The Toaster Obsession, Part Two

It's been a quiet week here at the Green Acres Garage. Gary had some major dental work done on Tuesday, and he's been tired and weak ever since. I've done my best to be helpful and to make him comfortable. My A/C is running constantly, and he has spent most of the week sleeping away the days and nights with me watching over him. Needless to say, there hasn't been any work going on around here at all. Gary is taking a much needed break, and he's doing everything he can to heal properly. Since I have had very little to keep up with here in the garage, I thought I would take an inventory and some fresh pictures of the toaster salt and pepper shakers and related items that I told you about back in February. Thanks to lots of online and antique store shopping, our collection has grown considerably. Who knew there were so many items that are shaped like me? Gary has found most of these, but I've surprised him and have come up with a couple of them with my online shopping prowess. Most of these are salt and pepper shakers, but a couple are Christmas ornaments. The biggest one is a sticky notes holder called "Toasty Notes". Gary found that one in an antiques store in Jacksonville. My favorite find is the aqua and white one. It was in Serro Scotty colors, so I HAD to have it. As I said before, I usually don't collect anything. But now that I have seen how much fun collecting is, I'm on eBay every single day looking for these little jewels. Gary is probably sorry that he taught me how to use the computer, and even worse, that I know how to access his PayPal account. This could be dangerous! Anyway, he doesn't seem to mind when an unknown little package arrives in the mail with a new toaster inside. It's kind of a father and son obsession.

I'm In A BUSY Place!

It's been about ten days since the garage I live in was essentially an island on our property. Luckily, we've had many sunny days here in St. Augustine, and things have pretty much dried out around here. There has been a CRAZY amount of activity here in the Green Acres Garage. Gary has been out here every single day, and working past sunset on most nights. I can't say that he's worked on me very much. Other than gutting my kitchen base cabinet, I remain untouched. However, I have literally been surrounded by lots of other work. My brother Henry, who used to be a Scotty Hilander, was brought back over from the driveway to the garage. He had 1/2" plywood flooring that Gary removed, and will replace with 3/4" pressure treated plywood. And then, sides and a tailgate will be made, and Henry will officially be a S.L.U.T. (Serro Lawn & Utility Trailer). Gary comes up with some VERY creative names, doesn't he? To stabilize Henry's wooden sides and to beef up his frame for hauling the new riding lawn mower that Gary just bought, he was taken over to the local welding shop to have some steel tubing welded onto the back of him. At the moment, he looks like a rolling football goal post, but I know that he will look radically different by the time Gary get's finished with him. Most of that stack of wood that was piled in front of me has been cut into pieces for Henry's transformation. Gary, being the considerate guy that he is, has been cutting the wood outside with the garage door closed so that I won't get dusty. He's so nice to me. One of our friends wants the bumper off of my brother Scotty, so Gary cut it off with a saw yesterday. And if all of that activity wasn't enough, Gary has also been cutting wood for some other kind of creation that I know absolutely nothing about. He made a square wooden tube, and laminated three pieces of wood together to make a little square thing with a LOT of holes in it. There's also a heat gun mounted on a board involved in this project. When I find out what the heck all of these things are, I'll let you know. Gary continues to spend every night "gamping" (garage camping) with me, as he has done every night for over seven months now. Even though our camping season on the road is over, I'm thankful that he's still willing to spend his nights with me here at home. It's so much fun to hang out with my favorite camping buddy. That's the latest news from here. More soon!

