Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving 

Thursday November 23, 2023

Today we had a very quiet Thanksgiving, Just The Two Of Us.

 I was hoping to talk to our boys today, but never did. My daughter-in-law and oldest granddaughter Sarah, were in England. Thomas was Home Alone. My mother-in-law felt, bad but he really doesn't mind. He's so easy going. 

I made a cream cheese pumpkin pie for later. 

Waited too long to find a small turkey, or even a breast. So yesterday just ended up buying a chicken. Jim put it in the Ninja and smoked it. I made my mother-in-law's recipe for stuffing. Which was great. I had cranberries and green beans, cream corn, gravy and some left over sweet potato chunks from Publix. 

We had everything ready around 2:00. I froze some stuff for Christmas so we can have later. I really wanted to cook, just for leftovers, was always my favorite.

Later Jim Chopped firewood and we had an evening fire. 

Moving Day, Goodbye Florida Keys

Moving Day, Goodbye Florida Keys

Tuesday November 21, 2023

This morning we got up had a quick breakfast, I prepped yesterday. We tried to get out as early as possible. We made it about 9: 15 a.m. not bad.. 

Can't believe we're leaving the Keys. Goodbye tropical water views.

We are ready to get off this island, lol. 

I said LOL, maybe I should explain why I said that. Not really sure but, well the CG was fabulous, everything was expensive and far away. Jim never wants a long drive just " to go have fun"  :/

Can't believe we drove 4 hours without stopping once. The drive was going quickly, was alot to look at, and was a very  pleasant drive, with very minimal stress. We made a quick stop at Love's. 

Didn't have my usual lunch stuff to pack,  so I just had some healthy snacks for our lunch. When you're not moving around, it was plenty and hit the spot. 

The total drive was about 5 hours or so. With about 263 mile drive. Give or take. 

We arrived at Peace River Thousand Trails in Wauchula Florida. Unfortunately today they were having their Thanksgiving potluck at 11:30. So we knew we missed it, oh well. 

We checked in, and she told us some sites are totally blocked out. And if it has a tag with a name and a date on it that is reserved. As long as you're leaving before that date, you can use the site. She didn't tell us that 2 weeks ago when we were here, interesting. 

So then we proceeded to look for our site. It was a lot fuller than last time we were here,  which surprised us. Not a whole lot available, a lot are totally closed as they are still working on the electric. We found a site that was hard to back up into, a lot of sand. Our batteries were at 53%. So we decided to back in. 

I hate being in the back and watching the weird angles he puts the RV and truck into. Sometimes that's stressful to see. But we got backed in and plugged in the RV. 

 Jim and I walked around looking for a better spot. On the way I said I just want a flat spot, with grass, not so much sand, no trees above us, shade on our living side, not too close to the road, fire ring with a picnic table and full hookups. Not to much to ask....And that's exactly what we found in site G8.

Perfect we went and got the fifth wheel and moved it over here. Great to be settled in for 3 weeks.

Jim got the golf cart out and he setup the outdoor space so nice. 

Later we took a golf cart ride around before I prepped dinner.

Wednesday November 22, 2023

This morning after breakfast. Which is basically about 9 am. A bit later we went to Walmart in Wauchula. 

 Jim needed his pills refilled. He went to fill them while I started grocery shopping.

This year we switched to Walmart for pill refills instead of CVS. They were such a pain, every year because they change your location, every time you refilled them. You'd move on, and need a refill, they would fill them where you just left. And you couldn't stop it from happening,  no matter how you tried. They even acknowledged it once, it was a problem for snowbirds in their system. Technology think they could figure it out.

Jim said they texted him, it was $1,900 before he showed them our insurance card. Amen for that.

 After we finish shopping, I just wanted to buy a few things I wouldn't  find at Aldi's.

 Then we filled up with diesel. 

On the way we saw this really stupid looking F-150 they had lifted in the front. We couldn't stop laughing.

We came back to the RV, Jim put his beer away and a few groceries I bought. We chilled for a while and then we left to go to Aldi's which is in Sebring. It's about half an hour away. We also pass the Escapee campground on the way. Really close to that we passed an HDT along the road for sale. We'll have to stop later.

 We wanted to get to Aldi's and back before dark, as it was getting late. I spend about an hour in Aldi's and we were going to go to the other Walmart too. Jusy to find a few things that the other smaller one didn't have. I want to buy a zipper to put in my coat pocket. 

We will save that Walmart fun for another day. Don't want to overwhelm ourselves with too much walmart. Lol

Then we returned home and put everything away and had dinner and settled in for the night. We didn't make it before dark. So weird that it gets dark so early now.

Last Full Day in Fiesta Key

Last Full Day in Fiesta Key 

Monday November 20, 2023

Today we did our normal morning routine. Our site is all the way on the right.

