Cruising the Caribbean

Dec 11 Sun.  As Butter is off at boarding there is no dog jumping on the bed trying to get us up to feed her.  So we just leisurely rise and start putting together our luggage and papers for the cruise.  We got an email saying what terminal the ship was assigned to and we have made all the last minute runs to get insect repellent and sunscreen.  We are suppose to board at 130 and the taxi company I called said to give them an hour.  Humm, I called the cab and they said the driver would be here in 10 minutes, okay.  We grab our luggage and make our way to the gate, and the driver is there in 5 minutes.  I tell the driver terminal 2 and we are off.  When we arrive at the terminal I see the ship at terminal 2 isn't ours so we get directed to terminal 21.  Its a busy day at Ft Lauderdale, there are 6 big ships in port today with the ensuing chaos, it takes a little longer then expected, but we arrive, drop our bags with the porters and go to the end of the boarding line.  As with all cruises I've been on, the lines move along at a good clip and before we know it we are getting that boarding picture taken and head up the gangway to our ship.

It takes very little to find our cabin on deck 10 Carib, midships.  Our luggage isn't there and I think it's time to find our way to the Horizon court for lunch, as I know dinner will be awhile.  The ship is moderately familiar but it takes until I get back home to find that it is a sister ship to the Star Princess which I sailed on last time out with all my siblings to Alaska.  Funny.  Danny is a little overwhelmed trying to orient himself to where we are and where we are trying to go.  But we make it up to the buffet, fill our plates and find a couple ready to share a table at the window as we watch the rain fall in Ft Lauderdale.  We head on back to our cabin, grab our life jackets and report to the casino, as that is our assigned muster station and at least we don't have to stand out on the deck as the rain continues to fall.  About 5 the ship casts off and we are swinging out into the channel and headed for open ocean.  With tea in hand and watching from inside, as the rain hasn't let up yet we catch a glimpse of the pilot boat heading off to guide another of the ships out of port.

Like I said it was a busy day in port.  We head on back to the cabin as rain is falling and the party has been moved inside.  We meet our Steward Erwin, and find our luggage has arrived.  After we get unpacked and changed for dinner, we find the dinning room and as we are willing to share a table we are taken right in past a rather long line and are guided to a table for 8.  Its a jovial dinner and we find that a nice stroll around the promenade is just perfect, except they have closed off the front of the promenade due to winds and rain. Oh well we have a full day at sea tomorrow to explore the ship.  We find we are gently rocked to sleep as the Caribbean Princess heads for Roatan. 

Dec 12 Mon.  Sea Day, and time to explore the ship.  We find the Coffee bar and turn in our chit for a coffee card.  The 2 specials we took advantage of was to buy water bottles and a coffee card, so we would be able to have Chai or special coffee during the cruise.  What I found later was their version of Chai tea is really Chai flavored Milk....Oh well.  We spend the day taking time to wander the ship and try to get our bearings.  You know it really doesn't matter we will spend all 6 days turning to go the wrong direction.  But we continue to discover.  And one of the best discoveries was the margaritas.  Really good margaritas and it goes so well with Pizza on the deck.  That takes care of lunch, and the rest of the afternoon is a bit of a blur, except we saw a sign for "Crab Shack" night.  On Wednesday night they will turn the bake part of the horizon court into a specialty dining room and we made reservations!  King Crab legs.  Another lovely dinner in the dining room and another great group of fellow cruisers.  One couple, we meet, Dave and Judy share their chosen shore excursions and we find we will share our snorkel adventure on Wednesday with Dave.  On Tuesday they are going off to zip line.  It all sounds like such fun we wish we could take 3 or 4 excursions at each port and I am sure the cruise lines would like that to entice us back for another round.  We catch a show after dinner and enjoy the cast of the ship in a nice medley of song and dance numbers.  Then its off to bed for our first stop is tomorrow.  

Dec 13 Tues.  Roatan Honduras, and the skies are still overcast, the rain is still falling although it is intermittent.  

Our shore excursion is a case of barely controlled chaos.  We report to the theater at the requested time and find lines everywhere, with almost no direction as to what is what.    So we wait and everything starts to move, we aren't sure where we are going, so into the theater, straight down the aisle and out the lower side door, down some stairs and wrap back around to more crowds, wrap again, and down another flight, down a hallway and we are checking out with our cruise cards and onto a pier.  People tell us to go to the shopping area and we will find our excurions....Okay we find a guy with a sign and gather around him.  Eventually it seems the numbers add up and we are off to board a bus.  And we hear that we are going to Fantasy Island Resort, the first all inclusive resort on Roatan.  I can't say it is very scenic here as the streets are narrow, the buildings look old, although I hear that after 3 hurricanes in the last 20 years not much is old.  We arrive at the resort and we are split up by bus, we are in the first group to go out snorkeling.  We are suppose to snorkel over a ship wreck.  They explain that the plan is to drop us up-current from the wreck and let us explore the reef as we drift toward the wreck.  Sounds like a plan.   The sun hasn't come out yet but the reef and the fish are beautiful.  We drift and our guides keep coaxing us along, soon they tell us the wreck is directly below us and we can just make out the outline of a ship, but with the cloudiness in the water from the rain and no direct sunlight that is as good as it gets, so we load up into the boat and head back to Fantasy Island Resort.  The other group is heading out to snorkel and we get our time on the beach.  Dan and I order a Margarita and park ourselves in a couple of lounges and just relax.  Before long it is time to head back to the ship and our day in Honduras draws to a close.  We decide dinner will be in the Horizon court as it is Italian night and we have a bottle of Italian wine we want to uncork.  The Italian cuisine leaves a lot to be desired, but the wine we brought was as good as we expected.

