Home Is Where We Park It:  Dade Battlefield Historical State Park

Date:  March 22, 2019

Ready – Aim – Fire!

Richloam General Store 

This has been one crazy winter here in Florida.  One morning you wake up to temperatures in the 60’s and then in just a day you wake up and it is 42 degrees outside.  I know, I know there are plenty of you suffering the real pains of winter temperatures further north.  I feel for you, I really do because I for one can no longer take the cold.

Since we were on the work schedule I couldn’t just pull the blankets over my heard and wait for the temperatures to climb.  I did the next best thing.  Jeans, t-shirt, two sweat shirts, a ski hat and a light pair of gloves.  Now I was ready to face the day.

What a day it turned out to be.  Just take a look at this clear blue sky.  Beautiful!

Nothing much to do this morning as far as the park was concerned.  Barb and Patti teamed up to clean the bathrooms and restock the the various supply closets.  Steve and I took the leaf blowers and cleaned the various parking lots and the entrance to the Visitor Center and Lodge.  Then things got interesting.  Barb and Patti, Steve and I happened to be passing the Visitor Center just as Ranger Jordan was giving a class on how to fire a musket.  Did we, he asked, want to fire it?  Well, why not.  First, some basic instruction on how to properly hold, load and fire a musket courtesy of Jordan.

Then it was time.  Ready – Aim – Fire!

Next, it was Barbara’s turn.  Instruction completed, time to do it.  Her new nickname now is Annie Oakley.

It amazes me how many steps are necessary to load and fire a musket.  What’s more amazing is most of the time it had to be done when someone else was firing at you and trying to kill you.  Moreover, because of the smooth bore there was never any guarantee that you would hit anyone.  You just basically pointed it at an advancing enemy and hoped when you fired you hit someone!

At 11 am the work morning was over.  Barbara and I went back to Graybeard, changed and took off to the chiropractor.  While we were out we also went to Wallie World, the Post Office and CVS.  At CVS we picked up the necessary pass for the Florida Turnpike.  We’ll be taking it eastward when we leave here to get to Cape Canaveral.

Back at the rig there came a knock at the door, Patti wanted to know if we wanted to take a ride with her and Steve to Richloam General Store and Posted Office.  We had been there 2 years ago but were more than willing to go back.  The original store was built in

1929 and operated as a train depot, post office and general store until 1935.  The sign over the front door is the original depot sign.

It was rented as a residence from 1936 to 1955 and sat vacant until 1973.  In 1973 descents of the family that first owned the store decided to restore it to what it once was.

The original post office facade sits near the entrance, complete with wanted posters for 1930s fugitives

The store stocks items from the 1920s and 1930s. There are canned goods that were common in the time period, smoked meats, popular toys from nearly a century ago, and even “penny candies”, which sell by the pound. The only modern item for sale in the store is the family’s BBQ sauce, made from the secret recipe of their’ late father, Big John.

Overall view of the store as you walk it.

Old fashioned kids pedal car.

Various flavors of pop for sale.  Sarsaparilla, Jersey Cream, Grape Nehi, Frostie Root Beer, Cheerwine, and Ale-8

A little bit of this and a little bit of that.

Here’s the original cash register.  Since it only works for sales of $7.93 or less, look off to the left and you will see the computer (black screen) they actual use to ring up sales today.

Of course we came home with a few goodies of our own.

There’s a sampler box, a root beer stick, a peanut log, Big John’s Barbecue Sauce and a favorite of mine, Hot Pepper Jelly!

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  We found enough to do from beginning to end to make it a full and rewarding day.  Just the kind of day that we like.  Of course we did it our way, we traveled along, hand in hand, singing our song.  We would have it no other way.

Thanks again for joining us today.  We enjoyed having you with us.  We’ll look to see you again tomorrow.  Time now to call it a night, find a blanket or two, maybe three and climb in under them.  Take care.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road

Home Is Where We Park It:  Dade Battlefield Historical State Park

Date:  March 21, 2019

The Countdown Has Begun – Jacks Up in 10 Days

How sweet it is, we’re not on the work schedule today.  Translated, a nice lazy morning with no urgent need to get up early.  We both needed a morning like this.  Mind you, the work is never hard, indeed sometimes it is down right boring.  The issue is just having to get up and going by 8 am.  We retired people – ok us retired people – don’ t like having to get up and get out at such an early morning hour.  Unless that is, it is a travel day.

