Greetings from The “Sunshine” State! “Sunshine” is in quotation marks because we’ve been here over four weeks now and there have only been three or four days in which we didn’t get any rain. It’s Florida, I know. Prior to us coming to Gainesville, I’d spent a total of about 20 days of my life in Florida, and there was a total of maybe one day in which there wasn’t at least a little bit of rain. Most of the time it was just a quick afternoon shower, and for the most part, that’s the way it is now. But calling it The Sunshine State is a bit of a misnomer; although, I guess it is sunny when it’s not raining (or dark). Ya know, like pretty much everywhere. Fun fact: rain hitting the roof of your motorhome is quite a bit louder than when it hits the roof of your house.
As they say, it’s not the heat, it’s the humanity. (Yes, I’m still complaining about the weather. Spend a couple decades worth of summers in Oregon (when it’s not on fire) and you’ll understand why.) I thought the humidity in Texas was bad. Then we got to Florida. It’s fine as long as you sit still.
In case you lost track, or interest, we were in Waco before coming to Florida. When you’re a travel nurse like Tara, you don’t get a paid vacation, but you can take some “vacation” time by taking some time between gigs. She took a week off and we spent a few days in Irving celebrating my brother Allen’s 50th birthday, then headed to Georgia where we spent some time in Augusta with Tara’s side of the family and two of our three kids. I even got to play golf at Augusta! Not at THAT course, obviously, but at a different course outside town. Because we had to drive through Statesboro, Georgia, to get from Augusta to Gainesville, Elizabeth decided to ride with us in the motorhome, and we stopped and saw the house that she and fiance Bryce just bought.
This is starting to sound like a family Christmas letter.
As you can tell, our latest move was pretty uneventful. There was nothing harrowing or funny that happened, the pets haven’t done anything memorable (if you don’t count the two times one of the cats barfed on the sheets two days after I changed them), and things have been pretty routine since we got to our RV park in Reddick, about 20 miles south of Gainesville and 20 miles north of Ocala. There’s plenty to do here in Florida, as you may have heard. We’ve been to the beach on both coasts, much preferring St. Augustine Beach and the bigger waves the Atlantic has to offer over Clearwater on the Gulf of Mexico (see photo above), and we visited one of the many springs in the area. (See alligator photo, which I took at Silver Springs.) I think there are also some theme parks or something down in Orlando, but we haven’t ventured that direction yet.
We still have about four weeks left in Gainesville, probably leaving here on or around November 5th. We may be headed back to Texas, but we won’t know for at least a couple weeks. Having lived in all four time zones before Tara and I even met, Eastern Time has always been, by far, my least favorite, especially during football season. On the west coast you get up on weekends and watch football first thing in the morning. In the East, though, you have to wait until noon on Saturdays and 1:00 on Sundays. And don’t get me started on those late Monday Night Football games. First-world problems, I know.