We went for our last golf cart ride. I can't believe how empty the campground is.

Again took more pictures of the beautiful orchids growing on the palm trees that were crafted. Maybe grafted is the wrong word, they're actually tied to the tree. The roots grow along the tree. I should have got pictures of that. You think they would die before they took hold.

 This site  had some awesome palm tree lights with a view of the water. It

 Is about 3,100 a week. Our site above $20.00 a night for Thousand Trails Encore Park.

Someone has there tree up already.

We passed Harold and Cindy on a golf cart with their friends. 

Trying to get a picture of the big fish, think they are red snapper.

Then we were walking around the water, and saw a seagull that catches these fish with a hard shell. They eat the inside and leave the shell behind. We've been seeing the empty shells all over on this side of the water. 

So after lunch Jim put the golf cart away and while we were getting ready for lunch Jim noticed we had visitors looking in the back window. 

There was two iguanas out there in the jungle of the palm trees. They stayed there a long time. Green really blends in.

Later we walked down to see the sunset, one last time. Tomorrow is moving day. Back to Peace River TT.

We got to see the cricket lady one last time. She was in the rental golf cart she's using, until hers is repaired. We got to see her little dog Ellie, just back from the groomer. She's so cute until another dog got close to her. Since we were walking, she offered to drive us home. Such a lovely lady, so glad we got to meet her. 

Then we went home and I put more things away on the inside then I've ever done before, so we can get an early start tomorrow. We kept busy until the early evening and watched the little TV before bed.

Another thing broken

Another thing broken 

Saturday November 18, 2023

We had a relaxing morning breakfast and our coffee. Jim was casually cleaning his glasses, and they snapped in two pieces. Right on the bridge at your nose. He couldn't believe it.

He immediately went upstairs to look for his spare pair. Which he never had to do, but thought he kept them in the cabinet above the dresser. To our shock they weren't there. We would have bet a million dollars that's where they were.

He literally spent the whole day looking for them everywhere. We both looked, never found them, he was bummed, even would say depressed, the whole rest of the day. 

He had them taped for a while. They kept coming apart. Before he went to bed he set them up with JB Weld.

Not fun, I ended up going to the sunset by myself tonight. 

Can't imagine where the glasses are.

Sunday November 19, 2023

This morningI went to see the sunrise.

I am soon running out of days to view it. 

Then I started the coffee. Later we had a not so fun breakfast. He continued looking for his old pair of glasses. He actually has a few, one is prescription safety glasses from his former career in HVAC.

 After breakfast I decided to go for a walk. Clear my head.. I told him the only place I can think we didn't look was behind the TV storage area.

 So I left it was a beautiful day but kind of breezy and sunny. To avoid sunburn I decided to go in the building and do a 3 mile walk fit on my phone. 

After a mile in I had to relocate to the back of the room, some guy came in wanting the TV.

 After I was finished, I realized Jim had texted me. Crossed my fingers I hoped that he would have good news.. 

He went for a golf cart ride to find me.

 He texted me he found them. OMG where, w h e r e. I got back home and he said they were behind the TV. For the life of us we cannot imagine why they were back there. I guess we figured he didn't need them. Never had an issue in all these many years. 

NOW the fun continued again and he was instantly in a good mood since. 

He went and sat outside for a while while I did some no BS on Zoom for a few hours.

I looked out the window at one point I thought I saw Sean and Angela, switch crew coming in. 

They backed in on the other side of Mike and Debbie. Now, there sandwiched between switch crew.

Later we decided to go for a golf cart ride together.

 We were driving around, and to our surprise One Strange Adventure, Harold, Cindy and Nick Strange also are here. 

They traveled in together the last 20 miles with Angela and Sean and their kids. We had got a hug and a picture and got to briefly talk with them for a few minutes. As they were still setting up.. 

Then we continue to ride. Later we happily went up to the sunset together.

Fish Feeding Frenzy

Fish Feeding Frenzy 

Friday November 17, 2023

This morning after our normal morning routine of coffee and breakfast. We went looking for something fun to do. We decided to go up the road to Islamorada, and feed the tarpon at Robbie's.

Was a short drive up the road and, of course, it's a challenge to park the dually. We parked and looked for a better spot and then went back to the original spot, close to a class C motorhome. 

Walked all around there was little shops and souvenirs Etc.

We even had a long talk with one shop owner in an antique store, he was from Pittsburgh. He talked about wanting to buy a church or a prison and refurbished it to a home. He was interesting to talk to.

 I even got a rare picture of Jim shopping, he was looking at t-shirts he liked. 

Then we went over to the tarpon, it was $5 for a bucket of five fish and each person cost $2. You have to watch the Pelicans cuz, they love to steal the fish, and get an easy meal.

