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.

Back home again

 I've been AWOL for a bit but this time I've got a really good excuse.  My wife has an aunt who is ill with dementia and we wanted to visit her before it was too late.  The only thing is that the aunt lives in Florida; so we headed off to Florida.  We wanted to take the trailer for a trip so, of course, here are a few thousand more tow miles.  It was a very weird trip.  

Let's start with the first night when we hooked up the water and the toilet started leaking.  Hmmm.  Maybe we should have taken it as a hint and changed the trip to a plane trip!  The second day we didn't really have a problem except that the left front stabilizer didn't work quite right.  I lubed it but it is still only working with lots of effort.  Our daughter moved to a suburb of Austin, TX a few months ago.  Since we were making the trip on I-10, it was pretty much a no-brainer that we would stop and see her on both sides of the trip.  In Texas we were seeing dead deer on the side of the road at least 3 or 4 times a day.  Sometimes there would be two together.  We got off I-10 at Junction, TX so we could check out some of the famous Texas Hill Country.  Unfortunately, it was about that time that we got an error message on the dash:  Engine output reduced.  We were running in the hills and going uphill we were lucky to be doing 45 mph.  There didn't seem to be anything wrong; the engine temp was just fine; the transmission temp was fine; we just didn't know what was going on.  I was thinking that there must be a computer chip in the system that had died.  However, we made it to our daughter's.  We had a couple days with her and the truck ran just perfectly!  So we headed on East.  That didn't work long!  A 100 miles or so away and the problem started all over again.  We got the same Engine output reduced message and we also got one that said there was a problem with the trailer lights.  Grrr!  This time we stopped in East Houston, it was Sunday so I knew I'd be headed for the Ford dealer the next morning.  

I got to the Ford dealer by 07:15.  I went in to talk to a service advisor.  The guy came out and plugged his code reader in:  in a couple minutes he said "You need antifreeze".  Huh?  So I went over to the parts counter and bought 2 gallons of Ford's wonderful antifreeze.  (I say wonderful because it was $20 a gallon.)  I went out to the truck and the service advisor had already opened the cap where you add fluid to the cooling system.  I poured a gallon of antifreeze in and he said it should be mixed with distilled water!  So he went and got a gallon of Ford distilled water!  (For free!)  And he gave it to me to pour in with the antifreeze!  OMG, the cooling system was 2 gallons low?  How the devil does that happen and the truck doesn't overheat or anything?  However, that was the problem because it's been fine ever since!  

So we wandered off the next morning.  We got the trailer light message again but since we do a light check when we hook up the trailer we knew it was in error.  (That night I sprayed the trailer light plug with silicone spray.)  But the big news was that the truck ran like a top all day - no Engine output problem.  So we finally made it to Florida.  

We pulled up and my wife's uncle was standing there in the driveway waiting for us!  He has room on his property to park the rv so we stayed with him.  He is a great host and we had a great time visiting with him.  We visited my wife's aunt at the nursing home; he is going over there every other day but cannot visit her because of covid-19 so he goes to the window of her room and talks on the phone with her.  Unfortunately, her phone went missing so all we could do was wave and yell 'Hello'.  As it turns out, our visit was too late.  She showed no response at all to any of us.  It has to be just killing him to see the woman he loves turn into a non-person.  

However, we had visited her so now it was time to head back home.  This time I noticed that in Alabama and Mississippi there were parts of cars on the side of the road.  One time I saw the front bumper of a car with the license plate still attached on the side of the road.  We drove rather steadily and got back to the Austin area without really any trouble.  Again we had a good visit and headed out west.  We were nearing Deming, NM when the wind started hitting us hard.  It turns out there was a storm earlier today that was still with us with gusts up to 50 mph!  Let's just say we were really happy to make it to our rv park!

Our next night was to be in Phoenix.  As we got to Phoenix the rain started and, of course, the traffic became awful.  The rain was nasty and the fact that 4 cars were involved in a fender-bender made traffic just creep along.  We finally got past all that and were almost up to speed when something else happened.  I didn't see it along the side of the road but it must have been there because we had another long slowdown.  Finally we found our rv park about an hour later than we'd been expecting.  It is a huge park with mostly park model homes but they had 15 or 20 spaces for travelers.  It was ok but had no internet connection at all.  Well, we won't be stopping there again!  However the weather forecasts were scary.  They were talking about snow and a lot of it where we were headed.

In the morning the news was full of I-40 accidents and views of other roads that were simply covered with snow.  I started talking about going on I-10 to California then working our way north to Nevada.  In the end, that's pretty much what we did.  It wasn't the route I'd have chosen but it worked out just fine.  We got home Tuesday afternoon having not seen a single snow flake.  There was snow on the ground and it made the mountains even more beautiful than usual but no flying snow flakes.  Now that was just luck but I'll take it.  Now we have to adjust to living in a house again.  It's amazing but in less than a month I've forgotten where to find things.  I actually have to think about where the cutting board lives or where the coffee grinder stays.  Oh well, if that's the worse thing in my life it's ok.

