Bikin' the Back Roads

Another quiet day...Eldy went to an RV chat this morning but the schedule was a little mixed up and the Cummins Engine guy is coming next week, so basically, he was in a coffee klatch this morning, chewin' the fat with the fellas.....Always a good thing for guys to have an outlet where they can talk about MANLY stuff! Or complain about their wives, who knows? Honestly, I think the guys can talk up a storm just as good as the women can! (Careful, now, Sparky, you might be stirring up some trouble here...)

Sparky went hunting for supplies in Clermont for the scarf class coming up this Saturday...then attended a jewelry making class--always looking for a way to make some extra money down the road..Today, we made bracelets and earrings. I think they turned out great, our teacher was really great. She's going to do some more classes in the next couple of weeks. (Sparky has yet to see a profit, but I'm holding out for one, says E.) Just gotta find my niche!  Eldy's so patient, he's like Rick of Rick and Paulette's Travels, where Rick supports Paulette's quilting 100%! Eldy's backing me 100% except just not the money bags part, which is a wise decision on his part--let's wait for Sparky to MAKE some money, not SPEND it on craft supplies...(Gulp! Sparky came home all excited today about making and selling jewelry, explains E. Haven't seen too many beads in the cupboard but I'm hopin' they are already there and not something ELSE she's got to stock up on....) Hm-m-m-m...maybe making jewelry might be the way to go.... But hey--scarf class looks promising, eight people have signed up! Should be fun!

Another bike ride today along county roads near Florida Grande....late in the day to catch the sun's rays peeking through the moss draped trees....

And I had to say hello to some big guys......They were very curious and came over to the fence to check me out.....(What's with Sparky and these cows? She must have been a farm girl in another life! thinks E.) Yeah, it's a little goofy, I do love cows...Used to date a farmer years ago, maybe that has something to do with it. Used to bale hay, run a skid loader, bottle feed struggling calves. I did that for a couple of years and realized that was not the life for me even though I liked the hard work. I liked going back to the simpler things in life like having a garden, doing chores, taking care of animals.  I DO like animals, most kinds, what can I say?...I had to go over the the fence and talk to the cows..."Hi, guys, how are you doin'? You're a handsome bunch of fellas...." Even let one of them lick my hand....Then I thought I better get going in case some farmer thought I was up to some mischief!

A beautiful day.....very thankful that I have such a supportive partner in Eldy who encourages me to do the things I love to do....and never says a word about the coach having enough yarn to be yarn bombed if I so felt like it! Yarn bombing is where you actually knit stuff to fit around everyday objects...Here is an example....Hey, Eldy, I could yarn bomb PARTS of the coach! Maybe the mirrors, maybe the windshield...gee, that would take a LOT more yarn than what I got on board....heheheh........

Until tomorrow...

What's Happenin', Sparky?

Not much....attended the yoga exercise class this morning and was THAT a stretch for the ole tight hamstrings, back muscles, shoulder muscles, well, you get the picture! I must be wound so tight, I'm an accident waiting to happen as far as a pulled muscle or ligament. Got to get in shape for future pickleball matches! No wonder I hurt my Achilles tendon a couple of years ago, playing tennis as a weekend warrior with my youngest brother Charlie. It took me almost a year and a half to recover from that.

I can see that I have a lot of work to do as far as getting some more flexibility and better posture, so I'm going to keep going with the yoga. It's kind of interesting, getting to know your body and paying more attention to it!  (I can do that! grins E.) Well, yeah, but I have to learn more about breathing and holding my posture better and just paying more attention to doing those darn stretching moves so I don't hurt so much in the mornings when I get up! So gotta do that on my own, sweetie! (Sigh!)

After yoga this morning, we went to a yarn shop in Summerfield, FL, about 45 minutes from Webster, so I could get some yarn for my class. Notice I said, "WE". I had Eldy accompany me, at least take me there so 1) I wouldn't spend as much time in the shop as if I were by myself, lessening the amount of temptation that presented itself, and 2) so I wouldn't get lost! I got what I needed but still was amazed at how fast the "stash" accumulated in about ten minutes. It was a beautiful shop called "The Yarn Lady". She had all the scarf yarns in stock, and LOADS of unique and specialty yarns. I tried to avert my eyes as much as possible, focusing on scarf yarns only, but it was HARD not to look at everything. Lots of people knitting at tables, lots of eye candy, a very busy store!