Dec 14 Wed.  We arrive at Belize.  As our shore tour isn't until this afternoon we decide to go ashore and see what we can see in Belize City.  First we had a 30 minute tender ride to shore.  Turns out there was very little to see, as we walk down the street and arrive at the bridge a gentleman comes over and suggests that we probably don't want to proceed any further as there is little to see and plenty to be aware of, so as we cross the bridge, we look around and we seem to be the only cruisers that have come this far.  We turn back, and start back through the street vendors.  There is a young woman promoting hair braiding, she really wants to braid my hair, I laugh at the suggestion, but it does look like a nice way to keep my hair out of my face while swimming, so we negotiate a price and I sit down.  She is fast and, well, I'll let you judge.

We return home to get some lunch and then report to the designated area for our shore excursion and this time we are taken directly from the ship to our excursion.  The boat that picked us up had a rather large crew and it became apparent very quickly that this was much more organized and ready for us then yesterdays excursion.  We arrived  at our snorkeling site and they broke us up into three self defined groups, beginners, intermediate and advanced.  Each group had 3 swimmers and a chase kayak with them.  We had hooked back up with Dave from dinner Monday and had a great time.  The reef wasn't as pretty and the fish not as plentiful, but the overall experience was head and shoulders above yesterday.  We even had Rum punch on the return to our ship....Great.

Dinner tonight was Crab Shack!  so off to deck 15 aft and we were seated at a nice little table for two.  This dinner was excellent!  Manhattan clam chowder, and that was a first for Danny.  We ordered a bottle of Chardonnay and just relaxed for a nice dinner.  The KingCrab legs were perfect, at least for me they were perfect, Danny wanted more, but when it comes to King Crab he always wants more.  It was served with peel and eat shrimp and I love those, so he did get part of my crab.  We sent the unfinished bottle to stores to be finished another night.

Dec 15 Thurs.  This is our long day.  We received a letter from the ship shore excursion office explaining that due to the distance to Chichen Itza we would only have about 1 hour at the park but we really want to see this and decide it is worth it.  We are one of the first groups ashore and first we have to go to the ferry for transfer to Playa del Carmen, then board our bus and head off for the archeological park.   We are given bag lunches and it would make us appreciate all the food on the ship.  The guide was informative and entertaining and the drive was long.  Once we arrived and got our entry tickets we were encouraged to stay together, as our guide would cover the highlights of the grounds and then give us 30 minutes to explore on our own.  It was not disappointing.  The first sight of the pyramid and we both commented, We have to come back here.

We quick stepped around with our guide and learned what they actually know, and what they don't know, seems more of the later.  The winner of the ball game may have been sacrificed, or maybe not, maybe the loser, and maybe a captive who had less value then a ball player.  They may have cut off the head, and they may not have, seems there is lots more to learn.  The man who cracked the code to the Mayan alphabet however is known, and he was a young man who traveled with his father and was exposed to the sites and sounds of Mayan ruins from a very young age.  We would love to be here on the equinox and see the serpent image undulate down the stairs.

After the guide turned us loose we headed down to the well.  It was a gauntlet of vendors.  The whole path was lined with vendors wanting to sell us something for 'only a dollar, only a dollar'  insistently.  In about 1 minute it was tiresome.  We checked out the well and contemplated why the Mayans would throw so many people into the well.  On the way back up the path all the vendors sang a new song '2 for a dollar, just 2 for a dollar'.  Too soon we had to rejoin our guide, and make our way back to the bus.  Seems while we were gone another driver had parked our bus in so while the drivers discussed how best to extricate us our guide was on the phone to Princess and arranging to hold the last ferry for us.  Soon we were enroute and told there would be no time to shop for anything back at Playa del Carmen.  The ferry ride was nice, we got a great seat at a table with some fellow cruisers who had been in Playa that afternoon, it was time for Corona.  Back at Cozumel were were hustled straight out the pier to the boat, I have to say I was surprised they closed the duty free shop that we had to go through on the way in and routed us around the edge of the pier to keep from having to delay any longer for shoppers.  There was some grumbling about that as it was the last chance to buy liquor before we returned to the states.  As soon as we were all aboard the announcement came out that we were ready to depart from Cozumel.  Really it was a great day.

Dinner tonight was rather quiet, we learned it was Lobster night in the dining room and that was enough to get Danny back into long pants and shoes.  We shared a small table with one other couple and unfortunately we were served under cooked lobster.  Danny asked the waiter for another one and it was just as wiggly as the first.  The shrimp was very well cooked and that may have been the problem, if they were cooked the same amount of time you know that isn't good.  This was truly a disappointment.  We did call for our bottle of wine from last night and they managed to find it.  

After dinner we headed to the theater for a show 'The human iPod'  he was very entertaining and really sounded more like an old Radio, but he did have an amazing store of songs and sound effects.

Dec 16 Fri.  Our last day and a full day at sea.  We must have been worn out yesterday as I forgot to reset my clock and while we thought we were up in time to have breakfast in the dining room, we wren't.  We were barely in time for the buffet.  Then we took time to find seats on the promenade deck and took our readers out there and just watched the ocean.  The weather had finally cleared up yesterday and we had blue skies all day today.  It was very nice to just sit, I only wish the promenade deck was wide enough for lounges, because I could to get comfortable in the chairs, so while Danny meditated I went in and wandered the sales, but found nothing to tempt me.  We had run into Dave and Judy and arranged to get together for dinner tonight.  The sad part of the last day on board is that you have to pack.  While we peeped for dinner and packed the big suitcase we talked about when we might take another cruise, yep, another cruise is in the future.  We caught up with Dave and Judy in the elevator and made it to the dining room.  It didn't take long to be seated and even though we said we would share they seated us at a table for 4.  We had brought our last bottle of Amarone and had the waiter uncork it to celebrate a wonderful cruise and new friends.  We exchanged emails and phone numbers and plan to touch bases with them when we pass through North Carolina.

