Since returning from our last camping trip in early December, we spent fifty-two nights here at home. That's a LONG time when you're born to camp, and when you're an impatient little travel trailer like I am. Christmas and New Year's came and went. Dodge spent two weeks in the body shop getting repaired from the devastating accident that he was in on Thanksgiving weekend. Gary always has a million projects going on, so he kept busy during our "down" time. Thank goodness that I have lots of TV watching to do to pass the hours away, or I'd go absolutely CRAZY!!! But, there are plans for lots of camping trips in 2018, and February 1st was the starting point. Needless to say, I couldn't wait to hit the highway. As usual, we left home in the middle of the night, and headed to the rest stop at exit 318 on Interstate 10 that we have stopped at on previous trips. If you've ever tried to sleep in a rest stop, you know that it's difficult to do with all the 18-wheelers coming and going. It's NOISY!!! But we managed to sleep a little, and woke up next to a HUGE boat on a trailer. In comparison, that boat made me look even smaller than I normally do. Can you imagine how much money something like that must cost? We got rolling, and in a little over a hundred miles, we arrived at Reed Bingham State Park. Regular readers to my blog know that we camp at Reed Bingham quite often. Obviously, we like it there, and it's a convenient place to hang out in our travels. We usually stay in campsite #1, but it was already taken this time, so we picked campsite #10 instead. It was under a nice big shade tree, and was VERY nice. We settled in and rested up after our arrival on Thursday. Gary went to the car show in nearby Moultrie on Friday and Saturday, while I watched some great shows on the Discovery Channel. I LOVE having cable TV there. We only have an antenna at home, so having cable is a real treat. We were blessed with good weather during the first three days of our stay, but on our fourth and final day, it was raining and gloomy. Gary hung out with me all day, and we enjoyed watching the Superbowl that night. The rain was gone when we packed up to head to our next stop on Monday. Under cloudless blue skies, we arrived at another one of our favorite parks (General Coffee State Park) in a relatively short time. Using the cellphone navigation as our guide, it was fun taking back roads to get there. There's lots of interesting things to see when you stray from the main highways. We camped in campsite #37 at General Coffee. We had never camped in that site before. It was big enough for at least ten trailers of my size. General Coffee doesn't have cable TV, and there's actually no TV reception at all. During our two day visit, Gary was gone a lot, so he left the iPod playing for me for entertainment. We fed the squirrels, and Gary also fed our donkey pals, Poncho and Jenny. We LOVE those donkeys! Pepper the horse hangs out with Poncho and Jenny, and there are goats, sheep, chickens, and ducks that also live within Heritage Farm inside the boundaries of General Coffee. It's a fun place, and we HIGHLY recommend it. Happy to see that the personalized bricks we bought are still on display in front of the park museum. Just a little shameless promotion for my blog. There's nothing wrong with that, right? Gary went antique shopping in four nearby towns, and found some cool stuff. As you know, he REALLY enjoys antiquing, and usually makes time to go out searching for junk wherever we're camping at. Our time at General Coffee was much too short, but we needed to get back home to prepare for our next trip. This time, I won't have long to wait. Oh, I almost forgot to mention that Dodge reached another milestone on our way home. He has now traveled a total of 266,000 miles. WOWZA!!! Going that far makes me tired just thinking about it. Way to go, Dodge. You da MAN, or the VAN, or the VAN MAN. Well, you know what I mean.
Happy Daytona 500 Sunday, my friends. Gary and I are hanging out together (along with our buddy Dodge, of course), anticipating the start of the first NASCAR race of the 2018 season. It's always exciting, and hopefully one of our favorites will win. We will know in a few hours. We are currently camping here at Wekiwa Springs State Park in Apopka, FL. We arrived here last Wednesday, and we leave next Thursday. We rarely spend eight days in a row at one park, and we decided to do it not once, but twice on this trip. When we do leave here, we'll also spend eight days at "Sebby", or Sebastian Inlet as everyone but me calls it. FUN times! We saw a gopher turtle and some wild turkeys on the way to the campground. Gary has seen a few deer on his trips in and out of the park, but none have visited me yet. I'm hoping to see a few before we head out of here. Gary and I will celebrate our birthdays here tomorrow. Gary will be 63, and I will be 46. Can you believe it? Well, maybe with Gary you can, but not me. I don't look my age at all. HaHaHa!!! Naturally, we brought along my air conditioner for this trip. It's HOT for February, but nothing new when you live in Florida. I'm in the shade a couple of times each day, so it's not too bad. There's EXCELLENT TV coverage since we're so close to Orlando. No cable TV here, but my little antenna brings in every channel there is. Gary went antique shopping on our first full day here, and he also spent the last two days at the ENORMOUS Renninger's Antique Extravaganza in nearby Mount Dora. Dodge is LOADED with "treasures" that Gary "just had to have". It's a good thing he has me to live in, since there's no longer any room for him in the house. No joke! And tomorrow he's heading to the Webster Flea Market where he will no doubt buy even MORE junk. It's a sickness I tell you, and he's got it BAD!!! He enjoys the thrill of the hunt though, and I'm glad he's found something that makes him happy. He could definitely be doing worse things. So, I'll be spending a lot of my birthday by myself, but that's okay. I'm camping, and there's nothing I enjoy any more than that. Gary and I will both be doing what we love, and who could ask for more on their birthday? It's almost race time, so I'm going to go for now. Just thought I'd check in to let you know where we are at. Enjoy your day!
