Thurs Nov 28 to Tues Dec 3rd - Tallahassee - Mail on the Road

Highlights

Our first mail delivery, at Chabad of the Panhandle. Thanks Aryeh for mailing us our absentee ballots! Thanks Rabbi Oirechman and Chanie for accepting our mail delivery, letting us camp in your parking lot, and having us for meals on shabbos!  

Canopy roads 

Maclay Gardens

Various bike rides

Fri Nov, 29th - Tallahassee, Capital of Florida!

Downtown was deserted on Black Friday. We got a parking spot right across from the state capitol building.

The old state capital building was converted into a history museum, after narrowly avoiding demolition. The new capital building was constructed directly behind it.

Excellent museum. We felt like we were on a Norpac mission.

Remember "Hanging Chads?"

 A nice addition to Our V

Thanksgiving at Walmart!

Thursday, Thanksgiving evening to Black Friday we slept over at the Walmart in Crawfordville, FL. A unique experience. Add it to your bucket list!

Many Walmarts allow free overnight parking for RVs and trucks.  Which brought us to the Walmart in Crawfordville, FL, Thanksgiving evening. That particular Walmart actually is not one of the Walmarts that allows overnight parking (it used to) but we figured we wouldn’t be asked to leave that particular night, and we weren’t.

Here are the highlights:

It was hard to find a parking space.

Entertainment was provided - Around 6pm, we attended the “Post Thanksgiving Dinner / Pre Black Friday” shopping extravaganza. TV’s were on sale and selling like hotcakes! Crowd management was a work of art. Cart flow was restricted with Disney style lines at the checkout. There were five police cars outside and cops all over the store inside, but fortunately (or maybe because of the police presence,) no riots broke out. 

We managed to bag a USB-C cable ($3!), a half gallon of milk, a carton of Graeter's mint chocolate chip ice cream, and a box of Wheat Chex. Maybe also some bananas. 

Total cost - $10.71 
The experience - Priceless.

The parking lot was much less crowded the next morning.

Nov 28th - Thanksgiving at Wakulla Springs State Park - I Am Knee High to a Cyprus

Wakulla Springs State Park. The first spring we will see on this trip. Many, many more to come...

I thought this place was going to be a great big tourist trap, which it was, but it was also great.

It was very crowded because there was a big Thanksgiving brunch/dinner in the fancy Wakulla Springs Lodge. We were our usual shlumpy selves and everyone else was dressed up. (It was interesting what some of these folks considered dressing up.)

Excellent Ranger hour long narrated boat ride over the spring and a part of the Wakulla River. 

The water in the spring comes from a cave 110 feet below the surface. Until about 30 years ago, the water had been crystal clear, the boats had been glass bottomed and you could see the mastodon bones at the bottom of the spring. Now the water is murky. This is mainly due to pollution from Tallahassee, such as fertilizer runoff.

But we saw a great of assortment of birds, the 1st (also 2^nd and 3^rd) alligators of this trip, and a manatee!

After the boat ride, we walked through a cypress forest on the Wakulla Springs Trail. So cool! Cypress trunks have buttressed bases and are surrounded by “knees”.  

Thanksgiving evening to Black Friday we slept over at a Walmart. More on that on the next post. 

What Do You Get When You Cross a Turtle and a Rabbit?

One of these!

 This is an armadillo. A little bigger than a rabbit. Has ears that stick up and an armored shell. Adorable. Browses in the meadow. Pretty stupid. And they hop when in high grass! Hilarious. Sorry no video of the hopping.

Top 10 Ways That You Know That You Are in the South

Top 10 Ways That You Know That You Are in the South

1.  Ubiquitous do not feed the alligator signs

   You are also advised not to swim with alligators. Really.  

2.   Spanish moss hanging from live oak trees

3.  Piggly Wigglies and Wyn Dixie supermarkets

4.       Camouflage a fashion statement

5.       Guns sales and gun shows advertised all over

6.       Confederate flags displayed

7.       Palm trees all over, and not the plastic kind

8.       Insects the size of small pets

9. Many words are pronounced with extra syllables : they-em = them, rye-ight (pronounced like in light) = right, etc.

10. When the temperature is 60 degrees, locals walk around with heavy winter coats

Sun Dec 1st - It's Been a Month!

It has been a month since we left NJ!

So far…

States - 9 : NJ, DE, MD, VA, NC, SC, GA, AL, FL

Miles - 1,925

Blog Posts (including this one) - 20

Pictures taken - over 2,000

Traffic tickets = Almost 1. “But it was yellow when I entered the intersection, officer”

Lbs weight gained or lost - Who knows? We don’t have a scale. Who cares? 

Additional info:

Our RV has exceeded expectations 

Bob and I are still talking to each other

I need a haircut