Thursday, January 26, 2012

Florida Bound 2012--Day 22

Time to catch up.

Last Monday started off early. About the time I got the dogs fed and ready to go walk the Service Writer at Alliance Coach showed up at my coach to do the paperwork to get the repair to the "slide topper" started. Not very long afterwards there were two guys with ladders working to dismantle the topper to take it to the shop to be restitched. By 11:00 AM everything was put back together and I was ready to go. Pulled out of Wildwood around noon and headed south. I'm now parked at Mt. Olive Shores, an RV community in Polk City. My friend, Fred White, owns a place in here that has a double drive so two coaches can park here, with full hookups. I'll be here through this next Saturday.

On Tuesday I decided I needed some exercise so I got online and found me a cemetery that had not appeared to have been documented on Find A Grave. This was in the town of Bartow a bit south of Polk City. The website showed only 200 graves as having been recorded. When I got there it appeared to be a large cemetery with well over 1,000 graves. I took one section and started photographing headstones. Many of these were very old graves and the stones were often partially covered with soil and leaves. After a couple of hours I had taken just over 100 pictures so I called it a day and headed back to the coach. Once I got the pictures loaded onto my computer I found there were a few that were already listed on Find A Grave. Wound up adding about 75 new memorial pages for Evergreen Cemetery in Bartow, Florida.

Yesterday morning I headed out to Tampa and the Hard Rock Casino and Hotel. This is operated by the Florida Seminole Tribe. Joanne and I had been there in 2007 but I had been told that many changes had taken place. There are now several restaurants and the casino floor has been enlarged. Not being much of a gambler I limited my time in the casino. I do like to play blackjack if I can find a table with a low minimum bet (like maybe $1). The cheapest table there had a $10 minimum. I have trouble putting down a ten spot for each bet so I passed on that. I did try a $.02 slot machine. Put in $2.00 and played 25 lines with each pull. (That is $.50 per bet.) Got it run up to just over $20.00 and cashed out, put the money in my pocket and left. Came back to Polk City and had lunch here in the coach.

During the evening Fred and I took off to do a little sightseeing around the Polk City/Lakeland area. This area is called Lakeland for a reason. That are numerous small lakes all over the place. Most were carved out due to mining for phosphate. Now most have been landscaped and stocked with fish and make up a recreational area. It's also a place to see the many variety of birds that inhabit this part of Florida. This gray crane was standing along side the road that separated a group of these lakes. After our drive we stopped at a local Italian restaurant for dinner before heading back to his place.

Had to roll out early this morning. Having my coach washed and waxed by a guy from over in Tampa. He was due here at 8:00 AM to get started. This gave me a chance to get a picture of the morning sky over the RV community. Got the dogs fed and walked early and then waited. The guy showed up a little early and is currently on the roof of the coach cleaning and waxing. (His walking around up there is driving my dogs crazy.) Today will be going over to Tampa to see another former crew member of the USS Newport News.


1 comment:

Shelley said...

The bird and that pink sky are lovely. You have an interesting way of taking your exercise! Whatever works for you...and there will no doubt be relatives who are grateful for your contributions.