We left our site at Panther Creek State Park Friday morning, October 2nd at 11:30 am and drove 15 minutes to the spot we had chosen the day before as a good place to park Voyager and Nomad while we had our scheduled 12:15 pm call with the Volunteer Coordinating Ranger for Wekiwa Springs State Park in Central Florida. It was a Speedway gas station and convenience store that had a nice, long parking area with enough room for our rig without getting in anyone’s way, and it was right off the main road we needed to stay on for our trip that day.
So far every winter we have stayed at campgrounds in Central Florida for a few months and it seemed like it might be a good idea to be in one spot for the duration, which we can do if we are volunteers in one of the campgrounds. Wekiwa Springs is one of three campgrounds we applied at to do so. We’ve stayed there several times and always enjoyed those stays, so we’re hopeful they might have an opening we can fill while we’re in the area.
The call went very well. Right now, the campground is fully staffed for this winter, but we have been put on the emergency call list in case someone who is already scheduled has to back out. Realistically, that probably won’t happen. However, we are also now on the list for NEXT winter, which is probably more likely to happen.
Goose Point Campground
This was another 4-hour driving day, but I felt much more “back at home” behind the wheel. By the time we reached Goose Point Campground it was almost 5:30 pm and by the time we got finished setting up it was close to 6:45 pm.
The site was VERY difficult to get into (I had to thread between the 4×4 site marker sign and a large tree with huge above-ground roots) and not level at all.
Apparently the folks in the site next to ours had been there for a while, because afterward they commented that we did the best of anyone they had seen come to this site. In fact, the woman said they’d seen people “take out the site marker sign” which I initially thought meant they had hit it and knocked it out of its place. But then she further explained that it could be pulled up out of the ground to make extra room and then replaced into its spot.
That would have made it SO much easier, if she’d only told us that earlier, lol.
We were exhausted so we ate dinner and went to bed fairly early. We’re trying to get back into the routine of travel days and not being so tired at the end of them, but I’m sure it will take a while.
Plus we had flu vaccinations scheduled for the next morning, so we had to be up early to get ready for those.
Bassett, Virginia
Saturday morning after breakfast we jumped in Voyager for a 40-minute drive to Martinsville, VA to get our annual flu shots. We typically get them at the end of October, but we thought it prudent to do so before we see Ann and the grandkids, as well as before we go out in crowds to the various tourist places we’ll be visiting.
This recent article indicates we were right to get our shots earlier than we usually do.
But to get to Martinsville we had to drive through Bassett and discovered it is the home of Bassett Furniture. I don’t think I’ve ever owned any Bassett furniture, but I’ve certainly heard of them and you probably have as well. So we found it interesting to drive through the town that founded the furniture empire. Talk about a company town!
The Bassett Furniture Company was founded in 1902 by J.D. Bassett, along with two of his brothers and his brother-in-law. The land in the area was originally used for farming and much of it was owned by Bassett. The men already had wood and blunt/coarse saws; they just needed finer cutting/finishing equipment and skilled men to operate that equipment. Employees were housed in company-built homes and even rode to the first plant in a company-owned truck that made the rounds to pick up and drop off the men for each shift.
In the 1920’s the first larger plant, Plant #1, was built. Today it is closed and abandoned, but the wood framed and metal-roof building was still standing as we drove past it on the way to and from Martinsville. Several other plants were also built over the next several decades and many of them were also not in use as we drove through the town.
There did not seem to be much else to the town of Bassett. We saw several churches, a couple of older gas stations, and a scattering of smaller businesses such as a barber shop and hardware store.
While we were getting our vaccinations it started misting rain and by the time we got back to our site it was sprinkling and then it got heavier throughout the day, into the night and all the next day.
I spent almost all of Sunday in bed under the covers because it was cold, damp, and I always have a pretty strong reaction to the flu shot, which knocks me on my butt. Cindy made me soup for lunch that day and dinner Sunday night when I got up long enough to watch a couple of shows and then went back to bed to dream in the arms of Morpheus.
Monday it was dry and sunny and I felt like a new man. We hiked a mile in the morning along a trail near the campground and the bank of the Philpott Lake. When we returned to our site, Cindy sat outside enjoying the fresh air and tatting to her heart’s content. Out of nowhere a dog with a leash on her collar appeared and just plopped down right next to her. I gave it some water, took a quick photo to show people, and went to see if anyone was looking for their dog, but no one was in sight.
However, several minutes later a woman who looked older than us appeared chiding “Boobie” for wandering off as she explained that she and her newlywed husband each thought the dog was with the other. We congratulated her on her marriage and later marveled to ourselves that love is able to appear even at a later stage of life. Cupid, it seems, is always on duty.
Boobie, by the way, seemed quite content to remain at Cindy’s feet. The newlywed wife had to drag her away to get her on her feet and walking.
Our next stop has no water hookup, so toward the end of the afternoon I filled our fresh water tank in order for us to have water for washing dishes, our hands, and flushing the toilet during that stay. We’ve been to this campground before and remember that they had nice showers which we’ll use while there.
That night we watched Sunday’s episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and it was a good show on the Secret Service and how they ae recruiting for more agents. Of course, he put his own spin of humor on the recruitment video.
Then we watched the season finale of Lanterns. Not much in this show was based on the comics that I remember reading, but the characters were interesting and the story went to unexpected places in good ways. I’ve not heard if there will be another season, but in my opinion this was enough and they can do more with the character in upcoming movies like the next Superman theatrical release.
Later in the evening we packed up most of the little we had unpacked for this short stay so that we could get an early start the next morning to our next stop – to see Ann and the grandkids and our friends Heather and Richard in Staunton, Virginia for a week.
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