Thursday, March 25, 2010

canoes and court

Today, Val and I went for a canoe ride up the Wekiva River.  It was a warm day with an occasional breeze, and we paddled to some different areas that we couldn't see on the cruise yesterday.  Although we missed seeing the otters that others have seen playing in the water, we did see lots of birds (including an Anhinga with a snake-like neck and a white Ibis) and turtles.  We have been considering getting an inflatable canoe/kayak and I think that this helped us make the decision.  We'll be visiting lots of areas with beautiful rivers and lakes that we'd like to explore, so it makes sense.

Later in the day we enjoyed the social hour with the rally folks followed by a "low country boil" dinner.  We'd never had it before, but it was made in two huge pots over outdoor gas grills typically used for deep-frying turkeys. The broth was flavored with Old Bay, and the potatoes, sausages, corn and shrimp are all cooked together for varying times. It was wonderful, and there was plenty for everyone to have seconds and thirds.

There were several people at the rally who were appointed to be sheriffs.  Their job was to bring charges against people at the rally who broke rules, either real (like not wearing your name badges), or imagined rules that they made up on the spot.  Tonight we held "court" where the charges were presented to the judge and the guilty were fined.  It was all in good fun and the fines, usually in the 1 to 2 dollar range went to Care, a group that helps RV'ers with Alzheimer's, cancer, those recovering from operations, etc.  There were laughs all around.  What a great group of folks.

2 comments:

  1. Hi there, Val & Billy (okay, Bill!)--

    I am impressed by all of the beautiful photos and information-packed narratives on your blog!!! I have subscribed, so I hope to stay up with your travels in real-time now. So far, I've read all the way back to the beginning; it is nice to track your progress southward!

    I'm still not employed; I thought I had three really promising opportunities; one is gone, and the two others have been very quiet...there just isn't that much out there to apply for at this time...

    Scott has been wonderfully supportive; and he has been encouraging me to stray from the job search (about 12 hours per day every day) and do something else for a while! I have been thinking of you often, and when I reread your email from nearly a month ago, I joined your blog and through that, looked at Matt's website/work--it is extremely creative and insightful; and I sent him a message to let him know how proud of him I am!

    Joanie is still jobless, too--there is not much out there for her either, though she is considering being trained as a Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) in order to get benefits and training to venture out into home-care in the future. She is continuing to pursue the Market America job; but I am trying to get through to her that this would be a better second job than primary job!

    More later--love you both!!!

    Mary

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  2. Great Pictures, keep them coming.

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