Now that's a camper!!!

This is a picture that was sent to me from a friend. NOW THAT IS A COMPACT CAMPER!!! Notice the air conditioner hangs on the outside of the door. My friend, John, just bought a VW dune buggy. Him and a friend of his was the ones who took me back to the bus after I had a blown tire a week ago.
John loves taking pictures with the digital camera. He shoots at a lot of stuff I never would even think of, because I think of the time it takes to delete the pictures, but this picture came out cute. The dog belonged to a friend of John's friend. They had bought a bus to go to a Christian Rally in Illinois, but unfortunately, it broke down in Chattanooga. I heard they were so hard up for money that they put the dog up for sale on ebay.

Well, getting ready to go swimming. Have a nice day,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,Ron

Smoky over the campground

I arrived back at the Orlando Resort today to see smoke coming across the campground, so as soon as I got electric hooked up, I went down to the lake to take pictures. It was strong enough to smell it & burn my eyes, so I got away from there asap!!! Not too bad where I am parked. When I 1st rode up to the lake, there was so much smoke that I couldn't see at all across there in 2 areas, but by the time I got the camera out, it was this.
At Karaoke Saturday night, there were a couple of cute shirts I took pictures of. Today I saw a truck that passed me called, "KING OF THE ROAD", so I had to sing that song for awhile.
All I can say about this shirt is I have to agree.
This was an accident from a drinking driver, who left the scene of the accident. He was lucky to be alive as the roof over the passenger side was pushed in. He left his license plate on the truck though, so will probably be able to track him. Maybe he'll call in his truck stolen? Alcohol & driving doesn't mix, but many people never learn. There was another accident there in same area just about 24 hours previous. Maybe partly design error of lane ending, mixed with alcohol situation.
Sign down at the lake!!! I heard several months ago that there are hundreds of alligators in this lake. On the local news here yesterday was a guy golfing. He reached down to get his ball next to a lake & an big alligator grabbed his hand. He used his left fist to beat on the alligator until he left loose. "ATTN. GEORGE! Aren't you glad you're not in Florida golfing?" You might have to fight to get your golf ball, LOL

You didn't think I'd go swimming there did you? I've had 2 people concerned they hadn't seen any new blogs from me. Well, not anything interesting to write home about of a blown bus tire. I did see the inner tube fly out of it as I went ahead & drove down the road as a friend said I could on the other dual. Then I got pulled over by a state policeman & he said, "YOU'RE OUT OF SERVICE!!!" He said I was smoking, but it was a pickup who had passed me that probably was about ready to lose an engine.

Well, I hope it rains & knocks down the smoke. Ron

New friends today with golf cart

Yesterday I took some pictures of a couple in the swimming pool. I went over to get an e-mail address to send the pictures to them & was invited to join 4 of them sitting there. The couple I hadn't met had a golf cart with this sign on it. They bought it at a festival, a better laugh that "GIT-R-DONE". Well, I came back & got a soda to go back, also took my PC for them to see some of my video slide presentations, etc. Both couples have MAC PC's.

Because of the funny sign, I had to do a funny picture, so here it is. The weather was nice here today. Ron

Gone Swimming

89.5F HERE. Supposed to be 91 in Chicago today, SO IT ISN'T SO BAD TO BE IN FLORIDA IN THE SUMMER! Last night we got 1/4" of rain, so it seems to be just like summers I remember back in Indiana. I talked to friends back in Indiana today & they said they need rain.

Not much going on. Just watching TV & being on the PC playing some cards.

This is the shirt I bought at Cracker Barrel Tuesday coming back from the beach. Already had people say they liked it. They were marked down in price. Probably twice this last week I have laid my keys down & had to look for them. Once locked my door padlock keys inside the bus, so had to use my hidden spare key.

Not many campers here & I have been going the same route between campgrounds every 5Th day. I did see something to take a picture of, IF I CAN FIND A PLACE TO PARK THE BUS. All for now,,,,,,,Ron

At the beach

This is the same beach I went to with Barbara last week. I had purchased a Senior Citizen pass at national parks for lifetime for $10, so I wanted to get some use out of it. There seemed to be a lot more swimmers there today.

Unfortunately as I was ready to leave, there was a boy 1.5 years old missing. I hope they found him. There were 4-6 people frantically looking for him. Seemed the lifeguard to me didn't seem too concerned, calmly asking them to check restrooms, etc. I do remember once at Siesta Beach at Sarasota once though that a little girl came up missing & she was found. She had just made a new friend & was with her. Supposedly today a girl was watching this little boy that was missing. I just listened as she talked to the lifeguard.

