(42) Lake Placid Fla, the Real Florida

Living in the Country.

Highlands County that is. The county was orginally set aside for the Seminole Indians, that is until the Seminole war took place. They retreated into the Everglades and settlers moved into the county. I’m enjoying the real Florida. Surrounded by huge ranches, grazing land for cattle, dotted with lone pine trees and palm trees, orange groves that go on for miles and miles. Driving along hwy 27 in the heart of south central Florida, I occasionally see migrant workers picking oranges and grapefruit. The trees are heavy with a bumper crop. How they can get so many trees picked with so few workers is beyond me.

I’ve hit most of the restaurants in Lake Placid, as I’m about 15 miles from the town that was renamed a number of times, finally being named Lake Placid after a pioneer who lived in Lake Placid NY, came to this area, and decided it reminded him of all the lakes in his NY home town. It’s a sleepy little town that doesn’t want to grow up like the now larger town of Sebring Fla. 16 miles up the road from here.

I was invited over to Cape Coral on the Gulf to visit friends and stay the night. Good conversation, good food, a piano concert for one and even a movie too boot. The drive was interesting as I’d never driven along hwy 29 and hwy 80 heading towards Ft Myers. Talk about in the country. I stopped in La Belle and had lunch at a local diner. All the locals kept an eye on me as I came in. Curious as to who this “new” person was.

In Cape Coral, it’s residential with very few businesses, the homes are mostly single story concrete homes with tile roofs and perfect Florida landscaped lawns and palm trees along perfect grids of roads and canals built by the Army Corp of Engineers in the 50‘s.

I used my new TomTom GPS to get me there. An early Christmas gift to myself. Worked pretty well until I decided I wanted to check out a few shopping destinations. My TomTom wanted to make sure I got to my original destination first. I think I’ve it figured out. Fortunately it’s a pretty easy system. Should aid me in my travels this coming year. I’ll keep you posted.

My new diesel truck is getting on average just a hair under 20 mpg and I’m thrilled. I’ll feel much more comfortable traveling this coming spring, knowing my fuel expenses will be less.

Oh, I stopped by a home being built out here in the country. I just had to see if I could get a couple pictures. A couple of guys from Ft Lauderdale area moved out here to get away from the big city and are building a dome home. I was invited to take a tour of the place which is almost completed, along with their four dogs . What a fun home, about 1,300 sq ft in size. Lots of open space, each room with those interesting curved walls and triangular windows. Cool.

I’ll be heading back to Orlando in about a week and am looking forward to visiting with more friends and family for the Christmas Holiday’s. So give me a call or e-mail me if you’d like to get together. I’ll be staying at the Bill Fredrick/Turkey Lake Park on the west end of Orlando, Dec 21-Jan 3rd.

(41) Travel costs for 2007

Here’s a little basic information on my costs for the past 9 months of travel. You can easily add about $1,000 a month for food, eating out, entertainment and road expenses/repairs.

MONTH CAMPING GAS

NOV $437 $369

OCT $422 $473

SEP $688 $504

AUG $348 $834

JUL $308 $481

JUN $348 $628

MAY $431 $700

APR $584 $636

MAR $339 $750

================================

So, as you can see, it wasn’t all that bad this past year for traveling. I did have to bring my truck in for repairs three times, each costing about $800 in repairs. I could have sworn I had a gas bill of over $1,000 a month, but after looking at my expenses, my highest bill was $834 for gas.

I now have a diesel engine and should gain a great advantage on fuel savings. We’ll see this coming year.

I’ve traveled a total of :

17,424 miles.

Quiet a distance, but very doable at a slow pace of about 150 to 200 miles a day max. I stayed at each site for between 5 and 10 days and when I got to my final destination out west, I stayed two weeks in the Grand Tetons and another two weeks at Yellowstone National Park.

My absolute favorite location this year was the Grand Tetons and Jackson Hole area. The wildlife and mountain ranges and valleys were all spectacular.

41 Reports stopped for the Winter months

Thanks to everyone for coming along this past year on my travels across the country. The reports will begin again this coming spring (April 2008).

Have a great time looking back at this past year. Except for the most recent reports which cover visits with family and friends, (39 and 40's) all of the previous reports cover my adventures as I travel in my truck and 5th wheel camper.

(40 part 2) 2nd Week in Orlando Florida

WEEK 2

I didn’t have a chance to see everyone, but I sure did enjoy a couple more lunches, breakfasts and get-togethers.

