Sunday 02/23:
Last night, we went out for pizza at the Wagon Wheel Restaurant in Palm Bay. Some guy Scot met at his motel raved about the pizza there, so we couldn't pass it up. The pizza was great. Marsha and I had the last of it for lunch today.
Scot got up about 1:00am this morning and was on the road, headed north, before 3:00. He called tonight about 15 hours after he left, to tell us he made it home safely. During normal daytime hours, Marsha and I went to Walmart and picked up a couple of things to restock Dad's food supply. While we were there, I printed out a recent picture of Adi and Grayson, then hung it on his wall when we got back to the house.
We just sat around and visited this afternoon, then early in the evening Marsha and I went for a walk. We walked down to the Community Center where my mom's brick is part of the little memorial park they have there. The Stitchers, a sewing club she belonged to, dedicated the brick to her. They called her the "Purple Lady" because she always wore something with purple on it.
Monday 02/24:
I washed the car this morning, just in time for the afternoon rain shower! Much of the rest of the day was spent doing laundry and visiting with the neighbors. The real highlight was going with Dad to Wendy's where we each had a chicken sandwich and a senior drink. I splurged and picked up the tab. The total was $3.18. Dad goes there EVERY DAY and gets a chicken sandwich and a senior coffee for $1.06. When he finishes the coffee, he wipes the cup out with his napkin,fills the cup with Coke and hits the door! Nothing cheap about my ol' man!
Tuesday 02/25:
Before we headed for Jonathan Dickinson State Park, we stripped the sheets from our bed and threw them and the towels we used into the washer. Then we walked down to the 2002 Restaurant for breakfast, one last time. Upon our return to the house, we started packing up and waited for the sheets to dry so that we could make up the bed and get it ready for our return in February of 2014.
We hit the road about noon and headed south. It only took us an hour to get to the Corps of Engineers park at Port St. Lucie where we visited with our friends, Gary and Andrea from Michigan. You'll probably see them again on Thursday when we'll be having lunch with them in Palm Beach.
We arrived at Jonathan Dickinson State Park, at Hobe Sound, at about 4:05, checked in, and drove the four miles to our campsite. It's a pretty big park! As we were driving to our campsite, we noticed two other Aliners and an Alto. Alto is made in Canada and is a REALLY neat, and expensive, camper. Google it a check it out. We haven't made contact with the people in the Aliners or the Alto, but I plan to check them out tomorrow.
After we got set up, we went to the Publix in Hobe Sound and did some grocery shopping. We have all our cold stuff packed into the coolers while we wait for the fridge to cool down. It should be cool enough by the time we go to bed!
Well, the trip should be a bit more interesting from here on. Thanks for putting up with all the family stuff. I should be posting a bit more often now, based on the availability of the Internet.
As we were leaving Crooked River Stat Park, I snapped a picture of the exhibit at the entrance to the submarine base. Pretty cool!
We arrived at Dad's house in Barefoot Bay, FL around 3:30pm on Wednesday. As we pulled up, we saw a couple of fire trucks and an ambulance in front of the house! Upon closer inspection, we saw that Dad's car was not in his carport and the paramedics were there for Manny, Dad's neighbor. As I write this on Saturday, the paramedics are back at Manny's house. Don't know if Manny came home and then had another problem or they're here for Martha. At least there's a little excitement in the neighborhood.
I went next door to see if Maureen would let us park the camper in her driveway again, as we did last year. We she came to the door, she said, "I've been waiting for you. Your space is ready." Nice lady! Her letting us park there sure makes it convenient for us.
My brother, Scot, arrived in Palm Bay from Columbus, OH at about 10:00 on Wednesday night. Thursday morning, Marsha and I walked to the 2002 Cafe down by the golf course and met him for breakfast.
