Earth and Sky

As you know, I try to have some sort of theme each time I write an addition to this blog. I had a difficult time naming this one because we have been busy doing many different things. I believe that "earth and sky" will cover it and everything in between.
First of all, most of you know that John has been having more and more trouble walking long distances because of his feet cause him pain. And you also know that he is not happy just sitting around. That's one of the reasons we got the Jeep this summer... so he could drive around the countryside instead of hiking. One of the other things he enjoys doing is going around the RV parks looking at various RV's and the additions/accessories people find to enhance their RV experience. "Getting around" the parks (especially the larger ones) has become more painful and frustrating for him. So we found a small scooter for sale here, by a fellow RVer, that he really liked and doesn't make him feel like he's in a jazzy. Here he is on his new toy. Now he is able to go exploring and visiting.

Keeping focus to the earth, there are these tiny little barb type things that are in the sand and grass. The dogs get them in their foot pads and can't walk. When I remove them, they stick into my fingers. They have several different names, "goat heads", "sand spikes", but I call them a nuisance. We encountered them first in Texas last year, and now here in Florida this year. The first picture is just the barb and the second one is next to my finger so you can see how small they are. Avoiding them is impossible because you can't see them prior to them embedding in your foot. Very few people wear sandals when walking off the paved paths around here for this reason.

The other ground problem is the fire ants....  they are everywhere. Whenever I walk Sydney and he wants to stop and sniff, I always check the ground where I stand to make sure I'm not near an ant hill of red ants. Their bite is very painful and they are quick to go after you and bite. Here is a picture of their home....  this is a larger one that's easy to see. Most of them are smaller and not visible until it's too late. 

Now to the sky. This past week there was a Delta rocket launch from Cape Canaveral. We were able to see the rocket go up and follow the trail in the sky.  Here is a picture I took. That is not the moon... that is the booster rocket burning. The squiggly smoke is the trail it left as it assended. We were hoping that a shuttle launch would be scheduled while we were here but no such luck....  we settled for a spy satellite.

We have been here for about 2 weeks and have had only 1 rainfall....  a very brief one at that... it barely wet the ground. But boy was the rainbow it left behind beautiful. This picture doesn't do it justice.

We spent Thanksgiving with our friends Ray and Millie.   We shared a wonderful turkey dinner at the RV park where they are currently staying, about 10 miles from us. The park furnished the turkey, ham, potatoes, dressing and gravy. All the participants made a side dish or desert to share. There were about 100 people... it was very nice.