FLORIDA CAMPGROUND POTPOURRI--

Our camper is residing on one of the lots in our snow-birding, mobile home park that was previously occupied by a home that was destroyed by a hurricane several years ago.  We enjoy the shady, live oak tree in the backyard festooned with Spanish Moss.  The aging camper, truck and occupants all weathered the 1,200 mile trip from Ohio in grand style.

For those of you aware of Sue's decided lack of enthusiasm for cooking the following photo might come as a bit of a surprise.  It certainly did to me;  although I really enjoyed the spaghetti dinner that is shown under construction.

 

We still do not know if the oven will work.  That it be permanently disabled was one of her conditions before we purchased the camper from our square dance friends Dick and Rose Hatfield--all in good humor, of course.

This segment concludes with a photo of the laundry facilities featuring a nice view of the campground's 2 acre, centrally located pond.  We have been made to feel extremely welcome here, have made warm friendship with two very special couples from upstate New York and quite likely will leave the camper here for a modest storage fee so we do not have to tow it back and forth for our stay here next winter.

Concluding with a confession; domestic chores like the laundry are often a shared exercise in maintaining domestic tranquility; which is occurring quite to the surprise, I am sure, of those folks who were placing bets on how long we would survive life confined to a domicile of about 200 square feet of living space. 

A STUMP FIDDLE AND A WASHTUB BASS—

You’ve never heard “Look at Us” by Vince Gill arranged quite like this. 

Their music is Country, Gospel, Blue Grass, Polkas and a little bit of whatever, tickling the ears of an always delighted audience, every Friday night in Vero Beach—south by God, Florida.

It’s an old time jam session those nights.  We’ve enjoyed as many as 24 musicians thumping and strumming and gently encouraging their instruments like fiddles and juice harps and dobros and dulcimers,

…and a host of guitars and banjos and a keyboard and an accordion and a harmonica or two.

That’s Ken Wichiowski, from Wisconsin and his home-made stump fiddle, right.  His creation sports a ring of cymbals on top with an ooga horn and a couple of percussion gadgets flanking the stringed portion of his instrument composed of a beer serving tray with strings made of screen door springs.

He launches his tunes with gentle thumps from what looks like a short piece of wooden dowel pin.

The semi-official director/conductor of this orchestra is an affable West Virginian; Carl Parsons who was more or less stumped when I asked what the name of the group was.

Turns out someone at one of their performance venues once asked the same thing—and got the same curious look.  “Make up something,” Carl smiled to that inquisitor and he came up with Smokey Mountain Gospel Tunes.

So, that’s what they go by when someone needs to know something as silly as their name.

The group grew out of a tri-state dulcimer organization in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia.  They’ve been playing regularly in the clubhouse at our winter digs in Vero Beach for the past 12 years.

In the top photo 24 musicians sit in an elongated oval and this particular evening played to a full house of more than 50 enthusiasts.  Sometimes there are 12 or 9 or whatever number of musicians and a bit smaller audience.  Who knows!

In the lower photo Ken Anderson from Connecticut coaxes pleasing-to-the-ear tunes from his washboard which fits somewhere on their seating chart between the lead guitar and the percussion section.  Both Al and Ken are now full-time Florida residents.

Carl will launch the show by gently strumming his guitar and announcing this tune will be in the key of “old”.  They don’t worry much about technical stuff.  In fact, most of this orchestra does not even bother to read music.

Then, each player, in turn, will lead into the next song and those tunes will grow smoothly in depth and sweetness to the ear as each instrument comes alive.

Their music flows naturally, from countless years of musical experience…and love for sharing their always-impromptu show.

SOME DELIGHTS FROM SAVANNAH—

From 2000 to 2005 the port of Savannah was the fastest growing seaport in the US.  In July 2007 their port authority announced a record year of business and then being the fourth busiest container terminal in the country.

Its extensive facilities for oceangoing vessels line both sides of the Savannah River near downtown, 18 miles inland from the Atlantic Ocean.

The Garden City Terminal, operated by the port authority, is the largest of its kind on the US Atlantic and Gulf coasts.  It has more than 9,600 feet of continuous docking space and more than 1.3 million square feet of covered storage.*

The ship pictured above was outgoing and the bridge into downtown Savannah from the north is visible in the background.  This ship is fairly small in size by today's standards. 

*Wikipedia; Port of Savannah

Pictured above and below is the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in the historic district of downtown Savannah.

Its congregation was formed in the late 18^th century by French citizens fleeing a revolution in their own country and in Haiti.  Their church became a cathedral in 1850 when a diocese was established there.

A fire in 1879 destroyed much of the structure but it was quickly rebuilt and reopened in 1900.  Another major restoration took place in 2000 and today it is a major place of worship and the seat of the diocese that includes 90 counties in southern Georgia. 

NEIGHBORHOOD BALD EAGLE NEST--

This pair of Bald Eagles can be viewed nesting four lots east of our camper and 100 yards or so to the south in scrub land that extends from our RV park to the inter-coastal waterway.  One of the nesting pair is shown; likely headed to the eagle grocery store while its companion remains alert on the nest’s rim.

