Getting Ready for Trip to Myakka River State Park

We leave tomorrow to go to Myakka River State Park, so we've been busy since the first of this month getting ready for the trip. Last week Mike ordered some oil from Amsoil for the Honda Pilot and we drove over to their distribution center in Orlando to pick up last Tuesday. Afterwards, we stopped at Burger Fi in Kissimmee for lunch. This was our second time eating at a Burger Fi (Fletcher took us to one in January) and it was just as good as the first time.

We ate breakfast with our friends at IHOP in Vero the last 2 Mondays. I took Tinker to the groomer last Saturday for the "works" - bath and haircut in preparation for our trip. 

Yesterday I went to the IRGS General Meeting. Our speaker was Sandra McKenny and she spoke on "Transcriptions, Abstracts and Extracts". She talked about how important it was to transcribe handwritten documents and how to do it correctly - misspellings and all. She explained the differences between abstracts and extracts of documents for genealogy.

I also stopped our newspaper delivery and had our mail held while we are on our trip. It's really handy that that can be done online, so I don't have to remember to call during office hours or fill out a form.

The IRGS in conjunction with the Family History Center in Vero is sponsoring a free genealogy conference

Dining Out and Meetings in March

Mike had bought Gutter Guards to install on our rain gutters a while back from Lowe's. Earlier this month Mike put them on the gutters around our garage - which fills up with oak leaves from tree by the garage.

Every Monday of this month Mike and I went down to IHOP in Vero and joined our friends Chris & Matt, Nancy & Bill, and Steven for breakfast. 

Our guest speaker for the March IRGS's monthly meeting was Diahan Southard and she spoke on "Five Tips to Make Sense of Your DNA Testing." We had a huge attendance that day and we always do when Diahan speaks. Even if you've heard her speak on DNA, you always pick up on something you missed before - at least I do, and several of my friends say the same thing. Since I am now Treasure for the society, I attend the monthly Board meetings which are usually the following week of our General Meetings. Besides keeping the financial records for the society, I prepare a monthly financial report which I give at the General Member Meeting and I email a copy to each of the Board Members.

We also went to the MOAA (Military Officers of America Assn.) luncheon at the Vero Beach Yacht Club on

Valentine Seminar and Visit with Cousins

Mike and I went to the Gardenfest at Riverside Park in Vero Beach. It's an annual event hosted by the Garden Club of Indian River County and there are vendors there from plant nurseries from all over Florida. This year we bought a beautiful red Hibiscus plant for $20. Then we went to Mulligan's Beach House on the ocean for lunch.

The Indian River Genealogical Society in association with 3 other societies had their annual Valentine Seminar on Saturday the 17th at the First Presbyterian Church in Vero. This was their 35th Valentine Seminar. The guest speakers were Pam & Richard Sayre, both well-know National speakers. We had a 2-hour presentation on Google Earth for Genealogists by Rick and Pam, Rick spoke on Land Office Records and Pam finished out the day with a fun presentation on Rogues & Rascals. Our lunch was catered by Toojay's and I had ordered the Turkey Wrap. The seminar started at 9:00 and we finished about 3:45.

Then I rushed home from the Seminar because my cousin Frances and her husband Jack were driving in to spend the night with us before they went on down to their timeshare. I had bought a London Broil and Mike put it in the Crockpot with the Knorr Sauerbraten mix and then added carrots and potatoes later for our dinner that night. So when I got home, I just had to fix a salad and heat the Hawaiian Rolls.

Then Sunday we took Frances and Jack down to Mulligan's Beach House in Vero for a late breakfast. We all ordered the Country Connection - scrambled eggs, biscuit & gravy, sausage and homefries - not very original on anyone's part, but we agreed that we all made a good choice.

We went down to visit with Frances and Jack at their timeshare in Pompano on the 25th. Since pets aren't

Breakfast with Friends & Other Stuff

After we got back from our camping trip to Ortona South Locks, we met our friends Chris, Matt, Nancy, Bill and Steve for breakfast on Mondays at the IHOP in Vero Beach. 

