A Summer Saturday in Star Lake

What do you do in a tiny hamlet on a summer Saturday? Sleep late. Walk 4 miles around the lake. Visit some of the 50 houses participating in the Great Summer Garage Sale. And…be part of the Star Lake Protective Association’s Pirate Poker Run!

 

A special feature of Star Lake is that many of the camps have motorized docks. For the Poker Run, you invite your friends, motor out to the big sand bar, pay your $5 (member) or $10 (guest) and pick up your numbered list of camps to visit to get your cards.

 

 One of the camps that was giving out cards was on our bay of the lake so we decided to sit in the shade at the waterfront and let the show come to us. 

 After a couple of hours of floating around to the various houses, all the docks gather at the sand bar and party together while the organizers compare hands to see who won. We went to the party.

 

Sunshine, Hikes, Swim Time, Good Friends

Living without air conditioning is a treat. We woke up to birds calling through open windows. Temperatures were in the 60s. We walked around the lake, swam in the lake, climbed the hill to the camp, walked to the water falls on the Little River, swam some more, and sat around chatting with the neighbors. What a lovely day!

We Are in Star Lake

Spaghetti and key lime pie with neighbors for our first night at the Lake. Can't beat that!

Windows open. Breeze blowing in for sleeping.

Sunshine and 70 degrees for our walk around the lake this morning. 4 miles and some hills.

Very nice start to our stay with one big negative...poor Jake seems to be having trouble recovering the strength in his back legs after such a long ride on the car.

Packing for Star Lake

Tomorrow is the day to pack for our Star Lake trip. Can't wait to get there.

 

Deer in the Yard

I think the deer are hanging in the yard and cul-de-sac to avoid all the mosquitoes in the woods. Jake seems to think they are boring.

We are not still painting the bathroom

Our postponed hike on the Way of St James would be long finished by now. Instead, the master bathroom rehab is almost finished and we are still looking forward to our hike. Not too bad an outcome, given how awful we felt when we had to cancel.

It took several weeks to get my renewed passport. Now I have 10 years leeway, instead of fewer than 90 days. I'll bet the European Union will let me in now!

The bathroom turned out very much to our liking. We still need to replace the counter top and sinks, but that will come in due time.

 

 

And, with part of what we saved by doing so much ourselves, we bought a new mattress and springs. The old one no longer owed us anything.

Between painting sessions, we did some paddling with the Friends of the Lower Suwannee & Cedar Keys National Wildlife Refuges.

 

 

 

Having done all the planning for the hike in France, we found ourselves feeling almost as if we'd already done it, even though we hadn't. So we think we'll pick a different route for the September hike. When it is settled, we'll post some more about it. But we change our minds so often, we don't dare post yet.

Our next adventures are another paddling event...this time in the town of Suwannee, where the Suwannee River meets the Gulf of Mexico...and our annual trip to Star Lake for a couple of weeks. This year, we will use the time there to get in additional hill training for the hike...and cool weather training! Looking forward to spending time with Meg and Steve on the way up to the North Country and having days on the lake with Pam and James, and maybe Meg.

Master bath rehab is never ending

We must be having a ton of fun with this project because we keep finding new walls to paint.

The old wallpaper is long gone, although the sticky little pieces of underlining paper are immortal. The bare walls were a wonderful improvement over the worn and dated paper. Nevertheless, we began painting them after enjoying their nakedness for a few days.

 

Now the 10' ceilings are painted and we're working our way down to the floor. It turns out a ladder will stand safely in the tub, although we have decided climbing ladders ought to be reserved for people in their 20s.

It amazed us how ugly the walls could look when only the edging was complete. Now that a few of the walls are fully painted we are relieved that we like them.

But the project is far from over. Much more fun ahead. Tomorrow we'll maybe finish the green semi-gloss walls. Woodwork after that...but no rush.

The master bath rehab, an update

Slow is good. We may finish this project before I get my passport and we try again to take to the Camino in France...or maybe not.

All the wallpaper is gone.

 

 I can reach the high ceilings from the top step of the ladder.

 Tomorrow's question: Can a ladder stand securely in a bathtub?

A Beryl Rainy day

The great master bath update continues. The paper is all stripped. Today we started buying paint...just ceiling paint so far. Driving over to get the paint, our Taurus, which is almost as old as the master bath, turned to 100,000 miles.

 

Buying paint was enough for one day on this take-our-time project. So we took Jake for a walk between Beryl rain bands. We saw this little guy sitting in a boxwood bush.

What to Do When You Have to Cancel Your Vacation?

Rehab a bathroom, of course. Steaming off old wallpaper is almost as much fun as trudging up high mountains in the rain.

Working on Plan B

Jake likes the turn of events more than we do. The packs were ready to go aboard with us and the little duffel ready to carry our walking sticks, scissors, and liquids in checked luggage. Three weeks of everything we need in a small pile. Jake was eyeing it.

As it turned out, he needn't have worried. We had to cancel the trip at the last minute because my passport had fewer than 90 days remaining to the expiration date. Now that is a bad mistake.

Luckily all the training has its own payoff. We got strong and had many lovely training walks in the woods. And, we parred our pack weights down to 13.5 and 16.5 pounds. We won't lose those packing lists.

 

 

We are not yet recovered from the shock of not starting to walk tomorrow. We had some really interesting looking places lined up to stay.

 

We are working on Plan B. Maybe in September we will do the walk we planned for now. Or, maybe we'll volunteer as hospitaleros in September or October and reconsider this walk in a year.