Happily we have a new President who seems to be reversing many of the orders that Mr. Trump had made over the last four years.  I'm unsure about the legality of all these Presidential Orders but since they have been allowed to function as laws I guess it is just my ignorance.  I would just as soon that there was no more impeachment proceedings against Mr. Trump but that is just part of my desire for him to disappear from the headlines.  Let him just be the lying golfer that he's always been and not the headline grabbing right wing idiot that we've had for the last four years.  

Well, that's the story of the last month in my life.  I hope everyone had a great January.  We'll be working on February soon enough.  Take care & keep washing those hands.

Florida trip part 2

So I left off last time in Livingston, TX.  Driving across central Texas on these state and federal highways (as distinct from the Interstate) was really a lot of fun.  Traffic was not heavy and you get to go through towns along the way.  Also you get to see the farms and ranches which I, as an old country boy, enjoy.  One thing I notice especially in Texas is that most ranches will have an elaborate gate where one leaves the road and enters the property.  It doesn't matter if the house is 100 feet off the road or half a mile, there is a big gate usually with a bar over the top with the name of the property.  Funny, I don't notice it in any other state but Texas.

The other thing we really noticed was the number of goats!  I imagine everyone has this vision of Texas as being filled with cattle.  Well, not the part between Austin and the Louisanna border.  That's goat country!  But all good things come to an end, even the almost 900 miles (1,400 km) across Texas and we finally made it to Louisanna.  We wanted to spend a little more time in Louisanna this trip but were planning on doing it on the way home so while Eastbound we just kept 'the pedal to the metal'.  A contributing factor was that the weather was just crappy:  rainy and chilly.  We stopped for the night in Breaux Bridge, LA at the Cajun Palms RV park; with something over 300 sites.  The sites and interior roads are all concrete; they have swimming pools and all that jazz.  They also have a semi-captive restaurant next door - Crawfish Town USA.  We ate there and my wife had to try the childs portion of crawfish - a mere 2 pounds!  (Yeah, almost a kilo.)  She thought they were ok but a lot of work for little meat and she definitely was not up for sucking out the head as our server suggested.

The next day we managed to make it part of the way across Alabama.  It was a pretty quiet park and I don't even remember the name!  Then it was off to Florida.  We decided to drop down to highway 98 along the Gulf Coast so drove through Panama City and along the coast to Carrabelle, Fl where we stopped for the night.  Our park was across the road from the gulf but the weather was still not cooperating.  We went into town for dinner at a place recommended by the camp manager:  The Fisherman's Wife.  Well, that was a disaster.  They served my wife peel-and-eat shrimp that were just nasty.  Then the owner came around to tell us the shrimp were 'moulting' and that's the way they are.  Ha!  They were either overcooked; over frozen or something but they were lousy.  They did finally find some shrimp that were breaded - they were twice the size of the peel-and-eat and actually good.  Still, bad seafood in Florida?  Nah.

Who would want to stroll that beach?  Not me!  So we hit the road again.  We stopped for lunch in Perry, FL at a place called Goodman's BBQ.  The parking lot was full and we had to park the rv in a dirt field next door but the food was excellent!  We switched to US 19 and headed south in Perry.  It is not very heavily traveled because it roughly parallels I-75 however we did find two state patrol officers checking for speeders!  We never speed because I'd just feel too foolish getting pulled over towing this huge trailer but I'm sure those guys were out there for a reason.

We pulled in to our relative's house about 16:00 and spent the next few days visiting them and many of the local restaurants!  We also got to visit the Homosassa Wildlife State Park.  That was fun!    The place started as a commercial park and they had all kinds of animals.  Then it was taken over by the state and turned into a native Florida park where all the plants and animals had to be native to the state.  Well, for some reason they couldn't get rid of their hippo, Lucifer.  So the state legislature made him an honorary resident!

He's a big guy!  They also have gators, snakes, a Florida panther, black bears and LOTS of birds.

It was a good time as always but we had places to go!  We used to live in Palm Harbor, Fl which is a suburb in the Tampa-St. Pete area so that was our next stop.  We managed to hook up with the folks who were our next door neighbors and had a great evening with them.  But South Florida was still calling!

We made it to the Outdoor Resorts campground on Chokoloskee Island in the Everglades.  It is a condo park where the sites are owned by individuals and their rigs just sit there.  It was a nice enough place but the manager was far from friendly and the actual park was pretty tight for travelers.  There were many turns that were too tight for even moderate sized rigs.  For $80 a night it was not great but at least they had wifi!

