We're Moving, A Little Bit.

Today, we are moving from lot 339 to 338. We had requested a lot that would put the "sun room" on the non-sunny side of the bus. They couldn't give us one on 1/7, but said that we could move to 338 on 1/30. The people that were on that lot left this morning about 9:15, so it's available now.

It will actually move us closer to the beach. Ok, maybe 50 yards closer out of 20 miles isn't such a big deal, but it's still closer to the beach.

It's raining here now, so we'll have to work around that. Sue is going to a "Ladies Luncheon" today at 12:00. If the weather cooperates, the move will not be that big a deal.

We made our first visit of this winter to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Iguana Mia. The food was as good as we remembered.

See everyone later from 338.

Inauguration View From Space

Here are some satellite views of Washington D.C. during Barack Obama's inauguration .







Without magnification, the only objects visible from space are: The Grand Canyon, The Great Wall Of China, and according to Jay Leno, Aretha Franklin's hat.

It's 'Tee Time

Manatee, that is. We went to the Manatee Park on Friday and found a plethora of manatees. I guess that the colder weather and the warm discharge water from the power plant made the right combination to attract the critters. There were certainly a lot more of them than at any other time that we have been there. Here are some pictures of a crowd of manatees at a small cove.




This video shows the manatees in action. The last couple of minutes shows them at the cove where the still pictures were taken.

We Ran Away To Join The Circus

On Thursday, we visited Sarasota, to see the mansion and art museum built by John and Mabel Ringling. Wickett spent the day at the Sarasota Veterinary Center. They took good care of him and he even got a laminated Florida ID. I think that if he had thumbs and longer legs, he could legally drive now.



The whole museum/mansion complex is actually on the campus of Florida State University. LOVE THEM 'NOLES! It was a little chilly, by Florida standards, but we were inside most of the time anyway. There was a section of the circus museum that was closed because they are adding a new exhibit. It will reopen again after 1/22. Maybe we will have to go back. The slideshow will give you a glimpse of what we saw.

We've Been Doing Fun Stuff

Well, since Kris is only here with us for a week, we thought that we should see some of attractions that she had on her "list". She has always been a very good list maker.

So first, on Sunday, we went to Sanibel Island and toured the Ding Darling Nature Preserve. It's a beautiful four mile drive where you can pull over anytime to observe the flora and fauna. Ding Darling was an editorial cartoonist and a famous environmentalist. After our tour, we ate a late lunch at The Island Cow restaurant (we sat outside, just to rub it in to all the northern folks).

Today, we journeyed south to Naples to visit the zoo. Mike and Kim went there with us last year, but Kris didn't get to go. We saw lots of the typical zoo animals and took the boat tour of the primate islands. They have small populations of monkeys, apes, lemurs, etc. on separate islands and the tour boat takes you around to get a closer look at them. After the zoo it was time for lunch again (outside by the water). This was at Pincer's Crab Shack. Sue and I had southern fried catfish and we won't need to eat too much more for the rest of today. If we have the energy, we may go to bingo tonight and try to win some cash.

Here is a slide show of the last two days. The Island Cow sign separates the Sanibel pictures from the zoo pictures.

Houston, The Giant Rolling Pickle Has Landed.

We arrived safely at Upriver RV Resort this afternoon about 2:30. Since we only had slightly more than 120 miles to go today, we didn't rush. We showered this morning before breaking camp. You don't want to show up unclean at your winter residence. We didn't leave Tampa until 10:40. As planned, we stopped just a few miles along I-4 to fill up with gasoline. Not as planned, a giant rain storm began as I was running my credit card at the pump. We used the bus as shelter and when the rain lessened, Sue went back inside. The rain didn't last too long and soon we were on our way. We were driving in and out of showers along I-75 for the rest of the trip. We stopped at a Cracker Barrel when we were about 20 miles short of our destination. That way we were not hungry and had energy to plunge into the job of getting settled at our site. We got most of the important stuff done and will work on the other details over the next couple of days.

