Living Our Dream

Getting Closer to Having Pavement

Bushnell, FL - Events of Sunday, April 20 to Tuesday, April 29, 2014

As we explained a while ago, we made a decision late in our stay at Blueberry Hill to sign up for a special promotion the owners of the RV park were having that offered an allowance toward paving, a shed and landscaping in exchange for committing to the 6 & 6 rate for your site for two years. The 6 & 6 rate allows you to stay on your site for up to 6 months a year and to store your RV on the site for the other 6 months. Even though we probably won't be staying the entire 6 months and definitely won't be storing our motor home on the site in the summer, the rate is fairly reasonable; and the rate is discounted even further for the first year.

We stayed in Florida much longer than we planned in the hope of having our shed delivered and of watching our concrete being poured. In the meantime, we're mostly hanging around the motor home relaxing, taking short walks around the campground and playing with Freeway.

Freeway playing with his favorite toy

The weather has definitely taken a turn toward summer. The highs in Lower Alabama where we are headed next have risen from the 60s and 70s to the lower 80s, and the highs in Bushnell have risen from the upper 70s and low 80 to the low 90s. While relaxing around the RV park, we have been treated to several nice sunsets recently and a beautiful sunrise.

Sunday evening sunset

Monday evening sunset

Tuesday morning sunrise

As we mentioned in our last post, things were moving verrrrrrry sloooooowly on the pavement front. About a week ago, the workmen dropped off boards for concrete forms at our site. Over the next few days, we watched them stake out the areas for pavement on numerous other sites throughout the RV park, but not on ours. As we also said in our last post, the sequence of the work sometimes defies logic.

After we finally caught up to one of the contractors a few days ago, we finally understand some of the logic. We are next on the list to get concrete, but we are one of the last two sites to get concrete that are still occupied. Therefore, the contractor said he was proceeding with laying out the other sites in this batch of sites, but he was holding off staking out our site until the last minute so we wouldn't have to trip over the stakes any longer than necessary.

We also found out the sub-contractor with the front-end loader that digs out the areas where the concrete is to be poured is the primary reason for the delay. It seems he is busy on other jobs, and the paving contractor is having trouble getting him to commit to a date to come to Blueberry Hill.

The front-end loader was supposed to be at Blueberry Hill last Thursday afternoon or Friday morning, but he never showed. On Monday, someone from the concrete crew showed up at our rig and said he was there to lay out our site because the front-end loader was coming that morning. Yay!

Paul folded up our patio mat to get it out of the way, and the workman proceeded to measure and stake our site.

Workman measuring in preparation for staking out our site

Stakes in place

After defining the shape with stakes, lines are painted on the grass to make it easier for the operator of the front-end loader to see where to dig.

Pavement outline painted on the grass

Everyone got to decide exactly what areas of their sites they wanted to have paved. A few chose to pave a parking pad for the RV in addition to a patio, but most did not. The reason for that is the pavement under the RV is much more expensive than for the patio because it must be much thicker and have more reinforcement to stand up under the weight of the RV. Therefore, paving under the RV eats up your allowance rather quickly, so most people, including us, decided to just pave a patio and parking pad for the tow or towed vehicle. We also kept our patio on the small side because we wanted to leave some grass for Freeway and some areas for landscape plants.

By the time our layout was completed, it was late morning and there was still no front-end loader so the concrete worker left. We were so tired and hungry from watching him lay out our site all morning, we decided to head over to Beef O'Brady's in the afternoon to take advantage of their Burger Monday and get a Build Your Own Burger for $4.99 (regularly $7.99).

Beef O'Brady's

We both had the same thing as last time - Margery had a burger with pickles, lettuce, tomato and mayo with onion rings for her side, and Paul had a cheeseburger with fries. Everything was yummy.

Margery with her burger

The front-end loader did finally show up on Tuesday morning and dug out our pavement area. After that, he dug out about a dozen additional sites that will be paved after ours.

Starting to dig

All dug out ready for forms

Our area still needs to be leveled, have the edges squared up, have the forms built and have the reinforcing mesh put into place. Following all that, the site needs to be inspected by the building inspector before concrete can be poured. Add to all that the threat of rain every day this week, and we have no idea of when we'll actually get our concrete; but at least we know we're next. As soon as there is more progress, we'll have an update.

Good Eats

Bushnell, FL - Events of Saturday, April 19 to Tuesday, April 22, 2014

We usually have dinner on Thanksgiving and Easter at Cracker Barrel; but this year, we decided not to eat out on Easter. Since we were planning to have Easter dinner at the motor home, we elected to go out to a restaurant on Saturday instead.

The delicious corn chips and good Mexican food at Pancho's Villa down in San Antonio, FL where we went a few weeks ago were calling to us, so that's where we went.

Pancho's Villa

This time, the corn chips weren't quite as good as they were the first time. They were hot, but they weren't as crisp. However, they were salted the way we like them, so we still ended up having two baskets.