This is what I would call the western side of the glades but the park service calls it the Gulf Coast.  And we had a great time checking out the park.  One of the things you can do is take a tour through some of the Ten Thousand Islands area.  We enjoyed our tour even though the dolphins were pretty shy.

There were plenty of birds around including this flock that just couldn't be close enough to the rest of the guys!

Honestly we really enjoyed just being out on the boat.  It's a rare treat for us desert dwellers.  We wore our jackets though! Florida maybe but a long way from being warm!  It was about now that we started seeing about visiting the Keys.  We were soon disabused of any idea of visiting Key West or anywhere near it!  RV parks were all full so our visions of Key West and the Dry Tortugas went away.  Instead we headed for other side of the Everglades.  We found a spot outside Homestead, Fl and headed for it.  On the way we thought we might check out Shark Valley, Miami entrance to the park.  Well, for starters it's nowhere near Miami!  Secondly it is TINY!  They have a very small parking area as well and when it gets crowded they have a plan:  you can't go into the parking area until someone else comes out!  Well, shit!  Now we are in the line of cars towing a 30+ foot trailer. No way can we turn around; we just had to wait until enough people came out then drive through the lot and get on our way.  They did have maybe two spots for RVs but that was it.  Not the way we wanted to spend our time!

So it was off to the country park.  This place is in the middle of an agricultural area west of Miami; tons of gardens, nurseries, etc.  It made for a long drive to anywhere but it was nice and quiet!  In fact we ended up spending four nights.  The eastern entrance to the Everglades park was pretty quiet but it was rainy the first time we went so that was pretty disappointing.  The second time it was nice, still wearing jackets, and we got to do a couple hikes.  Here we found a trail built up over the swamp.  Again there were tons of birds including this guy who liked to walk across the plants; he barely got his feet wet!

We also got to see this guy.

That was taken from about 6 feet away (2 M) and behind a fence.  There were some folks over to my left trying to get a nice toothy portrait of him.  What were they thinking?  He may have been in a national park but no one told him about not being a wild animal!  It is a wonder that there aren't more tourists attacked. 

Another day we decided to drive down into the Keys and just have lunch somewhere.  Traffic was pretty heavy and we started thinking we were lucky not to have gotten a space down there.  We went as far as Islamorada and found a place for lunch around Mile Marker 85.  Still a long way from Key West and MM 0!  The restaurant was called "Yahoo's" and we ate outside on the deck.  Yes, we had to wear our coats but at least we got a nice view!  Really though, wearing your coat in the Florida Keys.  There is just something so very wrong about that.

Gotta keep trying to get that boat fix! 

I'm thinking this has gone on long enough.  This is as far south as we got so next time we'll be on the way home with a few stops along the way.

AWOL again!

Yep, I keep trying but keep going away for weeks at a time.  This time I have at least a bit of an excuse:  we flew to Florida for a week.  We had a family birthday to celebrate, relatives to meet and even old friends to visit.  Actually it was a great time. 

We started things off by taking the cat to the vet to be boarded.  He's an old guy and we thought he would be more comfortable where he knew everyone.  Well, that didn't go so well!  We walked in with him and he started hissing and spitting and carrying on like someone elses cat.  He's been there probably 10 times and he's never been  upset at all.  This was really weird but we really had no choice but to leave him.  We were a bit worried but figured he'd calm down and be more like his usual self. 

The flight out was non-stop on Southwest.  We were warned that they would only give us a couple peanuts for a snack so we brought along our own cheese & salami plate.  That worked really well!  We spent our first night in a Quality Inn in Tarpon Springs, FL.  As walk-in's we got a really good rate; it wasn't fancy but it was clean and quiet.  It was also at about 30% occupancy.  We had dinner at a restaurant called "Rusty Bellies" in Tarpon Springs.  It is kind of half bar and half restaurant.  We ate inside and it was nice; outside they had really loud music.  I couldn't have been out there!  In the morning we had the motel's free, included breakfast.  I've got to say, the breakfast alone would have cost $10 anywhere.  What's not to like?

The next day we went up to Crystal Springs, FL.  Our family had a house full of other family so we looked for another motel:  found another Quality Inn.  This one was a bit older but it was still clean and comfortable; after all, we were planning on spending all our time with family.  So  we signed up for two nights and went to visit, talk and eat.  What else do you do with family?  That night (Thursday) we all (11 of us) went to dinner at a favorite restaurant then my wife and I bailed out to our motel room.  I went out to get some ice and coming back I was kind of light-headed.  I was thinking maybe I'd drunk too much but then I got to thinking... I've felt this before.  It is called vertigo and I had it a couple of years ago.  That time it surprised me and it meant a trip to the emergency room.  This time I remembered the medication that had been prescribed and in the morning my wife was going to call our doctor here in Nevada and have her call a prescription to a local drugstore. 

