Peace River

Friday, March 13, 2020.

We left Orlando and moved a little further south to Wauchula this morning.  Great little road trip with nothing noteworthy to mention.

We checked into the Thousand Trails Peace River Resort.  This is a large park directly on the beautiful Peace River!  The park map shows a ton of spots that are prone to flooding, and since they flood they have no sewer hookups.  So when we arrived at 1:00 or so in the afternoon, they sent us to a site with only 30 amp and no sewer and said they would have a lottery at 2pm of the available 50 amp with sewer sites. So we just pulled into our site and left her hooked up in hopes that we would win this lottery.  I was pretty upset, they usually have a honey wagon that comes around to empty your tanks for free, but it was not working, and we will be here for 2 weeks.  We can handle 30 amps and just run one A/C at a time, but not sewer - that just will not work for us AT ALL.

Went up for the lottery and we had not had time to cruise the park to view the available sites on the list, so we were going in blind.  We really did not think they would get to us since we were the last ones into the park.  Well, they called out the names and about 15 people were not there to change their sites, so the last name they called was us and the ranger and another couple helped us pick out a site that would work for us.  They actually still had several to choose from after the lottery was over.

So we get all set up and decide to cruise the park on our bikes when there was quite a raucous of people and dogs outside in front of our RV.  So I barrel out and start giving them all a piece of my mind, jokingly of course. There was about 6 people out there and most of them had dogs!  We started talking and Bonnie asked where in Texas we are from.  Come to find out, Bonnie is from Colorado City, Texas and used to cut my Aunt and her family's hair when they lived in Ira, Texas.  We pulled out my phone and called my cousin Bobby immediately.  She talked to him a long time and finally asked him if he knew who he was talking to.  When she said her name he knew her immediately and they carried on a little  longer.  I called him later in the evening and he said that was the coolest, he was so excited to talk to her.  So now Bonnie has introduced me to her whole crowd that comes to this park every year for three months or more. They are a fun group of folks.

Saturday, March 14, 2020

We finally got our kayaks down and hit the river on Saturday.   We kayaked as long as we could up river to be back before the sun got too far down.  The way back down river was a breeze!!!!  But this river is just so beautiful.  I did not take my camera, because I was unsure how the rapids would be and did not want to loose it.

After we got back, cleaned up and had a bite to eat we went outside.  Bonnie, Peggy and all the others were across the road from us.  Bonnie called us over and introduced us to her friend Gary, who they all call Archie.  Archie loves to kayak and has kayaked this river many times.  He is going to take us and another couple, who I will tell you about later, with him down the river tomorrow.  I told them if my kayaks are in the truck when they come to get the other couple then we are in, if not, we are too sore and cannot take another trip.  We moaned and groaned every time we moved all night that night, but woke up and felt great!  So we got the kayaks loaded up in plenty of time to meet Archie, Sean and Sarah for our next adventure.

We ran into some people staying here that mentioned we were supposed to have a female country singer in concert here at the park tonight.  They cancelled that, I found out later, along with  all other activities because of the coronavirus.  They are trying to limit gatherings to 10 or less now.

Sunday, March 15, 2020

We put in about 7 miles up river from our RV park.  Sean and Sarah had only been kayaking once before.  Archie and his wife Eva met them at a trade show where they were roasting coffee beans and selling their coffee from the Blue Craft Coffee Roasters.  Sean is a retired police detective and his business partner is still on the force.  Their coffee is free trade and organic and he even gave us a sample - a whole bag of coffee is not what I was expecting for a sample, but . . .  The smoothest coffee I believe I have ever had.  Ours is the Pursuit, I need to get online so I can buy some of the decaf and be able to drink it more!!!  They name all the blends police stuff (Pursuit - Stake Out) and a portion of every purchase goes to families of fallen first responders.  How cool is that?

Sean and Sarah were so much fun.  He is an absolute cut up, so he and Archie were competing with their hilarious banter!  It made the trip a lot of fun.  We stopped off at a park and Eva met us there.  Sean and Sarah had had enough kayaking, it is a lot of work, so they loaded up their kayaks and went back with Eva.  We continued on and came across a trash pile in the river and in there was a propane bottle.  We all decided that needed to get out of the river so we tied it to Archie and let it float behind him for a while and then switched it to Dennis' kayak.  Neither of them wanted to let me help out.  But it was very heavy and did not let you go the direction you steer so they were both pretty worn out when we got to the finish line.

PEACE RIVER -  the name fits

Sean, Sarah and Archie

Stopped at the park and lost Sean and Sarah

 

Dennis and Archie are always lagging behind me

Dennis with the propane bottle

Sean and Sarah had a 20 year old fully restored Winnebago that they travel in.  I did not get a chance to check it out, but hope to run into them again in the future and see it then.

Tuesday,  March 17, 2020

We haven't really been affected too much by this pandemic, but we did get a call today that our return reservation at a Florida State Park will be cancelled.  All Florida State Parks are closing starting tomorrow.  We have reservations at two other state parks on the way home, but they are in Alabama and Mississippi.  We will have to wait and see what happens, but as of now they are not closing.

My May trip to the UK and Scotland looks like it may be in peril.  We haven't heard from our travel agent yet, but I am sure they will be letting us know something soon.  It cost my parents $2K to cancel their European trip in May, so I want to make them cancel mine so I don't loose as much as she did.