galeckiadventure.com

Author: Steven Galecki

  • Feb 26, 27 and 28: Radford VA and home

    Feb 26: Before leaving South Carolina’s Sesquicentennial Park, I took Lexie for a short walk to the lake. there we saw a spillway that was constructed by the CCC in the 1930s.

    Sesquicentennial SP morning walk spillway

    We left the park around 10am. Travel to Radford was uneventful. There was some traffic congestion in Charlotte, NC and again on I-77 just as we got into Virginia. But congestion is a part of life. We did see signs for Shelton’s Vineyard along the way, a fun thing to point out to Vicki’s children (whose last name is Shelton). Lexie has developed a habit of going into the driver’s seat when we stop at a rest area. This is after she tries to bolt out of the RV. She won’t go very far if she got past our hands and legs, she is secured to a seatbelt restraint in the RV.

    traveling into North Carolina
    Shelton Vineyard
    Lexi wants to drive when we get to a rest stop

    In Radford we stopped at Dennis and Margaret’s house. This was our first real house that we had been into since Bradenton two weeks earlier. Dennis and Margaret are excellent hosts, feeding us pesto and shrimp on Wednesday Feb 26 and Mediterranean chicken (with olives) on Thursday. We played a few games with them, including teaching them Hand and Foot canasta. And we talked: work and retirement, kids, grandkids and grandpups. We spent more time looking at pictures than taking pictures. But we did get a couple.

    Radford VA with Dennis
    Radford VA with Margaret

    While in Radford I took the RV to Nomadic Camper and RV Repair to get the RV winterized before returning to the Cleveland winter. Dennis was my copilot and we eventually got to Nomadic with only one scenic detour. While at Nomadic I took a picture of their mascot’s poster (because the mascot shares the same name as our RV’s nickname.)

    On February 28 we left Radford early (8:20am). We were able to leave early since we didn’t have to disconnect anything. Traveling Friday looked promising weatherwise. The temperatures on the entire trip would be above freezing, and there was a chance for rain (not snow) near Cleveland. Our original travel plans were to go less than 300 miles on Friday, and finish the trip on Saturday. But we bit the bullet and drove 380 miles in one day. We made frequent stops, both to decompress from driving and to take care of body functions. The travel through West Virginia included some slow windy roads and hills. But I drove up and down the hills between 50mph (because I was behind a slow truck) to 60mph. There was a little tailwind, so the RV didn’t get pushed sideways by the winds. We got home before rush hour and we arrived to cloudy but dry weather.

    Welcome to West Virginia
    Welcome to Ohio
    Next exit is home

    We spent 3 hours unpacking the RV on Friday night. The RV was covered with snow on Saturday morning, but we eventually finished emptying out the RV’s living area and then cleaned all the inside spaces.

    home sweet home

  • Feb 24 and 25: Good by Skidaway Georgia and Hello Sesquicentennial State Park in South Carolina

    February 24 is another great morning in Georgia. This park has been so enjoyable. Lexie and I took a walk around the Big Ferry Trail and this walk included a side trip to an observation tower. I was excited about the tower, Lexie was indifferent. But she did make it up the stairs.

    morning walk: observation tower on Big Ferry trail
    a view from observation tower
    another view from observation tower
    yet another view from observation tower
    Lexie doesn’t care about the view from observation tower

    We left the park with only a minor black water incident. And the trip to Sesquicentennial State Park near Columbia South Carolina was uneventful. We stopped at a rest area/welcome center in South Carolina and at a Love’s closer to Columbia.

    Our original camp site was occupied but the park rangers got us another site that we liked even more: very much into the woods! One advantage of coming in on a Monday is that all the weekend people have left, and the park has many vacant sites. The park is very nice, not as nice as Skidaway but we made do. We had another campfire and Vicki played her guitar in the evening. We sang songs both with the guitar and acapello.

    Sesquicentennial SP camping site head on view
    Sesquicentennial SP camping site driver side view
    Sesquicentennial SP evening camping

    February 25 was cool, the morning temperature was 37F. But Lexie and I went out for a 4.4 mile walk around the big outside loop of the park. I thought a walk of that length would tire Lexie for the rest of the day, and it was close. She still wanted a few more walks, but she was satisfied with shorter walks.