Because of the time difference, it would be at least 11:00 a.m. before she could contact the doctor.  She did find time to call the vet; turns out the cat has quieted down and, while not friendly, isn't too crazed either.  Then she called the local CVS.  She mentioned the medication, meclizine, only to find that it is now available over the counter for motion sickness!  What the heck.  So she bought some and by 14:00 I was able to get up and get around.  What a deal!  As it turns out, I needed to take it morning and night for the rest of our trip.  Friday night all 11 of us went to another place, a Chinese restaurant.  Everyone thought it was the best Chinese food; I guess it was ok but I don't really remember what I had! 

Some of the family had to leave early Saturday morning so we moved into the computer room/emergency extra bedroom for Saturday night.  It was really very nice of them to keep us but I was glad to have had the privacy of the motel room when I had been really ill.  Saturday was also the big party.  These folks know everyone in the neighborhood and they all showed up for the party - this is in addition to the family members.  Jeez!  What a crowd.  They are all pretty old though so there were no fights or late nights. We did prove that if you eat all afternoon, you won't need an evening meal! 

Sunday morning we headed back south towards Palm Harbor to visit our old neighborhood.  We had been fairly close to our neighbors and it was great to see them again.  We visited with them and some other neighbors until fairly late.  We had quite a bit of catching up to do.  Monday they had an appointment we we were on our own.  We had lunch in St. Petersburg at a place called "Red Mesa".  It is sort of updated Mexican but kind of pretentious too.  Then we spent the afternoon visiting the new Salvidore Dali Museum.  Now that was great.  It is all new and very nice.  The problems would be 1) the entry fee is $40 for two of us plus $5 for parking and 2) there is only one floor of paintings in the three story building.  It should be nice at those prices!  We tried taking our friends out to dinner that evening; went to a local place that was so totally awful that I'm not going to describe it.  Just don't go there!

Finally, Tuesday, we got to fly home.  This trip had a stop in Austin but the flight was just fine.  We got home in time to go collect the cat.  Turns out he was just fine.  He even forgave us for leaving him rather quickly.  So that was our big trip.  There will be more later this summer but for now I'm glad to be home. 

Thanks for checking in.  Have a good one.

Misc....

Well, they caught the Boston Marathon bomber kid.  I'm afraid he is sounding just like a normal passionate 19 year old who got hold of some nasty ideas.  Now to see what kind of 'justice' we will serve up.  Killing three and injuring so many more is going to make lots of people want the death penalty.  I’m kind of against that but throwing him in jail for the rest of his natural life doesn’t do much for me and turning him loose after three or four years isn’t where I’m at either.  Guess I’m glad I won’t be on the jury!

In other news, my favorite financial blogger, RandomRoger, has announced that he isn’t going to be blogging every day but only from time to time.  I can’t blame the poor guy, he’s been blogging almost daily for over eight years!  Still, I will miss him.  I’ve been reading him almost from the beginning and his ideas have influenced my investing style a  lot.  Fairwell, sir.

I have a list of ‘favorite’ blogs that I try to read regularly, I suppose most people interested in blogs have such a list.  I was looking at it this morning, surprised at the number that are no longer active.  Some have just disappeared.  It is an odd kind of feeling.  You read someone’s thoughts for a year or more then they disappear.  You can’t help wondering what happened.  An accident, jail, death, threw their computer through the window, moved to Argentina; like so many things in life we’ll never know. 

My wife and I have decided to visit Florida early this summer to celebrate a relative’s birthday.  This isn’t really news but it is kind of unusual for me; I haven’t been on a plane in over 10 years!  Since we lost our dog and the cat sleeps all day anyway, we have decided to rejoin the flyers of the world.  We’ll toss the cat in a kennel and fly away.  I’m reasonably certain it won’t be any more comfortable or healthier or even faster than it was 10 years ago but flying does mean I don’t have to hear whining about how long it takes to get across Texas.  We’ll see how it turns out.  Come to think of it, I haven’t stayed in a motel in at least 10 years.  Wow, a whole new world!

Today we are off to Vegas on a little shopping spree.  We (that would be my wife) need clothes for the trip to Florida.  I know it’s kind of early but there is this sale…..  Besides, we haven’t been in almost two weeks.  Can’t let the car forget the way, can we?  Have a good one!