Too soon it was time to return to our cabin, pack up the shoe suitcase and set it out.  We would have no rush in the morning and would be able to have a leisurely breakfast before reporting to our departure lounge.

Dec 17 Sat.  One last breakfast buffet, one last table of strangers who soon become sharers of cruise stories and lots of laughter.  Too soon we have to report to the lounge and after about 5 minutes there we are called to debark.  The process is easy, one last scan of our cruise card and down the ramp to the warehouse of luggage.  Ours was pretty easy to spot as at this time the ship was pretty empty.  A porter appeared to take the weight and we let him.  Out to the taxi stand and we were loaded and on our way back to the Lake House with a suitcase full of laundry and minds full of good memories.

We had one more chore to do and we knew there was a dog who would be very excited to see us.  And she was, running and jumping and circling the legs.  Funny how we always have to get her steps down to get her in the truck these days, but not today, she flew up into the back seat and plopped awn on her truck bed ready to head out.  We made a quick stop at Walmart to pick up an order, those waterproof plastic bins we lost a few weeks back have now been replaced.  Then we remembered her bed, the one we took to Arfington, and we headed back to retrieve that.  Thy had it in the laundry, really!, they washed her bed.  It looked brand new and she will have to work at getting it refurred to her taste.

Dinner?  what to have?  we haven'y gone grocery shopping, so we head out aimlessly looking for something to strike our fancy.....Chicken, KFC, so we stop, go in,  the counter person who helped the customer in front of us has walked away so we wait, and wait, and wait, a customer that just came in gets helped.  Seems we are invisible people at the counter, so we leave!  Head up the street to Popeyes, and get served straight away, so off to home with good Chicken and a bad taste of discrimination.  

Dec 18th Sun.  Laundry day. and I do mean laundry, I need 5 washers to sort this pile out and I don't even have sheets with me.  That takes up the bulk of the afternoon. Then we head off to the grocery store and stock up on fruits and veggies for another round of juicing.

December in Ft Lauderdale

Dec 1 Thurs.  We had a really easy drive down to Ft. Lauderdale, arrived by 1pm and it took about 2 hours to get settled in.  This park is an older park.  The sites are all back ins, pretty much and all the hook ups are on the wrong side.  We are very close to any neighbor.  The first site they assigned us was just not possible to get into, so they moved us to a site where there wasn't a neighbor, yet.  Fortunately we had a few guys near by who offered their years of experience truck driving to help get us into the site.  We got in, and that is the important thing.  Then we set to snaking all our cords and hoses under the rig to reach the hook ups.  Well, at least we are staying put for a month, and with a little luck we'll have an open shot to get out in a month.  We found a Safeway Grocery store and picked up enough veggies and fruits to begin juicing in the morning.


Dec 2 Fri.   Up fairly early and we juiced a nice breakfast, then we took a little drive East to the beach, didn't know it would take 40 minutes to go 4 miles.  We really hope that the traffic isn't like this all the time.  We had to run up to Costco for a drug pickup.   I found a theater not too far away and it was a nice break to relax and enjoy Moana...We accidentally found a theater with the recliners, and reserved seats...Yippee!  When we got back home we put together juice for dinner.

Dec 3 Sat.  Juicing always requires a few days to adjust, first there is the caffeine withdrawal headache.  You would think we would learn t keep the caffeine level lower.  A full day juicing makes us adapt to how far from the bathroom we get after a meal.

Dec 4 Sun.  We had to take in another movie.  Office Depot for vent covers.  The temperatures here are really up.  Days in the mid to high 80's and overnight it is just getting down to the 70's.  We are going to take some advice from Jeff Neiberg and cover the heater vents when we are just using A/C all day and night.

Dec 5 Mon.  I needed a dentist, yes again.  The extraction I had done back in June was giving me some serious pain and it was getting worse by the day.  I found a really great dentist, nice people, he had to file the bone down on the inside of my jaw, and after the novacaine wore off I had relief.  Thankfully.  But I wasn't up to doing much except a quick trip to Walmart for Tylenol and Advil.

Dec 6 Tues to Dec 9 Fri.  We just keep adapting to the changes around us.  This heat has left Danny feeling wonderful, he says he loves it, but I do believe it makes him a little lethargic.  He takes afternoon naps whenever he is just too tired, like after a bike ride around the park here, really it isn't that big a park.  We did scout out a few used clothing stores and found Danny some dress slacks and a coat for the cruise.  He complained the whole time.  I think he wants to find the shorts and sandals cruise, where dinner is served on the deck.  We checked into a few dog boarding places for Butter to stay and settled on one a few miles from our place, they sold us when they talked about putting the dogs down for bed with a Kong stuffed with peanut butter each night.  She is going to get spoiled.  They also have a wading pool for her to play in.

