Horse Capital of the World

Ocala/Marion County Florida earned that title due to the fact that they have the largest number of horses and ponies than any other county in the United States; more than 35,000 Thoroughbreds alone!

So Barb scoured the internet looking for the perfect horse related event that we could go to while in the area. She found it in the Grandview Invitational; a draft horse hitch show where horses weighing up to 2,000 pounds are judged pulling wagons. So along with Dan and Jeanie we headed over to Ocala for the event!

Each team is judged on their physical condition, conformation and movement as a team; ideally with each step in unison with the other horses on the team. 

Belgians, Percherons and Clydesdales each compete in 3, 4 and 8 horse classes. 

Barb and I have been to a lot of horse shows in our days and this one ranked right near the top for talent and beauty. 

The nightmare that is our stay at this park continues with constant loud parties late into the night. We are not opposed to any of these things but this place takes it to a new level! Parents....don't bring your kids here unless you want them to learn new words as every other word spoken around the campfire is the F-Bomb. We were wondering why the owner and manager were not doing anything about the late night parties until last night when a class C with a toad came the wrong way down our dead end lane last night about 10:00pm and stopped about 10' from our bedroom window. Both the owner and manager came up to the newly arrivals tripping over themselves and in slurred speech introduced themselves and tried explain to them where they needed to park. In fact the first words out of the managers mouth were "Excuse my beer and cigarette"...…. Our time here cannot end quick enough!

Despite all this we are not letting it stop us from getting out and enjoying our time here. We have taken many a walk with the dogs. Daisy's favorite walk is to the park down the road where she gets to play on the equipment. 

We have also been out fishing a few more times both alone and with Dan and Jeanie but the cooler weather has really shut them down.  We also got together a couple more times with Mike and Liz. The beautiful thing about hanging out with locals is that you get to find out all the great bars and restaurants. Together we have hit The Loft, Kelly's Half Shell (get the fish and chips!) and Burkes of Ireland. We were joined by Mike's brother John and his wife who own several shrimp boats in the area. All four are great people and it was interesting hearing the ins and outs of the commercial shrimp fishery.

Saturday was a momentous occasion as we finally met a couple that we have been trying to meet up with for a couple of years. We almost met last year in Arizona but an illness prevented that meeting but 360+ days and 1,940 miles away we finally did meet fellow bloggers and fulltime RV legends Steve and Mona Liza.

Steve and Mona Liza were on their way north from Naples and were staying in the Crystal River area for a couple of days. We met at The Freezer, and over some great food and a couple of beers, compared stories and got to know each other better. It was a long time coming but worth the wait. From there we all headed over to Shelly's Seafood Market that came highly recommended as one of the best places to get fresh seafood in the area.  We treated ourselves to a nice Yellowfin Tuna steak while Mona Liza and Steve got a variety of tuna, grouper and tilapia. Fresh seafood acquired it was time to say our goodbyes and head in separate directions. We hope to meet up with them sometime in the future and share a hiking trail or perhaps enjoy a beverage at a brewery!

With less than a week left here in the area we have something planned almost everyday including a visit from Farmer Bob and DeAnne from the frozen tundra of North Dakota!!!!!

What Do You Do With Your Pictures?

The cool and rainy weather afforded us time to perform a long procrastinated task; organizing our photographs. When we were preparing for our life on the road we vowed to get rid of as much as possible. We did not know how long we were going to be on the road and did not want to pay monthly storage fees for years, maybe even decades.

The furniture was the easiest to get rid of as we did not have any family heirlooms other than a grandfather clock which is on loan at our son’s house and a gun safe at my brothers. The old personal pictures or mementoes from ours or our parents’ childhoods were the hardest. Some, like high school albums we got rid of altogether while others we passed on to our children to do with them what they wished. After all, they were going to get them at some point anyway. 

One of the hardest things to decide what to do with was the old photographs. They were too numerous and bulky to take on the road and we did not want to burden our children with storing them. So instead, we scanned them; all the photographs of our immediate family growing up as well as those passed on to us from our parents and other relatives. 

Barb's 4th Grade Class Picture circa 1968

A closer look shows a cute little Barbie on the far right.

What's that on her desk?