    Sesquicentennial SP morning walk with Lexie around outside loop
    Sesquicenteninial SP morning walk with Lexie

    In the afternoon Vicki and I biked around the park. We biked to the park entrance, but the final hill was a little much for Vicki. We also biked around the lake on an old asphalt trail. The trail was challenging. There were tree roots, broken asphalt, sand, and narrow bridges with people on them. But we made it around the lake without incident. The map from Map-my-ride is incorrect, we did not bike across the lake. I turned off the app at one point and realized about one mile later that I had not turned it on yet.

    Sesquicentinial SP bike ride (Vicki is ready)
    Sesquicentennial SP bike ride (missing a segment)
    Sesquicentennial SP bike ride overlooking the lake
    entrance to Sesquicentennial SP from bike ride

    We made another, small campfire in the evening. Sorry, no pictures….

  • Feb 23 2025: A day in Savannah

    Another morning, another dog walk in the wild at Skidaway State Park. The trails here are great, you see a variety of different ecosystems. Marshes, tidal marshes, forested areas. Today Lexie and I walked about 2.7 miles, covering some of the area that I biked on yesterday and some of the trail we walked along yesterday.

    Skidaway SP morning walk onto Big Ferry trail
    Skidaway SP morning walk: Connector trail from Big Ferry
    Skidaway SP morning walk: Lexie thinks she has a choice

    The remainder of the day was spent in Savannah! An Uber picked us up at the park’s visitor center.

    Skidaway SP Vicki at the visitor center

    The Uber driver was very nice and gave us a brief overview of Savannah. We bought tickets for Savannah’s Old Town Trolley and rode around the town for 90 minutes. While there were hop-off/hop-on privileges, we stayed on to get the entire tour.

    After the tour we were hungry. The visitor center at the trolley stop recommended Crystal Beer Parlor for food, and we walked on over. On the way over we stopped at the earthworks of the Battle of Savannah historical site (no National Park stamp for this site.)

    1779 Battle of Savannah

    Crystal Beer is a popular place, especially on a Sunday at 1pm. Rather than wait 30 to 40 minutes, we ordered our food to go, and ate the food at the waiting area/picnic benches outside the restaurant. The person taking our ‘to-go’ order even brought the food out to us! So the service was exceptional. And the food was great: crab soup, shrimp and grits, and peach cobbler.

    Savannah: outside of Crystal Beer
    Savannah: outside waiting and dining area at Crystal Beer
    crab soup at Crystal Beer
    shrimp and grits at Crystal Beer

    After lunch we walked through the historic part of the city, enjoying the different squares that make up the old part of Savannah.

    one of Savannah’s squares
    relaxing at one of Savannah’s squares

    An Uber took us back to Skidaway State Park. We enjoyed another, smaller campfire that evening.

    Skidaway SP campfire

  • Feb 22 2025: Skidaway State Park in Georgia

    The campsite was easy to set up. Lots of space around the campsite and good hook-ups for electricity, water and sewer. The weather was cool so we didn’t set the awning out. But we did get some outside time.

    Skidaway SP campsite
    Skidaway SP campsite view
    Skidaway SP campsite
    Skidaway SP campsite

    Lexie got a lot of walking today. We took a 1.5mile hike in the morning to the entrance of the park.

    Lexie at Skidaway SP entrance

    But that wasn’t enough for her, she got another 3 mile hike along the interior nature trails later in the morning.

    Skidaway SP Avian Loop walking trails
    Skidaway SP Sandpiper walking trails
    Skidaway SP Avian walking trails
    Lexie at Skidaway Narrows

    Lexie was mostly quiet for the rest of the day. But she did appear to have some separation anxiety when Vicki and I left to go to a park event.

    Vicki in Skidaway SP

    The park and the girl scouts had arranged to sell girl scout cookies at the park while the park had a firepit going to roast marshmallows. So Vicki and I bought a couple of boxes and put roasted marshmallows on a few. Then we went back to our campsite to have dinner.

    I did get a bike ride in today. There was a 3 mile trail inside the park that consisted mostly of tree roots. I then biked a couple of miles outside the park on some multi-purpose trails intended to be shared with pedestrians, bicycles and golf-carts.

