....And Then The Rains Came

The rain as seen from our window.

Friday morning started out sunny, but by noon the rains came.  It rained hard and it lasted into the evening.  Our satellite was knocked out.  Mama didn't get nervous until the weather radio started going off saying there was flash flooding.  We went outside when there was a break in the rain and we noticed part of the campground was flooding.  Mama, of course, got nervous.  Our area was fine, but the entrance was flooded.  The field turned into a lake.  The ditch along the side flooded.  The people near us had a lot of standing water under their motor home.  We ended up with over six inches of rain here.  Dad worked in Miami on Friday and they ended up with 13.94"total.  Mama called him and told him to avoid the side streets and Hwy 1 because those areas were flooded.  He called and said he was going 2-3 mph, so he decided to get off the highway and onto the side streets.  Mama was not happy with him. Later, she called him and he said he was getting on Hwy 1, she was really upset with him at that point.   He ended up getting on I-95.  It took him 3.5 hours to get home.  He got home about 8:45 p.m.

Two cats hid under our motor home during the rains.  Do you think that drove me crazy?  Yes, it did!  I checked on them every time we went outside.

Scout sleeps well on rainy days.

Yesterday, the folks set out to find the Super Target.  It wasn't there.  GPS said "you have arrived", but there was no Target.  Mama decided they would just shop at Publix which is a grocery store.  The one nearest to us is old and small, but they decided to try it next week.  After they got back home, Mama looked at the Target website and found another location that was only five miles away.  They went there on their way to dinner and found it!  The street it is on has several restaurants and even a Walmart.  They decided to try the Super Target next week since the lines seem to be shorter there than Walmart.  Mama changed her Emeals to Super Target.  She has been using her Walmart plan at Target, but decided to just switch to Target and see what the menus look like.

There is a lot of road construction around here and that causes our GPS to get confused.  Mama and Dad have ended up on the toll road by accident four times.  They are basically just circling around.  The GPS is a source of a lot of arguments.  Dad thinks he knows more than her (GPS) and Mama defends her.

Our mail didn't arrive on Friday.  Well, it arrived after the office closed, so it couldn't be delivered.  They tried to deliver it yesterday, but the office was closed.  Mama rescheduled it for a Monday delivery.  We hope it makes it.

We are back to four of us living in this section of the park. We had five yesterday, but one couple left.  A camper is supposed to arrive sometime this weekend according to an envelop taped to the office window but they haven't made it yet.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is On Cat Patrol At All Times

The Sun Is Out!

This is the first day that we have seen the sun since we arrived.  We are anxious to see when the sun hits our windshield because even with our shades, it heats up some.  It seems like wherever we go, we end up with the late afternoon sun in the windshield.  We know we will not have that here because of where the sun is now.  It will be interesting to see how the motor home heats up today.  We are not totally thrilled with our air conditioning in this rig.  We are trying different things to try and keep it cooler.  The good thing here is that our electric is included in our rent, so we can run it as much as we need to without worrying about the cost.  Dad doesn't worry, but Mama does.

The storms yesterday were not bad here.  There were a few times that the wind blew hard, but we have been through that before.  That doesn't mean that Mama wasn't a little nervous.  She HATES storms and hates them more now that we are in a motor home.

We sat outside this morning.  It is quite breezy, but that just helps it feel cooler.

I'm a happy guy

Scout is just being Scout.  Mama calls here Eeyore.

 

This is our view.

What is that?

It's a CAT!

No one lives in this rig.  Do you see the Tiki Hut?  There is a blue tarp under it.

The red in the tree is our hummingbird feeder.

I see another CAT!

See him?

We do not have cable here.  We are using our satellite.  We kind of like that better because we have HBO, but if cable is available we use it because it is free.  We use Dish Network because they have a month to month program for RVers.  We just call them when we need it turned on.  We could tell yesterday when the heavy rain was approaching us because the satellite would go out before the rain arrived.

This is our satellite.  Isn't it cute?

We should be getting our mail today.  We haven't received any for a month.  Mama likes that we can have mail sent to us here.  She ordered bully sticks yesterday and her prescriptions yesterday, so all that should be here next week.  We should be set for a while.