My Island Home

It's been kind of a wierd week here at the Green Acres Garage. I have no clue what Gary was doing on Monday. All I know is that I didn't see him very much. Tuesday, he was in the garage from time to time, but he wasn't working on me like I thought he was going to do. He gathered up ratcheting tie-down straps, blocks of wood, and miscellaneous tools, and put them in the van. He always has a plan, so I didn't want to bug him and ask what he was up to. I knew I would find out soon enough. Wednesday morning, he climbed out of bed early, got ready to go, and took off with the van. A couple of hours later, he was back at home with a big U-Haul trailer and a brand new Husqvarna riding lawn mower. I know nothing about riding lawn mowers, but that sure looks like a nice one. By then, I knew what all of the hoopla was about from the previous day. The wood and straps were used to secure the mower to the trailer, and the tools were taken along "just in case". Gary has been wanting a riding lawn mower for a long time. It takes him a full day to mow our nearly one acre of land with the push mower. With this big and powerful rider, it should take MUCH less time. That will give him more time to spend with me, and I DEFINITELY like that idea. After returning the U-Haul trailer to where he got it, Gary had planned to test out the mower. But it looked like it was going to rain any minute, so he held off to test the mower on Thursday. Unfortunately, he should have done his testing while he could. We woke up early on Thursday morning with the sound of rain beating heavily upon the garage. It rained all day and all night, and continued throughout the day on Friday. It stopped momentarily around 6PM Friday evening, but before long, it was raining once again. Gary went out and took these pictures during the few minutes it wasn't raining. What I saw when he showed me these pictures REALLY surprised me, and honestly, it scared me too. Our nice green yard is under water! Almost all of it is. Only the two driveways and little spots in the yard remain high enough to not be covered. I've never seen it like this in all the years I've been living here. I've been assured that the water won't come into the garage, but it's much closer than I'd like it to be. Gary has to wade from the house to the garage, wearing tall rubber boots. YIKES!!! I never imagined I'd be living on an island, but here I am. I've got it made being in the garage. Although I've never cared for that big ugly Terry trailer that used to be in the garage with me, I feel sorry for him sitting out there in the back yard in all that water. That's just plain sad. Gary says it will probably be two weeks or more for all this water to sink into the ground. So much for test driving the new lawn mower right now, but it's really going to be needed when all this grass starts growing from all this rain. As for me, I'm going to be on my best behavior. I don't want to irritate Gary at all, or I might get voted off the island like those people on "Survivor". That just CAN'T happen! Wherever you are, I hope you're safe and dry. I'll give you an update when I can. Bye!

Changes Are Coming

Hi Everyone. Sorry I haven't posted lately, but there hasn't been too much going on since we got home from our last camping trip. Gary continues to watch TV and sleep in me every night, and since he put the air conditioner in me, I hope he will do so even after the temperatures warm up. Usually when it gets too hot and muggy, he sleeps in the house. It's lonely without him, so I'm really hoping to have my camping buddy with me for awhile yet. He had some projects he was working on in the garage today, and when he finished, he started looking me over for some improvements he's been wanting to make. He removed the facing off my kitchen base cabinet, and then the pictures off my wall. There is definitely some wasted space in the kitchen cabinet that he plans to take advantage of. I'm not sure what he has planned for the pictures, but I guess I'll find out soon. Another area of wasted space is the cubby holes under my lower bunk bed. That space is never used, and I know he's planning on building drawers there for added storage. As far as the outside of me goes, Gary ordered a set of leveling jacks from an eBay vendor for all four of my corners. They will bolt to my frame, and will crank down with the handle that came with the jacks. One thing Gary isn't thrilled with when we camp, is dealing with my existing jacks. He has to crawl around on the ground to get them under me and adjusted. They also take up valuable space in the van. Those problems will be gone with the new jacks. I know that Gary is eager to get started on me, so I'm sure I'll have much more to show you and tell you about soon. Gary is in the house taking a shower right now, and we're gonna watch the NASCAR race together tonight. This is gonna be FUN!!! Bye for now.

Heading Home To St. Augustine

Man, I hated leaving Paynes Prairie today. It's so sad to know that our camping season has come to an end. I know that Gary will be "gamping" (garage camping) in me here at home until the heat keeps him inside the house, but not being out enjoying new places and revisiting our favorite parks for six whole months is going to be difficult. We pulled out of our campsite around 10AM. It looks pretty lonely without me in it, doesn't it? When Gary stopped at the ranger station to check out, he finally got the story behind the name "Puc Puggy" for which the campground is named. It's an indian name that was given to William Bartram the naturalist, and the man that first documented the prairie. The name means "flower gatherer". All the times we've been to Paynes Prairie, and we finally found out where that funny sounding name came from. After leaving the park, we headed south to McIntosh to check out some antique stores that were closed earlier in the week when Gary first saw them. We went to three places, and then headed towards home. We stopped at four other antique stores in Palatka along the way. None of the stores we went to were very large, so there wasn't a lot of time spent in any of them. From Palatka, it's about 30 miles to our home in St. Augustine. Our last photo opportunity was at the State Road 16 sign on Interstate 95, just one mile from home. And that pretty much concludes a camping season that started in mid-October. We had a wonderful time, with a total of 62 nights of camping in 20 different parks in 3 different states. Not bad! Gary has many improvements he wants to make to me over the summer, so I'll be posting from time to time with updates. Thank you all SO much for checking out my blog. Until next time....goodbye and goodnight from the Green Acres Garage in beautiful St. Augustine, FL.

