Another Cool, Overcast Day on the Island

  While John did his morning exercise routine Kylie and I took a walk down to the office to mail a card and then she kept me company outside Harvey while I swept and put the tablecloth on the picnic table.  I also tried to fix an outside solar powered light stick that I broke.  Even duct tape couldn't come to my rescue this time!  John got back about 10:30 and had breakfast.  We decided to think very positively and headed for the pool even though the clouds looked very threatening.  Of course, we were the only ones there!  We got in the hot tub for about a half hour and then went to our chaise lounges.  After about an hour and a half of wearing a sweatshirt and covering up my legs with a towel I drowned that positive thinking and told John I had had enough. We came back and John took a nap while I played Word Twist on our tablet.  We went down to the club house for pizza night and to enjoy the music from the Bad Grass Dirt Band.  We left about 8pm then played Toss up, Pass the Pigs and Tip of the Tongue (it's a trivia game for those of you with dirty minds) and then we went to bed. 

The Bad Grass Dry Band

Cool, Breezy Day on the Island

   We woke up to 49 degree, gusty weather.  We actually had to turn on the heat during the night.  John did the laundry while I updated some earlier posts with pictures (check them out)!  Then I drove out to Matlacha (pronounced mat-la-shay') to check out some of the cute, colorful little shops.

The outside of Leona Lovegrove's gallery

 

WOW!  A very "hip" trailer

 

The blue mounds on the posts are empty blue
water bottles with the bottoms painted white

 

Another cool bottle tree

 

The back entrance-notice the pic of
the Beatles to the left... she paints
a lot of their pictures!

 

 

John and I and Brad and Sue at Sonny's
(Sorry this is out of order but it wouldn't let me
put it at the end for some reason)



This was my favorite shop... nice jewelry

I got back about 2:30 and Sue and Brad from Wisconsin were talking with John.  They had already made plans to get together for supper at Sonny's Barbeque.  They left to go to the pool, John finished his exercise routine, and I worked on our blog post.  We all met at 5:00 to go eat and they came back to Harvey to play some games.  We played "Pass the Pigs" and "Tip of the Tongue".  Brad won the first game and John won the second one.  We had a very good time with them and are sad that they are leaving tomorrow morning for Wisconsin.  We would have liked to spend more time with them.  They did invite us to park Harvey on their property when we take our trip out west in 2016 by way of the northern route.  We would very much like to see them again!  They left about 9:45, we watched some TV and then went to bed.  Hopefully tomorrow will be a beach day!!

 

 

 

 

 

Lazy Day on Pine Island

  John got up early and did his routine.  We had breakfast and he decided to walk some more while I did all my "lay down" exercises in Harvey.  We'll go to the gym later to do more.  We were going to go to the beach today, but there is supposed to be 16 mph winds so we decided to go to the pool instead.  We started in the hot tub about 11:00 and then laid around the pool till about 4:30.  (We did go back to Harvey for lunch). I talked with my mother who has had some flu-like symptoms the last couple of days.  She feels a bit worse today and the whole 2nd floor of her building is quarantined.  Everyone is going a bit stir crazy... she can't even see Dad.  But on a brighter note, it really was a perfect day to lounge outside with the temperature around 76 and a breeze although it was a bit chilly in the shade.

Very pretty pool area with hot tub

  We played a game of shuffleboard but I couldn't finish because of my hip... it was so frustrating!!!  I was winning though!  Don't tell John I told you.  When we walking back from the pool my sister's friends, Russ and Darlene drove by, so I finally got to meet them.

This is the inside entrance to the CG across from the office

 

This is looking down the aisle where we are parked
(about 10 down on the left)

 

 

 

 

  We went to the gym to finish exercising and then John grilled steaks for supper.  We played Hand and Foot and although it was a close game...I WON!  I talked with Bonnie and Ken who are at Lazy Days in Tampa (where they bought their RV) getting some warranty work done on their rig.  They left it there in November and expected everything to be finished but no such luck.  They are pretty frustrated, but, hopefully, things will get worked out tomorrow.  Well, time to go to bed... good night.

