It's been a while

Yeah, we've been pretty busy lately trying to get all the supplies ordered and in to start our trek home.  My mother has been having some small strokes, so we came home early to help her. 

It's a whopping 28 degrees this morning.  BRRRR!  We arrived home yesterday afternoon. 
We went to visit Mama and were greeted with several old friends when we pulled back into the driveway.  Evidently, the deer have been having a great time here because we started seeing several together from Jesse's backyard all the way down the driveway.  This picture was taken in the last curve of the driveway to the house.  I wouldn't be afraid to bet there were 30 plus deer out there in different little groups.  They were everywhere on both sides of the driveway. 

 

We want to thank Joey and Jesse for taking such good care of the place while we were gone.  When we walked in yesterday, it was like we had just walked out the day before.  The heat was on and it felt good in here.  It looks very cold outside and we've got to start unloading the motorhome.  Oh well, no rush.  I'll get the fridge stuff and maybe quit.  We have to go to Mama's again today and take her to the doctor.  We have to find a new place for her in assisted living.  Bummer.  She can't live by herself anymore, the doctors say.  She can't live with my brother because he works.  She doesn't want to come out here because we are so far away from ambulances and everything that makes her feel safe.  I believe they have had to call an ambulance for her every night since she's been out of the hospital.  We didn't get any calls last night, so it must have gone well.  We hate what she's going through.  I believe she's scared.  I would be.  She wants to be somewhere she can get immediate medical attention if needed.  So would I. 

We left the Harley at Ben and Malorie's until we can get it shipped home.  Malorie had a fun ride before we put it in the garage. 

Some pictures we took in Ft. Myers right before coming home.

 

Well, so long sunny Florida.  See you later, gator. 

 

 

Super Bowl Sunday

It rained yesterday all evening and again this morning.  The wind has been really strong here and my bike was blown over and buried in the mud. 

 

Yeah, pretty nasty.  So we got in the jeep and drove over to Ft. Myers Beach.  We stopped at Doc Ford's Rum Bar and Grille for lunch.  They had two pages of rums they serve but we didn't have any.  The food we did have was really good. 

 

We both had a sandwich and brought half of both home for later.  Their clam chowder was AWESOME!  They had a really great bread pudding--banana bread with chocolate pudding and caramel with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream.  Yum Yum! 

The restaurant is owned by a man by the name of Randy Wayne White (my brother's name).  This Randy is an author.  He writes a series of books about a marine biologist who worked for the CIA by the name of Doc Ford.

Any way, I thought that was pretty neat.  Mike has been reading one of his books since we have been down here but I haven't yet.  I think I will though.

We also drove through Pine Island.  Love the shops and colors.  All in all it was a pretty good day. 

It is pretty chilly here--down in the 40's at night and about 60 during the day.  Jeans and jacket weather.  We are at home watching the pre-super bowl stuff now.  So for now, we are just . . .

Yep. 

 

Day 3 and counting!

What's been going on in the past few days.  We have been going to the pool.  It's been in the 80's here so we're taking advantage of the sun.  While Mike was in the pool, I took pictures of lizards playing on his flip flops.  Lizards are everywhere here.  We will probably wind up bringing some home on our motor home somewhere, along with white frogs. 

 

 

 

We took a motorcycle ride with some of the friends we have made in our rv park.  There were nine of us but along the way, we picked up a guy who just happened to see us going by and pulled his Harley in behind us.  We invited him to join us for lunch.  He turned out to be a very nice guy and we all enjoyed his company. 

 

We found a new Italian restaurant that we loved! 

We heard from our good friends who are visiting Florida.  They went to Key West. 

 

Well, family and friends, we will be leaving this rv park the end of February.  This is day 3 and counting.  Did I say, we hate this park?  Yeah, we can't wait to leave.  We have met some fine people.  We have had a great time with them.  We are still having a great time talking with the people in here.  But this park is nasty.  There were eight campers who pulled out of here the first day of February and ALL but two had to be pulled out with a big truck. 

 

I'm going to think positively about February.  Little to no rain.  The slush will dry up.  We will be able to pull out of here with no problems.  So far February is looking up.  Actually, I shouldn't complain at all.  The Lord has taken care of us so far with all the rain.  We have managed quite well.  So I can handle watching where I walk and the water still standing at the back of our camper.  We personally, are quite fine.  I'm also doing great with my allergies.  Thank you, Lord.

