Hitting the Ground Running

 Did you expect anything less? So much to do, so little time! There are always things to do when you get back from an extended absence. Although Forrest and Somer took good care of the house, Barb went about cleaning it. I don't care how clean it was, unless Barb does it with her own two hands, it is not clean enough. Lily is still living upstairs in the loft; she has made herself quite comfortable up there. We don't mind having her in the house, me specifically, as it gives me someone to blame stuff on like when the last brownie is gone Barb will ask, "Who had the last brownie?". "I think I heard Lily coming downstairs in the middle of the night", I respond while brushing brownie crumbs off my shirt. 

We also took the camper off the truck, it is all tucked away in the garage waiting for Barb's remodeling. Remodeling you ask? Yeah, Barb has a long list of things she wants to do to the camper. The biggest thing is to replace the subfloor, replace the linoleum with the left over LVP from the house, remove/replace the valences and recover all the cushions on the dinette. As a matter of fact, she is knee deep in demolition mode with the valences and linoleum removed already. 

The boat too is all tucked into the other side of the garage. Forrest and I have been working on getting it ready for fishing. We have done all out pre-fishing rituals, got all our tackle and rods ready and install on new LiveScope, which was a much bigger deal than anticipated as we had to run several sets of wire harnesses throughout the boat. 

I now have two Gamin units installed in the back of the boat!

Forrest also broke out his 3D printer and made me a cover for the transducer on the LiveScope. These printers are amazing! The first picture is the printer in action, the second shows the finished product with the printer in the background. 

The other thing we spent the week doing was watching YouTube videos. Specifically fishing YouTube videos. It was somewhat melancholy to watch them as I was watching a lot of the videos we published from when we visited Pasha Lake. By far, this is where we created our best fishing memories. I feel joy in my heart remembering all the good times and a pit in my stomach thinking that we will never get to experience at that level again since the new owner took over. Oh, we will make new memories, but I doubt they will be as good as those. Here is a link to one of my favorite videos we made up there.  

We are excited to get out on the water, but it looks like the earliest we will get out will be this coming Thursday when the temps get up into the mid 60's. We have a couple of trips planned so far this year; 3 that are on the calendar; one in June, two more in July, plus a couple more that are just in the planning stages. 

Now, the boat was not supposed to be in this garage, it was supposed to be in our new garage. The problem is, is that it is not built yet! The plan was to build our new garage before we got the boat, but you know how that goes. Sometimes you put the cart before the horse. We did get the materials for the garage though and we plan on starting to build it later this morning!

Of course we had to get together with the gang. We met Dan, Bonnie, Merrill and Vicki at bingo on Wednesday night. None of us won, but it was great getting together!

The next day we went over to Kevin's neighbor, Greg's, to split and stack his firewood. Dan, Bonnie, Kevin, Barb and I surprised Greg by going over and split/stacked all his firewood. He was not there, and it was a surprise for him. Kevin sent him a picture when we were all done. 

He was so pleased that he invited over the next day for happy hour followed by supper that Cheryl had prepared. Of course, I forgot to take any pictures, there was a total of 10 of us there, it was good to see everyone and get together!

Zoey and Dakota are glad to be home. They are loving having so much room to roam around. Zoey zooms around the house bouncing off the furniture, she did not have room to do that in the camper. Dakota is no longer confined to being under the dinette and she has multiple beds from which to choose from. 

Now for the moment you have all been waiting for; how many bottles did we bring home? (drum roll).... the final tally was 52! This makes Rita the winner with her guess of 53. What does she win? Bragging rights, that is about it. I thought about giving the winner a bottle of booze, there was one we bought that is absolutely nasty, but I like Rita, and I would not do that to her. I think I will save if for next time Harry stops by and give it him. This brings the total number of bottles in the house to a little over 200. We are done buying for a while, we are starting to have storage problem. Well, unless we find a special bottle that we just have to have! 

That's it for last week, it looks like this coming week is going to be even busier!

The Struggles of Life

When you become of a certain age your days revolve around one or two things. Important things. Things that if they do not go right can ruin your entire day. Funny, when we were both working, we were juggling a handful of stressful things with ease and invariably one or two did not go right and we took them in stride. Not anymore.

