University of North Florida

I spent three hours meandering from Freedom VanGo to Publix on Monday, ambling as though I was walking Rusty but in fact all by myself. Except of course for the squads of groundskeepers and maintenance people who populate every square inch of this perfectly maintained campus.

The campus is spread down a hill with paths lawns and parking lots in every direction and of course tons of signs.

When last I was here they wanted you to wear a mask outdoors but I think that idea has got a re-think. Besides I was not exactly surrounded with people on the campus.

A lovely sunny and yet slightly cool morning around 75 degrees, much cooler than the Keys.

I found colors everywhere along the paths across the campus.

I was walking down to the parking office which marks the main entrance to the nature trails that separate the campus from the I-295 freeway.

Knowing where I was going, remembered from my last visit, made the going much faster but I still found myself stopping from time to time to enjoy the slanting morning light.

It was enormously relaxing taking my time and looking around. 

I hope some of that comes through in and among these many, many pictures!

I was shocked to see turtles and fish swim rapidly toward the observation deck when they saw me peering over the railing. I felt bad in that I was disappointing them by not having. hand out. 

It didn't actually say no feeding and I expect people who come by regularly have created the demand!

The north end of the nature trails has Lake Oneida to provide interest and I took advantage.

The turtles are very nervous creatures I found. As soon as they noticed me on the trail, even a long way away they abandoned their photogenic poses and plopped into the water. This slow poke had been forgotten by his three more fearful comrades:

No internal combustion motors on the lake, only catch and release fishing no swimming etc etc... Be an adult I guess is there short version.

Lovely trails all around and it was only toward the end of my walk that I met a few other walkers and runners. Mostly I was alone with the sounds of distant traffic.

Science has a purpose. Imagine that:

On my previous walk (Link Here) I found a boardwalk collapsing from lack of attention and here we had a similar, shorter section.

No big deal even for a man with a rebuilt pelvis!

I allowed myself to enjoy what I saw. 

I walked onto the island in the middle of the lake but there was no second exit so I came back the way I came...across the picturesque wooden bridge.

No Rusty. 

Walking to the top end of the preserve allowed me to look back to the bridge across to the island. This was my favorite picture of the set.

Back to civilization. I wonder if I will ever be back here? I made the most of it

Jacksonville

I took to the road by myself, not as a dry run but for one last van improvement appointment. I made the date in Jacksonville months ago when I was still employed and tried to fit the Monday into my schedule which now that I am retired means nothing. I-95. at 65 mph in the slow lane all day Sunday...I did think of taking an inland route up Highway 27 after I dropped off some boxes at the storage unit in Miami. However the time penalty didn't seem worth it for a road that I know pretty much by heart. I got on the freeway and got on with it.

The van goes about 400 miles or more between full and empty but all I need is gas. I took a break in Fort Pierce eating a snack from the fridge and sleeping for a half hour on the bed under the air conditioner. It is much more comfortable to travel like this than on a motorcycle...

There is a rest stop just south of Jacksonville where I've stopped before, on my last visit to Freedom VanGo I guess, and I have to say I Like rest stops for an easy place to sleep. The van is well insulated and traffic noise doesn't bother me, but I do like to park the van on the car side away from the rumbling truck area.

Monday morning I pulled in to the hotel and asked to drop off my bag but they said they had a room already available so up I went! A quick hot shower - van life not! - and I was ready to drive. five minutes to the shop.

I've never stayed at a Tru hotel before but Layne said it needed the least Hilton points for a stay which is fine by me. It projects a youthful informal air with bright decorations and simplicity the theme. Very Euro style I guess.

Let's not forget this is America and it meets all the needs of the working Millennial who is the target guest apparently. There is a proper buffet breakfast, there are lots of outlets for electronic gadgets and the water is hot in the shower! Thumbs up from this aged baby boomer, I'd be happy to stay again.

The purpose of the trip isn't to explore hotels but to leave the van overnight at the shop. They are installing Bilstein suspension, the last word in shock absorbers I'm told with Sumo springs in an effort to give the whole heavy package the least stressful ride on dirt, sand and gravel roads. We also ordered a skid plate to protect the engine and transmission from Van Edgeworks in Livermore California. Actually I introduced FreedomVanGo to the California shop as I wanted them to become the East Coast supplier for Promasters. I'm getting the first one and I hope more Promaster owners will see the benefit of the van as an adventure vehicle.

I don't want a $200,000 four wheel drive Sprinter or a lifted van which is a complicated and uncertain modification for the front wheel drive van, but I do like this van with the modifications I have had installed and I think it will do well in the modest dirt driving we want to try. A few months in Mexico and then Alaska will show us the wisdom of our choices as a final test before we head south.

I took a three hour walk meandering through the woods and nature trails of the University of North Florida campus which sits between the shop and the hotel. I'll post some pictures next on the woods. I stopped at Publix to get beer and food and a vaccination or two. They ended up giving me my 'flu shot but the pharmacist said I wasn't eligible for the Moderna booster as it hasn't been approved for healthy adults like myself. Weird thought I as everyone I know, who has the brains to get vaccinated, is getting boosters right and left.  Not today apparently, so I rejoice in being old and healthy!

