Barbie and I want to wish ALL of our friends and family a Happy New Year. May the new year 2011 bring each of you good health, happiness and success. Be safe in your travels and keep a smile on your faces.
We’ll be ringing in the New Year DJing the dance here at Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park. We’re ready to “get down” with all of our friends, both old and new, here in the park. I’ll report back with pictures in the next day or so.
‘Til next time……..and next year…………..
Christmas Day was a laid back kind of day. We spent the day lounging around the motorhome, errr correction, I spent the day lounging around the motorhome but Barbie decided to go through the cabinets of the motorhome to reorganize and cull some items that we don’t use, therefore don’t need. The only excursion out was to the Rock Crusher Canyon community Christmas dinner at 2:00pm in the clubhouse. The park supplied the ham, scalloped potatoes and a “California blend” of steamed vegetables and tea and coffee. The blend consisted of broccoli, cauliflower and squash. Then every couple/guest was to bring a dish to share. There was a signup list that had been posted for about 10 days with different options to bring. This allowed for a variety and a sufficient number of dishes in each food group. There was a good crowd of about 75 folks in attendance. The food was plentiful and quite tasty. Wouldn’t you know we forgot to bring a camera, so I have no pictures of the event.
Sunday, the 26th, which would have been my father’s 89th birthday had he not passed away in 2003, was Christmas Day continued. Barbie finished her “holiday cleaning frenzy” and I watched football on the computer. Yes, on the computer, as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers were blacked out on tv so I watched it on a live internet feed again. I did this regularly when we were out of state at the beginning of the season.
The cold weather the past couple of days has left my back and my left knee aching a bit. It’s hell getting old and having to deal with old injuries. Of course, give me the option of a little discomfort as compared to the other option….give me some soreness and stiffness any day. It was down to 23 degrees in Crystal River last night. Once again we simply left a trickle of water running in the kitchen sink and we had no problem with hoses freezing or lines cracking. We use that philosophy when the lows are projected to be between 20-32 degrees. Below 20 degrees, we’ll disconnect the hose, put it away and use the internal water supply. We’ll be tricklin’ again tonight.
Monday I set up my DJ equipment in the motorhome with Barbie’s help, to give it a test run before New Years Eve. I bought some new speakers in May that are a bit smaller in size than my original set but I hadn’t hooked them up to listen to them yet. I figured I’d test them out and if there was a problem with them I could take them back to the stix-n-bricks home in Valrico today and bring back the big ones I’ve used previously. The new speakers sound really good but I’m glad we did the test run as I recently downloaded a newer version of my VirtualDJ software which I use and it wouldn’t work initially. It wouldn’t recognize my music on I Tunes. That would present a major problem for Friday night, I’d say. To solve the problem I simply had to reconfigure the setup and all was well after a couple of tweaks. “JB the DJ” is ready for New Years Eve. All I really want to do is review the “must play” list and the other potentials and put them in a “folder” in the software. That way I don’t have to search through my 2500 song library to find what I need. I only would need to search the entire list if a request is not in my “short” list for the event.
Today we made the run down to Valrico and back. We took some items “culled” from the motorhome back to the house. Barbie did grab a couple more sweaters/sweatshirts to bring back for the cold weather. She also took the coffeemaker from the motorhome and switched it out with the one from Valrico. She likes it better. On the trip down we took the Suncoast Parkway down to State Road 54 then over to I-75 and down to Brandon. We normally run SR 98 to I-75 and then south to Brandon. There was hardly any traffic on the Parkway so the $3 for tolls was worth it. Coming back we road US 301 north through Zephyrhills to Dade City then went SR 52 to I-4. Instead of getting off at SR 50/98, we rode up to Bushnell to see how crowded it was at Blueberry Hill RV Resort, oh excuse me, Nascar Resort at Blueberry Hill as it is now known. There are plenty of sites open there as well---snowbirds caught in the blizzard up the I-95 corridor??? We then drove through Paradise Oaks Golf and RV Resort, also in Bushnell on CR 475 just north of SR 48. This is a fairly new park I believe and is quite impressive on our drive thru. We’ll definitely have to camp there someday. From there we meandered up SR 41 through Floral City and Inverness on the way back to Rock Crusher. We got back to the coach at 5:15pm, so it has been a full travel day. With all that said, I’ll leave you with pictures from the past.
To all of our friends and family, from our motorhome in Rock Crusher Canyon in Crystal River, Florida, we wish you a very Merry Christmas! We appreciate your gifts of love and friendship.