Finally - we're traveling

Traveling is something both my wife and I love but in the past year all we managed was a trip up to Washington state.  However, that is changing!  Actually, we are a thousand miles and three states away from home right now.  We are headed for a family birthday celebration back in our old home state of Florida.  We also hope to see a few of the sights on the way home.  First we are beating feet for Florida; the trip home should be more relaxing.  We are spending our days in the truck; our nights in our travel trailer.  The dog gets the back seat in the truck and the cat has his catbed in the rear footwell.  Most often I'm driving and my wife is navigating.  She has 2 atlases and two GPS units.  The first day we called ahead to say we were coming and the GPS estimated we'd arrive at 17:08 - the guy had to give me a hard time because we arrived at 17:10.  That's the kind of navigator I married! 

Here's a shot of the trailer in our yard.  Living area is in the back; the bedroom is in the front.  Bath in between.

Here's a shot of the living-dining area in the trailer.

Here's the first installment of our trip log.

03 Feb 2010

Left Pahrump at about 10:30 on Wednesday.  Took longer than anyone would expect to load our food and clothes but we finally got out.  It was a nice day but we had a long trip planned; down highway 95 to Laughlin then East towards Kingman, AZ then South again to Congress, AZ and the Escappees park there.  "The Ranch" was open until 17:30 fortunately because it was after 17:00 when we arrived; thanks partially to Arizona being in the Mountain time zone!  We both had forgotten that again!

There is a forest of Saguaro cactus on the way south.  Very interesting; at one point they were interspersed with Joshua trees.  Quite an interesting drive.

Parked in a nice level spot and hooked things up.  It wasn't fancy but wasn't bad either; there was a nice dog run anyway.  Had some dinner and to bed.  No internet because they have a contract with someone called Tengo - the cost is excessive for us. 



04 Feb 2010
Got out about 09:30; not bad for us.  Had a drive to another Escapees' park:  Dream Catcher in Deming, New Mexico. 

Before leaving Congress we checked the Phoenix traffic; there was a 3 vehicle wreck that almost closed I-10 and I-17 in both directions.   A truck hit a car which hit a Class A motorhome; the motorhome tipped on it's side and that closed 2 lanes about 06:45 - when we went through town at 10:30 it was finally clear but only just!  Fortunately the only injuries were minor; the rv'ers weren't scratched, even their dogs were fine.

Lots of traffic on I-10 especially a lot of trucks.  Amazing that this is in a tough economic time; doesn't look like it from the highway!  Dream Catcher was a disappointment.  Spaces were fairly tight; it had rained and there was standing water everywhere.  It was just off the highway and on the other side was the railway line; trains all night long!  We also had a leak in the water filter that I'd installed just before we left.  It didn't leak at home but tonight I found it by the simple expedient of stepping in water.  Bah humbug!  Worked on it and got it to a very small drip but still a pain.



05 Feb 2010
Hit the road quite early, before 09:00!  We discovered that the water pump in the rig doesn't put out as much
pressure as the park water does and the leak in the water filter is much slighter.  We decided we can just use the rig water pump until we make it to San Antonio or somewhere where we can get parts easier. 

We planned on driving to Ozona, TX today.  Nice weather so headed East on I-10.  Somewhere during the day, my wife came up with the novel thought that we really didn't need to kill ourselves getting to Florida; we have plenty of time.  So our first move was to cut the day's driving by about a hour and a half and stopped at a Passport America park in Fort Stockton, TX.  We'd stayed in the park before some years ago; it is kind of ugly but had drainage so was dry and quiet. 

We had stopped at a rest area during the day and a trucker's refer unit caught on fire!  There was lots of smoke but another trucker noticed what was happening and banged on the guy's door to wake him.  As soon as he shut if off, the smoke stopped.  He had to call for instructions though; that cold cargo couldn't just sit there getting warm.  He was lucky the other trucker noticed the problem before the fire got really out of hand!



06 Feb 2010
My wife woke at 03:30 or something like that; she was showering about 05:30!  Not like her but at least she got her shower.  I was afraid she might run out of water.  By the time she got out of the shower I was ready to go turn on the park water but she had finished.  I was back asleep before she turned on her hair dryer and didn't wake until 08:30.  So it was almost 10:00 before we got on the road.

Last night I tried tightening the clamps on the water filter again.  Must have done something right because it's
almost completely gone.  It's small enough that it doesn't reach the floor before it evaporates.  Cool!   

Rather than go all the way to Houston, which was our original target for today, we stopped outside San Antonio.  Things were quiet until we got on the road that circles around the northern part of town.  Those people were crazy!  Eight or ten cars would merge into traffic without bothering to worry about the people already on the road.  We were following a big truck; how he managed to avoid killing about a dozen people I'll never know.  They certainly made life tough for that driver.

