The Sandcastle

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted and lots has happened so this will probably be a long one. When I last left you we were headed to Tampa, Florida, to do chores. That was such an irritating day I didn’t want to write about it but here goes.  

At the Sprinter dealer, “This vehicle is all electronic. It throws a code if anything is wrong. It is so sensitive it throws a code if a taillight is out. There are no codes in your system so there is nothing for us to fix.” In other words we did not really loose our turbo booster going up the ramp to the freeway the other day; we must have both had the same bad dream.

At Best Buy, “Yes you have a coupon for $15 off any purchase but you must buy more than $15 worth of stuff to use it. No we can’t use it on something less than that and keep the difference; the register won’t even read it until the items, before tax, come to $15. No, two packages of paper that come to $14.98 won’t do it. You need to buy something for two cents. No, we don’t have anything that sells for two cents.” So Dave bought a candy bar and two packages of paper instead of the one he went to get and came back to the RV with steam coming from his ears.

At the Apple store, “We can’t recreate your intermittent problem with your keyboard. We can sell you a new keyboard, though. It will cost several hundred dollars and take 4-5 days to get the parts.”  No, thanks.

We didn’t even try to go for the steak dinner because they don’t let you in wearing jeans and Dave was in no mood to dress up and it didn’t feel like there was anything to celebrate today.

So back to camp at Lee’s Travel Park in Largo for another night.

Next day we continued south by crossing a toll bridge. For their purposes we are a car so it costs us only $1. The bridge is so long we lost our cell phone signal in the middle of it. There are rest areas along the bridge with signs saying, “Nighttime Security.” Does that mean you can boondock in those rest areas?  

This bridge replaces on that fell. (What is it with bridges falling anyway?!) The old bridge is now two very long fishing piers reaching way out into the water from both shores. Lots of people fishing. I wonder what they catch?

In Manatee, Florida, we went to the DeSoto National Memorial. They built a sample camp there where interpreters do their thing.  

 

We watched them demonstrate several things including shooting a crossbow and and arquebus.  We also saw a kid try on a bunch of armor.  Cool.

If you go there are two things you should know: 1. Don’t take your RV if it is any bigger than ours or at all in prime season; you won’t be able to park. 2. Watch the movie in the visitor center before watching the interpreters so you won’t notice the contradictions.

DeSoto’s exploration was considered a failure because he didn’t find gold nor did he establish any colonies for Spain to claim. Yet he is celebrated every year by a huge parade that is so popular people had put out chairs with some of them tied together to reserve their spaces two days before the parade.

 

Apparently lots of Minnesotans hang out here, too, because the Saint Paul Winter Carnival and the Minneapolis Aquatennial between them have seven entries in this year’s parade.

We had lunch at the Hob Nob Drive-in, established in 1957. It was advertised as the “Best Cheeseburger in Paradise.” I like In N Out Burger’s cheeseburgers better but it was fun stopping at a place established when I was ten years old.

Across the street from the Hob Nob was another childhood memory: Little Miss Sunbeam.

In third grade my class toured the Sunbeam Bakery in my hometown of Decatur, Illinois. Each child was given a pencil, a whistle, and an entire loaf of bread.  I was rich!

We camped that night at Oscar Scherer State Park in Osprey, Florida, where there were so many palm branches at our site we had them right up to our windows.

 

At the dump in the morning Dave got to teach the fellow behind us how to dump. The guy had never done it before so he was a little nervous. He was pleased that Dave gave him a pair of surgical gloves to wear when his turn came.

We sort of visited Historic Spanish Point in Osprey.

We stopped at the visitor center and watched the video there but we didn’t get to see all the wonderful sights further into the park. No driving allowed back there and two employees were very discouraging about me taking my Segway back there. Apparently there’s a tram tour that left just before we got there but even that only goes within a quarter mile of some of the sights then you walk from there. I sure wish I could walk half as well as I used to do. That’s one of those use it or lose it things for me. If I’d continued walking my whole life I wouldn’t be so out of shape now. You younger folks reading this, please, don’t ever stop walking whenever and wherever you can.