Speaking of a travel day, 10 days now and the jacks come up and we begin to roll.  Oh happy, happy, joy, joy!  Yes, I have a really bad case of hitch itch and it isn’t going to go away anytime soon.

Back to the beginning of the day.  Breakfast was a scrambled egg with cheese and sausage on an onion roll.  There was the usual glass of V8 and a McCafe Frappe.

The best part?  Being able to just take my time and savor every bite of my sandwich and every drop of my coffee.  Breakfast is so much better when you don’t have to rush it.

Countdown time.  Yes, 10 days and Tour America 2019 will begin.  Knowing this I started going through my prelaunch list to make sure we were as ready as ready can be.

Today I was on the roof.  I scrubbed it from front to back.  I checked all the seams to see if there were any that needed to be caulked. My inspection did not reveal any issues or cracks that needed attention.

I popped the vent covers off the Max Air Fans and lubricated all the pivot points and the slide rails for the covers.  I cleaned the cover lids and the vent covers as well.  Everything is now in good order.

Moving inside I went up front and started cleaning the cabin.  I scrubbed the dash, all the AC vents, the dash itself, and the whole surrounding area.  I also cleaned the inside of the windshield (outside tomorrow) and tomorrow I will finish cleaning the side windows.

While I was doing all this I ran back and forth to the wishy washy and did 3 loads of wash.  It’s nice having a washer and dryer just a short walk away.  You can throw in a load of wash, come back and attend to something around the rig, then go back in an hour and swap the wash between the washer and dryer.

Barbara was just as busy.  She paid the bills, took care of several insurance issues, prepared our mail to go out, and ordered our inbound mail from our forwarding service.  She wasn’t done yet.  She prepared and cooked chicken cutlets for supper.  She make a batch of meatballs and a pot of chili for future meals.  Finally, she made a couple of batches of chocolate chip muffins for breakfast tomorrow and going forward.  Of course she also had to clean up the mess that all of this created.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  It contained a little bit of just about everything.  No complaints since it made for an interesting day.  Tomorrow we’re back on the work schedule, as well as Saturday.  However, we will have Sunday through Tuesday off.  Looking forward to that.

Thanks for coming along with us today.  I know, not much of anything exciting to speak of but some days are like that.  After all in many respects full-time RV life is no different from living in a bricks and sticks home – with the one big advantage being our home is on wheels!  Hope to have you with us tomorrow.  Who knows what it will bring, anything is possible around here.  Good night and God bless.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road

Home Is Where We Park It:  Dade Battlefield Historical State Park

Date:  March 20, 2019

Chainsaw Massacre aka Chainsaw Safety Class

What’s the old saying Another day another dollar?  In our case it would be Another Day Another Work Day.  The whole schedule this week has been sort of crazy.  Seldom do we work so many consecutive days in a row.  I wonder who in the world put the work schedule together?  What’s really weird is that here the work week runs Friday to Friday.  That took some adjusting to when we first arrived here.  Oh well we’re on the schedule so off we go.

First thing we had to do was go around and pick up all the branches that had come down due to the wind yesterday.  We grabbed a golf cart and off we went.  The primary area that needed policing was around the front gate and the gate house.  We were finished about 45 minutes later and were then assigned to gather together all the recyclables and load them in the pickup truck so they could be properly disposed of.  Another 45 minutes and one more project finished.  What now?

That’s when the word came down: class at 10 am in the office for all volunteers.  Today’s class, chainsaw safety and how to properly cut down a tree.  Now doesn’t that sound like fun?  Our instructor for today would be our youngest Ranger, Jordan.  Let me just say, he may be fairly young but he knows his stuff.  He began by explaining the parts of the chainsaw, the proper and safe way to use it, and then how to properly fuel it.

The class then moved outside where Jordan demonstrated the right way to start the saw.

Next, our activities director Kristen volunteered to demonstrate the proper way to make a cut.

We all had a turn at doing the same.  Class over we were informed that we all have been certified to use a chainsaw in any Florida state park.  Tain’t that grand!

