Panacea, Fl

02/28/09 We left St. George State Park today. I want to let you know, Joe and I made a milestone this week. We stayed at St. George for 7 days without sewer hook-up, and made it all week. Four months ago, we could make maybe 2 days. We are learning! We drove maybe an hour and half to Panacea Fl. Joe found a RV park in Panacea online for $10.90 a night. We were told there might be a site opened up with sewer, and if not they had a site with electric & water, and if you had a 80 foot cable cord you could hook it into a post across the road for cable. When we arrive to the address that we put in the GPS, we thought it had got confused again. It took us to a marina and restaurant. With both our phones without connection (still in a dead zone), we were perplexed what to do. We saw a small run down mobile home park with a couple empty spots, up a block, and Joe said maybe that was the place. eeeew, I hope not, but then again it is only $10.90 a night. Joe, said he was going to walk down the road a piece to see if there was something down the wooded lane. He was gone for awhile, and I envision what I would do if he never came back! You know, a women alone in a bump in the road secluded little town, with no phone and not knowing how to drive this beast! Mallery and I got out of the RV and looked down the long wooded road. No sign of Joe. All the sudden I see him coming across a empty lot, from a different direction. Whew, glad to see him. He had gone around the block and had found a business, to ask where our park was. The guy told Joe it was back a few blocks, and we were about ready to go looking for it, when I remembered, maybe my old phone, pay as you go, Virgin phone had a connection. It did, so Joe called, and the owner said the address where we were, was where his mail goes, his other business, a marina. He proceeds to tell Joe, he's out of town, and the employee who was suppose to be at the office, was not there either. We were to go and find a site and relax. A very relaxed business man, I'd say. Two blocks away we found the park and drive in. We drive around a empty looking gift shop building located in front of the park, with a sign pointing to the building, which says: RV office. Neither of us spotted the office door. Now, where is the office? After circling the building without finding the office, we wondered, what now? (No sign out front saying the name of the park. We do want to make sure we are in the right place). Out of the blue a man walking his dog, walks beside us, and Joe rolls down his window for information. Finding out we have arrived at the right place, Joe turns off the engine, and we go out to unhook the car. (Yes, I help unhook the car, unlike what Joe lead others to believe. I am not too much of a princess to do that kind of stuff). While unhooking, the man with the dog starts to talk to us, and tells us he has been here longer than he planned, but his other dog had gotten sick, and had to have surgery, but still died two days latter, and was now waiting for his ashes. I asked what was wrong with his dog, and he told us his dog had trachea problems and couldn't breath. A vet had do a tracheotomy on him and then surgery. This is the problem Mallery has, and what causes the coughing and choking episodes. Cold , hot, dry and stress aggravate things and you need to keep them calm and not over exercise them. We find only a spot without sewer or cable. ( The spot that was suppose to maybe open up, was the man whose dog died). Joe asks this guy what direction he thinks, we should pull in, to be the closest to the cable connection. ( Joe knows I really wanted cable tonight, because the last episode of a show I'm watching is ending tonight). He promised me cable and he would drive to the next town ( 10 minutes away) for more cable cord if we ended up in a no cable spot. With the advice of the other RVer, Joe starts the engine and heads toward our site. He get out, hoping his cord is long enough to reach, not having to make the trip to Wal-Mart, save the money for the cord and still have a $10.90 a night stay. (the cheapest stay to date- except for Wal-Mart of course). I was sitting inside the RV for quite some time, wondering what the two of them were doing. He kept saying he didn't need my help, so I just waited inside and read my book and a few set ups inside. When he came in, he told me this guy had gone over and had got a spare cord he had and they tried that with ours, and it still was not long enough. Then he went back to his rig, and unhooked his cable cord, then re hooked a smaller cord that barely reached, on his rig. He than brought over the longer cord, that he had taken off his rig, and with connector, he connected his cord to the other he had all ready brought over, and than with more connectors, connected to our cable. Still not reaching, Joe finds a 6 foot cord in his storage, and viola, we have cable. Now that is why I like RVing. The people you meet are so incredibly helpful, even during their sorrow. Something, all of us could learn, if we just learned to slow down, and smell the roses and not fill our lives with so much stuff.