Dec 10 Sat.  We are up early to run over to the port and pick up Maureen and Steph from their 10 day cruise.  Its a nice chance to see where we will be going tomorrow.  After 2 circles looking for them we finally hook up and get them loaded into the truck and off for breakfast.  They were off the ship way too early for breakfast so we find a Denny's far enough away from the port to not be crowded and settle down to hear about their trip and get even more excited about our own.  We had decided to take in the Flamingo Gardens today and it really is nice.  The rain came in last night and I think it is keeping the crowds way down her.  It gave us a nice quiet day, so we hop on the tram and take a guided tour of the grounds and hear about the founding of the Park.  They were taking in a duck when we came through the front door.  They are a rehabilitation station for wounded wildlife.  All of the animals there came in with some sort of injury and when the can, if the can they release the animals back into the wild.  They ( the animals) don't always want to return t the wild, after all, its safe and they get fed.   After a few hours walking around and checking out the gift shop we load up and head back home.  We pick up Butter and realize that our bikes have been stolen.  The bikes were locked to the front of the Lake House with a cable that is now lying on the ground cut through, I don't think it even slowed them down.  We were in such a rush this morning to be off we didn't notice it.  So now we just want to put it from our minds for a bit to finish enjoying our company.  We are delivering Butter to the Arfington Pet Resort for her week.  Then we head over toward the ocean to find a Cuban restaurant for dinner.  That is not such a great idea, well maybe a great idea, not gonna happen.  The truck is not that easy to park in ams spaces and narrow streets, so as we circle the block one more time to try and find a parking space Steph spots a Mexican restaurant across the highway with a parking lot....thats it!  Mexican wins by a parking lot!  It a nice eatery and we enjoy the rest of our visit before heading to the Airport and dropping Maureen and Steph off for the evening flight back to the West coast.   By the time we return home the office is closed, but I call the Broward County Sheriffs office and report the bikes stolen.  An officer arrives about an hour later to take the report and we get to packing for our Cruise.

We did see some Flamingos, and Ibis, and Spoonbills.

Cypress knees....who knew?

Great day at the Flamingo Gardens

Slowing down in Florida

Nov 15 Tues.  Looking for new supplies, we found the local Camping World, Walmart, and numerous lumber yards.  Interesting thing about Florida is we are having a very hard time finding an 8' 4x8 to be cut into 8" blocks for the jacks.  So after much running around we settle on 2x8 cut into 16" sections which Danny will get a saw and cut in half, us liquid nails to glue 2 together and we will have our 4" blocks back.  I really want to find our plastic bins that are water proof, that is probably not going to happen so we will make do on that too.


Nov 16 Wed.  Pep boys  Remember that truck issue with the power steering?  Dan had checked in with his best friend Larry and asked if he had any idea what would cause power steering and breaks to have a problem at the same time.  Larry immediately said sure, the hydraulic assist.  So now we knew what the problem was and sure enough that was the diagnosis.  We got an appointment at Pep Boys and after they check it out,  t
his was going to take all day so I called up to Enterprise and we got picked up, eventually.  Some things just never go easy.  Called Enterprise and they made the 'reservation' and forwarded me to the nearest Enterprise shop, and the gentleman there told me they didn't have the car I wanted, I said I would take any car, he replied that they haven't got any cars and won't have any until after 3 pm maybe. But he gave me the number of another Enterprise outlet.  So I call them and the gentleman there finds my reservations and there is no problem, when I tell him where we are he says we are outside his pickup area and why didn't we call the closer shop.  I replied that I talked to the closer shop and they had no car available for me,  he issued an interesting expletive.  Asked me to stay by the phone for a few minutes and I would receive a call back.  I did, from the original shop who now had a car for me, and would be down to get us right away.  Well they made it and we got a car so we were able to run around and get a few items we decided we really needed.  A new salad bowl for one.  The plastic bowl I had cracked and we found a really nice wooden one at Bed Bath & Beyond.

Nov 17 Thurs.  We picked the truck up first thing, about 10 am....hey we don't get moving too early for much anything these days.  Then we found a nice vegetable and fruit stand and got some great fresh produce.  That is a really nice thing about being in the land of perpetual summer.

Nov 18 Fri  Dan decided to tackle the wood block project today and he got all the blocks sawed and glued and screwed together.

Nov 19 Sat  A good day for a movie and not much else going on for us

Nov 20 Sun Is prep day  we are moving tomorrow.

Nov 21 Mon  We relocate today a whooping 55 miles.  Down to Arcadia Florida.  Now this choice was made for the express purpose of hunting for Fossil Sharks teeth.  We had been here 3 years ago and had a fun day.  So we moved to Craigs RV Park just north of Arcadia and we were in and hooked up by 1 pm.  The weather is slowly climbing as we move south and we are about 82 today.  I had been trying to get reservations for a Fossil hunt and we got it arranged today, for a hunt on Friday.

Venice Beach

Nov 22 Tues.  Since we didn't have any other plans we decided to head to Venice Beach today.  A quick stop at Costco for a few things and then down to Venice to find the scoops and sieves for beach hunting.  We bought a nice 7" scoop at Pleasures and treasures, then headed down to Casperson Beach just a little south of Venice and had our brown bag lunch overlooking the water.  The tide had already turned and we still were able to do a little scooping and searching and ended up with a dozen little teeth...Not bad, but we know that next time we will pick up a sieve.

Nov 23 Wed.  We had a few errands to run around town.  Had to drop off a prescription ....not the best day to go to Walmart. What were we thinking.  Dan decided to fix the tires on my bike and after popping the first tire we made a quick run into Arcadia and the local bike shop.  They sold us another tire and offered to mount it for $5.  I asked if that was the standing rates for changing tubes and they told me yes.  I said we would be right back with the other wheel, we ran home and grabbed the rear wheel and got back just before closing time and now I have both tires fixed, yeah.  Bike rides around the park are in my future.

Nov 24 Thanksgiving.  The best surprise here at Craig's is Thanksgiving Dinner.  All we have to bring is our plates and utensils and they provide the dinner.  We have met the nicest group of people here and dinner just reinforces that.  So with full tummy's and big smiles we head home about 2:30 to just sit back and digest.  Now we start getting our stuff together for tomorrow and I haven't got any tennis shoes to wade around in the river.  There is only one choice, back to Walmart.  This place is crazy!  But I find my shoes and we get in line, and wait, and wait, and then a line monitor sends us to self-check and we are out in a flash.

