Last weekend I took my dog and we went to Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park for the weekend.  It was the ARRL Field Day event (please see my ham radio page for more info) and I wanted to get out and do some remote operating.  Anyway, I ended up having the entire campground to myself… how often does that happen?

The site is #20.  It clearly has the best view across the prairie (as you can see from my panoramic view from my easy-chair). Click on the images (below) to see the entire image.

The dog (Sandy) seemed to really like it here.  Sandy (and I) got to see plenty of Turkey and Deer.  I never managed to have my camera at the ready when Turkey walked through my camp, but below is a cool picture of a buck at sunrise.

If you plan on camping here, make sure you are packed!  Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park is about 30 miles away from everything, and its all back-roads to get there.  But you’ll be rewarded with real seclusion, which is what makings camping what it is.

The old town is nice, easy to walk around, sports a couple of bars, a haunted house, an arcade, and various shops.  There are a few rides in the area as well, such as a small roller-coaster, tilt-a-whirl, go-carts, etc…. mostly for smaller kids.  And for the bigger ‘kids’, the Super-Shot (you are taken up into the air and dropped; you quickly decelerate when you reach the ground) and the Human SlingShot (fires you up into the air then bounce around until you are brought back down).  And for your info… nope… I did not ride either one.  No way! 

The cars we saw were nice, some very interesting ones.  The weather all weekend was atrocious and I think it kept quite a few cars away that weekend.  Even so, those that did come out were interesting to look at.  Later on in the evening all the cars roar to life and do a drive-thru the middle of Old Town.  All the folks line the sidewalks and watch the cars drive up through the middle of town.  It’s nice to see & hear them all drive by.

The campground was very nice!  The only brief respite we had from the rain was Sunday morning for a couple of hours and Laura & I took the opportunity to hit the pool.  The pool at Tropical Palms is exceptional; plenty of recliner chairs, nice size pool, and a bar/restaurant overlooking the pool area.  We hung out for about 2 hours until the sun was blocked by rain clouds (again) at which time we walked back to our trailer.  We no sooner stepped inside when the clouds opened up and for the next few hours it poured rain.  This was pretty much the scenario all weekend…. rain, rain, and more rain!

We spent quite a bit of time sightseeing from the van.  We drove through Celebration (Disney) and looked at the houses and shops.  We were excited to see one of our favorite restaurants in Celebration, the Columbia Restaurant (they have had a restaurant in St. Augustine for a long time).  We immediately booked dinner reservations and dined there that (Sunday) evening.  The food at the Columbia is phenomenal!  Two things are a must have at the Columbia: the 1905 salad & the Sangria.  You won’t be disappointed with either one.

Unfortunately due to the weather I didn’t carry my camera with me.  So no pictures to share.  Next trip over I’ll be sure to take some (provided that it isn’t raining the entire time again).  But if you’re looking for a good weekend get-away idea, give Tropical Palms/Old Town Kissimmee/Celebration/Columbia Restaurant a try.

Take care!

Week two was every bit as good as week one.  The weather was outstanding; I don’t believe we had a single day of rain during our second week.  The days were in the 80’s, nights in the low to mid 70’s… just right for sitting outside during the evenings.

We stayed at the Locust Campground in Lewistown, PA.  My parents have a campsite there and keep a trailer set up permanently.  It was nice to have spent some time with my folks and meet some of the others around the campground.  On our second day we were invited to a pot-luck picnic, and let me tell you the food was outstanding!  We really enjoyed our stay.

From the Locust Campground we ventured off in several directions.  We spent a few days in my home town of State College, home of the Penn State Nittany Lions.  We had front-row seats at the Penn State 4^th Fest, an all volunteer fireworks display.   I’ve been to some pretty spectacular firework shows before, including Washington DC, but this show was beyond belief.  The show is synchronized to music, and coupled with the fact that we were sitting a short distance from the show in the VIP section (which made the firework display appear directly in front of your face), we were completely mesmerized through the entire event.  Without a doubt, the best 4^th show I’ve ever seen!

