Sparky's on the Mend!

Sarasota, FL     High:  76     Low:  57

Well, the weather has straightened itself out...From a very cold front that blew in, one day, and quieter than what the weatherman said it would, we're back to normal temps in Sarasota for this time of year...seventies during the day, fifties at night...Weather is looking really great for the coming week...and Sparky is feelin' pretty good after a week and a half of nasty coughing, phlegm, and sinus troubles. So-o-o-o-o....She went on the Rusty Spokes Bike Club group's Longboat Key bike ride today...The weather started out with sunny and a dusting of clouds...high sixties, gentle breeze, perfect day for a ride....

Thirty-four riders headed out from the Sun 'n' Fun parking lot and drove over the the Mote Aquarium, our starting point for today. Then we headed out over the bridge to Longboat Key. Sparky met a gal named Joanie from Grand Haven, MI and Joanie had a great pace going, about 12 m.p.h. That's about Sparky's speed, so Sparky drafted her most of the way there and back, of course, chatting all the while. Nice to meet you, Joanie! Hope we run into you again at Sun 'n' Fun!

Beautiful flowering trees seen along the way

Nice views along the way...Nice wide sidewalk for cyclists, or choose the roadside bike trail.

Sparky did a little of both....We rode for 7.5 miles one way, taking two breaks, one at a fire station....

And the other, stopping along the way at one of the local beaches for a break....

Sparky's friends, Maggie and Tommy from Virginia check out the view

Who is that woman with the Fit Over Foster sunglasses?  :-)

Then, time for lunch midway through the ride! Sparky LOVES this group! Almost every planned bike ride with the Rusty Spokes biking group has a planned food/restaurant stop. Today, the stop was the Lazy Lobster Restaurant in Longboat Key. WOW!  What a place! Great atmosphere! We ate out on the patio....a really cute part of the restaurant, with lots of colorful umbrellas....Joanie sat with Sparky and another couple from Pennsylvania that had just started traveling and Sun 'n' Fun was their very first campground stop. It's downhill all the way from here, guys! :-)  Just kidding, there are many, many wonderful places to stay besides Sun 'n' Fun. They are on a journey to explore our beautiful country after they leave Florida. Sparky apologizes for not remembering their names....We had a great talk about camping memberships, where to find bargains. Sparky did a little tourism promoting for Sarasota. They hadn't heard about the drum circle at Siesta Key Beach, the Saturday morning Farmer's Market, etc. If you're reading guys, go see the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens while you are at it!

Was lunch ever good!! (Can you tell she liked it? laughs E.) Sparky had some kind of burger called the "Amelia"--ground kobe beef and tenderloin with a sweet tasting cremini mushroom sauce, potatoes au gratin that were out of this world, and really, really fresh green beans.

Everyone's food at Sparky's table was excellent, and everybody was talking about how much they would like to come back to the restaurant for dinner and try it again. There's a second Lazy Lobster Restaurant in Sarasota as well, in the Lakewood Ranch area.

After lunch, we were all ready for a nap, but it was back on the road again, retracing our steps back to Mote Aquarium, adding another 7.5 miles back, for a total of 15 miles today.....Sparky's knees are complaining a little bit, but it felt GOOD to get back on the bike for a nice long ride today....In two weeks, the biking group hits the road again for the Legacy Trail that runs from Sarasota to Venice and they are planning another great restaurant stop along the way. Sparky is IN! Hm-m-m-m-m...that puts us into Sun 'n' Fun into February. Looks like we are just going to have to stay another month, Eldo! We've got some RIDIN' to do! And some tread millin', some hot tubbin' and some ZUMBA, and........He gets the picture. He's on board with staying another month......YIPPEE-E-E-E-E!

Ho Hum...Not Much Happenin'

Sarasota, FL     High:   77      Low:  59

An R & R kind of day....too cold for Sparky too exercise in water aerobics swim class this morning even if the pool IS heated!  Got caught up on blogs a little bit, checked Facebook for the latest family and friends' status....

Sparky went to a wire wrapping bracelet class today to learn more about wire wrapping....and TADA! Here's the final product.....

Is she happy with it? No....for lots of reasons, but that's ok, it was a fun learning experience and Sparky knows things NOT to do for next time. Like get the right side of the bracelet mixed up with the wrong side when forming into an oval! Sparky is VERY hard on herself when she makes things. She wants it to be PERFECT! It's not much consolation to her that the Amish deliberately make a mistake somewhere in their quilts when they make them, Sparky is just very critical of herself in lots of things, especially creating things....Working on not being so hard on herself, but it's a lifetime of being that way, so it's hard to change!

