RV-Dreams Boondocking Rally – Convection Oven Class

(Avon Park, FL) Hi 82 Lo 59 -- We have had a great time so far this week. On Monday we drove about an hour south to visit the RV-Dreams Boondocking Rally. Boondocking is camping without water, sewer, or electric (sometimes called dry camping). The only boondocking we like to do is an occasional overnight in a Walmart parking lot. But we wanted to meet up with some chat room friends so we just went for the day. (Click on pictures to enlarge.)

The group is way off the road on private property.


This kind of land is called "Old Florida."


Howard and Linda conducted a seminar under a shade tree. The subjects were holding tank management, and electric and water conservation while dry camping.




Linda


Howard


Some of the 25 RV's, arranged in a circle.




This heavy duty truck was quite popular. The owner calls it "Tow Mater."


We like the idea of portable solar panels for keeping your batteries charged. There was another one at the front of this RV.


Our friends Lessie and Ed recently bought a beautiful Bluebird motorhome. They named it "Roundtuit."

Lessie


The dashboard looks like something you'd see in an airliner.


Ed in front of "Roundtuit."


Howard showed Jim the heavy duty tripod he got for his satellite dish. We may get one.


We went out to lunch and asked Linda what eating places were in the area. She mentioned several, and one of them was Culver's. Jim and I looked at each other in surprise... Culver's??? That's our favorite fast food place! There are two already open in the Ft. Myers area, with two more coming soon.


It was a great lunch! We may have to make the trip from Avon Park every now and then. :)

After some more visiting at the rally, we left about 5:00 so we could get home in time to play cards with the gang.

Tuesday I had a gals day out with Judy and Rosemary. We went to Sefner, just east of Tampa, to the Lazy Days RV dealer for a free class on cooking with a convection oven. We headed out at 9am for the 11:00 class. It was well worth it. Cooking is very different with a convection oven, and the instructions that come with the oven aren't very helpful. Even the instructor said they’re worthless. We learned how to bake, roast, and broil. One student mentioned that she was tired of cremating meat. :)

When the class was over we went to Cracker Barrel for lunch, then went to Parksdale Farm Market for some of their world famous strawberry shortcaket. It's just off the interstate on the way home. Jim and I stop in at least once every year.

They were washing tangerines for sale while we were there.











Packing for delivery.


The line is usually pretty long, but this day it wasn’t real bad. We only waited about five minutes. They really know how to move the lines.








Rosemary and Dee dining in the beautiful covered garden.


Shortcake on the bottom, then lots of strawberries covered in ice cream and lots of whipped cream. What a delight!


They also have lots of fruits and veggies you can buy, and of course strawberries... lots and lots of strawberries.




These are flowering cabbage






We stopped at Camping World and did a little browsing on the way home.

Wednesday (today) I had my massage this morning. While I was gone Jim went for the followup appointment from his colonoscopy, and also stopped at the local Chevy dealer to pick up the rear tail light assembly he ordered yesterday. He broke the left tail light lens during our summer travels, and finally fixed it today. He also did some re-wiring of our satellite TV receivers. DirecTV was nice enough to send us a nicer DVR receiver to replace the one we had installed last Friday. It's called a Genie, and it can record up to five programs at the same time.

This afternoon I'm making shrimp and rice for this evening's dinner. Jim's mom made it for us and Jim and Judy when we were in NC this past summer. She gave me the recipe on the phone the other day. We're having Jim and Judy over to join us, and if it's half as good as hers it will be very good.

We’re under a severe thunderstorm watch for this evening, and it looks like some serious weather is coming in. So we’ll see how the evening goes. See you in three days.