A Florida Camping Mini Tour – Pit Stop in Gainesville

Welcome to my blog. If you’re new to the site, I write about all kinds of things from dating to dogs (not dating dogs, let me be clear) to music and TV and many other things. This particular post is the first one in a series of posts about a mini-tour camping around central Florida.

This little adventure launches from Tallahassee (my home base), and takes me to a couple of state parks in the Ocala National Forest, RV parks near Daytona Beach and Orlando, and even a few overnight stays in random parking lots (don’t worry, business owners were fully aware)!

So much will be going on during this 3-week adventure but before I even reach my first campout, I have to stop in Gainesville to catch up with the friend I’ve had for the longest. He and I met a thousand years ago in middle school at a little church in Miami, Florida.

This friend of mine (I sometimes call him Timber), along with his brother, started a coffee shop in Gainesville and their hard work has paid off, as now they have multiple locations and dozens of employees. It’s Gainesville’s best coffeeshop, Opus Coffee, so you better do a taste test to find out why those pesky Gators loves this coffee (sorry, my immature loyalty to Florida State is showing). But college rivalries aside, I have a feeling you will become a fan, too (of the coffee, not the Gators, I hope).

I actually don’t drink coffee (I know, I’m so unsophisticated), but I stopped in anyway to see my friend at that location pictured above. It’s where they do all their roasting, unlike me – I do all my roasting on the internet.

Anyway, next door to their roasting headquarters is a place called Satch Squared and we took a chance on their vegan waffles.

Yeah, those breakfast waffles did not disappoint (thanks for the recommendation, Timber)! While we were trying to savor every bite, we also had to talk, so he and I caught up on each other’s lives. He has always been able to make me laugh with just a few words or a gesture, and that holds true today. What a good dude!

So this particular Opus Coffee location serves their customers from an old Airstream. How cool is that? There’s also lots of space to hang with your besties (as the kids say, I think?).

More photos from this pit stop are just a scroll away (scroll down, silly), but I must go onward now to my first camping location – Juniper Springs State Park in the Ocala National Forest.

Check back soon for a rundown of my time there. What did I see that blew my mind? Did my dogs poop in someone else’s camping area? Was I forced to take cold showers? Answers, along with some photos of the gorgeous location, coming soon!

-Out of the Wilderness

DoorDash and PetSmart – The Music, The Actor, and The Pup!

DoorDash is driving home (with the windows down so the pup can smell the fresh air) the idea that they can deliver more than food. Of course, I’m talking about this basset hound ad, but also the ad below featuring a very earwormy song. Take a look…

The Music. The title of this song is pretty self-explanatory. It’s “I’ve Got A Dog And My Dog’s Name Is Cat” by Barry Louis Polisar. Here’s the full track.

As you can see from the video, the album title is intended to be funny. “My Brother Thinks He’s A Banana and Other Provocative Songs For Children” was released way back in 1977 and includes quite a few songs… intended for children. Check out the track listing (and download a few if you’re brave!) by clicking this Amazon link.

The Actor. The guy who shows up at the end, well, I guess you can call him an actor. It’s Nascar driver Bubba Wallace. He’s sponsored by DoorDash so it makes a whole lot of sense (unlike a dog named cat) to have him appear in the ad. Great integration of Petsmart, DoorDash, and Nascar on this commercial!

The Pup. Asher the dog belongs to Bubba Wallace and there’s even a cute story about how he “helped” with Bubba’s marriage proposal. Check it out here.

Which do you like more, the ad itself or the music? For me, I can’t get the song out of my head, nor do I want to. Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for dropping in!

-Out of the Wilderness

Cold showers, no thanks

Is there anything worse than a cold shower in the winter? I can’t think of a single thing! I’ve decided that even though I never considered it, I wouldn’t make it in the military. It’s not that I’m not tough, or couldn’t endure loving overseas or being part of a war. It’s the idea that I would have to be tough enough to take cold showers.

And I’m not.

It’s like I turned 40 and all of the sudden I accepted this weakness of mine. I prefer hot showers and warm sunny days, so what? For the last 3 years (I’m 43 now), I have come to grips that we don’t all have to be cool with everything. And I’m not cool with cold showers.

I guess if you were ever pressing me for information, like a hostage scene in a movie, you wouldn’t have to waterboard me. You don’t need to cut off my fingers or threaten my family. That’s too much work for you. Just throw me in a cold shower in December and I’ll tell you whatever you want to know.

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness

The two weeks I didn’t have THIS felt like an eternity

I guess it kind of felt the same as when we don’t have our phones for a few hours. Nervousness. Anxiety. I had to turn in my computer for some parts to be replaced. They said it would be just a few days but it felt like I was on a tight rope with no net. No INTERnet that is!

Corny jokes aside, this was the second time since I’ve owned it that my laptop wouldn’t recognize anything plugged into the ports. That’s kind of a big deal because that’s where the charger connects. So it slowly went all the way down to 4% and I was pretty much in full panic mode for one main reason: I had a project for a client and he had JUST emailed with a few changes that would wrap up the project. But like I said, my computer had 4% of its battery left.

Yikes.

I brought it in to a certified tech and hoped for the best. With it being December 21st and so close to Christmas, I had no idea what to expect for turnaround.

So needless to say, I had to get comfortable without my computer. Not only did I use it for professional work, but also writing for Out of the Wilderness, and editing photos to post on FineArtAmerica.

I’ve never been handcuffed by the police, or wrapped in a straight jacket, or asked to build a pyramid with no tools, but the feeling of constraint was a real thing. These things I enjoyed doing, get paid to do, were on the other side of a deep chasm with no bridge for me to get there.

The holidays came and went and I grew comfortable with the idea I wouldn’t have my computer for awhile. I was also about to leave town so I had to come to the realization I wouldn’t have my computer for the length of that trip.

But then!

The day before I left town, I got a call that my computer was ready. What!!! That was the best news of the day. I quickly made plans to go pick it up and I’m happy to say the next two things:

  1. This blog post was written on the fixed computer.
  2. With my computer, the picture on the screen below was uploaded, edited, and is available for purchase in all kinds of formats here on FineArtAmerica.com.

The two weeks I went without my computer were tough. It took creativity, prayer, and patience to get through it all but I was able to finish the project for the client and still managed to not turn into a Grinch over the Christmas holiday.

All in all, I’d call it a Christmas miracle and I’d also give a lot of credit to the technicians who worked hard to get my computer back to me before my trip.

Have you had an experience that hindered your level of comfort? Did it also limit the amount of work you could do? How do you feel when you don’t have your computer (or phone) for a few hours or days? Comment below, I look forward to reading about it!

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness

NordicTrack “Go Somewhere” – What’s That Song in the Commercial?

Fitness brand NordicTrack is all over the map with their new ad featuring music from a legend in country music. Except, it’s a legend with a twist. Take a look!

Country fans might recognize the lyrics of this song… it’s “I’ve Been Everywhere” by Johnny Cash. Although there were versions and covers in the decades before, Johnny’s is probably the most recognizable, released in 1996.

As you probably noticed, the version in the commercial is clearly not Johnny Cash, though. It’s Jade Bird. Check out her full version below from 2017.

Jade was around 20 years old when she covered the song (born in 1997). Check her out on Spotify here and Twitter here.

Here she is in 2019 for your listening pleasure, a live performance of the song.

And for the fun of it, here’s an early version of the song as performed by Hank Snow.

I really like the ad and the use of the song complimenting the idea that you can choose different courses and videos from all over the world for each of your NordicTrack workouts.

Do you like it? Chime in below.

Thanks for dropping in…

-Out of the Wilderness