Friday, February 11, 2011 - Move On Day

One of the things we love most about being on the road is, if you decide you can't get along with your neighbors, you can just move on, which is what we ended up doing today. It all started late last night. At about 9:00, one of the dogs came to us and asked to go out, so, being in an campground with just one other camper on the far side of the campground (and who had made friends with our two dogs within five minutes of our arrival on Tuesday), we simply opened the door and let them both out. Their habit is to simply explore for a few minutes, go off into the woods to do their business (which they've been specifically trained to do), then return shortly. The only time they might be delayed is if there is a very social environment, and they, especially little Billy (who is a social butterfly) might go visiting if people are sitting around a campfire. To date, this has never been a problem anywhere we go, and in fact, most are quite happy to befriend our cute little guy. Of course, we don't do this if we are near a busy road or urban environment, or if there is a large crowd in an area where dogs must be leashed at all times. In other words, we use common sense to insure no one is unnecessarily bothered by our dogs. Well, moments after letting the dogs out, a car pulled into the campground (remember, this is 9:00 at night). Of course, the dogs doing their job, started barking at the new strangers. I immediately called in our big and obedient dog Marina, but Billy wouldn't come in, so I put on a coat to go get him in. It turned out the newcomers were, in fact, our absentee camp hosts, who had not been here all week, but, judging from the dirt on their RV, had been in situ for some time. I called out, apologizing, gathering up Billy and heading back to our RV. From behind me, a male voice called out, "You have to put your dogs on a leash." I responded, "Even in the middle of the night?" He answered, "Yes.", I replied, "That's disappointing," and kept going. It should have ended there, but he persisted. "Ma'am, we have a dog and we have to put him on a leash, and so do you." Just the way he said it made me bristle, involuntarily, and I answered, "I GOT it," and I headed back in. I repeated the "conversation" to Hubby, and he said, "Well, that's it, we leave tomorrow." So I got back on the computer to find what options we had. We ended up not getting to bed until almost midnight because our adrenaline had hitched up a notch. Anyway, this morning, I made a few phone calls, disappointed that our first choice, Lake Louisa, flat out didn't allow dogs at the horse camp (allowed at the family campground, but not the horse campground - go figure), we considered Ocala NF, which was free but had no facilities, and finally settled on Rock Springs Preserve next to Wekiwa State Park just north of Orlando. It has a barn and water for the horses, an extensive trail system that is shared with a riding ranch concessionaire in the same campground location. An easy 2-hour drive, we stopped for breakfast, the later to dump at a Petro (but didn't get fuel there because their prices were so high), then picked up gas near Wildwood before heading out to the camp. Arrived around 2:00, discovered a water spigot with potable water we used to fill up the RV, parked next to the barn, and got settled in in no time. Our new backyard is beautiful, with a number of live oak trees with delightful hanging moss, and even though it's quite chilly from a strong north breeze, we're looking forward to a great ride tomorrow. Interestingly, scattered around the fields around us are numerous large John Deere tractors and farm equipment. At first we thought maybe they were having some kind of equipment convention here this weekend, but a little research discovered that the local John Deere dealer apparently leases out much of the area as a demonstration area for their potential customers. The odd things one learns while traveling like this! We saw a number of vehicles moving around the fields, so I guess some folks were test driving! Anyway, we settled in for the evening, delighted with our new digs, and the memory of our last human encounter quickly fading, thank goodness.