Dive In

What better way to spend a cold winter day in New York than splashing about in the ocean in Florida! Yay! :)

general on-the-road complaints

ah, florida, with your partly cloudy/partly sunny demeanor, your barrier beaches with "no parking" signs left and right, migratory senior citizens, paragliders, and funny looking aquatic birds, how doth we count the frustrations?

1. public restrooms with automatic flushers/sinks/etc
okay, i understand the trend toward a less germy bathroom experience. in fact, usually, i appreciate it. yay, i don't have to touch a faucet that's been touched by countless people before me! yay, i don't have to grasp the flusher/level/button that may or may not contain someone else's poo! but sometimes, these facilities just end up doing more harm than good, i.e. when the automatic flusher operates on a *timer*, and while i sit there doing my business, the damn think flushes four times, thereby disrupting my momentum AND sending down the drain gallons more water than necessary! then there are the sinks, whose sensor apparently likes you to have superlong arms, for even as i stood several feet from the actual faucet, the water gushed out with more pressure than i had in my last shower. now, as my current lifestyle demands a finite water supply, i've learned since being on the road how much water is adequate at any given time, and how much is just a waste. all in all, systems such as these restrooms i've encountered are nothing if not infuriating.

2. florida state park fees
here it is, the middle of february. andy and i have been on the road for over two and a half months and clocked in well over 5,000 miles on our darling flippermobile. we've grown accustomed to pulling into state parks, stopping at the entrance booth, and inquiring about dump stations and water hookups only, no campsite necessary. and we've also become quite fond of the friendly employee saying "oh sure, here's a map, drive right in!" or giving just $1 to use said facilities and then be on our merry way. however, in this portion of our trip, in the home stretch, the southernmost, tourist-infested, anomaly of a state that we now find ourselves in has exorbitant fees for each person, for merely entering the park, plus filling up the water tank, showering, plus using the dump station...yikes, said we. so, the random townsperson's garden hose has come in handy from time to time-- no, no, don't worry, just kidding there.
nay, this has merely caused us to be more frugal with letting water from things such as tooth brushing and dish washing go down the drain, plus using public restrooms (meh. see aforementioned gripe) whenever possible rather than our own funny lil toilet.

3. there's steam coming from the engine!
hey, who here has a car that's ever overheated? isn't it such a fun time...? ah, no. it's especially not fun remembering your AAA gold membership card, calling up, and being informed that rv coverage is not included, then having the tow service call you and say it'll be $200 plus $5 per mile towed...ha! who can afford that?? a "we'll call you back", fitful night of sleep, driving a mile or two at a time, letting the engine cool for three quarters of an hour, and a trip to advance auto parts later for a new fan belt, and we're good to go. yay for a garage open on a sunday and them being out of fan belts so they had to use ours! yay for the battery now being charged properly and no more embarrassing squeal coming from the engine! yay for saving a couple hundred dollars!
so this last one started out as a gripe but turned into a yay. we should have more of those :)

also, yay for marinas that have free wifi.

Atlantis launch

We're happy to report that the Shuttle made it all the way up!

Sunny Delights :)

No making you wait another month for another drowsy four-page post, faithful ones. Thought I'd make this one shorter-- Florida hasn't been bad to us at all since we've been here. We've had peaceful nights, in that we haven't been asked to leave anywhere in quite awhile. Yay! But we have had some loud firecrackers, and some crazy mysterious creature lurking outside the Dolphin in the pre-dawn hours, only to discover that our noisemaker was actually only a twig brushing against the window. Oh, disappointments.

Ocala National Forest, in central Florida, afforded us some nice, mostly private nights parked at public piers and boat launches, where we thought to ourselves, gee, haven't we been sedentary lately. So we started throwing the frisbee around more and doing assorted strength training, wheee. The brochure for the forest warned us of the possibility of black bear, manatee and bobcat, but I'm sorry to report that the most unusual wildlife we've been encountering lately has been the assortment of birds, which can be quite entertaining.

The two of New Smyrna Beach was next, our first ocean stop since South Carolina in early December. Hello again, Atlantic! The water's still quite chilly, but some splashing around barefoot was still in order. Andy and I were the youngest ones on the beach here, walking amidst one gray-haired couple after another, and trying to dodge the cars that are permitted to drive on the sand. Cars on the beach! What's the world coming to? Complete with a speed limit and traffic lanes...who wants to have their beach become a roadway? Plus, this means no parking lots to hide away in, except for the large "Unregulated, park at your own risk" lot with the blaring radio from the nearby barbecue restaurant. At least it was free.

Culinary specialties by yours truly have lately included such things as Mexican stew (hey, leftovers cooked with rice and cheese can be yummy!), baked ziti (baked cheese with some pasta thrown in is more like it :), and the old favorite, eggplant parmesan. Of course, now that we're in the final stretch, much more budgeting will be under way and it'll be back to plain old rice and beans and the like.

The Daytona Beach area is where we are presently, being hosted by Jim, of the 2007 Omega Cafe, his very nice friend Judy, and her dog, Dexter. Jim thought he'd take us our for drinks by the shore the other night, only to be bombarded by a Daytona-style Mardi Gras parade down Main Street, complete with the tiniest taste of what Bike Week is like down here. We're so grateful for your generosity and wonderful tour-guide manner, Jim, and certainly glad to act as drinking buddies for a couple nights :) Also of note in the area was a huge flea/farmer's market, and of course the Daytona International Speedway. We could hear the cars racing around the track while sitting here in the backyard, but of course when were just on the other side of the stands, nothing was going on.

We're hoping to view the upcoming shuttle launch from the nearby town of Titusville, and visit with some more Omegans as we make our way down Florida. And of course, yay sun!