‘Til next time……………………….
Barbie and I went to Home Depot today and bought a mutual Christmas gift for each other. Many rvers can relate to an issue when I say the 2 door refrigerator in our 2001 Newmar Kountry Star motorhome has us longing for some additional refrigerator space. That became more of an issue when we went from weekenders to fulltimers (95% anyway), last June. At our rv site in the Falls View section of River Vista Mountain Village, in Dillard, GA, we added a 3.9 cubic ft Haier to our storage shed this summer. It served us well. The only criticism we had was it had but one door and once it was opened you could access the smaller door for the freezer section. Still, problem solved at our summer home.
Back to today-the trip to Home Depot was to purchase a similar compact refrigerator for our storage “unit” here at our site at Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park (RCC), here in Crystal River, FL. We were looking for one of similar size to what we had in GA, but we really wanted 2 doors with a separate door for the freezer compartment. We found a Magic Chef that fit the bill.
Now all we need to do is put the carpet in the “Prince” and run the electric cord to it and we’re in business. So with our present resolved, it is time to send all of our readers a holiday greeting card, our gift to you. Sorry, no palm trees, just snowflakes and a little snow for the ambiance. Here you go.
‘Til next time………………………..
Last night was yet another FIRST for us. We attended our first Homosassa Boat Parade. It won’t be our last though. After leaving our site at Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park we headed to Dan’s Clam Stand for dinner. Barbie has had an intestinal bug for the past few days so she chose clam chowder and some cold peel-n-eat shrimp. I had a bowl of the clam chowder and a burger with fries. I’m tellin’ ya that the New England clam chowder at Dan’s is THE best I’ve ever had. After we ate we headed in to old Homosassa hoping to secure a spot at “The Shed”, a local covered outdoor bar at McRae’s, on the Homosassa River, where we would have a birds eye view of the boat parade. The place was packed. So we had to go with plan B, which was to drive around to the other side of the river, down Hall’s River Road to the marina. We arrived there, grabbed our collapsible chairs, and were able to secure a great spot right on the river. The marina actually had a grill set up and were cooking burgers and hotdogs plus had drinks and even candy apples for sale. Many brought their own beverages and snacks. There was a nice crowd and we had nice conversations with others waiting for the parade to start. It got a bit cool as the sun set so my flannel shirt felt good. Below you’ll find a sampling of the shots I took during the parade of about 20 boats festively decorated for the event. Remember, you can click on any picture for a larger view.
I know which was my favorite, how about you?
Finally, I leave you with a couple of pictures of our inside decorations in the motorhome.
‘Til next time…………………….
We did some decorating around the motorhome today. Between the cold temperatures (24 degrees last night here in Crystal River) and putting up the decorations, we are feelin’ the Christmas spirit. As a matter of fact, we’re believin’ that “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”. Hope you enjoy our video dream-just click on the link in the previous sentence. Below is a picture taken directly from it.
‘Til next time……………………..
This certainly has been a busy week! We drove to the stix & brix home in Valrico Tuesday and returned here to Rock Crusher Canyon (RCC) yesterday afternoon. I had a doctors appointment Wednesday for my six month check-up, then a dental appointment to have my teeth cleaned Thursday. Friday morning, that would be early Friday morning at 7:00am, Barbie and I met some of her former colleagues from Mann Middle School for breakfast. In addition, Barbie did some yard work while I was at the dentist and we did a few things around the house. All in all it was a productive visit as we got some things done and I had good reports from the doctor and dental hygienist. I do know one thing, we are certainly not used to all the traffic we encountered in Valrico and Brandon. Having spent the past 6 months in the northeast Georgia mountains and the last week in Crystal River, we certainly have not faced the traffic we did the past few days. I can say we were both glad to be back here in Crystal River.
When we arrived back here at Rock Crusher Canyon we found many more sites filled. It’s not that all the fulltimers arrived the past few days but country music fans began arriving for the “Country Rocks the Canyon” Concert which I spoke of in the last post. The concert is going on tonight. Barbie and I are going to take a golf cart ride in a few minutes to check out the campground. Well, we just returned from a drive around the campground. There are alot of folks sitting around campfires as it is 40 degrees at this time. I suspect a good number are at the concert, which we could hear quite easily from nearly every corner of RCC. We actually went in the clubhouse and went out and sat in the screened pool area and we could hear the music extremely well. You can’t see anything but the sound was clear. We caught the introduction of Luke Bryan and listened to his first 4 numbers. I was surprised at how loud and clear it was. We then talked briefly with friends Tom and Wendy, who are workcampers here at RCC working security, at least for a couple of more weeks before Tom retires officially and they head to their “new home”, a cabin outside Gatlinburg, Tennessee. We have known Tom and Wendy for the past couple of years or so and are happy for them but we’ll miss them at RCC for sure.