Mission accomplished! I got what I needed to teach my scarf class on Saturday. Eldy agreed to have lunch at the Ay, Jalisco Mexican Restaurant in the Villages, which was very close by, which was really nice of him, as he is NOT a fan of Mexican food....Aye, carumba! How can you not be a fan of Mexican food!?  Well, easy...just like Sparky is not a fan of....u-m-m-mm....uhhhhhhh....geez, can't think of any food I don't like at the moment, imagine that!

An easy day, a great way to spend a rainy day.....Back home we came, and off to a wine tasting, chicken parmesan spaghetti supper at the clubhouse at Florida Grande for 6.00 a person.....visited with the neighbors at our table, and enjoyed swapping travel stories and hearing tales from others who have had interesting jobs and experiences while traveling....Tomorrow is Pilates for Sparky, and the RV Chat Forum with Cummins for Eldo. See you there!

We're Maxed Out!

Not only do we now have all the Thousand Trails zones in the U.S., but we picked up the Max Your Pass for Florida for an additional 199.00. While I was visiting my sister, Eldy was getting a few minor wrinkles ironed out with our Thousand Trails contract, which was a new contract in the system for the Tampa RV show, one which all four U.S. zones could be coupled with the Max Your Pass in Florida. We discovered that if you get the entire U.S. zone at the Tampa RV show, the contract is for FIVE years, and not one or two as with individual zones...But that's ok, we are full timers and plan to still be using the Thousand Trails membership each year. In our minds, that's a short period of time in the grand scheme of things. Heck, we're just getting started! We realize lots could change in a heartbeat, but we're willing to trade the locked in time span of five years for fantastic savings to our travel budget and in return get lots of parks to stay in all over the country along with a chance to stay in the Thousand Trails park in the Florida Keys for two weeks for very little. We've booked two weeks in the Keys for the middle of February and it's only going to cost us about 11.60 a day since we will just start using the membership after we leave here. Woo-hoo! We've got 60 days of extremely low cost camping, and after that 60 days, it only costs us 3.00 a day to stay at Thousand Trails resorts....There are 9 alone in Florida for the Max Pass + Southeastern zone pass....

AND----with all the savings of the zone memberships, providing Sparky isn't too picky about campgrounds, she ought to be able to rack up enough savings to get that Sea Eagle 385 inflatable kayak pretty quickly! Let's just say she's highly motivated!

Riding along the county roads

What did we do today? Sparky knitted at the morning knit and kvetch group----Eldy did laundry... Sparky did a 7.0 mile bike ride today on county roads nicely balanced with shade and sunshine...beautiful HUGE live oak trees with that Spanish moss or whatever lichen it is.....Saw two sandhill cranes in a field...Even though there isn't much water around other than ponds for cattle to drink from, it's surprising how many sandhill cranes are in the area.....Or are these whooping cranes?

The live oaks with all the moss hanging down are just beautiful at certain times of the day when the sunlight filters through......

I stopped to notice wonder just how all that moss gets started and gets growing? And then I remembered one of our nature hikes in previous travels and the discussion about epiphytes--plants that just need air and a little moisture and establish roots without soil...sort of like a host and resident guest sort of relationship...My science background of working in the schools is fading....sybiosis? At any rate, this is what they look like just starting out......

What are we doing tomorrow? Let's see, from 9-10:00 AM it's Pilates, 10:00 there's street golf, (have no idea what that entails, maybe I'll send Eldy down to check it out!) at 1:00 PM-- line dancing, at 5:00 PM, a wine tasting pasta night at the clubhouse, and at 7:00 PM, Hand and Foot cards.....no shortage of things to do, that's for sure! Not sure I'll do any of those, but if we want to, we can!

We like Florida Grande so much, we've decided to stay an additional week, putting us one week into February. And besides, Eldy has signed up for golf lessons with a pro at a top notch golf course for 125.00 for a three hour lesson once a week for three weeks..Video taping his swing is part of the facilities' lessons. Eldy is anxiously awaiting to hear when it starts!  Florida Grande..it's a great place!

Sparky's B-A-A-A-C-K!!!!

And Eldo's glad! Because he's hungry for a home cooked meal! The neighbors, Ritchie and Nick had him over for a spaghetti dinner one night, (Thanks, guys!) he cooked hamburgers for himself one night on the grill and egg sandwiches in the mornings a couple of times--I'm proud of you, hon! And the rest of the time, he "batched it" with fast food.....And probably the bucket of popcorn with a stick and half of butter on it in between! Now that the diet police are back, he'll be on quarantine for awhile, lol! Just kidding!

