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!

My Reward

Well, I've been patient and I've been good, and Gary has rewarded me by taking me camping once again. It seems like it's been forever since I've been out of the garage. In reality, it's only been about six weeks. Still, it's been a LONG six weeks. We are back at the Puc Puggy Campground at Paynes Prairie Preserve, our FAVORITE Florida State Park. We usually stay in campsite number 18 or 42, but they were both taken when Gary made our reservation. So, even though we've stayed here a bunch of times, we are in a new-to-us campsite, number 38. Like most all of the campsites here, it's a very nice one. Heck, I wanted to go camping so badly, I wouldn't care if our campsite was right next to the dumpster! There are a bunch of Airstreams here this time. Their club had a get-together here over the weekend, and at least a dozen trailers are still here as I write this on a Sunday night. I fit in with them since I am a bare aluminum Serro Scotty. I could be a distant cousin or something, right? We are going to be here for a full week. Just coincidentally, my birthday is on Wednesday, and Gary couldn't have gotten me a better present than this. I love to camp, and I especially love to camp here. Later in the week, I've heard we'll be joined by some of our friends. That will make this trip even more special than usual. I'm REALLY looking forward to that! Gary spent most of the day here with me. He only wandered away for an hour or so to take a few pictures by Lake Wauberg which borders the park. It was a picture perfect day here with plenty of sun and not a cloud in the sky. As usual, he's planning to go antique shopping tomorrow. I'll be by myself, but that's okay. I've got peanuts to feed the squirrels, and it's supposed to be another BEAUTIFUL day. Life is not only good, it's GREAT!!!

A Visit From "Aunt" Sandy

Nothing has changed much in the past week or so here at the Green Acres Garage, at least as far as I'm concerned. I'm still waiting to spend a little time outside, and maybe have a bath before we head out on our next camping trip. Unfortunately, the weather hasn't been very cooperative. It's rained quite often, and I'd really rather be inside my comfortable garage on bad weather days. Gary has continued his seemingly never ending garage cleaning and organizing project. He has moved a LOT of stuff around, but honestly, the place still looks pretty bad. Please don't tell him I said that. I've tried to encourage him to keep at it, but lets face it, the truth is the truth. In the meantime, I'm waiting somewhat impatiently for the day when things REALLY look good around here. I'm counting the days until we camp again, and the time is almost here. The garage door is still within sight with no clutter in the way, so it looks like I'll have no problem in getting out of here when the time comes. It's been quite awhile since we've had any visitors, but that finally changed today. Gary's friend Sandy (I like to call her "Aunt" Sandy), came by after work today to bring Gary an early birthday present. She's a good and supportive friend. As you may remember, Sandy transported Gary to and from his eyelid surgery back in October of last year, and went to the store for him afterwards. She's always been so nice to both Gary and myself. She got a tour of the messy garage while she was here, then visited with me and "Nutkin" for awhile. I do believe that "Nutkin" has found himself a new friend, since Sandy and him got along tremendously. It was great to see her again, and nice to have a visitor. That's the most excitement I've had since our last camping trip. In less than a week, we'll be hitting the highway for a week at Paynes Prairie. I may be going as a dirty little un-bathed camper, but at least I'll be there. WOO-HOO!!!

Now That's Better

As predicted during my last post, Gary didn't need any nagging from me to get those kitchen cabinets put away. They got all lined up under the new loft he just built in the back of the garage. They look much better back there than they did all piled up in front of me. I can see the garage door again, and when it's up, I can see outside. I haven't been out of the garage yet, but I know now that I can escape if I need to. That's reassuring. My buddy "Dodge" the van has been sleeping in the garage with me at night. He's happy to have his space back. I've been alone a lot during the days. Oh sure, I've got my pets and the TV to keep me company, but Gary hasn't been here much. The estate house that he got the kitchen cabinets from will be torn down soon. The more materials that are salvaged, the less that ends up in the landfill. I'm not sure what he's going to do with all that wood, but he hated to see it go to waste. As you can see, he has brought home a BIG amount of baseboard, door and window trim, etc. Before getting started on the trim salvage, he removed all the tongue and groove flooring in one of the bedrooms in the house. He had bought the flooring during the estate auction. It's some nice looking stuff, and he has plans to use it inside our house. He also salvaged the two vintage medicine cabinets that you can see in one of the pictures. Gary finished up "operation salvage" this past weekend. As the time gets closer to the house being torn down, he still has to remove some of the windows from the place and bring them home. I think he's going to store them up in the new loft. As long as they're not piled up in front of me, I'll be happy. In less than two weeks, we're going camping. So, I'm pretty sure that the space in front of me will remain empty, except when "Dodge" is sleeping there. I certainly HOPE so! Thanks for checking in, and come back soon.