A Lodging for Every Night

I have now communicated with a huge number of hoteliers in France! It seems a bit to violate the pilgrim ethic of letting the Camino decide, but I can live with that. At last I have a booking for each night and I am very happy not to have to worry about it while on the trail. You can go to the tourist offices in the few bigger towns along the way and get them to call for you, but I will be happy to sit in a cafe and drink cafe au lait instead of doing that.

We have a great mix of guest houses, hostels, and a few hotels...even an abbey and a chateau, both of which are  UNESCO World Heritage sites. The trail looks challenging and we have planned shorter walks than in the past, averaging 9 miles a day, with the longest being 15. Our packs are lighter than last year too, which required amazing discipline on our parts. Now the trick is to avoid throwing things in at the end. Funny how that extra shirt I took out last week now calls to me from the drawer. It really wants to come with me.

Reptiles Seen on our Last Long Training Hike

We saw an otter, deer, and lots of  birds, including abundant red-headed woodpeckers on our morning walk, but we only managed to grab photos of reptiles. We were disappointed not to have seen tortoises, as we often have in the past.

An eastern fence lizard (Sceloporus undulatus)

This was one of many seen during our morning walk.

A black racer (Coluber constrictor)

This mid-sized racer seemed almost as intent looking over us as we were interested in him.

A broad-headed skink (Eumeces laticeps)

These skinks grow larger than most other kinds of local lizards, and the adult males develop a red-coloration on the head, and particularly on the enlarged jaws.

A Week Before We Leave

Before

After

Today will probably be our final long training walk. We did 8 miles at San Felasco Hammock with full backpacks. You may recall that we have previously posted a photo of a tree that looked liked it might fall down any minute. It looked like that for years...but it finally fell. It didn't break at the narrow spot, but collapsed right at ground level. Happily, we weren't there when it happened.

In addition to fallen gtrees, today we saw a deer, some fence lizards, an otter, red-headed woodpeckers, and a black racer. I saw the otter way up ahead on a straight section of the trail. I thought it was a turtle, but it didn't walk right for a turtle. Then I thought it was a little black pig, until it turned and I saw its tail. Too long for a pig, so I guessed possum. Eventually it got close enough so it noticed us and ran off into the woods. Definitely an otter.

We have reservations for most of our nights on the trail. In France, reservations are needed and I decided not to try to make them while on the trail. It is perfectly possible to do that, but takes time that I'd rather be taking photos, or eating French cheese, or just enjoying the wherever I am at the moment. So I have been booking ahead by internet.

We'll stay in guest houses and hostels, and a few hotels. We'll try to post along the way using our new i-phones and the blogger app that I tried out last night with okay success.

This is the logistics and training phase and we are glad it is almost at an end. Now, we look forward to getting on the trail.

Trying out my iPhone blogger app

We got new iPhones for the Camino. We'd like to leave most other electronics behind and save about a pound. This is the first attempt to use the blogger app. The photo is the Barry Farm where we plan to stay one night in a hostel.

The Camino Calls Us Back Yet Again

We have our plane tickets and our new Pilgrim Passports. Jake's favorite dog and house sitter has agreed to take care of him. He is wagging and barking for joy. So we are off again, leaving Sunday May 20 for about 3 weeks on "The Way." We expect to see more Americans this year, in the aftermath of the Martin Sheen-Emilio Estevez movie about it.

This will be our 4th Camino walk. We have walked the full distance across Spain to Santiago. This time, we return to France and the first segment of the route, from Le Puy en Velay to Figeac.

We hope to complete 150 rigorous and scenic miles. That would leave us 'only' about 200 miles unwalked on the 1,000-mile trail.

We bought new backpacks and a few new items of gear and clothing. We selected a few items we will leave behind to lighten the load...no razor this year, fewer shirts, apps on our phones instead of flashlights, a compass, and Kindles. I'm even going to try a blogger app, although thumb typing a post seems not too practical.

We have maintained our training schedule of about 100 miles of walking a month since the first of the year. A few weeks ago, probably not enough weeks ago, we added our packs to our walking. Today we did a bit over 8 miles with fully loaded packs. I decided I'm not as ready as I wish I were.

But it is amazing to have the chance to try another section of this magnificent route. We will keep on blogging about how we're doing and what we're seeing and experiencing.

Garlic Chicken "Noil"

This image shows a recipe of Garlic Chicken "Noil" this evening, just as the burner was about to be turned on and cooking was to begin. You may notice chicken thighs, crushed garlic, and snipped rosemary. The concoction is slowly sauteed over very low heat, then browned briefly, and at the last minute the well-cooked chicken absorbs a small glass of red wine.

Thanks for the recipe to our longtime friend Arnold G., who based it on a remembered family recipe (note that I used 'longtime friend' instead of 'old friend').  'Noil' is the rendering of  'Arnold' by our daughter, then (more than 40 years ago) just learning to talk.

Easter Bunnies

The damn bunnies are on the mantel where they belong. See their story here.

Hospitalero Training

We attended the annual Gathering of the American Pilgrims on the Camino organization, which was held in Winter Park, Florida in late March. We arrived two days early so we we could participate in hospitalero training. Having completed the training qualifies us to volunteer in pilgrim hostels throughout Spain, providing food and shelter to walkers in donativo albergues. These are inns that usually have only the most basic creature comforts, subsist on the donations of travelers, and often excel in promoting informal camaraderie. We shared the fun of the training with a great group of interesting and likable people.

Will we volunteer in one of the refuges? We haven't settled on our plans yet, but are thinking we might take this year to scope out some opportunities with an eye toward volunteering in 2013.