Today must be upside down day. Linda got up first this morning, before 7 AM, and I slept until almost 8:30. Yesterday I used up the last of our first batch of coffee beans so before I could make coffee this morning I opened four 1/2 pound packs and refilled our four coffee canisters.
We had breakfast of English muffins and grapefruit around 9:30. I had still not heard back from Al regarding a visit to his campground in Bushnell today. We checked the Breezy Oaks website and the Music Jam was scheduled from 2 – 4 PM today. Our plan was to take our folding chairs, get there around 1 PM, visit with Al for an hour, take our chairs to the jam session and continue visiting there until it ended, and then go to dinner. When we visited Al two years ago we did not come on a Thursday for the music went to a Chinese Buffet in Brooksville. Linda found a Mexican Restaurant in Bushnell with some vegetarian items and 4.5 stars based on 49 reviews, so we wanted to try it.
I called Al at 10 AM and got his voice mail. I left him a message and asked for a return call and/or a reply to my e-mail to confirm his availability before we drove to Breezy Oaks as it is over an hour away from us. I worked at my computer selecting and processing photos for my September blog posts and had just about decided that we were not going to visit Al today when he called just before noon. Linda had walked up to the recycling bins but as soon as she returned we made quick preparations to leave. We took our two “bag chairs” (they fold up like a tent and go in carry bags) and the good camera.
We pulled out of our site at 12:24 PM and worked our way slowly out of the RV resort via the front entrance. We headed southeast on US-27 towards Ocala past its familiar ranches and equestrian centers; our first time this season traveling down this road that we used frequently two years ago. We took I-75 south to exit 309, headed east on CR-673 a short distance, and then turned north on CR-671 and followed it for about a mile until it ended at the entrance to Breezy Oaks RV Park.
Per Al’s suggestion we followed the signs to the office building and parked there as the music pavilion is adjacent to the office. Al was already there with his chair set up so we got our chairs out of the car and set them next to his. We chatted for about 15 minutes before the Music Jam started at 2 PM.
Linda and Al waiting for the music jam to start at Breezy Oaks RV Park.
About 18 people participated in the jam session and about two dozen more, including us, provided an audience. Each participant got to lead two songs of their choice and pick the key while everyone else backed them up. Country and bluegrass seemed to be what most of them knew. They played and sang for an hour and then took a 30 minute break during which ice cream was available in the office, three scoops for $1.25. That’s a good price, if you eat ice cream. The jam session resumed at 3:30 and went for another hour.
The musicians gather on stage for the Thursday afternoon jam session.
When the jam session was done we went back to Al’s motorhome and decided to go to Coyote Rojo Mexican Restaurant in Bushnell for dinner. It was on FL-48 just east of I-75 right off exit 316 which put us that much closer to home after dinner. We talked about going to the Chinese buffet near Brooksville, where we went two years ago, but it was 20 miles away to the west of the RV park and would not have positioned as well for the drive home.
Al Hesselbart takes the stage as part of a duet. Al mostly does musical recitations as opposed to singing.
We had a tasty meal that included a salad and a veggie burrito, both of which we shared, and Al had shrimp fajitas. We lingered at the restaurant way past the end of our meal chatting about what we had been up to since we had last crossed paths. Al will be running a booth at the Tampa RV Supershow for the Florida RV Dealers Association so we might see him again at the show. We did not go to the show two years ago but from our base in Arcadia it will be a reasonable distance away.
Al and his “singing” partner front and center at the jam session.
We returned to Williston via the same route we came and encountered intermittent light rain the farther north we drove. About half way up US-27 we finally drove into a heavy, steady rain. By the time we got to Williston the rain had abated, at least temporarily, but it had obviously rained before we got there. We stopped at the Kangaroo/Citgo Station and I filled the gas tank.
We were back at our rig by 7:30 PM. Linda checked the weather on her iPad and showed me the radar. A long narrow line of thunderstorms was stretching from far out in the Gulf of Mexico to the northeast into Florida west of Williston. The storms were moving along the line as it drifted slowly east and the forecast said we might get an inch of rain. I closed the roof vents in the bathroom and kitchen and closed the awning-style windows to where they were only open an inch or so at the bottom. We turned on the TV and settled in to watch our Thursday evening programs.
The heavy rain eventually started and around 9:10 PM the lights in the RV resort flickered several times and then the electricity failed. Our inverter immediately switched over to batteries and kept everything running, which was comforting. For as much money and time as we’ve spent upgrading these systems it nice when they actually work as intended. I turned off a few lights and the laser printer to conserve energy just in case it turned out to be a long outage. The Amped Wireless router and the NAS are both plugged into a backup power supply so they will not suffer any loss of power even if the inverter does not come on. The Wi-Fi Ranger, however, is not on the UPS and this event reminded me that I need to do something about that. From one point of view it didn’t matter, as the resort Wi-Fi went out with the loss of power, but the WFR is also the main router for the coach and as such is the DHCP server for our private network.
We continued watching our TV programs and I turned on our Verizon Mi-Fi and connected the WFR to it so we could continue doodling on our iPads. Linda felt she had eaten too much for dinner and was a bit uncomfortable so she went to bed a little after 10 PM. I stayed up and watched the local evening news at 11 PM, something I almost never do, and then went to bed.