BUSTED!!! Then REDEEMED.

This is most likely the worst thing that will happen to you if you try to boondock. It sucks, but it's not the worst thing that can happen to you in your life.

I got permission to stay at the Spring Hill Walmart, set up camp, went to sleep.

Then about four hours later, I hear a tapping noise and think I'm dreaming. Then I hear voices and see a light. OH SHIT.

I lay still thinking they might leave me alone.

Then BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG (not a gun, but banging on the car). I'm still not sure who it is but I figure it's the security people.  THEN they start to ROCK the car!! OMG.

Then I peek out the window and see the SHERIFF's car.  and say "I have permission to stay here". They say "From who?" I say "The front desk" and one of the officers says "That's true they let them stay here." "Well the manager wants you out."

Well,  I guess a different manager.

This lot is like the size of a football field BTW. It was about 90% empty.

So he asks where I'm going, what I'm doing, asks for my ID, THEN proceeds to ask me "What are all those pills?" I'm like "Pills?" They guy opened my cargo carrier, riffled through my cooler and found my herbs and vitamins that I have a two month supply for. 

Isn't this illegal? Don't they have to have a search warrant or at least probably cause?

"They're my vitamins."

"Oh ok."

"Well, we'll let you stay the night but you have to be out the first thing in the morning." 

"That's what I was intending officer."

SO, me being not such a great sleeper you can pretty much predict that going back to sleep wasn't probably going to work out.

So the worst thing that could happen to me when I sleep has happened. But it was just when I started to feel relaxed about this whole thing. 

So I decided to look for something else for a bit. And I found an amazing lady named Gretchen in town who hosts Couchsurfers. 

She answered an hour after I posted my request at 11 am said 'common over and stay the night, or two, or a week. And BTW, help yourself to dinner, use the shower and laundry and help yourself to whatever food you find in the fridge. 

This blows my mind.

I can only say I aspire to such generosity and open heartedness.

I've met others like this on the road, Couchsurfing and Boondockers Welcome hosts last year. 

So this is why I love this, I love the discomfort because it makes me have to reach out and interact and meet these people. I HAVE TO. I have to do this, or stay in a stinky motel room and spend the  fun money  I want to use to ride around in the Everglades on a private air boat.

Gretchn is mother to two who both  live there, host of a Japanese foreign exchange high school student and also is allowing someone who is homeless to stay with them until they get their act together. And also invites me to stay. And feeds us all.

Thank you Gretchen, Angel of Travelers.

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Badda bing badda boom, I did it!

Last year on my trip to Joshua Tree National Forest, my camera died, so I decided to buy another one on Amazon and have it shipped to Quartzsite where my base camp was. I did it with relatively little flourish, much less fuss than I normally make over something large-ish. 

 So I settled on an Olympus thing called "Tough" that had good reviews and you were able to take underwater, which, to me, was completely non-essential. Until, like, wow, today. I shot all these photos. I was scared to dunk my camera in water, but fortunately, our tour guide had the exact same camera and put me completely at ease.

This one particular guy really enjoyed chewing the boat's rope. Apparently, they think (the scientists, not the manatees) it helps their digestion to chew on something. Kinda manatee gum.

Momma and baby.

I took mostly videos, and this one is the best. It's about 4 minutes.

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The spring stays about 72 degrees consistently throughout the year. They come in from the rivers to the springs to stay warm in the winter, then head back out when there's a warmer day to feed. Today it was chock full of manatees! There are usually 600 or so in the springs at any one time during cooler weather.

I have to say, the biggest worry for me was the cold water. I am very cold averse. I told the woman at the dive shop and she double wet suited me which was really nice. AND they offered to babysit Choochi for three hours on the house(they said she was the best behaved dog they have ever had there!)  She was given free run of the place, and I think had a really good time.

Even with the double suit, my teeth were chattering violently the  time. I lasted about 45 mins, then had to bail for the boat, which was even worse for about twenty minutes cause the air was colder than the water. But somehow I peeled two wet suits off of me in the wide open pontoon boat, peeled my bathing suit off and got into dry clothes. It helped that everyone else except the captain (who respectfully turned his back) was face down in the river so nobody was looking! They put a cup of hot chocolate in my hands and I chatted up the captain for the rest of the time everyone else was still  in the water. 

The one BIG BIG challenge still which is chaffing at me daily  is the "where can I feel safe to sleep". Here's where I was last night with three other Boondockers. Walmart in Inverness which is east of Crystal River about 15 miles. I was really unable to get to sleep until about 12:30 (I was in bed at 8:30) freaking out about a security person booting me out even though it was ok'd by Walmart. I then conked out hard until I had to get up to catch the boat  at 4:30 for the swim. I only got about 3.5 hours and I'm TIRED.

  This feels like some kind of spiritual test thingy for me I think. I haven't called it that but  I'm really "leaning in" to my discomfort which is what one of my favorite Buddhist teachers, Pema Chodron,  recommends doing. I want to quit about every other day. I get mad, confused, sure I'm heading home soon.  

I love the freedom of boondocking. I love the challenge of it. I hate not sleeping well. I hate insomnia. I hate the whole bathroom situation issue. My brain and body make this harder than maybe it is for some folks. But then again, most folks my age have an RV, which would be a piece of cake.  Except you have to then always park in a Walmart or a campground. I get to park at my friend's houses undetected and scoot away as quick as the wind with almost no fuss. 

I got to enjoy some beautiful parts of Inverness yesterday, which oddly enough has a huge commercial strip mall section and looks very vibrant (pet marts with expensive items, health food stores with expensive food). But looking up the stats on this place, there are only 7500 people with the average household income of $26,000 per year and average house price $86,000. I don't get it.

