The Week-end Between

Friday May 12 & Saturday May 13, 2012
Lithia Springs Site 40, Lithia, Florida

 

There is one bright spot these days.

I am so grateful to those of you who comment on my blog.  I so look forward to seeing what you have to say.  It is one bright spot I can count on in my days.  Thank you so much for taking the time and having the interest. 

 

This is the week-end between one rough week and another.

The steroid shot is still 3 full days away.  David had a difficult night and was still sleeping when I tip toed out in the morning to sit along the river bank with my journal.

 

 

 

Site 40 has a really lovely river front site.  A bunch of small brown eyed susans bloom at the foot of the cypress tree.  The water is so low it is almost still.   I wonder where the water level would be without the drought.  No fish are jumping.  And then down the river they come.  White flashes.  They land just across on the opposite bank from me.  I try not to breathe or blink.  I know Ibis are as common as crows in Florida but I still think they are beautiful.  Wild creatures are all beautiful.  It is their very wildness that I love.  I think I would like to be a bird.  To be able to soar above it all and fly away whenever things were not to my liking. 

 

 

 

 

Too soon the rest of the park wakes up. 

The children are yelling.  The river seems full of canoes.  I can sit inside Winnona at the dining table and see them coming down stream in droves.  I assume they are coming from the Alafia River Canoe rental company which is upstream from the park.

 

 

David rests most of the day.  I decide it’s time for a haircut and
since there is already so much noise, no one will notice my flowbee.

 

 

 

In the late afternoon, we find the limitation of Site 40.  All of a sudden the power cuts off.  Our Progressive Industries Power Guard is doing its job.  Low voltage error.  For the first time this week, we are unable to run both air conditioners at the same time or one AC and anything else.  This had not happened at all during the week in this site or at any time in any of the other sites we’ve been in.  Of course it has never been as warm as it is now either.  Someone from the park office brings out a new electric board.  Makes no difference.  The electrician can come on Monday.  SIGH…..

Apparently being the last site in the line and a 30 amp site is not a good thing on the week-end if it is really hot here.  Good to know although aggravating on a 90 degree Saturday late afternoon.  But we manage.
Finally the sun goes down, the fans come out, the warriors go to sleep but leave their smoldering camp fires.  Doesn’t that bother them in their tents right next to the fire ring??

 

Sunday is Mother’s Day.

Clearly I’m way behind in wishing all Mothers a happy day.  I wish my Carrie were here but when you are on the road, it is seldom the case that you are near your children or they visiting on those Mother’s Day/Father’s Day holidays.  I miss them both today, my mother Margie and my daughter Carrie.

 

So what to do on this day?

I know that exercise ultimately makes me feel better if only because I feel righteous for having done it so I do not use Mother’s Day as an excuse to skip my morning run.  My iPod shuffle bit the dust.  At some point my dell laptop would not recognize my shuffle so I couldn’t change any of the music.  OK since I can still charge it I’ll just keep listening to this same music and it will be fine.  But now I can’t charge it and so today I got out my old walkman which is ANCIENT but still working since it has batteries of its own.  I have some old books on tape so I ran off listening to Step-Ball-Change.  Very funny light hearted story.  Made me smile at many points as I ran along.  The book might be in the free stuff for you e-reader owners.  So if you want something light and fun.  Take a look.

 

Having no plan to celebrate Mother’s Day. David had suggested that I do whatever I’d like.  I’d thought I’d just skip it all but then I wondered if doing something relatively easy might take David’s mind somewhat off of his pain.  Ok then, what I want is ICE CREAM.   We can drive there, easy on David so I went to work looking for where there might be some actual home made ice cream within an even remotely reasonable distance from us.  But that little voice from my own mother is telling me I should actually eat something first. 

 

I’m not a big restaurant fan. 

I really don’t find the food better or even as good as what I have at home.  And the prices seldom fit in my budget.  Subway excluded of course.  :-)  Guess I’m just not a foodie.  Although in a former life I was in a gourmet cooking club and could create with the best of them. 

But I know David likes to go out and we seldom do so I added a Mother’s Day lunch to my plan.   Another thing he could do with little effort that he would enjoy and would take his mind off of the current situation.

 

 

Knowing nothing about the restaurants in this area even though we’ve been here now for over 3 months, I turned to Yelp and chose two places in Brandon.   Off we drove.  The first place was closed on this Mother’s Day and referred us to their “other location” which was in the opposite direction from which we’d come.   So we went to choice #2 where every table on the patio and inside seemed to be full.

 

 

 

  The first question was “do you have reservations”?   No.  Uh oh!   But the manager snagged his wait staff a nice tip by making another table appear outside for us.   This was the Sunday Buffet and $17.50 a head. 

 

 

 

 

The food was very good and David ate enough for the both of us.  Not to say that I didn’t eat my own of course.  But I think he went back three times to the buffet.  He really does need to put about 20 pounds back on so that was good.  Although he does have a problem with feeling bloated when he tries to eat to gain weight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Luckily that doesn’t seem to be the case today.

 

 

 

We left and were too stuffed to even consider ice cream which was my main celebration event.  But I wasn’t going to go back to Lithia now.
I had found a Bruster’s ice cream in New Tampa and that was where I was going one way or the other.

 

So now what?

 

 

I needed something to do for a few hours to work off some of this lunch.  I remembered we were only a few exits down I 75 from Lettuce Lake County Park which had been recommended as a beautiful place to see so that was our next stop, to walk off lunch to the extent that David was able.

 

 

 

We discovered almost immediately that this park definitely has a sense of humor.

 

 

 

 

We parked the car as close to the visitor’s center as we could and went in to get some information about short walks.  On the outside we found something I know all our dog parent friends would appreciate.

But how do they press the button to make the water come out?

 

 

The park has a really lovely boardwalk that goes around Lettuce Lake and over to the Hillsborough River which cuts through the park.

 

 

There were numerous birds out on this lovely day.
This was a mighty long neck to scratch

 

 

We came to this observation tower along the boardwalk.

 

It appeared that someone had thrown this juvenile gator some long stemmed roses.  What an interesting picture.

 

 

 

 

 

There was a small flock of turkeys on the other side of the Lake as we took the boardwalk to the end by the Hillsborough River.

 

 

I hadn’t ever thought I would like to paddle a kayak paddle on a river through a city but this section of the Hillsborough River in Lettuce Leaf Park right in the city of Tampa could make me change my mind.  It was beautiful and at this point, very small.  The park has a canoe/kayak rental and launch spot so maybe some day we’ll try it.  Or at least the part in this park.

 

 

 

We sat on the benches enjoying the river over look for some time.

 

We’d spent the better part of 2 hours and thought we could now take I 75 even further north to Bruster’s and get that ice cream.  Nancy & Bill Mills had introduced us to Bruster’s earlier this winter when we were camped together at Silver River State Park.  We went there for David’s birthday and he chose THE best ice cream flavor ever….Jamaican Me Crazy.  Best that is if you love coconut.

 

 

It’s clearly a popular spot but sadly on Mother’s Day they did not have the flavor I’d driven 30 miles to get.  So I drowned my sorrows with almond chocolate coconut and chocolate peanut butter buckeye.  YUM! 

 

As you can see, the place had clearly gone to the dogs. 

 

 

 

And there you have it, the last minute plan for Mother’s Day.
Thank you all SO much again for your comments.
The End.