Sparky had a wonderful time....from flying from the Orlando airport to the recently renovated Detroit Metro Airport back and forth.......There's a really nice tram that takes you from one end of McNamara Terminal at DTW to the other and it's as quiet as quiet can be...nice touch! Moving escalator flat "sidewalks" are available for tired travelers with heavy loads....Airports are GREAT for watching people.

Sparky is trying to stay savvy with technology, so she checked in online the day before she was scheduled to fly, and had her boarding pass sent to her mobile phone, WITH a paper boarding pass printed out just in case the mobile phone app didn't register. Up she stepped to the boarding gate scanner, and breezily held the phone and its scan code over the reader and she was in the clear. You should have seen the looks on some bystanders' faces....WHAT?! THIS IS NOT A KID BUT AN OLD WHITE HAIRED GRANDMA USING TECHNOLOGY? What's this world coming to? She tries to stay up with the technology, but it's rapidly escaping her....Apple TV? What? We need another TV to stream movies? What's an Apple TV? About a 37" monitor and expensive as all get out? Naw, Apple TV is just a little box that you can use to download movies from Netflix or other sources straight to your TV if you don't have a Wii or an Xbox or other source or don't want to watch movies on your computer.

Sparky had a wonderful time people watching and baby watching, ESPECIALLY baby watching since she's going to be a grandma in June.

My brother, Charlie and his wife, Kris, flew in for the party and it was great to see them again... We really hang onto our family memories as we get older and love to talk about the good family times when we get together, so we did a LOT of that....Here we are together for a brief moment at the party....

Lyle was very happy at the number of people who responded that they were coming, since she wanted her birthday to be more about the Ferndale Medical Clinic that provides medical care for those with no insurance than about reaching the age of 70. But our family is always up for a celebration, so we celebrated both! Her 70th is pretty special because she's conquered breast cancer twice! The party raised over 1,000.00 for the clinic---awesome! She gave a warm, heartfelt speech which caused a few tears to shed, I was in that bunch!

Lyle's sons--Ron, Jim and John and their friend, Paul who have played together in a band, practiced a set for the party goers for later in the evening. They did a great job, and we rock and rolled a bit!

There was TONS of food, and great snacks...Sparky's favorite was the personalized M & M's with Lyle's picture on them along with a couple of birthday messages! She did her best to make a dent in the pile!

Sparky got to hold her niece and nephew's new baby for a LONG time so the parents could mingle and sit with each other for awhile....That's hard to do with a month old baby and little sister who's three....Sparky is READY to be a grandma! Bring it on, Kerry! (That's her daughter who's going to have a little boy in June, explains E.)  He was VERY cuddly!

Lyle's granddaughter, Paige, made a montage of photos and music of Lyle's life. She used a Ken Burns app they said, to make it. Sparky is going to have to check that out...It was a awesome video!

A wonderfully exhausting emotion filled weekend but I'm glad to be back home again.....

Where's Sparky?

At her sister's in Detroit....she'll be back, with more to share on January 16th or 17th....see you then!

We're in the ZONE!

Woweee!!!! Wheee-eeee-eeee! I feel like those pig commercials on TV after attending the Tampa RV show and stepping foot inside some pretty darn expensive motor COACHES at the show today. How about looking around inside a 1.9 million dollar plus Marathon/Prevost coach? We always wanted to see one. So Sparky took off her shoes, a requirement, stepped inside and immediately committed a faux pas, a boo-boo, a big mistake....SHE TOOK A PHOTO. Oops! Sorry! BUT I HAVE THE PHOTO AND HERE IT IS......

We're talking heated real wood floors, walk in tiled showers, bath and a half with luxury faucets and free standing bowls, cooktop stoves, push button windows, all-in-one TV's that control the climate, the windows, the internet and everything you could think of...Here's the interior of a Newmar coach, about seven hundred fifty thousand plus....

You wanna see some glitz? Some glamour? How about the plumbing system on a Liberty coach, another over a million coach, almost two million......Wow! Look at those beautiful copper pipes!

Wait---there's more!

We signed up to get some great deals on camping stays as in FREE.....Actually, maybe we weren't not THAT excited as the pigs on TV, but we're excited for a couple different reasons...We're thrilled because Thousand Trails was offering the zone membership again...Pick one zone 199.00...(show price)...You get 30 nights camping for "free", then 3.00 a night after that...So you are paying about 6.63 a day. So-o-o-o, we were going to buy a zone, possibly two. Until we saw THE DEAL. You and the friend of your choice sign up at the same time and you can get ALL the zones in the United States for 499.00. You get 60 nights of extremely low cost camping then 3.00 a day after that...There was just one problem....

