Tag Archives: PBS (Gainesville)

2014/02/10 (M) A Day Of Firsts

It was a near perfect day weather-wise, and a pretty decent day in all other respects.   We woke to clear skies with temperatures in the upper 40’s but by late morning it was 70 and gained a few more degrees by late afternoon.  Winds were very light from no particular direction and there were very few flying bugs.  We had a leisurely morning with our usual coffee and granola.  We took showers.  Linda vacuumed.  I opened the awnings on the coach to let them air out and dry, with assistance from Linda for the patio awning.  This was only the second time we have deployed the awnings since we left home, and the first time we planned to leave them open as rain is predicted for only one day in the next 7 to 10 days.

Linda continued with her cross-stitch project and I dealt with e-mail, website, and technology issues.  Bill was unable to clear the error codes on Pat & Vickie’s DDEC I engine computer so I e-mailed Butch, who also has a DDEC I, and provided some additional guidance.  Bill indicated that they needed wiring diagrams, which Pat did not have.  Bill had them, but they were back home in Ontario.  Doh!  I have the diagrams with us on the Network Attached Storage device.  They are all PDFs I got from Bill on a CD.  I located the lists of drawing numbers, picked a half dozen that I thought might be what Pat needed, put them in a folder in our Dropbox, and e-mailed everyone back.  Dropbox has turned out to be one of the better little pieces of technology in our cyber arsenal.

Around noon we walked to the Grocery Depot to pick up a few ingredients for dinner; a one mile round trip and the closest place to the RV resort to buy groceries.  Linda prepared lunch and we ate outside; the first time the weather has been nice enough to do that since we got back to Williston Crossings on January 1st.  We then sat outside to work; again, one of the rare days we have been able to do that.  Mid-afternoon we went for a longer walk around the RV resort that included our first hike down into the quarry.

We noticed that WCRVR had installed a new sign just inside the new entrance to the resort off of FL-121.  This is where the new section of park is being developed with ownership sites that will be available for purchase.  The sign said “The Reserve at Williston Crossings” so apparently that is how they plan to market these sites.  The sign is framed on either side with a new wood rail fence and plants, all of which looks very nice.  The first two sites have had paver blocks added to the concrete pads to dress them up a bit; presumably as demo sites to show prospective owners what can be done if they so choose.  It will be interesting to see what else they do in this area before of the park before leave.

When we returned to our coach we continued to sit outside to work and just enjoy the day.  Although the park is quiet and peaceful, it is not silent during the day.  We rarely hear other residents (talk or music) but there are always folks walking or riding bikes, and maintenance work being done by resort staff and residents.  We are near the south/old entrance so when we are here we see all of the rigs coming and going that way.  We saw more people out tending their sites or cleaning their vehicles than on past walks.  And there are birds—lots of birds—and with the sunnier, warmer weather they have had a lot to say.

Eventually, inevitably, as afternoon faded into evening it cooled off and we lost our light.  We retreated inside, had dinner, and watched Antiques Road Show on Gainesville PBS while working on projects (cross-stitch and BCM) before retiring for the night.  Linda made a delicious acorn squash stuffed with white rice and mushrooms, and onions and we opened our bottle of Blueberry Rhubarb Wine from Forestedge Winery (LaPorte, MN).  We have been spending time at the resort on less than ideal weather days so we could use good weather days to go exploring.  We enjoyed finally spending a nice day at home.

 

2014/02/09 (N) Crystal River State Parks (FL)

Our destination today was the two state parks near Crystal River, Florida; Crystal River Archeological SP and Crystal River Preserve SP.  We left around 10:45 AM and headed down US-41 to Dunnellon, Florida where picked up John & Marian Hagan from their house.  John navigated us over to the town of Crystal River.  From the heart of downtown a short drive north on US-19 brought us the iconic brown state park sign telling us to take the next left turn to get to the parks.

Crystal River Archeological SP preserves an important pre-Columbian site with burial and midden mounds as well as mounds that once supported temples.  Evidence of occupation goes back before the Common Era and there is a small, but nice, museum explaining the modern history of the site and the archeological activities that led to our present day understanding of the people who built and used the site send its mounds.  The trail system is paved and less than one mile in total length.  It was a quiet place for peaceful if thought-provoking stroll on a beautiful late winter afternoon.

Crystal River Preserve SP is listed on some maps as Crystal River Buffer Preserve SP, and that is an apt name for it.  About equal in size to the archeological state park, it surrounds it and buffers it from encroachment and most recreational uses.  The archeological park has a picnic area, but no place to launch boats, canoes, or kayaks, or to flush.  The buffer preserve, by comparison, has a much longer trail system with lots of access to water.  We hiked approximately 2 miles in pleasant temperatures on a trail through the woods along the water’s edge and saw a number of people fishing.  The light was good and the wind was light which made for nice reflections.  The following photograph is a panoramic composite of three images made using the Microsoft Image Composite Editor (ICE) and post-processed using Faststone Image Viewer.  MS-ICE is an amazing little free program.  The three camera images were hand held with auto-focus and auto-exposure.  The rules for compositing photos to make panoramas are: 1) tripod, 2) special pan head, 3) fixed/manual focus, and 4) fixed exposure.  This image violated all of these rules and still came out well.

