galeckiadventure.com

Tag: #board games

  • 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.

  • Jan 31 2025: onward to Bradenton (160 miles)

    While taking Lexie for our morning walk I saw this old oak with branches drooping to the ground. It reminded me of the old oak in Louisiana that my brothers would climb on. The branch in Louisiana didn’t touch the ground, so we would get it moving up and down, left and right.

    Old oak with hanging branches at Devil’s Den

    We had planned to leave the campsite at 10am, but as I started to drive my tire sensor said I had 11 pounds of pressure in a tire. The tire pressure should have been closer to 82 pounds. So we stopped the RV for 40 minutes while I checked the air pressure and filled the tires. It appears that the tire monitor was not connected fully to the valve. And I had trouble getting readings from that tire with my tire gauges. Maybe the valve stem was blocked/kinked? I eventually got it working, reading the right pressure and believing the number.

    Lexi getting ready for the road

    The rest of the trip was uneventful. We stopped once to stretch our legs. We drove through Tampa (and some congested traffic) before finally reaching our campsite in Bradenton. The site they assigned us was very close to the freeway. And Lexie does not like freeways. So I asked for a different campsite, and paid an upcharge to get a site farther from the highway, and on the lake.

    Winter Quarters campsite
    Encore Winter Quarters Manatee campsite view
    Grumpy Steve after setting up camp

    We are at Encore Winter Quarters Manatee, off of a creek that goes to the Manatee River. This site is quiet and people are friendly. But the sites are packed in. The freeway noise is noticeable and does freak Lexie out a bit. One other distraction: no see-ums (if you know what those are, you know what I mean. )

    Another early night after dinner. We played Machu Koro, I won this round of games. And I did flip my utilities over to the correct side before starting the game.

    Machu Koro game night

    All this fresh air is exhausting! Another early to bed night!

    Vicki-great view of their lake with fountain. Both neighbors have permanent sites and are traveling so it’s feeling quiet and a bit private. We’re meeting really nice people at these RV parks. And seeing some HUGE, luxury motorhomes and trailers. Definitely glamping! Still finding homes for our gear, food and stuff.

  • Jan 28 2025: Into Georgia, around Atlanta (294 miles)

    (Steven) The mattress heating pad on the bed kept us both warm, maybe a little too warm for me. I will adjust its setting to something less. Vicki liked her warm setting. But we were grateful for the heating pad as the RV itself got very chilly. There was frost all around the campsite when I first got up, but the frost was gone by the time we left at 10am.

    Lexi took me for another walk. Thanks to the All Trails app, I found that there was a trail on the Little Tennessee River that Lazy Acres overlooked. We did about 2.5 miles of walking, a great way to start the morning.

    Little Tennessee River trail
    Steve along the Little Tennessee River eastern bank

    This was going to be a longer driving day than the previous two days. The ride was smooth through Tennessee and through Georgia until we came close to Atlanta. Even though we took the bypass, and even though we were traveling in the early afternoon, there were still congested areas.

    Our first stop of the day was as the Georgia Welcome Center, a few miles south of the Tennessee/ Georgia border. This was our first experience of parking in the ‘truck’ area.

    Parking with the big boys

    Our second stop was south of Atlanta where we needed to walk around, and get some gas. Not much to say there except I bought 52 gallons of gas. Tank holds 80 gallons.

    We arrived at the Interstate RV campgrounds in Byron GA around 4:30 and set up the RV. Since we are not expecting any more freezing weather, I de-winterized the RV. An RV pulled into the spot next to us, and as the gentleman was checking out his set-up, I professed inexperience in de-winterizing and RV. He talked me through it, pointing out where the water heater was and where the anode needed to go. I am sure I would have figured it out, eventually. But it was much easier with an experienced person talking me through it. And now the RV is fully functional with working water (hot and cold) and toilet.

    campsite at Interstate RV, Byron GA

    Dinner tonight was another prepared meal from our Cleveland grocery store. But the dishes were washed properly and easily afterwards.

    Vicki-Hooray!!! Now I feel we are truly glamping – in-the-rig running water. Never took it for a luxury but it’s the game-changer. The late night bathroom trips are no problem now, instead of getting fully dressed and winter-coated to go outside to a rest room in below freezing temps in the middle of the night. Even doing the Atlanta bypass, the traffic is torture. On top of the usual heavy mid-day traffic, add to that the aftermath of a very serious car-truck accident and down the road a totally burned out semi cab. We were thankful for the above traffic view and the Jack Reacher audible book as we sat and inched our way along I-285.

    Every day is a new learning adventure. We are thankful for this time together and the nice people we’re meeting along the way. Closed our evening with a game of Azul, then I was up til the wee hours reading.

    Game night with Azul. Vicki outscored me 85 to 45. But I am still smiling.