Tomorrow’s weather calls for rain leading in a cold front that is to bring the coldest air of the season. Projected lows for Monday and Tuesday mornings are to be in the low 20’s. Brrrrrrrr. I’m not complaining though because temps are much lower elsewhere as we all know. We’ll be getting some use out of our fire pit the next few days I’m sure.
So tomorrow will be an inside day, the Bucs vs. Redskins football game is in my plans. Next week we’ll do some cleaning and reorganizing in the motorhome and do some work on and in the “Prince”, our new utility trailer. We also want to get some holiday lights and decorations set up both inside and outside the motorhome. They’ll definitely be trips this week to Dan’s Clam Stand for the BEST New England clam chowder ever and a trip to “The Freezer” for steamed shrimp. We also need to visit “The Shed” sometime soon. Believe me-it doesn’t get any better!
I’ll leave you with a view out the front of our motorhome here at Rock Crusher Canyon. Stop in at Site 157 and say hello!
After we got back “home” here in Rock Crusher Canyon, one of the first things we wanted to get accomplished was to add some sort of storage shed to our site. We also needed to go get our golf cart which was down in Valrico, two hours down the road. I know you have probably heard of the expressions “two for one” and/or “killing two birds with one stone” right? Well, they both can be applied to the picture below.
7:00am came early this morning but there was a breakfast gathering in the clubhouse to attend. You see we have some folks who prepare breakfasts every two weeks for those interested. For $5, Bruce, Carol and Florrie do a great job and all of us who partake are most appreciative. Today we had scrambled eggs, home fries, hash brown taters, grits, sausage patties, pancakes, fruit salad, oj and coffee. Awesome food and great company! We got back to the coach and the crew we hired to wash and wax the coach were already at it. Ted did the coach last year here at Rock Crusher so Barbie contacted him early in the week. They did a super job again. He used a new oil based wax that he said would look better and hold up longer. He was correct on the first count-it looks great-not like a 9 year old coach. We’ll see if it lasts longer. Ted and his assistant spent about five hours working on it. I’ll have to take a picture and post it.
We’ll head back to Valrico Tuesday and stay ‘til Friday as I have dental and doctor appointments scheduled for Wednesday and Thursday. We’ll have Friday breakfast with some of Barbie’s former co-workers from Mann Middle School in Brandon. But, after breakfast they’ll go to work and we’ll head back here to Rock Crusher. I tell ya, retirement is great!
The snowbirds are slowly arriving in the park but this time next week this place will be jumping with campers that will attend the “Country Rocks the Canyon” concert held right next door to the campground in a large outdoor amphitheater. Rock Crusher Canyon is Florida’s largest natural amphitheater. The Amphitheater features a ninety-foot craggy canyon wall as a backdrop to the largest covered outdoor stage in the state and has excellent acoustics. They held outdoor concerts there regularly until the last few years when they only seem to have one big country show with about five or so country acts playing in December. I believe this will be the Sixth Annual “Country Rocks the Canyon” Concert.
You see originally, Rock Crusher Canyon was three venues in one: the Garden Pavilion, a 20,000-square-foot building that hosted weekend music and buffet dinner dances; the Rock Crusher Canyon Amphitheater for concerts; and the Rock Crusher Canyon RV park. Rock Crusher Canyon opened in 1995 and went after big name stars right away. The annual Crystal River Jam country music festivals drew the top names in country music. Because of the amphitheater's limited seating capacity of about 5,500, the festivals failed to make a lot of money. Then management started scaling back. No more three-day festivals filled with A-list entertainers. Instead, Rock Crusher booked classic acts such as Lee Greenwood, Three Dog Night, Roy Clark and The Oak Ridge Boys for the major shows at the amphitheater. The entertainment roster at Rock Crusher Canyon also included in the past name acts such as Willie Nelson, Mickey Rooney, Travis Tritt, Alabama and Hootie and the Blowfish.
So there you go, a 2 for 1 post---you read about our “new toy” and get a Rock Crusher Canyon history lesson!
“Til next time……………..