1st Full Day on Pine Island

  John got up early and went for a walk, bike ride and to the small fitness room on the CG.  I slept in until 8am.  I sure wish I could join him, but my hip just isn't strong enough yet.  John cooked some egg sandwiches for breakfast.  Bonnie called to let us know that she and Ken decided to leave at 3am this morning and they were already in N. Carolina.  They hit some bad weather around Washington DC and passed several accidents, but they got through all right.  She also told me that former neighbors of theirs who are full time RVers arrived here yesterday.  She told them our site # and they will stop by.  Then we headed out to do some shopping.  Before we got back at 2:00 we had hit Walmart, CVS, Dollar General, Lowe's, a medical supply store, and Winn Dixie where we brought home some fried chicken for lunch.  Then we walked down to the pool about 3pm.  We got in the hot tub and talked with a couple from Wisconsin for about an hour and a half.  They decided this past Saturday to leave freezing cold Wisconsin for warmer weather.  They were going to go to Corpus Christie, Texas but found out it was to be unseasonably cold there, so they changed their plans and headed for Florida with just a tent to stay in.  Sue is a real estate agent and Brad is a maintenance man at a nursing home.  Sue had some real interesting stories about her business over the years!!  They were going to Woody's for supper and invited us to go along, but since we ate lunch pretty late we declined.  We invited them to stop by for a beer, but Sue said they might be too tired having been at Sanibel Island all day.  Brad had quite a sunburn!  We do hope to get together with them soon.  (We found out later that they had stopped by but they thought it looked as though we had bedded down for the night, so they left.)  While I was getting my shower Bonnie's former neighbors, Darlene and Russ stopped by.  We have their site # now so we will get together one way or another.  We decided to go to Dairy Queen and have blizzards for supper.  They are soooo good!!  Bonnie called after we got back and they reached St. Mary, Georgia where they ate at the same Sonny's that had run out of pulled pork when we were there.  They are staying near there for the night and are headed for the Tampa area tomorrow.  John read most of the evening while I worked on our blog.  He turned in about 10:00.  I watched Chicago Fire and finished the blog about 12:30am.  We're hoping to get to the beach tomorrow before the cold front moves in on Thursday.  I promise to take lots of pictures!

Pine Island, Florida... Here We Come

  We got up at 7am and had some breakfast before heading out at about 8am.  We had about a 2 and 1/2 hr drive to Pine Island.  I called my sister, Bonnie, to see how she and her husband, Ken, were doing with their preparations for leaving for Florida on Wed morning.  They decided to leave Tuesday morning instead because it's just too darn cold in PA.  And, now, they are concerned about some snow that's predicted to start before dawn on Tuesday.  Their plans might change again. 
   We finally arrived at Pine Island CG at 10:30.  YEA!!!!!  We were able to get a spot near the front of the CG so I didn't have to walk so far with my cane to get to the office, pool, and shuffleboard courts.  John went outside to do all the hook-ups while I started to work on the inside "décor."  The propane truck just happened to be filling up for the couple across from us, so we had him fill us up, too.  John came in to check the electric service, but there wasn't any!  It was getting quite hot inside Harvey by now, maybe because the temperature here was 82!  Sorry, am I rubbing it in??  So John got one of the maintenance guys from the office to check the post and we ended up hooking to the post of the guy behind us.  Success!!  But about 15 minutes later everything shut off again.  Turns out that the "splitter" (a converter used to turn 30 amp service into 50 amp service) that we were using can't be used here.  We removed the splitter and all was well, well almost.    I was putting things away in my bathroom cabinets when I saw this thick layer of "white stuff" all over the bottom shelf of the linen closet.  A bottle of shampoo that was laid over had lost its lid sometime during the trip and oozed out all over the carpeted shelf.  Probably 2/3 of the bottle spilled out!!  What a mess.  It took me almost an hour of scraping the surface over and over with a small spatula to get it cleaned up and put back in the bottle (hey, it was expensive stuff!!).  But the cabinet sure smells good!!  We ate some lunch and did some cleaning and organizing inside and outside Harvey then rested outside for a while.  We took Kylie for a walk around the CG and came back and cooked "Bubba" burgers on the grill.  They were yummy!  We watched some TV, John went to bed, and I worked on the blog before heading for bed.  Sorry, no pictures again today.  Gotta start carrying the camera!!