We scanned and stored them on various SD card and sticks in no real organization in mind. Even with that done we just could not get ourselves to throw away the originals so ended up burdening our daughter with them telling her to do with them what she wished. To this day we don’t know if she still has them and we are not going to ask. 

Me (l) and my brother Rod (r) circa 1967

It just dawned on me that I was not even in kindergarten when the above picture of Barb was taken!

So here we are with thousands of pictures covering decades and decades on storage devices, what to do with them? How do you organize them? We decided to put them into folders by years which is easy for some, much more difficult for others. It is fairly easy to guess the year on pictures with our kids in it but when it comes to old pictures of our parents, pictures of ourselves or just adults, it becomes a guessing game. Nonetheless, we went through thousands of pictures one by one placing them into what we felt was the right folder. 

Still just as cute circa 1970

It was fun to see all the old memories but also frustrating at times when we could not figure out when one was taken. 

Barb guessed the date on this picture to be 2010 based on the boots she was wearing.
Who knows what boots they wore what year?????

Even I used to get into the action but I had to totally guess at the date late 80's early 90's

We are now 90% there, feel pretty good about where we are and have them stored on several external hard drives should one fail. To Barb’s credit she has been very good about organizing our pictures since we have been on the road by year, month, and day which has made recent pictures much easier.

This is how we organize them since being on the road

On the days we could get out on the water we took full advantage of it. I got out fishing three times this week (Barb got out twice) from both on shore and on the water. The biggest fish of the week goes to...…. Me! With this 9lb channel cat.

The most fish award goes to Barb as she just slaughtered them when we went out in our kayak where Withlacoochee River dumps into the Gulf. We caught flounder, red fish, ladyfish, silver perch, and speckled  trout.

Getting ready!

Barb's first flounder!

Fish on!

Shrimp boat headed out to the gulf

Fishing out of a kayak is a little more challenging than in a boat. While Barb did most of the fishing I was trying to hold our place or keep us away from shore. We learned a lot and next time we will set things up a little differently.

Nice little Red Fish

Another day when Dan and I were fishing Barb and Jeanie went to an Accordion Club that Jeanie belongs to. Barb said it was very interesting and has even mentioned that she is going to get her dad's accordion! Here is a short video of what the club was like.....

They also stopped by the Williston Peanut Plant. The pictures are very interesting and resemble grain elevators of those in North Dakota.....

Last but not least, we received a message from a couple we met up in Alaska in '16! Mike and Liz live in nearby Citrus Springs and asked if we wanted to get together for a beer. Since they are locals they know all the good spots. We met them at Copp Brewery in Crystal River. They have excellent beer there and both Barb and I were very impressed. Then it was on to the Old Mill Tavern in Homosassa where they have 50+ chicken wing flavors...... Both were very good and it was great to get together with them again!

Overall it was a great week with a good mix of adventures and accomplishments. If you have any suggestions on how to organize pictures feel free to leave a comment. Two weeks down and two weeks left here in the Yankeetown area, who knows what kind of adventures trouble we can get into!

Another Lesson Learned

You would think being on the road 5 years now we would have learned most of the lessons out there. But we learned another valuable lesson this week. This is the first time we have stayed in an RV Park for a full 30 days. Oh, we have stayed several places for 30+ days; The Farm and Pasha Lake, but this is the first time we have stayed in a park for that long and we should have done more homework.

There were two main factors when picking this location; location and rate. The location is perfect, it is on the water right in our target area less than a mile from where our friends Dan and Jeanie have their boat at a marina. And at $450/month this park one of the lowest we found in the area (this should have been a clue). Since we rarely if ever take advantage of the amenities in a park we did not care that this one was bare bones. We even went as far as going on Google Earth to check it out. We saw it was tight but most parks down in Florida are tight.

What didn’t we expect? Two rigs to our right is party central going late into the night. The rig to our left has a screen porch within 1 foot of our rig with constant cigarette smoke coming through the window. The rig behind us is about 5 feet away and they have 5, count them, 1,2,3,4,5 dogs. 5 not so quiet dogs….. did I mention they have 5 dogs? But that’s not the best part, we have to share a sewer port with them. Since I knew we only had one sewer connection for two rigs I dumped and put my hoses away until we need to dump again. But when they pulled in they hooked right up to it so when I have to dump again I need to remove their hose, hook mine up and dump hoping their valves are closed and they don’t use anything while I am dumping.

