It was great meeting up with Dennis and Joann!

Google photo album from Paynes Prairie State Park: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rLg12CywUWaBF7Bv8

Monthly group therapy...

We're heading out today for our monthly camping jaunt to a Florida State Park with the rig. This time we're going back to Payne's Prairie https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/paynes-prairie-preserve-state-park but where we go is not as important as the fact of just getting away. There's the packing of course, and getting the rig ready and the anticipation of change from the routine. With the motor home the "getting there" is as good as the being there, and we all (including Buddy the hound) usually enjoy the trip. That being said, we do limit our distance trying to stay within three to four hours of our rig storage at Christmas FL. After about four nights we're usually pretty refreshed and ready to get back home, and then home is really appreciated with the comforts of great Wi-fi, fully equiped kitchens and multiple baths. Someone once said us campers spend lots of money to periodically experience homelessness. I wouldn't go that far, but I do know the change of scenery does get the blood flowing and reinvirorate things a bit...and that's a good thing. My best childhood friend recently moved from Colorado to Ocala Florida, and he and his wife are going to visit us Tuesday at camp where we'll do a bit of a BBQ. I've known Dennis since I was five, and that was a LOT of tide changes ago:).

Sometimes things bunch up and you're busy....

We met up with good friends over from the West Coast (Dean and JoAnn Paradise) and had a nice lunch at Rusty's at Cape Canaveral, then took them to the National Seashore. That night we had Book Club, and then last night "Murder On The Orient Express" at the Melbourne Civic Theater. Tomorrow we leave for four nights at Payne's Prairie State Park. Nice to be busy! Link to Payne's Prairie: https://www.floridastateparks.org/parks-and-trails/paynes-prairie-preserve-state-park

John Silong, Memorial Service and Obit information

FYI from John's daughter Cindy: 10:45am: John Silong's Memorial Service, 10:45am Lane B Cape Canaveral National Cemetary, 5525 US Highway 1, Mima FL 32754. Obituary information: https://islandcremations.com/obituaries/john-silong/5564/

A voice from the past resurfaces...Dennis

My childhood best friend, Dennis Kargul, gave me an email shout out yesterday. We were friends from Kindergarten right through Junior High School and it was great hearing from him :). We're going to try and connect at our next campout to Paines Prairie State Park late October.

Maid

Recently I'd seen an author interview on MSNBC that intrigued me, and I purchased the book being reviewed "Maid" and then recommended it to our local book club. I enjoyed the book. Then, as it turns out, it was made into a mini-series by Netflix and several parts and I was blown away by it. The mini-series is excellent and really makes you feel the story. Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land, Barbara Ehrenreich NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND INSPIRATION FOR THE NETFLIX LIMITED SERIES, HAILED BY ROLLING STONE AS "A GREAT ONE." "A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide, a description of the tightrope many families walk just to get by, and a reminder of the dignity of all work." -PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, Obama's Summer Reading List At 28, Stephanie Land's dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer quickly dissolved when a summer fling turned into an unplanned pregnancy. Before long, she found herself a single mother, scraping by as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Maid is an emotionally raw, masterful account of Stephanie's years spent in service to upper middle class America as a "nameless ghost" who quietly shared in her clients' triumphs, tragedies, and deepest secrets. Driven to carve out a better life for her family, she cleaned by day and took online classes by night, writing relentlessly as she worked toward earning a college degree. She wrote of the true stories that weren't being told: of living on food stamps and WIC coupons, of government programs that barely provided housing, of aloof government employees who shamed her for receiving what little assistance she did. Above all else, she wrote about pursuing the myth of the American Dream from the poverty line, all the while slashing through deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor. Maid is Stephanie's story, but it's not hers alone. It is an inspiring testament to the courage, determination, and ultimate strength of the human spirit.