The 'flu shot got done the shopping got done and a nap got done. Gannet2 is getting done. Mission sort of accomplished I guess.

Mr Grouch Potato

The Keys are making it awfully easy to leave this year. It's not the weather which has been lovely, its not work which I don't have to deal with anymore, its just too peopley out there and I want to get my irritation off my chest by grumbling. The KOA on Sugarloaf Key got wrecked by Hurricane Irma, as did the trailer park near my home called Venture Out on Cudjoe Key, where Irma actually landed. Venture Out is long since back and fully functional while the KOA did me the personal favor of failing to get it together until just now.

And of course Rusty and I minding our business now find the area around the KOA inhabited with walkers cyclists and people busy coming into the Keys and living "on island" in that pretentious phrase they use. It's October I groan plaintively to my long suffering wife, they aren't supposed to be here for another couple of months. There there she says and ignores me. 

The ride hard in spandex and ignore bicycle paths where available and wonder why distracted drivers in Florida mow them down like ninepins. The great me with huge smiles and all the energy of a consultant on vacation, glad to be back on their islands. This is the early stages before they have to complain about everything. But lo and behold it dod eventually occur to me, the bear with a. very small brain, that I will no longer field endless winter complaints about parking, trash, drunks, sleepers, trespassers and urinators. Yay! There is that at least. I am retired. I want to be like the tortoise Rusty and I meet from time to time on this trail and s/he always pulls their head in quickly aggravated by intruders like us who have no business mucking up the tortoise way of life by walking the trail. 

The power walkers were charming, with huge white grins and spandex breast plates fit to scare any Visigoth into submission. Your dog looks hot she said brightly, I looked at my toes and mumbled not as hot as summer (because I was here this summer I wanted to imply because I'm Mr Grouch Potato snotbag).

I know they are coming for the super spreader event called Fantasy Fest and they have years worth of suburban inhibition to throw off all in one week, but golly gee willikers I really did think we had a chance of getting our before the hordes. That plan has apparently been foiled.

Summer at least if too hot for most to come in the noonday sun. Fall used to be reserved for Germans and French tourists and then there was nothing. Go back even further and Memorial Day to Labor Day was the empty quarter around here, oh blessed memory.  However now it is year round endless and long may it last. It feeds my pension fund.

Eaton Night

Walking the streets before dawn, walking the streets during the day the only difference is I take pictures in the dark and I do chores during the day! These photos from the days ago illustrate my thoughts about yesterday's. chore day in my retired state.

Rusty and I chauffeured Layne around town to deliver a piece of furniture, to deal with a couple of banking issues, to mail packages, all the daily dreariness. I used to be at work while all this went on, cool in the air-conditioning at my desk handling other people's routines for them. Now I walk Rusty while the offices reverberate to my routines. My wife's routines really as I am not much given to bureaucracy.

While we were away Maria cleaned the house which is always lovely but right now the interior has the spartan appearance of a traditional Japanese interior. Places to sit, tables to eat at and a bed surrounded by white walls. I always enjoy this stage of the move, the simplicity and ease of nothing much to take care of except the daily needs. 

I was walking Rusty past Mattress Firm in the heat of the day. My hair got cut faster than Layne did the grocery shopping and I had forgotten my medical card at home so the vaccine booster was going to be for another day. So I walked Rusty, who vacuumed from shade to shade as I walked and thought.

We have a little more than two weeks to go before departure day as planned. As we walked I was wondering what else should we be doing? Have we left any stones unturned? And the answer kept coming back no. I think we've sucked the Keys dry.

Yesterday was Friday and as I stood outside Baby's Coffee waiting for breakfast, and walking Rusty in the heat, I watched a long endless line of cars driving slowly toward Key West on the Overseas Highway. An endless line at ten in the morning. People coming to Key West in October. 

I got a call from a friend on the mainland on Thursday calling to congratulate me on retirement. We talked of this and that and somehow the conversation wandered around to the shortage of workers services and things. The lack of employees is nationwide, containers are in short supply, cars and their spare parts have gone AWOL in dealerships, and oddball grocery shortfalls strike at random. It was a good thing to remind me its not just in the Keys.

Reporters tell us its a side effect of the damned virus but to me on my good days I see it as a sign of resilience. We learn how to do without even if it is just a favorite name brand. I hope it doesn't last, I want. return to normal, but for now we hang on and make do.

Closing down our bank safe deposit box was a trial. The new employee had no idea what to do and feared making a mistake (another mistake she told the senior clerk). The senior clerk was doing the work of an assistant manager I guess and it felt like things were hanging by a thread as usual.  Mailing our parcels was the same trial at the packing store, one slow client sent the room into a long line and the single employee. had no one to help. We the customers waited in line with no expectations. It's the new normal. Thank goodness for Kindle on my phone!

Retiring and driving away is a new normal for us but all of us in our own ways are living in a new normal that has taken over all our worlds. Life is full of surprises.