The tarpon were huge. 

Tried to get a picture of Jim feeding them, but they startled him. They jump straight up out of the water. 

After he went to wash his hands and we walked around. 

Later we headed over to Publix looking for a Burger King. He was so excited he found one before we left. Once we drove by,  we realized it was still under construction and not open yet. He was super bummed out. So we pulled over and looked for another option. No good choices close by. So we just went into Publix. 

First Publix we ever seen with a boat trailer parking. Then we went in the store and found a few things we wanted and grabbed a quick lunch back at the deli area. 

Jim had chicken and potato wedges, fried shrimp, I ate some salad greens with it. It hit the spot and then we drove back to the RV.

Brought everything in and put away and chilled for a while. Later we went up in the golf cart to see the sunset.

We went up between the mangroves for a different view point. All by ourselves too.

After the sunset we got ready there was a country band playing at Oceans 305 restaurant tonight. It's supposed to be a one of the nicest restaurants in the keys, and you can come in off the street.

Which doesn't really bode well for security in the campground.

 Once we put on our western boots we left and decided to have a bite to eat up there tonight. I had a little soup before we left so,  I just had a small bowl of tuna salad with some grilled vegetables.  I took half of both home for later. Jim got a burger. But what was very weird, was for such a supposedly nice restaurant, they brought me my tuna and veggies, and probably 15 minutes later Jim got his Burger. That was not cool. 

The guy playing guitar and another guy singing we're really good. They even played Our Song, so Jim and I did our signature line dance serenity, which is a cha cha. We chatted briefly with the lady who also has a golf cart like ours, and our neighbor Mike and Debbie.

 We stayed till about 8:30 and then went back to the RV for the evening.

Sunrise, Tropical Rain Storm, Sunset

Sunrise, Tropical Rain Storm, Sunset 

Tuesday November 14, 2023

Today I was up for the sunrise and got a few beautiful pictures. 

Love photographing birds.

Later Jim and I went for a walk, this guy and his kids were cleaning fish.

The Pelicans know where to hang out, you can't feed them though. 

But it was definitely bringing in the nurse sharks. Jim and I saw five at least. There was one shark that was huge,  although we have no photographic evidence of the sharks, because my camera phone is terrible. They were all around the fish cleaning area. 

We watched a guy as he brought in his boat.

 Later I took a walk and went to see the sunset. They have a lovely huge Cabana to watch.

Tonight we're supposed to get rain. It started before we went to bed.

Wednesday November 15, 2023

Today we got up and it literally rained all day long. I mean torrential rains. The weather kept saying it's not going to be a named tropical storm, because it's attached to a low front. OK then.

We watched as our neighbor next to us packed up in the pouring rain. Less than an hour after he pulled out they backed another huge beautiful motorhome in. We watched them set up in the rain. 

We got a total of over 6 in of rain. Literally non-stop all day pouring. We did not go outside all day. I wanted to get a picture out the window, but never did. I really wanted it to stop, so I could squeegee, the camper is definitely getting rinsed off now.

We kept watching the weather all day long. 

About 11:30 pm we decided to go to bed. We know sooner got settled in and the camper was rocking like it never did before, and not in the good way.  lol

 I was never so nervous during a storm since we've been in this fifth wheel. I told Jim I can't do it, I can't just lay here. 

So I got up, it was so windy. I was thinking when the fifth wheel left this morning, be nice if that site stayed empty until we leave. Nope,  I'm so glad we had another huge windbreak next to us. And so glad the jungle and the solid building was behind us.

 I just watched out the window and the golf cart was rocking back and forth, was incredible. So scary to watch, so afraid it was going to tip over. Could not believe how the fifth wheel was shaking.

 Amazingly we never lost power the whole day.

 This Resort is truly a Resort. They use that word loosly a lot in the RV World, it's not always the case. But some of the things I love, they pick up the garbage right at your site. It's barely out there for half an hour or less till it's gone. When something needs done it's taken care of right away. 

They're constantly sending you texts updating you on things. They would tell you when they're playing music at the restaurant, Ocean 305, it's called. They tell you when the laundromats closed, they tell you when it opens up again. It's all stones don't have sand to deal with.

 But nothing about the storm or what to do. I even texted them "now what do we do, " got nothing.

We watched the weather before we went to bed. This storm just wasn't predicted. 

 I was awake till almost 1:00 am, finally felt like it slowed down a little and went to bed. Jim never got out of bed, he said he was feeling seasick. But he never did go to sleep until after I went back upstairs.

Thursday November 16, 2023 

This morning  I went out with the garbage and our neighbor Mike came out, we chatted about last night and the crazy storm. People cannot believe how bad it was.

