Today is Friday. We leave Monday on our long-scheduled Florida camping tour. Maybe the blog will get a bit more interesting after that. We've slowed our pace a bit, but are still cleaning and fixing stuff around Dad's house.
Tuesday, we went to see the attorney and moved the puck a bit closer to the goal. At least things are starting to move in the right direction. Seems the court approval of my appointment as executor was the big holdup. Nothing much can happen before that.
Wednesday, we went to see a financial advisor/stock broker who is transferring a couple of Dad's stocks to the estate account, and will then transfer them to the beneficiaries (my brother and me). Why it can't be done in one step beats the hell out of me! Anyway, to our great surprise, he's not charging us a dime! He just asked that we pass his name along to anyone who might need his services. So, let me know if you're in need.
Last night, we went to a Mexican restaurant with Marsha's cousins and their husbands. Nice evening. We really enjoy their company.
Today, I used two bottles of Tilex Meldew Remover and scrubbed ten years worth of meldew off of the sunroom ceiling. It's aluminum, so it comes of easily, but, of course, it's all overhead work. No pictures. I just looks like a big whiteboard. I'm too old for this crap!
Oh, I almost forgot. Yesterday, I got a letter from the Barefoot Bay Recreation District - Kind of like an HOA Gestapo - saying that I was in violation of their restrictions that say that I can't park my camper on the property. Funny! This is the fifth year I've done it and the first year I've been honored with a letter. I went to the office and told Heir General that I was leaving on Monday. He checked with the dur Fuehrer and I was granted a special dispensation until then! Grrrrrrr!
Other than that and a few tours of Walmart and Home Depot, we've been riding our bikes and hanging out in the nice warm weather.
Later.
Wednesday night, we had a pretty heavy rainstorm, so there wasn't much activity during the evening after the potluck. We put a few miles on the bikes and sat around visiting during the afternoon.
Thursday was chilly - in the high sixties and even lower (fifties) during the evening. We had a communal campfire after the soup supper, but only about eight people showed up all evening. Most of the others were snuggled in their campers. After we put the communal fire out, we ran across another one, so we stopped in there and had another beer, or two, before going back to the camper. We managed to stay out until 11:00 or so.
We were only able to get four nights when we made our original reservation. Our last night would have been Thursday, but we didn't want to miss the wine and cheese party on Friday night. We went to the ranger station and asked about staying an extra night and, much to our surprise, they had a spot for us, but we had to move before 1:00pm on Thursday. So we left site 125 and towed the camper, without folding it down, to site 6 on the other side of the campground. We got a few strange looks, but we made it.
The wine and cheese party drew a large crowd on Friday evening. It was a good evening for sitting around the campfire drinking wine.
Saturday morning, we left and headed back to Dad's house in Barefoot Bay, arriving around 1:30. We unpacked and were eating lunch by 2:15. We'll be here until February 24, when we head out on our long-reserved camping trip around the state of Florida. We'll be camping in six state parks and a commercial campground between 2/24 and 4/7 when we'll head north. Probably won't be much excitement on the blog until we start camping again, but you never know. Stay tuned!
We rode a few miles in the park and visited with a few people we ran into. After we got back to camp, we put the canopy up for shade and for shelter from the pending rain.
Then we went to a bike shop in Sebring and bought headlights, tail lights, mirrors and speedometers for the bikes. I put Marsha's stuff on before dinner. I'll do mine tomorrow.
That's about the extent of our activities for the day.
Today was our first real day of vacation since leaving home. We traveled from Barefoot Bay to Highlands Hammock State Park in Sebring, FL. The total mileage was 130 with a stop at Fat Boy's Bar-B-Q in Lake Wales for lunch. Really good BBQ at that place. There were so may cars in the lot when we got there, I thought they were giving food away!
We arrived at the campground at about 2:45 and got set up, all the while talking to neighbors and old friends who stopped by. Most of the campers here (they are expecting 68) are Scamps and Casitas. You'll see them in the pictures this week. These folks don't discriminate, so we are allowed to join the fun even though we have an Aliner.
We took our chili to the chili dump location and dumped it into the cookers with everyone else's chili. At 5:00, everyone was ready for the gastronomic adventure. The chili was quite good and there were side dishes and desserts to go along with it.
We spent the evening visiting and headed back to the camper at 9:00. Turns out they now have wifi in the campground (they didn't last year), so we won't have to run to town to use the Internet. Stay tuned for more pictures. We plan to ride the bike around the park quite a bit. It could get interesting!
