Sunday, March 8, 2009

Sunday March 8, 2009

Home-again, home again, jiggety-jig! We decided not to set the alarm for this morning as we were really tired. By the time we showered, dressed and got out the door, it was 7:30 (the old 6:30). We were really tired! We skipped breakfast at the motel as we had snacks in the car. We really cannot believe how much traffic we encountered on the road! At least today was not motorcycles, but there were plenty of cars and trucks on the road. We decided to use the GPS to route us home and we had a very interesting experience in D. C. - we went right by the Jefferson Memorial and could see the Washington monument and the Capitol building just a stone's throw away. We were only on surface streets for a half a mile or so and then got on to the Washington/Baltimore Parkway. It really wasn't bad - probably because today was Sunday - and I'm sure it saved quite a bit of time over going around on the beltway. This is not something I would have liked to do on a work day though. We had a few hold-ups: George Washington bridge, Cross-Bronx expressway, Stamford, New Haven, but all in all made pretty good time. We only had to stop twice to change drivers and arrived home at 5 PM after stopping to see Jaime and Dotty Jo for a few minutes. We had called Amy and Dean from the road and invited ourselves to dinner which she made at our house. Today is Dean's birthday so we had cake for dessert along with some strawberries we had picked up in Florida. It was really nice to see everyone. As much as we enjoy traveling, we do miss family and there really is no place like home. We chatted with Doug this morning in the car on the cell phone and called Laura this evening. So this is it for the blog for now. We will start it up whenever we have another adventure. Thanks to all of our loyal readers - we enjoyed your comments along the way.

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Saturday March 7, 2009

We got off after breakfast this morning at about 8:15. We gave big hugs to Sandy and Larry - we had a wonderful week visiting with them and now won't see them again until they come back to Mystic in the middle of April. It was a beautiful day to travel: 68 when we got up this morning and it got up to 80 for the high in Georgia and South Carolina. We decided not to stop for lunch and pushed through. There was much more traffic on the road than we had thought. There also must have been a motorcycle rally just north of Daytona Beach - there were hundreds of them on the road as well as trucks hauling 6 to 8 cycles in trailers. At the exit, there was a back up of about a half a mile to get off the highway! The other thing that I haven't written about in the blog is the large number of different license plates in Florida. Dave and I have seen about 50 different ones and Sandy Levine thinks there may be as many as 200. I assume they don't cost as much as the special ones in Connecticut. We finally stopped for the night in Rocky Mount, NC at 8:15. We have just come back from dinner at Denny's which is next door and will read for a short time before going to sleep. Unfortunately, we will lose an hour tonight, but we would like to get an early start tomorrow so as to get home before dark if possible.

Friday March 6, 2009

Another beautiful day! We went for a walk at Green Cay this morning. This is another nature preserve nearby. We elected to go for the mile long hike on the boardwalk. Most of the walk was over wetlands. We saw many of the same things that we saw the other day, but there were a few new things: Florida soft shell turtle, teal winged duck, grebe, and a baby alligator about a foot long. Momma was nearby and kept a watchful eye on the baby - it was very cute! After lunch, Sandy took Larry for his physical therapy appointment and while they were gone, Dave and I packed up the car. It only took 10 or 15 minutes. We are certainly going to miss the sunshine. We went out for dinner at a restaurant named DaDa - it was really funky and artsy inside: red walls with gold molding, giant ants pained on the wall and ceiling, a lamp shade made out of a black fringed shawl. Our waiter wore a black tee shirt, combat boots with white socks and a kilt! The food was delicious - I had butternut squash ravioli in a cream sauce with asparagus, artichokes, fresh diced tomatoes and topped with flakes of parmesan cheese, Dave had a giant burger, Larry had a pork chop and mashed potatoes, and Sandy had a chicken penne dish with green beans - everyone was delighted with his meal and we took the leftovers home for Larry and Sandy to enjoy over the weekend. We played pinochle and the boys won again - 2 games to 1!!!!! They really had the luck on their side this week.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Thursday March 5, 2009

What a perfect Florida day - the sun is shining with a slight breeze - definitely shorts weather! We went down the turnpike for a few exits and got off at Sample Road to go to a huge indoor flea market. They sold just about everything you can imagine in there and it is so large that the wide aisles have names just like street signs so you don't get lost. We didn't buy much, but had a good time looking. We came back to the condo and had lunch. While Larry took a nap, Dave and I went back to Festival (the local flea market) and had another look around. We stopped at the local supermarket on the way back and picked up a few items for when we travel on Saturday and some bananas for Larry and Sandy. We went out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant - great food and great service. We were joined by Sandy's sister, Jean, and a couple that are friends of both Jean and the Levine's. After dinner, we went back to Jean's for coffee, tea and dessert. Jean has a lovely apartment very close to where Larry and Sandy are. She lives in a high-rise right on a golf course - large eat-in kitchen, living room with dining area, large bedroom and a den where she has her computer and a pull-out sofa for guests. We chatted and had a good time while enjoying fruit, carrot cake and brownies (not all of course as we were stuffed). We are going to another nature preserve tomorrow and then we will have to pack the car in the afternoon.

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Wednesday March 4, 2009

We woke up to mega clouds today. We were going to go to the Orchid House and gardens, but the weather looked iffy. We decided to stay in and ended up playing cards. The boys won again (2 games to 1 - boo hoo). We had a 15 minute shower - just enough to wet the grass. We read for a while and Dave ran the vacuum around to clean up a bit (even though we haven't been overly messy). We went out for dinner to a local diner and then went to the big clubhouse for a show. Sandy and Larry gave us a tour: card rooms, fitness rooms, ceramics, art, library, jewelry making, indoor heated pool with 30 person jacuzzi, 2 outdoor pools and a 1500 person auditorium with stadium seating - the place was huge. The entertainment was a comedian who had been on the Johnny Carson show 25 times and a Dean Martin/Frank Sinatra impersonator/singer. The comedian was better than the impersonator, but the evening was a fun one. I realized that I had forgotten to describe the Bento box that Dave had for lunch yesterday - it was a black lacquered box with compartments for each of the different food items - it really was a work of art!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Tuesday March 3, 2009