A Short Day at Eagle Hammock Park

   We got up about 8:30am after a wonderful night's sleep (I think we were pretty tired!), showered, and headed to the base for breakfast and shopping at the Px for mouse traps and the commissary for groceries.  Back at the campground we unloaded the groceries and organized all the "stuff" we brought along from home.  We pulled out about 3:00 and headed for the Costco parking lot in Brandon, Florida where we planned to spend the night.  On the way we stopped at a RaceTrac gas station to fuel up and grab some supper. 


                                                                        Beautiful sunset behind RaceTrac

We arrived at Costco about 8:30pm.  I made some calls to family members and worked on our blog while John did some reading.  Then we went to bed.  It will be nice to finally settle in at Pine Island tomorrow.  Kylie will certainly be glad, too!!

Happy New Year, Everyone....We're Baaaack

  Hi everyone!  Let's bring you all up to date.  John recovered from his pneumonia and I graduated from my walker to a cane just 3 days ago.  However, my recuperation is slow and my physical therapy proves (to my surprise) just how weak my left leg/hip remains to be.  The doc told me I really shouldn't be walking on the beach and my physical therapist said I can't ride bike for another 2 months!  Drat!!  But I will most likely take on the beach with much caution.  Our Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years were wonderful, spending them at our house with family.

 

Ellie's 4th birthday

 

Cooper & Bennett taking a ride on Grandma's
walker on Thanksgiving Day

 

Superman and Buzz Lightyear

 

Alexandra and Cooper

 

Kylie Girl can't keep her tongue in her mouth anymore

 


Emma, Ellie & Cooper on Christmas Eve

Dustin, Cathy, Ellie & Emma

Michele, Alex, & Russ

TW, Arlene & Bennett

Michele decorated my walker!

 

Heather & Cooper

Bennett opening his stocking stuffers

 

   We were planning to leave for Florida on Sat, Jan 3rd, but after checking out the huge extra charges at several hotels for Kylie, our pug, we decided to leave Friday at midnight (after my night out with my Frogette friends) and drive straight through to King's Bay, Georgia where Harvey has been parked since the end of October.  With the OK from our veterinarian we "drugged" Kylie to get her through the trip in the Jeep because she hates to ride in the car.  We also put her in a crate in the back seat which she is not used to.  The trip went well, but it was pretty grueling!  We stopped at a rest stop about 2 hrs into the trip to let Kylie out, then for gas ($1.99/gal) in Virginia, then for breakfast at McDonald's in Charlotte, NC about 6am.  We made several more stops along the way including a 1 hr "snooze" break and arrived in King's Bay, GA at about 3:15pm.  John drove all but about an hour and a half.  He was amazing!!  Kylie did very well until the last 2 hrs.  She was panting and breathing so heavily we thought she was going to have a heart attack!  She survived as we finally arrived at King's Bay Submarine Base at 3:15 pm.  We drove back to the storage area where we left Harvey and there he was looking exactly as we had left him!  We could tell he was very happy to see us... he seemed to have a smile on his face although it probably wasn't as big as ours!!  We went inside and realized that Harvey had some company while we were gone... we found mouse droppings on the kitchen floor, in some drawers and on the bed.  Luckily he didn't seem to have gotten into the pantry!  
John got into the driver's seat of the rig to start him up and guess what... the battery was dead!  What a bummer!  But we were able to jump start him with the Jeep so all was well again until... we tried to lift the motorized windshield shade.  It wouldn't go up... didn't even make a sound.  So we called the Lazy Day help center (where we purchased Harvey) and they told us we had to reset the mechanism because of the dead battery.  But guess what... that didn't work either.  So we just rolled it up and tied it and off we went to the campground just down the road to stay for the night.  We pulled in about 4:50 pm, hooked up and then realized how hungry we were because we hadn't eaten since 6am!  So off to Sonny's BarBQ we went for our favorite... pulled pork and brisket.   And guess what... there was a sign on the hostess's desk that said, "we apologize for any inconvenience but we are out of pulled pork."  I could have cried and almost left, but we decided to stay and I very much enjoyed the sliced pork sandwich, as John did his brisket dinner.  We came back to Harvey and crashed about 9:00.  Sorry, no pictures today.