravaganza in Mount Dora once, and the Sumter County (near Webster) car show once. Good old reliable Dodge (my best buddy other than Gary), has been serving extra duty with all of these events and appointments. Casper, the 2003 van that Gary usually drives for most things other than towing me, has been parked for a leaking water pump. That's another project that Gary has worked on when he's felt like it. He HATES working on vehicles since he discovered how cool it is to work on travel trailers. I'm sure that Dodge will be happy when Casper gets fixed, so he can take a break and get some rest. After all, he has a whopping 260,000 miles on him now. For the most part, we haven't had many days that were cool enough to not have the air conditioner running. Gary and I love the winter time in Florida, and it's disappointing that we haven't had more cool days to enjoy. We're hoping that will change. In other happenings here at Green Acres, Gary had to have the large oak tree in our front yard removed. It was damaged by Hurricane Matthew back in October. It posed a danger to the house, so it had to go. The tree's removal was especially sad for me, because it provided a home to a lot of the neighborhood squirrels. I LOVED watching them chase each other up and down that tree, and eating their meals on the tree's limbs. With the tree gone, I don't see nearly as many of my furry-tailed little buddies as I used to. Dorsey, the storage container that was recently purchased, has gotten cleaned inside, and is ready to get some nice white paint on his interior walls. Then he will get shelves, a work table, and other improvements. Things are moving along nicely here at Green Acres in 2017, yet there's still so much to do. I wish I could help, but manual labor just isn't my thing. My only value is being the best little camper I can be, and I'm REALLY looking forward to a couple of planned trips in February, where I can remind Gary how fun I am to have around. Sorry I don't have any pictures to share with you. I think this is the first time I've ever done a post without at least ONE picture. I'll try to do better next time. Take care, have fun, and I'll chat with you soon from a campground far far away.

Meet Dorsey, The Green Acres Storage Container

Well, I told you I would keep you informed of any big happenings here at Green Acres, and boy have I got a BIG one to tell you about today. This is Dorsey, a former semi-trailer who retired from road travel, lost his wheels, and became a full-time storage container. He is 45 feet long, over 8 feet wide, and over 9 feet tall. He last resided at The Great Expectations Auction Company here in St. Augustine, but was no longer needed. Always looking for additional storage for all his stuff, Gary bought him and had him transported here to Green Acres. Getting Dorsey into our yard was a challenge. The road in front of our house is not very wide, and there are ditches on each side. To help, Gary removed two fence posts and a section of fence. Still, getting about 70 feet of truck, trailer, and container turned sharply enough to get into our yard was a major job for the delivery driver. One additional fence post got hit and broken, but Gary has fixed it and replaced the posts he removed. All is well. We're just glad that Dorsey is here. There was a bit of miscommunication between Gary and the delivery driver. Gary had solid concrete blocks stacked up to put under Dorsey as he got unloaded, but the driver dropped him off before there was a chance to put the blocks in place. Having Dorsey sitting directly on the ground was not an option. So, the following day after delivery, Gary used his 3-ton Harbor Freight floor jack to lift Dorsey up and get the blocks under him. I thought that job was going to be impossible, but Gary made it look pretty easy. As he always says, it's easy when you have the proper tools. As time permits, Gary is planning on running power to Dorsey. He's also going to paint him inside, and build LOTS of shelving. I'm reasonably sure that all of that will happen before the weather gets too hot here. As you know, in Florida there aren't many days that aren't hot. We have very few days of winter, and an equally small amount of spring days. You're probably wondering where Dorsey got his name. It came from his manufacturer, the Dorsey Trailer Company in Alabama. We couldn't think of a better name for him, so Dorsey it is. Welcome to the family, Dorsey. We think you're going to like it here.