Mike and I attended the MOAA (Military Officers of America Association) luncheon on the 19th at the Vero Beach Yacht Club. Mike and I had the sliced London Broil, with broccoli, roasted potatoes and chocolate cake. Our speaker was Lt. Col. Terrence O'Connor from Florida Tech in Melbourne, FL where he is the Military Science Department Head. He gave a very interesting and informative talk on the ROTC program there.

Our neighbor Barb called us last week and said she thought she had put the wrong kind of gas in her car. She apparently had backed up and bumped into something and it got her nervous and she thought she had grabbed the wrong nozzle to fill her gas tank. Long story short, Barb had put diesel in her car by mistake so Mike drove her to a garage in Sebastian for them to drain the diesel out and refill the tank with some gas. Fortunately it wasn't as expensive as we thought it was going to be.

Part of my duties as Treasurer for the Indian River Genealogical Society is to arrange for the Audit Committee to meet at the Main Library in Vero and I handed over the financial records for the previous year. While they were meeting, I went upstairs to the Genealogy Dept. and did some research. It took the committee about 2 hours to do the audit and then they were going to write up a report to give to the Board and the Society members. Their report said that the financial records were in order - which was thanks to Gail who was the Treasurer for last year.

Back Home from Ortona South Campground

By the time we packed everything up, broke camp and then dumped the black and gray tanks at the dump station, it was almost 11:00 (check-out time) when we left the campground. We retraced our route east to Whiddon Corner, then north to Moore Haven, through Lockport and to Okeechobee. 

We stopped for lunch at the Burger King in Okeechobee a little after 12:00 and after lunch we got gas at RaceTrac ($2.899 a gallon) before heading east to I-95 at Ft. Pierce and then home. We arrived home just before 2:00. 

We really enjoyed our time at the Ortona South Campground and will go back sometime. It's just nice and peaceful there. Maybe next time we'll see some manatees that are supposed to hang around the Locks. Plus the campground is only 124 miles from home and an easy getaway.

Ortona South Locks Campground

This was our 5th day here at Ortona South Campground. Monday we drove over to LaBelle and went shopping at WalMart Supercenter. Tuesday was the General Meeting for the Indian River Genealogical Society and they had a live Webinar with Maureen Taylor, The Photo Detective. I was able to login and watch the Webinar as if I was attending the meeting - yeah, technology!

We've just been relaxing and watching the boats traveling on the Caloosahatchee River and Canal and going through the Locks. 

Mike even made a couple of movies of boats going through the Locks.

The canal is a part of the 152 mile Okeechobee waterway that goes between the Gulf of Mexico and the

New Year's Day Breakfast & a Camping Trip

On January 1 we joined our friends at Mulligan's Beach House in Vero for a New Year's Day breakfast. This is an annual event that Nancy and Bill have and they pay for everyone's meal. There were 8 of us that day - Nancy and Bill, their son Steven, Chris and Matt, Carol and Mike and I. Then we had a group photo taken. It was a great, fun time.

We've spent the last few days getting ready for our trip down to the Ortona South Lock Campground. We left the house this morning about 10:15 and stopped for gas at Raceway ($2.899 a gallon) before getting on to I-95 South. We exited I-95 at Exit 129 at Ft. Pierce and drove west on FL-70 to Okeechobee. We stopped for lunch at noon at Burger King in Okeechobee and had a couple of bacon cheeseburgers for lunch. 

Then south on FL-78 to US-27 South down to FL-80 at Whiddon Corner and then west on FL-80 to Dalton Lane and then north to the campground. We arrived at the campground a little before 1:30 and checked in.

We are on site 23 with a good view of the Caloosahatchee Canal.

We have electric and water hookups and a nice level concrete pad. There is also a nice tall tree next to