What these things are vary from person to person or in our case couple to couple. Maybe you don't get a good night's sleep. Maybe you wake up with an ache or pain. Or heaven forbid your favorite player does not do well on Jeopardy or The Wheel of Fortune!

We have a routine in the morning when we are in the camper, Barb gets up first, gets ready and takes the dogs out for their morning walk. This is my signal to get up and get ready. Much easier to move around and get ready with them all gone. But I have yet to know if we are going to have a good day or not. I will not find that out until she returns. Actually, it is only the first of a two-step process that will tell us if our day will be a good one or one filled with tension and stress. 

After getting ready, I get back up in bed and start reading blogs or looking on The Facebook. When Barb returns, I put everything down and look at her expectantly. "Well?", I ask. Here is it the moment that will tell me if we will have a good day. I look at Barb's face with hope. "She went boom-boom", she replies and a wave a relief washes over me. Step one down, now for step two....

Barb starts warming up the water for her coffee and picks up both dog dishes and fills them up; two scoops of dry for Dakota and a scoop for Zoey. Each with a dollop of canned dogfood on top. Dakota gets out from under the dinette and immediately starts eating hers. Zoey will slowly walk up to hers like she is expecting brussel sprouts or something and starts nosing it. This is the other moment of truth, we have to ignore her, if we stare at her she will not eat, so Barb starts making her coffee while watching Zoey out of the corner of her eye; "Come on girl, you can do it, make it a good day", I silently pray. 

Yes, that is what our lives have evolved to, from stressful careers managing dozens of people, handling projects and troubleshooting issues to having a good day hinge on whether or not your dog goes boom-boom and eats her breakfast. If either go wrong, and they do, there will be worry until both of these tasks are complete. Not by me mind you, by the other one. That, my friends is our life. I know you dog owners out there can relate. 

By now many of you have figured out that I did not end up in an urn this past week. Either that risk has past or the appointment she set up is for when we return home. The next question is whether or not we are now pulling a boat?!?!? As you may recall, there were two that we (I) were interested in; one in Lee's Summit Missouri and one in Eau Claire Wisconsin and now a third that showed up last week in Hutchinson Minnesota. 

We left the Camping World in Calera, Alabama and continued to make our way northwest to Memphis Tennessee. A first for us and maybe a last. We have been in some dirty cities in our years, but this one might take the top spot. Maybe it was just the area we were in, but trash and garbage everywhere. I have no idea how this city could ever get clean again, there was litter everywhere! Where we did spend the night was pretty cool though, the Bass Pro Shop. Their premiere pyramid location. 

I loved this mount of three varieties of teal on one display. You birders out there will know what each of them are. 

What I really like though were the vintage decoys. Oh, to own some of these.....

While it is a free spot to stay in their parking lot, it was pretty noisy as there is an interstate bridge right above us.  The next day was another first for us. The first time in 12 years of traveling that we have ever set a foot (or wheel) in Arkansas!

Our next stop was one that we had been looking forward to for a while and happened to be right on our way. Mansfield Missouri, which happens to be the home of Shawn and Kim, an RV couple we met in Arizona many years ago. You may also remember them from a post when we had supper on their sailboat in Big Pine Keys Florida about this same time last year. 

We spent the afternoon on their side by side touring their ranch. What an interesting piece of property! Of course, I only got one picture of them as they were walking downhill after showing us a natural spring. 

After that we headed into town for supper at a new Mexican place followed by happy hour at the clubhouse at the ranch. So good to catch up with them again. 

The next morning, we were off to see our first boat!

We arrived at the owners address in Lee's Summit just after 12:00 noon and there in the driveway was the boat. Better in person than it looked in the pictures. Shinier, cleaner, more features and accessories that we had anticipated. Over the next 60 minutes we went over everything. I asked questions, tested each of the electronics. Laid on my back and inspected the hull, ran the motor. Everything checked out. After a quick conference with Barb, I started talking price with the guy. We settled on a number that we were both happy with, shook hands and the deal was done! Well, not quite, I had to go to the bank and get some money. I had transferred some from one account to another and it was not going to be available until that morning. One of the things you deal with when you travel is banking. About the only bank we have found readily available across the country is Wells Fargo. We use that account as our traveling account and it did not have enough money in it, thus the transfer. Off to the bank we went. Not a huge deal, but more of a deal than usual. Getting out that much money in cash required the managers involvement, but I was in and out of there in 30 minutes.

