Mon. Jan. 25-Sat. Jan.
30: It was an easy-take
down in the morning and we got on the road around 10:00 without spending any
time at Paynes Prairie on the trails or Visitor Center, which is unlike us and
a little sad, but we really wanted to get to Highlands Hammock. We made good
time until we cut over to old US27, where we passed through many small towns
and traffic lights strung together like what Marv called one long strip mall. In
frustration we stopped to share a Subway sandwich and then there was a long
stretch that wasn’t so developed so we arrived at our campsite and were set up
enough that I set the microwave clock at 3:00. There is no internet or phone
access in the campground so once we were fully set up we headed back into
Sebring to do some grocery shopping and let people know we were safely at our
destination. Kris and Heidi weren’t answering their phone so we left a message
explaining where we were and that they wouldn’t be able to reach us. But later Marv
ran into Kris at the campground and found they were down about 4 campsites on
the road across from our site so they are nearby. Kris was very frustrated by
several problems with their trailer so we told them to get done what they could
and we would make dinner (ground beef stroganoff) for all of us. We also
managed to take a short bike ride just to get our “bike bottoms” back. And thus
began a nice pattern for our days together of some time alone and some time
doing things together. Tuesday Marv
helped Kris figure out their water under the sink problem (the water heater had
cracked [maybe just the pipes connected to the water heater] because water was
left in it when they winterized last fall), the furnace problem (the water
heater had dripped into the furnace, but once they got it dried out, the
furnace worked), and the refrigerator problem (it spontaneously started to work
again). Kris was in a much better mood and decided maybe they wouldn’t move
into a motel and sell the camper after all J. They did some shopping and invited
us for pork stir fry for dinner. Then we played dominoes. After a pretty nice
day with the temps in the low seventies, it clouded up and started raining, sometimes
heavily, but never storming, about midnight.
It rained steadily then let up for a few hours Wednesday morning and began again and continued off and on (mostly
on) right through until Thursday evening. We puttered around in the morning and
then when the rain increased and persisted the four of us climbed in our truck.
We made some short stops and then drove to the South Florida State College,
Avon Park campus, and explored their small Art and Culture Museum (which Marv
and I had seen on a previous trip) before having a very late lunch at the
Olympic restaurant. Kris was getting a
cold and they decided to pass on the potluck dinner that evening but Marv and I
drove over in the rain to the Rec Hall, taking the cornbread Marv made. We
decided to sit with our next-door neighbors camping in a Scamp to get to know
them better. He turned out to be a far rightwing conservative with a strong
opinion about everything that he was happy to share in a very loud
voice. Marv sort of enjoyed the political discussion but I thought the guy was
a tiresome blowhard and preferred to talk to others, finally moving to the
other long table in order to hear as people introduced themselves and told
where they lived. Afterwards we went to Kris and Heidi’s again to play games. The
rain was getting pretty relentless by Thursday.
The two of us went for Coffee, Biscuits and Jam at the Rec Hall ($2 a person
fundraiser for the park) then Marv drove down to the gate where he could get a
signal and called his Uncle Max in Lake Wales and invited them to have an early
birthday lunch with us. He and Aunt Donna were free so we spent much of the day
driving up there for a good visit. In the meantime Kris and Heidi spent the day
farther away visiting her uncle. My bronchitis that had started before
Christmas was no better and I was getting desperate. Through a series of
messages with Dr. Johnson, she prescribed six days of steroids to try and knock
back the inflammation in my lungs. We could get them at the CVS in Avon Park so
we went to the library there for an internet connection and got some
communications taken care of until it was ready. Back at the campground Heidi
and Kris were still gone so Marv and I went to the Spaghetti Supper ($4 a
person fundraiser for the park) in the Rec Hall. We got together later for
games.
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