Out and About

Bushnell, FL - Events of Wednesday, January 30 to Tuesday, February 5, 2013

We finally found a secret weapon to motivate Freeway just in time for his Wednesday training class - Cheetos. We normally don't give Freeway people food. The only time he gets any people food is if we accidentally drop something on the floor. Even then, Freeway doesn't always run over right away to gobble up what we drop - except for Cheetos. Even though he has only had a few Cheetos in his young life, he has taken a special liking to them. Either the Cheetos bag has a distinctive crinkle, or Freeway can smell the Cheetos all the way across the motor home because as soon as Paul opens the bag, Freeway comes running right away and doesn't even wait until one accidentally falls to the floor.

Since Freeway normally isn't motivated by food and has such a fondness for Cheetos, we decided to try Cheetos as a training aid. We break the Cheetos into small pieces and alternate regular doggie treats with bits of Cheetos, so Freeway only gets a total of about 1 or 2 Cheetos for an entire training session. The Cheetos were very successful at overcoming most of the distractions when we went to his training class at PetSmart on Wednesday. Freeway did well with the "heel" command, and we worked on getting the dogs to stay with distractions in class. Freeway did well with that, too.

Between classes we practice Freeway's training inside the motor home, outside around our site and at the dog park. We usually let Freeway play before training when we go to the dog park to burn off a little energy. We know we've shown pictures of Freeway playing fetch at the dog park before, but he plays with such enthusiasm and exuberance we can't help ourselves from showing yet another one.

Freeway playing at the dog park

On Friday, we decided it was time to get out and about because we were tired sitting around the campground due to Paul's cold and due to of the wiring project. We drove about 20 minutes south of Bushnell to the Deep South Barbecue in Brooksville for lupper. We had passed Deep South numerous times over the years because there is a chiropractor in Brooksville that we sometimes go to if we get a kink in our backs or necks. Last year, we finally stopped for barbecue, and we thought the barbecue was very good.

Deep South Barbecue

Deep South Barbecue is owned by a former Marine who has decorated the place with politically incorrect signs and bumper stickers. The signs give guests something to read while waiting for their food to come out.

Politically incorrect bumber stickers

There are also several decorative wood carvings that are interesting.

'Gator carved from wood

We both had a pulled pork barbecue sandwich and potato salad. Paul had cole slaw, but since they only had one serving of cole slaw left, Margery had French fries. Yes, that's right - she had potato salad AND French fries. Now that we're on maintenance on our low carb diets, we can get away with really cheating occasionally.

Margery had potato salad AND French fries with her pork barbecue

Everything was delish! The pulled pork, while not extremely smoky, was very tender and moist. The sauce is sweet with a hint of tartness.

We hung around the motor home over the weekend. We relaxed, practiced training lessons with Freeway and watched the big game on Sunday.

Hanging around the motor home for the weekend also gave us time to enjoy one of Paul's Christmas gifts from Lora and J. Michael. Paul used to be an avid gardener when we had a stick house; and gardening is one of the things he misses most now that we are full-time RVers. For Christmas, Lora and J. Micheal got Paul an amaryllis bulb. Paul planted the bulb as soon as we got back to Florida after Christmas, and it is now blooming inside the motor home. The bright red flowers have a festive, tropical appearance that Paul really enjoys.

Amaryllis blooming inside the motor home

On Tuesday, we decided it was time to take the motor home for an exercise drive. Paul likes to pull off the site once or twice during the winter and drive up the interstate a couple of exits to warm up the engine and transmission and to get all the lubrication flowing. We also run the generator while we're driving to exercise that, too.

Since we have the new Equinox and it is all wired up and ready to go, Paul decided to hook it up and tow it on our exercise drive just to make sure everything worked as expected. The old Saturn tracked very well behind the motor home, and the Equinox tracks even better.

The color of the Equinox, which is a new color for 2013 called Champagne Silver, goes very well with the color of the motor home. We pulled into the check-in lane when we got back to Blueberry Hill to unhook, and we took the opportunity for a quick photo.

Motor Home with new toad hooked up

After we got the car unhooked, we got settled back into our site and got everything set up again. We had a few hours to relax before we took off again. We made plans in the afternoon to go to OakWood Grill near The Villages for lupper with our friends, Pat and Mike.

OakWood Grill

OakWood has a special price for a full rack of baby back ribs from Sundays through Wednesdays, so that's what we all had. The regular price is $15.99, and the special is only $12.99. The ribs at OakWood are nice and juicy and fall-off-the-bone tender.

Baby back ribs

Margery, Paul, Pat and Mike

After lupper, we headed back to the motor home for an evening of TV. Depending on the weather, we tentatively have some sightseeing planned, so look for our next post.

Comments

[Paul Weaver]

Cheetos....I wonder what the trainer does with those orange fingers? Ha,ha!

How do you two stay so thin with those great looking meals? Yummy.

[Marsha]

Cheetos...wonder if they work on men?

The amaryllis is gorgeous! I, too, miss gardening. It will be one thing I will be doing at the house this summer.

You two will have the best looking tow on the road. Very nice.

[Dreaming]

Hi there! As I sit in the lounge in Red Bay, waiting for service to be completed, I finally found time to check back on lots of blogs I haven't visited in ages! Although we are not full-timers, we have been on the road since just after Christmas. One thing I find challenging is the lack of decent Internet at a lot of the areas we have stopped.
I had tons of fun reading back through your posts. Freeway is cute as can be. I cracked up in learning that he likes Cheetos so much. Currently we have a dog who loves ice cubes! They'd be a bit hard to use as training rewards, though!
Well, I'm seeing a few more topics on your sidebar that I want to explore! In some ways it is nice to be 'stuck' in the lounge!