This is the sign Gary and Ken saw on the golf course yesterday and this is a gorgeous aloe plant near our parking spot near the motorhome in Leesburg, FL.
Yesterday was pretty cold here (I know what you Northeast people are saying right now!!) so we couldn't go to the flea market.  We'll try again another day.  We had an easy day, lunch at Sweet Tomatoes and dinner at Johnny Rockets where our crazy waiter danced to "Respect" for our entertainment.  After that we saw the feel-good movie Macfarland, USA which I highly recommend.
So, (don't you hate it how everyone lately starts every sentence with "so"?) since we are having such a relaxing vacation I came down with a case of shingles, which is caused by stress and the chicken pox virus.  Went to the doctor this morning and got some antiviral medication and an anti-anxiety med.  I thought I WAS calm.  This is pretty itchy but not earth-shatteringly itchy and only hurts a little bit.  I am really fine and hope we nipped this in the bud.

Every day seems to be Saturday!!! It is such an unbelievable phenomenon and I wish it for each of you.  Today our activities included an intense retail therapy session.  In other words, we went shopping.  All four of us bought something.  I needed a few more summer tops, Gary needed something to improve the hanging capacity of our closet, Nancy bought some golf clothes and Ken bought a golf shirt.  The men got tired of this activity before the ladies did, so they sent some time at a golf store and sitting on a bench outside our last store waiting for us to come out.  Then we had to revive ourselves with Frappuccinos at Starbucks.  Dinner was BBQ at Oakwood Grill.  Delicious!

I have attached a photo of myself with the two pups, and also one of a beautiful live oak tree with Spanish Moss. 

We have been in Leesburg, FL at the Holiday Travel RV Resort since Saturday.  When we arrived we were shown to a site that only had 30 amps of electricity instead of the promised 50, so today we moved to a better site.  It will be really helpful if we need to use the air conditioner.  Today it reached 80 degrees.  Our new site has a huge live oak tree festooned with Spanish Moss.
We went to sister, Nancy's house where she and Ken were hosting a Dine-a-round for 4 neighbors.  It was fun.  Everyone gathered at their house, we went out to dinner and then came back for dessert and to get to know each other better.  They do this about once a month.  Yesterday Nancy, a friend of hers from Virginia and I went to a huge Arts Fair in The Villages while Gary, Ken and the friend's husband played golf.
About The Villages.  This is a huge, unique city in central Florida about an hour north of Orlando. It has 42 golf courses and more being built every year.  Every activity known to man is represented here.  There is pickleball, horseback riding, tennis, polo, swimming, archery, water aerobics, bocci, baseball and many other sports as well as crafts such as stained glass and fused glass lessons, arts of all kinds, singing, acting, line dancing, etc.  It is well known for its conservative politics, which is not us, but it is also known for its high percentage of STDs, although that may be just a rumor.

Jacksonville, FL is where we are today for the second day of visiting with my baby sister, Janis.  We are staying at the Flamingo Lake RV Park just north of I-295.  It is absolutely freezing here but we are promised 70's tomorrow when we move to Leesburg, FL near The Villages, FL and middle sister, Nancy.  Family is the best!!

Pine Lake RV Park is unique in one way.  Lots of RV Parks have had a guides with golf carts leading us to our parking site, and lots of them have had no guide at all, but this one had a girl on a bicycle. 

We are near Panama City, FL tonight and spent the afternoon with old Strawdie camper, Mary Morgan Long and her husband.  Mary and I were close at camp and it was a pleasure to see her.  Also, she and her husband, Bob were the first full-time RVers we ever met.  They have taught us so much and continue to be a great resource whenever we have questions. They hope to be back on the RV track soon. They took us to Bayou Joe's for lunch where we had fried pickles for the first time ever.  The shrimp there were tasty, too.  It is an iconic seafood restaurant in the area.

In Panama City we saw the Butia Capitata-Pindo Palm, a four headed palm thought to be the only one of its kind in the world.  It is amazing.

It is so cold here and going down to the mid-twenties tonight.  Thank goodness for the flannel pjs.

   Today we spent with son, David in southern Alabama.  We did some shopping for groceries and for supplies for some "handyman" projects for the motorhome.  In two trips to Home Depot, two trips to Office Depot and a long, solo trip to Walmart we restocked the fridge and pantry, reinforced the closet clothes hanging bar and added a place to keep the dog's leashes.

It was so cold today we may as well have been back in Portland.  I was very happy for my wool hat, heavy coat and flannel pajamas!  This cold is everywhere, I know, but so surprising to me for this far south.

For lunch we went to a restaurant in Spanish Fort, AL called Felix's Fish Camp.  Gary had his first crab cakes of the trip and I had an unusual soup trio which came in small cups, gumbo, crab soup and turtle soup.  All three were excellent.  I never tried turtle soup before but would have it, again.

It was good to see David and we will stop by Mobile again on our way home.