Nov 25 Fri  Shark tooth hunting.  We meet up with our guide Mark in town and head over to a park on the west side of Arcadia and go on down into the Peace River.  We use shovels and sifters to go through the gravel beds on the river bottom.  Almost every shovel full yields a shark tooth.  These aren't big teeth but little teeth.  It seems the area we are in was a birthing area for numerous sharks and the teeth left here are numerous to say the least.  It has been a fun day and we decide it time for dinner out.  Our neighbors recommend the Pioneer Restaurant in Zolfo Springs for really good fried Chicken and that sounds perfect.  Se we drive the 15 miles and find the place, but, it is Friday night and they don't have Fried Chicken on the menu.  They have fish, and they don't serve chicken on fish nights...Who knew.  The fish I had was very good and Dan had Prime rib that he thought was pretty good too.  We really liked the place and the fact that they had rhubarb pie was a major plus, we were just too full for dessert.


Nov 26 Sat. Not much doing today, a run to Goodwill for a drop off.  A bike ride around the park.

Nov 27 Sun.  Back to Venice for lunch, pick up 2 sieves and head to Manasota beach.  We took our sand chairs to the beach this time and set them up.  Dan headed into the water to shovel and sieve.  I sat down and just thought about the whole thing for awhile.  Then I took the scoop and filled my sieve and sitting right there I found 2 shark teeth.  Well this is pretty easy and it doesn't take the Capt. very long to sit down next to me and start digging on his side.  Pretty funny really, just sitting' and sifting'  yep, this is the life.

That was a great kite!

Nov 28 Mon We scouted out a few places near by that we could get into the river and went off on our own.  We had fun walking the river bank, and we did find a few teeth, but nothing really special.  We met a guy from Idaho who was just wandering the bank and we talked for awhile, we gave him one of the teeth we had found so he knew what he was looking for and in exchange he told us he'd take us crystal hunting in Idaho next time we passed through there.  After we finished up in the river we decided it was a Pie kind of afternoon.  So back to Pioneer and Dan had his Rhubarb pie and I had cheese cake....both really good, good enough for Dan to take a second slice home for later.

Intrepid fossil hunters returning to the truck

Nov 29 Tue  Laundry day.  I know laundry doesn't take all day, but some days you just hang around home and get chores done.  Dan is cleaning the sides of the slides and waxing them.  It takes time and we hope they will slide in and out a little quieter.  Our neighbors had invited us over for an evening of card playing and so we headed the 6 feet over.  We learned 5 crowns and had a very nice glass of wine from Ohio, we are learning, there are some nice wines outside California.  It was a really fun evening and we will stay in touch with Russ and Pam.

Nov 30 Wed. Prepping to move.  We finally got out the new bike cover and with a bar across both bikes to hang from the rack it all fits really nice.

My second beach day collection, while sitting in a chair 10 teeth and 2 ray plates

Family and Friends


Oct 25 Tues.   We left Pell City and headed to Laurel Mississippi,  Sleepy Hallow Rv Park.  It was an easy drive and we found the park to be very rural and very quiet.  We called Cousin Herbie and let him know that we were near by, he gave us directions to a nearby gas station and he meet us there.  We followed him to his place in Heidelberg MS.  It had been about 45 years since I had seen Herbie and it was a great time to visit and catch up.  Butter even got to socialize with Herbie's dogs, especially Kronos.

Oct 26 Wed.  We spent some time around Laurel MS.  That was interesting.  Then we headed back to  Herbie's and we had a great visit and headed over to Cynthia and Nathans for dinner.

Oct 27  Thurs.   Cynthia and Nathan brought the boys with them and came over to Herbie's for dinner.   It was bitter sweet to say goodby ad we will be sure to get back to see them before another 40 years passes.














Oct 28 Fri.  We head off to Enterprise Alabama to meet up with Robert H.   Robert is an old friend of Danny's and while we were in transit he and his wife MAricel decided to return to Japan, if possible.  So Maricel had already left for Japan and had just received word that the job she was trying to get was a go as soon as she passed the medical and the background.


Oct 29 to Nov 7 Visit in Enterprise  Well, the visit with Robert was not what we expected, we expected to be able to help him get ready to move back to Japan, but he wasn't really ready for that, so we visited.  We parked The Lake House in his back yard and monitored the batteries and that led to a whole bunch of things.  First, the frog had to be switched over to Propane, and one of the propane bottles needed filling.  That wasn't too eventful.  Second, the batteries got pulled out and taken to the garage for charging.  Again, not too eventful, except it becomes more apparent each time we have battery issues that we really need to replace the batteries.  They have been run to dead too many times.  So one day we make a run over to Dothan and the Camping World. It's a nice drive and we called ahead to make sure they have the batteries we want, they said they did.  They didn't, well they had 1, but we need 2.  So we checked out what was available and bought the second choice.  We headed on back to the rig and Danny installed the new batteries, except, as he was attaching the jumper between the 2 batteries....OOPS.  Those of you that know batteries, know that you can turn batteries into arc welders, and he did.  Very lucky for all of us, the only casualty was the pig tail that jumps the 2 batteries.  Off to Autozone for for cables.  and we start the process again.  Now the old batteries had 2 different sized posts and the corresponding wingnuts.   We really should have bought new wing nuts!  Danny decides that he is going to finish this simple project today!  Outcomes a wrench and some nuts, as he is telling me how very careful one must be when using tools around batteries, the wrench touchs the opposite poll and we have fire!  Again, we are being blessed with a second chance, or third chance, this time we lost the new cables and one post on one of the new batteries.  So, we are heading back to Dothan and Camping World, with a call ahead to make sure they are open, they are, but the parts department is closed, BUT they can sell us a battery.  Its getting late and I am driving as Danny is just too wound up, this last episode left a score on his wedding ring and I feel blessed that all his digits are intact and he is still hear with me.  We discuss the project, he won't agree to hitching the rig up and having someone else do the job, but he agrees that it will be finished tomorrow.  With a clear head.  We buy the battery, and while waiting, we see some chairs.  Now we have not been happy with the recliners in the Lake House, but were wiling to live with them.  We sit test these chairs, and they are very comfortable for us, and they weigh so little that we can move them around easily.  And we can put them in the back room without adding too much weight while we get rid of the old ones.   On the way home we stop at an auto store and get WING NUTS, and new cables.  On the way back to Roberts we decide to get some dinner.  This is a really good idea.  Bar-B-Q and time to breathe.

