Wildwood and Ocala Dog Park

                            
Today was Sunshine's day to go to the Ocala Dog Park, for the first time this season. I don't know how she knows when she is approaching a dog park but, it never fails, when we get within sight of a park, no matter where in this great country we are, she goes bonkers in the truck. Today was no exception. On the way, we saw this beautiful tree with the red flowers. We will have to try to identify it because they are plentiful around here and look great. As soon as we arrived at the park, Sunshine immediately did her usual thing - made friends quickly with the other patrons of the park. This is a very large park so she ran and got very warm. It was sunny and 77 today. She discovered these small swimming pools and plopped down and cooled off. By the time I got near enough to take a pix, she stood, shook and, now being cooler, ran to mom, who was in the pavilion watching her with an "oohing and aahing" with other dog owners. Tomorrow we will return to Wilderness Town Park, where we move to Tuesday, to assure it is ready for us to move in - water and electric turned on.

Still in Wildwood

We are still in Wildwood and will be until Tuesday. Then we will move to our "winter home" in Silver Springs. We stopped by Wilderness Town Park, where we will stay starting Tuesday, a couple of days ago and it is still beautiful. Our site is concrete padded and has grass and shrubs. The lots are nice sized and well kept. We look forward to our winter there. We still plan on returning to Michigan between Thanksgiving and Christmas, sans the Montana. It surely will be nice to head south after Christmas without towing the rig through the snow and ice. It will be a first for us. Yesterday, we had a mobile detailing company wash and spray wax our rig. It sure shines like the jewel that it is and will be much easier for me to keep up outside maintenance and cleaning. The oxidation, bugs and dirt from storage are now gone and we can start over with a "new" Monty. The other day we drove the short distance to the part that will be our "winter home" to see our lot. The Wilderness Town Park is a wonderful facility with paved roads, concrete pads and much grass and shrubs and trees. Our lot is nice sized and is four lots away from the Ocala National Forest and the Oklawaha River. When Sunshine and I go for our walks, we should probably go during daylight hours and leave the nights to the gators! Today, we are going to the Ocala Dog Park. This is a huge facility where Sunshine loved running around the area unleashed last year. She met a ton of fur friends and we met some pretty nice people, too. Sunshine is pictured running to Carol at this park last year and the badge has the important word "Retired" on it making it possible for us to follow the sun in the wintertime.

Hardeeville to Charleston then to Wildwood, FL

Yesterday, we moved from Hardeeville, SC to Jacksonville, FL. We spent the night at a nice park, Pecan Park RV Resort in Jacksonville. We took Sunshine downtown to a really nice dog park but left after a short visit when a man brought in a Pit Bull that was wanting to play with the other dogs but was young and strong and hurt several of them. We got out of there before Sunshine joined in the "fun." Pecan Park is a new really nice RV park with concrete pull through pads and lots of grass between sites. The only negative was that it was on a flight path for Jackson International Airport and we had several large, loud jets taking off over us. Not bad, though, because there is a Naval Air Station nearby also and we got to see several frisky fighters flying overhead. Today we moved from Jacksonville to Wildwood, FL where we set up at 3 Flags RV Park. We are scheduled to be here for six nights before moving about 20 miles north to our "winter home" in Silver Springs. The photos start with Sunshine lying at the picnic table in Hardeeville when I was breaking down the rig to get it ready for travel. She was asking me "I'm ready, how long are you going to be?" Then the Georgia sign, then our farewell to Savannah. Next comes our entrance into Florida. Then there are Carol and Sunshine enjoying the Jacksonville dog park and one of the great jetliners flying overhead at Pecan Park.

Working Greyhound versus Retired Greyhound!

This is where one finds a working Greyhound!

This is where one finds a playing, retired Greyhound!

