Florida - The Turn Around Point

"No picture today"

What a different a day makes.  We’re at a fueling stop near Loxley, Alabama.  We’ve never been to BucEes before.  As we moved into the lot, there were many many vehicles.  Then we noticed the fueling stations, aka gas pumps; two rows, two pumps per slot, two sides per pump; 120 places to park and fuel up.  All filled with vehicles.  And probably that many more parking spots.  I think each vehicle came with four or more occupants and they were all in the store.  What an opportunity for a super spreader.  I definitely had my mask on, and so did a few others.  A disturbed any hill doesn’t have the movement we saw in that store.

 

We spent most of the day driving through areas where we had helped with clean-up and reconstruction after Hurricane Katrina.  Pearlington was encouraging; cleaned up, new housing, growth; it looked good.  A new community center was built where we had camped during our stays.  Several specific houses we worked on looked good including the one where the old man asked for bright colors in his bedroom because everything had been so down and depressing.  We talked to a couple gents preparing for new concrete in front of the church where we had our meals, and the United Methodist Church which survived looked good.

 

In Gautier we stopped and saw the church where we started our Katrina adventure 17 years ago.  They have built a new sanctuary but only about 15 persons show on Sunday now.  When we attended those years ago there was standing room only in the old building.  After some aimless wandering searching our minds for clues to locations where we had worked, we headed back to Interstate 10 and turned our covered wagon east to Florida.

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We arrived in Leesburg, Florida, aka Fruitland Park, at the home of Brad and AnnMarie Chase in time for a chat and an awesome, my favorite, salmon and rice with cauliflower evening meal.  Brad is the twin of Cameron whom we saw in Phoenix and the son of Betty, Gail’s sister, whom we saw in Waco.  Their house is on a cove of Lake Griffin, which is interconnected with several other lakes making it possible for a multiple day boat trip.  We slept in their driveway that night and had a delightful breakfast on their deck by the pool.

 

The weather was awesome, no wind and the temperatures are a moderate seventy plus.  Alligators swam by but fortunately Chases have a secure well fenced back yard to keep Charlie out of the jaws of a gator.  They have a boat and dock which is free of fowl droppings because Brad has proudly installed a motion-activated water squirting system which discourages the perching of fowl.  Unfortunately some birds have figured out how to sit on the perch without getting squirted.  Fortunately all the birds we saw sat with their backs to the lake.  The walkway remained clear of droppings.

 

The visit with Brad and AnnMarie was awesome because although we have crossed paths at several reunions, these one-on-one interactions are so much more meaningful.  We also chatted with AnnMarie’s 91-year old mother who lives with them.  All good stuff.  -  Charlie did take a dip in their backyard pool but never did get Opie, their black lab, to warm up to him.

We’re pausing for lunch and to make an appointment to service the covered wagon as we move on.  We will have driven about 7,000 miles as of this evening.