Its a new day, and Danny takes the battery down to the House and has everything hooked up and running in a very short time.   We open the back ramp and I re-organize to fit our new chairs into our back room.  We are ready to move on, its time to move back into our home and head south.

I did find a selfie stick that I might actually be able to use.....yep

Nov 7  Time to move on.  I had made reservations for a week in Carrabelle Fl at Ho Hum Rv Park.  The drive down to the Gulf Coast was easy and scenic as we cross the Apalachicola National Forest heading to the Coast.  Ho Hum RV Park is perfect!  small, flat, right on the water, beach beckoning for a walk.  We had intermittent views of the Bay as the spots next to us filled and emptied through the week.

Nov 8 Election  We had sent our ballots off a few weeks ago and it was a difficult day to wait for the results to come trickling in.


I had talked to one of the other guests here at the park and she encouraged me to get our reservations set for the rest of the winter before it was too late.  So I spent a few hours trying to get our plans set for the next few months.  I got all of the plans laid except for Jan and Feb.  We will be in Lakeland next week, and then Arcadia Fl. for 10 days to finish November. December we will be in Ft Lauderdale and with a little luck we would spend Jan and Feb in New Smyrna Beach.

Nov 9  We drove into Tallahassee today and took in a movie  Dr. Strange, had a great escape, it was so very entertaining.  After the movie we headed over to Sams club and did a little shopping, we decided that a hotdog and soda was going to be fine for dinner and then we headed back to our home on the coast.  I also got a call from the park in New Smyrna Beach and we are in. So now all our plans for the next 3 and a half months are taken care of.  That is a great feeling.  We will plan for next Spring later, but for now we know where we will be through February 2017, yeah!

Nov 10  Time t take in St George Island.  I'm up early this morning and make some sandwiches and pack our lunch and we are headed off to the island.  Beautiful State Park, only bad thing is, no dogs allowed, pretty much anywhere.  We took a walk, collected a few shells and ran into a bird counter, yes there really are such people, and now we know why the ban on dogs on the beach, bird nests. 

Nov 11 Veterans Day   We went into Talahassee for a movie and we lost our power steering when we came out.  After walking down to the Sears Service Center and being told that they would top it off if we brought the truck down, so we walked back and got the truck and the service center guy was great, he topped off our power steering fluid, and directed us to where we would find Buca de Beppo.  We had a little wine and a great dinner of Lasagna.  Then we headed back to HoHum and home.

Nov 12  Sat.  I cooked the shrimp from the other day and prepped dinner of sauerkraut and sausages and shrimp cocktail....yummy!

Nov 13 Sun.  It was getting ready to move day.  The power steering is still acting up and Danny wants to do the driving tomorrow until we can get the truck looked at.  yes again.

Nov 14 Mon. Up and moving early, mainly because our neighbor was up at 630 to take his class A into Tallahassee for service, and that was our alarm clock.  We got on the road about 8 and we had lunch packed in the ice chest....Its a pretty easy drive day just a long 275 miles.  The scenery is beautiful especially as we approach Ocala, rolling hills and huge fenced fields for horses.  Then as we head south from there it is moss covered oak trees, huge oak trees.  WOW.  and when we stop for a pit stop we discovered I left the tailgate unlocked and now we have lost our 2 plastic bins of chokes and blocks....oh well.

We are glad to reach Lakeland and Sanlan RV and Golf Resort.  Blue Herons greet us at our site, this is salve to a couple of tired travelers.

  

Oct 10  Heading to St Louis, we decided to stay off the interstates today and since its only about 220 miles to Granite City, we have a nice easy day on the road after a final breakfast with Rob and Rachel and Jan.  We will miss Moline and the noise of Riley and Robin.

We arrived at the Granite City KOA about 3 and got settled in and decide this would be the day to get the laundry done.  An always recurring chore, but with multiple washers and giant dryers to never takes too long.  Then it was time to settle down for a nice chefs salad and watch Dancing with the Stars.

Oct 11  The Arch  We are moving slow, and just take our time getting started, but by this afternoon we head into St Louis to see the Arch.  I remember following the building of this monument to Westward expansion.  I saw the arch once before, at the end of a Mississippi River Cruise, we were docked at the base but we didn't have time to actually see any more.  As there was construction going on all around the monument we were lucky to find a place to park nearby and thats not easy with the dually.   We got tickets to ride the tram up to the top and it is a pretty spectacular view from the top.  We wandered through the exhibits all about the building of the monument and when we realized it was 4, we were ready to get out of town before the traffic gets to bad.

Oct 12  Wed.  Cahokia  The Indian Mounds.  This is another reason for stopping in the area and we are not disappointed.  We think of our society as so advanced and then we find evidence of 40,000 people living in a city covering 80 acres here from 600-1300 AD.  This Mississippian Culture City exceeded anything in America up until the 1780's when Philadelphia reached that size.  The peoples of this area cultivated Maize, Legumes, and Squash.  They left no written history so the research continues as to what their society was really like.  We climbed the stairs to the top of the largest mound and even though it was an overcast day we could make out the skyline of St Louis off to the west.

