Happy Halloween

We have been seeing this grass along the roadways and I finally got a picture of it.

This morning we visited the Florida Showcase of  Citrus.  We saw this cat as we were walking through the different displays.  He was so intent on sleeping that he never knew we were taking a picture of him.  At first I thought he was stuffed because he was so quiet.  This is a picture of total relaxation.

This was a neat place to visit, a must for every visitor to Florida.  Besides selling oranges and other locally made food items, you could take an airboat ride or a 4x4 ride through the marshes of the area.  We opted out of either because it is just too hot!

On the way back to the camp, we took a drive to the picnic area of the park.  We came across this beautiful grove of moss-draped live oak.  This one was huge.

One of the many orange groves in this area.

This morning we received pictures from Kara, Jason, and Hunter of the snow Central Illinois received overnight.  I think it was about an inch.  I had to take a picture of Carol and our campsite to show the kind of  day we were having.  The temperature got up to 93.

We saw this park sign and around another corner or two we came across the turtle below.  It was very big and walking across the road in front of us.

This is a gopher tortoise.  Adults are a foot long and may live up to 60 years.  They have flattened front legs that are used for digging burrows  The burrows can be up to 40 feet long and 10 feet deep.  

After lunch we drove on US 27 South to check out some RV parks for our next trip down to John's.  We found one that is less than 30 minutes from them and will probably stay there the next time we are visiting them.  We love camping at Lake Louise but it is an hour away from John and we need to be closer to save us and them so much travel time.  We arrived at John's for supper and some Halloween fun.  This is the pumpkin that John was carving when we left last night.

A church close to John was having a Trunk or Treat so we walked over for the kids to do some trick or treating.  Linda's niece Jessica and two of her three kids went with us.

It was a nice night for being in Halloween costumes.

A final family picture before we all say our goodbyes.

We are all in the Halloween Spirit.

A couple of final thoughts before we leave this area.  For the last eight days we have been driving up and down US 27 through what we thought was a large city.  There are housing developments, gas stations, too many restaurants to name, Walmarts, Publix, Lowes, and almost any other type of store you could name.  The traffic is horrific.  If you look on the map at US27 from the Florida Turnpike south to I-4, you will not find one city shown. It looks like a road through the country. This whole area is unincorporated.   It is not a city.  It is not a suburb of a city.  It is known as the Four Corners area because it encompasses the corners of four counties but it is not a city.  I wonder who is collecting and using all the tax revenue that is being generated in this area.  It borders Disney World so millions of people come to this area.  This is a very unique situation.

The other final thought concerns the power outage we experienced.  We found out when we were filling the car with gas that the whole area south of that station was involved in the outage.  The clerk thought there must have been a couple of transformers involved because he saw a huge semi with two transformers headed that way.  Not only we in our campers were without power but lots of people in huge houses had joined us.  I am so thankful that it was a power outage and not something wrong with the motorhome!

One final comment.  Sandy has been having a rough time physically this trip.  She fell as she was climbing the steps into the camper and has been struggling ever since.  We found something for her joints and hips and it seems to be helping and we bought a ramp to help her get into the RV.  As you can see from the picture, she looks happy and content.  We are so glad.  She is so much perkier and alert.

Tomorrow we pack up and leave this area.  It has been a busy eight days.  We are hoping for cooler temperatures at some point!