    Skidaway SP bike ride

    We also had a campfire tonight, our first campfire during this trip.

    Skidaway SP campfire

  • Feb 20 and 21: Last days at Port Orange and travel to Savannah

    Thursday Feb 20 was a relaxing day as we prepared to leave Port Orange and start our trip back north. I took Lexie on another hike to Spruce Creek Preserve, where I had to take another landscape picture:

    Spruce Creek Preserve pines and palms

    We took advantage of having a car for eating out one more time at La Catina. We split the malcajate which was so huge we have leftovers for lunch as we return back to Cleveland:

    Malcajate from La Cantina

    On Friday Feb 21 we said good-bye to Rose Bay resort. Vicki returned the rental car and I picked her up in the RV. I was worried about the winds on the RV as we drove along the Florida coast. Wind gusts were forecast up to 30mph. But the RV handled fine, just keeping me alert and making many steering adjustments. We did stop at a Buc-ees south of Jacksonville. It was my first stop at a Buc-ees, and we dashed in to buy a brisket sandwich and then dashed out. I didn’t like where I was parked, I think there may have been truck and RV parking somewhere that was not marked. But the store itself was amazing: a huge variety of freshly prepared foods, and a feeling more of a tourist/department store than a usual truck stop.

    Buc-ee south of Jacksonville
    Lexie wants to drive

    The trip north of Jacksonville included crossing a huge bridge where I focussed on the road and let Vicki look at the view. We stopped for gas about 90 minutes away from our final destination. We skirted south of Savannah to get to Skidaway state park. The final drive to the park was smooth, traffic moved quickly in the direction we were heading. The park is great, the campsites are very large. There will be more about the park and campsite in the next blog.

    onto Skidaway Island

  • Feb 18 and 19: Rocketman!

    We started Tuesday Feb 18 slow, leaving to visit Canaveral National Seashore in the afternoon. We took Lexie with us, this was her second National Park that she has been to. We toured the barrier island that was between the intercoastal and the Atlantic Ocean. We saw the Eldora house, the remaining remnant of a small community that was growing oranges. The community disbanded after a hard freeze that killed the orange trees, and southern Florida was a better place to grow orange trees.

    Lexie at Canaveral National Seashore
    Lexie at Canaveral National Seashore enjoying the grass
    Lexie at Eldora House

    We then climbed Turtle Mound, a midden (or trash heap) that contained the remains of oyster shells from Native Americans. And the mound was very tall and wide, maybe 40 feet high.

    Canaveral Seashore Turtle Mound boardwalk
    Canaveral Seashore top of Turtle Mound boardwalk
    another Canaveral Seashore Turtle Mound boardwalk
    Canaveral Seashore view of Atlantic from top of Turtle Mound
    Canaveral Seashore view of Indian River from top of Turtle Mound

    After Turtle Mound we visited the Atlantic Ocean beach. We didn’t leave the boardwalk, today we were happy to see the surf and the sand.

    Canaveral Seashore ocean view

    After this visit (and stamping) of the National Seashore, we headed to Titusville to see a rocket launch. We ended up at a restaurant called “Shiloh” which was across the bay from the launch site. We didn’t have reservations, but they put us on a waiting list. Somehow the waiting list software seated us without actually seating us. So the hostess placed us at a table, but the waitress took 45 minutes to even show up and serve us water. We would have left but the rocket launched while we were there. We got some pictures (that in no way capture the awe of the launch) and some video. The sky was cloudy so the rocket was hidden during parts of its upward trajectory. We did feel the sonic boom that happened when the first stage detached.

    Shiloh Restaurant sign
    Shiloh Restaurant overlooking the launch site
    the launch site from the seawall at Shiloh Restaurant
    the launch into the lower clouds
    the launch into the higher clouds
    the launch into the highest clouds

    After the rocket launch we did get reasonable service. The food was tasty, I had a shrimp po’ boy and Vicki had fried calamari and scallops. After dinner we returned to the car where Lexi was waiting for us. I have no idea how she handled the rocket launch.

