Is it time to go yet?

Another day with not much going on. The most interesting thing that happened today was Randy's nosebleed that wouldn't stop. We decided to get it cauterized but preferred not to go to an Emergency Room, so we went on a journey to find an Urgent Care facility. A call to our insurance led us to an Urgent Care associated with a hospital. The wait was endless and the red tape was annoying; eventually Randy just left. This is our new heathcare in action.

My attitude may be showing; I am tired of having no sewer, tired of being stingy with water because of no sewer, tired of a rally without much to do. I am looking forward to moving on.

Florida's old Capitol building

We went downtown today, to see the hold Florida Capitol building. This building was expanded several times before being restored it its 1845 appearance, right down to the pretty pink and white striped awnings over the windows.

It is well preserved, but not used. Unlike the historic capitol building in San Antonio, this is just a tourist attraction. Seems like a waste of a perfectly good building, to me. Inside it's not nearly as ornate as most old government buildings. I really liked the clean lines and beautiful colors.

The rooms, with the exception of the Senate and House rooms, have very little to do with the history of this place. Instead they are used for exhibits about Florida's general past and future, and each one includes a "why it matters to you" poster, as if we tourists are not smart enough to understand. 


 Nearby is the First Presbyterian Church of Tallahassee. It's a lovely old building, built in the mid 1800s.

Inside is a fairly simple sanctuary, with a gorgeous pipe organ at the back. The building's claim to fame is its preserved "slave galleries", which I assume are the balconies. 

Food is all there is here

Today we left the rally grounds for most of the day. We started with breakfast at Waffle House. Then we went shopping at Whole Foods. This store isn't a big or interesting as the one in St. Louis, but not bad. A little chocolate at the nearby chocolate store, then lunch at 4 Rivers BBQ. Back at the fairgrounds Randy went back to the kitchen to help them prepare dinner again. The menu tonight is prime rib. Randy had seasoned it earlier so it tasted great, but they cooked it all day; they turned prime rib into a delicious pot roast. 

Saturday at the Rally

We discovered that there are a lot of fleas in the grass here; our ankles are covered in flea bites. But they don't itch, so it's not bad. What is bad is that the car would not start today. Nothing. Our neighbors were getting ready to go to the same flea market we were headed to, so I asked them for a jump. It took a couple of tries but eventually the jeep did start. Since the battery was still under warranty, we drove to Walmart to get the battery replaced. Instead they tested it and told us it was perfectly fine. Well, who knows, maybe it is; the jeep did start working again.

So we went to the flea market after all. It's a big one and we walked the whole thing, but didn't find anything we couldn't live without. One whole building holds a huge pile of junk; how do they expect to sell any of this stuff, when it looks like a hoarder's house?

Back at the rally, Randy worked in the kitchen a lot, and the cornish hen dinner turned out fine. 

Passport America Rally in Tallahassee

We were so ready to leave Carrabella; there just wasn't much to do there. Our next stop was the Passport America Rally in Tallahassee, Florida. The rally was held in the city fairgrounds, where we had 30 amp hookup and water, but no sewer connection. This is pretty much standard procedure; at the FMCA rally in 2014, we had neither water or sewer. Here we pulled into our site and joked about the lakeside view; it had rained fiercely the day before.

There were only about 150 RVs here, making it a small rally. Well, that's OK, they have to start somewhere. But there weren't  many events or seminars scheduled. They did, however, have meals planed for every night. The meal for the next night was going to be roasted cornish hens. Today the hens were still frozen; Randy suggested they be thawed out in water and cut in half, to be ready for seasoning and cooking tomorrow. Cornish hens are small, but it still takes a while to thaw them, and the kitchen was only available until 3 pm. So I spent a couple of hours in the kitchen with another lady, man-handling half-frozen cornish hens, prying their little legs apart to get the ice out of their little cavity. It was a mess! We finished right at 3, with Randy cutting and bagging them as soon as they were ready.

Later that night we joined the rest of the crowd for a pulled pork dinner, which, although not nearly as good as Randy's, was still pretty good. 

What to do in a small town

So far we haven't found anything interesting to do or see here. We could be wrong, but that's how it is for now. So since there isn't anything else to do, we used the time to get most of our tax information together. Not my favorite thing, but at least it's a good way to use this time.

Beachin'

The beach is about 1 1/2 mile from our site, just a little drive. Today we took the dogs out there. It's a narrow strip of white sand, with a few traces of oil. Most of of the sand is packed quite hard.

And one end is covered with the stumps of old cypress trees. 

I thought they looked pretty cool, but little Julienne didn't know what to make of them.

But she did know when she'd walked enough. Then she got a lift from her favorite person in the whole wide world.

We checked out the local IGA (the only store in town) and discovered their prices are quite high. Not going to be buying bacon here!

So we drove 39 miles to the nearest big town, Crawfordville, and did some grocery shopping. We spent something in gas, but it was a nice trip and we didn't feel ripped off!