Crystal River Buffer Preserve SP (FL).

Crystal River Buffer Preserve SP (FL).  [Click to enlarge to 1280 pixels wide.]

By 3:00 PM we were all getting hungry so we looked for vegetarian friendly options in Crystal River.  The only place that came up was the Brooklyn Dockside Deli but the website indicated they were only open for breakfast and lunch.  We stopped there anyway and they were open until 4:00 PM, so we had a late lunch /early dinner.  John had a Cuban sandwich, Marian had a Reuben sandwich, Linda had a spinach wrap veggie sandwich, and I had a veggie sub.  Everyone enjoyed their food and the un-assuming setting by the water.

We drove John and Marian back to their house and returned to Williston.  We arrived back at our coach before it got dark; something we have rarely accomplished on our recent outings.  Our neighbor, John, invited us to join them later for a small campfire at another neighbor’s rig a few doors down.  Since we were not having dinner as such I off-loaded today’s photographs from the camera, created the panorama, and worked on this blog post.  We checked a couple of times but never saw a campfire where the campfire was supposed to be, so we figured the plans had changed due to the cool temperatures.  Sunday evenings is Masterpiece Theater on PBS, so we settled in for the evening.

 

2014/01/22 (W) Old & New

I spent most of the day catching up on our blog postings for the previous two days.  Our trip to Cedar Key on Monday was a full day of interesting sights and people and I took quite a few photographs.  The weather and light were very nice and most of the photos were usable but required the usual post-processing which would take several hours.  Our trip to Paynes Prairie State Preserve on Tuesday preempted image processing work and resulted in even more photos to review, select, and process.

David and Marie Ross from our FMCA Freethinkers chapter were scheduled to arrive at Williston Crossings RV Resort today so we did not plan any activities away from the resort.  That gave me the time to work on the blog posts and Linda to work on her cross stitch project.  We took a break around noon to go for a walk and bundled up against the chill, which seemed sharper than usual.  It was below freezing again last night and only made it up to about 50 by mid-afternoon.  We had some Amy’s Thai Coconut Soup when we got back which helped warm us up.  Amy’s products are all vegan and we try to keep some on hand for a quick, easy, delicious meal.  A selection of Amy’s products is often available at regular supermarkets including Publix here in Florida, the best selection is usually found at Whole Foods or specialty markets.

While we were walking I got a call from Pat Lintner letting me know that he and Vickie were back at Fort Wilderness and we arranged to drive over to visit them late next week.  We made plans yesterday to visit Al Hesselbart on Saturday at Breezy Oaks RV Park near Bushnell, Florida.  We will probably drive through “The Villages” enroute to Breezy Oaks and stop for a visit with Joe Cannarozzi (our bus mechanic) who is staying at The Villager RV Park in Wildwood just south of The Villages.  While we are down that way we will also check out the Escapees Park in Bushnell which is only a few miles from Breezy Oaks.

David and Marie came in the back entrance of Williston Crossings so we did not see them arrive.  A knock on our door around 4 PM announced that they were here.  We visited with David briefly and discussed dinner options.  They invited us over to their motorhome, a very nice 2000 Safari Sahara, for drinks and we enjoyed a glass of white wine and good conversation.  By 7:00 PM we were all hungry and headed over to the Driftwood.

The Driftwood is a small diner that is walking distance from the front entrance of the resort and the closest place to dine out.  David drove us over as it was dark and cold and would be darker and colder by the end of our meal.  The place looked like it was closed, but the illuminated “open” sign in the window suggested otherwise so we went there for dinner as planned.  This was our first trip to the Driftwood since we arrived in Williston.  Linda and I had salads and potatoes, hers baked and mine French fried (with lots of ketchup and Tabasco sauce).  The food was OK but our waitress was friendly and efficient.  We were all drinking coffee or tea and she was very attentive to keeping our cups refilled, which I appreciate and use as a marker of good waitservice.

By the time we finished dinner and returned to the resort clear skies revealed bright stars and radiational cooling had already lowered the temperature in to the upper 30’s.  With yet another sub-freezing night ahead we set the thermostats on the toe-kick heaters and settled in to watch the final episode of Shackleton on PBS, a documentary on the recreation of Ernest Shackleton’s epic journey in 1916 from Antarctica to South Georgia Island to reach the whaling station at Stromness and arrange the rescue of the 22 men left behind.  It was somehow fitting given the weather this January.