Eldo napped, we took it easy the rest of the day! Sparky asked Eldo what he did today while she was in class, and to quote a famous blogger, " I didn't do nuttin'!" (That well known blogger would be Billy Bob, explains E.)

Saw a wood stork out in the retention pond just outside our park today....That's where we saw the roseate spoonbill last week! The pond seems to attract lots of different kinds of herons and ibis as well....

Sparky visited the stained glass workshop at Sun 'n' Fun...There are some cool things going on. Sparky should have signed up for a class, but that would entail more supplies of a different nature and collecting more tools and glass..(Oh, NO! wails E.) No worries, mate. She'll wait till next year to take the class if we return to Sun 'n' Fun. She has beautiful stained glass panels and tools back in storage in Indiana. Might have to get those out next visit home. How about a shamrock? Eldo needs one for the motorhome to celebrate the Irish Notre Dame team. Or maybe a leprechaun, now that would be a real challenge, considering Sparky has never done stained glass before!

We'll be hoping for marked improvement in our coughing crud in the next day or two...Sparky wants to get going again and see stuff! Thanks for all the terrific suggestions...We're trying some of them.....

Dream On, Big Guy! or a Quick Glimpse at High End RV's

Sarasota, FL     High:  64    Low:  54

We headed back to the show today to try and find a bargain Little Giant Ladder for Eldo...No luck...The price of the model 17 ladder was 399.00 with free shipping anywhere in the U.S. Somehow, Sparky got the idea she heard that the Little Giant was selling for $139.00 at the show....WRONG! So, we didn't buy a ladder.  :-(   That's Eldy's disappointed face.....

Sparky went around and signed up for more freebie stays....She spun the wheel at the Thousand Trails and we got some more coupons for the northeast. Examples on the coupon sheet are 199.00 a week at Timothy Lake South (PA), a beautiful park we've stayed at, Mt. Desert Narrows in Bar Harbor and many others in the northeast, $299.00 a week at Hershey, PA, 50% off monthly rates at all resorts from Maine to Virginia valid April, May, September (after Labor Day) thru October this year. You have to book some of these specials by 3/31/13 and others even sooner. We might just take our chances and watch for the Trailblazer Magazine to see what specials will be published there. We don't like booking so far out!

And, we went and looked at rigs....This time we viewed Newells, Newmars and Jaycos....

screen sliding door on mid entry location on Newell

They were so beautiful and decorated much more reasonably and more affordably in a style you could see yourself living in....Still not affordable for us, but within a dreaming and wishful thinking range...anywhere from about 385,000.00 to a cool 1.7 million. Let's start with a 1.7 million dollar coach, a Newell. You  might as well call the Newell a "mansion on wheels". It's what a lot of your NASCAR drivers purchase. Each coach is built from the ground up on the customer's specs.

It has up to 600 horsepower and 1950 pounds-feet of torque and the most powerful coach engine on the market, the latest Cummins ISX diesel. What can you get for 1.7 mil? Marble or granite flooring in galley and bath, air powered pocket doors, premium grade designer materials, laminate wood grained flooring, Aqua Hot hydronic heating system, SubZero 700 refrigerator/freezer, GE Advantium microwave/halogen oven, touch screen monitor and room controls....and so much more....We were WOWED......

Here's the bathroom.....Everything so glossy and shiny....

Hm-m-m-mmmmm....Let's take a look at something under a mil....How about a Newmar? Sparky's favorite was a Mountain Aire...about $488,000 suggested retail price...Newmar is a family owned Mennonite company located in Nappanee, IN. We took a tour of the factory this past fall, and it is a high quality company. The cabinetry in the coach was top notch...Nothing cheap about how things fitted together or the amount of insulation they use. Sparky wanted to post some more photos, but now she can't tell which photos are from the Newmar coaches, or the Entegra (Jayco company) coaches, which was the last group of rigs we looked at today. Sorry about that! After looking at about 17 coaches, they all started to blur together. Since we are not buying, Sparky didn't make a concerted effort to organize how she took photos..So we'll leave you with photos of any and all of the above mentioned, just to give you an idea of how beautiful these rigs are.