We went for a lovely walk this morning and then showered and had breakfast when we returned. After breakfast we went to The Morikami which is a museum and Japanese gardens. What a treasure! It is 200 acres of peace in the middle of a bustling city. There were winding gravel paths, boardwalks and bridges that featured hidden gardens, bamboo forests, ponds, waterfalls and plenty of benches on which to sit and rest or contemplate life. We enjoyed our walk immensely. One of the last places we visited was the Bonsai garden which was fantastic - one of the trees was started in 1600! We ate lunch in the cafe which of course features Japanese cuisine. Dave was brave and had the Bento box. His lunch was a sampling of many dishes such as tofu, rice, eel, dumplings, chicken teryaki, poached salmon, shrimp, sushi, Spring roll and a variety of vegetables. Lunch was wonderful. Larry took a nap when we got back. For dinner Sandy cooked a pork tenderloin in the George Foreman grill and we had that with baked while and sweet potatoes, salad and broccoli - yum. Carol Shasha who lives nearby and used to teach in Waterford came over for dessert. We had a wonderful time catching up with her and talking about "the old days". We have decided what we are doing tomorrow during the day, but will go to a show at the clubhouse in the afternoon.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

Monday March 2, 2009

We woke up to a chilly, breezy day, but the sun is shining so all is well. We went to the Wakodahatchee Nature Preserve nearby and had a lovely walk on the boardwalk over the wetlands. We saw alligators, an iguana, egrets, ibis, Great blue herons, small blues, night herons, cormorants and anhingas along with some that we weren't sure of. We also saw some turtles and fish. I think the best part of the walk was seeing the babies: herons, anhingas, and moorhens. They were all very fuzzy and cute. We can't post any pix as we downloaded the camera onto our laptop and Sandy and Larry don't have wireless. I am using their computer with dial-up to post the blogs while we are here. It has been a long time since we have used dial-up - seems like ancient times, but we are not complaining - so it takes a bit longer - we have time. After lunch, Larry and Sandy went to a doctor appointment for Larry and Dave and I read for a bit. We had an early dinner of hot dogs last night and then went to a lecture put on by the women of Brandeis University. The speaker was an anchor woman from a local news channel. She was very young and didn't quite hit the mark of the topic which was Politics and the Media, but she did have a few interesting stories. We came home and had dessert and chatted until just after eleven before going to bed. Tomorrow we are going to a Japanese garden of some sort. I hope the weather will be nice so we can get some good pictures.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Sunday March 1, 2009

Another beautiful morning so Dave and I got up and went for a walk around the compound. We came back and showered and then we all had breakfast and watched Meet the Press. We were due for rain this afternoon so we decided to go for a ride while the sun was out. Sandy and Larry drove us to downtown Delray - very nice shops - and showed us the beach - lovely water and white sand. We then went to the local indoor flea market and walked around. I picked up a couple of little things and had a great time looking at all of the amazing things in the flea market. There was a man who sold only pickles, but he had every kind imaginable! Sandy bought a couple of half-sours for lunch. There were clothes, hats, purses, souvenirs, a barbershop, a law booth, shoes, and an area with slot machines. I had never seen anything like it. We came back for lunch and Larry took a nap while the rest of us read the Sunday paper. We had a brief (about 10 minute) thunderstorm with wind and rain and that was it for the rain. When Larry got up we went downtown to the Cinema and saw The Reader. It was very intense, but a thought-provoking movie. We walked around the corner for dinner at the Mediterranean Grill. Larry and Sandy had lamb kabobs, Dave had Shrimp kabobs and I had Zucchini pancakes. Everyone had a lovely meal and we took the leftovers for tomorrow's lunch. We have been chatting and reading since we got home and will hit the sack soon. The sky was clear when we came out of the movie, but it is still breezy. We may be in for a cool stretch, but I think the rain, such as it was, is over. Sandy spoke with her son Barry tonight and I understand you folks at home are getting snow. I was hoping that spring would be right around the corner when we got home next weekend, but I guess we will just have to be patient.

Saturday February 28, 2009

We got on the road after breakfast this morning and headed down 95 to Delray Beach. The weather is wonderful - today was the first time that we were even tempted to put shorts on for the day. We couldn't believe how huge Palm Beach was as we drove by - it is so much bigger than Tallahassee! We followed Sandy's directions and then called when we got close. They met us in the parking lot and showed us where to park. This is a huge senior complex and we passed many of them coming into town. Sandy said the capacity of the complex is 18,000! This is the size of the town of Thomasville, GA that we visited last week and greater than the population of Waterford, CT! It was so good to see them. They look great and their apartment is lovely: kitchen, small dining area, large living room, 2 bedrooms and 2 baths as well as a screened in porch with a laundry room attached. We had lunch and then Dave and I took a walk around part of the complex while Larry took a nap. We found one of the country clubs: large golf course and pool and then made our way back. We sat around and chatted for a while until dinner. We had some good laughs. Sandy had gotten a barbecued chicken and potato knishes at Publix and we made Chinese cabbage salad. It was delicious. After dinner we played three games of pinochle - the boys won (boo-hoo) - we'll whup them tomorrow. We chatted a bit more and then hit the sack. It is supposed to rain tomorrow so we may go to see a movie.

Saturday, February 28, 2009

Friday February 27, 2009

Today was a day of flexibility. We checked out and got to the lab at the usual time. The only one there at first was Jeff and he said he was only staying for two hours as he had to give a talk at his son's school for Dinosaur Month. He says that is the greatest consternation of archaeologists: everyone expects them to be experts on dinosaurs when it is paleontologists who study this field. I'm sure the kids will enjoy his talk anyway. Thadra came in a bit late as they were late getting back in from the field last night and Carla was not feeling well so was taking a sick day. Since we had finished our project, we decided to say goodbye to the people both upstairs and down that we had made friends with and get on the road. We had expected to work half a day, but ended up leaving at 9:15 so on to Plan B. We got on the highway and decided to spend the afternoon at Cape Canaveral. What we didn't realize was how much time it would take us to get there. As we got closer we could see that there wouldn't be enough time to really see the whole space center so we went to Plan C. We stopped at 2 in the afternoon in Titusville and gave our friends Mel and Dottie Fringer a call. Mel taught English at Fitch and Dottie taught business education at Ledyard. They were really surprised to hear from us and invited us over to their house. What a great time we had! They have been retired for 16 years and they look wonderful! They have a lovely home here in Titusville - lots of room and a beautiful screened Florida room complete with pool. We sat out on the patio and chatted about mutual friends both retired and those who are still teaching. We met their Siamese kitties, Margaret and Jackson, and caught up with their news. They go on a couple of birding trips each year. They just got back from India and are going to South Africa in the fall. They also volunteer one day a week at the National Wildlife Refuge here. They still have a camper and go with a local club one weekend a month. They also do a trip with the camper each summer to get out of the Florida heat ending up the trip in Nebraska for reuniting with family. We went out to dinner at a local seafood restaurant, Dixie Crossroads. If you are ever in this area, you have to stop! It was a huge restaurant, but well run and the food was delicious!! My favorite part of the meal was the rock shrimp - they are smaller than regular shrimp, but very tasty. We drove back to their house and said our goodbyes and got back to the motel at 9:30. We didn't read too long as we were both really tired, but we had a really nice day visiting with old friends. By the way, for those of you who teach/taught at Fitch and are reading this blog, Mel and Dottie say hi. Tomorrow we will continue on our way to see Larry and Sandy. I think I will wear shorts for the first time tomorrow - it was in the 80's this afternoon.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Thursday February 26, 2009

