Juggling lemons: We revisit Peace River

The Peace River Campground was entirely flooded by hurricane Irma earlier in the Fall. It had to close for a while as the water totally covered the campground up to the highway. I was a little bit apprehensive before getting there as we had no idea of the present conditions.

We found it to be exactly as we remembered from <a href="http://baboowaba.blogspot.com/2016/12/peace-river-preserve-thousand-trails.html">our time there last year</a>. A lot of work had obviously been done! The deck floor of the office/lounge building seemed new and branches had been collected except a few left off which were picked while we were there. A fence that had fallen was also quickly replaced during our stay with brand new lumber. The only thing different was that all of the lower part was closed because there was no electricity there yet. We still had no problem finding two sites side by side to accommodate both us and Michelle and the empty lower part was a great place for Sadie (Michelle's Greyhound) to have a good run!

The joy of running.

OK. Now I'm done.

The free internet at the lounge was very good as always. Too bad it is so close to a major highway because we really like it there. We love sitting on the hanging rocking benches on the large veranda.

Because Glen was still hoping to get a dog for himself (he doesn't consider Cheeka a real dog and she is truly my dog even though she loves him very much), came upon the dogs put up for adoption at the local shelter. There was one young female that had such a kind face that she really pulled at my heartstrings. A few days went by and when we revisited the site it was mentioned that she was running out of time. This was a kill shelter! We decided to go see her and I'm sure you guessed that we couldn't leave her there. The adoption fee which included a heartworm test, a spay and rabies vaccination was only $45. The clinic where the spay was done is a low fee spay clinic which offers spaying or neutering for both dogs and cats for $35. We see quite a few ads here in Florida for low-cost neutering and vaccination. I'm sure it helps with keeping the strays to a more manageable number. While I was there, a man brought in a cat in a trap cage to have it neutered. He was asked if he wanted the ear notched to show that it had been done to which he agreed. At that price anyone can afford to pay for a stray's neuter. What a great thing to do!

So Ally came into our lives and fit right in. MeMe is still a bit shy around her but we make sure she gets personal petting and playing time with us during the day. Ally sleeps in a crate at night which gives both MeMe and Cheeka a good night sleep with us in bed. Cheeka loves having a wrestling friend and boy, do they wrestle! We try to keep the hard playing outside and so far it seems to work. Ally is a mixed Cur. Curs are widely used in Florida to hunt wild hogs. She is around 1 year old but still very puppyish. She's been very clean in the trailer and doesn't seem to want to destroy anything of ours. She is a sweetheart and we're already totally in love with her after barely 2 weeks of owning her.

Ally with her ears taped so they lie well later on.

Really? Is she staying?

The girls have bonded.

Glen is finally happy!

While at Peace River there were numerous Christmas activities, especially for the kids. Michelle and I attended a show given by a husband and wife duo who both sang very well. They also incorporated some jokes and changes of costumes during their act. The man had recorded all the music and did play along either on the keyboard, a guitar or a ukelele. It was highly entertaining and made us break in song several times when they sang old Christmas favorites. The act was called One More Time and I greatly recommended you go see it if they are ever at a campground where you're staying.

The weather was hot and sunny for the first week which encouraged us to use the pool but it then turned colder for the second week (we even had to have the furnace on!). It made us a bit nervous about leaving for a free campground for a week since we would have no means to heat the trailer through the night.

Michelle and I sewed up some curtains for two of her windows. The fabric was a bit stretchy and we were not working in the best conditions which means they were not very straight. Thank God it's only a trailer and we were able to hide the flaws by clipping the rings a bit lower in some areas. The top of the curtains are hidden by a valance so overall, they look pretty good. I also made a native-like hanging with feathers collected on the beach at home and here in Florida on the trails. I hung them on a branch I found on the beach along with some weird-shaped shells. I like it and I now see my decor going more towards the South Western style. I'm just missing a skull with horns and a cowhide rug!
Sadly we had to leave the park for our one week out of the Thousand Trails system. We went to Hickory Hammock which was only one hour away.