Today Gary, the pups and I traveled to Pensacola Beach, FL to visit dear friends, Linda and Arnie Leithner.  Linda and I hadn't seen each other in 50 years, since we went to Camp Strawderman together and we spent lots of time remembering those days.  We had an absolutely delightful day seeing the sights and laughing a lot.  We took a driving tour to Fort Pickens at the end of the island, to areas of the beach which seemed below sea level and to two yummy restaurants, Peg Leg Pete's and Flounders, (see picture of clam).  Back at their lovely home Linda and I had a great time singing together.  She is great on the guitar and has even written some wonderful songs.  The day passed too quickly but I'm sure we will visit again.

Seen today at the Mississippi Welcome Center.  I have nothing else to say about this!

We arrived in Florida today and are visiting with David, who drove down to us from Mobile, AL.  It was a beautiful drive from Louisiana, across Mississippi, Alabama and into Florida.  In the Atchafalaya area, we saw an authentic bayou that went on for many miles with trees growing right in the water in small groups.  Amazing.  We saw signs for restaurants serving Boudin (regional sausages) and cracklin (rendered pork fat and meat).  I remember eating cracklin as a child.  Delicious.  At one place on I-10 the traffic was backed up at least 5 miles behind 10 Mardi Gras floats which were being escorted to their parade by police cars.  Tomorrow, on to visit with the Leithners.

Happy Valentine's Day!  We reached Scott, LA today near Lafayette.  There are lots of Mardi Gras parties everywhere around us tonight.  We actually had a challenging time finding an RV park for tomorrow night because so many people are in the area for the festivities.  We will see son, David tomorrow near Mobile, visit the Leithner's (friend from overnight camp days) on Monday, David again on Tuesday and then on to Jacksonville to see sister, Janis arriving Thursday.  Having a great time!

It was very frustrating last night to be without Internet or telephone connections.  Now I know how the pioneers felt as they drove their wagons across the country!

Yesterday we encountered snow near Baracho, TX which was completely unexpected and made us realize that we have to look ahead at the weather.  There wasn't that much but we didn't like being surprised.

We stopped at a rest area full of 8 foot tall art replicas of wagon wheels with corrugated tin roofs over picnic tables.  Today we saw one where each table was surrounded by a Mexican "ruin".  Great fun to see.

Last night we stayed in Junction, TX at Junction/North Llano RV Park.  It was pretty and on the North Llano river. Tonight we are staying in Katy, TX about 20 miles west of Houston.  One good thing about it is that we will drive through Houston on a Saturday morning and avoid rush hour.

Tonight we will dine on the leftovers from last night's Texas BBQ dinner which we had at Lum's BBQ and gasoline station.  No, I'm not kidding.  There was more than enough for two nights.

Today we saw an 18 wheeler with two signs on the back.  To the left it said Passing Side and to the right it said Suicide.

I'm honestly starting to get a little fuzzy about where we are and what day of the week it is.  I just looked at the info sheet for our current RV park and it is called Southern Star RV Park in Van Horn, TX.  Where is that, you may ask.  Well, it is past El Paso.  That's all I know.  Speaking of El Paso, it has the loveliest highway art.  The overpasses and pedestrian bridges are all decorated in patterns in keeping with the Southwest and they have done a very good job.  Portland should take a lesson from them.
We ran into more thorns in the pups' paws today and Baby had such a fit that Gary had to restrain her while we pulled one out with needle-nose pliers.  I looked them up last night and they are called goats head thorns.  One of the locals said they are carried on tumbleweeds but I don't think that is the only source.  I hope we will be away from their area very soon.  Dudley has had about 10 of them in his little paws.
Today we traveled on part of I-10 where the speed limit was 80!!  But not for us.  We can only go about 60.  There is another "wind event" going on right now and Gary was fighting it most of today.  It is especially hard to steer and to stay in the lane when it is gusting.
We had to stop at a border patrol inspection station out in the middle of nowhere today.  All vehicles had to stop.  They asked us if we were U.S. citizens and then waved us on.  The people in the car in front of us had to produce some sort of papers.
Tomorrow will be a long drive to Junction, TX because there are no RV parks much closer.  We are trying to do about 250 miles a day and get settled for the evening while it is still daylight.  This will be a bit longer.

Deming, NM is a very small town and we are parked at the Roadrunner RV Park.  It is fine for one night but the parking lot has sharp burrs that get into the bottoms of the dogs paws whenever we go out.  I won't be walking them here.  The day was fairly interesting, though.  We passed Rooster Cogburn's Ostrich Ranch where you can pet and feed the ostriches, also lorikeets, whatever they are.  We saw a huge airplane storage field, a large desert area where planes are safely stored when not in use. There was a sign that said Zero Visibility is possible here. Dust storms, evidently. We passed the exit for Gary, New Mexico and I took a picture of it but still can't figure out how to post pictures here.  Working on it.  We drove over the Continental Divide and this will be our last day in Mountain Standard Time as we reach the border of Texas early tomorrow.  We will be in Texas 3 or 4 days.  It is that big.