Some of the reviews of this place said the office staff were rude.  We have not encountered that yet. We have encounter much worse at other campgrounds.  They answer the phone in French, but speak English also.  I guess we will see how they treat Mama when she picks up the mail today.  BOL!  She said even if they are rude, it is not a big deal because she has very limited contact with them.

Two people moved out yesterday and one pulled in, so there are four of us total in this area.  It just looks like the place is full because so many trailers are here all the time.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is Happy To Sit Outside Again

Tropical Storm Andrea

When we found out we were coming to this area, Mama said "Oh, no, it will be hurricane season!"  Everyone assured her that hurricanes don't really come this early.  We are here for three days and we have a tropical storm!  LOL  Actually, the tropical storm is on the other gulf side, so we will not get the worst of it.  We are just getting some of the rain.  It hasn't been too bad yet.  It rained heavy for about five minutes and then it just showered.  It has stopped for now, but there will be more later.  There was a tornado warning issued for our county, but not our area.  Mama said we will go to the shower house if a tornado is in our area.  Dogs are not allowed in there, but since no one else is around, we will hide in there during a tornado.  She will not leave us behind.

We met a man yesterday while walking.  It is so strange to see another human walking around here since almost every home is boarded up for the summer. He said he lives here year round and has been here for 20 years.  He said there are English speaking people on both sides of him and that is it.  He confirmed with us that it gets wild here during the winter.  He enjoys the summers because it is so quiet.

The folks did their grocery shopping yesterday.  Mama said this place reminds her of Houston because she is having a hard time finding a place to shop.  Miss Becky, who she met in Houston, told her the best places to shop in Houston, but we have no one to tell us here.  She and Dad waited in the check out line for 30 minutes yesterday and that was on a Wednesday morning.  There were two people in front of them.  The checkers moved slow in the store yesterday.  She said she can't imagine going there on a Friday night.  She is going to check out the Super Target this weekend.  It is located about five miles from here.  She has found that Super Targets normally do not have long lines.  She prefers Walmart, but she can't handle waiting in line for that long.

Whenever we arrive in a new location, we have to learn the safe areas.  We haven't really felt unsafe here.  Mama gets nervous when she sees bars on windows and we stay out of those areas.  LOL   The places we felt the best were Arlington and Cleveland.  We immediately found good shopping areas and good restaurants.  We are still searching for that here.  We are in an industrial area here so there is nothing within walking distance.

Two motor homes left yesterday and two moved in.  One of the motor homes had a Great Dane.  We didn't get to met him though.  They are already gone.  There is one guy who lives near us and it looks like he will be here a while and that is about it for our neighbors.

I really miss the squirrels.  I am very interested in the cats.  There are so many cats!  However, I prefer squirrels.  I have a feeling that this place is going to be boring since there are not any people or squirrels.  I will have to focus on the cats.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Misses His Yard In Texas

Wordless Wednesday 6/5/13

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Knows How To Relax In Florida

Sunshine State?

We watched the weather forecast for weeks before we came here and it showed nothing but rain.  It continues to show nothing but rain in the forecast.  Isn't Florida the Sunshine State?  Actually, it has not rained that much on us, but it is cloudy.  We have enjoyed taking walks when it is lightly raining.  Tonight, our walk was very pleasant since it is cool out.

Mama took a lot of photos, but since it is cloudy, they are are not very pretty.  Dad said it is a little eerie being here when no one else is here.  We can only imagine how alive the place is when all the people come in October and stay the winter.

A look down the street into the vacant "village".

This is our yard.  We have a palm tree.

Our home.  The site next to us is vacant and may be our entire stay since it is blocked off.  The people who own it, may not allow it to be rented out.

Cacti tree?

Flowers in a yard.

Cool driveway.

Nice sitting area.  It is a in French, so not sure what it says.

Another pretty yard.

A lot of blooms on this one.  We hope it blooms while we are here.

Many of the homes have their windows covered like this one does.

This is a pretty home.

Today, when we were throwing our trash in the dumpster, a cat came flying out.  It scared us.  BOL!

Mama is getting so clumsy.  She got tangled in our leashes and landed on the grass.  Dad was outside and he didn't even notice.  She landed on her butt and was glad no one saw her.  She didn't get hurt because she landed on the grass.