Here are some lovely shots from one of their little water parks where I did yoga with some lovely cypress trees at water's edge. I hope I can convey the amazing beauty of Spanish Moss on these trees. It's tough to get that on film. 

So ONE of the big goals of the trip has been achieved YAY! which was to swim with the manatees! I have a new one now, which is to play shuffleboard somewhere. The park in Inverness had a shuffleboard court and the clicking of the pucks, if that's what you call them, brought me back to my little two or three year old self. The brain is so amazing! That sound was so familiar and so comforting. I'm going to try to get an updated shot of this. I LOVED shuffleboard when I was a toddler.

Here I am on the court!

Next stop, I dunno!

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Manatee Mindfulness.

FINALLY........... summer!! Flip flops and tee shirt, sun and warmer weather. And I am in manatee land. Middle of the state north of Orlando is Blue Springs State Park. Had a fabulous two days there. Gorgeous sites, with a spanking clean heated bathroom area and HOT HOT showers. LUXURY!!!

Trying to recover from a broken water bottle in the back seat with a half gallon of water in it. I always seem to have a flood along the way. I almost didn't bring my ice scraper on this trip but  thought better of it and I have not only used it to scrape ice off my car, I squeegeed the rug with it. 

It was peaceful and quiet no one was burning campfires and I could smell the local flora and it was heaven. 

This is one of my pet peeves with paid campsites. The fires, to me, are air pollution. They burn my lungs and sting my eyes. They drown out the flowers and the fresh air. So last year I had to avoid state parks mostly. That's harder to do in Florida if you want to see beautiful things .At Blue Springs, I ran into my car and rolled my windows up at night. SO STUPID! I come to the beach or to a lovely forest and have to breath crappy smokey air.

A helicopter started to hover around for a LONG time not long after I arrived. Which was getting annoying. So I asked the campground host what was happening. "Oh, they're having a controlled burn in the next field." Really? 

I look up and see this...........HUGE yellow belching huge cloud of smoke. OMG. 

(That's the bathroom structure in the foreground.)

So we explored and found this wasteland about two blocks  from our campsite.

But miraculously, none of the smoke came our way.

So we took a stroll down to see the lovely manatee beings in the lagoon.

These are the most amazing creatures. They live in a state of permanent flotation tank consciousness. 

The water is emerald green and crystal clear. This little guy was lying on his back.

Beautiful park with lovely boardwalks. Everyone is very quiet and respectful.

I'm intrigued with the way the palms live and die together in beautiful grace.

I headed off to bed around 8:30 when I camp, mostly to get out of the smoke. Thought I felt an earthquake tremor while in the car.........but then discovered the next day it was a raccoon jumping on my cargo rack. He apparently wasn't too interested in liquid calcium, iodine and silica but he managed to drag it across the campsite into the woods. 

But he ripped the heck out of my reflectix covering for me cooler.

But all's well.

The next day we booked a two hour cruise on the St. John's River.

The tannin stains on the cypress trees show the water lever of hurricane Irma.

Gorgeous wild river. Breathtaking. Good naturalist on board. Nice friendly folks all around.

 Lots of gaters.

Too many birds to mention. So many. The start of the Audubon Society had it's roots in trying to protect one particular bird species here in Florida that all the women wanted in their hat feathers. So the power of two women brought that to an end AND created a force of nature themselves!

1896 Harriet Hemenway and Mina Hall organize a series of afternoon teas to convince Boston society ladies to eschew hats with bird feathers. These meetings culminate in the founding of the Massachusetts Audubon Society.

 Amazing multi-level cloud formations at the end of the day.

I feel more "in the groove" after our time here. When you are in an amazing place, there is kind of an enebriation that you feel......so I'm very grateful to the manatees and to Blue Springs and the folks who run the park.

Tomorrow I swim with manatees at Crystal River!!!

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Florida. It's freeking cold.

GAAAK we're cold.

St. Augustine ice on the street.

Frost on the cargo carrier yesterday.

All this wouldn't be a big deal. Except that it's been hard to find good places to camp at night. It's crowded, overbooked. Expensive. Not too Walmart friendly. I've had wonderful hosts, and that's been great in their driveways and in their homes. But I wanted to get out into the wilds and be spontaneous on the road. 

So it's been hard, and I have moments of wanting to chuck it and go home.

But there are moments that are completely spectacular.

Jed and Dave wrangle their new beach chairs on St. Augustine beach.

I so enjoyed hanging out with my old friends Mike, Jed and Dave. 

And watching Choochi's total joy on the beach.

And seeing the wonderful, primeval, incredible live oaks, especially the Fairchild live oak in Ormond Beach which is about 500 years old.

   

Me next to Lady Fairchild.

The car is dwarfed by these beautiful trees.

  

And a lovely palm strewn forest floor with towering oaks and palms overhead.

And the surprise of amazing variety waterfowl adjacent to a Walmart parking lot.  There is an enormous abundance of wildlife. I've seen a bald eagle, a river otter, a hawk land in Target parking lot and pileated woodpeckers on this trip.

No room at the inn tonight at my campground which I had to pay $33 for last night. Homeless for the evening. Feeling exhausted by the struggle to remain spontaneous and free to explore. I'm beginning to feel the "don't fence me in" sentiment of the regulation of where you can and cannot sleep! That is pretty rough when you think about it. That most of what we do in our lives is to create a safe place to be unconscious for eight hours.

We will persevere, for now! Stay tuned.

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