Disclosing the Undisclosed Location

The Strawberry Festival ended on Sunday the 10th of March and come Monday everyone in our group left for Texas. So we decided to squeeze in another beach day before we left the Tampa area. Clearwater Beach is the closest so we jumped into the truck and headed to the beach. However there is a little thing going on down here called "Spring Break" that we were oblivious to. Duh! Well we found the parking lots full and half naked people everywhere. We kept driving down the coast and found a little hidden gem of a county park.

Sand Key.

Sand Key County Park it was called. Just a couple of miles from Clearwater Beach. It was a very nice beach and parking fees were only $5.00 for the day. We would have spent 4 times that at Clearwater. The day started out sunny but then became a little overcast. Still a good day when you are at the beach.

This is not us. Clearwater Beach is back by those tall hotels.

Tuesday the 12th was moving day for us. We drove north to a little town out of the way called Mayo, Florida. If you want an area of Florida that is not crowded and away from it all, this is the place. Our campground is on the Suwannee River and the section of the campground we are in is fairly new. Large sites for big rigs and they are spaced apart so you are not on top of your neighbor. 

Weekends they have some fun activities here. Such as Bingo, Chicken Poop Bingo, Karaoke and Pigeon races. 

Pigeon coop.

Lisa is a great judge of pigeons.

You go into the pigeon coop and pick out a pigeon. You pay a 5 dollar per bird sponsorship fee. Then later on they release the pigeons and they race back to the coop. First, second and third get prizes along with the last pigeon. You don't see that at a KOA.

You can have fires here so we had to get some wood and enjoy a fire. It has been months since we have had a wood fire. Sounds innocent enough, right? Something was hiding in that bundle of wood we got, because the next day I noticed this on my arm.

Two bite marks. I must have been tasty.

Two very big bite marks. So for the next couple of days we just watched it grow. Our daughter Kendra said to draw a line around it to see if the redness is spreading. So we did.

Keeping an eye on the redness.

That's where the the redness was on Thursday. So Friday morning when we looked, the redness was outside of that line. Time to go to the clinic. 40 miles away. I was given antibiotics and a topical cream and it is slowly receding.

Getting better.

It still itches like crazy though. Thanks to Kendra for saving my arm. The culprit you ask?

Wolf Spider. Now my fear is that the first full moon, I may turn into a Werewolf Spiderman.

That may or may not be a good thing. We will just have to wait and see.

We met our neighbors here. Not because we wanted to, but because we had too. We were getting into the pickup to go sightseeing. It was a little breezy. Before we could back out, our neighbors screen room came bounding over and hit the passenger side of our new truck. Leaving a dent, a couple of chips out of the paint and a long scratch down the side of the bed. Really, I can't make this stuff up. Our neighbors where very sorry and did the right thing by paying for the damage and we thank them for that. We took the truck to a local body shop in the area and they came up with an estimate of over $1500 dollars.

Poor Gandolf.

So those with screen rooms, make sure you tie them down. If I would have had our old truck, I may have not made such a big deal about it, but honestly, we just bought that truck in December.

We took some time to go to the coast. Nothing like the beaches near Tampa. They call this the Nature Coast. The water is kind of brackish and it's not the kind of water we want to swim in.

No crowded beaches here.

Still pretty in it's own right.

We were also able to take some time and enjoy the sunset here in the campground.

Aaaah. The warmth of the sun on my face is fantastic.

I don't know what Lisa thinks is so funny. Can't a man enjoy the sunset?

The death marches have continued. I did get to take a day off when we went to the clinic for my spider bite. To also add to our exercise program we are able to include biking now. We walk one day for an hour and then bike the next day for an hour. There is a nice bike path here that ends at a suspension bridge that spans the Suwannee River.

The reason that I can divulge so much information on where we are is because we have left that area. We are on the move again. Where will we pop up next? Hmmmm. All I can say is goodbye Florida.