We didn't have any friends around us to take advantage of the offer....Some of our blogging friends are in the keys, other friends were at the show but we weren't able to contact them....So the Thousand Trails people dug another couple up that were in the same situation, which took care of the "buddy" membership requirement. We took the plunge and got all four zones for 499.00. We get 60 nights at the low cost of 6.00 a day anywhere at a Thousand Trails park in the four zones, then three dollars a night after that. You can book 60 days out for reservations. You get to stay two weeks max at any Thousand Trails park, then you have to be a week out before coming back in again. There is something called a Max Your Pass available for 199.00 that is somehow connected to single zone purchases. It's a little complicated on that, so come on out to the Tampa RV show to find out about it. We are VERY excited to be able to have all the zones (82 Thousand Trails Parks in the system) to save money this coming year! Actually, we are going to come out ahead this year because we can start using the TT parks in Florida! And if I've made any boo-boos on information, Eldy will correct me when I get back from my sister's.

Speaking of friends, we finally connected with one of our very loyal followers who started reading us the very first blog post! Gary Miller has been on board with us since the beginning and it was GREAT to meet him and his lovely wife. He's the one that told us about tying the awning toppers down with bungee cords and rope way back when Eldy was having trouble sleeping with the many winds we've had this past year in our travels. We caught up with them at the show today and had a great talk about travels and all sorts of things...Glad to finally meet you guys!

Well, this is my last post until I get back from Detroit....I'm visiting my sister and helping her celebrate birthday #70. She's had breast cancer twice, is healthy and well, and happy to have made it this far in life. We're gonna celebrate! Eldy will be holding down the fort at Webster, visiting with our terrific neighbors Ritchie and Nick, and they will be trying to keep him out of trouble while I'm gone. We'll see you back here on Monday night or Tuesday morning.....Bye for now!

I Need a Crystal Ball?

To know where the manatees are.....because we didn't see any at the few locations on the Crystal River where they are normally seen! But that's probably because we weren't out ON the river....We took an exploratory drive to the Crystal River area today and saw lots of different things....lots of kayakers out looking for manatees, we saw the Crystal River Wildlife Refuge Center, one of the places you can usually see manatees.....But not today...we talked to another guy at a kayaking place, and he said they are all over the place due to the recent cold weather. They have definitely moved inland.

We scanned the area looking for kayaking opportunities and found different package prices for tours and individuals in the area giving tours. My mind is spinning at the moment because I'm getting ready to fly to Detroit to see my sister in two days! So until I decide when and where I might like to kayak, I'm not sure about which one to do......The average ranged from 35-45.00 for three to four hours just for the rental, then a tour fee on top of that.  (Sparky better not be thinking about heading out on her own to save money! worries E.) Haven't decided yet the plan of action, so we'll see......

We also checked out an RV park called the Rockcrusher RV Park, formerly Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park in Crystal River, FL....interesting place...nice park with lots and lots of sites, with a state park or state forest feel to it. Quite a few lots didn't seem to be level...Lots of vegetation, lots of shady spots, and a beautiful screened in pool...Hm-m-m-m, Sparky immediately thought MOSQUITOES and BUGS and FLYING INSECTS.  Seriously, how many times have you seen a screened in outdoor pool? The clubhouse was very small for the size of the park, but they had LOTS of activities going on on the monthly calendar. We didn't check the ratings on it, we just drove in and drove around and out. We would definitely consider staying there.....

pool at Rockcrusher RV Park

Back home we came....saw this guy with his model planes out in the driveway....Listen to me! I'm talking like we are in our neighborhood back in Indiana. But this feels like a neighborhood in a subdivision, it really does. So, I stopped to talk to him for a little bit. He just starting building model airplanes about a year and a half ago. There's a little club of guys here that are working on them.....They were really cool. He had a bigger one in the back of his truck. I asked him how much they run, and he said anywhere from under 50 bucks to upwards of thousands of dollars. He knows a guy that just spent 30,000.00 (!!!!!!) on a MODEL airplane! He said he'd be afraid of crashing the plane with one that expensive! Heck, yeah!! See, Eldy? Aren't you glad I don't have an expensive hobby like that? (And Eldy says, "How do I know how much you've been spending on craft supplies???? How much does yarn cost anyway???") Not that much...... :-) This guy had a jug of fuel sitting outside. He said it was part nitro, like 15%. Nitro, as in NITROGLYCERIN? That stuff is explosive, isn't it? But only with something to get it going.....

This park has lots of talented, interesting people, that's for sure!  Tomorrow, the RV show in Tampa....See you and everybody and their brother there, too!