 

To my brother, Joey--(a week late).

Wow!  Are you really 55? 

Hope you took the time to celebrate.  Love you.

 

 

So, now for the rest of February . . . .

 

 

 

We're cooking and dancing in the rain.

It has been raining pretty much non-stop for two days and nights now.  Fortunately for us, they have been pumping water out of the park non-stop also.  So this time, we are not flooded.  At least yesterday, we weren't flooded.  It is still dark and I can't see outside yet, but it doesn't feel like we're floating.

We stayed inside all day yesterday and I worked at getting caught up on posting my tax receipts.  Unless, we get where we just can't stand being cooped up inside today, maybe I'll finish my tax sheet that I take to the accountant in April.  Yesterday afternoon, we just had to get outside for a while and we donned our galoshes with our tee shirts and shorts (you know that was a pretty picture) and walked up to the office to leave some mail.  Good thing we have galoshes now.  The streets in here were mostly under water.  It was fun because we were splashing in the water like two kids.  However, it started raining pretty good before we could turn around and return.  That's okay.  At least we got out. 

I've been cooking more lately.  I have a little more counter space now and I'm loving my kitchen.  Yes, it's still small but adequate.  Some of our friends here have awesome kitchens with islands.  They are beautiful but we, personally, prefer more living space than kitchen space.  Our island at home sure comes in handy.  Usually as a catch-all, if you know what I mean.

I've been making muffins for breakfast.  They're real easy and they only take 25 minutes to bake.  We usually eat one with our tea every morning.  (We have quit drinking coffee and started drinking hot tea.  I brought so many different kinds of teas with us and we hadn't been using them. We're not even missing the coffee.)  Now for the recipe for my muffins.

One box of cake mix (any flavor you choose)
One small can of pumpkin
(This is really all you need.  You just mix this up and put in muffin pan and bake for 25 minutes.  However, I add a few extra items.)
I add a few pumpkin seeds, some sunflower seeds, flax seeds, and some butterscotch morsels for extra flavor.
No milk or egg or oil needed.  These muffins are awesome.  (I used to make this as a cake if I wanted some dessert at home, using only the cake mix and pumpkin.  It was still really good.)
P.S.  yesterday, I used orange cake mix and it was delicious.

For dinner last night, I made some stuffed ravioli with alfredo and clam sauce.  OMG, it was good.
It was so easy.

One package of frozen stuffed ravioli  (I used cheese stuffed ravioli)
One jar of alfredo with mushrooms sauce (I used two because I wanted to get rid of stuff taking up room)
One can of clams, drained
(You could use shrimp or whatever you like-- even just use the alfredo sauce alone.)

I just boiled the ravioli (which took 4 1/2 minutes) and drained them.
Then in the same empty pan, I poured in the alfredo sauce and clams.  Then I returned the drained ravioli back in the pan with the sauce and let it all heat up.  (This way, I only had one pot to clean.) 
I toasted some bread with a little garlic powder and that was our dinner.  A small salad would have been a nice touch but I didn't have it. 
A nice glass of wine finished it off.  Yes, I take the easy route and do not usually make anything from scratch but it works.  I would love to find some spinach stuffed ravioli or lobster stuffed ravioli.  I'm slowly but surely emptying out my cupboards of canned goods.  That's my purpose anyway.  What will we cook today?  I don't know.  Maybe just a bologna sandwich. 

I woke at 4:00 for the past two mornings.  Mostly because I had a headache for the past two mornings because it's been raining non-stop.  So I've been reorganizing our cabinets for travel at the end of February.  I put that non-skid shelf paper on all my shelves which prevents things from moving around while on the road.  It works great.  So thank you, Lord, for the rain so I am inside getting much needed things done. 

Well, since my day is only beginning instead of ending I'm not chillin'. 

 

Dance, Dance, Dance

Because I'm happy

  

 

Downtown Punta Gorda

 

 

Some of the interesting things we have seen while in downtown Punta Gorda. 

 

 

 

See if you can find Mike in this tree.

 

I love how they paint old bicycles up in different colors and often use the baskets as flower pots. 

I want to do this at home. 

 

We didn't actually see this particular alligator but did see one here in this park we're in last March.  Yikes!

 

 

They have lots of eagles here.  We actually almost hit one in the car the other day.  It flew right down in front of us.  Can you imagine having to say, "We killed an eagle."?  That would be horrible.