Oct 13 Thursday. The Melvin Price Locks and Dam.   On our drive into the area we had gone by several signs for Lewis and Clark Monuments so today we decided to take a drive back north and see what we could see.  We pulled into a area marked Great Rivers Museum.  We ended up at the Melvin Price Locks and Dam, operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.  This Lock replaced an earlier Lock 26 and was opened in 1994.  The main lock is 1200 ft long and 110 ft wide which will accommodate the full boat which is 5X3 barges and the goal of all the locks on the river is to maintain a 9 ft navigation channel the full length of the river.  The 9 tainter gates each 110ft wide by 42ft high and looks pretty impressive from the side of the river.  The guide who took us around said they were raising the gates to drop the river at the migratory water fowl refuge up river.  Its the time of year when the birds are starting to migrate, just like us.  Heading south.

Oct 14  Friday.  Lewis and Clark Museum and Confluence  Driving along Highway 143 we had seen a tower, seemed interesting, a Lewis and Clark memorial that gives us a view of the confluence, and that is what you can just see behind us in the picture, thats the confluence of the Missouri and the Mississippi rivers where Lewis and Clark started their trip.  They don't really know where the camp was that Lewis and Clark spent the winter at.  All evidence is gone so there is a cluster of Lewis and Clark memorials all along the river where we stayed.  We spent the better part of the day a Lewis and Clark Museum.  We have been having some pulling issues with the truck and we got an appointment to take it in tomorrow.

Oct 15  Saturday  New brakes on the truck, The Saint Louis Zoo.
We got the truck in early and found that we had a bad caliper, so new calipers and a new brake job, again.  Maybe this time we found the problem at the route of the brake issue.  Then we head on over the river to the St Louis Zoo.  Really great Zoo, but it closes early so we make a priority list and see the few things that we really want to.  We thought the Orangatans were going to stay hidden but after a few minutes we saw an arm and then the mom came out into view and a juvenile.  They are very entertaining.

Oct 16  Sunday  Drive to Horse Cave KY and we had to get this picture because for the last 5 days we have been right off old Route 66, we saw this sign everyday, and even crossed over Chain of Rocks Bridge, also part of the old Route 66, not used any more except by locals.





We got settled in at the KOA at Horse Cave Kentucky and once again, almost no internet, unless we want to go up to the office and sit at picnic table.  Well we have a few caves we want to check out here, so we will be busy.


Oct 17  Monday.  Mammoth Cave  We head on into Mammoth Cave National Park and the headquarters to see what is available in the way of tours.  There is really only 2 tours available this afternoon, so we buy our tickets and also pick up a pair of tickets for tomorrow for one of the other caves.  The tour includes a bus ride to the new entrance and a nice walk underground.  The guide warned about the number of stairs that we would need to navigate, but having navigated Wind Cave we weren't too worried about it and it was a nice walk.  As a novice caver Danny got to see formations that were incredible to contemplate.  One drip of water at a time, seeping down though the strata depositing the tiniest amount of calcium carbonate and other minerals forming drapes or stone. It is amazing!  I never cease to be in awe, even after 20 some caves, and hope to see many more.  Our drive home is an alternate route out of the park and we happen by an old cemetery and decide to check it out.  This was part of the land that was acquired when Mammoth Cave Park was formed, so the old church is still there and it is apparent that this was a cemetery used by the families in the area. We even found one gravestone that talked about the occupant having died in a cave.  humm.

Oct 18  Tuesday.  Great Onyx Cave,  National Corvette Museum.   Up early this morning and letting Butter stay home in the comfort of air conditioning as we have a busy day planned.  First our morning tour to Great Onyx Cave.  This tour requires a slightly longer bus ride and we end up going out the road we had taken the evening before.  This Cave was privately owned and developed and was quite a going concern for many years.  The gal that ran it was quite an entrepreneur in her time.  Enticing people in and then baiting with whats around the next turn, "but oh no thats another tour".  Funny, some things never change.   This cave isn't artificially illuminated so they hand out Coleman lanterns to every fourth or fifth person and I was one of the lucky ones.  We just need to make sure we keep the lanterns spread along the line of people so everyone has a fairly illuminated pathway.  WE also got the story about the guy who died in one of the local caves.  He went off exploring alone and dislodged a boulder which pinned him in pace.  He was discovered but none of the rescue attempts were successful.

deep in the cave and no flashes allowed this was the best we  could do

This was just at the entrance to Great Onyx Cave

After the tour we decided to head to Bowling Green.  My brother had asked if we knew that the National Corvette Museum was near us.  No we didn't, but we do now.  Had a nice simple lunch at the Corvette Cafe and spent the rest of the afternoon touring the history of The Corvette.  We also got to see where the 60-foot-long, 45-foot-wide, 30-foot-deep sinkhole opened up and ate 8 classic corvettes.  We saw that and we saw the cars that were victims of the same ground formation that formed the great caves just to the north.

I am not a serious "car" person, but this museum did give me pause and made me dream of driving down some country road in a convertible corvette, a red one, a 1967, yep I can see that so clearly.

Oct 19  Wednesday  Drive to Pell City, AL  across Tennessee  This was a long drive, but we had decided to alter our plans and take in a Nascar race, so the race is on.  We actually had another night at the KOA but as there was no real driving need to stay, and the internet was non existent we decided to just hitch up and head on down to Alabama.

Pell City to be exact and Lakeside Landing RV park.  We were really happy with the accommodations here.  We got a spot with a beautiful view of the lake and Butter would get to swim everyday while we were here.  Again, pour internet, but it was a choice, close to the lake or close to the router.  I think we made a good choice.  This was the view right out the window.