The folks drove around today to find Dad's work places.  They have not seen a lot of restaurants.  Mama said "This is definitely not Texas."  She loves the food in Texas.  Tomorrow, they will go grocery shopping and Dad will get his haircut.  Thursday, Dad goes to work. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Thinks Florida Is Okay So Far

We Are Here!

We made it to our new destination.  We are near Fort Lauderdale.  Dad is going to work at two hotels this time.  One is in Fort Lauderdale and the other is in Miami.

Our trip went well.  We had three people try to cut us off all within a few minutes of each other, so that was a little scary.  Dad slammed on the brakes once and the laptop went flying.  It was closed and it didn't get hurt.  Mama's soda ended up all over though.  That sudden stop caused all our pantry items to knock against the cabinet door and we didn't notice it until we started bringing the slide out.  The salad dressing got caught in the slide and squirted out.  The can of baking spray started spraying.  It took Dad a while to get those out from the slide because they fell to the floor and got stuck.  That incident caused our cabinet to be damaged by the slide, so Dad will have to fix it.  The hinge is messed up and now the cabinet will not shut.  It happened to the previous owner because we noticed just the other day that the door had been repaired.  Dad found a small football that belonged to the previous owners when he pulled out our salad dressing.  BOL

Our park seems to be nice.  We had a heck of a time finding a place that had good reviews and that would take dogs over 20 pounds.  Most of the reviews were bad because the surrounding areas were not safe.  We finally decided on this place and then Mama met a woman at the park in Arlington and they started talking about this area and she told Mama about this place.  Mama told her we already made reservations here and the lady said we would not regret it. She said she had stayed here several times and it is the best place around.  Mama felt much better after that.  In the winter time, this park is full of French Canadians.  Most of the signs here are in French.  The park looks like it is full, but in fact, most of the homes are boarded up for the summer. They belong to the French Canadians.  It is a little strange walking through a place that is full of homes, but they are vacant.  We have seen maybe five people, two dogs and a heck of a lot of cats.  One front porch is full of kittens.  There are people living there with the cats. 

We will take photos of the park tomorrow.  Mama was too tired tonight.  We walked all around the park.  There are 40 acres and I guess since no one else is really here, we can walk wherever we want. 

It is nice to be parked for a while again.  Three days of driving is exhausting!  I don't think we could do four days in a row.

Oh, almost forgot to mention that Mama's hand is fine.  It is not even red.  The burns on her arm hurt less and they left scars. 

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Is In Florida For An Unknown Amount Of Time

Two Days Down, One To Go!

We found the dog run area last night.  It was really nice and big.  Scout and I took a run in it this morning.  We did two laps.  The photos are from last night.

There is a swan that lives at the campground and she has a nest of eggs that she is trying to hatch.  The sign told us to leave her alone.

Mama checked the radar as we are heading out this morning and she said "I think we are going to hit rain."  Dad said "Open your eyes and look."  Yep, the rain was headed right at us.

It rained for a while.  We stopped at a rest area in the rain because we thought Scout needed to go, but she didn't.  Oh, she walked and walked and walked.  It turns out that Scout loves walking in the rain.  I don't mind it either.  Nope, no raincoats for us.  We like getting wet.

It rained in Mississippi.

It was sunny when we hit Alabama.

And, of course, it was sunny when we hit the "Sunshine State".

We stopped at a rest area in Alabama and we were swarmed with kids.  They loved us.  One kid said I was his favorite.  Scout usually is the favorite.  I like kids because they are my height.  One girl said we were the same age.  She thought that was cool.

We lost an hour today since we are now in the Eastern Time Zone. 

We wanted to stay at a park that has three fenced dog areas, but they wouldn't answer their phone, so we had to choose another place.  This place is okay, but definitely not a place we would want to stay more than a night. The sites are very close together.  They do not allow you to use your own washer/dryer.  It probably has something to do with their septic system.  They do have cable TV, so that is nice.  The place last night did not.

Mama ordered Pizza Hut tonight.  She was happy about that.  Tomorrow night, she will probably fix dinner when we arrive at our new "home".

Any guesses on where we are headed?  We are in Tallahassee, FL tonight.

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Slept Most Of The Day, But Is Still Tired