Wow! Another nice day. Fifty this morning and mid-seventies this afternoon. We were able to borrow another laptop this morning and finished entering all of the data for the Gumbo Limbo Hammock project. Prior to entering anything we had to count and weigh each bag of like items. There were a few things that we entered as one bag instead of counting each piece. One of these was the bag of snake vertebrates. We counted out 100 of them and weighed them. We then replaced that 100 in the bag and weighed the whole bag. This gave us the estimate - there were just over 8000 snake vertebrae in the bag! I will be seeing them in my sleep!!! Dave took a few more photos of the neatest things that we found and then we were done. We boxed everything up and Cat (the computer tech) will put the data base on the network so that it will be all set for Margo when she returns. We worked for Mike Russo (the bone expert) for a couple of hours this afternoon. We labeled shells and animal bones and put them into his collection. We stopped and gassed up the car for our trip tomorrow. When we got back to the motel, we ate some soup we had picked up the other day and then packed our suitcases. We put all of the things we don't need tonight into the trunk so that we won't have much to carry out tomorrow. Someone asked about Extreme Make Over. It seems that just the camera man is staying here and he never comes to breakfast early so we haven't seen him since the first day. According to the local TV news, the house will be finished tomorrow. We will have to catch the show when it comes out to see how it all came out.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Wednesday February 25, 2009

Well, it is finally getting warmer. It was 50 this morning and in the low seventies when we left work. We ate lunch outside today at the picnic tables - the sun felt great. We decided to go back to Torreya Grill last night for dinner - it was as good as the first time. We had the leftovers for dinner tonight. We finally finished the re-sorting today!!! Tomorrow we will count and weigh all of the specimen bags and if we can find a computer, I will enter everything so that the whole project will be in the database. Dave will take pictures of the special things that we have found such as the wolf teeth, the shark tooth pendant, etc. I'm sure Margo will appreciate that everything is done and ready for her analysis so that she can now write her report. We left a little early today so we could do a little laundry. Sandy assures me that we can use their washer and dryer, but I hate to show up with a huge bundle of dirty laundry. Tomorrow night we will pack up so that we can check-out on Friday morning. I have to say that this has been a nice place to stay and it really helped that it had a sitting room instead of just one big bedroom. We have had a wonderful month here, but we do look forward to getting home and seeing the kids and grands. Hopefully, the weather will have improved by the time we get home. Laura called tonight and she said they got another foot of snow on Sunday night! It may be some time before they have Spring up there.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Tuesday February 24, 2009



This morning was another chilly one: in the upper twenties, but it got into the upper sixties by this afternoon. Again it was quiet at the lab today. There are two students from Macao here for six months, Fanda and Domingo and they are working in the lab two days a week now. For those of you who aren't familiar with Macao, it is tiny - only 6 square miles - with a population of a half a million people. It is located near Hong Kong on the Chinese mainland and was a colony of Portugal until 1999. Domingo was sick today so Fanda helped us sort artifacts. We did finish the bag today (yeah!) so tomorrow we will re-sort and label. We had a surprise at lunch today - a couple of the guys downstairs bought two King cakes for Fat Tuesday. We purposely made sure that we did not get the piece with the tiny doll, not that we wouldn't love the one year of good luck, but because the one who gets it must provide the cake next year. We came back to the motel to do a few bills and the blog and will go out to dinner later. The two pictures I put up today are the cool shark tooth I found yesterday - hopefully, you can see the small holes drilled into the top and Flat Stanley. He ran a foot race at the MagLab open house and had his speed checked by radar. He is standing next to his speed which was posted on the board for all to see - he was very proud.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Monday February 23, 2009

The temps here are all over the place: 28 degrees this morning and 63 this afternoon. We had a quiet day at work today. Jeff, Carla, and Thadra are back out at the Suwannee River. They are being joined by a volunteer from Ohio who apparently worked here last year. They will be back on Friday. Brendon, a student at FAMU, was in this afternoon, but we won't see him again until Thursday. Dave and I worked all day on sorting artifacts. I had the best find of the day: a 4000 year old shark tooth that had two small holes drilled in the top. Someone probably wore this around his neck. I meant to take a picture for the blog, but forgot. I will try to do it tomorrow. Our eyes were falling out of our heads by the end of the day - the snake vertebrae especially are very tiny. We probably won't do too much reading tonight. The good news is that we are almost at the end of the last bag. We will still have some re-sorting to do before we are satisfied with the job, but the end is in sight! We ended up going out for dinner last night to Sonny's Bar-B-Q (thanks to brother Ed for introducing us to Sonny's last year). It was delicious and we had plenty of leftovers to have barbeque sandwiches tonight - also good.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Sunday February 22, 2009

After breakfast this morning we decided to drive up to Thomasville, Georgia. We had heard that it was a neat town and it was only about thirty miles north of here. It was quite a pretty town. It reminded us of some of the towns in the midwest: wide main street with angle parking on both sides. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and all of the shops were closed, but we enjoyed walking around and doing a bit of window shopping. They had plenty of antiques shops and it was fun to look in the windows to see some of the wares. We also picked up a walking tour guide and roamed around some of the side streets looking at the variety of architecture which ranged from Victorian to Georgian to Classic Revival and Italian Renaissance. We also stumbled upon a landmark in the town. A huge live oak tree whose limb span is 162 feet which is higher than Niagara Falls is deep! The tree is 68 feet tall and has a trunk circumference of 24 feet. We chatted with some ladies who also were admiring the tree. They were from Tennessee and were heading to Florida for a week's vacation. They very kindly took our picture standing in front of the tree. After walking for a couple of hours, we decided to head back to Tallahassee. We stopped at Publix and got a few supplies to last us for the week. We thought about catching a movie this afternoon, but there was nothing showing that we cared to see. It is a rather cloudy day so we decided to put our feet up with our books and have a quiet day. We may go out to eat later or perhaps we will stay in and have soup. We also have to finish our mango key lime pie. It seems hard to believe that this will be our last week at the lab - it has gone by so quickly - but we are looking forward to visiting our friends Larry and Sandy Levine and then getting back to our kids and grandkids.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Saturday February 21, 2009

