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Life without Dad is like music without harmony, the essentials are there but somehow the song is not as sweet as it could be. The day of his departure we tried to make the best of it in the typical fashion that women will do (ha ha): we went shopping. Now as most of you know I am not a big shopper, most places bore me stiff but we managed to find some great finds in Ybor City. It was such a delightful place on our last visit but we didn't have as much time to explore its inner recesses, really what I mean is it's exchange clothing and vintage stores! I found a Florida outfit and Mariah found a dress for her trip with Grandma Richey in June. We had a great time watching a man hand roll cigars and then going in and smelling what a real cigar store should smell like. The best part of the day was the lunch with Dad overlooking Tampa Bay. The turn of the century houses along the drive to the restaurant were very impressive. This was the summer home of such notables as Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. It is always interesting to me to see how architectural style has changed over the years. It seems like much has happened since I last felt like writing but only the highlights come to mind. We have been adrift since Dad left and people who were once strangers now have come to fill some of the emptiness. One couple we met were musicians. The wife played mountain dulcimer and her husband learned to play the guitar so they could play together. We all got together and played for a campsite campfire. All the people seemed to really enjoy it. The girls and I had our first go it alone moving day and we were pleased all went well. We are staying at a county park that after we got there we discovered they only took cash for the RV space. Thank goodness Mariah had some because I was plum out. We are now living in a mangrove otherwise known as no-see-um land. It is beautiful during the day but if you step outside around sunset you are bait, dinner and dessert for a whole array of insects with invisibility cloaks and really sharp teeth. I have to laugh at Florida and their wildlife sometimes. They have "fire ant's" here that are the size of our sugar ants in Socorro. They look harmless but they leave a bite that won them the 'most painful insect bite' award in my book. We are trying to avoid the great outdoors during certain parts of the day. We finally got to see the Museum of Science and Industry (nicknamed MOSI) which is sort of like Explora in Albuquerque but not as good. They did have an interesting hurricane experience tunnel that the kids enjoyed. Mariah has been working her tail off with her schooling which is terrific but it leaves Olivia and I kind of hanging because I don't like to go off and do fun stuff without Mariah. After a day or so of keeping ourselves entertained at the campground, Olivia and I went on a reconnaissance run down to Sarasota. We stopped at a fresh seafood market that had a small café on the Sarasota bay. It was a beautiful place to eat and watch pelicans be lazy after a tough morning fishing. From there we went down to the Ringling Museum complex. We wandered around the grounds and decided we needed to come back the next day with Mariah. Our intuition was correct. We saw thehouse of John and Maybel Ringling of the circus fame and it was a fantastic view into the life of the very wealthy from the 1920's. The house, museum and grounds had been donated to the state of Florida upon John's death and they had no children. Mr. Ringling had been an art connoisseur and had built a museum for his collection and his wife Maybel loved the Venetian style so the house was very ornate. I would describe it as the Versailles of Southeastern United States. Everything was hand painted and gilded with gold. The house had been closed up and left just as it was when John died. The state just restored it in 1996 so it is in very nice condition, even down to the shoes and socks Mr. Ringling wore still in the closet. These were people who had an interest in detail. The grounds also contained 2 museums on the history of the circus plus an extremely detailed miniature circus diorama that takes up about football field. It was a great way to spend a beautiful Florida day.

Hello Dali! It must be museum week at the moving home place. Olivia and I went to the Salvador Dali museum in St Petersburg. You must be asking yourself "why is the Dali museum in St Pete's?" Well a wealthy patron and friend of Salvador Dali's wanted to put his entire collection which was quite extensive in a museum but he would only place it with the stipulations that the collection came as a whole and none of the pieces could ever be sold . Most museums want to pick and choose or sell off some to pay for other works of art. A business man from St Petersburg saw an article about the collection and it homeless problem and was able to convince the city fathers of it value and viola – an incredible Dali museum in sw Florida. Olivia was so excited but after about 15 minutes she started to pout and said she wanted to see where the Barbie's were. Whoops so much for the Dolly museum in her mind. After that we enjoyed a tour and some of the many works of Dali's that were not in the paint medium. Did you know that the dream sequence in Alfred Hitchcocks movie ' Spellbound' was put together by him? When you see the scene - it is obvious. He had quite an interesting life.