After breakfast, we did Dad's taxes and went down to the library to print them out for his records, but for some reason, I couldn't get to the Internet through the library's Wi-Fi, so we went next door to the Subway and hooked up to transmit his return. While we were at the library Marsha looked over the used book shelves and bought eight books for $2.00.
On Thursday, we called Marsha's cousin, Mary Ann (husband Leroy), who lives in Palm Bay, about 20 miles from Dad's. Her sister, Margaret and her husband, Tom, and their friends John and Terri are here for a while. They're from the Chicago area. So, on Friday the eight of us went to lunch at the Tiki Bar in Sebastian. Tom and John hauled their Harleys down here, so they were riding.
After lunch at 3:30, - Did I mention we ate at a bar? - Marsha and I went back to Mary Ann & Leroy's house for a nice visit, then rushed back to Dad's to watch the season finale of Gold Rush!
So, like I said above, it's Saturday. Marsha, Scot and I met again for breakfast at 9:00 while Dad was asleep. We were back at the house sitting around when Dad rolled out just after 11:00. He gets up earlier when he has company. It's 12:30 now and he's in his chair - see picture. He says it's nap time. Marsha and I plan to run some errands this afternoon, among them being to post this blog entry.
Adi wanted me to post a picture of my brother, Scot, so I did.
Hope this hasn't been too exciting for you. More later!
After we got up, showered, and ate our Buds, we headed for the park office to use the Wi-Fi to put the last three day's activity on the blog. After that, since I didn't get out of bed until 10:00, it was time for lunch, we went went back to the camper for a picnic.
Then it was over to the park's Nature Center. We hadn't been there before because it was always closed at the times we were there. I never realized that there are so many different species of snakes in Georgia. Some of them can kill you!
Then we went to town and visited the St. Marys Submarine Museum. There is a large submarine base here. We were there for about an hour and a half looking over all the displays, mostly from the WW II era.
Then we walked around the ocean front for a while before looking for a little dirt-floor bar to have a beer. There's a place about a quarter mile from the park entrance called the Bloody Bucket, another place that was closed when we tried to go there in years past. Well, they were open this evening, so we stopped in and, as usual around here, were greeted by the clientele and the bar tender.
After a couple of beers and some good conversation at the Bloody Bucket, we headed for St. Marys Seafood restaurant for dinner. It turned out to be another fun place, not to mention the large portions of good food served by a super friendly waitress.
Now, we're back at the camper and as soon as I get finished here, I'll crawl into bed to watch some cable(!) TV. Tomorrow, we'll have about a four hour drive to my dad's house. See you there!
We arrived at Crooked River State Park outside of St. Marys, GA at about 4:15. They updated and enlarged the check-in office since we were here last. Looks real nice.
After setting up and relaxing a bit (only one beer), we headed for Seagles Saloon in St. Marys to see our old friend, "Cindy Dean, the Porno "Queen." Unfortunately, upon our arrival, we learned that Cindy was sick with an upper respiratory infection and hadn't been in for several days. We didn't let that bother us. Marty was there subbing for Cindy and the rest of the folks in the saloon provided us with an entertaining evening.
We left Seagles at about 9:30 and got back to the camper in time for me to get about 12 hours of sleep!
Adi, there are some bad words in some of these pictures. Don't look!
When we got up this morning, it was 71 degrees inside the camper and 22 degrees outside. The heater worked really well! We packed up and hit the road, stopping at the first McDonald's we saw. We got oatmeal to mix our bran buds with and went on down the road.
We drove 542 miles and made it to Georgia Veterans Memorial State Park, recommended by my friend, Mark. As you'll see, the park is pretty neat - over 900 acres with plenty of amenities, including condos, a lodge, golf course, and restaurant.
It was almost dark by the time we got camped, but because we had such a short distance to drive the next day to get to Crooked River State Park, we took some time in the morning to check things out.
We met two camp hosts there. One was from Taylorville, IL and the other was from Springfield, IL. They both retired from Caterpillar in Decatur. Small world!