    Wednesday Feb 19 was “Kennedy Space Center” day. We again traveled south to Cape Canaveral (or close to it). At the space center we learned about the different rockets at the Rocket Garden. Then we took a bus ride to the Apollo/Saturn V Center. The Center highlighted the Apollo Missions and included a Saturn V rocket and Apollo capsule/service module hanging from the ceiling. Highlights included looking at the different spacesuits (real and proposed) during the Apollo era, and looking at the lunar rovers.

    KSC entrance
    Entrance to KSC
    Rocket garden
    Steven trying to relax in an Apollo capsule
    KSC vehicle assembly building
    business end of a Saturn V rocket
    lunar rover
    Vicki with lunar landing module
    Apollo 14 capsule

    We also visited the space shuttle Atlantis, learning its history as well as some of the history of the space shuttle program.

    Atlantis space shuttle boosters
    front end of Atlantis space shuttle
    cargo bay of Atlantis space shuttle
    rockets of Atlantis space shuttle
    poster of Atlantis space shuttle

    We ended the day with a visit to the Mars Exploration exhibit and the Gateway project exhibit. The Gateway project showed the different competing commercial spacecraft that are gearing up to take people to Mars.

    V – we love visiting historical sites and learning about them. The mounds were virtually the garbage dumps of the ancient natives. This is where they put all the oyster shells, clam shells, etc. after they were eaten. Archaeologists learn so much about a culture by viewing these remnants among many others. But the views of ocean and river/intercoastal were fantastic and National Park Service does an amazing job of making these areas accessible to the public. Lexie enjoyed all the walks and all the new smells.

    Watching the launch, even from all the way across the water, probably 10-15 miles away, was thrilling. Pictures or even the video just can’t capture the excitement, the sonic boom of the blast, the ignition and liftoff. I’d like to go again, maybe see one of the bigger rockets launch and plan for an up close spot for viewing – being 5-6 miles away.

    So glad we visited the Kennedy Space Center and did the bus tour out to the Apollo center. We could see launch pad 39 pretty clearly from there – the site of the Space X Falcon launch of Starlink satellites. We ended up having a very tasty meal and bought a couple of t-shirts with a print of a rocket launch on the back – pretty cool. I’ll try to get a picture of it and move it into this blog in a few days.

  • Feb 15 2025: Port Orange and Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

    The morning started out slow and relaxed but around 2:30 Steve dragged Vicki out of the RV into the (new) rental car for some exploring.

    We crossed the Halifax River and drove south to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse Museum. Steven climbed the 203 steps to the top of the lighthouse, took some pictures in the gusty wind, and then returned to the bottom. He spotted Vicki taking group pictures at the bottom of the lighthouse (and not charging money!) We then explored the museum grounds learning about lighthouses, Fresnel lenses, and how the US government had set up rescue stations for survivors of shipwrecks.

    Vicki at Ponce Inlet Lighthouse Museum grounds
    another view of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse
    downview from 2nd landing of Ponce Inlet Lighthouse
    upview from 2nd landing of Ponce Inlet Lighthouse
    view from the top of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse Museum grounds
    looking down from the top of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse Museum grounds
    another view from the top of the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse Museum grounds
    Vicki in front of Ponce Inlet Lighthouse
    Ponce Inlet Lighthouse Fresnel Lenses

    After the museum we stopped along the Atlantic Ocean beach for a few minutes. It was late in the day and there weren’t many people around. But we did get our feet. wet in the ocean. Steven did it mostly to get relief from the Bradenton bug bites.

    Vicki near the Atlantic
    Vicki excited to be at the Atlantic
    Vicki in the Atlantic
    Vicki in the Atlantic Ocean along Daytona Beach Shores
    Steve in the Atlantic Ocean along Daytona Beach Shores
    Steve in the salt fog from Atlantic beach along Daytona Beach Shores

    Dinner that evening was at a seafood restaurant (Our Deck Down Under) where we both had the blackened Mahi-mahi with Jalepeno/cheese grits and rum punch drinks. The food was great, and the drinks were satisfying.

