Surprise!

Friday May 18 & Saturday May 19, 2012
Lithia Springs Site 40, Lithia, Florida

 

I go out running this morning leaving David sleeping.  He gets up while I’m gone and after my shower, we have breakfast.  This morning is another Velcade shot for David and another Dex.   He feels well enough to drive himself to the clinic.  Good sign.   I spend the later morning on the river front.  His appointment isn’t until late in the morning so he isn’t back by the time I come up to make some lunch.

 

I am just finishing eating when I hear what sounds like a woodpecker tapping on the front of the coach.  I get up and look out the window.   Don’t see anything.   Sit back down.  Tap-tap-tap again.  This time I see someone right outside in front up by the passenger’s window but I can’t tell who it is.   With so few people in the park I assume it is the ranger and wonder what he can want.  I go outside and look in that direction.   There stands Gin and next to her with a camera pointed right at me is Syl.   See their blog for that surprised picture.

 

And it was…..WHAT A SURPRISE!   I thought they were at Cedar Point in North Carolina.  Their calendar said they were there through Tuesday the 15th but then was strangely silent.  I thought they just didn’t know where they were going.  But they knew all right and were trying to surprise us just like they did a couple of years ago bringing Howard and Linda Payne to our door when we were in North Carolina.

 

I get great big hugs from them and we sit down to talk about their being in Florida again for some necessary ‘Tawanda returns to Lazy Days’ work.  I think the only difference between buying a new coach and a used one is that the warranty covers the cost of work on the former but it still is just as much time and aggravation.   I keep expecting David and when he didn’t show up and it is way past his lunch time – remember David needs to eat 5 or 6 meals a day not just 3 – I call him up and tell him I need him to come home, I have something to show him. He knows something is up.

 

The Dex gives him enough rare energy that he goes to price tires for Ruby.  Later he admits he knew someone must have come to visit but he couldn’t think who.

He pulls up, they hide behind the coach.  He gets out trying to figure out whose car and then he gets it.  Even without the kayak racks, the North Carolina Plates give them away.

Big hugs for him too.  They give the best hugs.  I’m too busy enjoying all this to even think of getting my camera.

 

It is so nice to just sit back and chat and with friends.  And these great friends bring their own chairs, their own water, their own food.  There wasn’t anything we could do for them so we took them on a tour of the park.

First stop the spring where the water is low but nice for wading on a hot day.

 

Hmmm….maybe not quite so low as we thought.

 

They are both watching me walk on and get my shorts wet up to my waist.  That’s what they are smiling about.  But I don’t care, they’ll dry and the water was a wonderful 72 degrees.  But aren’t good friends supposed to laugh with you and not at you?  Guess they are leaving me behind since they know I won’t drown.

 

 

As we walk over to the natural spring, Gin picks up a tree frog hitch hiker who hops up her arm and over onto her shirt.

 

After we’ve all enjoyed him, she drops him off on a tree near the spring.  It’s pretty warm this afternoon so we soon return to the shade of the patio. 

 

Here’s what Gin and David do when they get together.  Gin knows all.  Yes it’s true she does.  So she’s figuring out what’s going on with my laptop and its sudden refusal to log onto the wireless router.  She figures it out, it’s too stupid to put on a blog.

 

 

Happily they agree to stay for a vegan pasta dinner of which I have no pictures unfortunately.   The bugs started biting and they needed to get back.  We were sorry to see them leave but grateful that they came over.  They sure picked up our afternoon.  Hope they will be around long enough for us to meet up again before they head out to meet Nancy and Bill at Frieghtliner school.  Gin said they’d have to sit at two different tables or they’d laugh their way through it.  Now that I know is for sure true.

 

Saturday pales by comparison.

I’m back out on the riverbank this morning.  Nothing is happening.  I’m reading a book by David Gessner when a white Ibis flies in.  I  look up to watch him but he immediately flies off and I soon see why.

Here comes an armada.  This is the beginning of warriors going up and down the river in canoe and kayaks all day long.  They are standing, sitting,

 

 

with dogs and fishing poles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One group goes by and a paddler asks if I’m the one who’s going to be serving the pancakes when they come back.  I tell him he must have heard it wrong but if he can remember where it is really happening he should let me know when he comes back by.   He tells me if I see a curly headed guy named Jason to say Hi.  Tell him you know him from Greece”.  Ok I say.

 

 

So in just a bit when a couple come by and the guy has curly hair….
”Aren’t you Jason”
…shocked look….”Yes, do I know you”???
He has passed me when I say
”Greece Right?”
He looks back,
”yes”???
He is clearly bamboozled.
The looks on his face are priceless. 

 

You never know where today’s fun might come from.  This was mine!

 

Less fun is that we have to leave this great site tomorrow having stayed the maximum 14 days.  But we have no where to go at this point.  We can’t find anything to reserve for over the Memorial Day week-end, next Friday, Saturday and Sunday.   I’ve been trying daily to see if any thing opens up at a State Park within 125 miles of us or less.  I don’t want David to have to come back any further than that at the end of what may not be a good “vacation week”.

So today we call Oscar Scherer.  I know they are completely booked for the week-end, all 104 sites, but have lots of spaces open during the week.  From having been there before I also know they have more than one “walk in” site.   On the phone, they can’t tell us FOR SURE but right now they have walk in spots.   Ok then….we’ll take a chance and if worst comes to worst we’ll have to leave early on Thursday and high tail it back to Hillsborough County and spend the week-end at one of their other first come first served parks.   Not all the week-enders can come on Thursday I think.  Only a few will have a 4 day week-end. 

So that’s the plan.

Since David still has some dex energy left from yesterday, we do a lot of our packing up for the move tomorrow.  Bike rack on car, bikes on rack, kayaks on car.  Chairs, tables, patio mat, table cloth in the basement.  I get up on the roof and sweep it down, clear off the awning and the slide toppers of tree debris, wash some stains off of the slide toppers. 

We’ll be traveling tomorrow back down south of Sarasota where there is a beach, drumming and ice cream.  Hope we can stay the entire 8 days of this “vacation” from doctors.