Our park today is Stone Creek RV Park in Schertz, TX.  It's a Passport America park so was only $15.50.  This is another place we've been before; they have nice sized spaces that each has an outside table and a little shade.  Unfortunately, the spaces aren't totally level but every rv'er has to deal with that from time to time.  We carry both 2x8s and 4x4s to prop up the low side of the trailer.  This is a 2x8 place.  We especially like staying here because there is a supermarket here (HUB) that has freshly made tortillas.  Yum!  Those nice warm tortillas filled with spiced hamburger, cheese and salsa - we had a great dinner!  And we have free wifi!!!  First internet time since we left Pahrump.  Doubt if it will be a late night; this traveling is tiring!

Whew!

Well, we have a new President elected. Let's hope he can make at least some of his promises come true. I was worried that there might be a silent majority who would not vote for a black man. Thankfully, that did not happen.

Unfortunately, in at least two states (California and Florida) there were votes outlawing gay marriage. I think that violates the separation of church and state. Marriage is a religious ceremony; having a partner is a civil matter; I think it's that simple.

We are still hanging around in Pahrump; in fact we'll be staying here until the middle of December. We are looking at homes in the area as well as in the Las Vegas metro area. The problem in Vegas is that the homes are built on tiny lots: a 2,500 sq ft house on a 3,500 sq ft lot!!!

Gotta go. Have a good one.

WOW!!

Now I've got a problem: we are leaving Tampa Bay, probably for ever, so what's with the title of the blog? Hmmmm. Guess I'll have to move on.

Today we left Florida soil; we've no idea if or when we might return. We moved to Florida in 2000 because our mother's both lived near St. Pete. They have both passed away so now there is no reason for us to live here. We have friends and an aunt/uncle in Florida; otherwise, there are no familial obligations here.

Perhaps I'll start a new blog and leave a link here. I just haven't a clue about it's name! LOL Isn't life fun. John Lennon is supposed to have said 'life is what happens while you are busy making other plans'. Well, it's sure working for me. Maybe that should be the title of the new one: 'While I'm making other plans'. Sounds ok, any thoughts?

I'm tired; it's been a long day and I'm tired. Have a good day & take it easy.

Haven't I been bad!

No posts in three weeks. Well, sorry but I'm in never-never land. Or somewhere close to it. Actually, I'm in Dunedin, FL about 10 miles from our old house. We parked the rig here because it would make it easy to load it with stuff from the house. As you saw in my last post, that plan worked almost too well. We had to treble the size of our storage overflow area. Now I have to figure out how to dump all that STUFF!

We hoped that we might find a new rig to replace this one. The newer trailers have slideouts that add perhaps 30 square feet of living space. That doesn't sound like much until you think about our trailer having 200 square feet TOTAL. That even includes the area taken up by the stove, sink, bed, etc. 30 square feet; something around 3 sq. m. would be a lot.

We've looked at most of the trailers in the area, and because this is a vacation destination there are plenty. We haven't found anything that has both good construction and nice usage of space. Even the Airstreams, the all aluminium ones, that cost about $80-90,000 and have beautiful wood work, aren't acceptable; the shower in them is too small for me to use! Honestly, I'm not THAT big! We want to buy the trailer before buying the truck because it is easy to buy a trailer that is too big to be towed by a given truck. If we buy the trailer first, we can use it's size to help with the truck purchase. Generally, buying a truck larger than needed is more expensive to buy, more expensive to run and less comfortable while you are riding in it.

Anyway, we've pretty much decided to take this trailer and this truck and drive out west to where we might want to buy a house. Then, if we can find anything, we'll buy house, truck, trailer & whatever else in whatever order! At least we will have the dealer's who sold us the stuff near by so we can beat on them as necessary. If we can't find the stuff we want, who the hell knows! We may emigrate!

Hope you are having fun but do be careful out there!

Oops, two more things: Tropical Storm Fay was headed our way but missed us entirely. Rained a bunch on Eastern Florida though. The other thing is that I'm back in the Microsoft fold - this is being done on my new Toshiba laptop. I just couldn't take that awful Apple hardware. Threw it in the trash and enjoyed the experience. Sure wish I had that operating system though. (Sigh!)

Things may be moving

We have a contract on our house. There is, of course, a hangup. The buyer wants a 100% VA loan. That means that the VA will have their own inspector/valuation specialist evaluate the house. If they think the house is worth what we are asking, then he gets the loan. If they don't think the house is worth it, he doesn't. So we'll just have to see how it appraises. The problem is that there are so few comparable sales that it's tough to value it. Bottom line, more waiting.

It was pretty overcast in Florida today. Took this photo out where there is a way out to the Gulf. It is low tide so the barrier islands are more obvious than usual. Even though it isn't nice, people are out collecting shells. Have a good one.

Whoa! My first screwup!