 

2013_12_25 (W) Season’s Greetings From Florida

Publix grocery store in SW Gainesville, FL.

Publix grocery store in SW Gainesville, FL.

What do extended-time RVers do on Christmas day?  Pretty much what they would do at home, except for visiting/hosting family.  It got down to 33 degrees F overnight, so we had the spirit of winter if not the actual thing.  That was still above freezing and much better than the 9 degrees F in Howell, Michigan.  Linda put her knit cap on and went for a walk before breakfast.  With the way people are bundled up here she didn’t want to show off by walking without her hat.  We may not be overly concerned with fitting in, but there’s no reason to make people feel bad on Christmas day.  We both went for a couple of walks later in the day.  There are pictures of the RV resort throughout this post that do not necessarily relate the text.

Looking north from site #439.  This will be our front window view.

Looking north from site #439. This will be our front window view.

This was our 7th day on the road and as we are leaving Williston Crossings RV Resort tomorrow for a week we needed to do a load of laundry.  One of the Laundromat buildings is fairly close to our current site and even closer to our long-term site when we get back.  Like everything else here it was clean and well lit with commercial washers and dryers in good condition and all functioning properly.  I took care of the laundry after breakfast, as I would have done at home, while Linda started working on our holiday meal, as she would have done at home.  At some level life on the road is just life, and there’s a certain comfort in that, but with more variety of new experiences which is why people do it.  We have been determined from the beginning that our extended-time RVing would not be an extended vacation.  Although we plan to do plenty of sight-seeing while we are in Florida, so far we have been quite comfortable with just sitting in one place and relaxing.

Looking south at site #439 in the south section.    The trees will provide shade.

Looking south at site #439 in the south section. The trees will provide shade.

Linda’s first culinary task was to make her vegan chocolate cake.  She had not packed vegetable oil, so she used avocado oil instead.  The batter (I got to clean the bowl) did not have any unusual taste, so we expected the cake to be very good when we finally had some for dessert.

 

 

 

 

 

The fire pit in the south section, not far from site #439.

The fire pit in the south section, not far from site #439.

 

We turned on the dash radio and were able to tune in the Gainesville NPR station with a good strong signal even though the antenna is 20 miles away.  Not bad considering that our radio does not have an antenna at the moment!  It was removed as part of redoing the roof in 2011/12 and has not yet been replaced.  So at this point we have fast Wi-Fi, a good selection of over-the-air TV stations (including the PBS trio), and good radio signals (including NPR).  This place just gets better and better.

Walkway from the fire pit to the south section laundry room.

Walkway from the fire pit to the south section laundry room.

With our outstanding Wi-Fi we decided to try contacting our children using Facetime on our iPads.  We connected with our son and daughter-in-law first.  Our grand-daughter was having a late morning snack of teething pretzels and “freezy peasies” (frozen peas).  She seemed to recognize us and smiled and waved in-between gumming pretzels and peas.  She got very excited when our male cat, Jasper, wandered into the frame, so it was pretty clear that she recognized the images she was seeing.  Facetime is going to allow us to stay in touch with her development while we are here, which is very nice.  We then connected with our daughter and had a nice chat with her.  She was baking rolls for later today when she and her husband were getting together with her brother, his family, and a friend.

[R 693 The south section bath and laundry room.]

[R 693 The south section bath and laundry room.]

We bought a Tofurkey yesterday to have for our main dish today.  Linda had not tried to cook one in a convection/microwave oven before, and the cooking directions advised against microwaving it, so this was a bit of an experiment.  She made cranberry-orange relish yesterday from our remaining fresh cranberries.  Today she made a green salad which we ate an hour before our main mean.  She convection roasted the Tofurkey and it came out great.  While it was relaxing she microwaved a couple of yams and sautéed some asparagus spears to complete the side dishes.  We had a bottle of Early Season White Cranberry Wine from Forestedge Winery in Laporte, Minnesota to round out the meal.  Of the many non-grape wines available from Forestedge Winery, this is one of our favorites.

Yes, there is a shuffle board court.  Isn't it lovely?

Yes, there is a shuffle board court. Isn’t it lovely?

 

It may be Christmas day, but chores have to be done when they have to be done.  Even though we have a full-hookup site at the rally in Arcadia we wanted to leave Williston tomorrow with empty holding tanks and a full fresh water tank.  You never know if the facilities you’ve been promised will actually be functional when you arrive.  I attended to these tasks after dinner.

Clubhouse on the left, pool house on the right, golf carts in the middle.

Clubhouse on the left, pool house on the right, golf carts in the middle.

After an early evening stroll through the RV resort we had vegan chocolate cake with fresh strawberries for dessert.  As expected, the cake was excellent.