Can't Believe Christmas is here!

We wish the best Christmas and New Year's Holidays/Vacation for all our family and friends.  We hope you take the time to really enjoy your days off work with your family and friends.  Don't work too hard to entertain everyone.  Let everyone pitch in and do a little part so not just one is doing all the work.  You know, it's okay to just have soup and chili for Christmas.  It's okay to just play games instead of buying everyone you know a gift.  It's ridiculous what people spend on Christmas.  Anyway, what I'm trying to say is take the time to kick back and just breathe and be happy. 

We are in Okeechobee, Florida for the winter.  We have been here a week and so far, we're loving it.  We bought a lot in this rv park last winter and this is our first time to actually stay on it.  So this week we have been pretty busy making it ours.  We have begun putting up a vinyl fence at the back of the lot.  We actually have a highway behind us--a pretty busy highway.  Then wherever there is grass on our lot, we are getting rid of it.  We will be putting down pavers and some lava rock.  We have also ordered a pretty storage building to sit behind the motorhome where we will put a washer and dryer.  YAY!  It's all moving right along.  So we are working our butts off right now. 

It's so nice here.  It's been getting down in the 60's at night and in the 80's during the day.  So this makes it hard to feel like Christmas.  It actually makes it hard to feel like winter--which is why we're here.  We don't like cold, snow and ice.  I brought a very few Christmas decorations--some very small stuff but have not taken the time to set anything out.  The day we arrived in the park, one of our friends came by with a Christmas card and an ornament that she had made.  So we have this one Christmas ornament up. 

Then another friend from the opposite side of the park welcomed us with a loaf of banana bread made from bananas grown here in the park.  This was our breakfast for several days. 

We got all our Christmas gifts for the grandchildren and Mama mailed off, so we're done.  We don't exchange gifts ourselves but we do have a tradition of eating Chinese and going to the theater on Christmas Day.  Last Christmas, we came to Okeechobee and went to the beach with some friends from this park. 

Not sure what we'll do Christmas Day this year.  They do have a small theater here so we may go to the movies and eat Chinese.  Anyway, whatever we do, we will have fun doing it and we will keep in our mind the true meaning of Christmas . . .

Thank you, Father, for sending Your Son so that we could have eternal life in Heaven with You.  Thank you for loving us that much.  May God Bless you all this Christmas and New Year. 
We love and miss you all. 

Against the Wind

Against the wind.  We were "walking" against the wind.  (Thanks Bob Seger)  We got in our four miles but it was tough walking against the high wind on the beach.  It was beautiful though. 

The water was pretty choppy and we didn't see any dolphins.  Usually, they're following the shrimp boats.  We have noticed we don't see them usually when the water is choppy.  We are expecting storms here this weekend so, I guess, that's why the water is so choppy.  We were scheduled to leave here Sunday but due to the bad weather expected, we have moved it to next Tuesday. 

This was our walking path today.  Seven miles of beach, and as you can see, not another soul in sight.  We really have been blessed this for the past month to be able to have such a great place to walk.  The scenery is perfect.  I have to thank God every day for His great creation.

I love the little birds, too. 

These little hermit crabs are too much fun to watch. 

This is what it looks like.  Then it just starts moving across the beach to the water.

Yep, that's how it is!

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We all have so much to be thankful for.  No matter how much or how little we have, there are still things to be thankful for.  We were given another day.  We have our families.  Mike and I have a home that's 34 feet long on wheels and a jeep, period.  We left so much behind because we only have so much storage space.  We no longer have that walk-in closet or that laundry room.  However, there's not a day that goes by that one of us doesn't say, "I love our home." 

Yesterday, I cooked a couple dishes and all the campers here had a potluck Thanksgiving dinner.  It was nice.  Today was supposed to be our last day here but we extended our stay another week because the traffic this weekend is horrible with all the holiday travelling.  So we will be heading out December 4.  I believe we're ready to head on to Florida.  This has been our favorite stop so far of all the places we have travelled since leaving home.  We will definitely return next year. 

Well, this blog is short and sweet.  Happy Thanksgiving weekend.  I'm going for coffee.

Fishing on Grand Isle

Let me tell you about Grand Isle, Louisiana.  Forgive me if I flounder over my words.  Sometimes I tend to beat my own drum, so to speak.  I trout that this will make sense to you but I'll do my best.  We walk the beach daily and our skin turns redfish.  While we walk, we have to dodge the crabs crawling across the sand.  I shrimp back when I see creepy crawlies.  Mike calls me a sheepshead scaredy cat.  I tuna know what he means by that.  Wahoo, there's lots of sea shells.  There's a grouper of us taking a sailfish out to Amber Jack for some fun.  Among the group are Marlin, Cobia, and Ling.  The boat is a dorado with a yellowfin on one side and a blackfin on the other.  We hide in the mangrove while looking for red snapper.  We season our speckled trout with lemonfish.  We love it here.