Since it was before 3:00, we both had chicken burritos for $8 from the lunch menu ($10 for dinner). The lunch menu isn't as extensive as the dinner menu, and the lunch portions are slightly smaller; but there is still plenty to pick from on the lunch menu, and we both got plenty to eat.

The burritos were topped with salsa verde and were garnished with sour cream, diced tomato and guacamole. The burritos were also served with rice and refried beans.

Burrito with refried beans and rice

Paul ready to dig in

The rice and beans were as good as we remembered them, and the burritos were also delicious. In fact, Margery liked the burrito even better than the chimichanga she had the last time, although Paul preferred the chimi by a narrow margin.

We relaxed after church on Sunday, then enjoyed our home-cooked Easter dinner of ham steak on the grill accompanied by cauliflower loaded with cheese and bacon bits and steamed asparagus.

For dessert, Margery tried a new recipe for magic coconut pie. It's one of those recipes where you mix everything together and bake it all in one pan. As it bakes, the mixture separates out into a cake-like crust and pudding filling. It was so good, Margery had two servings (good thing it was low carb), and we both had it for breakfast the next morning.

Monday was kind of dreary, so we hung around the campground. The place has really emptied out, so it's really getting lonely. Several of the few remaining people left early last week so they could be home for Easter, and several more left on the Monday morning after Easter.

We reported on a couple of nice sunsets in our last post. There is frequently fog in the morning because of the high humidity in Florida, so we don't often get a nice sunrise. However, the clouds from Monday were clearing out on Tuesday morning, so we did have a colorful sunrise.

Tuesday sunrise

Tuesday was also Margery's birthday, and we ended up going out to eat again to celebrate. She decided she wanted to go to OakWood Grill in The Villages to take advantage of their baby back rib special. Baby back ribs are $12.99 (regularly $15.99) all day Sundays through Wednesdays.

OakWood Grill

Margery, of course, had ribs. Paul, on the other hand, loves the smoked turkey at Oakwood, so he opted for a smoked turkey lunch plate ($7.99). Margery had onion rings and slaw for her two sides, and Paul had lima beans and slaw. The ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender as usual and the turkey was smoky, moist and tender just as it always is.

The birthday girl

On the way back to Blueberry Hill, we stopped at Publix and got two slices of cake - one white with buttercream frosting and one red velvet with cream cheese frosting. We split the two slices later in the evening to cap off Margery's birthday celebration. Both were yummy.

We continue to hang around Bushnell to wait for our pavement and shed. The contractors make progress in fits and starts. Nothing happens for several days, then they show up and work on a couple more sites for a day or two then disappear again for a few days. Sometimes they come for an hour or two then leave. We think they may start work on our site soon, but as we said, things continue to happen slowly and not always in manner that seems logical to us. Oh well, at least the weather is warm here in Florida and we are enjoying our time of relaxation.

For the Christian, Easter is a time of great celebration. Our Redeemer lives! He has conquered  Satan and death. Our sins are forgiven! We have eternal life..."for God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish." John 3:16

God's Word says that we have all sinned and fall short of the glory of God and that the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus. How is that possible? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

This promise is not only for us, but for you, too. Our prayer is that if you do not have a personal relationship with the resurrected Christ, you will begin to explore the Bible to discover Him, and that you will have newness of life through Christ our Lord.

Wishing you a joyous Resurrection Sunday!

Market of  Marion

Bushnell, FL - Events of Sunday, April 13 to Monday, April 14, 2014

We haven't had much to write about lately because the colds that hit us about two weeks ago really knocked us for a loop, and we didn't feel like doing much of anything. We both started feeling better after about 5 or 6 days; but just when we thought we should have been pretty much back to normal, we both had a relapse that took another 5 or 6 days to recover from. If there's anything good that can be said about the colds we had it's that we were both under the weather at the about same time instead of one after another.

The freezer of our residential refrigerator holds enough to keep us fed if we can't make it to the grocery store for a while; but after battling colds for over 10 days and not feeling like going grocery shopping, our fresh veggies were in short supply. By Sunday, we both finally felt well enough to go to church without risk of infecting everyone around us. Since the church we attend while we're in Florida is located in The Villages and since the Market of Marion is only a few miles north of that, we went to the market after church to pick up some fresh produce. The market is open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

We have never been to the Market of Marion on a Sunday, and we have never been there that late in the morning. The parking lot was pretty full even though a lot of the snowbirds have headed back north.

Rather than walking the whole market, we planned to go just to the produce section. Therefore, we parked toward the back of the market so we could enter the market right at the end of the produce aisle.

Side entrance at the produce aisle

The first thing we saw when we walked in was a colorful display of nice zucchini and yellow squash.

Zucchini and yellow squash

Since the market is closed Monday through Thursday, we were afraid the produce might be picked over by late Sunday morning. However, we needn't have worried. A glance down the aisle revealed an excellent selection of just about every type of fruit and vegetable you can think of.

A good selection of all types of produce

Even more produce

We walked up the aisle and noted prices and locations of some of the items on Margery's shopping list. At the end of the produce aisle, we poked our noses into the main aisle of the market to see how crowded it was. There were plenty of shoppers, but the crowds weren't overwhelming since we were well past the peak of snowbird season.

