Monthly Archives: May 2009
Breakfast Buffet & A Lot of Gators…
Today we headed out about 9:30 am to have the breakfast buffet at Whistle Junction where we had lunch with Carol and Joe on Friday.
Then it was off to Jungle Adventures Nature Park, about 15 west of Titusville, on the way to Orlando.
Although we haven’t been here since 1997, we looked forward to going back.
Jungle Adventures Nature Park
A Sweet Mouthful !!
They have a lot of animals here – Florida panthers, deer, coatamundis, lemurs, bears, spiders, lizards, scorpions, turtles, tortoises, and of course, hundreds of alligators, crocodiles, and caymans.
Is It Dinner Time Yet?
Just a Big Putty Tat!
The trainer said he had raised this panther since he was about 3 weeks old. The cat came up and started rubbing his head all over the trainer, marking him as his property.
Duckweed-covered Gator
Feeding Time
Feeding Time Too
They sell you hotdogs to feed the baby gators. I just want to be sure they can tell the difference between the hot dogs and fingers.
Hot Dogs or Fingers!
Jan makes a new friend.
Jan Makes a New Friend!
It’s hard to say who’s scaring who here.
Who's scaring who here?
Jan wouldn’t hold this one!
A Real Handful!
We headed back to the coach about 2:30 pm after a great time.
A complete change of subject here. Jan and I are big Ice Road Truckers fan. That’s the show on the History Channel that depicts the truck drivers driving supplies into northern Canada mining camps and oil exploration sites on ice roads that only exist in the winter time.
During the rest of the year, the road isn’t there. It’s open water!
Anyway, on tonight’s 3rd season premiere episode, we were surprised to see that instead of running in Canada this year, they’re running the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks, AK to Prudhoe Bay.
We’ve been on this road. Or at least part of it. We took a tour that takes you from Fairbanks to the Arctic Circle, a trip of almost 200 miles. But this is not your average 200 mile trip.
Because of the bad roads and the hilly, curvy terrain, it takes about 16 hours roundtrip. You leave at 6:30 am and return around 10:30 pm.
You stop for lunch going up and dinner coming back at the same place, the Yukon River Camp at the Yukon River Crossing.
Yukon River Camp
Yukon River Crossing
Surprising the food was very, very good. They bring a chef up from the Lower 48 every year to work the season.
The Dalton Highway was built to support the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the pipeline parallels the highway for a good part of the way.
Yukon Pipeline
They have a marker at the Arctic Circle to get your picture taken.
The Arctic Circle
This is Jan and I with our granddaughter Piper when she came up to visit us in Fairbanks last July.
At least when we did this trip it was in the summer, and not in January.
Anyway, the show is bring back a lot of great memories.
Later…
Chinese Food and Satellite Repair…
Today we just took it easy around the rig until about 3:30 pm when we headed out to the New Peking Buffet Chinese restaurant for an early supper and then on to Walmart for more ‘stuff’.
When we got back a little after 5 pm a guy showed up to get some help with his satellite dish.
His wife had come by earlier in the day and noticed my satellite setup and ask if I could help her husband when he got back. I said ‘sure’.
Here’s my satellite setup.
Satellite Stand
Note the ‘visitor’ on the white rock on the dish base.
The dish is a Winegard Traveler that folds down and stows away, and the base is a Husky Workhorse work stand that I bought at Home Depot. I like it is much more stable than a tripod, and like the dish, it also folds flat.
I don’t the stand every time, just when I need to. Usually I just set the dish on the picnic table (most sites have one), but sometimes the table is not in the right position if I have a lot of trees like we do here.
‘RJ” the guy I was helping had just purchased a Direct TV setup including a dish on a tripod. The night before, strong winds had blown his dish over, one of several things I don’t like about tripods. This had bent his dish slightly, and he wasn’t having any luck getting his dish aligned again.
I showed him how to anchor his tripod better, and how to align his dish every time he sets up.
I think he’s a ‘happy camper’ now.
More tomorrow…
