galeckiadventure.com

Category: Family

  • 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 9 and 10 2025: Bradenton on a Sunday and Monday

    Steve went to Our Lady of the Angels for Mass. Our neighbors from across the street (Tim and Andrea) go there regularly and took Steve with them. The church was packed! There was a line of cars coming in and going out both before the 9am Mass and afterwards. And there were three levels of greeters! My neighbors described this as a vibrant church, at it certainly was filled with people that wanted to be there. (The people prominently in the picture are innocent passer-bys and were erased from the picture..}

    Our Lady of the Angels Church

    Vicki watched her Rockside church service remotely. We took turns staying at the RV so we could be with Lexie, who is recovering from the sutures nicely.

    In the evening I visited Greg, Barb and Nick to watch the Superbowl. Sorry, no pictures. 🙁 Vicki stayed with Lexie because of the sutures. I told that to Greg, sort of. But the text read that Vicki had been bitten, and I was letting Lexie take care of her while I went to the superbowl party.

    Monday Steve took Lexie for a 2.5 mile walk at Lake Manatee State Park. Lexie was tired near the end and really wanted to rest. But she got the message to continue. It was a great walk along sandy trails. There were signs explaining that controlled burns were performed every few years, and there was evidence along the way of controlled burns. Lake Manatee was visible on the return leg of the walk.

    Lake Manatee State Park dog walk
    Lake Manatee State Park controlled burn area
    Lake Manatee State Park w Lexie
    Lake Manatee State Park

    Alan and Patty Watson visited us for lunch. We talked awhile in the RV, though I don’t think we convinced the Watson’s to buy an RV and travel. We then went for lunch at a local cafe: Peaches. The lunch was more of a breakfast with three eggs benedicts ordered.

    Watsons inside RV
    Peaches Cafe w Watsons

    In the evening we went to Restaurant Edelweiss in Bradenton to have dinner with Dan and Andrea. We shared an order of potato pancakes followed by four schnitzel dinners. Dan and Steve had Hunter’s Schnitzel with a mushroom gravy. Vicki had a schnitzel with a mango and peach topping. Andrea had Schnitzel Cordon Bleu. Somehow we had room for dessert: apple strudel and Black Forest Chocolate cake.

    Restaurant Edelweiss entrance in Bradenton
    cheers with Dan and Andrea at Restaurant Edelweiss

    V-great German meal! So glad to have one last chance to visit with Dan before his weekly work trip.

  • Feb 8 2025: Bradenton and not so fun doggie adventures

    The day started well with Steve taking a 17.5 mile bike ride. And I think the 254′ change in elevation was due to the roughness of the road. Steve biked to Rye Preserve, drank in some of the water at the park, and returned to the RV. The route was along the Manatee river, which was very narrow at this point.

    Rye Preserve bike ride map
    Biking to rye preserve
    rye preserve nature center
    inside rye preserve
    upper manatee river outside rye preserve

    After the bike ride, Steve, Vicki and Lexie went back to Dandrea’s place for another dog walk. The walk was uneventul and we saw some turtles and bottom heavy ducks at a nearby pond.

    ducks and turtles at Dan and Andrea – notice the 3 turtles in a row on the concrete culvert

    The afternoon took a nasty turn when Thor thought Lexie was too close to him when the dogs were going through a door into the pool zone. Thor snapped at Lexie but this growling/snapping lasted less than a second. Steven was guiding both dogs into the pool zone and pulled Lexie quickly away. About a half hour later Andrea found some blood on Lexie’s throat, and the blood was from a puncture wound. Lexie didn’t notice anything, but Vicki and Steve packed her up to get her stitched up. Lexie was a great dog, declining the anesthesia. She has been quiet today (Sunday), it probably helps that we have given her some drugs to keep her calm.

    V-Lexie was a great patient. The vet techs said she was well-behaved and they had no issues cleaning out the wound and checking surrounding areas and then getting 3 small staples in to close the wound. The price was so reasonable. If you’ve ever needed services of an emergency vet (hopefully not) they can easily run into the thousands. Better yet was the sweet care they showed her and us. Beacon Emergency Vet Hospital in St. Petersburg  2909 4th Street North St. Petersburg, FL 727-888-2191. The primary tech on our case was Hunter and he reminded me of my Connor, so compassionate and thorough in all the details of aftercare.

