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Miss Penelope has always been kept indoors. In the past, her playgrounds have been dry land with some shade and some water to take a dip in - she seems to hate the land and goes straight to her 'puddle' of water.
So, I am contemplating an opposite approach this year using a 30 gallon galvanized bin and putting in something for her to bask on. Nothing fancy.
I'm just wondering if it creates stress going from a "perfect temp" indoor environment to a fluctuating outdoor water temp. Since it is just for daily furloughs when the weather is warm (80+) I'm wondering which approach creates the the happiest camper -
dry land with some water - or - water with some dry land.
Any ideas?

How she basks will help determine the perfect temp for her. Water is temperature is hard to control, but if it's a good range, like 73-78, she should be fine.

Ok - so check this out.
I put her in her outdoor happy camp. I let her swim for 20 minutes or so - she spent more time trying to escape than swimming so I figured I'd let her get adjusted slowly. When I put her back in her tank she floated to the bottom and played "turtle statue" - kind of like the kid's game of freeze-tag. She stayed in this position for a good 5 minutes, not even reacting to the food can....hmmm

The next day, I took her out again. More escape attempts. She climbed up on her basking area and I was excited. That is, before I realized that she seemed to want to use it as a launch pad to try to escape. I kept her out a bit longer than the day before, and then back in the tank - and back to playing "turtle statue" for about three minutes this time.

Day 3 - same routine, only this time she persevered until she got her both both hands over the top. I had to ruin her fun and kept pulling her off the side, because once she reaches that point the next stop is either wobbling on the edge or flipping over and landing head first outside the pool.
Ah! so she tried to one-up me, she hopped on her basking area, scooted back as far as she could and then scurried across and took a dive. An airplane she is not, so she hit the side of the pool head first and found herself toe-up in the water (geez good thing her pool is soft-sided).
Back to her tank, and a repeat of the "Penelope statue"

Is this "statue" stuff normal? It turns out that the water temp outside was 83 degrees and her tank is 78.

Anyway, it rained the fourth day so no outdoor trips. Now she has been hanging out in her bamboo snuggled next to her tank heater for the past three days, so I have just left her alone - it gives me time to get some input on this water temp / statue thing.
Any thoughts?

I would say it's kinda normal if she's not used to it. I take my turtle out all the time and sometimes they act like they've never been out before.

she's just a nut
I'll give it a few more tries.

When I bring my turtles in, I give them a soak (water temp same as the tank water) for a couple of minutes. I usually feed them pellets in this water too. When they're done, I wipe down the plaston (incase they picked up something outside, or moved over some of their poop) and put them back into the tank. I don't see any shock/statues after this.

Well...it seems as if she may be validating that all your efforts are worth it.
After her three "pool visits" and "shock/statue" episodes she is acting ill...yeah, another Penelope thread has been posted