Wednesday, December 31st – End of 2014

Yesterday (Tuesday), we lingered a while in Kingsland and found three geocaches. One of them was hidden in a big tree.  I believe this is an oak tree that pushes out old growth to make way for new... it never goes completely or even noticeably bare.

 

As we continued making our way south, we began to see more and more RV’s on the main highway. I didn’t realize that Kingsland was so close to the Florida State Line. We made a stop at the Visitor’s Center to take a photo that we sent to our children so they would know that we really had arrived in the Sunshine State.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When I saw palm trees, palmettos and blooming flowers, I finally felt like I was truly in Florida.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were lots of clouds and rain most all of this day. We made our way to Okeechobee which boasts of the largest lake in the southeastern United States. When we arrived around 5:30 p.m., we finally saw the sun breaking through the clouds.

 

 

We dropped our luggage in our room and then went immediately to dinner at a new restaurant recommended by a hotel guest. We were pleased with how quickly our meals were served. They were generous portions and we left there fully satisfied. The only problem was the restaurant is still waiting for their liquor license to be issued, so we were not able to have any wine with our dinner. It was a pleasant 81° at 7:00 p.m. which is the warmest temperature we have experienced thus far.

 

 

 

Today, (Wednesday) we woke up to a partly sunny morning. We certainly haven’t had to concern ourselves with using sunscreen since it has rained for the past three days. However, I could not complain about the 68° here compared to the temperature in Dunkirk or Mount Airy, Maryland, where my son lives. But, Fort Myers is looking pretty good.

 

 

 

There is a Flea Market located across the street from our hotel and I especially liked the welcoming message on their sign.

 

There were some geocaches near our hotel and we decided to get some much needed exercise by walking to them. It was really nice to be walking outside in warm air.

 

One of the stores in town has a beautiful mural depicting the Williams family cattle drive which was an important part of this town’s history. Cattle were shipped to Spanish Cuba until the Spanish American War.

 

Two other caches were placed in Okeechobee Veterans Memorial Park where there is also some very interesting army equipment on which kids probably love to play. Beside a tank, there was a helicopter, an artillery gun and a torpedo.

 

While we were at the park, a semi-truck passed by that was hauling a load of citrus. We did pass by a huge grove yesterday as we were driving toward Okeechobee.

 

We saw a drive through place that offered snacks and fast food. It truly was a drive through because the vehicles actually drive inside the building. I wish we had gone through there just to see what it looked like.

 

 



After lunch, it began raining again so we decided to chill out in our room while watching some of the college bowl games.



 

We have arranged with the hotel to have a late check out tomorrow so that I can watch the Rose Parade on television. This has been my most favorite parade since I was a young girl and I will never forget the year that Cordell and I were able to help decorate the floats. I can certainly appreciate the planning and detail that goes into them now that I have seen it firsthand.

 

And so as 2014 ends, we wish all our family and friends a most Happy New Year and pray that it will be filled with good health, happiness, prosperity and most of all God’s peace.

 

 

 

Monday, December 29 - Rainy Day

Monday, December 29

 

We awoke this morning to rain and a forecast for a rainy day. We abandoned our original plan to hang around Smithfield a while this morning and check out some of the many geocaches that are hidden here.

 

 

 

We were thankful that we were able to sleep well last night, especially after we heard nearby train whistles only after we had settled in our bed. I heard those trains again shortly after 5:00 a.m., but since I am an early riser, it didn't disturb me.

 

We had another misadventure after breakfast. We were baffled as to why neither of our key cards would open the door to our room (#325). I figured the front desk had made a mistake. After we had changed rooms last night, I couldn't find my earrings and feared I had left them in the original room. The desk clerk reissued a card to me so that I could go back and look for the earrings. So we had three key cards to two different rooms in our possession. We were waiting for the elevator so that we could go back to the front desk when Cordell finally realized that we were trying to go into Room #425 which was on the floor where we originally started and not Room #325 which is where we were actually staying. Even worse, before we left for breakfast, I stuck a do not disturb tag in our key slot and the room beside us also displayed a tag. When we were standing in front of the wrong room I did observe that the neighbor's tag was gone but I figured those people had left. I wonder if there were people staying in that wrong room. If so, I sure hope they were sound sleepers and didn't hear their lock clicking when we kept inserting our key cards!

Shortly after we began our drive this morning Cordell played a Willie Nelson album. One of the songs we found ourselves joining in on was "On the Road Again". Then Willie sang "Georgia On My Mind". I found myself anxious to be in Fort Myers where the high temperature today is expected to reach 82°.

We found ourselves traveling on the right side of the road again when we saw a rather long backup on the northbound side. Later, we ran into slow traffic, but our map app warned us and we were able to exit onto Route 17, a two lane road that was straight as an arrow. It paralleled I-95 and at times, we could see cars driving stop and go and we were grateful to zip past them at 60 MPH.