We hoped to camp at Koreshan State Historic Site but it was now weekend so that wasn’t going to happen. Apparently, all Florida state parks fill up EVERY weekend. After all, it’s summer all year here.

So we camped instead at Woodsmoke Camping Resort for two nights. Not cheap but we got laundry done again.

Today we headed on down the Southwest Florida Coast. Dave says, “This section of the Florida Coast  is like a model railroad–you never actually get out of town.” Until you get down by the Everglades, that is.

We had lunch at Susie’s Station in Everglade City. They have REAL Key lime pie. The way you tell it is made from real Key limes is that it makes your lips pucker. Another dish where we discover we prefer the Minnesota version sold at Baker’s Square.

Entering Big Cypress Preserve we saw a sign saying, “Hunters must register in and out.” I suppose that’s so they know if you’ve killed each other instead of the panthers other signs say are in this area.

The visitor center in Big Cypress Preserve presented our first alligators.

 

Now we are camped in BCP’s Midway campground. This is the one midway down Hwy 41, a.k.a the Tamiami Trail. With our parks pass it is only $10 for water and electric hookups. I’m hoping there are no alligators in the pond here, though. Nor panthers prowling through tonight. It startled me enough when I saw a dragonfly at the same time I heard what turned out to be a motorcycle. Talk about big mosquitoes!

TTYL,

Linda

We finally left the SKP park in Bushnell, Florida, this morning. Ten days in one place is a long time for us and we’re feeling restless. So we decide to stop at two museums on our way south today.

The first one was the Citrus History Museum in Dade City, Florida.

If you look closely you can see the theater marquee to the right of the building. And that’s as close a look as you are going to get. See the fence between us and the museum? It goes all the way around the place and the only gates we found were firmly closed with signs saying “Private Property” on them. We could see some of the displays through the fence. We could see part of the sight-seeing tour tram through the fence.  But we couldn’t see a way to get us on the other side of the fence.

Now, I know what you are thinking. How often have we arrived at a museum outside of the hours it is open? But their website says the tours are Tues-Sat at 10, 12, 2 and 4. Today is Tuesday and it’s a little after 11  Why can’t we go in? We’re in Florida; we want to learn about citrus here. Whine.

So we left Dade City. As we did so a sister RV beeped a hello to us. We were too slow to respond in kind so I posted a message on the owners’ group saying, “Beep, beep.” I hope they get it.

I saw a muffler man. Do you remember the muffler men statues we saw along Route 66? We’re pretty far from that route but we still see an occasional muffler man. This one was at a repair shop so he was holding a wrench.

We stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch. I really like their roast beef. It was a little early for us to be stopping but we wanted to be fed before arriving at our second musem today. So I have lots of leftovers. And Dave ordered a huge hamburger with huge onion rings so even he has some leftovers today.

I saw a sign from a realty that said, “Drop Dead Gorgeous 3 Bed Pool.” What a thing to do–put three beds in a pool so people will sleep there then tell them to drop dead. They will if they try to sleep underwater.

In Tarpon Springs, Florida, we arrived at our second museum of the day, The Sponge Factory. This place apparently is primarily a store with some displays and a movie about the sponge industry inside it. That’s OK with us. Cracker Barrel is essentially a store with a restaurant inside it but that doesn’t keep us from going there. So we headed for the Sponge Factory’s parking lot. Not so fast there. There was a craft fair in the parking lot and they were charging admittance. OK. Three dollars to park to see what the in-store museum has to offer. Except they want $10 from us because we are driving an RV. More than half the parking lot is empty so we object. They tell us if we spend at least $20 in the sponge store they will refund our parking fee. Well, at least $3 of it. The parking attendant doesn’t think they’ll go the whole $10 for an RV. We now feel ripped off so we leave without seeing the inside of this museum either. There’s more than one type of fence.

So now we are in Largo, Florida, at Lee’s Travel Park. We’ll be here two nights. We won’t be here two days, though. We’ll spend tomorrow in Tampa getting service on our Sprinter and shopping at the Apple Store and Best Buy and maybe having a really good steak dinner at a place one of my blog readers told us about depending on how much time and money we spend at the Dodge dealer. And the next day we’ll be on the road early; check out time here is 10 a.m.

TTYL,

Linda