Start of the New Year - Mondays Means Closed

(Wauchula, FL) -- Hi 76 Lo 60 - It was one of those nights, I didn't sleep most of the night. Jim went to the coffee & donuts get together 8am at the club house.   They conduct an informal park meeting and if people want to know what's going on it's a good time to go and catch up.

We left mid morning to take the truck to the local GMC dealer for an oil change and service.  We planned to drop off the truck and then go in my car to Solomon's Castle, which is about 25 miles out in the country.  It's an amusing attraction that everybody says we should see.  A short time after we dropped off the truck we got a call from the dealer to tell us there's a leaking seal in the transmission housing and a leaking power steering line.  At about that same time we were pulling up to the gate at Solomon's Castle only to find out they're closed on Mondays.  I guess we have to look a little closer at that small print on the brochure.  So we headed back home and on the way we stopped again at the dealer so Jim could see those leaks first hand. Once he saw the problem he gave them the ok to do the repairs.  Nothing like an unexpected expense to start off the new year.  :)

We stopped for lunch (Taco Bell, very slow service) and then visited Pioneer Park in nearby Zolfo Springs.  It's a nice park and has lots of RV sites but only water and 30-amp electric (no sewer).  The price is about what we're paying at our current park with full amenities.  They do have a "Florida Cracker Trail Museum" there but, again closed on Mondays. :(  The Florida Cracker Trail is the route from the Fla east coast to the west coast that 19th century cattlemen drove their cattle herds.  It runs roughly the same route as Fla State Road 64 from Ft. Pierce to Bradenton, and passes just south of Wauchula.

We'll have more to say about Solomon's Castle and the Florida Cracker Trail Museum once we get to see them.  I thought the "bad Mondays" were over now that we didn't go to work anymore!  I hope this isn't an indication of how 2011 is going to go.

I had several comments on the photo organization.  I have over 500 pictures on an external drive which was what I was trying to organize yesterday. I can't use Picasa because it doesn't work on an external drive.  So far, I've re-labeled all the pictures and put them into folders by years.  And thanks for the tips about the Carbonite online backup system.  We're checking into that.  Jim has a lot of music on his laptop and I have all of our photos on mine.  We have everything on an external drive, but using an online service like Carbonite would provide more peace of mind.


We came back to the park in time to play shuffleboard with the group, and then settled in for the evening.  The shuffleboard group is getting bigger as more people arrive for the winter.  We may go back to Solomon's Castle tomorrow, we'll see how we feel in the morning.