Our Last Day Of The Camping Season

Well, I was totally wrong about Gary not doing much and just relaxing while we've been here at Paynes Prairie. Even with his bum knee, he has been VERY busy. Today, he headed up to Gainesville for some supplies at Wal-Mart. Just a few miles north of the park entrance on US441, he came across two things he didn't know were there. First, there is a small parking lot, and an entrance to the 2-1/2 mile Bolen's Bluff Trail. More on that later. Just a little bit north of the trail entrance, is an observation deck that stretches out into the prairie itself. He stopped for pictures while he was there, and walked out onto the relatively short deck. This park is BIG, and reaches out far beyond the confines of the main portion of the park. After getting what he needed at Wal-Mart, and finding an antique store with the aid of his handy-dandy smart phone navigator, he returned back to the campsite for lunch. His knee wasn't hurting, so after a couple of sandwiches, he returned to the Bolen's Bluff Trail to see what it was all about. He didn't walk the entire 2-1/2 mile distance, but he did go far enough to get to the prairie observation area just off the trail. Still not totally tired, he came back to the main part of the park, and headed down to the 50ft. observation tower near the visitor's center. The wind was blowing pretty well, and he relaxed for awhile and enjoyed the prairie view from the glider on the top level of the tower. After that, he came back to our campsite, recharged the camera battery, and headed out once again. This time, he walked over to the picnic area by the edge of Lake Wauberg. He had hoped to catch the many colors of the sunset over the lake, but the clouds got in the way. As for me, I like to relax when I camp. Gary can run around all he wants, but I enjoy just taking it easy. I really appreciate all the pics he takes so I'll have something to show you on my blog, but I wish he would slow it down a little a spend some time with me, his favorite camping buddy. It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks though. I'll post again when we get home.

A Busy Day At The Prairie

Gary woke up early, ate breakfast, fed the squirrels that were hanging out at our campsite, and hit the road. While I relaxed and was constantly entertained by the antics of my furry-tailed little friends, Gary was making the rounds to antique stores in the nearby towns of Micanopy, Williston, Reddick, and McIntosh. On the way back, a sign for an old trailer park caught his eye. He loves stuff like that. On occasion while towing me, he will spot something he wants to photograph, and we pull off the road so abrubtly, that it scares me to death. I think he forgets I'm right behind him sometimes. It was mid afternoon by the time Gary made it back to the campground. His right knee has been bothering him lately, and with all the walking he did at the antique stores, I figured he would be ready to rest after eating his late lunch. I was right. He played on the computer for awhile, watched TV, and took a short stroll through the park to take a few pics. Two spots down from us was a shiny new Airstream. Gary struck up a conversation with Sam, the Airstream's owner, and got to look at the inside of it. After talking about trailers for awhile, and sharing information about various state parks, Sam came down to visit with me. Nice guy, and he was very complimentary. That's Sam posing for a pic with me. I've never seen an Airstream as short as Sam's is. It is barely bigger than me. In looking around the campground, I was still the smallest and the oldest trailer in the place, but what else is new? One more day to go at Paynes Prairie before it's time to go. Oh NO!!!

Getting Squirrely

I totally lost count of all the squrrels here. There are just WAY too many, and lets face it, they all look pretty much alike. I asked Gary if he would mind taking a few pics of some of my furry little buddies today, and he was more than happy to oblige. I've posted a few of my favorites. Aren't they cute? There were a bunch of them in the trees above me this morning, and they were dropping little twigs and leaves on me as they were chasing each other. At one point, Gary thought it was raining because there were so many things falling on my roof. No harm done, and it was pretty darn funny watching their acrobatics. Lots of other stuff happened today, but seeing all my squirrel buddies is what makes me the happiest. More soon from beautiful Paynes Prairie.

