A Good Day

Yesterday was a good day.

We had nowhere to go and nothing we had to do.  It was the first time we've had a day like that for a long time and we were looking forward to it.

We got up early, had breakfast and drove to a local equestrian/bicycle'/hiking park.  It’s all part of the Hillsborough River watershed area.  The Hillsborough River is where Tampa gets its water so the land surrounding it is protected from building.

We stayed on the main road which was mostly dry and sandy.  On the way back we saw an armadillo so I left the trail to take a picture…picture hasn’t been downloaded yet. 

We got back in the car after our 3 mile hike and I felt something crawling on my hand.  I thought it was a tick, so I quickly grabbed it in a paper towel for Al to identify when we got to our next stop.  Sure enough, he said it was a “Brown Dog Tick” which is the most common type of tick.  Lyme disease is caused from tick bites so I certainly didn’t want to see that!  We had only left the main trail for a minute, but we figure that was when I got the tick.  Florida does have a lot of ticks, so it’s something to be aware of, both for people and pets.  Al gets quite a few tick calls from the veterinarians that he sprays.

The tick hadn’t bitten me (yet) but after that I kept feeling like bugs were crawling all over me!  We came home and had showers.  No more ticks were found!

After lunch our plan was to sit outside and read.  It was in the mid 70’s and sunny, so it was a beautiful day to be outside. 

We decided to each take 5 minutes and straighten the house.  Well that 5 minutes ended up lasting the rest of the day.  Al decided to clean out all his storage bins and I pulled out the vacuum and cleaned up cat hair, did some laundry and organized.  We’re still trying to figure out how to best organize this place and constantly tweaking it. 

Today we’re meeting a bunch of other rv people that are in the area now.  We’re meeting in Lakeland for lunch.  It was put together by Donna/Froggi and should be fun to meet other rv’ers/bloggers.

 

Did you know the saying "God willing and the Creek don't rise" was in reference to the Creek Indians and not a body of water?  It was written by Benjamin Hawkins in the late 18th century.  He was a politician and Indian diplomat.  While in the south, Hawkins was requested by the President of the U.S. to return to Washington.  In his response, he was said to write, "God willing and the Creek don't rise."  Because he capitalized the word "Creek" it is deduced that he was referring to the Creek Indian tribe and not a body of water.