Don't know what happened but somehow the Blogger software only kept about half of my post! First time I've had anything like that happen. Fortunately, I prepare my post offline and still have the original. Just so you don't miss out on any of my fabulous prose; here's what got deleted. Have a good one!

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Yes! Yet another pointless American holiday who's existance is a boon only to retailers. Gee, I'm looking forward to it.

Actually, it should be a pretty good day. Our daughter is coming up and will bring dinner; a dinner carefully selected so that I don't have to cook anything! Usually dinner might be something for me to grill but not today. She's always careful that on Mother's Day it is something that she and I can do and on Father's Day it is something she & her mom will do. Kind of cute, huh,

Went up to see relatives who live outside of Crystal River on Friday. My wife's aunt was having a birthday so we took them out to dinner. They are only a few years older than we so it's not like the traditional 'aunt' relationship. Had a good visit. The place they like to eat has halfway eatable food but they seem to have never heard of herbs. I had a large piece of tuna; it must have been 12-16 oz (400 g). Unfortunately, it was dry & poorly seasoned. A little sauce and it could have been magnificent. My wife & her uncle both had "prime rib". They serve huge portions, probably 3 lb (1.5 kilo) but, again, unseasoned. Still, they like the place so we keep going back. There aren't a lot of nice restaurants in their area and this one certainly gives you quantity and basically good ingredients.

Happy Father's Day!

It's summer here even if it doesn't officially start for another week. Took this photo of our weather station this morning. It tells the whole story. Not yet 07:00. Outside it is 93% humidity and 74 degrees F (say 23 C). Thanks to air conditioning it is the same temperature inside but only 39% humidity. It's hard to imagine living here without the air conditioning.

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Have a happy day and be careful out there!

Can it really be June?

The year just seems to be flying by; can it really be June already? I guess we are doing things but wow. It is 93 degrees outside (like 34 C) so I guess our defacto summer has begun. The rain hasn't begun yet and we are needing it. Florida has had a drought for several years; we need our rain.

We've had a couple more people look at the house. Boy, I sure hope someone buys it soon! My wife is driving me crazy. She is worried that it won't sell and we'll have to stay here. She gets herself all worked up then lashes out. This morning, for example, she was wiping off the stove when she just started swearing and banged her hand down on something. When I asked what was wrong, she said she needed some water to clean the stove and had already cleaned the sink so she'd have to clean it again. I mean really, is that a reason to fly off the handle? Jeez!

I'd like to take this opportunity to wish you all well. Every other day I hear about someone with some horrible disease or other not to mention the hundreds of thousands endangered by cyclone, flood and famine. All we can do is keep on but it's an amazingly dangerous place out there. Take care.

Hurricane Season

Howdy, y'all, from the great state of Florida! Hurricane season begins day after tomorrow so the stores are starting out with their sales on generators, shutters & all that stuff. Personally I think I prefer leaving if a hurricane is on the way. If the house is trashed; me being here won't help much. And it's all just 'stuff' so maybe we would have to do without or buy new. I can live with that.

The house has been on the market for three weeks and we've had six or eight showings. We've had two offers both indicative of the lousy real estate market here in Florida now. The first was just low; we rejected it. The second is a full price offer (great!) BUT it is tied to some kind of 'gift' program. The purchaser is given a gift of money to be used as a down payment by some foundation no one has ever heard of. The seller is then obligated to repay the down payment and then some to the foundation. This doesn't sit well with me.

There are several things I don't like. 1) The purchaser is given something that they needn't repay. I don't believe in the 'free lunch'. 2) The purchaser is not really involved in the transaction. They filled out some paperwork but.... When one works for and earns something, one is involved. When something is given to one, it just feels different. 3) This is clearly intended for "first house" buyers; this house is not a starter home. 4) The last thing is simply practical: they are asking for a larger discount than we wish to give.

So we are keeping the house extra clean. We pay rent on a storage unit with some of our things packed away. We are ready at a moment's notice to take the dog and leave so someone can view our house. There are several restaurants in the neighborhood who have tables outside where one may take a dog. We are getting to know them all! We are also creating a monster. The dog doesn't like all the traffic around our table. In an attempt to give her something else to think about, I feed her a few french fries. (Almost everything come with fries! aka chips in the UK, pomme frites in France, etc.) It does keep her quiet but maybe at the cost of her waistline! Hope the house sells soon!

Take care out there, it's dangerous.

I'm still here....

No, haven't died or even moved but we have been busy. I rented a storage unit and we have it about half full of books, exercise equipment, boating stuff; all kinds of stuff. I've also made trips to Goodwill and Hospice with donations. It's all part of getting the house ready to be on the market. I have some fence repairs to make and a small deck to replace. Yesterday and today we talked with realtors.

