New Day-New Trip  June 2017

Our good friends in Missouri are celebrating their 60th anniversary this month.  We were invited to join them, family and friends at a luncheon in Hermann, MO.  We hooked up the camper and headed out yesterday.   

After months of severe drought in Florida, we now have a monsoon descending upon us.  We left home in a downpour.  Our trip was starting out like the one we took last summer.  It rained for most of our time away.  I hope this isn't a sign of another wet summer of travel.

We have plenty of time to reach our destination.  We will only dive a few hours a day.  It is easier on us and our three bichons.  Our first stop was in Perry, Fl.  We stayed at the KOA there.  It was the only place in town other than a real run down place outside of town.  The campground had a dog run so the kids loved stretching their legs.  Buster even found a squirrel to chase and bark at.  He must have felt at home.  He and the squirrel that lives in our neighborhood have an ongoing game of tag.  The squirrel always wins of course.

My pups are seasoned campers and kayakers.

We had some sunshine before bedtime but it rained very hard all night.  It kept me awake.  A pitter patter on the roof is pleasant to fall asleep to but a downpour sounds like you are under a waterfall.

Today we set out for Florida Caverns SP.  It is located near Jefferson, Fl in the panhandle.  It is a beautiful area with rolling hills covered with spruce pine, white ash and southern magnolia.  The park is set in dense woods.  The feature popular here is the cavern.

The cavern has the usual features you find in caverns.  My theory is if you have seen one you have seen them all.  This cavern is small compared to others.  The tour takes you on an approximate 3/4 mile hike through the cavern.  In places it is only 4 feet high and 2 feet wide.  We discovered after arriving here that the tours are only run Thursday through Monday.  So we missed it being it is Wednesday.  Neither of us care much however.  Like I said if you have seen one you have seen them all.

Park Brochure
(this is as close as we got to it)

Just south of here is Falling Waters SP.  We stayed there on our first camping trip.  It hosts Florida's highest waterfall over a hundred feet.  We couldn't believe there could be a waterfall that high in Florida as there ins't a hill that high for it to fall from.  The waterfall turns out to be somewhat like the cavern.  It does indeed fall over a hundred feet.  A small brook falls into a sink hole that is said to be over  one hundred feet deep.  Hardly a comparison to all the waterfalls in the Northern Cascades in Washington.

Lick Country Store
(Darlie bought fried chicken at this place)
She likes to live dangerously

Lately I have been having problems misplacing things.  I misplace something almost everyday.  

We forgot to move the car into the garage when we left home so we called our son to do it for us.

He said the key wasn't on the hook.  I blamed Darlie for not putting it back where it belongs when she used the car.  Besides, she said I was the last one to drive it.  She told Pete to look in the jacket pocket  of my black suit.  Sure enough it was there.  How does she know these things?  Yesterday, I went out for a walk with my favorite hat on.  Somewhere along the line it disappeared.  I looked everywhere, nothing.  I figured I set it down somewhere in the KOA.   Someone who like it as much as I did must have come along and took it.

This morning I was thinking of asking at the office if anyone turned it in.  While packing things up this morning I opened a compartment door on the trailer and there it was!  It must have legs.  How did it get there?  I'm tired of all these things playing games with me.  It's not nice to mess with an old man.  But I have to say, everyday is like Christmas.  I never know what I am going to find.