We are looking forward to Kris' arrival on Saturday. She will be spending a week with us and I know that the temperatures here will be much warmer than those in Cincinnati. Come on down, Kris!

We're Almost There

A little over 350 miles flew by today. We are camped at Tampa East (The Oaks) and you can see the big oak tree on our site. We all waved at Mickey as we passed through Orlando today on I-4. The weather here is great. Temperatures got into the low 80's. Predictions are for colder weather. We are in the bottom part of the weather that is bringing snow and ice back home. Tomorrow we have about 2 hours of driving to get to Upriver. We can't wait to settle in somewhere after being transients for a while.

It's Warm!

Another pleasant day of travel. It was a little cool and slightly foggy when we left camp this morning. We had no problems (knock on wood) today. No traffic jams or construction zones or anything. Gas is a little cheaper down here. We saw one station that had a price of $1.33.9/gallon posted. We didn't need gas and we were probably to large for that station anyway.

We got to Whispering Pines (Rincon, GA) about 4:00 today. There was a PILOT gas station at the exit when we left I-95. We filled the tank ($1.59.9) so we are primed and ready for tomorrow morning. It is only about three miles from the interstate to the campground. I included a few pictures of our home-for-tonight. Notice the flagpole picture. Not everyone down here believes that the Civil War is over. I guess the fact that the U.S. flag is above the Confederate flag should be taken as a positive sign.
Actually, I think that the lower flag is the Georgia flag that was supposed to disappear a few years ago. The new one doesn't have the "Stars and Bars" on it. Our neighbors here are from New Brunswick, Canada and the gentlemen has a manner of speaking that is a masculine version of the way Celine Dion talks. Cool!

Tomorrow, it's on to Tampa. Yee-Hah!!

We're In North Carolina

We got on the road yesterday (Saturday) about 2:30. We had been transferring things from the house to the motorhome all week. Our plan this year called for doing all the last minute things on Saturday morning, then hitching up the car and having lunch before we started our journey. We only planned to drive as far as Marietta, OH and stay overnight there in the parking lot of a Super WalMart. All went well and we got to Marietta about 5:30. We read and relaxed in the motorhome for a while. There was a McDonald's inside the WalMart so we decided to have dinner there. While we were eating, Sue said how funny it would be if Trevor (our nephew, son of my brother Jim) would walk in. He is attending Marietta College and playing basketball. It was less than 2 minutes later that we saw Trevor and two of his teammates walking in the entrance to the store. I caught up to them (young people walk fast) and said hello. I explained why we were there and congratulated him on his good play this season. They have a game on Wednesday, so I wished him good luck and went back to finish dinner. What a lucky coincidence!

We got back on I-77 at around 9:30 this morning and headed south. With one stop near Beckley, WV for lunch and gasoline, we arrived at the Van Hoy Farm campground in NC around 4:30. The closest town is Harmony. I wonder if they have a barbershop chapter?

Speaking of music, this campground has quite a reputation. They have a large "coliseum" where big name country stars come and perform. The seating capacity is 12,000. Each year, they also host the World Old Time Fiddle Contest. There are some pictures of the coliseum above along with a shot of our campsite.

We have full hookups tonight, so we can shower in the morning and generally have a more normal stay compared to the WalMart experience. I had to flush the antifreeze out of the water lines, install the water filter and reverse the hot water tank bypass. That's not as difficult as it sounds and it's good to get that done now. The temperature here is much warmer than home, but we will still have to run the furnace tonight to stay comfortable. Tomorrow's part of the journey will take us to Whispering Pines campground in Rincon, GA. We stayed there on our way home from Florida last April, so we are familiar with the area.

Leap Second Experience

As I am sure you all know, because of a change in the earth's speed of rotation, every so often an adjustment in time has to be made. Last night was one of those times. Between 11:59:59pm and 12:00:00am, a "leap second" was added. As one of our local TV news people explained (I can't believe she said this without laughing), " A leap second is like a leap year, only shorter." So leave a comment to let us all know how you spent your leap second. I hope that you didn't waste it.