Now we have some interesting decisions to make. The housing market here in Florida stinks. Trying to price the house so we aren't giving it away yet are scaring potential buyers away is a trick. The two realtors we found weren't a lot of help. One suggested pricing it in the $250K range; the other said $300K. Hmmm, a 20% variation is not really what we were wanting. Of course, there are only about two houses that have sold in our neighborhood in the last few months. Both realtors said the banks are being very picky about having recent appraisals but there just aren't enough sales to be meaningful. It's a tough situation. We'll see what happens when we get another realtor or two in here.

On an completely different topic, you've probably heard about Mrs. Clinton claiming to have come under fire when she visited Bosnia. Then just when the reports leave the front page, Bill starts complaining that the reports are being unfair to her. Ha! If I didn't know better I'd be wondering if he isn't really working for Mr. Obama! What a hoot.

Finally, I may not post for another ten days or so. We have family coming to visit Sunday through Thursday. And our son, who lives in California, will be here through the following Tuesday (if American Airlines gets their planes back in the air). He's 36 but he's still my wife's little boy.

Good luck, it's getting weirder and weirder out there!

Florida Scene

This is an odd winter. We had one freeze that damaged a bunch of plants. But we haven't had the consistently nice weather that one comes to expect. There has been a lot of cool cloudy weather and quite a lot of rain. The rain is good because the state has had a water shortage for many years; but in the Tampa area we are almost 2 inches above normal so far this year. When our friends were here we went out to Clearwater Beach and got sand blasted off the beach. The breeze picked up that sand and just peppered you with it. Today we are having 20 mph gusts. It's just different this year!



Yesterday I was in John Chestnut County Park. It is on the other side of Lake Tarpon from the photos I posted few weeks ago. Here there is a boat ramp and some places where you can fish from the shore. I got a kick out of the avian help that these two guys had.

Have a good one!

Misc. Foolishness

I was reading Wombat's http://limousinelife.blogspot.com/ the other day and he suggested that the average age in the Tampa area was 241. He's probably close. I get a kick out of folks like the ones in this photo. It's a new motorcycle club - Hell's Grandparents.



What are they thinking? First of all, motorcycling isn't generally an old person's sport. If either of these people dropped their bike, even in a parking lot, they'd need a crane to help them pick it up. Then, of course, there is the lack of helmets. The law in Florida says they aren't required and actually I prefer that it be left to the individual whether they wish to wear one or not. However, I also think it's pretty dumb not to wear one! These folks are riding on a heavily traveled road. Three lane in each direction and traffic moves between 50 and 60 mph (that's almost 100 kph) though the speed limit is 45. It's just not the place to take chances.



The second photo is of a new 'safety' feature our local government has purchased. It is a new kind of walk-don't walk sign that has a countdown timer to tell you when the light is going to change. This was taken a couple miles away from the previous photo but on the same road. Here the speeds are, if anything, a little higher than there. There are VERY few pedestrians in this area however I think the drivers really like the new signs. It gives them warning that they have to speed up to make the light! I don't think that was the intention but you know how these things work.

Drive safely until next time.

13 Feb 08 - Found these statistics from 2001 - the most recent I could find in the USA Today newspaper.

The metro areas are ranked by the number of traffic deaths per 100,000 residents in 2000.

1. Orlando 18.8
2. Tampa-St. Petersburg 17.6
3. West Palm Beach 16.6
4. Austin 15.8
5. Las Vegas 15.4
6. Phoenix 15.2
7. Memphis 14.7
8. Jacksonville 14.6
9. Fort Lauderdale 14.5
10. Kansas City 14.2

Sources: The Road Information Program, NHTSA

The article suggested several reasons for the number of Florida cities in this list. They included elderly drivers and the number of visitors. There was no information about motorcyclists. I would include the fact that many Florida cities have a large number of high speed streets. In New York you might get hit by a cab but it'll only be going 30 mph not 60.

Sunny but cool

Florida is back to being sunny today but it's cool (67F or 19C) and breezy. Went out to the park and took a couple of pictures including this one. This is Lake Tarpon. It's in a very populated area but has a park on each shore and the water is kept pretty clean. I'm staying pretty quiet today. Just doing a few things around the house.

Cut up the meat for beef jerky this a.m. Jerky is a marinated, dried meat. I suppose you could make it out of almost any meat as long as it is lean. I marinate mine overnight in soy sauce and worcester sauce, add hot pepper flakes & a little onion powder and garlic powder. Tomorrow I'll put it on the dryer for five or six hours. I like it ok but my wife, daughter & everyone else really loves it. The three pounds (1.5 kg) of meat should make 12 or 14 ounces (400 g or so) of jerky. All we have to do in invite a couple of friends over and it would be gone.