This was our second night at Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort in Casa Grande, AZ and it was great to have a one day break from driving.  I did some laundry, went grocery shopping and walked the dogs several times within this huge village.  Casa Grande is definitely a snowbird area, mobbed in the winter and empty in the summer.  Today it reached 80 degrees but tonight will be about 49.  Perfect! We had the pleasure of visiting with old friends Larry and Kathy Richards.  Gary and Larry played 18 holes of golf, Gary's first round of golf in a long, long time, while Kathy and I caught up and visited Starbucks.  Tomorrow, New Mexico here we come.

I swear, there was not one single cactus on I-10 in California but as soon as we crossed the Arizona line, there they were!  It was amazing!

We are now in Casa Grande, AZ at the Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort.  It is a great place if you live here, or if you are a snowbird who stays here for the winter months, but not so great for someone staying just two nights.  The area for RVs is a lot like a Walmart parking lot plus hook ups for electricity, water and sewer.  There is a dog walking area close by, but no connectivity for Internet.  Good thing we brought our own hotspot.  No trees, no grass.  Really strange considering the cost to stay here.

We had a short but lovely visit with nephew Andrew, wife Rebecca and adorable 4 month old, Hannah.  We drove about an hour to Phoenix and had pizza and conversation.  Then back to Casa Grande to feed and walk Dudley and Baby.

Gary will play golf with long-time friend, Larry Richards tomorrow.  I will spend time with Kathy and catch up with a few housekeeping duties.  Are you asleep, yet?

Last night we stayed at the Valencia Travel Rv Park after fighting the wind down I-5.  We saw lots of tumbleweeds, again but this time they were larger. We also saw a whole orchard plowed up, all the fruit trees lying on their sides, presumably because of the drought.  It was a terrible sight.

Now we have made our way to the Riviera RV Resort (and I use the term Resort very loosely) on the banks of the Colorado River.  This is one of the last stops in California.  We will pass into Arizona early tomorrow. 

An interesting sight today was a sign just before the exit for a state penitentiary warning people not to pick up any hitchhikers.  Sounded like good advice to me.

The most interesting things we saw today were:
1. An olive oil and olive tasting room (we didn't stop there, Gary hates olives.)

2. A sign in a big, empty field in northern California that said:
       Coming Soon - the new state of Jefferson.  Secede!

There was another windstorm near Sacramento made more difficult by road construction.  After that we had smooth sailing.

Los Banos RV Park, a KOA park,  is where we are spending the night.  There is a high wind warning for tonight and through Saturday morning.  We will see how bad it is, but if it seems prudent we will spend two nights here.  Having spent the night through a terrifying windstorm on the Oregon coast in November, we are not going to try to drive through one.  If all is well, we will drive to Gorman, CA tomorrow.  It isn't as far as we like to go in a day, around 250 miles, but there are not many RV parks in the area we are heading for.

We are having fun!

We have arrived at the Durango RV Resort in Red Bluff, CA.  Today was a difficult driving day but we are done with the mountains between Oregon and California and we survived a particularly windy stretch just north of Weed, CA.  The good thing about the wind storm was getting to see many tumbleweeds rolling by. 
We saw Jumpoff Joe Creek and Louse Creek today. 
A surprising sight was a commercial shooting range that advertised the chance to shoot a tommy gun.  Can you imagine? 
Everyone has to go through the agricultural checkpoint at the California border.  We were too chicken to lie about having strawberries and bananas on the bus, so we told the truth and found out that they were allowed.  YAY!  No naked cereal for breakfast tomorrow! 
One shocking sight was poor Lake Shasta.  The water level is so low from lack of a good snowpack and rain in the mountains that parts of the lake look like a small river instead of a glorious lake. 

Here we are at Seven Feathers RV Resort in Canyonville, OR. 
It was a very rainy day for traveling but there were no unpleasant surprises today.  Dudley and particularly Baby have been great hits wherever we have stopped. One lady at a rest area asked me if they were related.  That would be a pretty good trick for a poodle and a Maltese.  I told her they were related by adoption. Dudley seems to have adjusted to the ride but Baby is still figuring it out. 
We drove for about four hours today with one doggy stop. 
This beautiful RV campground belongs to the Cow Creek Umpqua tribe as does the casino about a quarter of a mile from here.  We took the free shuttle over there and had dinner in the restaurant.  It was very nice not cooking after the ride today.  I could get used to this. 
As I type the frogs are croaking all around us and the campground has a woodsy, rural feel.  Tomorrow we will try to start early and get over the mountains and out of Oregon and into California.  The weather is supposed to be pleasant, but then the rains will return.  I hope we can outpace it.

Due to technical difficulties, we will not be leaving today.  It has been a crazy series of events that has lead to a key not working on five of the storage bins under the bus, the Dish network TV not working and now our email isn't forwarding.  The locksmith was supposed to come yesterday but that didn't happen.  He is working on our problem now after many calls and texts.  The Dish antenna won't sync up and Dish won't send a new receiver or a repairman to an RV even if the RV is parked in front of our house.  We have to wait for a new receiver to arrive tomorrow by FedEx.  Gary is working on the email problem.  Definitely frustrating and not exactly how we had envisioned beginning our vacation!!