Our neighbor with a couple of their dogs

On the bright side, everyone is very nice, maybe too nice as if you are outside it is fair game to stop by and start a conversation. 

Oh well, lesson learned. Next time we will do a little more research and spend a few most dollars and upgrade. 

Despite all of this we are managing to get out and have a great time getting out on the water twice in the past week. Once to take a ride up the canal to check out the sights and once to do some fishing. This area seems to be in transition with mix of really nice homes and homes that have been abandoned with nature taking them back over. Very interesting to take the boat up that canal and see all the different homes and boats. 

View downriver 

and upriver

The name of this boat was "Dream Catcher" more like a nightmare!

This is what happens when you don't tie your boat properly

Our day of fishing was even more interesting. We went out with Dan and Jeanie on their boat and caught several varieties of fish; Red Fish, Speckled Trout, Sand Trout and some kind of saltwater perch. Both the Red Fish and trout were in the 12-14” range while the perch were much smaller.

Speckled Trout

Red Fish

One interesting note is how the pelicans here have adapted. The pelicans will sit around your boat about 50 yards out but as soon as  you set the hook on a fish and start fighting it the pelicans fly in and try and steal it off your line! You have to reel the fish in as fast as you can while the pelican tries to dive and grab your fish!

This guy hung around us all day

Looks like he got a fish!

Here is a tip for you fishing around here. If you see a boats surrounded by pelicans, they must be catching fish! Catching these fish is very similar to walleye fishing. You slowly retrieve a jig across the bottom but instead of using a jig tipped with a minnow you use shrimp. Fishing along the bottom like this, you are prone to snags and other sea creatures that have shrimp in their diet as well………

This little blue crab wanted Barb's shrimp

An oyster cluster that got snagged on Barb's jig

We plan to get out a few more times in the coming weeks so hopefully we will have a freezer full of fish when we leave the area.

Knowing the Jordan’s were just down the road in Ocala, we got together with them a couple of times. The first time at their campsite at The Santos Trailhead State Park. We were joined by Jim’s parents, Jim and Becky, who live just down the road. We grilled up some South Dakota venison steaks while Barb, Brenda and Jim did a beer tasting on the beers they have been picking up on their travels. 

Some of the beers they sampled

Two Jim's along with Becky and Brenda

We met up again a few days later at The Freezer in Homosassa. Jim and Brenda were joined by friends and fellow full-timers Matt and Sherry.  This restaurant came highly recommended and lived up to its recommendation. We will probably come here a couple more times while in the area. 

Another area we have heard a lot about but never visited was Cedar Key so we drove an hour north to visit that quaint little town. We have had several friends stay there and looks like a great place if you are looking for a nice quiet spot for a few days. Of course no visit here is complete without a stop at Tony's Seafood Restaurant for some of their famous clam chowder. This is by far the best chowder we have had. We bought a few cans to bring home with us but sadly it is gone already!

This Ibis found a snake!

Heron

We also picked up some clams for a clam/pasta dish that Barb whipped up! Gotta love the seafood in this area.  We have been here just over a week and we have had shrimp 3 times, crab twice, several bowls of clam chowder and thanks to Dan and Jeanie, some fresh caught fish!

Clam and pasta coming up!

This weekend was the Manatee Festival in nearby Crystal River so we tagged along with Dan and Jeanie and checked it out. There were tons of people along with hundreds of tent vendors. It was $5 to get in but with that you can use the shuttles they have from the nearby mall and also get into the Crystal River Three Sisters Springs National Wildlife Refuge.

Street after street was filled with vendors and tourists

Dan and Jeanie on one of our shuttle rides

Crab Traps 

The highlight of the event was our visit to Three Sisters and seeing the manatees. There were dozen of them gathered in the springs. The water is so clear here it is amazing.

Two adults and a baby

The weather has been on the cool side with some rain, it looks like more of the same for this week but hopefully it will warm up so we can get back out of the water!