Savannah, GA

Today we saw one of the most beautiful, congested cities we have seen in a long time. The bridge leading into Savannah reminds us of the bridge leading into Charleston, SC and is evry bit as beautiful. The Spanish Moss hanging from the trees along shaded streets in front of some very old homes made travel from neighborhood to neighborhood wonderful. Some multicolored walkups seemed to be ancient but very well preserved. The vehicle and pedestrian traffic was very heavy but there were numerous parks (called squares) throughout the historic downtoen section making is easier for peds. There was a huge white steeple that could be seen from the bridge and, up close and personal, it looked great taken through the limbs and leaves of a gnarled, old tree. Taking a hint from our friend, Mick Giandiletti, we went to Fort Pulaski. We are semi-Civil War buffs and this trip was well worth the time. The story of the fort is interesting and the best part is "we" won! The Confederates held the fort in 1862 and the Union forces bombarded it with over 5,400 artillery shells, forcing the Rebels to surrender. The fort still stands and the holes in the walls even had cannonballs in the holes. In photo #8, look at the center of the pic and there is a cannonball. This bombardment led to the end of masonary forts because of the damage caused by rifling in the artillery giving the ammo more "oomph!". Then as we were leaving, a very large spider was seen getting ready to carry our truck away. Good thing we got there in time to save it.

Charleston, SC

Today we took the "quicky" tour of Charleston. What a beautiful town! We were walking in the downtown area and apparently looked lost. A man, later identified as TG Robinson, approached us and asked if we were looking for something. Seems he is a "Street Marshall" for Charleston and handles tourists for a living. After talking a while and Sunshine batting her big, brown eyes at him, he advised us of the best walking areas and gave us two passes to the homes tour. We soon discovered that it would not be right for Carol and her knees to walk this tour and so we went to the Frence Quarter and found some other "lost" tourists and gave them the passes. We later discovered that they were valued at $45 each. We feel that they were put to good use and we just wanted aknowledge Mr. Robinson and tell you what a great spokesman he is for this beautiful city. We burned the camera up here. The French Quarter is narrow and full of history. Churches galore with fabulous spires making all look up! Many of the streets are cobblestone. All are narrow and some are nothing more than slim alleys with home and store fronts. Some of the homes were so large, they could sleep all from our campground and then some. A dark side of our history was the Old Slave Market, which is now a museum. Of course, what would a southern port city be without a cruise ship. Here was one and it was huge! We crossed the water over to Mount Pleasant and saw the USS York Town and a bejillion yachts. There was also a Cold War Submarine Memorial. Tomorrow we go to Savannah for some more beautiful history.  

Lexington, NC to Charleston, SC

Today, we traveled from Central North Carolona to Charleston, South Carolina. The day was sunny and mid-60s and the trees are a lot greener than up north. There was no wind and some steam rising looked nuclear on the horizon, near Charlotte, NC. We are now in a very nice RV park, Lake Aire, in Hollywood, NC. Tomorrow we will start exploring the old southern town of Charleston and decide if we will stay more or move on. There is a ton of history in this area.

Lexington, NC

Today was a lay back day and all three of us enjoyed it. Carol is still trying to work out the right dosage for her insulin with her doctor and we just kicked back. Went into Lexington this evening and picked up some "Que" at the Lexington Bar-B-Que. Was quite good. Tomorrow we leave for Charleston, SC where we will spend a couple or few days before heading further south. North Carolina is a beautiful state and we have met many beautiful area residents and, if it didn't get so darn cold in the winter, would probably think of putting it on our "Where to spend the winter" list.

Marietta, OH to Pipestem, WV to Linwood, NC

Yesterday, we traveled from Marietta to Pipestem State Park, WV. The SP campground is a very clean, well kept park with full hookups. The trees, this far south, were full of color. The wind had not stripped most of the trees like it had further north. Today, we moved from Pipestem to Linwood, NC, near Winston-Salem. We are in the Cross Winds RV Park and it is a beauty. We are planning on being here until Friday, checking out Winston-Salem, Salisbury and area and then we must decide where to go next. We have until November 1 before we must be in Silver Springs, FL. Carol took so many photos that the battery went dead before we could record the Welcome to North Carolina sign. It rained this morning for the first half of our trip but the beauty of the leaves made the day bright and the trip light.