I realize this is goofy but there it is.  I couldn't help myself.  As you have already noticed from this blog, I have a warped sense of humor. 

The people who fish here catch some big fish and they catch them fairly easy. 

That's all folks!

Some things I'm grateful for:

The weather has cooled off here some.  Over the weekend, it got pretty chilly.  It's starting to warm back up since Sunday.  Yesterday, we walked four miles wearing shorts and t-shirts.  It didn't take us as long as it has been.  I guess we're getting faster.  Sunday, Lanny and Michelle hosted a huge oyster dinner for the entire park.  It was AWESOME!  I could have eaten oysters until I exploded, they were so good.  Things have become somewhat routine here because we get up and have our coffee then hit the beach for a few hours walk.  Same old, same old.  So there's not much to report.  We will be staying here until December 4 before heading east and then south to Okeechobee.  So . . . . . . .

What I'm grateful for today:

- that my husband will clean our house while I'm doing laundry.  We can usually get done about the same time--then the rest of the day is ours. 

- hot vegetable soup on cool days.  We cooked a crockpot full of vegetable soup last night and had some for lunch today.  It was good. 

- how the people in this rv park are so friendly and how we have our meals together once in a while. 

- that this is a small park and we're not all trying to use the laundry room at the same time.

- that the beach is right across the street and that the street is never congested with traffic--even on the weekends.

- how friendly the people who live here full time are.  We visited the library Saturday and the Librarian and some of the people in the library were so helpful.

- how there are no chain restaurants here (except for a Subway).

- how many westerns there are on the tv channels we get here.  We both love westerns.

- that our families are okay with our decision to downsize our life and travel.

and of course, humor: 
"When the chairman introduced the guest speaker as a former illegal alien, I got up from my chair and yelled. "What's the matter, no jobs on mars?"  When no one laughed, I was real embarrassed.  I don't think people should make you feel that way." - Jack Handy.

"The tired and thirsty prospector threw himself down at the edge of the watering hole and started to drink.  But then he looked around and saw skulls and bones around everywhere.  "Uh-oh", he thought.  "This watering hole is reserved for skeletons." - Jack Handy

This Thursday is Thanksgiving.  We sincerely hope all our family and friends have a wonderful week.  We are thankful for all of you. 

Dolphins, Dolphins!

This morning we had our coffee, walked to the post office and then hit the beach.  We walked eight miles and it took us four hours.  We only saw one person on the beach.  We never saw a dolphin until we got to the end of the beach.  The beach ends at the bridge that leaves the island.   Then we turned around and whoa! 

This is only one of dozens of dolphins that swam beside us on the way back up the beach.

We pass this on the beach every day. 

Lanny and Michelle, the owners of Island House RV Park where we're staying. 

Saturday, Mike and I hosted dinner for everyone in the RV park in honor of Veteran's Day. 

We gave a t-shirt to the veteran who had the most years of service.  This is Delight who spent 27 years in the military. 

We had games and lots of fun.

Yesterday, there was a parade in honor of Veteran's Day.  They actually came down a street to the cemetery and put flags on graves of loved ones.

Sunday, Tim and Diana hosted lunch for the RV Park.  We had tacos and guacamole. It was delicious.  They're from Texas. 

So we pigged out!

We are enjoying this place so much--we don't want to leave.  As you can see by the clothes, it's getting a little chilly at night.  They have a large fire pit that they use at night to sit around for anyone interested in sitting and talking and laughing.  Tonight, though, we're staying in.  We're tired.

Goodnight All!

Learning new things and having fun

Two ships passing in the "light".  Sorry, couldn't resist when I saw these two shrimper boats passing.  I had to take the picture just for that statement "two ships passing in the night".

We walk about 5 miles a day six days a week and take Sunday off.  Usually, we don't see another soul on the beach except maybe Norris who goes out every day on his tractor and rakes the beach and makes it look really nice.  We've talked to him a few times and he's a very nice man with that great Louisiana Cajun accent.

Last night about 14 of us had a shrimp boil.  It was so much fun.  Mike and I learned a lot.  We could do it ourselves now.  The food was delicious and we helped.  I learned to de-vein shrimp and Mike was in charge of the boiling pot and getting the food stuffs added in.  We had karaoke afterwards which was lots of fun.  We were still able to get back home before 9:00.  Of course, we only had to walk a few steps. 

 

We have met some great people here:  Nancy and Rob, Brenda and Jerry, Susan and Paul, Lanny and Tonya, Carol and her husband (can't remember his name), Delight and the owner LannyThis is Delight doing karaoke.  You can see our motorhome beside our jeep in the far right of picture.  So you see, we weren't far away at all. 

 

 

Melanna de-veining shrimp.  Delight showed me how to do it right.  Weird, it's the first time, I've ever ripped the head off anything.  I enjoyed learning how to do it right. 

 

Anyway, a good night was had by all.