    Our Deck Down Under
    View of Halifax River from Our Deck Down Under
    Gratuitous bar poster from Our Deck Down Under

    V- taking one look at that lighthouse – I wasn’t thinking about the 203 steps but about the height of the bldg. When I saw Steven’s pictures, I knew it was a good call – I got weak behind the knees just looking at them – both the looking up pictures and especially the looking down pictures. The stories of the lighthouse keepers and their families and the two assistant keepers and their families brought to light all the work it took. They were hauling oil, in heavy containers, up those steps to burn in the lamps so the Fresnel mirrored lights could light a path to those at sea.

    While my friends were talking about all the white snow in their yards back home and family in Virginia Beach were doing the same, I was looking at some beautiful white stuff, too – the white sands of Daytona Beach. The weather was warmer today and the sun was brighter. Hooray!!!

    Did we mention it was the Daytona 400 Race weekend as well? Restaurants were pretty packed but we found 2 seats at the crowded bar of Our Deck Down Under. We had great views of the inner coastal river and enjoyed the shrimp and grits- 8 blackened shrimp served over jalapeño bacon cheese grits with hush pups. 

  • Feb 16 and 17: Port Orange, Fort Matanzas and St. Augustine

    Sunday morning we were informed that we had used 50Gbytes of data on our cell plan, and that our data rate would be slowed down. We have been able to be on zoom calls, but other internet sites (banks and credit cards) are running slow.

    Steve and Lexie started the morning with a two mile hike at the Spruce Creek Reserve. The hike started along the water but then went into a pine forest with a pine needle forest bed.

    Spruce Creek Preserve trail map
    Spruce Creek Preserve dog walk board walk
    Spruce Creek Preserve dog walk more board walk
    Spruce Creek Preserve dog walk entrance sign that is not near the entrance

    I attended Mass at “Catholic Church of the Epiphany”. This church was full of people! Sad to say that my current church, St. Agnes/Our Lady of Fatitma, can’t say the same thing.

    Catholic Church of the Epiphany entrance
    Catholic Church of the Epiphany
    Catholic Church of the Epiphany inside entrance

    In the afternoon a cold front came through with high winds and rain. I did a quick study to find out at what point should I worry about high winds in an RV. That point appears to be 50mph when stationary. But winds greater than 10mph while traveling can cause problems.

    Monday Vicki and I left early to go visit St. Augustine. The weather on Monday was cool (high in the 50s) and windy.

    Our first stop on the way to St. Augustine was our first National Park this trip: Fort Matanzas. Fort Matanzas guarded a waterway back door to St. Augustine. The ferry to the fort was shut down because the dock had been damaged by Hurricane Milton last fall. But we still listened to the history of the fort on the park grounds and afterwards walked around the nature trail. On the nature trail we learned about live oaks, hammocks, gopher tortoises and other native fauna and flora of the area.

    Inaccessible Fort Matanzas
    Resurrection fern on live oak
    More nature trail by Fort Matanzas visitor center
    Nature trail by Fort Matanzas visitor center
    overlooking the Atlantic Ocean by Fort Matanzas

    There were some interesting sights in St. Augustine but what I will remember is the horrific traffic. The last two miles into downtown St. Augustine took an hour. Because it was President’s Day, the town was overrun with tourists! Yes, I know I am one of the tourists. But I didn’t anticipate the crowd and now know better than to be a tourist on a holiday. We took the trolley tour of St. Augustine, which was informative but the hop-on, hop-off aspect was sketchy. Very few people hopped off, our trolley was always full, and the trolleys were timed longer than the advertised 15 minutes apart.

    The trolley tour started at a museum that talked about the Spanish treasure fleets, pirates and privateers. It also talked about the hotel and railroad magnate Flagler, and other parts of Florida’s history. Including the first RV tourists:

    description of original RVers in Florida
    recreation of original RVers in Florida

    We jumped off the trolley near Fort Castillo and grabbed a (late) lunch at The Grilled Cheese Gallery. We both got Mac and Cheese grilled cheese sandwiches which were delicious and filling. And much needed.

    Stevens mac and cheese and pulled pork cheese sandwich
    Vickis mac and cheese and lobster grilled cheese sandwich

    Fort Castillo and its history was fascinating. This area was controlled by the Spanish and British during its first few centuries. And the French had an interest in it as well. The Fort was built to protect the Spanish treasure fleet from pirates and privateers. My first thought was that the walls weren’t angled properly to be protected from inside the fort. But our walk-around on the walls of the fort showed that the outside of the walls were exposed to defenders inside the fort.