This weekend we spent with some folks we had met at Hog Island so the kids could get some kid time. They had fun jumping on the trampoline and watching movies. Olivia and I did manage to go to the St Pete pier to meet up with some friends of hers. It is an upside down pyramid out in the bay. It was such a beautiful day. Later that day we had a traditional St Pete experience. We went to the Gaspirilla parade. It is like the Mardi Gras of this area. It commemorates the pirate's invading Tampa. There are lots of gorgeous men and women dressed in period costumes on pirate ship floats throwing off lots of beads. The kids came home with a trailer full of 'em. If we ever break down, I can use them to tow us into town! You learn a lot about a place in a parade. There were not any political floats and very few commercial floats. It was mostly the descendants of the St Pete's founders and neighborhood associations. I guess they do it 3 times. Once is the childrens day parade, next the adult daytime parade and last is the nighttime "adults get very wild" parade. I wish Mark would get back…. Today is moving day, off to Lake Manatee.

A good deed indeed can go unpunished. We really enjoyed our cousins so much that we took them camping at Hillsbourough River. Ryan is 15 years old and very polite. His sister is 13 and coming into her own as a teenager. They were great company for the kids and everyone spent hours laughing and fishing. We were sorry to part company but we had a date in Crystal River with our friend Tim. There are no state parks in Crystal River so we thought we would try our first foray into the land of private campgrounds. Well the first thing we noticed is that they are expensive. They are also very "tidy", in attitude as well as looks. We were so excited because there was a heated pool, Wi-Fi and complete hook ups. Well, we were the oldest and most venerable rig in the place which had such notable tenants as Gary Burghoff (otherwise known as Radar from MASH). We pulled in and got our spot and were immediately assaulted by the activities director who told us about the New Year's Eve party and the poker game on Tuesdays and the art classes on Wed and the bridge on Thursday s etc etc etc. We weren't sure what la la land we had entered but we decided to make the best of it. Tim showed up and ran the electronic gauntlet (coded electric gate) and we felt like gypsies in the palace. Olivia immediately headed for the heated pool and Mariah took advantage of the intermittent internet access. Many of the residents came by to enjoy our cheerful little camp. Later (like at 11 pm) I went swimming in their heated pool and took a hot shower. Once upon a good night sleep and some more pool time for Olivia, we returned to the camper to fix breakfast and the hatchet man showed up. It turns out there is a little known rule that people are not allowed to stay in truck campers but we were welcome to stay if we didn't stay in our truck camper. Now we had become bonafide "riff raff". The good news is we got a refund for the next couple of nights we were supposed to stay and the bad news is ….actually it is more good news, for tonight – New Years Eve- we are at a state forest campground with no pool but a great campfire and we are much more comfortable and happy.

New Year's Eve in the woods is a beautiful place to be. It's quiet and safe and gives you a place you can contemplate what the New Year means. It is also a place you can pop a bottle of bubbly and let the cork fly! We managed to do both while we shared our wonderful New Mexico champagne that had traveled a long ways to be consumed at such an opportune moment with our friend Tim. Thanks to Pete and Jan for the bubbly : )

New Years Days had us on the "hunt for" the elusive manatee and we finally found some at Homosassa State Wildlife Park. The park used to be a private-for-profit theme park where profit seemed to be almost better served by development but the state stepped in and took it over and now it is a State theme park. We traveled down a canal on boat to the actual park and it felt like a Disney ride. The park has several shows where they feed the resident hippo that everyone wanted to keep after all the other "wildlife" from other places was shipped away, talk about the 12 "gators" and the highlight was the feeding and frolicking with the manatees. I bet you all didn't know that manatees love sweet potatoes! The park was filled with Florida's native plants and animals. After being in Florida's undeveloped wildlife areas, it was quite the contrast. We returned to our wildlife sanctuary in the woods and found that despite the drizzle all day our fire was still alive. One of the benefits of being in the state forest is the firewood is plentiful so we loaded up the next day and headed to Alafia River State park. This park really reminds me of a cross between the Bosque del Apache and South Dakota. Last night we were serenaded by redwing blackbirds and this morning our alarm clock was sandhill cranes. We are about an hour from Tampa but you would think we are a million miles away from any civilization. We know that is not the case as we had to go into town to do laundry and the subdivisions start about 5 miles west of here. There are 17 miles of mountain bike trails so off we go to enjoy the great outdoors before it rains again.

