Where Are The Rolling Hills?

Well!  It's a long story.
We left Sebastian Inlet a few days ahead of schedule and went to Lakeland, FL for a week. Spent time with our friend Angie and her family.  Loved being close to shopping, grocery stores, Home Depot, Costco and such.  It's amazing what you miss when you are 20 minutes away from everything except beautiful scenery and the ocean.

After a week in Lakeland we headed to Mariana, FL for our next assignment at Florida Caverns State Park.  Along the way we stopped for a visit with Glo's cousin, Mariam and her husband Billy in Madison,FL.  It's always great to visit family and catch up.

We got to Florida Caverns on February 1st.  Our friends, Elliot and Leslie Smith were already there doing tours in the Caverns along with Jim and Linda Flanagan.  Both couples were with us at Kartchner Caverns last winter.  The other two couples had worked at Kartchner in the past, so it was like "old home week".  We had an instant family and began training immediately.  We were both anxious to get going and we loved the area.  I trained most of that first week and lead my first tour on Thursday.

The Florida Caverns are quite different from Kartchner.  First it is very wet and very much a living cavern.  It is much smaller, but it feels more like spelunking because there are places within the cave that are only two feet wide and four feet tall.  Lots of bending and leaning. We took groups of about fifteen through.  If you are ever in the Mariana Florida area you should definitely take the time to see the caverns.  The tour is relatively inexpensive at only $8 per person and last about forty-five minutes.  You do need to be able to walk on slippery floors and up and down stairs.  The caverns are not wheelchair accessible.  

One of the neat things was that we often saw bats both flying around and hanging from the ceiling.  There weren't many bats.  The Pipistrelle bats are pretty much a loners and they don't fly around in groups.

Stalactites and flow stone

Cave Bacon

Flow stone

Pipistrelle bats (there are 2 in center the picture)

On Thursday I got a call from my friend, Cleo. Her husband Richard passed away Thursday morning.  In my heart I knew I needed to be with her.  So, T & I told our boss the situation and left Florida Caverns on Friday, February 7, one week after arriving.  We packed up and headed to Arizona.  Our trip "home" was a blur.  We drove long hard days and got to Arizona on Tuesday.  Richard's wake was scheduled for Thursday.

We've been "home" every since.  We ended up at Weaver's Needle RV Resort in Apache Junction.  About as far east as you can go and still be in the Phoenix area.  It was the only place that had a site for us on such short notice.  Winter is prime season in Phoenix.  We'll be here until April 11 and then we'll begin a new adventure and head toward Wyoming.  Hopefully it will have warmed up a bit before we get there.

We'll be at Keyhole State Park in Moorcroft near the edge of the Black Hills.  It's near a reservoir and looks to be a place we will enjoy.  Wish us look and good times.