It was quite chilly again this morning - tied the record for the low in Tallahassee. It did get warmer though - about mid-sixties by this afternoon. We started the day by catching up with the laundry. We then went out to Innovation Park (nearby to the archaeology lab) as they were having open house at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MagLab). It was great fun! We took Flat Stanley with us and got some cool pictures of him with the Mag Lev train, standing next to a superconducting magnet, and next to a Pine snake about 6 feet long (local nature centers and museums also had booths here). We spent several hours roaming around and looking at the exhibits. They even had a potato cannon demonstration and were making Einstein ice cream which involved mixing the ingredients with liquid nitrogen which made it solidify in seconds. Flat Stanley had a great time and so did we. We then went back to the Mission so Dave could give the young man at the blacksmith shop some pointers. I sat on a bench in the sun and read my book for about an hour while Dave was doing his thing. When he was done, we realized it was after 4:00 and we hadn't eaten lunch. We decided to do linner again (or maybe lupper?) and went to a Colombian restaurant that everyone at the lab has been talking about. It is called Super Perros (which literally means super dogs, I believe - not a fantastic name for a restaurant). We shared a meal called La Bandeja Paisa. It was a large plate with a small to medium portion of many different foods: rice, beans, fried egg, corn muffin, sausage, pork rinds (neither of us cared for this), steak, salad, and plantains. It was very good and now we are stuffed! We haven't made a plan to tomorrow yet, but I'm sure we will come up with something. By the way, there are several people who are staying here with their dogs for the dog show. We saw a Great Dane in the parking lot this morning - huge, but beautiful dog!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Friday February 20, 2009

Whoa! It was a bit chillier this morning. The temps were in the 30's. It is amazing how we became used to the warm weather so quickly. It did get up into the 50's today, but will cool down again tonight. We got to talking to a woman at breakfast this morning. She is here with her Pekingese and will show him in the dog show this weekend. She reminded me of a character in "Best of Show"! She was obviously lonely and wanted to talk - I thought we were going to be late for work, but we did get there on time. Dave continued sorting artifacts. His big find today was a wolf's tooth. He also found another bone pin. I spent the day entering the sorted items into the computer. I did manage to finish about 4 PM today so that I could return the computer. We said good-bye to Margo (the head archaeologist) as she will be in the Everglades next week taking a course to be certified to pilot a boat. She now has to rely on park rangers to drive her to some of the remote sites in the Everglades. She said she was sorry to see us go and that she would hire us if we wanted to relocate - NOT! She did say she would sent us a copy of the report on the Gumbo Limbo Hammock dig and that our names would be in it - very cool. We went to Shoney's for dinner tonight and had their seafood buffet: catfish, shrimp, stuffed blue crab, salmon, seafood salad - along with all the normal fixings. We will stay in this evening and are looking forward to the weekend.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Thursday February 19, 2009

Wow! There were some really powerful thunderstorms around last night. The last one woke us up at about 3:30 AM. There was lightening, thunder, and lots of driving rain. I guess we were lucky as there were some tornadoes not too far away. Despite what the weatherman predicted, it was very warm all day today (he said it was going to cool down today). It was in the high 60's first thing this morning and was in the low 70's when we got out of work. Dave continued sorting artifacts today. His best find today was a fourth stage quartz flake which proves that the people of the time were using stone tools. He also find a piece of worked sting ray spine which was probably used as a pin. I, on the other hand, got a break from sorting and used a laptop to enter all of the artifacts we have been bagging up on a spreadsheet. This involves giving each item or group of similar items a catalog number and then listing the object, species and common name if it was alive, and specifics of pottery, etc. I am about half way done so will complete the cataloging tomorrow. We left a little early in order to get to the post office before closing time - I was running low on stamps. We also stopped to get some batteries as the ones in the computer mouse died last night. While we were out, we decided to stop for a quick bite for dinner. We chose Whataburger - they do a good job. We are full now, but may each have a piece of pie later. I introduced some of the staff to Flat Stanley at lunch today and got a few ideas for pics which I will get to next week. I have to finish with the laptop tomorrow because someone else has it on Monday.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Wednesday February 18, 2009

It was cloudy, but warm when we woke up this morning. We finished identifying the artifacts that we had worked on yesterday and then started on a new batch from the same site. These came from 110 to 192 cm below the surface and are full of small fish and snake vertebrae, turtle, leg bones of small mammals, some shell and some limestone. We did find a raptor claw and a polished bone that had obviously been used as a tool. It is hard on the eyes though as the pieces are incredibly small. We ate outside again today - cloudy, but in the 70's. By the time we got out of the lab, it was raining lightly. We gassed up the car and then came back to the motel. We decided to eat in tonight. Dave had mac and cheese and I had soup that we had picked up at the local Publix. We also had dessert that we picked up there - mango key lime pie - not as good as straight key lime, but good none the less and I believe one of the few desserts we have had on the trip. We bought half a pie so have enough for another night. We got a few valentines in the mail this morning and also got a note from Dan's school. He made a small cardboard boy named Flat Stanley (after a character by that name in the Flat Stanley books). His teacher sent it to us and we are taking pictures of FS while we are here in Florida. Today he posed with some of the artifacts that we have been working with along with some cool skulls that we found in the bone lab - a huge cow and a sea turtle. I think FS will have a good vacation here in the Sunshine State.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Tuesday February 17, 2009

We went back to the lab today. We spent the day identifying shells, turtle shell and bones, as well as small mammal bones. We are still working on the artifacts from the Gumbo Limbo Hammock site from the Everglades. Amazingly enough, we did find a freshwater mussel shell in the mix - not sure how it got there, but I'm sure there is a story behind it. We ate our lunch outside at the picnic tables today - got up to the high 60's and it felt great in the sun. Mike Russo (the bone expert) was delighted with the armadillo bones that Dave and Carla found last week out at the dig. He will add them to his collection for use in identifying unknown bones. Carla is very excited today as she found out that she got a spot for graduate work at the University of Georgia in Athens. She was trying to decide between Georgia and Oregon, but Georgia came through with a nice package for her. Everyone seemed to have had a good weekend. We are doing a load of laundry and then will stay in for the night. We have plenty of leftovers between Olive Garden and the blue crab cake I had left over from yesterday. Not too much else for news here - hopefully tomorrow will have something more exciting to tell you.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Monday February 16, 2009