    It was so quick and over immediately when Thor got her, just a quick snap to remind her of who is King at South Pole. The dogs were not freaking out at all. We checked her over and didn’t appear to be any problem. I did say it was karma – Lexie got Little Dog’s ear about 6 months ago.

  • Feb 7 2025: Bradenton and St. Pete (still 0 miles road travel)

    Another morning walk with Lexie at Tom Bennet Park. Our morning route is shown below.

    Steve and Lexie morning walk in Tom Bennet park

    Today we got Vicki’s bike out and we took a short bike ride around the local neighborhood. While only seven miles, Vicki’s wrists still became numb from the vibration.

    Vicki preparing for her first Floridian bike ride
    Steve and Vicki first bike ride together

    Dan and Andrea treated us to dinner at Beau’s and Moe’s Italian restaurant. The food was fantastic! Dan ordered a chopped lobster tail for us to share as an appetizer, which was smothered in butter and delicious.Vicki and I shared a Chateaubriand, a baked filet that was very tasty.

    Afterwards the four of us returned to Dandrea’s place and Vicki and Dan jammed on the guitars. Steve played a tambourine, at his own beat. Andrea was on a beat box…

    dan jamming
    Vicki jamming
    Dan and Vicki jamming

    V – what an absolute joy this evening was. From great food to a really FUN jam session. Dan’s Taylor guitar is really SWEET, first time I ever played it. I haven’t had so much fun playing guitar in a while, especially great playing with this very talented guitarist while he was playing on his newest guitar, I believe this was his electric Fender. We be jamming. LOVED this night.

  • Feb 6 2025: Bradenton and St. Pete adventures

    Another walk in the morning for Steve and Lexie at Tom Bennet Park.

    Vicki enjoyed another water aerobics workout in the morning.

    Our lunch was grilled steak sandwiches with steak from two nights ago. The sandwich was steak, tomato, provolone between two pieces of garlic bread.

    Steve, Vicki and Lexie visited Dan, Andrea, Thor and Luna at their house near Treasure Island. All went for a walk, the dogs got along nicely. Thor remembered Lexie, and vice versa. A friendly remembrance. Luna barked at Lexie at first sight, but that was her only reaction. Most of the time the dogs ignored each other. Or overpeed on the grass. We kept Luna separated from Lexie when we were back at Dan and Andrea’s house. Thor and Lexie were fine, but the toys and food were kept away from them.

    Steve accepted Dan’s challenge of 10 minutes in a steam sauna followed by a 2 minute dip into chilled water. The chilled water was only 48F, not the normal 40F that Dan likes. Steve only lasted for one minute in the dip. But there was no whimpering, release of magic words, or other reaction to show how cold the water was!

    Relaxing with Dan and Andrea

    Steve had an IEEE Executive Committee meeting in the evening. Chris Weber, the vice chair, did a great job of leading the meeting.

    We closed the evening out with a game of Cities and Knights. Vicki one by a point, I wasn’t able to steal the longest road from her! In spite of the barbarians hammering her!

    City and Knights winner

    After the game we watched another episode of Eli Stone on the DVD. I think we have enough episodes to last the rest of the trip.

    V- the table in the RV can seat 4 and it is JUST large enough for most of our games – for longer trips or games like Terraforming Mars, we will have to be creative with an additional table. We’ll figure it out. This trip is about figuring out how to best use our living space and the different things we’d like to do with it as much as getting that natural Vitamin D.

  • Feb 5 2025: Winter Quarters fun

    This morning Steve took Lexie for a walk at Tom Bennet Park. The park is less than half a mile from the campground, but we took the car to keep Lexie off the busy road. While the park is close to I-75, Lexie was enjoying the connection with nature. The park has several ponds, and a large disc golf course. We walked about 2 miles this morning. Sorry, Lexie didn’t make the pictures.

    Steve w Lexie at Tom Bennet Park
    Steve w Lexie at Tom Bennet Park, 180 spin

    Vicki and Steve made it to a golf course today (after Vicki’s water aerobic class). The course is a flat and fast 1600 yards. But we enjoyed the fresh air and swinging the golf clubs. Vicki scored better than Steve, again. But at least on this course Steve’s score was at six or less for all the holes.

