Winding Down

Rock Crusher is beginning to look like a ghost town except for the die-hard snowbirds who wait until they think it is warm enough up north to leave the heat here in the state. We had a few rigs come in for the Easter weekend-families. There are many rigs being left down here this year by the snowbirds compared to last year. We are seeing many fifth wheels being left behind, probably due to the gas that it takes to bring their rigs back home. We will miss our RV friends like Lee and Mary who have their great dogs Chip and Murphy to keep them company. If you are reading this Lee and Mary, we hope you get a chance to come to Dillard when we are up there. Our neighbors Brenda and David, with their dog Bandit, left over a week ago. We will miss them. We usually remember names of people based on their pets’ names, if they have any. Larry and Ann and Zack, their black lab, are from Maryland and left this past Sunday. We were introduced to their good friends Jerry and Sarah and their black pomeranian named Puddles who are also from Maryland. It was very cute to see their dogs interact with Kozmo while on our daily walks. Our neighbor friends, Roger and Judy, who are from Massachusetts, are a very delightful couple. They put us to shame with all of their energy. They are parked next to us for the season and they have been very instrumental in getting this girl (Barbie is writing today obviously) to work outdoors raking leaves. I think it was a contest to see who could rake the most on any given day :=) Our other neighbors, Jim and Russ, who are from Lansing, Michigan, have been next to us for the last three years. We hope to get up to see them and also visit Shipshewana, Indiana, when the gas prices go hopefully down a little before November. We went out to eat breakfast with them this morning at a place called Red’s, which was 30 minutes away and always has a crowd. We can see why. I had corned beef hash with two scrambled eggs with cheese, spuds and toast. Jeff had biscuits with sausage gravy with a side of bacon. Everything was very good! Russ had eggs benedict which looked very good and Jim had a combination of biscuits with sausage gravy and poached eggs and spuds. Great company with a great breakfast!

Speaking of great meals, Jeff and I ate at a place in Dunnellon called the Front Porch Restaurant and Pie Shop on Sunday, March 25. We sat outside and had very good meals. They serve good old fashioned down home meals. Jeff had the pot roast and I had the meat loaf. There were many good sides to choose from- the collard greens were great. We followed with a slice of their wonderful pie. I had the pecan and Jeff had the peanut butter chocolate. Kozmo sat in the truck with all the windows down watching us eat since we were only 10 feet away from the truck. Another nice place that we will go back to eat again.

  

We made our last trip for the season to our Valrico house on Wednesday. We only stayed one night. I cleaned the kitchen, bathrooms and dusted. A good thing we learned from one of the sales people at our complex was that you should put down Saran Wrap on the toilets so that the water will stay in there and not evaporate. We did it last year and it works. We also shut off the water to the house on the outside, in addition to moving the thermostat to 79 degrees. Since we have gravel stones surrounding the perimeter of the house, I sprayed Round-Up extended control over them so that the weeds will not grow up and cause a problem. Our small flower garden will be watered by one of the landscapers in the park so we got lucky there. I even managed to wash my car, by hand, and took three piles of clothes and a comforter to Goodwill before leaving on Thursday. I got caught up on our laundry also by doing five loads. Now I have to save up my quarters again for doing laundry in Dillard.

We met our great friends Linda and Bill Forrest in Leesburg at the Red Lobster last Saturday. Linda is retiring in June so we wanted to treat her to a good meal with great conversation. They live in Auburndale, Florida and I picked the Leesburg area since it seemed to be the half-way point for both of us as we drove from Crystal River. We had a great time and I hope Linda has the time of her life in her retirement.

If all goes as planned, we will leave and head north sometime next week. We decided to take two nights on the road to Dillard. We changed our minds about going to Brunswick, Georgia and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina now. We might go there during our seven month stay in Georgia. Everything is up in the air with the high gas prices. We really want to get to Dillard to enjoy our new covered deck and plant some vegetables this year. Since I did a fantastic job with tomatoes last year, I hope to branch out and grow some other kinds of vegetables. Plus, Jeff’s cousin Rick is planning to stop and see us in Dillard on April 20 when he and his girlfriend head back to Pennsylvania after their trip to Florida.

It’s time for Happy Hour!

  

Until next time….