This is the same fisherman we saw last week. He had just caught this fish he threw back into the ocean. He said this breed will grow to 6-8#. His prize catch he told me about was a 1.5# Whiting fish which didn't sound big to me, but he said it was a good catch. Shows you how much I DON'T KNOW ABOUT FISHING!!!
I had to find a gal with some sex appeal.
Here was another gal sitting in her lawn chair, just letting the ocean roll in on her. She had her bottled water & suntan lotion. Nice way to relax on the beach, LOL.
These are the shells I picked up off of the beach today. The upper left one is called a "HORSESHOE SHELL". I don't know what the others are.

There are 2 more new blogs under this one for today, 6/12/07. Ron

Going to the beach

Yesterday heading to my friend's wedding, I saw this cab in Orlando. Just different, so I took the picture. No lady inside to chek, LOL.
Then today right after getting off of I-95, I saw this sign. This is the name of the high school at Titusville, Fl. I'm guessing they are the Titusville ASTRONAUTS, lol. I wonder what the school mascot looks like, LOL.
On the way out to Merritt Island, they had the bridge closed off for about 20 minutes that we sat waiting to move. Someone said they were working under the bridge. This boat came through just before we were able to go. It was moving on!!!
Out to Cape Canaveral & now the launch pad sits empty without a vehicle attached. Pretty tired tonight. Didn't get done with the wedding, pictures, & moving bus until 12:30AM. Then about 4:30AM this morning someone came through the gas station where I parked honking their horn & woke me up. I have been up all day. Had a thunderstorm move through with winds maybe 40 mph or more.

Ocean Front Wedding

This was shortly into the ceremony. I wasn't paying attention to the water AS WE THOUGHT WE WOULDN'T GET WET!!! Only the bride & groom planned to go into the water, LOL, & that was only intended after the ceremony. Well, so much for that. In the tan clothes is the groom's Father & you'll notice he is pulling up his trousers. I had decided not to take my shoes off, so after this wave, my shoes are wet & FULL OF SAND!!! Look at the facial expressions of the wedding party, LOL, but the minister just kept on going. This is the most fun wedding I ever took pictures at & I have probably taken over 300 or so.
Brides flowers were beautiful & I loved their colors.










After they were pronounced husband & wife & kissed, they walked out into the Atlantic Ocean, which there was a beautiful picture there also, with their backs to me, but this picture with their backs to the ocean & the water hitting them up high was funny as they didn't know they were gonna get hit that high. Brenda said she almost got knocked over.

After the wedding ceremony, Greg removed the garter & tossed it. Johnathon, the best man caught it.

The last picture is "FINGER LICKIN' GOOD" cake. I will put the picture of me in with the e-mail of notification the new blog. Since I had already got wet & almost everybody else went in, I figured I had might as well also, LOL.

Lightning

I heard thunder, so I went out to take pictures of the lightning. I am running on battery power. I took about 20 pictures to get 2 pictures with lightning in them. I am back to Orlando today. No rain so far, but I'm expecting it, but hoping it misses here as I left my umbrella in the bus.
I left Wachula about 7:30 this morning. I headed to Bushnell, Fl., to pick up the used veggie oil a restaurant is saving for me. I had a nice western omelet for breakfast there. Picked up around 45 gallons of Canola oil. That's around 350 miles of free fuel.

This row of Live Oak trees was on a highway getting to Bushnell. They have been there a long time & looked to be 10 or more in a row, so somebody planted them I'm sure. I had a problem with Live Oak trees in Bartow, Fl. They had an electrical problem on the highway & had traffic detoured IN TOWN. Some of those trees had moss hanging down low & I caught some of it on my CB antenna, which then came down & obstructed my view in the mirror.

The trees in the previous picture was where I turned around, but this is the picture I turned the bus around to get. The place is for sale & unfortunately this (PAGODA?) has been left in disrepair. I think it looks like Japanese, but maybe Chinese. Anybody know?

Would you like some?

Yesterday I made Peanut Butter Fudge with nuts. I had been making chocolate fudge of which the people here at the campground liked, but the manager asked if I ever made Peanut Butter Fudge, so here it is. I took 2 snack bags to the office. I'm sure the 1 bag is empty already because the secretary ate about 1/2 of it as I talked to her. If you want some, maybe I could e-mail it, LOL.
Sitting here in the bus this morning I saw 2 birds with red heads. They were bouncing around on the like they were playing "HIDE & SEEK", but then maybe one was chasing the other, I don't know. By the time I got the camera out & got close enough to take a picture, they flew to another tree, so I went over there only to find there were 3 of them. I have been told they are Woodpeckers, but not the same species I am familiar with in Indiana. They are much bigger. I was told they migrate here for a short amount of time & then are gone.