I had lunch with a number of gals from contracts, Mary Lu, Linda H, Judy and Brenda. They told me about the recent cardboard boat contest held at work. A number of the codes and various military groups created airplanes, boats, and other less than sea worthy boats out of card board only. What a blast. Wish I could have been there. So fun is still had on occasion even though most of the worker bees couldn’t attend due to work loads.

My Niece Kelly, her husband Rusty and their 2 yr old son, Lucas joined me at Moss park for a bit, then we went over to a fish camp off of Boggy Creek road. After having an average but good lunch (we should have boated across the lake to a better restaurant), we headed out onto East Lake Tohopekaliga. Rusty and Kelly recently purchased a new speed boat, a real sunny yellow and white color. What a great time getting out on the water. The day was perfect, mid 70’s and sunny. We drove around the lake and into a couple of smaller hidden lakes through canals filled with marsh grasses, lake side homes dotting the lakes. We even came across a small island with a heard of goats on it. How cool. This is Kelly and Rusty’s favorite lake to go boating on.

After a final breakfast in town with my buddy, Patrick, I headed down to Winter Haven to a small Passport America park, Lakeshore Palms Travel Park. It’s almost on top of Cypress Gardens, one of the oldest Florida attractions still running. Lakeshore has a great Passport America price of $13.00 a night. I opted for an electric and water site only so I could back up to the small lake. This area is dotted with hundreds of lakes.

This will be my last report for the winter, barring a few sporadic reports when I go somewhere different and interesting. Enjoy a great fall and see you next spring, On the Road Again.

(40) Bonus report, New Truck

New Chevy Truck

Well I did it!. I bought a new Chevy Silverado 2500HD truck. It’s a 2007 classic design. Duramax Diesel engine with Allison transmission. I was able to get a fair trade-in and $6,000 of GM rebates which really helped the decision to purchase. Bottom line I paid $25K for a $40K vehicle.

I found the Chevy web site that links to a search engine. I put in Florida as the search, so that it would search all of Florida for the best deal. After looking at 2008’s, I went back to new 2007’s. Found out they were still offering the big rebates on what trucks were left over and was able to get one of them. Had to drive to Daytona, about an hour and a half away from my campsite. Not a bad distance to go for a good deal. The ordeal took about 7 hours including driving time.

I probably could have done a little bit better, but I just didn’t have my heart into brow beating the salesman and I was satisfied with the overall deal.

If you know anything about diesel trucks, drop me a line, as this is my first venture into diesel engines.

(40) Moss Park Picnic, Orlando Florida

Moss Park, Orange County park, Florida

On Saturday, we had a picnic at Moss Park. I was eager to share this beautiful park with all my friends in Orlando. So many people never visit the parks in their own area where a person can get rejuvenated just by being in a tranquil setting, filled with trees, two beautiful lakes, a sandy beach and great hiking trails.

I used to come down here to swim, picnic or camp a number of years ago, only about 10 miles from where I lived in Orlando.

My first guests were Jan and Rose. We got together on Friday and had a great time sharing stories and a great lunch of a designer pizza and Greek salad. We came back to the campground and just sat around telling stories and sharing good tips on business and life. Talk about two classy looking ladies. I felt proud just to be able to sit with them at the restaurant.

On Saturday, Eddie and Debby came by for only a short visit as they had to get ready for a long trip up north due to Eddie’s dad being very ill. It was so good to see the two of them even under such sad circumstances. Debby and Eddie are two of my favorite down to earth people and hopefully future full time campers. You can just see the love and care they have for each other.

Linda came over with Dave and Dave’s grandson Mason. Now the picture of Dave with a beer in his hand was “staged”, so don’t get the idea that he always has one in his hand . Linda was looking like a cute vixen with her new blond hair cut. Her smile and laughter were contagious.
Dave and Lorraine Bird were the last to arrive and added a great mix to our already good party. My bestest friend, Pat helped me serve all the great food and drinks throughout the afternoon. Dave Bird is semi-retired but is still doing his great music gigs around town and Larraine continues to work years past her retirement age, keeping the Navy in ship shape. She’s a real work-a-holic.

It was so rewarding to share some time with some of my favorite people in the whole world. Just hearing their voices and laughter will carry me forward as I journey this wonderful land.
Still hoping to see my dear friend Ruth Hall and hope she gets over her bad cold soon. There are so many others I’d love to see as well, but busy lives make it difficulty to get together.