    Vicki teeing off at River Isles Golf Club
    Golfing at hole 7

    In the evening Steve and Vicki made went to Billy’s Loft (at Billy’s Stone Crab) in Tierra Verde to listen to Pete Merrigan. We met Greg and Barb there and spent the evening talking about travels. We did listen a little to Pete. And Vicki was able to join him near the end of the evening for a couple of songs. On Wednesday the Loft empties around 6:30, so there was ample opportunity for Vicki to join Pete (and his bass player Pat)

    Greg and Barb looking great for having just returned from New Zealand
    Greg Barb Steve and Vicki at the Loft
    Pete Merrigan
    Vicki singing Me and Bobby McGee
    Vicki singing Shame and Scandal

    V – What a great day! First round of golf in 2025, it was rough but not pitiful. As always the most important part is the FUN, being outdoors, getting some great shots and some not so great shots is just part of the game. Always good to see Pete, wonderful to catch up with Greg and Barb and meet some new folks – Pansy and Pat, the bass player. Amazing grouper piccata for dinner. Back to Bradenton, Lexie was chillin’ on the couch.

  • Feb 1 2025: Encore Winter Quarters Manatee (0 miles)

    Steve tried to take Lexie on a walk at our RV park. Lexie refused to go further than 0.75 miles out before we turned around. She is very jittery about the highway noise.

    Steve washed the winter weather grime off the RV at the campsite. This took about 40 minutes but the RV now looks much better.

    Steve picked up a rental car: a Ford Edge. It looks like a nice car and the large screen is great for directions. Much better than the smaller screen I have in the 2015 Prius. I took an Uber to get the rental, the Uber was a Tesla. I can understand why people love the Tesla, the display showed all the surrounding traffic.

    Next came the draining of the gray and black water tanks. This was uneventful. Thankfully. One eventful draining is enough for a lifetime.

    The site looks good and it is easy to relax in. Lexi definitely thinks so, she is reclining outside on her outside doggie bed. One downside: no wifi, so we are using our phones as local hot spots.

    Winter Quarters campsite setup

    And Vicki has spent a lot of time finding good homes for all our stuff.

    Dan and Andrea came to visit in the afternoon. We had cheese and crackers while enjoying a visit. I have yet to ask him how our site compares to ‘Trailer Park Boys’.

    We were supposed to go to Dan and Andrea’s place, but Steve had problems activating the SunPass we picked up. He spent an hour trying to figure out how to activate the SunPass through the internet. The obvious method, create an account and register the device, didn’t work. This method would send you a SunPass by mail in 7-10 days. But after clicking many buttons on the app, there was a button that said “Register Device”. In that flow you could create an account before registering the Sunpass.

    We could have used the EZ Pass, if we had brought it. But the SunPass was $15, cheaper than paying for the tolls through the rental car company. So instead of visiting Dan and Andrea, we had another night of ravioli (we are running out of Cleveland food!)

    Ravioli for dinner

    V-We also discovered the no-see-ums, or they discovered us. Nasty little critters that bite and buzz and itch – we’ve tried a few things suggested by the locals. They chase us indoors when they are swarming. Unfortunately, these guys aren’t sticking to the schedule of dusk, overcast and cloudy. Our camping areas here are pretty and we’re right on the lake. They live in the grass near still or slow waters – yep, that’s us. We’re doing what we can, spraying, using a fan outdoors to blow them away, Thermacell bug chaser and my citronella bracelets. Stevens’s been slathering on the aloe vera gel for the itching.

  • Jan 26 2025: The road trip starts

    After much packing, and then finally just throwing things on the bed to be put away later, we finally took off!

    Today’s travels were through snow covered Ohio, from Seven Hills down to Mason. Thanks for the hats Connor!

    Our Seven Hills neighborhood
    Ohio north of Columbus
    Kuglic’s driveway in West Chester, OH

    We stopped at West Chester to visit Jordan and Emily Adams (and Matthew, Benjamin, Joseph, Judah and Mary Eleanor) at Les and Donna Kuglic’s house. Great to see all the boys running around. And Mary Eleanor was very sweet, and quiet. The boys enjoyed getting in the RV and exploring it! As did the adults.

    Benjamin and Judah checking out the RV

    After dinner with the Adams and Kuglics, and a game of charades with the boys, Vicki, Lexie and I drove through Cincinnatti and across the Ohio River (at night) to get to our hotel in Florence, KY

    Best Western, Florence KY