We had a lovely dinner at Olive Garden last night and of course had plenty of leftovers. Dave had seafood alfredo and I had shrimp and asparagus risotto - yum! We woke up to a chilly but sunny day with a promise of a beautiful day so after breakfast we went to the Tallahassee Museum (which serves as their zoo of sorts). The animal part consists of many native creatures that are being rehabbed. They had birds of prey, deer, wolves, a bobcat, Florida panthers, a black bear, foxes, and our favorite - river otters. We spent quite a bit of time watching them play in the water - they are so personable and cute although you wouldn't want to get your hand too close if you value your fingers! The elevated wooden walkway meandered through and over a cypress swamp (pictured above) where the Spanish moss hung down almost to the water in places - it really was picturesque. The rest of the "museum" consisted of a collection of buildings which were moved here from a variety of places. These included a schoolhouse, an African American Baptist church, a small plantation house and a slave house. There also was a section which was set up like a 19th century farm with a mill, farmhouse, and a commissary for a turpentine camp. It was very interesting and it was a great day to be outside. We then drove to Woodville to the Natural Bridge Battlefield Site. This was the place where the Confederate soldiers prevented the Union soldiers from reaching Tallahassee (the only southern capital east of the Mississippi not captured during the Civil War. It was located on the banks of the St. Marks river and the natural bridge comes from the fact that the river disappears into a cavern at this point and doesn't reappear for 150 feet. We got in the car again and decided to go down to the shore. We drove down to Panacea and stopped at a marine lab. It was quite small, but they did have a couple of very cool octopuses among some of the more normal native fish, sponges, starfish, and turtles. We continued on and followed the shore to Apalachicola where we stopped at a seafood house for linner (lunch and dinner). Dave had grilled shrimp and I had some awesome blue crab cakes. We walked around the town a bit, but it was a typical seashore town with tourist shops filled with gee-gaws so on the road again. We continued along the shore until we turned north at Port Saint Joe and then back to Tallahassee. We left here at 9 this morning and got back at 7 tonight - it was a fun day! Back to the lab tomorrow so we will stay in this evening. By the way, there are a lot of small fundamentalist churches in this part of the world. Most of them have lighted message boards in front of them. Some of the sayings are quite clever. Our favorite today was, "The best vitamin for a Christian is B1."

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Sunday February 15, 2009

Wow! We had a totally laid back day today. It has rained off and on all day so we decided to hole up in the room and read. Dave and I each finished the books we had started yesterday. We did take a walk over to Kohls while the maid cleaned the room - we found a couple of sweatshirts on sale for 80% off - a great deal. We made lunch out of what we have here and read some more in the afternoon. It looks like the rain is ending so we will go out for dinner in a while and get some fresh air. It is supposed to be better weather tomorrow so I think we will go to the zoo. I think we have seen all of the inside museums in Tallahassee so maybe we will go out of town next weekend and explore another area. We are still enjoying warm weather despite the rain - I think it will be in the 70's most of this coming week.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Saturday February 14, 2009

Happy Valentine's Day! We woke up to rain this morning although, I have to say, it wasn't as bad as predicted. It did rain off and on, but was not steady and there were no thunder storms. After breakfast, we drove down the street and Dave sat in the car and read while I went in to get my hair cut - it was getting a bit long. We then went into Publix and did our shopping for the week for lunch items. We decided since the weather was a bit iffy to go to the Mary Brogan Museum of Art and Science. I can't say I was impressed with most of the museum, but the reason that we went was that they had the "Our Body" exhibit on display. It was awesome! They had actual plasticized cross-sections of bodies displayed with nerves, muscles, circulatory and nervous systems, etc. Everything was well labeled and detailed. It really was amazing. We spent two hours studying everything. We came back to motel for a light lunch and did some reading. We went over to the mall to get our walk in out of the rain. Took at lap around the top floor and then another around the bottom. At 4 we went over to the cinema and saw "Taken". It was rather intense, but good, if a little gory in spots. We decided to have a quick dinner at Whataburger (thanks for the introduction in Texas, Cookie and Ron) rather that opt for something fancier as we knew there would be long waits at the fancier restaurants because of the special day. We don't know what we will do tomorrow if it rains again, but we will think of something.

Friday, February 13, 2009

Friday February 13, 2009

We slept in a bit this morning - we must really have been tired. We spent part of the morning doing errands: laundry, bills, etc. By 10 we were ready to go out and enjoy the day - and what a glorious day it was - sunshine and close to 80! We went to Mission San Luis first. This is a reconstructed Spanish mission which housed Spanish soldiers and families as well as Apalache Indians from 1656 until 1704 when the fort and mission were destroyed by the British. They did a lot of archaeological work on the site before reconstructing the buildings so what we saw today looked very realistic. The native buildings were round with thatched roofs while the Spanish buildings were rectangular (using the Golden Rectangle - all you math geeks). We had a lovely time checking out everything and our time was enhanced by chatting with the many costumed guides that were on the ground and in each building. We spent about four hours there and then decided to enjoy the beautiful weather by staying outside so we went to see the Lake Jackson Mounds. These are earth temple mounds built and used by Native Americans whose time there probably peaked about 1200 AD. After walking around a bit and climbing on a couple of the mounds, we decided to get something to eat. We finally found a Pizza Hut and ate at 3:15 - we will have the leftovers for dinner tonight. We came back to the motel and read for a while and will probably stay in tonight. I heard from the girl at the desk that Extreme Makeover is building a house in Tallahassee next week and I saw one of the camera men unloading his car in the parking lot so I assume some of the crew is staying at our motel. I'll let you know if I see Ty!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Thursday February 12, 2009



I read over the blogs since Monday and realized that I had made a few errors in spelling, etc., but have not figured out how to go back and correct them so I apologize for the mistakes. Hopefully, you have been able to figure out what was meant. I also realized that I forgot to mention that on Monday, while Thadra and I were mapping along the dirt road, we saw a young man who was hiking the Florida Trail. He was very excited to hear that eventually he will be able to walk more along the river instead of detouring out to the road at times. As more property is bought, the trail becomes more scenic and that is a very good thing. He has been averaging 30 miles per day! He also has hiked the Appalachian Trail twice!