This is a cloud I saw last night. Sort of looked like an animal is why I took the picture. A dog maybe? A bear? Maybe two, one in the foreground & one in background? What do you think? Whatever, it is going downhill.

Supposed to be over 90 here every day for the next week. I'm staying in the air conditioning. :) Ron

Mean Clouds & Astronaut

Yesterday I took this picture, but due to the storm, I never got back on line until late last night. Yesterday we got about 5" of rain in 2 thunderstorms. Today the clouds looked just as bad & I could see it raining down the road, but we only got 1/4" here at Peace River.

A friend of mine, Greg Archambault is very happy. His 2ND cousin, Lee Archambault is the pilot of the shuttle due to be launched from Cape Canaveral Friday evening, at 7:38 PM Eastern time. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts117/index.html is the link. Lee is the 3rd astronaut from the right.

MISC.

Barb & I had shared pictures, so when I put the Bonnet Shark on the blog, I used her picture because I had used her previous picture in the blog. Then she pointed out to me that she liked my angle better as it showed the top view I got better, so you can see it here. Some people think it is a Hammerhead Shark. I was told today that this breed of shark don't grow too large, but the guy who told me this said he likes to go out into the ocean to go shark fishing because they put up a good fight. Also sharks are good to eat because they have no bones.
The name of this lagoon says it all, "MOSQUITO LAGOON"
This is the bridge headed over to Cape Canaveral, Cocoa Beach, & Merritt Island. I took this through the windshield as Barbara drove. It was an unique angle that I was just a little late with my shot. Seems strange though that the 2 bridges aren't parallel.
Nice home on Merritt Island. It was next door to the one that was for sale with a $200,000 reduction in price. Sure glad I don't have to pay the property tax on this one. The local news today just mentioned people here aren't able to afford to buy homes because of taxes, so property tax cuts are in the works, but several services said the tax can't be cut for their service.
This was after we got off of Merritt Island. Vacation home in Paradise? Your own island? Well, I grew up on a farm, but just east of us a mile +, was Lake Freeman, which ran like a snake quite a few miles. On the lake is an island. It was called "Ski Island". The Ford car dealer, named "Bartlett" had a home on it, plus other small cottages of others. Skiing enthusiasts gathered there & they had a ski jump there. I never went over the jump, but have skied around the island. Barb has experience skiing also. Snow & water. Well, I snow skied, SORT OF!!! We used water skis & got towed behind a pickup in a bean field on snow in the winter.

Back down to Peace River. It rained here today. The weatherman said we are now in the summer rain season where we might get rain everyday. They showed 20-40% everyday.

Today was the last taping of "THE PRICE IS RIGHT", with Bob Barker. The show will go on though. New host hasn't been named yet. Ron

2 story camper

I saw this at the campground at Christmas, Fl. At 1st look I thought it was a moving van semi-trailer, but look at the COOLER??? up front? I understand it took 2-3 years to make this camper.
So it looks like a reefer, (cooler unit for food) trailer? Well, it isn't. I knocked on the door & was invited in. Up several steps into the bedroom & bath, PLUS WHAT APPEARS TO BE A REFRIGERATION UNIT, is a closet. In the middle of the trailer, lower level is the kitchen & living space. Toward the back of that & overhead is a loft, which has an air mattress for when needed.
In the rear of the trailer is room for 1 or 2 race cars. When hauling 2 cars, one car is lifted on the electric/hydraulic hoist & pushed forward into the loft. Picture here shows lift raised.

This is the tractor that pulls it, a 1981 Peterbilt, if I remember right. Still looks pretty good.

Does Santa Swim?

Looks like Santa likes the swimming pool. This is at a campground at Christmas, Florida.
This is the Santa mailbox at the community center.
Don't blink or you might miss Christmas, Florida.
This Christmas tree stays up all year & lit at night.
Many people bring their mail here to mail it, so therefore they have more outgoing than incoming mail.

Fort Christmas

This is at Fort Christmas, a short distance north of the town of Fort Christmas. In the 1820's & 1830's, American settler's were trying to get the Seminole Indians moved to west of the Mississippi River, but the Indians were being tough. So they opened a fort & because it opened on Christmas day, that was how it got it's name.
This is a CRACKER HOUSE. They were called Crackers because native Floridians called themselves Crackers.
This appears to be the main gate. If you look up on the 2nd floor you will see rectangular holes, evidently used to shoot from.

Cape Canaveral

On the way to Cape Canaveral Sea Shore we were within 5 miles of the shuttle. I got my telephoto lens out to take these 2 pictures. Then I had to crop it quite a bit, plus Barb worked on the contrast & color also.
This is the famous assembly building, which can be seen for a long ways away. Seems it has the most open cubic feet of any building on earth.