We took a walk around to see everything. This tree was down on the pickleball court.

 We had talked to a lady that has a black brand new Cricket like ours. Well ours isn't new. She's from Arkansas, a very recent widow, and has a lovely little dog named Ellie. She told us that the water was halfway up the tires and  flooded this morning when she got up. She thinks the storm killed it. She was sick about it. She has someone going to work on it, we crossed our fingers for her that it is able to come back to life. She is not very ambulatory, so she needs it to get around. Very lovely lady.

We continued our walk, watching the birds and and the iguanas. Have to stop taking pictures of iguanas. 

Later we went back for the sunset

 and came home to make dinner.

Key West Adventure

Key West Adventure 

Monday November 13, 2023

This morning after much procrastination, we got it together after a late breakfast. Gathering information for the bus to go into key west. We packed what we thought we needed, mainly water, and went into the office here and talked to Heidi,  after calling her first. 

She gave us more information. We thought we could get on a bus here, but after talking with her, we decided to drive the truck up to the Winn-Dixie and park it there. A bus would pick us up across the road going to Key West for only $2 a person one way. 

Once we arrived at the parking lot at the Winn-Dixie we saw a lot of speed boats packing up from this past week's race. Then we walked across the road.

 It was very hot and sunny, so I waited under a shade tree and we only waited about a half an hour till the bus showed up. It was a great drive about 2 hours long to get into key west.

Nice view of water while on the bus.

There was a couple that came on, I wanted to talk to, he had a Delaware shirt on. Jim tried to stifle it for now. There was a few characters on the bus. A young guy with a Styrofoam cooler got on. He almost immediately started talking to Jim. You could tell he was drinking or smoking weed, or both. He was very nice and from Key West. But you could tell he was on something. He was telling us places to go and things to do. And how not to get arrested, OK, Told Jim he was jealous of his hair. Took off his hat and he was bald, but had a beard. Nice kid. You could tell the guy in the Delaware shirt was a little annoyed by him I think. 

We drove quite a long time, finally we were on the 7 mile bridge, and glad we got to see it. 

We did pass the other Encore Park in our Thousand Trails membership. Sunshine Key. 

We talked to a couple later staying there.

Then the bus pulled over and the young guy said the driver was going to take a break. So we briefly stopped for a good 10-15 minutes waiting for the driver. Meanwhile we met character number 2, a guy also probably drinking. But super nice and gave us a list of places that are the only must see touristy places in Key West area. I did write some down, one was this Butterfly Place. Then he left. A couple minutes later he came back and said oh I forgot one more thing and proceeded to tell us of some other location to visit. Which I think was a bar with half price booze and appetizers. Shocker

I guess this is a security picture that I took of us on the bus. So funny

Long story short Jim wasn't that impressed with Key West. It was a little dirtier than we expected. Nobody cleaned up at least where we were. We did get to see the southernmost point.

Saw the couple from the bus. Said HI, You have to get inline to get a quick picture. We didn't.

Took a picture of a beautiful Church.

 There was rental bicycles, golf carts and scooters everywhere. A lot of it looked pretty unsafe. We did enjoy seeing the water and this big cruise ship looks like it just left port. 

We found a place for lunch that was called Caroline's. We shared a turkey club sandwich, with fries and  a southwest salad. I thought it was good, we were pretty hungry by now. Jim wasn't as happy with it. It seemed a little dirty in there.

The other thing about Key West is there's chickens everywhere. Which I had also heard, but forgot about till you started seeing them everywhere. We all know how dirty they can be. 

 There was one right there in the restaurant under a table. He just looked like a stressed out City chicken.

We did stop briefly at this Butterfly Place. It was recommended by  character number 2 on the bus. I went in and checked it out, but should do it earlier in the day. Jim wasn't really into it.

We were going to stay for the sunset when we were looking at the water. But it was almost an hour away, so we decided to start walking toward the bus stop pickup, to head back.

 Long story short we walked and walked. Eventually a bus had stopped, very condescendingly he told us that  bus went by an hour ago. Like we should know that. Really set Jim off, he wasn't too happy. Also in pain from walking. 

We went a little farther, and eventually we're picked up. We walked over 3 Miles today which I really enjoyed, him not so much. 

Guess who was on the bus? NO.  The couple I originally wanted to talk to. Bus was pretty full, I had to sit next to, Bill. We chatted NOW. They are work campers. She did said the guy earlier was helpful though. 

Unfortunately the bus ride home you couldn't see anything, but it went very quick. 

When we arrived at Winn-Dixie we went into the store for a few grocery items. And then headed home, but this time it was way after 9:30 p.m.. 

did get a great Sunset picture with palm trees as we were walking towards the bus earlier.