Since last we posted, we left Pine Mountain, GA, on Thanksgiving morning and traveled 4 hours to reach Ho Hum RV Park in Carrabelle, FL. The guests at Ho Hum were finishing up their Thanksgiving meal outside the main building when we pulled up. We got our site assignment and they encouraged us to hurry back as they still had plenty to eat. Barbie had already planned our meal and had already prepared some of the meal and just had to heat it up. We set up the rig and then enjoyed our view and our meal which consisted of: turkey, stuffing, garlic mashed potatoes, broccoli au gratin, biscuits and sweet potato pie. Barbie did a great job, everything tasted superb.
Ho Hum is right on the gulf and is is an older park. They have about 15 choice sites that in a motorhome you pull straight in and you are essentially just feet from the water.
The remainder of the sites are all within 300 feet or so from the water and the 200 foot pier.
The home page of the website shows a great overhead picture of the campground. They advertise on their website their slogan: “ We Cater To Seniors and Adults In A Quiet Relaxed Country Atmosphere.” There is no pool or amenities that kids would enjoy. The cable tv was great, about 70 channels and the wifi was free albeit a tad slow. Not a whole lot happening in that area of the panhandle nor are there many restaurants or grocery stores. We did have a good meal at a local spot in Carrabelle by the name of 2 Al’s Cafe. My shrimp basket was good and Barbie enjoyed her oyster basket. Carrabelle is best known for having the world’s smallest police station.
We took a ride to Apalachicola, which is about 30 miles from the campground. For a couple of days to unwind and enjoy the scenery, you can’t beat this area of the panhandle. We’ll go back. While there we got a visit from Barbie’s great friend from Mann Middle School, Linda, and her husband Bill, on Saturday morning.
They stayed and chatted for an hour and a half before continuing their drive home to Auburndale after spending the week at Panama City Beach. I’ll leave you with one last shot from Ho-Hum with St. Georges Island in the background.
Sunday morn we packed up the rig, hitched up the Terrain, and left Ho Hum RV Park at 10:15am for Crystal River. We arrived here at Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park at 2:00pm. It was great backing into our site again. We pulled out of here on June 21 on our trip to Dillard, GA. We got all settled in here for the next 5 months or so.
But, as has been said before, as retirees, those plans are extremely flexible and subject to change at any time. We certainly understand that concept as we hadn’t planned to spend ALL the time since June in Dillard. Of course we’ll take periodic trips to Valrico for a couple days at a time.
‘Til next time………
We sit here on Thanksgiving Eve at Pine Mountain RV Resort in Pine Mountain, Georgia where we have been since arriving Monday at 1:35pm. We will leave here tomorrow morning to travel to Ho Hum RV Park in Carrabelle, FL. Yes, we’ll be traveling on Thanksgiving Day, but we are thankful for being able to do just that this year. We hope you find time to give thanks to all the blessings that have been bestowed upon you and yours.
So what have we been up to in Pine Mountain you ask? Monday after arriving we just “chilled.” Tuesday we drove around the area and explored a little before going to “Fantasy in Lights” at 7:00pm-an hour before our time to report. When you register you have a choice of riding their trolley or driving your own vehicle. We chose to drive ourselves. And, that was a good thing because a trolley started in front of us and they lost us quickly. Barbie drove slowly so we could take bunches of pictures. We were a bit concerned initially as it began raining when we were leaving the motorhome to get there. But, by the time we got the go to begin our drive (it is all coordinated by staff) the rain had stopped and we were able to put the windows down to hear the music and take pictures. I’ve never seen anything quite like this-except maybe Disney World. There were themed areas and of course the lights, figurines and music were all appropriately coordinated. It was about a 45 minute drive from beginning to end. I took 90 pictures myself and Barbie took a bunch with her camera. Below are some of my favorites:
Good stuff huh? If you click on the picture, you should see a larger version. So that was last night’s excitement. Today we were able to use our ticket from last night and get entrance to the park. We drove around and checked it out-the place is huge. We also took a ride over to F. D. Roosevelt State Park. It was only about 8 miles away. We drove thru the campground area and they were full. Everything from tenters, to pop-ups, to travel trailers, to fifth wheels to class B vans, to class C’s to the 40 foot diesel pushers were occupying sites. Before coming back to the motorhome we ate dinner at the Country Store Restaurant at Callaway Gardens. We had a great country style meal believe me.
Well, I’ll leave ya with one last photo from last eve.
“Til next time…….. , with the good Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise, - from Carrabelle, Florida………….