Main aisle of the market

We headed back down the produce aisle and began making our purchases. We bought some asparagus, a couple of tomatoes, some red and green peppers, a large onion, a cucumber, several zucchini, two eggplants, a few green onions and a head of cauliflower. Like we said, we needed fresh veggies pretty badly.

We headed back to Blueberry Hill after a quick stop at the Walmart to pick up a few other items we needed, then we relaxed the rest of the day. In the evening, we were treated to a nice sunset.

Blueberry Hill sunset

Our taste buds were finally back to normal after our colds, so we headed over to Beef O'Brady's in Bushnell mid afternoon on Monday for lupper. We wanted to take advantage of their Monday special, which is a Build Your Own Burger for $4.99 (regularly $7.99).

Beef O'Brady's

Margery has the works on her burger (lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo) with onion rings for her side ($1.99 extra), and Paul had cheese and ketchup on his burger with regular fries for his side. As always, the burgers were delish.

Paul with his cheeseburger

After lupper, we headed back to Blueberry Hill where we took a short walk around the campground. As we settled in for a relaxing evening of TV, we were treated to a beautiful sunset for the second evening in a row.

Another beautiful sunset

We continue to hang around Bushnell waiting for our shed to be delivered and for the concrete for our patio to be poured. Lower Alabama, where we normally would have been by now, remains relatively cool with a good bit of rain, so we're content to continue to enjoy the warm, mostly sunny weather here in Florida for the time being.

River Ratz Cafè

Bushnell, FL - Events of Tuesday, April 1 to Monday, April 7, 2014

Early last week, Margery got hit with a cold. It came on fast, and she was pretty miserable with a sore throat and stuffy nose. We have been having some of the nicest weather we have had in a long time with sun and warm temperatures almost every day, but unfortunately, Margery didn't feel like going anywhere.

On Thursday evening, the bug hit Paul. Margery was starting to feel better by Friday afternoon, but she didn't feel like cooking. Paul wasn't feeling too bad, so we decided to head down to River Ratz Café for lupper. River Ratz is about 10 minutes from Bushnell on the Withlacoochee River in the small town of Nobleton.

We took Freeway along because there is a park right down the road from River Ratz that serves as a trailhead for the Withlacoochee Bike Trail, and we wanted to take him for a short walk down the trail before lupper since we haven't been walking around the campground much for the last few days. We also knew River Ratz had plenty of shade in their parking lot for Freeway so he would be comfortable in the car while we ate.

Margery and Freeway on the Withlacoochee Trail

We walked the trail a short distance toward the north when we went to River Ratz last year. This year we headed south.

Before we had gone too far, we came to a side path that connected with a short, dirt road leading to a boat launch that was also part of the park. We decided to check it out. Down by the boat launch was a short boardwalk along the bank where we could get a nice view of the river.

View of the Withlacoochee River from the boardwalk at the boat launch

View of the boat launch area (right) from the end of the boardwalk

The banks of the river are lined with large cypress trees. Cypress trees grow in shallow water along rivers, streams, lakes and in swamps in many places in the deep south. They have projections called knees that stick up out of the water to help oxygenate the roots. The roots also form wide buttresses at the base of the trees to give them stability in the soft mud.

Cypress knees in the shallow water along the river bank

From the boat launch, we headed back to the car and drove a short distance to River Ratz Café. Since they are so close to the bike trail, River Ratz attracts a lot of bicyclists as evidenced by the half dozen or so bikes in the parking lot. They also attract a lot of motorcyclists, especially on weekends.

Bicycles in the parking lot of River Ratz

River Ratz Café has dining inside, and they have a deck and patio overlooking the Withlacoochee River for dining outside. The café is part of the Nobleton Outpost, which rents canoes and kayaks, and you can see the boat launch from the deck.

Withlacoochee River from the deck of River Ratz

Prices at River Ratz are very reasonable. They range from a low of $2.25 for grilled cheese to around $6 for most other sandwiches and burgers. They also have a lot of appetizers, most of which cost around $3 to $4, but go all the way up to $14 for a pound of peel-and-eat shrimp.

We both had Philly cheese steak sandwiches ($6). Margery had an order of onion rings ($2.75), and Paul had fries with his sandwich for $1 extra.

Paul and Margery on the deck at River Ratz

The Philly cheese steaks weren't as good as we remembered them, but maybe it was because we both had colds and couldn't taste very well. The onion rings were somewhat greasy, the fries weren't very hot and the service was kind of slow even though they weren't busy. Those last three things didn't have anything to do with our taste buds, so we were a little disappointed with this stop at River Ratz. Well, at least Margery didn't have to cook.

We headed back to the motor home where we both napped and then relaxed with an evening of TV. We took it easy over the weekend.

We both felt a good bit better by Monday, but were still not quite 100%. Rain was in the forecast for Tuesday, and we're hoping we feel well enough to get out for some sightseeing by the time the weather clears.