Hey Babe,
Well, my body has adjusted to early hours, I was awake by 6:30 this morning. Read for awhile, then finally got up and started packing up. Got delayed a bit because of a couple of conversations I got involved in, one with one of the rangers and another with the main office manager when I went it to pay for my camping. They took out the paybox now, everything is supposed to go through ReserveAmerica, but they were happy to take my check, sans booking fee. It was a cloudy but uneventful drive until my arrival. There is a parking area right off the main road, but then a narrow limestone road back to the campground. I called the office to make sure I was headed in the right direction, since it looked like the kind of road I didn’t want to get stuck in if there wasn’t anywhere to turn around. I made the unfortunate discovery that the water source is a hand pump, which I hadn’t seen before in Florida, dang it! That’s going to complicate things a bit, but I’m only here for a week, so no biggie. I slowly worked my way in, the road had potholes you could lose a VW bug in, and I was astonished that I didn’t drag going into a couple of ditches that will no doubt fill up with water when it rains tonight and tomorrow. To my surprise, instead of finding the campground empty like I usually do on a Monday, there were more than half a dozen tents out here with some young adults hanging around. Maybe a Christmas vacation? I don’t know, but they were quiet and seemingly well-behaved, so we’ll see how that goes. Instead of backing up into an area, I decided to pull in so I was facing the woods, and a couple of nice trees for a highline. I had been hoping to let the horses graze out here for awhile, but can’t with all these other folks around. Had some trouble with the jack, saw some sparks flying when I was trying to lower it, not sure what that’s about but I’m going to have to take a look at it. I thought maybe the battery was just too low so I put on the generator, and eventually got it moving, though I don’t know it that was, in fact, the cause. Didn’t need THAT problem right now! Once I get everything set up, I drove up to the Tractor Supply at Zephry Hills to fill up two propane tanks. It’s supposed to be getting quite chilly the next couple of nights and I didn’t want to be caught short. Made a quick stop at Walmart for fuel and a couple of groceries, then another at Publix for their eggnog ice cream, which I discovered is absolutely delicious as an a la mode to pumpkin pie, one of which I bought for the holidays. Stopped once more at a Home Depot because I forgot to fill up my water tank in the truck at Walmart, and they let me fill it up there. I had emptied into the trailer, and put every bucket that will hold water around at all the places where water will collect, like the gutters and the awning. I’m hoping to catch enough water to last the horses for a couple of days. With a little luck and careful planning, I should have all the water I need for the week. It was dusk by the time I got back, just managed to get the horses fed before dark, made some soup and settled down for a couple of episodes of Expanse before calling it a night, very early. I’m crashing now, after all of the energy I’ve been using for the past two weeks, non-stop, so I’m glad it’s going to rain, so no guilt for taking the day off! Heading off for my quick shower and hopefully LONG night! Good night, sweetie! Love you!
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