Today we got up and packed our gear into the car. We also carried the other's personal suitcases. After check-out we took both cars to the site we had left off on yesterday. Again the teams were Jeff and I, Dave and Carla. Thadra continued to get GPS points on the first parcel (she didn't get to finish yesterday as the batteries quit). When she was finished, she met up with us and mapped out the rest of our line to the river. We started at hole 6 today and did through hole 19 before lunch. We all met up at the river for lunch - beautiful day - probably got up to 80 - and the river was lovely. After lunch, Thadra hooked up with Dave and Carla and mapped ahead for them. We quit about 2PM so we could drive back to Tallahassee and unload some of the gear at the office. We had several unusual occurances today - while Jeff and I were working, we heard a huge crash and saw a tree fall down in the forest. Fortunately, we were not right next to it. We walked over to it to see what had happened. It appeared to be a very large dead tree that just gave up the ghost - no wind and nothing unusual to make it go over - it just did. Thadra saw an owl fly over at about the same time so we fear that its home was destroyed. The other thing was that as I was screening, I heard something metallic. When I was able to clear the screen I saw that it was part of Jeff's shovel! Some of those roots were real killers! Fortunately, the shovel still worked so we were able to keep working. We dug through to hole 24 - only one more to go on our line to get to the river. They will be coming back in two weeks to finish this parcel and start on another nearby. Jeff said we did okay as we dug 126 holes this week. I just feel badly that he did all the digging when he worked with me whereas Dave and Carla were able to switch. He will certainly sleep like a baby when he gets home tonight. We stopped on the way home from the lab at a pharmacy as Dave got into poison ivy somewhere out in the woods. We both enjoyed the shower and snacked on crackers and cheese instead of going out to dinner. We have tomorrow off as we worked four 10-hour days and we just heard that the lab is closed on Monday because of Presidents' day so we have a 4 day weekend! I'm sure we will find something fun to do although it is supposed to rain most of the weekend. Am enclosing two pictures. One is of Carla matching a soil sample and the other is of Jeff standing in front of the famous sign. I'm not sure the picture of the sign is large enough for you to see, so it reads, "KEEP OUR ER GIT SHOT". Are you humming the theme song to Deliverance yet?

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Wednesday February 11, 2009

We were on the road again at 7 this morning. I found out that the closest "town" to where we are working is Ellaville. We spent the morning finished up this parcel of land and then we had to go back and dig on either side of all of our positive shovel tests (where we found artifacts). Thadra took the Trimble which is a portable GPS mapping unit (fits in a backpack with a large antenna) and got readings on all of our shovel sites - until the batteries ran out. Jeff and I worked together today and Carla and Dave made up the other team. Dave was the winner today as he found 2 arrow flakes on the morning site and another one on the afternoon site. We stopped for lunch after we finished with the first parcel and then moved over to the second parcel which was not too far away. Before we moved the van, we stopped and took a photo of the no trespassing sign which we will post tomorrow. The new parcel is very large and we just made a dent in it today, but will not be able to finish tomorrow. Jeff and I pair up again as did Dave and Carla. Thadra sighted the line for us using a compass as our side goes through the woods. It was very helpful for us to go a shovel test that had already been flagged. Dave and Carla had the advantage of having a fence line to follow on their side. Jeff was on a tear this afternoon and we dug 11 shovel tests this afternoon. Dave and Carla only dug 8, but they had to map out their own sites and they also had to slow down when they found the flake. They also found an armadillo skeleton which they bagged to bring back to the lab - that is one of the things that they don't have in the lab for comparison. I am major league bushed - I could hardly raise my arms to wash my hair in the shower! We all met back at the car at 5 - dirty, scratched and blistered, but feeling good that we had made a dent in this parcel. We will continue tomorrow, but will quit earlier as we will have to drive back to Tallahassee. Dave and I walked next door and had breakfast for dinner at Huddle House. The waitress was cute - a freshman at the local community college who is also in the National Guard. We will watch a bit of TV tonight to relax and then will read and sleep.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Tuesday February 10, 2009


Oh, what a beautiful day! It was certainly in the upper 70's today. We met at the government car at 7 AM and went back to our site. This time we could all fit into the same car as we left the bulk of our tools in the woods yesterday. Today we started out with Dave and Jeff continuing on the east boundary and we girls continuing of the north. When we met at lunch we discovered that Dave and Jeff had started turning south along the Suwannee River (see picture) and were beginning to find some things of interest: pottery and an arrow point and a flake. We decided that since we were getting close to the "gun-toting" property owner that we would all work on the south line and leapfrog each other. Since this is the line that will actually be the Florida trail, we have to dig every 20 m instead of every 30 m. It was so nice to be on the bluff over the river - the weather was perfect and finally the girls found something: another arrow flake! Jeff thought the flakes were probably about 1000 years old. It was cool to see our names go on the collection bag! We worked until 4:30 and drove back to the motel for a much needed shower. We are all on our own for dinner for the rest of the stay. Dave and I are really beat - sore and blistered - so we opted for McDonald's which I brought back to the room. We will relax tonight and nurse our sore muscles.

Monday February 9, 2009


We didn't get to blog last night so am actually writing this on Tuesday - the internet at our hotel was down. Back to Monday: we got up early and finished our car packing. We got to the lab earlier than expected as there was not as much traffic on the road so we had to wait for 20 minutes for the others to show up. We got the last minute tools and materials into the work van and we added the others, luggage to our car. We finally got off and drove for about an hour and a half before getting off I-10. We were pretty much in the middle of nowhere and it got worse from there. After traveling on dirt roads for about 45 minutes, we found our first site. I wish we could add music to this blog because I would put the soundtrack to Deliverance on. We were on a very desolate spot - while we were looking for our first test site, we passed a sign which said trespassers would be shot and I think they meant it! We will try to take a picture of the sign before we leave this area. Our team consists of Jeff, Carla, Thadra, Dave and I. Jeff and Carla went east from our first shovel test and Dave, Thadra and I went north. The shovel tests have to be dug every 30 meters apart and 100 cm deep. We are testing the boundaries of the plot of land that was bought by the Florida trail system. We stopped for lunch at noon - very hungry, tired and dirty. I feel a bit wimpy as I am not doing any of the digging, but I am doing the screening. Every shovelful of dirt has to be screened to check for artifacts. We continued after lunch until 4PM and found very few things of interest - a few pieces of glass (will have to be checked to determine the age) and some old rusty nails (not modern, but of undetermined age). Every hole has to be flagged and documented. The picture above shows Thadra checking the soil type at each level and I am recording the data on a page particular to that hole. When we were done for the day, we drove on to Lee, FL to our motel. We all showered and then went down to road to a place called The Brown Lantern - very local - for dinner. Carla invited her father-in-law to join us. He was about 70 and a very funny guy. He told us that he was bitten by a rattlesnake last year and had to be flown to Gainesville to get treatment. He says he can see better now than before he was bitten! We all had shrimp for dinner - very good! Came back to the motel and tried to get on the web but no luck so went to bed.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Sunday February 8, 2009