Oct 20  Thursday  Talladega.  We went over to Talladega today to pick up our tickets for Sundays Race and go through the museum.  When we arrived there was a tour of the track heading out so we bought tickets and headed out in a small bus for a driving tour of the whole complex.  It was pretty amazing to see the 33 degrees of banking on turns 1 & 2 and I sure couldn't see the difference when we rounded over to turns 3 & 4 at 32.4 degrees.  I can tell you that the track looks really narrow when it is up on edge, but visualizing 3 cars wide rounding those turns made it extreme.

Then we took our time wandering through the museum and found several hours later we really needed to get home and have some dinner.  Its exhausting to walk and read!

When we got back home we had new neighbors pull in, 2 couples in a nice 5th wheel.  After introductions we found they were here for the races also and they would be going over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  The important part of this is that they said they knew all the back roads and we could get to the parking lots with little to no waiting.  That will be very welcome.

Oct 21 Friday.  As this is another park with very poor internet, we can get on early in the morning or late at night.  So today we were determined to find a good wifi service and we didd.  The City Library, we went in and got a few hours of catching up, and I got the last blog posted.  As it was getting late we decided to go out to dinner and found the Pell city SteakHouse.  I ordered the special of the day and Danny got a RibEye, he told the waitress it was the toughest piece of steak he had ever had.  She didn't offer to return it to the kitchen, and he didn't push it, Butter got more then half that steak.  My pork chops were really great and we shared a piece of Apple pie that was pretty darn good.  This is not a place I would recommend.

Oct 22 Saturday  We took an easy day today.  Hung around home and rested.

Oct 23  DEGA  As a Nascar fan this was on the bucket list and somehow I still am just a little giddy that I get to go to Talladega.  Our neighbors proved to be invaluable as they led us right into the parking lot nearest our seats and I was confident that I could navigate us back home at the end of the day.  We arrived early and had our soft side cooler with lunch and drinks for the day and we located our seats and dropped off the cooler so we could gl see the souvineer trailers.  I was very disappointed.  For all the years at Infineon, all the drivers had their own trailers, you could wander and pick just the right trinket, but here Nascar has a huge area and all the drivers 'stuff' is under long tents, with the amount available determined by some factor of popularity I suppose.  Sort of a let down, but Danny found a t-shirt for the Track  Talladega 2016, and we found him a ticket holder so he would always know where it was.  Then it was time to head to the seats and get some lunch and rest our very tired feet.

Oct 24  Monday.    The truck "service engine soon" light had come on when we were on our way down from Kentucky and This was the soonest we could get it into the shop, so here we are again.  Danny takes the truck in and I am just going to hang around home and collect the laundry to get done.  He comes back in about 1 hr and tells me they found the problem and ordered a new sensor, so he has to take it back at 1.  That leaves me with plenty of time to head up to the laudramat. 2 hrs later all the cloths are folded and he is headed back to get the sensor replaced.  Hopefully we will be ready to hit the road tomorrow.

Sept 27  Eastward...We were up early this morning and settled the final bill at Elk Creek Resort.

 Then into Rapid City to pick up the Lake House, well, we had to take a breath and go across the street for breakfast.  The trailer parked in front of ours has a flat tire, so they will take care of that and pull our rig out while we go fuel ourselves up.  We got the Lake House hitched and on the road about 10.  Headed to Mitchell SD.

Crossing the Missouri River

The view from the window changed a lot as we moved east across South Dakota, it flattened out and became huge expanses of crops,  We don't know what they are but the huge round bales are everywhere.  Nice little RV park in Mitchell and we decided to take 2 nights to get back in the routine.  We asked for a dining recommendation and found our way to Fanny Horner's Eating Establishment.  Nice meal, really nice visit with the couple sitting in the next both over.  Small towns are special that way.

Sept 28   The corn palace, interesting.  The corn murals are different but the history of the place in pictures is really interesting, from a harvest type festival to a major tourist attraction, and all the entertainers that have made an appearance.  After the corn palace we headed up to the ancient indian village.  This reminds me of the Mammoth site in South Dakota.  They built a structure over the site of the ancient village and the research continues, very slowing though as funding seems a little lean.  I hope they continue.

Sept 29  Heading to Des Moines and just staying 1 night


Sept 30  Moline!

Oct 1-Oct 9  Its all about grandkids, 10 full days of grandkids, Riley and Robin, and some time with Robert and Rachel.  We arrived on Friday so we were in town for the weekend horseshoe at Huntermark.  Robin is so fun to watch riding.  Even better is to watch her at 6 take care of her horse.  She takes care of all the chores, buts all the gear away and washing down her horse before turning t out in the pasture.  We were in town for Robins birthday on Sunday and Rileys on Thursday.  There was a joint party on Wednesday at the stable.  We checked in with them everyday and it was just such a treat to see them.  On the second Saturday our Park was having their annual Halloween party so as their parents had a wedding to attend we got to take the kids for the day.  We had a robber and a greecian princess.  There was a pizza party and the kids found the jump pad at the park the most fun.  Then there was a wagon ride around the park for trick or treating.  By the time we sat down in the Lake House we had 2 very tired kids, they curled up in the living room in front of the electric fireplace and they were out like lights.  The next day we ran them home and said our goodbyes, sadly and with expectations to get back on the road.

Robin on Chasing Rainbows

she loves riding

Rileys birthday

Robins Birthday

Nothing like a Jump Pad

Halloween at the Park

Robin likes to walk Butter with Grandpa Danny

Now if you think our truck and 5th wheel trials seem to be behind us....well not so soon.  While we were in Moline we had a little trouble and had to have the water pump replaced in the truck, then the next day when our truck started like a tired old car, it was back to the Ford dealer and the discovery of a bad cell in one of the batteries, so 800 for a water pump and 150 for a new battery, still under a thousand.  We also took a new 2017 Ford dually for a test ride.  What a sweet ride!  but we are not ready for a new truck just yet, even as it begins to cost something every month.