The Fat Tire Fiesta (a mountain bike festival in Socorro) folks would have a field day here. There are so many different types of bike trails here it is like an amusement park for the fitness conscious. Mariah and I rode the easy trail and felt like idiots when we forgot our helmets. You ride through the jungle and sometimes the trees on the path leave only enough room for the handle bars (whoops, don't forget to fold in that mirror) and (thanks I didn't need all that skin on my hands anyway!). When we were done, we were done in. It was fun and the humidity was only 95 percent so it was bearable. On Thursday, we went into Tampa for the day. Despite the late start we packed a lot of activities in. We went to the power plant and saw wild manatees (not the most active creatures in the world) but the power plant had a very nice visitor center that glorified it's relationship between nature and industry and how the manatees are so grateful for the warm effluent from the power plant. We heard from many people about the Science and Industry museum so we headed there for a look see. The admission price was a bit high considering we would only get to spend a couple of hours so we opted for a tour of the gift shop which was educational and fun. Olivia is now the proud owner of a pet tornado which she has been having fun with and we realized one could make a Wizard of Oz version by inserting a plastic Dorothy and witch on bicycle. Ahh fun with science! Our next stop was Ybor City (pronounced EE-bor) where Tampa's immigrant population congregated to work in the cigar factories in the 1800's. It is like a cross between the French Quarter in New Orleans and New York City. Two and three story buildings with ornate iron railings. This is the gathering spot for Theo's Rough Riders before they went to Cuba. We learned where the term "stogie" came from. Cheap cigars were made in Conestoga, PA which is the same place as Conestoga wagons and the cigars went west with the settlers and were called stogies. The evening was spent at the "Greatest show on Earth". Yes we went to the Ringling Bros and Barnum Bailey circus in downtown Tampa, home of the Ringling Bros and Barnum Bailey. There is an art museum here that we look forward to seeing that was Mr. Bailey's personal collection. I keep wondering if at the museum if they will "bring in the clowns"? Olivia enjoyed the circus but the rest of us noticed that Disney, NDI and insurance companies have had a definitive impact on this circus. It was a great day overall and tomorrow looks to be a quiet day of fishing, riding and resting.

You meet the nicest people when you travel. We spent the day riding and looking for fishing spots. The park guide here is Patrick and he has spent quite a bit of time telling us about what is available in the area. He told us about the fossils beds that are in the area and how there were two shallow currents of water that passed over this area when it was covered by a shallow sea and how the animal life flourished here and that is why there was a phosphate mine here from all the animal bones. You can still find dugongs fossils and sharks teeth etc. We didn't find anything but we did enjoy the water. In the afternoon, Mariah and I met a woman who had to many horses to ride herself so she said we could ride her extra horses – whoopee! The next day we went trail riding through the park with her and her girlfriends. It was great. We saw an alligator from the back of a horse and I must say I felt a lot safer from that vantage point. On the afternoon ride we had a bit of excitement when an armadillo spooked the horses and then at the trailhead somebody's dog got loose and tried to bite one of the horses but all is well that ends well. I have to laugh because I could get on her horses without assistance, they are not as tall as the horses I am used to. Today (Sunday) we leave this wonderful place and head onto Little Manatee River. I can finally send out this so I will. Missing everyone. Oh and by the way if you are in Socorro or near Socorro for the next three weeks or so Mr Mark will be flying solo in Socorro starting Tuesday and the girls will be on our own in the great state of Florida and -no- we are not sick of each other, he just has to take care of some details at home. Please take good care of him, we love him and look forward to his speedy return.

it's orange picking time in FL. Hi Everyone, I have been trying to be more organized so I have been writing our experiences every few days in Word so I will be adding at the end of this. We are Dade City, enjoying the warm weather and Richey family on my mom's brothers' side. Kids and TV, my children are in heaven! Pictures from our adventures are attached. Some of them are from our time here in Dade City, we went to the Pioneer Florida museum where Mark was in his soul's time period. In Tallahassee we saw the tin can camper and thought of us. Here is the rest of the story...

There are parts of Florida that are like the Carribean and then there is the interior. The interior of Florida is like the cloudforests of Costa Rica. Or at least it is today. Everything is wet, wet, wet. The humidity is like smoke in a forest fire. When you walk through it, it penetrates your soul as well as your hair and clothes. There is a primeval instinct that is aroused when you are in a jungle and it stirs a desire to go and hunt mastondons or some prehistoric creature. You know you are in central Florida when they hand out a flyer about alligators with your campsite map. Fortunately for us there was only cute little deer everywhere. At Manatee Springs, we saw so much wildlife, you practically stepped on it wherever you walked. Mariah needs an internet infusion every couple of days so we found a great place called the Sunday coffee house where we were able to leave her for a couple of hours while we wandered down to Cedar Key. Talk about the lost coast. This is a town where they used to make pencil blanks to be shipped around the country. At one time it was a very prosperous place but has fallen from grace and is trying to rebound. There are handsome two story wood structures connected by porches and boardwalks with the gingerbread style accents. Some have been restored and some need restoration. Unfortunately for this little town, it appears to be very vunerable to the whims of the weather and the ocean. Sea level takes on a new meaning when you realized the storm surges in this region regularily go 8-10 feet above normal. We knew this to be the case by the number of houses built on stilts like mini-hi-rises. Still it was quaint and kind of old timey. Paynes Prairie is the misnomer of the trip so far. If this is Florida prairie, I am Marilyn Monroe. This is jungle and I am not blond. I know there is an open area some where near here because we drove through it but I can't see it from here. I hope to explore later with our bikes.

