A little trip!

It's been quiet in this corner for a while mostly because we took a little trip!  It's been a while since we were on an airplane but we managed it a couple weeks ago when we flew off to Florida.  I believe I've spoken of my wife's aunt who lives in rural Florida up north of Tampa.  She has been diagnosed with dementia and is failing rapidly. Of course the real person carrying the burden is her husband. He sees it happening every day; he has to visit her not quite every day; he has to make all the decisions.

We went out there last January to visit them. We got to see him but the nursing home was in the middle of a COVID crackdown and they had a no-visitors policy. It is a 1 story building so we could stand outside her window and the nurse moved the bed so we could see her but that's a hell of a lousy visit! My wife wanted to visit again now that visitors are allowed. We had considered driving but decided to give flying a try.

The flights were actually just fine. We have all our shots and have Global Entry cards so getting to the aircraft is pretty easy. Of course we do go 2 hours early as they all seem to request these days even when the flight leaves at 06:00! Yeah, that means getting up about 03:30 even if you are in the airport hotel. What the hell, we are old and don't always sleep that well anyway. Going over we got to stop in Dallas for a bit then on to Tampa. Then we have a 2 hour drive up to the Crystal River area where our relatives live.

My wife's uncle is really a great guy and a pretty damn good host too! The spare bedroom was all set up for us and there was even a dessert for us! The next day we got to visit with the aunt but she was sleeping. The nurses said she'd been awake earlier but she'd crashed. So we wandered around town a bit and went back to the house. This night we ate at home: for a guy in his eighties he's a pretty good cook!

 

In the morning we got to see the wild turkey's who live in the area.  Apparently they like the bird food that gets put out for them.  Then later on in the day we tried visiting the aunt again. Again she slept through our entire visit but at least my wife was able to touch her and talk at her. I left them alone for that goodbye. She has a feeding tube that is the only thing keeping her alive. How long they are going to keep her in this condition is the question. At least she has a DNR and all that fixed up.

We went out to an early dinner that night. It wasn't a place we'd visited before but it was ok. At least it is nice to see boats actually on the water. Around here you see boats but they are just covered in tarps and dust. The drunks in the bar were a bit of an annoyance as were the squirrels that thought they deserved some of our food! Hmmm, I've got to remind myself to pack a stick the next time we visit Florida. Anyway, that was our last night in the boonies.

The next day we drove down to Tampa through some of our old haunts when we lived in the area.  We managed to go out to the beach and have lunch and a beer at the Palm Pavilion.  

 

That night we spent in Tampa out near the airport. We had something new planned for Friday: meeting relatives I've known about but have never met! The guy is a nephew but has always lived places like Ohio or Indiana and you've really got to have a reason to go to those places! Just kidding! Don't get all offended. Hell, I've lived in Ohio when I was a kid. Anyway, now they are living in Tampa so we agreed to meet at a restaurant for lunch. The place they chose was on the new Tampa Riverwalk. It is a very nice park that stretches along the river a bit and has touristy stuff facing the park. We met at Ulele restaurant and really had a nice couple hours together. The food and drink was very nice and the people running the restaurant were great.

I met this nephew through '23 and me' which goes to show how close our family has been. Anyway he's interested in our ancestors and I've got some things that my father left when he passed away. So I took along some things that I thought he would like: an old bible owned by my grandfather; things like that. So we talked and ate and it was generally a great time. This guy just recently became a grandfather so we got to see lots of baby pictures. They are planning on moving again soon so it may be a while before we get to meet them again.

After that, it was time for a return to our hotel because, yep, we had another 06:00 flight planned! Well, that worked out ok; at least the car rental company hasn't been calling asking about their car so I guess they found it ok. The flights were good too. This time we got to stop in Phoenix and got back to Las Vegas in time to make it home for dinner. All in all a very successful trip and our re-initiation to flying.

 Keep on being careful.  This COVID crap isn't going anywhere soon.