We departed Orlando at 11.30am on Saturday, June 23, headed for north Florida and Suwanee River State Park. Yes, it's the river immortalized by Stephen Foster, as in "way down upon the Swanee River," also titled "Old Folks at Home."
The drive was about 200 miles, and since we hauled our mini-house along with us, it took about 5 hours. The campground is about 25 miles northwest of Tallahassee. Here's the park entrance sign...
We pulled up to an attractive but empty ranger station. Fortunately, we had already reserved and paid for the night.
The weather was cool for late June, and we looked forward to a hibachi dinner and campfire that night. Until we parked in our site and stepped out of the car - Mosquito Attack! Amid the swarms, Peter valiantly set up the tiny trailer and we prepared to eat microwave dinners inside. ðŸ˜
That night, Peter couldn't sleep. It turns out that while he set up the camper, he twisted his right knee. It swelled up and was extremely painful. Since we were on Day 1 and 5 hours from home, we decided to turn around to see our regular doctor rather than take our chances on the road. Of course, Peter couldn't drive, so there was Arlene, aka Lucy Ricardo, traveling down the Interstate, the trailer bobbing and weaving behind us like a cork on the water. Aargh.
The next day, we went to see our orthopedic surgeon (another indignity of old age) who x-rayed the knee, pronounced it inflamed by already-present arthritis, and prescribed a cortisone derivative to ease pain and swelling. Since we were in town, we stopped in to see Mom at the assisted living facility.
She was depressed and feeling very sorry for herself. So we decided to stay a while longer to see her settled. And here we are on June 30th, still in Orlando, still waiting to leave.
We desperately want to restart our trip and have decided to try again next Saturday. We'll stay in hotels for a few nights to catch up with our reservation at Badlands National Park in South Dakota. So that's it for now, but we'll leave you with a photo of the woods along the route to the campground at Suwanee.
This is hard to believe, I know, but AT&T gave me my last day off WITH pay. They must be too busy incorporating Time-Warner into the Master Plan to realize their mistake 😎
Let me introduce our traveling companions. The first is senior dog, Frankie. He is a terrier mutt, probably mostly Norfolk Terrier. We adopted him in 2005, so he is about fifteen years old. He's slowed down quite a bit, of course, and those hind legs don't work as well as they used to, but he's up for new adventures.
Next is the Little Princess, Maggie. We adopted her from our veterinarian about six weeks ago. She was found wandering around Winter Park, FL (if you know the area, WP is a great place to be lost.) Dr. Cannon estimates her to be about five or six. She weighs six pounds and is feisty and friendly. She gets her older brother to chase her around, which is good cardio for both of them. She still has the annoying habit of piddling indoors, but we do our best. Since most of the next few weeks will be spent in the Great Outdoors, that should help.
And last, but not least, are the bus drivers, intrepid Peter and Ellie, pictured here on an evening out at a favorite restaurant. We can't wait for the story to start.
Next post will show exactly how tiny our tiny trailer is! Until then...
A big hello to all our family and friends!
After thirty-six years and three months of work for the company that's now AT&T Mobility, I will retire on June 18, 2018.
We're about to embark on an adventure, just like Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night. (Just call us Peter and Ellie, the names of the lead characters!)
We'll depart for the west coast (no, not the Gulf Coast) in June to begin our first long odyssey. We'll visit with friends along the way, and return home in October.
We want to share our adventures with you - the highways and byways, campgrounds and local attractions, and those chill-out nights that we spend in climate controlled hotel rooms in Chicago, Bozeman, MT, Orange County, CA, Alamogordo, NM, and Baton Rouge, LA..
Below is a map of our planned route round trip - add in a stop on the Florida Panhandle before our return to Orlando.
Look for my first post from the road around June 25th. After that? Who knows?