Every high end coach had electronic everything...Every kitchen stove was a fancy cooktop of some kind, the kitchens also had expensive Fisher Paykel dishwashers. By the way, Newmar has the Comfort Drive system, an enhanced steering innovation along with Villa Ultra Leather furniture. How about a radius shower with teak seating? Nice!

After Travel Supreme went bankrupt, Jayco bought up all their molds, hired a lot of their workers, and renamed the company Entegra. Jayco is building the Entegra line in Middlebury, IN now. Eldy has read that Jayco is doing a great job of building a high end coach and to prove their merit, they offer a two year bumper to bumper warranty. Their coaches looked very impressive!

The higher end coaches all seemed to have a bath and a half....Some people love that, others feel why the need when only two people are on board most of the time? Just wondering...

Did we see anything else? Some new products--like this air drying desiccant that you can rebake in an oven and reuse over and over again. Buy it once, forget about ever having to replace it. Not cheap however! About 30 dollars for a mid size can. There seemed to be lots of different types of products, with more variety being sold as compared to last year.

And that's the tour today of the Tampa RV show!

Anything else? Nope, that's about it...OH! Wait a minute! We decided to try the Der Dutchman Mennonite Restaurant on the way home to Sarasota today. It's in Sarasota, and is run by family members who are related to the Das Essenhaus Restaurant management in Middlebury, IN. Apparently, there is a BIG Mennonite/Amish population in Sarasota, called Pinecraft, numbering about 3,000, and they live and work in a clustered area around this part of Sarasota. The Amish and Mennonite have chosen Sarasota as one of their primary vacation destinations and they come from all over the U.S. to vacation here.

The restaurant doesn't do family style, they have a menu and an all-you-can-eat buffet lunch every day for 10.69. We tried it today and it was absolutely wonderful! Broasted chicken, mashed potatoes and noodles, beef and noodles, turkey, huge salad bar, tasty dressings. Sparky does not usually care much for buffets, over warmed, mushy green beans, dried out food usually. NOT at Der Dutchman! They try to use fresh Florida produce as much as possible and support local growers. Everything was VERY fresh and homemade tasting.

At the end of our meal, Sparky went upstairs to check out the terrific gift shop that's a part of the restaurant called Carlisle Gifts. It was a beautiful shop....

We highly recommend Der Dutchman!  We'll be going back!

Warm Welcomes at the Tampa RV Show

Sarasota, FL        High:  71    Low:  48

Welcome to the 2013 Tampa RV Show! We hadn't even gotten inside the ticket gates when we spotted this beautiful coach parked outside. It's on a Prevost chassis, and had the Angola Coach logo on its side. Sparky's last hometown residence, Angola, IN had a custom coach company called Angola Coach that takes older coaches on a Prevost chassis and does a complete refurbishing of the motorhome. This one was so beautiful with its murals on the rear and sides. It was fun to see a coach that had been done in the small town of Angola, IN. Sparky thinks the company was bought out (?) and is now called Panterra Coach and Conversions, still located in Angola, IN.

Attending the Tampa RV show at the fairgrounds is starting to feel like Homecoming Welcome Week. This is our second year attending and it's really fun!...Good friends we met last year, Nick and Ritchie Boersma, made sure we connected at the show today...They introduced us to some of their new friends, Dave and Kathleen Millross...

We ran into campground managers that we had gotten to know well last year...Amy, at Florida Grande in Webster, FL, and Beth, at Sunny Brook in South Haven, MI, two wonderful places to spend quality time in top notch resorts but quite different atmospheres. These two gals are two resort managers who always have a smile for their guests and were really glad to see us today.

Sparky got a sign for the yard--we've been wanting one for a long time...You see these signs all over the place, especially here in Florida. Guess everybody gets them at the Tampa RV show. This size sign was 32.00 and is made from vinyl, so it should hold up really well. The ladies that design and paint them said that the only product you should use for sun/weather protection on them is Crystal Clear varnish spray by Rustoleum. Any other finish might turn yellow over time.

Sparky signed up for every available free stay, special deal and email list she could find. We'll see how that turns out! Lots of spam, probably....But there were lots of places to sign up for freebie stays....Thousand Trails/Encore booth had some GREAT "spin the wheel" deals. We gathered a FULL bag of literature to sort through to dream and plan on rainy days as we worked our way through the booths.

