December 28-29, 2012 Wildwood, Florida

We are still at Alliance RV, now just waiting for the refrigerator door seals so we can get those replaced.  That and parts for the toilet. We found out that the water pump in the toilet needs replacing, $300! John asked how much a new toilet would cost and it was $800. RV toilets are really pricy I guess. We are just getting the innards, not the whole shebang. Friday we had to leave early so they could work on the bus. So we headed out to breakfast, then a movie- the Hobbit. We went to this place called the Villages for the movie. It is a gigantic retirement place. 90,000 people live there. It has three ‘squares’, which are themed. One is Victorian, one is western and one is south western. Many very expensive high end shops and restaurants. It is like a big theme park. Unbelievable. 39 golf courses, any size house you could want, and also a hospital, shopping centers- it has everything. The weirdest thing is that people drive around in golf carts on the roads with the cars. Very fancy golf carts. They have their own radio station that is broadcast on speakers everywhere. It has fox radio news on it.

Golf carts parked in front of the theatre, golf carts driving down the road

golf carts that look like cars, a canal and water wheel

The villages also have every medical specialty office you could ever need. Here is the lab, Much fancier than any lab I ever worked in. Today we got up early and went to the tractor museum. We couldn’t pass that up. It was very interesting.

It was  international harvester only. The lobby was set up as an international harvester dealership with parts and all. Here is our tour guide, Bill. He is demonstrating a manual thrasher, that was the first thing Mr. McCormick patented. In the beginning International made all kinds of things, like the fridges and freezers in the background. Here is one of the many buildings full of tractors. They had every model IH made. We had a very lengthy tour with Bill.

This tractor is for use in orchards, the wheel covers kept the branches from being trashed by the wheels. Here are some tractor pull trophy's that Stewart, the collector of these tractors won.

A few signs from around the buildings. . .

We had to rush back to the RV, we had a carpet cleaner coming. Here are our dining room chairs and carpet runner outside getting cleaned too. John is smoking a pork loin while we wait. I worked on my basket.  Yesterday we woke up to 36 degrees and ice on the car, last night it rained all night and we woke up to rain and 69 degrees, they day then cleared to a nice sunny mid 70’s.

December 27, 2012 Wildwood, Florida

We are still at the RV service center. We had to get up and out of the bus by 715 am. I almost died getting up that early. We went out to breakfast, then over to Ocala to the Don Garlits’  drag racing museum. The museum traces the evolution of drag racing through a collection of  200 race cars and varied memorabilia.  there is also a  museum of classic cars. I never knew how little I knew about drag racing till today.

Don was involved with a navy recruiting poster during the Vietnam era and he wanted a plane, so here is one from another museum. One of his early  Swamp rat cars.

I don’t remember  the details of these cars, but they were cool.

Speed limit-300 mph! Part of the exhibit in the engine room. There were engines there that use 85 gallons a minute! Make the RV seem really fuel thrifty.

Full  moon rising in the sunset over the RV service center.

December 25, 26 2012 Wildwood, Florida

Christmas morning we packed up and headed out. We were going to Keaton Beach, north of here, on our way starting west. John noticed an antifreeze leak as we pulled out. So we booked another night in the same place, different spot for Christmas. John wanted to try out his new smoker anyway. We had already exchanged out gifts earlier, John got me lake kayak and I got him a new GPS-his old one went swimming in the Okefenokee swamp and never came back up.

The new spot, near a pond. John with his smoker, smoking Xmas dinner.

Xmas dinner. Smoked turkey breast, sweet potatoes, stuffing, cranberry sauce and cold slaw. Yum Yum. Also my Christmas roses John gave me and our Xmas wreath with our ornaments on it. Sunset.

 

Sunset and moon rise. 

Today we drove to Wildwood, Florida to get the leak looked at. We are at Alliance RV. It is HUGE. Their shop must hold 50 RV’s.They got us right in. John is also having them fix a few other small items. It rained cats and dogs when we arrived. The bus parked in the evening in their free camping with hookups for vehicles under repair so we can still stay in our home.

There are 16 bay doors and three RV’s deep, plus they can double up outside. The place is HUGE!

December 24, 2012 Chassahowitzka River, Florida

The Chassahowitza River is another river that is from a first magnitude spring. First magnitude springs release greater than 100 cubic feet of water per second. There are 33 in Florida. 3 in Citrus county where we are now. The Chassahowitza is supposedly one of the least visited. It was pretty busy when we paddled it today. But the side streams were very nice. It was predicted to be a sunny, 75 degree day, but it was in the high 66s and cloudy. Still nice to be out.

Manatees in the main channel at the main spring by the put in. A little up river is the 7 sisters springs, here are two of the springs.

A great blue heron flying by.  Swamp lilies on the edge of the river.

A hunting egret. The main channel is pretty wide and full of motor boats. We took a side one, called Baird Creek, It was very narrow and pretty. We were the only people in there.

The source spring is called Maggie’s crack. Here is John at Maggie’s. Past Maggie’s it gets very narrow and has overhanging branches, like these oak limbs.

John by the giant ferns. Part of Baird’s creek.

Back in the main channel John is photographing a pelican. I didn’t see him till I was right under him. Here he is peering at me.

Sue under overhanging branches. John  petting a manatee

We found this little beach with picnic tables for lunch. John sitting on the picnic table with the river behind him.

December 21-23 2012 Crystal River Florida

We relaxed a day or two. John was still looking for parts for his smoker, so we went to a bunch of thrift shops and a flea market.

Sue and John with Bubbles the Manatee dressed up for Christmas. A let it snow somewhere else sign at the flea market.

John finally found all his parts, here is the finished product on his partner camp stove. He plans on trying it out on a turkey breast for Christmas dinner.  We hiked at the Crystal River state preserve above. A palmetto, long leaf pine habitat.

In the late 1800’s they cut the long leaf pines like this to harvest sap to make turpentine and tar to export. The rest they cut down for lumber.

The purple to the left of this photo is the buildings and private land, the rest is a number of preserves, refuges and parks. We could explore forever in this area. Sunset on a mackerel sky over the salt marsh by the gulf. New word for me, I learned that clouds like this are called mackerel sky.