Later really comes and with it a change in attitude that evolves from education. We went exploring at Paynes Prairie and found that not only is it a prairie now but it was once a lake. This is all due to it is really a very large sinkhole in the middle of Florida and in late 1800's the bottom plugged up with logs and a lake formed. American's being the great entrepreneurs that they are, started using the lake for transportation but alas all good things can come to an end and when the "log-jam" broke and the lake drained in a week. I imagine that a person could pick up a steamboat very cheap about then! The marsh that remains is a fond reminder of the Bosque del Apache at home. Our neighbor at Paynes Prairie was a musician and we look forward to meeting up with him at Highland Hammocks State Park and playing together again. In case you are wondering the federal government does have National Forest in Florida and we found it here at Ocala National forest. There is quite a bit of camping here and the sand pine and sand oak scrub make wonderful privacy fences between sites. Alexander Springs is like Manatee Springs only bigger and has more alligators. I was so excited by Manatee Springs that I went out and bought a mask and snorkel. We are in Florida after all. I went down the 72 degree spring, jumped in and saw tons of fish, river grass and turtles. What I didn't see was the alligator swimming about 30 yards away from me, darn I should have looked. That would have been hilarious from shore as I would have paddled like mad to return to terra firma! I did get to see it from above when I lifted my head to tell the family what they were missing and they told me what I was missing. Not to worry, alligators are not noted for attacking innocent bystanders although some Darwin awards were handed out last year for about 8 candidates I believe. We are trying to take advantage of the many outdoor activities available so with that in mind we rented canoes one day and paddled down the Alexander run. It was gorgeous. We did get to see an alligator on the shore with his mouth agape. There were so many turtles even Olivia quit being amazed by them and she loves them. Our treat for the effort however was a river otter who came over and inspected us and played around. We have spent enough days at this campsite that we have been adopted by some locals who now ask us to dinner every night (nice to be fed!) and we entertain them with our musical antics and Olivia's sparkling conversation! Tommorrow we head to the big city of Dade City to spend with our cousins for the holidays. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and sorry no cards this year but lots of virtual hugs going out to everyone. Be safe and remember "It is easier to ask forgiveness than it is to ask permission", Happy Holidays from the Meanderthals

NOT! Hi everybody, Hope your holiday season is shaping up nicely. We have been spending time since Thanksgiving beach hopping and eating fresh fish and shrimp until we can't stand it anymore. After our sucessful gig at Big Lagoon at which Mark played his bass with us, we have been resting and moving on our laurels from incredibly beautiful gulf beach to gulf beach. One of the prettiest we went to was called Henderson beach near Destin. When you are in the park you feel like you are a million miles from civilization but as soon as you leave, you are in major shopping land - McAmerica. The water is as blue green and clear as I have ever seen it. Mariah was lucky enough to spot a family of rays swimming right in front of us. The next day I just had to go swimming. The kids said I was nuts but it was actually quite warm. We had a great time watching the pelicans dive into 2' of water and catch fish. After we left Destin we went along the gulf coast to Seaside which is a famous 1990's development. It has houses and streets planned to try to create a sense of community that in NM we take for granted but in most places it has to be "created". It was a very hip and beautiful place (I really liked the Airstream food stand, see pictures). I read that it got so popular that investors bought most of the houses so now they rent them as vacation cottages so they lost what they were after. It still was nice though. While we were there we rode our bikes for about 2 miles and got some fresh tuna which we made into sushi that night. It was the best! We did get to see some old Florida along the coast at place called Mexico Beach. How ironic! Our next stop was St Andrew's State park where we enjoyed the bay views. We spent the next few days inland at a park called Ochloknee State park at the confluence of the brackish water from the gulf and the fresh water from inland rivers. For all of you who have been rooting for Mariah to catch a fish, it paid off. She caught 2 on her first cast and then one more. Needless to say she was a happy camper! We saw our first distinct eastern white squirrel here. They are not albino' s they are just pure white with dark eyes. Our neighbor was a land speculator from Alaska who just bought a house in Panacea Fl and seems to think it is the place to invest. The inland area of FL south of Tallahassee is a jungle as is farther south. It reminds me of Costa Rican rain forest only with Walmarts every 30 miles! Once you get away from the coast it is not very crowded. Our next few days we spent in Tallahassee with Tim. The capital of Florida reminds me of Albuquerque in it's size. We went to museums and we even went bowling. One of the places we visited was the Tallahassee Museum of Science and Natural history which really was a zoo but because they had a re-created plantation on the grounds I guess they felt they couldn't call it a zoo or humans might have to admit they are just animals (not a go in Florida). We did get to see some spectacular animals in their natural habitats. There is a boardwalk you walk on that goes over the animals enclosures so the animals unless you make noise aren't aware that you are there. It was very well done. We saw Florida panthers, red foxes, red wolves, black bears, tons of snakes, alligators and bald eagles and of course lots of squirrels (both gray and white). Floridians will never starve because there are enough squirrels here to feed the entire state. We are now at Manatee Springs State Park where we hope to catch a glimpse of the vulnerable Florida manatees. There is the clearest flowing spring here with turtles, alligators, black headed vultures and manatees in it and you can swim it! Hope you enjoy the pictures, I don't have them all on my computer but will send what I have in a separate email. From the Tin Can campers