One of Eldy's favorite booths was the "Little Giant" ladder system. Santa didn't bring a Little Giant ladder for Eldy this year, so he's just going to have to bite the bullet and get one. But we didn't get enough information on them today, we're going to just have to go back and catch these guys again tomorrow 'cuz we didn't catch the price today.

There were barbershop quartet guys performing, and other strolling musicians.. Sparky LOVES bagpipers and the St. Andrews Piper Band was playing through the fairgrounds. Love the drum major..Poor guys, we felt sorry for them. They had to be so HOT and uncomfortable!

This troubadour parked himself in front of a Millenium coach....

Speaking of Millenium-- a high end RV company that builds on a Prevost chassis --for discriminating buyers with a LOT of cash to burn...like a million or two....Sparky went inside one and was amazed at the amenities inside and out. One of them had its own pressure washing system built in the cavernous bay....Heated floors.....And look at these sink fixtures....WOW!

They still are too glitzy and gaudy for us, even if we did have the money, we wouldn't pick one of these.....

We got some answers at the show today on the dilemma of what to do with your engine when sitting for long periods of time. Are you supposed to start it up? Add algae killer? Leave it be? And Freightliner said, NOTHING IS RECOMMENDED OR NEEDED as long as you purchase fuel at high volume service stations. Starting your engine and letting it idle could cause the engine to go into the REGEN process (this is on a Freightliner/Cummins system) and that's not a good thing to happen when you are sitting on a grass site. The REGEN process generates temperatures of over 1300 degrees at the part of the exhaust system containing the diesel particulate filter. A fire could start under the coach if you are sitting on a grass site. Stated extremely simply, the REGEN process goes something like this:  Your special engine has a diesel particulate filter or DPF that acts like a “soot catcher”. After catching all this black soot for over a period of time it will then “cough” it all out in one go in a high heat burning process, the REGEN process, a method of "steam cleaning" your exhaust. If it has been a while since you have driven and maintained speeds above 40 miles an hour, then your DPF will not be able to clear itself of the soot, and resulting error messages and engine lockup might occur.

We enjoyed ourselves today at the Tampa RV show, but still suffering from colds and coughs, we got tired quickly.  It was HOT and STEAMY inside the exhibition halls. Many vendors and RV lookers were sweating. We didn't really look at many rigs and that is half the fun! Even if you have a nice coach, you never get tired of looking at what's out there, what the new features and models offer, so we think back we will go tomorrow......Hope we will see some more of our blogging friends!

Thanks, everyone, for the wonderful suggestions on how to beat this awful cold and cough we both have...We really appreciate each suggestion and between the two of us, are going to try different things. Course by the time we work through all the suggestions, we'll hopefully be over the "coughing crud" and we won't know which one really was the winner!  

Sparky's Got the BLUES

Sarasota, FL     High:  79    Low:  61

David Smash

Sparky's got the blues because of this darn sinus /cold/cough that has been hanging on for a week now...arrrrggggghhh! Yes, she is resting, yes, she is taking over the counter medication, but not seen the doctor yet. She's going to battle another week and if isn't better in a few more days, she will head to a doctor somewhere.  But life goes on, and when after the drum circle Eldo suggested we go to Ocean Blues for pizza on the way home, Sparky needed a lift to her spirits, so she said, "SURE!" Sunday nights are JAM nights and one of our favorite guitarists, David Smash, an up and coming excellent musician, is often there on Sundays for the JAM session. Music heals the soul, don't ya know! Sparky was hoping it would help her sinus misery. It did!

Ocean Blues is a great venue for live entertainment. It's located on Hillview Street in downtown Sarastoa. Sparky and Eldo love it for its cozy atmosphere and great bar food. The owner, Scott, always has a warm welcome for his customers. Scott came up to Eldy and remembered his name from last year, the last time we were there. He remembered that we were RVers and we chatted for a bit. That always makes you feel good when people remember you.

We had a great pizza--thin crust with LOTS of cheese and toppings. It was delicious! The fish dip is great, too....They have lots of food choices from appetizers to steaks...

We stayed for awhile and listened to David play along with some great guest guitarists, a trombone player, a trumpet player, a harmonica player and a couple of bass players. It's really fun to see the musicians work out arrangements that maybe they haven't tried before, or to see them just wing it with their instrument of choice.