What a gorgeous day! It was sunny and got up into the 70's - it felt like May in February! We got all of our errands done this morning: laundry, grocery shopping, packing for our field trip and paying bills. We then drove about a half hour south of Tallahassee to Wakulla Springs State Park. The spring is one of the world's largest and deepest - the water is a constant 70 degrees. We took a boat ride down the river and then back to the spring. We saw so many birds, ducks, and reptiles: alligators, Suwannee cooters (turtles) - both pictured above, widgeons, mergansers, wood ducks, moorhens with their bright red bills, coots, anhingas, cormorants, vultures, a red-tailed hawk, great blue, green and yellow-crowned night herons, American and snowy egrets, and ibis. Up until last week, there were manatees in the river, but the cold weather chased them out. We then got a bite to eat at the 1937 lodge. We then drove down the road to St. Mark's National Wildlife Refuge. We went done to the lighthouse that sits on the Gulf of Mexico - lots of pelicans and gulls down by the shore. We came back to town and will have a small dinner - soup and sandwich which we picked up at the grocery store. Then we will have to pack our food for the field trip to the Suwannee River. We have to meet everyone at the lab before 7 AM so I guess we will skip our walk tomorrow - but Dave pointed out that we will be walking all day tomorrow as we do our test digs along the proposed trail. By the way, we went to see Gran Torino last night - excellent movie! Clint Eastwood should certainly get an Oscar for his performance.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Saturday February 7, 2009



Well, it is certainly warmer today. The temp was about 40 this morning and is about mid 60's now - really quite lovely. We went downtown to the Museum of Florida History this morning. It was quite a nice small museum - it began in prehistory and then moved to paleo-indians, Spanish shipwrecks, Seminole wars, the Civil war, forestry, agriculture, early transportation (including a tin can camper built on a Model T truck body) and then finished in World War II. Their special exhibit was on Florida blues personalities and music, but we were unfamiliar with most of the highlighted personalities. The pic on the bottom (not Dave) is a mammoth found just a few miles south of Tallahassee in the 1930's. We ate lunch at the museum's Fat Sandwich Shoppe - very good and we will add the leftovers to tonight's dinner. We then drove out to the Tallahassee Automobile Museum where they featured early and classic cars as well as some other related objects. In the pic on the top, Dave is standing next to a 1931 Duesenberg which he declared was his favorite. It was quite a large museum with 2 full floors of cars, motorcycles. Dan and Alex would certainly have loved the Batmobile collection. Maybe we can include a picture or two to tomorrow's blog. We are doing a load of laundry now (will have to do another tomorrow) and then may walk over to the movie theatre after dinner.

Friday, February 6, 2009

Friday February 6, 2009

It's starting to get warmer - only 30 this morning, but a lovely 62 this afternoon. We spent all day labeling artifacts. I became the pottery expert: Glades plain/Glades decorated, punctated, pinched or rolled lips, incised rims, etc. It was really quite interesting, but there were so many pieces to sort and evaluate! I also got pretty good at distinguishing between soft shelled and hard shelled turtle shells. Dave took on all of the bones and shells. Most of the bones were from fish, turtle, or small mammals. He also identified a number of different shark teeth. It was a full day. Next week we will be in the field and will try to take some pics so you can see what we are doing. We went to a lovely restaurant tonight and had steak and shrimp which we will be having again tomorrow night - plenty of leftovers. After dinner, we went back towards the center of the city to a place called Railroad Square. They have an open house once a month called First Friday. It is a large group of artist workshops - paintings, sculpture, woodworking, yarn goods, photography, jewelry. The best part was watching all the people - many artsy college types. We had a good time walking around and checking out everything. This will be our first free weekend in Tallahassee so we will check out some of the local sites.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Thursday February 5, 2009



We wanted to put up a couple of new pics so you can see what we have been doing. The first one is of Dave sorting through a tray of artifacts. The second was taken in the wet lab where we washed everything. I know the shot is small, but this particular was full of small bones - especially snake vertebrae. Today we did more sorting and washing. Some of the artifacts are probably from about 4000 years ago. We saw a lot of snake and turtle bones which had been burned. This must have been a major part of the diet of the people of that time. We are still working of the Gumbo Limbo Hammock site and judging from all of the washing we did today, we will be working on this site for quite some time. Tomorrow we will be using books and charts to further identify the artifacts that we rough sorted yesterday. We now can tell the difference between hard shell and soft shell turtle carapace. I'm not sure how useful that is in daily life, but it is quite interesting. We did ask about the squirrel and apparently there is a whole family with this genetic defect. Some of them are albino, but the one we saw was not as it had the gray stripe down its back. We stopped on the way home for a burger and now are watching TV and doing embroidery. The temp this morning was 28 (a bit brisk for here), but it got up to 52 by the time we got out. It is supposed to get up to the mid 70's over the weekend - bring it on!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Wednesday February 4, 2009

Wow! We had a change in the weather this morning. It was 30 (very cold for Tallahassee) on the way into work and only 43 on the way home. They are expecting record lows tomorrow and Friday - everyone is walking around in parkas. We did some sorting this morning. We were looking at things that came from Gumbo Limbo Hammock in the Everglades and did a rough sort of the items: ceramics, shell, bones (mammal, bird, reptile), shark teeth, turtle shell, coral. It was fun to do that part of the job. After lunch, we went to the wet lab and washed more items from Gumbo Limbo. It was a bit tedious and each piece, no matter how small, has to be washed with a toothbrush to get the dirt off. We then put all of the washed pieces on big screen trays to dry for 2 days. Then we can sort them again. While we were outside dumping a batch of dirty water, we saw a weird squirrel - it was almost all white with a gray streak down its back. We will have to ask someone about it tomorrow - it was a new one to us. We are going out into the field next week. We will be working near Live Oak, FL along the Suwannee River. Will take some pix and let you know what kinds of things we find - if anything. We just finished out leftovers from our Cuban dinner and are ready to relax for the evening.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Tuesday February 3, 2009