We spent a day in Amish country in Lancaster County.  More specifically, we spent the day in Intercourse (the town!).  A group of shops known as Kitchen Kettle Village left us hauling away a lot of purchases, specifically some jellies and jams that are made on the premises.  The rest of the day we enjoyed driving around the Amish farms, stopping at roadside flea markets, and anything else that caught our eye.

Our last day of vacation was spent back in State College for the first day of the Penn State Annual Arts Festival.  We spent the day walking around town looking at all the art (Laura found a purse she couldn’t be without), eating way too much food, and enjoying the day.  After a few hours we made our way to another nearby town, Boalsburg for another art festival, the Peoples Choice Festival Yup… more walking around, more eating, more art gawking.  We found an artist, John Stevens,  that Laura and I both liked, and purchased a couple of his lithographs.  If you click on John’s name, you will be whisked away to his web site where you can view his artwork.  We liked how he captured much of what we like about Pennsylvania; farms, farm houses, village houses, etc… and it looks great hanging on our walls at home.

The entire two-week trip was just what we needed, very relaxing!  Now its time to start planning our next trip (how far is it to Alaska from Florida???).

Enjoy the pictures!

[nggallery id=19]

I hadn’t been to Colonial Williamsburg in at least twelve years.   We spent nearly a full day walking the streets, visiting the various shops, had lunch at Chowning’s Tavern, dinner at the Kings Arm’s Tavern… it was a great day.  My legs & feet were aching after all the walking!

One day was spent at Busch Gardens, Williamsburg and another at Kings Dominion.  Between those two parks, I think I got my fill of roller-coaster riding in for the year.  My head is still spinning from some of those rides.  We were very lucky in that the weather was outstanding for all three of these destinations.  However, the weather didn’t cooperate on the day we drove to the Shenandoah National Park. I used to spend a lot of time in that park when I lived in Richmond some 15 years ago.  Shenandoah has always been one of my favorite parks; some great trails are all throughout the park.  It was disappointing that one of my favorite, short hikes, Turk’s Mountain Trail, was cut short due to a torrential downpour that just wouldn’t let up.  We were at least ¾’s of the way into the hike when the skies opened up, lightning and thunder all around, etc… so we decided to high-tail it back to the car.  We were soaked!  Just visiting Shenandoah was nice, but I realized it will be some time again if I ever get a chance to return.

The rest of the time was spent doing what you’re supposed to be doing on vacation… relaxing!  I would wake up late, have some breakfast, sit outside listening to the radio, maybe doze off for a while, get up and have lunch, go take the dog for a walk, doze some more, time for dinner, relax a while more, then hit the hay.  My kind of day!

The trip was great.  Other than the rainstorm at Shenandoah National Park, nary a drop of rain fell on us.  Temps were in the 70′s and 80′s (nice change from the 90′s we’ve been having in Florida), and a nice breeze would blow through on occasion.  Being around trees other than Palm trees was a nice change as well.

I’ll post Week Two : Central Pennsylvania in a few days.  In the meantime, enjoy the Colonial Williamsburg pictures (below).

[nggallery id=18]

Our trip started in Melbourne, Florida, the first night was spent in Florence, South Carolina, and then the next week was in Williamsburg, Virginia.  Then it was off to Lewistown, Pennsylvania for a week, then back to Florence, South Carolina for a night, then home.  A lot of driving!  The 2008 Ford E-350 van pulled the trailer extremely well, the 5.4 liter V-8 did fine on flat runs, had to gear down a bit when pulling through the mountains of VA and PA, but the van was very stable.  I was quite impressed with how well an E-350 is as a tow vehicle.

I will be writing several articles about our trip over the next few days, so stay tuned.

