Our RV Adventures

Jan and I slept until about 9 am this morning, another semi-early wakeup call, but well worth it.

We had two good things waiting for us – Our friends Al & Adrienne were coming over at 10, and Miss Terry was going to have cinnamon buns waiting for us. A real ‘Twofer’

They were coming over to see the new cabinets and work stations Nick and Terry had done on their coach. Then with hot coffee and warm-from-the-oven cinnamon buns, we had a great time just sitting around talking RVing and other stuff. And since it looks like we’ll be leaving here Tuesday or Wednesday, we’re going to try to have supper together Monday night.

Al & Adrienne had an appointment so they left around 11:30, but Jan and I stayed talking until almost 1 pm.

Then later while Jan was napping, I drove over to the Fairground’s office to see if there was anyway to get mail on Saturday. The answer was ‘NO’. Apparently the Post Office doesn’t deliver mail to the fairgrounds on Saturday.

Coming back to the rig, I checked to see if I could just pick up the letter at the PO, but found out it was closed on Saturday.

About 5:30 we all headed into Tucson to pick up Nick’s cousin Beverly before ending up at Golden Corral for supper

After much sniveling we finally gave in and took Nick to DQ about 9 pm to get his chocolate milkshake fix. He was starting to go into withdrawal since he hadn’t had a DQ fix since Tuesday.

Poor Baby!

Tomorrow I’m going to try and replace my black tank valve. Hopefully it won’t be too messy. We’ll see.

More tomorrow  . . .

Here’s a repost of our visit to St. Augustine in 2009. Enjoy.

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Thought for the Day:

Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Nothing!

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Tour Trains & Komodo Dragons…

Posted on June 8, 2009

Today Jan and I did ‘touristy’ stuff

We started off at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm.  This is probably the nicest small zoo we’ve been to.  And believe me, we’ve been to a bunch of them.

They had some very unique displays including komodo dragons, the bird rookery, and the albino alligators.

Founded in 1893, the St. Augustine Alligator Farm is one of Florida’s oldest zoological attractions.  In the early 1880s, two men began collecting alligators they found on Anastasia Island.  These individuals, George Reddington and Felix Fire, were the founders of the St. Augustine Alligator Farm at South Beach.

In 1937,  Reddington and Fire sold it to a pair of young business men in the community:  W.I. Drysdale and F. Charles Usina.  And the Drysdale family still owns the park today.

In 1989,  The American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums extended accreditation to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, thereby elevating the institution to a select list of facilities throughout the nation recognized for the quality of their collections and the care afforded them.

The Alligator Farm is the only zoo to have all 23 species of the worlds’ crocodilians exhibited in individual habitats.

Here are some pics:

Toucan

These alligators are true albinos with pink eyes.  They have no skin pigment.

White Alligator

There are other white alligators, called leuistic alligators.  Unlike albinos, leuistic alligators have pigment.  It’s just a white pigment.

And they don’t have pink eyes.  They have bright blues eyes.  There are only about 12 known in the world, and they are all males.

Leuistic White Alligator

Pile of Gators

We really enjoyed seeing the Komodo Dragon again.  The last time we saw them was at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. in 1971.

Komodo Dragon

Komodo Dragon

Reticulated Python

Northern Cassowary

This is ‘Gomek’.  He was a 17 foot,  2000 pound Saltwater Crocodile who lived at the Alligator Farm.  When he died, they had him stuffed and put back on display.  He just doesn’t move around as much anymore.

Gomek – Tha Saltwater Crocodile

We really enjoyed The Rookery.  This is a walk-thru area with nesting birds in some cases, just inches from the walkway.

Nesting Egrets

The Rookery

Wood Stork

Nesting Roseate Spoonbills

Stork Chicks

Nesting Tri-Colored Heron

Snowy Egret and Hungry Chicks

This is a fake dead zebra.  It is used for the realistic feeding of the vultures and storks who regularly feed on carcases.

"Dead" Zebra

Hooded Vultures

West African Crowned Crane

Black Swan

Blue and Gold Macaw

Indian Gharial Crocodile

The hand belongs to Christie.  She goes into the pen to feed the alligators.  And yes, that is a rat, a dead rat.  Apparently, dead rats are alligator treats.  The zoo buys them already dead.  She said the rats are cheaper than chicken and the gators like them better.

Alligator Feeding Time

Feeding Skipper

He knows it’s here somewhere

Gulp!

All Gone!

Taste like Chicken!

Golden Lion Tamarin

After we left the Alligator Farm, we headed over to take the Old Town Trolley Tour.  This is same tour company that we took in Key West.  They also have tours in Savannah, Washington, D.C.,  Boston, and San Diego.  We plan on taking this tour in all these cities as we visit them.

One of the places we passed thru on the tour was Magnolia Ave.   Strangely enough, there are no magnolia trees on Magnolia Ave.  Just some beautiful oaks trees in a canopy over the street.

Magnolia Ave

After our Trolley Tour, we drove down the road a ways to eat lunch again at the Oasis Restaurant.  We ate here a couple of days ago and really enjoyed it.  And it was close by.

Oasis Restaurant

After lunch, we headed over to Walmart to pick up our prescriptions, and then it was on to Camping World to get some more parts for my new toad tail light setup.

After that, we stopped off for coffee before heading back to the coach.

All in all, an enjoyable day.

And tomorrow?     Road trip!!!

adsfd

As is pretty normal, Jan had one of her ‘rebound’ 2nd day migraines, not as bad as the first one yesterday, but still not fun.

A little after 11am I called American Coach with some questions on several projects I’ve got in work on our coach, and as usual, they came thru with great info.

Then Nick Russell called a few minutes later to talk about finishing up our battery checks from yesterday. Since we picked up some distilled water last night, we’re good to go today.

The latest news on my dented bay door is not good. The fairgrounds and the landscapers are pretty much denying that they did it.

But it was not there last Wednesday when we moved from site 407 to site 404 to get a 50 amp hookup. We haven’t moved since, and no one else has been back there, except them.

And since I just changed from Progressive Insurance to GMAC I really hate to file a claim less than two weeks after I got my new policy.

Still deciding what to do.

After lunch Nick and I got back to work on checking our battery’s water level. Nick has been dissatisfied with the capacity of the 3 12volt Interstate Batteries he installed after he got the new coach. So we checked water level, connections, etc.

Then next we look at a starting problem with his Onan generator, but of course today when we were looking at it, it started fine. So we’ll have to keep an eye on it to see if the problem returns.

About 4:15 pm Jan and I headed in Tucson to meet Nick and Terry, and Nick’s cousin Beverly at Poco & Mom’s, a very small, very delicous Mexican restaurant that we were introduced to last year by our friends Al & Adrienne.

Poco & Mom’s does wonderful things with Green Hatch chilies, and we always eat here when we’re in Tucson.

Coming home, we detoured over to Camping World to pick up new black tank waste valves for both Nick and I.

We both have valves that leak slightly and want to replace them. I suspect mine may just have something stuck in the gate, but since I have to remove it anyway, I figure I might as well just replace it instead of cleaning it.

Mine looks to be pretty easy to remove and replace, but Nick’s may be more problematic.

We’ll see.

I got an email this afternoon that the paperwork for my Thousand Trails membership is in the mail and hopefully will be here Monday. Don’t yet know how long it will take to get everything wrapped up.

That’s about it for today. Hopefully Jan will be feeling better tomorrow, since Al & Adrienne are coming over tomorrow morning to check out Nick & Terry’s computer desk.

More tomorrow . . .

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Thought for the Day:

In war everything is very simple, but the simplest things are very difficult.

sdfg