Sue and I bicycle-explored a neighborhood on the south side of the nest and made a friendly acquaintance with a homeowner there.  I now have permission to photograph the nest from his back yard and will share other nice pictures that may become available as this nesting season progresses.

STILL CATCHIN' UP--

Here are two more pics in a short series of photos taken while we enjoyed our first beach-side, sunrise of our journey south.  I liked this composition with the palm tree dwarfing the human elements of the photo and the rising sun just peeking over the horizon and claiming center stage--even though it is some 93 million miles from Earth and actually rose about 8 minutes before it became visible to us.

It takes that long for light to travel those 93 million miles at 186,000 miles per second.

That's Bill and Terri and Sue on Tybee Island, GA.

The lower photo was done just a bit later as we were exploring the beach beneath the Tybee Island Pier. 
Note how the color temperature of the sunlight has shifted to the cooler range of the spectrum in that short length of its morning ascension.

I was going to correct the sloped horizon of the sea but did not because I found the competing angularity between the piers and the horizon pleasurable.

A LITTLE CATCHIN' UP--

Son Brian helps hitch the camper the day after Christmas in preparation for our departure to FL on the 27th of December.  Just days before that my laptop computer failed so we headed off on our snow-birding adventure without the main tool necessary to publish the blog.  Hence our absence of stories for most of January.

We left the laptop with our computer doctor's store the morning of our departure.  Later we learned it was dead on arrival, and we placed a long-distance order for its replacement.  That was shipped to us in the latter part of January but it arrived with two serious flaws; 1) it could not operate my card reader which is my tool of choice for downloading photos, and 2) my email program would not play nicely with my email service.

The first flaw stopped blog publication cold and today we are limping along with a patch-work fix until a permanent solution is found.

We like to think the above photo clearly shows the wisdom of our choice to head for warmer weather.  It turns out that was indeed a good choice since the northeast has been pummeled with polar assaults since.

We also like to think the following photo supports our choice to head south:

It was taken a couple days later on Tybee Island Georgia as the sunrise sprinkled warmth across the Atlantic and a passing sea bird seemed to salute our arrival.  We were grateful for both.  That is my lady, Sue Brooks on the right with square dancing friends from Mansfield, Terri Garafolo and Bill Moore who hosted us for several days in their condo located between this marvelous scene and Savannah.

We square danced with them to celebrate the New Year with a Savannah area dance club then continued our journey south New Year's Day; stopping for a lunch visit with daughter TJ and family in Jacksonville, FL and arriving in the Vero Beach area later that evening, where...

...we had the good fortune to bunk with Bellville friends Dick and Jan Shafer for a delightful and much welcomed evening, sparing us the burden of setting up the camper in the dark while fairly exhausted from a 1,200 mile trip.

The camper has behaved nicely--except: the potty needed replaced, the GFI electric outlet in the bathroom failed and our little ceramic heater required a quick replacement before last night's somewhat chilly 40 degree temperature.

Regardless, the weather has been comparably terrific and we have been warmly received in this owner occupied, aging mobile home park with RV facilities and have been blessed with marvelous new friendships that have put a delightful polish on this, our first-ever, snow-birding experience.

Please stay tuned.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR--
The belated variety

"Hi" from the land of sunshine, palm trees, and warm (mostly) sub-tropical breezes.  Just before we headed south my laptop computer failed.  Consequently, I ended up in Florida without a convenient means to process photos or publish to the blog.

I am working via email with my friends at KOSI in Mansfield to assemble a replacement PC and ship it to me.  When that arrives and I manage to wrap my aging brain around its boatload of new software I hope to get back into the blogging business.

Consequently, I am bouncing between a public PC and Sue's laptop.

We pulled our 28' 5th wheel style camper down here and will be staying in it in the Vero Beach area.  On the way down we spent several days with Johnny Appleseed square dancing friends Terri Garafolo and Bill Moore at their digs in Savannah, GA where we really enjoyed visiting that city's marvelous, historic sights--and, we square danced into the new year with them.  Ahhhh.

Our second visit along the way was with daughter TJ and family in Jacksonville.  Ahhhh.

On our first night here we stayed with Bellville friends Dick and Jan Shafer who winter here as well.  After a 1,200 mile trip that was a blessing and allowed us to set up the camper after a good night's rest.  Ahhhh.

Now we are established in a 55+ owner occupied mobile home park with spaces available for transient RVs such as ours.  We have been immersed in the park's activities and made to feel very much welcome.

This morning we were part of the crew undoing Christmas decorations in the clubhouse.  As I was lying on the floor wrestling with the Christmas tree holder, new friends were rattling my cage about their getting even for my winning the major pot (a bag of pennies) in the weekly card game a couple of nights previously.

I felt awful about those winnings then came back a night or so later and won $5 in a bingo game.

It may be awhile before I untangle myself from this new reputation.

Please stay tuned....