    Steve at the welcome sign to Castillo de San Marcos
    Castillo de San Marcos Vicki on the seawall
    Castillo de San Marcos engineered living seawall
    Castillo de San Marcos birds eye view
    Castillo de San Marcos outside gate
    Castillo de San Marcos moat around inside gate
    Castillo de San Marcos outside defenses to inside gate
    Castillo de San Marcos top of the wall into the courtyard
    Castillo de San Marcos defenders view of outer wall
    Castillo de San Marcos inlet facing garret
    Castillo de San Marcos facing the inlet
    Castillo de San Marcos cannon facing the river
    Castillo de San Marcos Vicki trigger finger

    On the way back to the starting point we passed by the Mission of Nombre de Dios, the oldest Catholic Church in North America.

    Plaque recognizing the founding of Mission of Nombre de Dios
    the cross celebrating 450 years from the founding of Mission of Nombre de Dios

    V- the fort was pretty cool. St. Augustine historic district had a lot of information, buildings, historic sites, restaurants, bars crammed into a tight area. Flagler College was everywhere in this historic district so besides all of the tourists, there was a large student population out and about on President’s day. Glad we went and especially loved the fort. The first Catholic church in North America, Mission of Nombre de Dios – Mission of the Name of God, was founded back in 1565. The drive back was only about an hour so that was a blessing. We were tired by then. The drive from Fort Matanzas along the FL 1 route was very scenic and picturesque – also very distant with a two-lane road making it a very long trip. I started imagining the colonists and soldiers making those treks along sand dunes, the hammock areas (spits of heavily forested land between the Atlantic and the intercoastal rivers and waterways) and probably through a lot of creeks and high tide waters.

  • Feb 14 2025: To Port Orange (174 miles traveled)

    This morning we took off from Winter Quarters to Rose Bay. Tim came by and we were able to get a tire pressure reading on my driver rear inside tire. Yesterday I couldn’t read anything on it and I was going to take the RV to a commercial truck shop to have them look at the tire. But thanks to Tim, that stop was not needed.

    The road trip between Bradenton and Port Orange was hard. We stopped at a normal gas station, which meant that I had to carefully maneuver the RV next to a gas pump. And maneuver my way out again. After that stop, which was only into our trip by 45 minutes, we could not find another rest area/truck stop on the way to Port Orange. We pulled over the RV onto a shoulder for an emergency biobreak…. thankfully we could do that. But the shoulder the RV was on was narrow and the RV shook when traffic passed by.

    So we arrived at Rose Bay RV park hangry (no lunch and four hours of driving.) The office at the RV park offered minimal help, there is no WiFi, no picnic table, and the campsite we have looks like it formerly housed a mobile home. So we are homesick for our previous park in Bradenton.

    Rose Bay Park site with Vicki and Lexie
    Rose Bay Park site with Steve and Lexie
    Rose Bay access

    V-Rain and high winds kept us inside more than usual and we didn’t even open up the awning – we didn’t want it torn or ripped off. We made a lot of side trips from this location. Having a rental car for 2 weeks in Bradenton and for a week in Port Orange allowed us a lot of freedom. Grocery store run, vet run to get Lexie’s staples out, gave us a good measure of mobility. We also drove past Palmer College of Chiropractic Medicine on the second day. My chiropractor, Dr. Mary Teague and my former chiro Dr. Scott Sesny both graduated from that school.

    Not as many activities at this RV resort. The previous resort had a Valentine’s Days dance and potluck on the day we left, this had nada. This resort also had more 4 month+ residents so they tended to be a bit less friendly to the transients – US.

  • Feb 11, 12 and 13 2025: Bradenton

    We didn’t take any pictures on Feb 11! Steve did have an adventure: his bike’s front tire blew out!