 

At 3:00 p.m. we crossed into Georgia and saw our first palm trees. We have been driving in rain all day. There were some geocaches that interested us, but we decided to pass them up and keep on driving. By 3:30 pm., the temperature reached 73°.

 

We stopped in Kingsland Georgia for the night after driving 400 miles which is a bit past my riding tolerance. We checked into the correct hotel without any problems. We enjoyed a nice rainbow trout dinner at the Cracker Barrel which cost about half of what we paid for our steak dinner last night. Afterwards, we made a quick stop at the local K-Mart so that Cordell could buy a couple short sleeved shirts. All his other ones are stowed at the bottom of the things in our Explorer and will not be unpacked until we reach our condo.

 

Our plan for tomorrow is to settle somewhere in Central or South Florida and explore that area for a couple of days while waiting for January 1^st when we can occupy the condo in Fort Myers.

Sunday, December 28th - A Near Perfect Day

Sunday, December 28^th

 

It was 48° when we left Dunkirk at 7:30 this morning. By 1:30 p.m., it was 69°. Despite the warmer temperatures, everything still looks dead. I am looking forward to seeing green grass, trees with leaves and flowers blooming.

 

 

We were on the right side of the road today. There were a couple of grass fires along the northbound side of I-95 and several fire trucks were on the shoulder. Lots of traffic backed up for a long way.

 

We worshipped at Redeemer Lutheran Church in Richmond. Our former Vicar now Associate Pastor, Seth Korte was ill and not at church today. We were disappointed that we didn’t get to see him.

 

We had some time to kill before going to church so we took the opportunity to look for a nearby geocache. Unfortunately, we were not able to find it before we ran out of time. We were disappointed because it is supposed to be fairly easy to find.

Cordell had already planned to spend our first night near Smithville, NC so that we could re-visit a cache in Selma that we could not find last April when we were driving back home. It is on an old caboose at a historic railroad station. We had spent 1 ½ hours looking for that cache the last time and I didn’t have much hope of finding it today especially since other geocachers had to return several times before they were successful and some had not found it at all. We had received a little help from a previous finder and that information had been percolating in Cordell’s mind for over 8 months.

On our way to the site, we had to wait while a train was stopped on the tracks crossing the street.

 

Once we arrived at the caboose, I halfheartedly looked in a couple of places and then got discouraged. While Mr. Duo continued his search, I saw something that looked suspicious and sure enough it was that dang elusive cache.

 

I am embarrassed to say that when we were at the front desk to check into our room and the clerk could not find our reservation, we discovered that we were at the Comfort Inn rather than the Holiday Inn where we were supposed to be. This was after I got the bright idea to have Cordell unload all our luggage and bring it into the lobby while I waited in line for 3 other people to check in. The hotels are side by side and the Holiday Inn is so new that it doesn’t show up on our app program. But at least one of us should have noticed the signs on the hotel and behind the lobby desk. We were wondering how we could find a teeny tiny geocache and not find the correct hotel and we hope that we do find our way to Fort Myers.

We went to a steak house and enjoyed a nice dinner. We were seated immediately and our meals were served faster than we expected. When we left the restaurant, there were people waiting to be seated so it seems that we had good timing.

Back at our room, we began to settle in for the night. I had changed into my PJs, we had got the laptop connected to the internet and decided that this day couldn’t have been any more perfect. We were ready to watch some football games and then discovered that the television in our room would not come on. Cordell tried everything he could think of, but nothing worked. When he phoned the front desk, the solution was to move us to another room on another floor. So, we packed up again and quickly made the move. But it turned out better for us because our second room is much larger than the first one.

 

So, we have been able to relax and look forward to doing some geocaching in this town tomorrow before we get back on the highway south.

 

 

Saturday, December 27th - Snowbirds are ready to fly South

Saturday, December 27^th

Wow, have we ever been busy the past two days. Lots of preparations and things to get done before we head south tomorrow morning.

Yesterday, we took down and stored most all of our Christmas decorations. We also had to empty and clean our hot tub because it is inside the house and no one is going to be using it. Today, we finished packing. The car is almost completely loaded. Since we are returning to the same condo as last year, we know what all is provided and we aren’t taking as many things as we did last year.

The weather was so beautiful today that it is a little difficult to get excited about leaving Dunkirk. We always spend three nights on the road. But, depending on how cold it is will determine how fast we drive south. If the weather in the Carolinas and Georgia is similar to what we experienced today, we might linger there a bit longer. However, if it is really cold, we will make a bee line to Southwest Florida and spend time in that area until we can check into our condo on January 1^st.

Tonight, I feel more relaxed than I have for the entire month of December. It is a relief to have everything ready, but I suspect the glass of wine I had at dinner has a lot to do with it, too!