When we met David last year, he had only been in the U.S. for a few weeks, he was borrowing equipment to play and trying to find a place to stay. His English was very broken, but he was VERY charming, sincere, and wow, could he play the slide guitar! He told a local newspaper that although he learned some English in school, he got the slang and lingo by downloading all six seasons of the Fresh Prince of Bel Aire! He can throw around words like "homie" and "you can dig it!" with the best of them.  :-)

We teased him about being his #1 fans, because he wasn't very well known yet. He was well known in his own country, Lithuania, but not encouraged there. So he hoped to make it big in America. Another one of our favorite performers, Steve Arvey, saw David's videos on Youtube and thru Facebook, got David to come to Sarasota. He has come a long way. He has his own band now, his own guitar, and  is making CDs....He came over and talked to us for awhile, and was delighted to see us again.....

We had a great time at Ocean Blues and after we both get to feeling better, we'll be back to see the jam sessions again....or one of the other regularly scheduled entertainer events. It's that good!

Until next time.....

Mambo #5?

Sarasota, FL      High:  80    Low:   61

Naw, it's not the mambo, but it could be that if it moves you.

Yes, it's ANOTHER drum circle...

We won't bore you with a lot of information since we've talked about previous visits to Siesta Key Beach on Sundays, so we'll just share our enjoyment with some more photos...Needless to say, we went back to see it again...Just because it's such a cool thing from week to week....Sort of a glimpse into another culture if you will. The rituals are so interesting! The beat is so primal! Flower power was in evidence this week...

And it's FUN!

And because everybody always has a great time!

And Sparky loves a good BEAT! It makes her want to dance! And you see something NEW every week...Like this guy with a didgeridoo...

His little babe had her (?) own drum...

And where else can you see something the whole family can participate in, from babies to toddlers to adults?

And Sparky and Eldo love people watching... This lady was really enjoying herself, she had shakers of some sort and her hubby had a nice drum.

And if you don't have a drum, you can beat the rhythm with your SANDALS!

And the changing costumes the ladies wear from week to week are so pretty!

And where else can you see a show like this that's FREE?

And our favorite hoop dancer, Audrey Scherer was there with an outstanding display of dancing while hooping....She's something else!  You go, girl!

Audrey can stand on one foot with her knee against the standing leg and keep that hoop going.

And why not be on the #1 beach in 2011, Siesta Key Beach, for a beautiful sunset?

The only drawback? Every once in awhile, tourists and visitors don't respect the circle drawn for the non-participants to stay on the OUTSIDE while the performers do their thing on the inside. First, people want to take photos by walking inside the circle. Others start to come in, people think they want to dance and try to get their friends to come inside the circle and dance with them. Then they end up standing around and talking. More and more people come inside the circle and soon the regular performers are crowded out. Last night several of the regular performers quit what they were doing and left. There was no room for them to move. The performers have tried to draw a circle letting watchers know they should stay on the outside, but the line soon gets obliterated.

Sparky has a suggestion....Paper bag luminaries! A visual cue, keeping with the unique atmosphere, that reminds people of where they need to stay. Cheap paper bags, cheap votive candles, Sparky would even make a donation of supplies to get things started. It's such a disappointment when the crowd presses in, and leaves no room for anybody to perform or even see what's going on. And she hates to say it, but get a microphone and make an announcement at the beginning. 1) No photographers on the inside of the circle, 2) If you are not dancing or performing something to the beat, to the outside you go!

What a great group of participants-dancers and drummers who show up every single week on Sundays to provide a wonderful show for the tourists in town and the locals. It's so wonderful that ordinary people can be drawn into and welcomed into a community of rhythm and expression. It's a great community of interesting people who do this for free every single week for everyone's enjoyment and their own. We appreciate getting to see this and being a part of it every week. As long as we are here, we'll be back. Thanks, guys for yet another great drumming circle!

And that's it for today...a shortie blog...We are still battling colds....Sparky is almost down for the count every day around five, nights are the worst...coughing, congestion, sinus pain. Eldy is not so bad, but he's got the cough, too..We hit Walmart yesterday for a BUNCH of cough and cold products, stuff for Eldy, stuff for Sparky. We're armed to the teeth for those darn cold germs. If you run into Sparky in Sarasota, don't be surprised if she's a little buzzed from all the medication she's trying in order to whip this sinus infection into submission!!!!! You need any stuff? We got it!

Sparky would love to know what cold remedy works for you? She even went and got chicken soup from the local Chinese restaurant tonight to help battle her cold. Thanks for any and all suggestions!