Much About Nothing

For the past month, I have been struggling to find a blog topic. I felt like I didn’t have much to write about. For the most part, we are just hanging out here in Florida, enjoying the weather and not doing much of anything. It is a rainy day today, so I thought it was a good time to go through my pictures to find a topic. I realized that I have quite a few pictures and stories that I haven’t yet shared.

Since we spend most of our time at the campground, I will start there. This park is bordered by a cow pasture on one side and undeveloped state land on the other; so while the interior of the park isn’t very scenic with rows of parked RVs, the borders provide peaceful, scenic views, especially as the sun sets over the pasture. We like to walk around the campground in the morning for exercise and then stroll a little more later in the day as the sun is setting. On many afternoons the pasture is filled with cows and calfs grazing which I enjoy watching during walks or afternoon bike rides. I don’t usually take my phone with me so I hadn’t taken pictures of them yet. Yesterday, the sun was dropping lower in the sky and filtering through the trees and shining on the cows. It was such a beautiful and peaceful scene with almost a dreamy quality so I hurried back to get my phone to try to capture that feeling.

I loved the sunlight streaming through the trees and shining on the cows.

This area of Florida has many cattle and horse ranches so we enjoy driving around the countryside. On a drive one day, I found a nice restaurant that had its own beach and marina on one of the lakes. It definitely looked like it would be a fun place to go to enjoy a meal outside with a view. The restaurant was built with three levels with open air decks facing the water and a small beach area with a dock. The lowest level had a stage so I am sure they have bands there on the weekends. It was lunch time when I stopped so I just picked up burgers to take back home for lunch.

The beach and dock area. Doesn’t really look like a lake, does it?

I enjoyed sitting here and watching the birds and listening to the gentle lap of the water as I waited for the burgers.

While we are still avoiding crowds and aren’t going to tourist areas, we have found quieter and less crowded places to visit. Fort Island Gulf Beach is one of those places. It is a great little beach in Crystal River, FL that doesn’t seem to get very crowded. Luckily it is within an hours drive, so when I get that urge to put my toes in the sand, I can easily get there. One day, Tim dropped me off at the beach and he headed out to do some errands and go to Home Depot in Crystal River. While he was gone, I was enjoying watching the sea gulls and pelicans and of course soaking up some sunshine. It was a beautiful day with a bright blue sky until all of the sudden, it wasn’t. One second, I was watching the pelicans diving for fish and the next minute, I couldn’t see them. A strange fog had rolled in and completely obscured the water. I called Tim to see how far away he was; I didn’t want to be caught in a thunderstorm without shelter. He was at least a 30 minute drive away so I was stuck, but luckily it wasn’t a storm. I learned later that it was a sea fog. I had never seen anything like it; very unusual.

Beautiful day at the beach and no crowds.

The sea fog starting to come in; no more blue sky

Big difference in my view within a few seconds. Very weird experience!

A little over a month ago, our youngest daughter, Kim, was in Kissismmee on vacation with a couple friends. They planned a day to see the manatees at Blue Springs State Park. It was about an 1.5 hour drive away from us and Tim wasn’t feeling up to that much traveling in a day, so I went alone to meet them at the park. What a beautiful place and it was filled with over 300 manatees. I love seeing the manatees so was thrilled to see that many. I am so glad they invited me along for the day, We had a great visit at the park and then found a restaurant with an outdoor patio for lunch. It was wonderful to be able to visit with Kim while she was on vacation.

In addition to the manatees, we saw quite a few birds. I think this is a great blue heron.

This is the closest that I have seen an owl in the wild.

Kim capturing a picture of the trees and birds.

Even though Tim and I love the social aspect of this lifestyle, we are still keeping our distance and haven’t made as many RV friends as we normally would. Instead, we keep our social circle small and have been spending time with family. We visit my Aunt Tish and Uncle Paul about once a week, occasionally taking a meal to share with them. Since we visit indoors, we wear masks and distance ourselves. Their home isn’t far from the Withlacoochee State Trail, so sometimes we take a walk there before heading back. I really like the views along the trail in Inverness. I need to take my bike over someday so I can go further and check out more of the trail.

Another entrance to the trail in Inverness.

For visiting others in the area, we try to visit outside. My cousin Janet and her husband Lou live close to us and have visited us here at the campground and we have been over to visit at their home. Tim’s sister Sue and her husband Greg have driven up from Orlando to visit us every week or two. When they visit, we have had girls against the guys competitions at horseshoes, ladder golf, and once we tried shuffleboard. I think it is pretty even but it is possible that the girls have won a few more times:) These visits remind me of the simple times from my childhood and picnics on summer days. One silver lining of this pandemic is going back to those times and realizing we don’t need all the trappings and excitement of modern living. Spending quality time together and finding joy in life’s simple pleasures is truly wonderful.

Tim safely distanced at the other end of the RV during their visit. Do you like the bug zappers? So happy we bought them.

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