Happy Thanksgiving everyone...okay okay so it is a little late but we are on the road and have no idea of time. The rhythym of the road is starting to catch up with us. We spent our Thanksgiving in the parking lot of Sam's club which might not sound exciting but we got to spend it with our traveling musician friends the Roes. For those of you who remember our trip to Panama, they are the folks we stayed with and they are the ones who inspired us to engage in this journey. We had fun going to their show, eating dinner and just being with people we know and love. During our time there, we went to the National Navel Air museum. This is the vatican of naval air power. This building is as big as a Walmart warehouse and has all kinds of planes hanging from the ceilings, on the floor and the history and tradition is so thick you can spread it on bread. Mariah opted to stay at the Airstream and work on homework so we had to go back again to show her and to try out the simulator. When we left Sam's Club we discovered our brake controller went out, never let it be said the adventure doesn't continue. In Florida, if you want to stay at a state park you are better off if you make reservations so we made some for a place called Big Lagoon State Park. It was one of those places Hurricane Ivan left an indelible mark, upon which for an educational experience is interesting. You can see where 100' pine trees used to dominate the landscape but now there are only 8' scrub pine. It is still beautiful in a surreal hurricane ravaged kind of way. We were only going to stay for 2 nights but a funny thing happened on the way to the ....First off, I am getting ahead of myself. The first night we went for a walk after dark past the lagoon which does have a few alligators in it. We have yet to see them but there certainly were signs. The girls were a bit nervous but I told them dad was just as good an alligator wrestler as Steve and not to worry. On the way back something did move in the bushes and I thought it was going to take and hour to disengage Mariah from around my head! I really like the beach so the next day the girls and I went to a nearby beach at Perdido Key ( not the traditional keys of FL but the Gulf Coast ones). I sat in the warm sun and graded geometry homework (not bad work if you can it!) while the kids played in the sand. Still a little chilly to swim although you could. It would be like AU in May. On the way home I went west looking for propane and to do a little exploring. We stumbled across the world famous Florabama which we know about from Jimmy Buffetts songs but there are many other references around. It was tucked between all the new highrises going up. I wanted to stop but thought Mark would enjoy it and plus taking kids in bars outside of Socorro might not be acceptable behavior. I was telling Mark about it when we got back and Mariah suggested we go on a date (gosh I love that child!) so we went. Guess what happens Monday nights at the Florabama....yes a wet t-shirt contest...just kidding! It was open mic and I got to play : ). I missed having Mariah and the band to back me up, safety in numbers ya know. The next day I was talking about this with the camp host, a really nice fella from New Orleans and he asked me to come and play because he loved live music so Mariah and I wandered down there and played. Well the next thing we knew they had us signed up to play for their Christmas hay ride this weekend. We get to stay at the park for 5 days for free which is becoming my favorite four letter word! So who says you can't make a living playing music.... I am sure there are more stories I have forgotten but I had to write now and fill everyone in. The weather is about 78 degrees and the humidity is about 95%, it drips off your nose, it is really humid. For those of you in the building trade, there is job security from now till eternity, they are putting up skyscrapers as fast as the hurricanes can knock 'em down. From sunny, sandy Pensacola FL