December 19, 2016 - Winter Garden, Orlando & Okeechobee, FL

The fog crept in blocking out the sun.  It was very quiet at the campground. Only 5 out of 20 campsites were occupied.

As we were getting ready to head to the bathouse Erwin spotted something that was on a picnic table, alerted Edith to check it out. It was Crested Caracara. Edith quickly grabbed the camera, slowly walked up to the picnic table, snapped several pictures.  It came down to the ground, started to walk up to me, but moved away quickly.

Erwin fixed sandwiches to go for our trip to Winter Garden, FL to discuss with the glass company about the windshield for our Lil’ Home and to talk to Independence RV for service.  

Apparently, the fog was so thick that the driver may not have seen the stop sign, ran straight into the guardrail or he misjudged the distance after the stop sign.  The front end was banged so badly and had to be towed. 

From 741 we turned left to get on 441 N.  It was a lovely drive until we got to St. Cloud where there was road construction and the traffic got backed up a bit.

We arrived at Independence RV (authorized Newmar dealer) in Winter Garden, FL around noontime and went to to Parts/Service Department.  They had slideout motor controller in stock, so we bought one.  Erwin asked the sales guy if the controller will eventually wear out after many uses. “Yes”, he replied.  We figured that we should get one more, but there is a package from Montana that our friend, Bon, will bring next week.  We will have two for now.  We made an appointment for extended warranty service on our Lil’ Home for Friday, February 17, 2017. 

The store

From there we went to insurance office to have them help us with the claim that we made last week.  We wanted to find out why our claim was closed without further instructions.  The agent made a call to the claim center and we were instructed to have an invoice with the estimate from any glass company. We need to email them with the attached invoice and they will proceed the claim.  More delays!

Erwin wanted to check out chairs at IKEA in Millennium Mall in Orlando, FL.  The parking lot was almost packed.  Probably Christmas shoppers picking up last minute gifts.  While Edith liked the chair she was concerned about the lack of leg support.  The price was not too bad, compared to the ones we looked at last week.  Edith felt we should look around some more.

Erwin suggested to take Florida Turnpike (toll road) because it was already past 4:30 pm, and it takes less than 2 hours to get back to the campground.  Edith took over the driving.  The toll fare was $5.50.  We got off at Yeehaw Junction, continued driving for about 50 more miles.  

Erwin spotted this Blue Heron up a tree and asked
 Edith to make a U-turn to photograph it, she did
and was able to take only a few pictures before it flew away!

The gate at Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park was locked.  The ranger office gave us the code to unlock the padlock.  We arrived home very tired and hungry.

Edith was planning on fixing dirty rice dish, but realized it would be after 7:30 pm before the dinner is ready. She decided on something else that won’t take too long.  Polish sausage and baked potato (heat potato in pouch in microwave for like 9 minutes).

Edith went outside to see if it was a good time for astrophotography.  No, it was not. The stars were not shining brightly and the clouds were starting to creep in.