Paynes Prairie: As Comfortable As Home

I didn't think it would take much persuasion on my part to get Gary to take me camping again. He wanted to end our camping season in a fun place, and since Hunting Island in South Carolina was such a bummer, we obviously needed to go out one more time. So, we have returned to Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park. The park is only about 75 miles from home, and is absolutely our favorite inland Florida State Park. There are only two parks that we've ever been to, where we feel as comfortable in them as we do at home. General Coffee in Georgia is one, and Paynes Prairie is the other. Gary and I get a warm and fuzzy feeling every time we are here. Eager to get here early and begin our three day stay, we checked in at 8:30 this morning. Luckily, whoever was in our campsite last night, packed up and left before we arrived. We made our way to campsite #17. We have never stayed in this campsite before, but it is a GREAT one. I'm under a canopy of trees, and had very little sun to contend with. As a bonus for Gary's aging bladder (poor guy), the restroom is directly across the street. You know how much I love squirrels, and there's more here than I've been able to count. That kept me busy while Gary bopped over to Smiley's Antique Mall to do some browsing. When he returned, both of us took a nap for awhile. We didn't get much sleep last night, as is typical before we go camping. We're just too excited to sleep. When we were here last time, it was cold enough to run the heater. This time, Gary brought along the air conditioner. Even though there is always plenty of foliage here, there is even more now that spring has arrived. We haven't seen it this "green" before. Gary isn't planning to do much while we're here. He has fully explored the park during our past visits, so I'm pretty sure there will be much more relaxation in store this time. Fine with me. Maybe I can get him to hang out here with me and count squirrels. That would be fun! Whatever we do, we know we will enjoy our time here at Paynes Prairie. It's AWESOME!!!

Welcome To Florida

Happily, we got the heck out of South Carolina early this morning, and made our way quickly into Georgia. Our first stop was for gas in the Savannah area. It was .23 per gallon cheaper in Georgia than it was in South Carolina. Crazy! The plan was to hit an antique store or two if we could find any that were close to the interstate. In Darien, Georgia, we stopped at Southern Pickers Antiques. Gary didn't find anything he had to have, but it was a good place to stretch his legs, and for me to cool my wheels from the miles on the highway. Gary had lunch with me in the parking lot before hitting the road again. Our next stop was at the Florida welcome center. I hung out with some of my RV pals in the parking lot while our owners were taking a break elsewhere. The RV to my left in the picture was German. I couldn't understand a thing he was saying. We left there, and headed a short distance down the road to exit 373, and into a town called Yulee. Gary spent a good amount of time checking out the A1A Antiques Mall. Again, he didn't find anything he had to have, but it's a store he will definitely go back to. It had lots of small items, and that's the type of things that Gary likes best. From there, we headed through Jacksonville, and on into our home base of St. Augustine. I guess that Gary was in a hurry all of a sudden to get home, since he was driving faster than he normally does. We were flying out there on I-95, and I was getting a little scared. Usually, everybody passes us, but we were actually passing other cars and even a couple of 18-wheelers. Yikes! Anyway, we made it safely home, and I am once again in my happy home at the Green Acres Garage. I'm not at all sure what's in store for me next. Our camping season is over, and it ended on a bad note with our stay at Hunting Island in South Carolina. I'm going to try to talk Gary into one more trip to a place fairly close to home. He's putty in my hands, you know. Stay tuned to see what happens next.

Our Last Day At Hunting Island State Park....YAY!!!

Normally, I'm kind of sad when we have to leave a park to head home. But in the case of Hunting Island, I honestly can't wait. Gary was on the phone today for over an hour with both Reserve America and the South Carolina Parks Department, and he cut no corners in telling them how pathetic this park is. All I know is that our campsite is kind of shabby, and that the roads throughout the park put my new suspension to the ultimate test. Gary has seen much more of the run-down condition of this place than I have. He spent a couple of hours late this afternoon walking the beach. There are sections of it that look pretty, and there are sections of it with downed trees and debris that you don't dare walk on without wearing shoes. There are many undermined tall trees that are just waiting to fall. I guess it will take one of them to kill somebody before they do anything about the potential hazard. The park service claimed that the problems that Gary told them about are not typical of what South Carolina Parks have to offer. But, this park has high ratings and is really bad, so can you believe anything they have to say? I've posted pictures that make this place look pretty good, which just goes to prove you can put makeup on a pig. I figured I've said enough bad things about it, that I didn't need to post depressing pictures as well. And Gary took MANY pictures of the ugliness here. Well, enough about that. I am hitched up to the van, and with just a few last minute things to do in the morning, Gary and I will be ready to go home. It's a shame we had to end our camping season on a bad note, but that's the luck of the draw I guess. I'll let you know if anything exciting happens on the way home.