April 7, 2017
Countdown to Yellowstone
Well as we type this
blog we are entering our last week here in Florida. Things have been good here
in Florida but I think we are both looking forward to a change of scenery. We
have accomplished our goals here in Florida of getting our residence established
here along with wrapping up our organization of the home. We have done some
more exploring and made a trip to Gainesville and Chiefland to resupply and
pick up a few items that you can’t get here on the islands. Our weather has
been good for the most part but we have had a stretch of days in the high 80’s
and even a day or two of 90. As a side note we checked the forecast this
morning for Yellowstone and the high there was supposed to be 29 with rain and a
chance of snow for the next 4 days, that’s gpnna take some adjusting to after
being in Florida for a month but I am sure it will just add to the adventure.
For those that don’t
know Ashley’s birthday was this past Wednesday on April 5th. This
amazing young lady turned 27 years old. WOW that makes some of us feel
old. I can remember like yesterday where
I was when the call came that she had decided to enter this world. I was
working 3rd
shift at DPD and was in the process of packaging
evidence from a pretty substantial drug arrest which I was very pumped about,
but as vivid as the memory of that arrest is even today, nothing can compare
to the memories of being a DAD that began the evening of April 5, 1990 and have
continued for the last 27 years. We are both extremely proud of the young women
Ashley has become and are excited for what maybe around the next corner in her
never-ending adventure.
On Thursday March 30
we had to make a trip back to Bushnell to the DMV to get our trailer
title/registered in Florida. Once again this was a pleasant trip and we wrapped
up our business with the state of Florida. On the way, back we had decided to
make a stopover at Rainbow Spring for a kayaking trip on the Rainbow river. On
a previous trip to this area we found a nice county park named KP Hole which
has boat and kayak launches on to the Rainbow River. We arrived at KP Hole park
around 2pm and were on the river by 2:30pm. We decided to paddle up stream to
the spring were the river begins which would make for an easier return trip.
Because it was a weekday the river was not very crowded and made for a nice
trip. There were several birds and several different species of ducks on the
river. Because it is spring several of the pairs of ducks had young ducklings.
It was neat to watch the males standing guard as the mothers tried to teach the
young duckling to swim. One family was on some floating reeds and the ducklings
had a Congo line going as they took turns going into the water and swimming
back around to the back of the line to try again at perfecting their skill. Another
duck family was swimming along the bank in a long straight line following one
parent while the second parent brought up the rear in case one of the
youngsters fell behind. We paddled to the spring which is located at the
Rainbow Spring state park where we docked and got out stretched and had a
snack. On the return trip, we saw several fish and turtles swimming in the
crystal-clear water. There were also a number of turtles sun bathing along the
banks on logs.
Turtle on rock to left of Cormorant
Fish swim below boats
April rolled around
and brought some changes to our neighborhood. A number of our neighbors who are
snow birds from northern states or Canada began packing up and pulling out to
make the trek back north to their homes. We met a nice couple from Wisconsin
that were snow birds and every winter they traveled from up north to Florida
for a couple of months to avoid the snow and cold. On Sunday, we again attended
church at Cedar Key Baptist. The congregation was a little smaller as a number
of those who had been attending were also snow birds and had gone north.
As most of you know
last May Paula had a detached retina in her eye which required surgery and
because of the surgery she was unable to travel with me to Alaska to deliver
Ashley’s car. Well on Monday we had a little scare as she woke up and she began
seeing some floaters in her other eye. (floaters are common with aging but were
frequent in her eye before she had the detachment and the surgery) After
consulting Dr. V her surgeon at Duke Medical Eye center we had to make out
first professional contact and find an ophthalmologist to check out her
floaters in her good eye. Thankfully we found one in Chiefland and he worked
her in for Tuesday morning. After a little anxiety and the exam we can breathe
a sigh of relief there is not a tear in the retina on her good eye but we will
follow up with an ophthalmologist in Wyoming in a couple of months. Truly this
was a praise and something we will keep an “eye on”.
As we begin to make
our preparations to head to Yellowstone we have been able to speak to some of
our co-workers that we will be working with this summer. This is good because
Bill and Trisha have been doing this for a couple of years and have been able
to provide some helpful insight. Like bring a snow shovel because even though
the park service will scrape the roads and our sight for snow there will still
be a lot of snow on the ground when we arrive and we may have to shovel snow
when we set up our trailer so our slides can open. We plan on meeting up with
Bill and Trisha in Gardiner Mt on April 20 so they can help us figure out the
first few days which will be very helpful.
On Wednesday April 5
in the midafternoon we took another trip through the Suwanee Wildlife refuge.
We have had several days of rain this week and it was a little cooler so we
thought the wild life may be a little more active. We saw a number of gators
which varied in size from 1 footers to 6 footers one of which started to cross
the road in front of us but quickly ducked back into the bushes as we
approached. We also saw several birds, an opossum, an armadillo and a eastern
diamond back rattle snake. Now you will
notice that there is not a picture of the snake posted and that’s because my sidekick
was in such shock with what she thought was a stick in the road wasn’t a stick
at all but a 2 foot long rattle snake that she couldn’t take a picture.
We have been very
fortunate this week that the weather that unfortunately spawned the strong
storms and tornados across the south has stayed north of us. We did have some
weather Wednesday night and we woke up around 12:30 am Thursday morning to a
tornado watch. A quick check of the radar indicated a very strong squall line
was just off shore headed our way. There was an obvious bow in the radar signature
which is indicative to a possible tornado. So, we took the precaution of going
to the office / club house building to monitor the situation and get into a
little stronger structure. Now I have ridden out my fair share of strong storms
and severe weather in a camper or tent much smaller than ours in days gone by,
but not always by choice. We stayed at
the club house for about 2 hours of bonus bonding time as we waited out the
storms. Thankfully the storms weakened as they made land fall and all that was
lost was 2 hours of sleep.
As for now our plans
are for us to leave Cedar Key on April 14 on our trek to Yellowstone. Because
of the potential of unpredictable weather this time of year we may leave a day
or two early depending on next week’s weather forecast. We will hopefully be
able to make it to Gardiner in 4 ½ to 5 days but we have some extra time built
in incase we encounter any bad weather. As we begin to prepare for the trip our
focus will change from rest and relaxation to preparation. We will update next week on our route and
departure once we get a better feel for the weather.
Until next time
Allen and Paula
Ramblinruis
No comments:
Post a Comment