    First I replaced the inner tube because the valve stem was cracked. 30 seconds after inflating the replacement inner tube, the tire itself blew out from the rim. Loudly. I was able to get a new inner tube and tire at the local Walmart. The inner tube had a Presta valve, and I have never used (or seen one used) before. But I like the Presta valve, mostly because it has a threaded metal valve stem so that a nut can secure the valve stem to the rim. Now the inner tube is easier to fill. But after fixing the tire, I only took a short bike ride to confirm that there were no other problems.

    On Feb 12 Steve took a 14 mile bike ride to Fort Hamer and beyond! The road had bike lanes on both sides, so even though the road was busier than the bike ride to Rye Preserve, I felt safer since I had my own space.

    bike ride to Ft Hamer and beyond
    Ft Hamer Park
    Manatee river at Ft Hamer Park

    Also on Feb 12 Vicki went to St. Petersburg to get her hair colored. She also stopped at Dan/Andrea’s place and picked up Dan’s wonderful Taylor guitar. She played it as soon as she got back to the RV.

    Vicki and new to her Taylor

    Greg and Barb joined us in the evening, after putting up with some horrible traffic going between St. Petersburg and Bradenton. We gave them a quick tour of the RV. All tours of the RV are quick, there isn’t a lot to see. Afterwards we went to Pier 22 for dinner. Pier 22 was a wonderful restaurant, the food was excellent and the view was awesome since the restaurant overlooks the Manatee River.

    Pier 22 dinner w Greg and Barb

    Feb 13:

    Vicki and Steve drove to Sarasota to visit the Ringling Museum. We were only there for a couple of hours so we will need to go again to see the rest of the exhibits. We only had a chance to see the miniature circus and the exhibit that described the different roles of the entertainers. The detail in the miniature circus was incredible, I think it has over 50,000 pieces. And it made me appreciate the effort that went into getting a circus into town for a one day show. We are in awe at how rock stars can transform an arena for a single night’s show, and repeating the process daily in city after city. The circus would do the same thing, on a much larger scale! The circus involved 100 train cars, 1500 people and animals that would arrive in a town in the morning, set up the big top and other areas, have a parade down main street, and have a show with multiple acts going on simultaneously. I remember seeing a couple of circus shows a long time ago, and I could be talked into seeing another one today.

    Vicki and Ringling Museum entrance
    Steve and Ringling Museum entrance
    Ringling Museum grounds
    Ringling Museum miniatures
    Ringling Museum miniatures parade
    Ringling Museum miniatures big top
    Ringling Museum miniatures big top seating

    After taking 2 hours to return the rental car (traffic, dog hairs and Uber all conspired to make that a long ordeal), Steve and Vicki went to dinner with their neighbors Tim and Andrea at a local restaurant; Speaks Clam Bar. The Mai Tai at Speaks Clam Bar was on par with the Mai Tais from Hawaii! And the food was awesome! We enjoyed more seafood (2nd night for seafood in a row for us.)

    Speaks Clam Bar
    Speaks Clam Bar w Andrea and a couple of Mai Tais

    Afterwards Vicki played a few songs, accompanied with her new best friend Taylor. We all enjoyed the evening, especially since we were in Tim and Andrea’s new screened room that kept out the biting bugs.

    Bug free serenade with Andrea
    Bug free serenade with Tim

    V-my wonderful son Dan – I told him how much I enjoyed playing his Taylor and he asked if I wanted it. I thought he was kidding. Mind blown! I said I would borrow it for a season and return it to him. It is delightful to play. I promised to play it daily and I’m doing it. Now I just have to remember all the chords and words to all those songs that I sang for many years when I was entertaining for Happy Hour bar crowds. I’m still a bit rusty on some of those barred chords but it’s coming back. Tougher than riding a bicycle.

    Great dinner with Greg and Barb, right on the Manatee River. Beautiful full moon and lights reflecting off the water. We really enjoyed the Manatee Winter Quarter RV resort and all the activities and all the really sweet, friendly people. Next time, we will probably stay closer to St. Pete/Treasure Island as the traffic back and forth to see our peeps was tough on them and not great fun for us. Rush hour felt like ALL DAY and into the evening.

    Tim and Andrea were a lot of fun as well as our neighbors on either side of us and the ladies in the water aerobics class. We will be catching up with one couple from Fairlawn/Akron area when those snowbirds fly back home. We are truly blessed to cross paths with so many terrific people.