After hooking up the boat we headed down the road with no destination in mind. We had no idea where we were going after this if we weren't going to Wisconsin. I was driving, Barb was hovering over the atlas and her phone trying to see where we should go. I was asking her where we were going, she was stressed... Finally, I just said "I am going to pull over until we figure this out". I see a huge empty parking lot and pull in. It was a closed business plenty of room for us to park and figure things out. We noticed that the adjacent building however was open with cars in front of it. I look to see what kind of business it was and started laughing. Barb, not yet seeing the humor, looks up from her atlas and says, "What's so funny?". "Look where we parked", I replied. She looks up, grabs all her computer, phone, atlas, gets out of the truck and heads straight for the business. What is the business you ask? A brewery of course! Transparent Brewing Company to be exact. What are the odds that we randomly pull over and it just happens to be in a brewery parking lot?!?!? 

I took this picture in the parking lot. Doesn't look like this boat was specifically designed to be behind this truck/camper combo?!?!

One hour and one beer later we had a plan. 45 minutes later we were pulling into a Bass Pro Shop outside of Kansas City. If you are ever in the area and looking for a free place to stay. DO NOT pick here. Not that there is anything wrong with the business, it is just that 200' away is a fire hall and rescue station. Sirens all night long!

The next morning, we drove west two hours arriving at Milford State Park right around 1:00pm. A beautiful state park on Milford Lake. The day we arrived it was 75, the next day 81. Talk about two beautiful days! $21/night off season, we were the only two in the campground. But that is not the best part, the best part is the lake! 

We spent two days on the water testing out the new boat, no fishing, just puttering around, reading and enjoying the days. Just what we needed! 

Dakota just chilled on the deck and slept. Zoey was interested in everything that was going on around her. 

After two days, we packed up and continued out way west towards home. Two 5-hour days if we hurried, which would bring us home Saturday, but there was a weather event heading our way; high winds; 30mph sustained, gusts over 50mph. We found refuge in North Platte Nebraska at a Harvest Host in the form of Pals Brewing Company. We pointed the rig into the wind to minimize the rocking from the wind, went inside for a couple of beers and a pizza before tucking in for the night. 

Barb got an interesting flight!

The following morning the wind was still at about 20mph, but very managable. We drove the remaining 5 hours, arriving home around 2:00pm. Forrest, Somer and Lily greeted us, yup, they are still holding down the fort! 

After 11 weeks of adventures, we made it home! We unloaded the truck of all the bottles we had acquired. Anyone care to take a guess how many bottles? I will give you a little help, below is a picture of some, but not all the bottles we got.  

I will reveal the answer in our next post, until then, I will leave you with this video. Since Harry (the now dog lover) said that he would rather have dog videos over people videos on the beach, here is a video of Zoey on one of our drives. I thought about putting this on a loop and telling Harry to watch it to the end. Who knows how long he would have watched it for!

Florida is Weird

 Let me start by saying Florida is one of my favorite places to visit in the winter. I say "winter" because I have never been here in the summer or fall, or spring for that matter. But it does have some oddities. 

For one, it is the flattest state in the country with the highest point being only 345' above sea level with the average elevation being only 100'. Back home our house sits over 4,900'. 

Did you know that Florida is the only state in the country with a wild monkey population? While none of them are native, there are 5 different breeds of wild monkeys in the state. Most likely escapees from homes, movie sets or maybe......some infectious disease lab. 

Florida is the only place in the world where alligators and crocodiles coexist. Yup, nowhere else on earth do these two reptiles live in the same habitat. 

But my favorite Florida oddity is that there is rumored to be over 2 trillion dollars of lost treasure in the ocean off the coast of Florida. Think about that next time you are snorkeling!

