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Thursday, February 12, 2015

Back to Dad's



We finished up our little camping odyssey with a four day stay at Ortona South Campground. It's on the Caloosahatchee River section of the Okeechobee Waterway. The sites are good sized, well maintained, and reasonably priced. Ours was right on the river with a good view of the Ortona lock.

I brought our hand held marine radio. By tunning into channel 13 the chatter between the lock and the boats could be heard. That allowed us some warning that a boat would soon be coming through. My lovely wife and I almost took our sailboat down the Okeechobee last winter. Instead we decided to cross Florida Bay. Maybe next winter. At least now we know the procedure for traveling through locks.

What the campground lacked was any sort of Internet connection. It's fairly out of the way and the next nearest town, LaBelle, is a some miles down the road. It's best to arrive well provisioned. Using the campground for a base we drove all over the region checking out the surrounding towns and the waterway. Since we'd never been there before we considered this somewhat of a scouting mission.

I was able to sort out the remaining fuel issues with the van. It was reassuring to be able to drive hundreds of miles without any fuel problems. It does look like we have put that problem behind us.

My insurance company got back in touch with me about my little fender bender in Florida City again. They were very good to deal with and I think everything is in order.

The cell phone that went for a dip at the boat ramp never recovered. If put on charge the flash will flicker like a strobe light, but that's about all. I'm saving it as there's a phone expert back home who might be able to recover something from the memory.

The phone did not have cell service, but it was a good for reading books and checking e-mail where there was wifi. I finally broke down and ordered a small Kindle Fire tablet. That should allow me access to my books “in the cloud” and also provide e-mail functions. It even has a small camera. Now all I have to do is keep it out of the ocean.

Now that I've got a reliable Internet connection again I'll do my on-line business. In fact, I'm even going to write a few paper checks for snail mail delivery -like some kind of a barbarian.

I hope to help dad with a few projects around the house. Then we'll plan the next stage of our adventures.

Please bear with me as this year's Internet connections are hit or miss. Last year I paid way too much money to a phone service with a hot spot connection. I really can't justify the expense. My lovely wife's phone is a cheap Straight Talk phone and that does not allow hot spot connections. It does allow us some limited Internet capability, but updating the blog isn't one of them.

-Sixbears

9 comments:

  1. I'm glad you got to do a little scouting for the future.Beats going in blind, so to speak!

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    1. I guess it means we liked the area enough to want to back. It's nothing like back home . . and that's why we travel, to see new things.

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  2. Don't worry about not being able to blog every day. The main thing is to have fun. You can always catch us land-lubbers up when conditions permit.

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    1. I hope it's more often in the future, but since we'll eventually be in rural TX, I make no promises.

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  3. Isn't it amazing how much we now miss the internet when we don't have it. Cell phones, too. I like reading about your adventures but understand you don't always have the opportunity to post. The main thing is for you and your lovely wife to have a good time.

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    1. I really missed my e-books. It didn't take long to go through all my paper ones. We had some rainy days that were perfect for reading. Oh well.

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  4. If you ever do the Okeechobee, LaBelle is very boater friendly and has a city dock with tie up allowed for two days. If one wants to stay longer, a hotel directly across from the city dock is very cheap for long stay 25 cents a foot !

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  5. If you ever do the Okeechobee, LaBelle is very boater friendly and has a city dock with tie up allowed for two days. If one wants to stay longer, a hotel directly across from the city dock is very cheap for long stay 25 cents a foot !

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    1. They seemed to welcome boaters. That's a bargain! Actually prices in the middle of the canal all seemed pretty reasonable. We also saw a boat tied up in Moore Haven. It looks like they are in the process of upgrading their riverfront.

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