And ... oh my god! It has a slide! I didn't think they made them with slides!? I'm so envious.
This is only the 3d time in our travels that we've seen another Safari Class C. I wonder if they love theirs as much as we love ours?
The other two times were April 2005 in Pahrump, NV.
And, March 2006 in Laughlin, NV.
You can always see this map of where we are by clicking on the link in the right column that says, "Map of where we are now". That takes you to the DatastormUsers.com map which I update whenever we move (unless I forget). Scroll down to the bottom to where you see our names and you should notice a place where you can control the 'zoom'. Click on the + all the way to the right to zoom in to the closest view, then click on the button at the top for "Google Hybrid" to see the satellite imagery. Pretty cool.
Yesterday was my perfect day. We got up and took Odie for a walk on the nature trail along the river and thru the woods. Came back to our motorhome parked on the banks of the river with no one else around. We had coffee and breakfast and worked at our computers for a few hours. Then, Debbie, the manager here drove us and our kayaks up the road a ways to a boat launch. We paddled/floated down river for a couple hours seeing alligators, turtles, great blue herons and ospreys and other hawks.
hmmm ... doncha wonder why they call it the "Peace" river? The only person we saw was a fish and wildlife officer in an airboat - he was gone in a flash.
After an hour or two of this meditative paddle, we rounded a bend and saw ...
Home!
Then we took a drive to the only local tourist attraction ... Solomons Castle. Unfortunately it was closed for the summer - but it was a nice drive anyway.
We came home, put in a few more hours on the computer, had dinner, and topped it all off with a soak in the hot tub.
On second thought ... don't pinch me. I don't want to wake up!
While we were checking in, we noticed that they were using Digital Rez' reservation software, and Jim mentioned that he'd been working on that for the past couple months in Paradise Island. He was offered a job on the spot! hmmmm, not interested ... yet. The Peace River is one of my favorite spots in Florida - we've done a lot of canoe trips, 2 and 3 day, here. I could think of a lot worse fates than spending the winter season here.
This is a nice place and it's completely deserted. It's no wonder in the 100+ degree heat. This is the first time we've had to depend on our satellite dish in a while. We really got spoiled with the fast Coach Connect Wi-Fi at Paradise, but our dish locked on within 10 minutes and is working like a champ. It's a good thing, because I promised to have a web page done no later than this morning. I worked till late last night in hopes to get it done so we can do a little paddle this morning. Here's our backyard:
And, with nobody here - we could let Odie run free, especially back on the nature trail.
but ...
wait
maybe not ...
Well, we had a nice walk anyway, but we definitely kept him on a leash. It would be just like him to hear a rustling in the bushes and go stick his nose in - I sure wouldn't want him to find a poisonous snake that way. It's a pretty nature trail.
Ok, gotta get back to work on that web page.
Later
Go away Chris!
OK
Our first stop is Marie's house in Jupiter, FL - just over an hour away! That's how I like to travel! Get on the road, but don't go far.
Marie is the friend we introduced to kayak diving a couple weeks ago. She has a very interesting job devoted to urban planning for sustainable communities. She works for the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions and specifically the Abacoa project which is a planned community in Jupiter. It's so nice to see someone actually *doing* something to further the goals of the environment unlike me who just talks about it! And she's so practical ... she knows that the missing ingredient in reaching that goal is political will, so she founded an institute devoted to inspiring politicians - Public Officials Design Institute. Go Marie!
I've known her since the early 80s, and even though we've gone for years without seeing each other or talking, somehow we've kept in touch (isn't email wonderful!). It's never a dull moment with Marie. She suggested we take a picnic to the beach which is only 10 minutes from her house.
This was our first driveway stay where we slept in the house instead of the motorhome. We almost didn't come at all because we thought about how hot it is and the fact that we can't run our air conditioning unless we're plugged into 30amp power. A household outlet won't do. Marie said, "I just had a special electrical post installed to use a generator during power outages, let me call my electrician and see." Sure enough, it's a 30amp outlet - so we said great! We'll be there. Unfortunately, the outlet is different than our plug, so we took her up on her offer to sleep in the guest room. Everything works out.
Actually, that's Jim's computer that we brought because we wanted to see if there really was a 'Free Wi-Fi that covers downtown Fort Lauderdale'. Although we could see 32 wireless networks and a couple of them had names like FtLaudFree, none of them were good enough to actually allow browsing. Diane and Andy are no dummies, they have DSL for their computers!
And here's the view from their bedroom balcony. When did Fort Lauderdale get so sophisticated?
And, take a look at the rooftop pool!
Diane and Andy, thank you so much for hosting us last night. It's good to have friends in high places! But, we mostly look forward to seeing you on the road again in your 'real' home.
Here's the gang ... left to right: Glenn, Mom (Marilyn), Andy, Geri, Dick, Diane, Jim - and me on the other side of the camera!