We did see some oddities of our own this week while we were in Fort Myers. You ever been to Fort Myers Beach during spring break? While it was not officially spring break yet, there was enough activity for us to see some pretty interesting sights! If I were to be honest, both Barb and I snuck a few pictures and sent them to some friends back home, but they certainly would not be acceptable here on the blog. 

We visited my sister Judy and Mike for four days. One of the nice things about visiting her, is that we can stay right in their driveway!

The first night we got there we headed to the beach area for supper at Doc Ford's where we feasted on meals of a seafood variety. Both very good. 

The next day we started the day by going to Red Horse Distillery. We took a tour and tasted just about everything they carry. I have to tell you; this might have been my favorite distillery tour ever. Pretty much a one-man show. The owner was really interesting to talk to. His spirits were very good too. Between the 4 of us, we came home with 8 bottles. 

After that, we went to the beach proper and took in the sights. 

We met several of Judy and Mike's friends there. Let me tell you, the Rum Runners they serve on the beach are potent! The people watching was over the top. Barb and I went for a walk on the beach, and I took a couple of videos to give you a taste of what it was like. Yeah, I was that weird old guy videoing on the beach!

Monday was a very special day as it was Barbie's birthday! We celebrated by going to a local brewery and later in the day, ordering in Chinese. Of course, we had cake for dessert and sang her happy birthday. 

Our last day there we went to the 6-Mile Cypress Slough where we walked the 1 1/2-mile boardwalk. 

Lots of wildlife and cool scenery. While most everything I recognized, I did have to look up these first two pictures of the Mangrove Snapper and the Wood stork.

That night Mike and Judy made grilled grouper and tuna steak. While both were good, that grouper was to die for!

The 4 days went way too quick. Lots of laughs were had and several dollars exchanged hands during our evening dice games. We only get to see them once a year or two, so we had to make the most of it. 

We pulled out Wednesday morning exhausted but with smiles on our faces. So good to see them! Do you think we took a day or two to relax and recoup? If you know us, you know the answer is no. We drove straight to Punta Gorda where we met up with a former coworker of Barb's and her husband. Shirley and Al have been coming down here for years and know all the good spots to eat. This year they picked Laishley Crab House. We got there a little early, so we took the dogs for a walk along the docks where there was evidence of the most recent hurricane. 

Today was another special day as it was Shirley's birthday! We had a great supper, visited and enjoyed a beautiful sunset. If you look in the background of the picture below you can see that boat sideways on the dock. 

We spent that night in Port Charlotte and the next in Chiefland, which was our first day in quite a while where we did nothing but drive. Our next day brought us to Panama City Beach, not exactly on our way but worth the detour. We stopped and saw some of our Wisconsin friends who stay down there for the winter. Mike and Jan lived just down the lake from us when we lived in Wisconsin. Upon entering their place, I walked directly to the windows. I actually did not want to, my body just did it on its own. You would have the same reaction if you saw their view. 

Right on the beach and facing west, their views are incredible! I could have sat out there for days and just taken in the sights. They said it get pretty crazy there during spring break too, although their busy time is not for another week or two. 

We went to supper at Triple J's just down the road and I have to tell you, I think that was the single best meal I have ever had at a restaurant. Steak Orleans; a filet with a crab cake. It was their special that night and is not on the menu, but if you go there and they are serving it, you will not be disappointed!

Our plan from there was to drive up into Alabama to visit more friends but something came up that diverted us. Well, a couple of somethings. We found a couple of boats that we are going to look at; one in Missouri, one in Nebraska and one in Wisconsin. Two are on our way home, the one in Wisconsin, not so much but we will drive up there if need be. We are currently in Alabama where we spent the night at a Camping World which provided free sites to Good Sam members on a first come first serve basis. 

One last oddity, Barb and I were talking the other day about wills, medical directives and such the other day. When I told her that I wanted to be cremated, she made a note and said "okay". That is not the odd thing. The odd thing is that I overheard her on the phone talking to a crematorium setting up an appointment for next week!

That's it for this week, who knows, next week could have a picture with our truck pulling a new (to us) fishing boat!!!!! Or perhaps Barb with a picture of an urn?!?!