Work over it was back to Graybeard to change so that we could get to the chiropractor.  With just 11 days to go before we leave we both decided we wanted to leave with our backs in the best shape possible.  We’ll go once more this week, and then twice next week.  We call it our travel tune up.  In addition there will be no more heavy lifting for either of us from this point forward.  We need to do what we need to do to be ready for the rest of the year.

The day wasn’t quite finished.  All of us had been invited to Terry and Trudy’s rig for Apple Cobbler around 6 pm.  Terry is well-known for his great cobblers.  This one did not disappoint.  He hand makes each and bakes them over a bed of coals.  Absolutely delicious!   A perfect way to end another perfect day.

That was our day in The Road of Retirement.  It was another day filled with a little bit of this and little bit of that.  We’re not on the schedule tomorrow so you can bet we’re going to take our time getting up and going.  Not too long, though, since I in particular have a list a mile long of things to check and double-check before we leave.  Oh yea, the countdown to jacks up begins tomorrow!

Thanks again for coming along with us.  We always enjoy your company.  Hope your day was a good one, but if not and perhaps things are a bit rough in your life right now, here’s something to think on:

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road

Home Is Where We Park It:  Dade Battlefield Historical State Park

Date:  March 19, 2019

Savannah Center:  Wisconsin Singers On Tour

Another work day, another cold day by Florida standards.  It was only 58 degrees and raining when we woke up this morning.  It was not what we had grown used to that’s for sure.  It was what it was though and nothing was going to change it so we dragged ourselves out of bed, had a quick breakfast, dressed and got out the door.

There wasn’t much on the list of projects today which meant the morning was going to drag.  Barbara was assigned a CS worker and she was able to find a few things for the two of them to do.  That meant, however, that I was now on my own and having to find things to do.  Well, I found a few, at least enough to pass the required three hours.  I was glad when 11 am finally came around.

After work it was off to the VA Benefits Center.  My counselor wanted me to file for benefits that might be due me.  She was optimistic and encouraged me to get the process moving.  Well, nothing ventured nothing gained.  So we completed the first step today.  The next will be appointments with several doctors and a hearing before the compensation board.  Hopefully this will all occur before we leave Florida at the end of April.

Done with the VA we were now off to the Villages for a concert at the Savannah Center.

The Savannah Center is a performance and exhibition theater with a large stage for musical performances and off Broadway shows and a large floor space for formal and casual dances.  This is a look at the lobby as you enter and the entrance to the theater.

This is the empty theater before the afternoon performance.  There is also a huge ascending balcony at the rear of the theater.

This was the theater at show time.

This afternoon’s concert was by The Wisconsin Singers.

Featuring the top talents from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Wisconsin Singers entertains more than 50,000 annually with stellar vocals, stunning choreography and spectacular big band sound from the past forty years.  Recognized as the very first collegiate pop music ensemble that features song, dance, and live instrumentals, Wisconsin Singers has been touring the country since 1967 with brand new shows each year, created to engage audience members of any age.

Since I was not able to take pictures of this afternoon’s performance here are a couple of pictures of the group from a past performance that I pulled from the web.

This afternoon’s performance featured a 9 piece band and 18 singers and dancers.  What we both found so absolutely amazing is the band never used a piece of sheet music, everything was played by rote.  The same for the singers and dancers.  We’re not talking about just a few songs either, take a look at the line up of songs they performed.

The show lasted two hours and we enjoyed every minute of it.  The music, the songs, the dancing was all first class and we enjoyed every minute of it.  It was a stellar performance by a very talented group of young men and women.

Two things we learned, though, up front.  The Village crowd is not a jeans and t-shirt crowd.  And when they asked those in the audience from Wisconsin to stand up we were probably the only two who did not!  After all, they were the Wisconsin singers.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  Once again we traveled the road our preferred way side by side, hand in hand, singing our song.  About that hand in hand we were sitting in the theater holding hands and a woman actually came up to us and said it’s so nice to see the two of you holding each other’s hand.  Now how about that.

Once again thank’s for traveling with us.  As always we enjoyed your company.  Hope to have you with us again tomorrow.  Till then, time to say goodnight.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

See you on down the road