The Hunger Games

 

Wesley Chapel, Florida (high 76, low 50)

The Hunger Games was the title of a hit movie.

It is also what goes on around here, every morning.

Mr. Baxter, who is a really big boy, with a really big appetite, is ready for a really big breakfast very early in the morning.

He went from this:

To this:

Notice the other kitty?  She’s a little smaller than normal, but can you see the difference in size?  He’s a really big boy, with a really big appetite.

We’ve had a real problem breaking him of waking us up at 3:00 or 4:00 am for his breakfast.  That in itself was a real battle of the wills, but we finally won that one.  Or maybe, we compromised because he still wakes us up, just not as early.   :)

However, he is only patient for so long and then we start hearing the pitter patter of “little” feet running from the front of the coach, all the way back to the bedroom.  He runs down the hall, jumps up on the dresser and then does a quick scratch on the shades to make sure he gets your attention.  He knows he is not supposed to scratch on the shades, so he does it real quick, and then watches for the reaction!

For his efforts, he gets a squirt with the water sprayer, and off he goes running back down the hall.  Pitter patter, pitter patter.

It becomes quite a game.

Al is in charge of the pistol grip sprayer, which is kept by his side of the bed.  After a few blasts of water, he starts to chuckle.  I lay there trying to get a few more minutes of sleep, until I finally wake up to watch the “hunger games.”

By the time we finally get up Baxter is pretty wet!

As time goes on, the running gets more insistent and the “pitter patter of little feet” starts to sound more like a herd of wild elephants.   The light scratch on the shades gets consistently louder.  It becomes more and more frequent, and more and more insistent, until we finally decide to get up.

Mr. Baxter wakes up hungry! 

But….before he gets his breakfast, we have all three have to make the bed.  

What a lot of fun that is, with the help of a big furry, hungry, playful cat!

As you start smoothing the sheets, up pounces a big fluffy, hungry kitty ready to help!

We toss a Q-tip down the hall to get him off the bed long enough to start the bed making process.  He chases the Q-tip, retrieves it,  and then brings it right back and drops it on the bed, ready to go again.  I’ve never seen a cat play fetch before.  Each time he brings it back, he gets praised.  It takes quite a few “fetches” before we can get the bed made, but Baxter enjoys it and it gives him some much needed exercise.

So…..that’s how our mornings begin around here.  The cats get their breakfast before we get our coffee, but we wake up with a few laughs and smiles on our faces.

Baxter eats his breakfast and guess what he does next?  Yup, he goes and takes a long nap!  Hey, the boy is tired after getting up so early!

 

Our weather has been pretty cold here for 5-6 nights.  The day time temperatures are fine, but we’ve had quite a few nights in the 30’s.  Anything lower than the heat pump runs on, is too cold for me, and that is exactly what we’ve had.

It looks like winter is over now, with temps to be in the low 80’s all the rest of the week.  Hopefully the temperatures in the 30’s are over for the winter, but….

We have decided that winter is definitely going to be over for us, because……..

 

WE’RE HEADING BACK TO THE KEYS!

We decided to take a different route down this time.  We normally take I-75 south to Highway 41 and stay overnight at Midway Campground off 41.  There are two problems there.  One, Midway Campground  is first come first serve and you cannot call to see if there are any spots.  We always worry if we’ll be able to get a site or not. The other problem is the construction on 41 heading to the Keys is  horrible.  We’ve gone that route quite a few times and with the construction and narrow one way lanes, it’s an accident waiting to happen.

We decided we’ll head east on Highway 60 and then take I-95 and the turnpike south.   We really hate I-95 around Miami, so we’ll probably hop over to the turnpike, despite the extra expense.

This way we could bypass the construction on highway 41 and hopefully find a campsite we could get a reservation for.

Unfortunately, getting a reservation this time of year in Florida is not easy.  At least not a reservation where we knew was big rig friendly and not the only site no one else wanted.

We wanted to stay at Jonathan Dickenson State Park, but of course nothing was available.  I decided to keep checking and hope for a cancellation and I got lucky and snagged one!  We’ll only be there one night, but maybe we’ll stay longer on the way back.  We have reservations in the Keys from March 19, through April 17.  I hope nothing happens to prevent our travels.  I always worry!

We’re starting to get into the “Keys mood”.  Sherry mentioned in a recent blog about how you develop a routine at each place you stay. That is so true and we already know our routine in the Keys.   Up early and walk along the bridges watching the sunrise.  Play all day around the water and then watch the sunset at the Sunset Bar and Grill!   Can’t wait!