We had a very relaxing evening last night and slept like logs when we finally went to bed - we had a very busy day! This bottom picture is a conch shell that had been used as a hammer - very cool. Today we pulled examples of pottery that had been found at various sites: Everglades, Key Largo, Sanibel Island, Miami , etc. That took us most of the morning as we had to find each one (there are about 100 boxes and each box has two levels and each level has four quadrants. In each quadrant are any where from 1 to 12 plastic bags with multiple specimens in each bag - so just finding the correct item takes a bit of doing even though everything is labeled. After lunch, we photographed all of the selected items in each category. We will include a couple of the photos so you can see the kinds of things we handled all day (see top of blog). We went to dinner at a Cuban restaurant tonight: The Black Bean - very good, but again, we will be having leftovers tomorrow night. We are now waiting for the laundry to be done so we will have clean clothes for the rest of the week. I'm not sure what we will be doing tomorrow, but that is the fun of it - always something new. We are still enjoying the warmer temps - 38 on our walk this morning and 57 on the way home from work - very nice.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Monday February 2, 2009

We did go to the Macaroni Grill last night and had a lovely dinner. We had plenty of leftovers to take back to the room. We watched a little TV and did some reading before going to bed. We slept much better last night. Got up at 6 to a temp of 46 and went for a walk. Came back and showered and then went to breakfast. We had packed our lunches last night so we were all set to go to work. We will probably be doing a variety of jobs, but we spent most of the day working with Carla. We were refiling a number of shell artifacts (4 boxes worth) from the Everglades. Some of them were very interesting. Who knew that the early people living in that area used conch shells as hammers? Of course, they don't have tons of rocks as we have in New England. Tomorrow we will be pulling artifacts out of boxes - hopefully not the same ones we put away today! Only kidding, we will be working with ceramics tomorrow. We think we will be going on a dig next week on the Swanee River - will let you know the details as we get them. We met a number of FSU students at the lunch room. We were dirty and tired when we got back to the motel and we were actually happy that we had leftovers for dinner as we need to put our feet up. We will try to bring the camera in tomorrow and put some pix in the blog tomorrow so you all can see what we are working with. The weather is certainly nice - it was 64 when we got out of work at 5:15.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Sunday February 1, 2009

Slept okay last night - it got a bit noisy about midnight and the bed was harder than we are used to, but all in all, not bad. Got up this morning and went for a walk. We managed to find a Publix grocery store not too far from where we are. We walked for about an hour - chilly, but not cold - and then came back to the room to shower. We went in to breakfast at a good time. A bus load of kids from Orlando were just leaving. They had been here for a ROTC competition and were taking home 5 trophies - I guess that was what all the shouting was for last night. Breakfast was quite extensive - lots of choices: eggs, sausage, biscuits, bagels, toast, cereal, fruit. When we were done we went back to the Publix (by car) and shopped for lunch items to take with us to work. We relaxed for a while and then using the GPS tried to find our route to start work tomorrow. We now know what the major glitch is with a GPS. It took us directly to the Archaeological Center, but right through downtown Tallahassee! This would probably not be where we want to be on a week day. It was all the more interesting because there were hundreds of people running a marathon through the city! We managed to eke our way back to the motel where we studied a map and started back to find the Center again. This route was longer, I'm sure, but did not go through the city center and hopefully will not be as heavily traveled tomorrow. We got back and made lunches, read and did some hobby work: Dave is carving a spoon and I am doing some embroidery. We will go out to eat in a while - we may walk up to the Macaroni Grill - it is not too far away. All of the walking has felt good. I'm not sure what the temp was today, but probably it was in the mid 60's. We are anxious to start work tomorrow and to see what kinds of things we will be doing.

Saturday, January 31, 2009

Saturday January 31, 2009

Have a little catching up to do: We went for an early dinner last night at Ruby Tuesdays which was right next door to our motel. They had a great salad bar and broccoli and cheddar cheese soup - yum! We decided to hit the sack early and read for a while (at least one of us did) before falling asleep. We had a phone call and since the phone was on Dave's side of the bed, he answered it. What I didn't realize is that he answered it in his sleep! When he hung up, I asked him who was on the phone. He mumbled something about a phone message at the desk and the password was "hearts". I let it go and eventually shut off the light and went to sleep. We woke up quite early this morning (that's what happens when you go to bed early), showered and went to the office for breakfast. I asked the desk clerk about messages for us and she said she didn't put through any calls and that there were no messages for us. The only thing we can figure out is that someone was calling room-to-room and got a wrong number (they don't know how wrong it was!). So anyway, the magic word is "hearts" if you should get a call from the twilight zone!

We met a nice couple from PA at breakfast. They were on their way home (brrrr!) and had been in FL a month just visiting with various relatives and friends. We left the motel at 6:30 and drove across the street to gas up ($1.63). It was 27 out - thank god for seat heaters! We continued on I-95 for quite a while and then cut across through the boonies of GA before dropping down into FL about 50 miles from Tallahassee. We found our new home (a Best Western suite) with no problem thanks to our new GPS (Thanks, Louise!). We arrived here at 2 PM and the weather was 65 and sunny - a glorious day. We unloaded the car and went for a walk to orient ourselves to the area. We are on a main strip full of fast food places and stores of all sorts. We called all of the kids to let them know we had arrived and then walked over to a huge mall and ate dinner at the food court at a place called McAlister's Deli. Dad had a turkey sandwich and I had a caesar salad with chicken. We then walked through a parking lot and went to the cinema. We saw "The Uninvited" - certainly not a relaxing movie - basically a psycho thriller with a number of twists and turns. We found our way back here and will now relax for a while before going to bed. Our room is quite nice - king sized bed, mini-fridge, microwave, couch and chair, coffee table, desk and dresser. I'm sure we will be quite comfortable here.

Friday, January 30, 2009

Friday January 30, 2009

We're back!!! We have decided to revive the blog as we are on our way to Florida for our month of volunteering with the National Park Service. We woke up this AM at 2, showered, put the last items in the car and were on the road at 2:30 AM. We did quite well - hit a small amount of traffic just before the George Washington bridge and some heavier traffic in Baltimore and the D.C. area - but altogether not bad. We stopped in Virginia for brunch and then just snacked in the car until we stopped for the night in Florence, South Carolina at 3:30 PM. We stopped a couple of times for gas, but otherwise just to change drivers. We drove 785 miles today - 13 hours in total. As soon as we checked into the motel, we went for a very long walk - we both were suffering from DB (dead butt)! The temp was 20 when we left the house and it is now 58 and sunny. There are palm trees on the grounds of our motel!! We think we have about 7 hours or so of driving tomorrow to get to Tallahassee. We will be anxious to settle in to our home-away-from-home.