Memorial Day Weekend and A Surprise

Memorial Day Weekend finds us at Florida Caverns State Parkin Marianna, FL, for the second time.  You may remember that this is where we spent Christmas.  At Christmas, I found this to be a rather gloomy campground; however, this weekend is beautiful and sunny and I am thoroughly enjoying being here.

On Friday morning, I was checking Facebook and was excited to see that some old friends whom we have not seen for at least ten years were also camping at Florida Caverns for the weekend.  Rather than let them know that we would see them there, we decided to surprise them when we arrived.   We set up our campsite and went for a walk around the campground to see if we could determine which camper belonged to them. We found it, but to our dismay no one was home.  We started walking back to our site when a truck stopped and our friends, Sid and Charlotte greeted us.  We have been visiting with them and their family all weekend.

We became friends with Sid and Charlotte when their son, Allen, was the youth minister at our church.  Allen ate lunch with us almost every Sunday and usually hung out at our house until time to go back to church in the evening.  He was like part of the family.  It also helped us deal with the “empty nest” while Amy was in college.  We enjoyed  a lot of good times with Allen and his family, but eventually Allen went to another church to serve and it became harder to keep up the relationship.  When I first discovered Facebook, I looked up Charlotte and sent her a friend request.  Then I found that they, too, were enjoying camping.  I kept telling Bubba that we needed to get together with them, but I could tell from Facebook that they were very busy with their family.  (They have four grandchildren, who all live fairly close.)   So I have to say that the highlight of this weekend has been rekindling old friendships.

Sid

Charlotte and Granddaughter Julianna

We immediately learned from seasoned campers, Sid and Charlotte, that a fan set up outside would actually keep you cool and keep the bugs away so that you could enjoy being outside.  Thankfully, there is a WalMart in Marianna so we went shopping for our fan and now I’m sitting outside typing this in my Valentine’s Day recliner with our new fan keeping me cool and bug-free.

It’s hard to explain why I enjoy sitting outside at a campground  and it is so different from sitting outside at home, which I hardly ever do.  It’s peaceful here.  Everything is green.  The birds are singing.  Occasionally someone whizzes by on a bicycle.  I guess I enjoy it because I don’t feel like there is anything else I should be doing.  That is a feeling hard to achieve when you’re at home.

Enjoying a good book while we commune with nature. (Pre big fan purchase)

In the evening, we’ve enjoyed the lightning bugs that are plentiful in the woods beside our campsite.  Bubba says that when he was a boy, he and his sister used to catch them in a jar and that they would continue to light up and get brighter and brighter the more that were in the jar.  Of course, they always let them go.  I think Amelia would enjoy doing that.  Maybe one day she will be with us when the lightning bugs are in flight.

Food is an important part of every camping trip and this one is no exception.  Friday evening  Bubba grilled a chicken, which was served with fresh cucumbers, fresh stewed squash and a baked potato.  Saturday we ate at Sonny’s B-B-Q in Marianna, which in my opinion is the very best Sonny’s anywhere.  We had ribs and they were delicious.  That afternoon we cut an ice cold watermelon and then went down to enjoy peach homemade ice cream with our friends.  Charlotte makes the ice cream by my old recipe, which I don’t even have any more since we have not made ice cream in years.  I have often thought about how recipes keep people in our memories.  (That’s a topic for another blog.)

First watermelon of the summer and it was delicious!

Allen poses for a picture with us.

 Sunday included a return trip to Sonny's and a stop by Burger King for an ice cream.  We also did some walking, but mostly a lot of relaxing and visiting with old friends.  Sid and Charlotte were fortunate in having their whole family with them.  Allen and his wife, Tara, arrived in a trailer Friday evening and Jonette and her husband came earlier Friday.  All four grandchildren seemed to get along well.  They would ride bikes together and wave at us every time they passed.  Allen and Tara went to WalMart and bought a small swimming pool which they set up at their campsite, so they all enjoyed cooling it together in the pool after riding bikes.  Monday morning we pulled out around 10:00 after exchanging e-mail addresses and promises to stay in touch.  Hopefully, some of our trips in the future will find us heading in the same direction together.  That would make our enjoyment of camping even better.