I’m selling my daily driver.  I can’t justify (or have the room for) two vehicles since I purchased the Ford E-350.  Hate to let it go; its been an outstanding vehicle!  65,600 miles.  Excellent Condition.  Can provide a CarFax report.  Original window sticker pictures (below) describes all the features.  Some of the highlights:

V-6 Engine, 2-wheel (front) drive, automatic transmission, leather interior, power moon roof, rear cargo protector (not in the pictures below), cargo net for rear cargo area, tow package, premium sound stereo with 6 CD changer, air conditioning (works great).

Click on any photo (below) to see a larger image.  You can click-advance through the images when the picture is expanded.

If you are interested in this vehicle and would like more information, click here.  Include your name, reason for the message (interested in the Tribute), and contact information (phone, email, etc…).

8

My New Truck

After a couple of months searching Florida far-and-wide, I finally decided to go out of state and get my new T.V.  I had been looking for a 12-passenger Ford E-350 with the tow package (of course).  I would keep finding them outside of Florida, but never around here.  A while back I stumbled across AdventureVans in Charlotte, North Carolina.  They have an excellent selection of slightly used vans at very good prices.  The also had one that was pretty much just what I was looking for.

So I gave them a call and talked to them.  I explained my situation; I was three states away and couldn’t find what I was looking for around here.  They said to let them know when I could come up and look at it and they’d put it aside till I get there.

So I made the trip and ended up driving it home.  The folks at AdventureVans were excellent.  They were very easy to work with and were genuinely good people.  I highly recommend giving them a call if you are in the market for a slightly-used, low mileage van.

The van is a 2008 Ford E-350 with the 5.4L engine.  Axle ratio is 3.73, GCWR is 13,000.  I was very surprised at how well it rides.  Its got front and rear AC, AM/FM with CD stereo and speakers galore, power windows/locks/steering/brakes/etc…, back-up sensors, and a TON of room!  I am looking forward to pulling our trailer with this thing… I expect it’ll do just fine!

By the way… if you do call AdventureVans for a van, make sure you ask for Todd.  He’ll take good care of ya!

Campsite

Just returned from Alachua County Fairgrounds, Gainesville, Florida.  We went up for the weekend, leaving on Friday evening and returning only a couple hours ago.  The weather was excellent; warm all day, and a nice breeze would come through during the evening, cooling off the night just right.  We stayed at the fairgrounds since the local Amateur Radio Club (GARS) was having a Hamfest there, and while Laura and Emily did their thing around Gainesville, I checked out the gear at the Hamfest, and hung out at the trailer.  More can be found on my Amateur Radio Page.

Sandy

Some locals told us about a great pizza place in Gainesville, Satchel’s Pizza.  If you’re ever in Gainesville and get a hankerin’ for some pizza, check this place out.  Great food, neat atmosphere, great service, and the deserts are outstanding.  Definitely worth a stop.

Sandy enjoyed the surroundings.  She rarely gets the opportunity to run around without the chain on.

I tried my hand at taking some video this time; thought I’d change it up a bit from taking pictures.  So here’s some shots of our campsite, followed by a walk around the park (being towed by Sandy).  You’ll see how dense the vegetation is in this CG, the park area (community building and playground for the kids), and a few animals along the way.

Enjoy!

Update: I, unfortunately, had to remove the video.  There seems to be a problem with the amount of time it was taking to load the web page.  I’m testing some other options for video and when I find a solution I like, I’ll put video back on the site.

]]> http://www.grovecamp.com/?feed=rss2&p=733 0 http://www.grovecamp.com/?p=727 http://www.grovecamp.com/?p=727#comments Fri, 10 Apr 2009 03:05:57 +0000 Marty http://www.grovecamp.com/?p=727 I added shelves in one of the two closets next to the bed.  The shelves are in place, but they are not complete.  I need to lightly sand the shelves and apply a few coats of polyurethane for strength and durability.  Plus I want to radius the edge of the support braces.  But for a CG mod, not too bad.  You can see the mod here.