We're in Florida!

Well, we had a nice couple of days at Reed Bingham but were really anxious to get the last leg of our traveling behind us. We got up at a decent time on Monday and began to get ready to leave. I was putting stuff away inside and came outside to put the heater in one of the basement compartments (being optimistic, I'm assuming we won't need it in Florida!). While I was outside I thought I'd just grab Brandi, who was on her line, and put her inside. I didn't have her leash so I just hooked my finger through her collar and began to pull her toward the motor home - BIG MISTAKE! She pulled away from me and took off at a FULL GALLOP. And, BOY, can that dog run! I called her and tried to chase her down but she ran all over the campground area with me behind her. I bet I chased her around for a good 20 minutes - and then, all of a sudden, she found a bone (we think it was a big old turkey breast) and simply came back to our site and laid down and started eating the bone. I came right up to her and she went right into the RV - AARGGHH! While I was chasing the dog around, Dave had pulled the RV out of the site onto the road and had started hooking up the car. When I got Brandi inside I came around and Dave had this kind of horrified look on his face - he had backed the car up to position it behind the RV and he backed right into a big old pine tree! (I think he was so distracted by the whole thing with Brandi that he literally paid no attention to where he was...) Anyway - he totally destroyed his bike - the frame was bent, the sprocket was bent, it was a MESS. And he's had that bike for 27 (yes, 27!) years - so he was just SICK about it. I, on the other hand, was thinking "gee, finally I can get him to buy a new bike!". Well, I wasn't thinking that exactly, because I know he felt so bad, but on the other hand, I was REALLY glad it wasn't the bumper of the car - that would be a LOT more money than getting him a new bike.

So - after all the excitement of getting out of the park, the trip down to Cedar Key turned out to be very uneventful - thank God! We didn't need anything else to happen to us! We got down here at about noon or so and... well, it's an interesting place. It is very quaint, very old and it's going to be just fine for us for one month. Most of the sites are really small and narrow, including site #9 which was ours. But our neighbors came over and told us that the managers were pretty good about letting you try to switch to a different site if there was one available. (They assured us that they were NOT trying to get rid of us, but they could tell our rig was going to be a pretty snug fit!) So I went up to the office and the manager, who is just a SWEETHEART, was able to move us to a bigger site until December 30. At that time, we'll either just move to an overflow spot for two days or even just head out - we'll worry about that later. So, anyway, the park is on the water, which is really nice, and there are a lot of little rickety old docks jutting out into the water that you can sit out on and watch the sunset - very nice! There is a CUTE little "clubhouse" and every Friday night there is a potluck and live "Dixie" music. Oh boy! But everyone that we've met has been super nice and we're sure it's going to be fun to be here. We're within walking distance of the really old, quaint downtown area - maybe a mile or slightly more. I've attached a few pictures just to give my "readers" a little preliminary flavor of the island - there will be many more as we begin to do things here. So - eat your hearts out! - yesterday afternoon when we pulled in it was in the mid-70's and sunny with just a slight breeze - absolutely beautiful weather.

Today was also gorgeous - mid-80's!!! - but we had a mission! We needed a new bike for Dave! So we drove into Gainesville and started going down the list of bike shops that I had pulled off the internet. The first two were busts, but the third place was a winner. Dave found a bike he really liked, plus they replaced one of my rims (which also got bent in the "incident") and we also bought a new bike rack (yep-another casualty!). However, we walked out only about $700 poorer, which is still cheap compared to the price of a new bumper - plus Dave has a NEW BIKE! When we got home he took it for a "break-in" ride and came home very happy with it - whew!

So overall we're beginning to feel pretty settled in. I took Brandi for two long walks today, Dave got in a bike ride and is getting ready to cook fish for dinner as we speak, and I've got my little "office" all set up in the front of the RV. I'll attach a picture later, but it's working out GREAT! We took an old card table and cut the legs to fit so I have a nice little desktop surface in the front passenger area. I've got my nice big monitor and keyboard set up, with my printer sitting behind me on top of a cheap plastic rolling file cabinet filled with work stuff, but everything is working just fine. I've been putting in a couple of hours a day, but tomorrow is the first of the month so I'll begin doing month end work and putting in a few more hours for the next couple weeks. But I think this whole remote working arrangement is going to work out just great. So - right now - sitting here with all the doors and windows open and the breeze coming in from the Gulf - I'm a pretty happy camper!