On Sunday morning we had a “Ron and Tom” breakfast of bacon and eggs and decided to visit the celery fields, a wetlands restored by Florida Audubon. They have really made a difference in protecting the birds and animals of this state. Our target bird was the Limpkin and we saw a couple from the boardwalk, opening what looked like fresh water clams with their beaks and eating the contents. Also added a purple gallinule to the state list. Not to be overlooked, a red shouldered hawk fly by at low altitude. Tom and Anne were impressed.
After a casual lunch, we said goodbye and headed to Oscar Scherer SP where we actually had a reservation. Not easy to come by in the winter season. We met people who routinely book this camp eleven months in advance, stay for 14 days (the max) leave for a day and return for another two weeks. At dusk we joined a small audience to listen to the campground musicians, a couple of professional folk singer/guitarists who stay at this campgrounds every year and provide mini-concerts twice a week. As they were finishing their last set, they were joined by fellow guitarist/singer/songwriter Greg who tours with the New Chrystie Minstrels. He was great but tired from having just come from a performance of his own and gave us two songs before packing it in.
The next morning we left Oscar Scherer and drove pretty much non-stop back to Blue Springs thinking we were going to get the radio in Daytona on Tuesday. This didn’t end well. Seems like the radio that was supposed to be coming from California was never actually found in inventory and so couldn’t possibly be sent. Ram will make a new search for a radio but we give up. We had a heated conversation with Colonial RV until David (the general manager) offered to intercede and take responsibility for shipping the radio whenever it shows up to another dealer wherever we happen to be at the time. I think I’m just going to go to Best Buy and get a portable XM receiver to plop on the dashboard and have them deal with it when the van gets back to New York. At least we have Jeff’s GPS to get us where we are going. Meanwhile, we were hoping to get some good pictures of the manatees in the morning now that the camera is up and running. No luck. Only a week ago they counted 134 in the spring, but there were none left. Apparently the water in the river has warmed enough for them to move on.
Tuesday was pretty much a wash. We had a nice lunch in DeLand then drove into Daytona to get my eyes checked at Lencrafters and headed to Ocala for another night in the forest. On the way we stopped in Publix for some stuff and met a couple from Toronto living in their 1990 VW camper – a Westphalia with a pop up roof just like the one we rented in Switzerland 40 plus years ago. They had been on the road pretty much full time for the past four years, just them and their shitzu. And we thought we were tight!
The Ultimate Road Trip 