 

We spent the day today walking around Fisherman's Village

It's full of neat little shops of all kinds.  We walked around the parks nearby and watched seniors playing pickle ball.  Mike and I think we would like to learn to play.  It would be great exercise. 
They have a pretty good size court here in Punta Gorda.  There were about six different games going on at one time.  It was fun to watch and talk with some of the players.  It's a mix between badminton and tennis and ping pong.  Lots of movement. 

Today was very nice, temperature wise.  We actually went walking this afternoon when we returned to the rv park in our shorts and flip flops.  Of course, the temperature is going down to 52 tonight but will be close to 80 tomorrow.  Nice.  Mike's planning to wash the jeep tomorrow, just in time for the showers and thunderstorms coming Wednesday and Thursday. 

Now it's time to chill.  

 

 

Back on Track--maybe

It feels like it's been so long since I took the time to sign on to my laptop.  It just sits here every night all alone on the shelf.  I look at it and I think, I need to get back to blogging.  Then I think, I'm tired and I don't feel like it.  For the month of January, we have been too busy.  It's been a good busy but when we come in at night, we're tired.  We sit and read.  I've read a lot of books in January. 

The weather here has been pretty bad too.  Of course, it's not nearly the weather our friends and family at home are having right now.  Wow!  We really feel bad for you guys and pray for your safety when you have to get out.  But if you don't have to--don't! 

The day after we swapped campers, it came a monsoon.  We had half of our stuff still in a storage trailer outside our camper.  Mike donned his crocs (because we didn't have galoshes) and handed stuff inside while I put things away.  This camper is 34 feet long.  The one we traded was 37 feet.  We brought way too much stuff.  But in our defense, we weren't planning on trading campers while we were down here.  It's just that we found the layout we wanted, the size we wanted, at the price we wanted and there you go.  Fortunately, for us, they also had the tow vehicle in the right color to match our camper, and at the right price.  So we were able to hook everything up, drive over to the dealership, drop it off and drive home something different.  It worked out great!

Then came transferring everything over.  That was a chore and a half.  Since then I have reorganized everything on the inside again--better. 

For the rest of the month, we have:

 

Seen our good friends Albert and Thelma from Canada leave for Okeechobee for the rest of the winter.  We will go visit them and ride our Harleys.

Had a block party with some Harley rider friends here in the park.

Had visitors to our new home.  Malorie and Ethan came to see us one Sunday.

 

Learned a new language.

 

Walked around downtown Punta Gorda enjoying the art.

 

 

 

 

Spent about two weeks buying this home and another week getting it set up.

 

Then we spent a week buying a piece of property in an rv park in Okeechobee. 

 

Now we are done with business and ready to get down to being retired again. 

 

Whew !

 

Now we can chill--literally.  (It's cold here.  Down in the low 30's last night.)

 

It's that time of day--time to chill.

I am bone tired!  We swapped rv's yesterday.  So what we did was, we borrowed a trailer from a friend of ours here in the park.  We unloaded our 5th wheel and we hooked her up to the truck and drove over to Palm RV where we had traded for a 2011 Winnebago motor home and a jeep to tow. 

Then we returned to the park just before dark and started loading our stuff into the motorhome.  We actually had another couple helping us.  We worked as hard and as long as we could after dark and we stopped for the night (maybe about half way through it all).  We put some stuff away just to get it out of the floor and went to bed around 11:00.  My back was killing me. 

I didn't sleep well for some reason.  So this morning we got up to severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings.  It had rained all night and didn't slow down until the afternoon today. 

Our yard

Our street

 Our door coming into RV.

Mike has been wading water half way to his knees trying to hand our stuff in while I put it away.  It is now 4:32 and he's still outside doing something.  I have everything put away in here so it actually looks like a home.  My back is killing me. 

 

The living/dining area

 

The kitchen.  As you can see, I have a little more counter space however, at the moment I have it covered with appliances, like coffee maker, toaster, and tea pot. 

The bedroom, well, the bed.  There are closets at the foot of the bed.

We can now walk all around our bed, cool.  Eventually, we will get everything where we want it.  But for now, it is put away--somewhere.  We have way more living space.  It's nice, and it's all on one level--no more walking up stairs to do anything, except to get inside.  Everything is power and we are loving that--like power shades, power awning, power leveling system. 

Anyway, Mike is in the shower and we're going to go out to eat and then pass out in front of the t.v.

So . . .