The day started off with a bike ride with Ira, the neighbor across the street, and his friend, Rod, from Ottawa. We went to a lake at the other end of Barefoot Bay that I didn't know existed. There's an alligator in the lake, but we didn't see him. It was a bit cool - about 65 degrees. Shortly after we left the pond, we were joined be two more of Ira's Canadian friends and we put some more miles on the bikes .
After I got home from the bike ride, Marsha and I went to the attorney's office to pick up the Letter of Administration and a bunch of other Florida Probate B.S. Then, after a short stop at Walmart for some groceries, we headed back home to dump the groceries and pick up Dad's checkbook. We stopped at the Outriggers Bar and Grill before heading to the bank to open an "estate checking account." More B.S.! Glad we stopped at the Outriggers first. A few beers under my belt helped me cope with the B.S. at the bank.
So, now we're back home and we'll settle in to watch the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics.
Exciting day, huh? It's got to get better, so keep checkin'.
Not very many pictures for a nine-day span. We've been spending most of our time working around the house, getting it ready for my brother. The 28 year old clothes washer sprung a leak, so were having a new one delivered tomorrow. The 28 year old clothes dryer is still hanging in there.
On January 25, we went to Mary Ann and Leroy's 50th wedding anniversary party. There are a few pictures from that event. Mary Ann and Marsha are cousins on Marsha's mother's side of the family. Aunt Jo and Aunt Sheila are Marsha's mother's sisters.
We were on the way to Good Will and Walmart, again, when we noticed a flea market so we stopped in and browsed around. Marsha bought a Tupperware bowl to replace an old battered one she had. I purchased two "headlights" for our bikes. They consist of a plastic mounting bracket that holds an LED flashlight. You can see one of them on my bike in the picture. Marsha's is not there because it fell apart during installation. What do you expect for three bucks?! The parrots were pretty cool.
There are a few other miscellaneous pictures I took. The one of Marsha in the library was when she was on the phone with the realtor back home. Finally got a firm offer on the lot she inherited from her dad five years ago. She's selling it for 2/3 of what he paid for it in 1978. At least we won't be paying taxes, HOA fees, and mowing fees anymore! The picture of the bikes was taken after we rode three or for miles, stopping at the 19th Hole on the golf course. After that, we fired up the grill and cooked some delicious burgers.
More adventures when (if) they happen.
This year, we're headed to Florida earlier than usual because we have to take care of my dad's estate business and do a few things around the house before my brother, Scot, takes possession in early March. We intended to leave home on Tuesday, January 21, but due to snow covered Interstate highways, we ended up leaving a day later. It was about 12 degrees at 7:15am when I backed Dad's Prius out of the driveway.
I was in a hurry to get our car out, hook the camper up, drag it out of the garage, put the Prius in the garage and hit the road. All went well until I turned the key on our car which had been in the garage for two or three days. Click-click-click-click. Crap! Dead battery. I hooked op the charge for about 30 minutes and dumped enough juice into the battery to get the car started. We were on the road by 8:00am.
We stopped to gas up in Lebanon, IL because we didn't have a full tank when we left home and I planned to stop at Sam's Club, where we usually get gas, in Paducah to get a new battery. We got to Sam's, but they were busy and there would be a two hour wait before they could get us in. So, it was on to Walmart where they got us in and out in less than an hour while we grabbed a sandwich from the deli for lunch.
I drove a total of 666 miles (scary number, huh?) that first day, stopping in Locust Grove, GA at a Super8 for the night. It wasn't really too cold (about 30) to sleep in the camper, but Marsha would have to make the bed up and I was ready for a motel. We had a nice room and brought in some food from the car to have for dinner. There was a fridge and microwave in the room, so that was handy.
The next morning, Thursday, the 23rd, we had the "free breakfast" (because they were too embarrassed to charge for it), supplemented with our regular Brad Buds. We were on the road at 7:00am and drove quite a ways into South Georgia, probably 75 miles north of Macon, before we found a gas station with a windshield washer bucket that wasn't frozen solid!
The rest of the trip (503 miles) was uneventful. We stopped at our favorite biker bar about ten miles from Dad's house for a late lunch before backing the camper into the driveway.
We usually walk , but on Friday morning, we drove to the 2002 Restaurant for breakfast. It was in the 50s with a pretty stiff wind, but a lot warmer than home! After Breakfast, we went grocery shopping, ran a few errands and dropped a load off at Good Will. We spent what was left of the day doing chores around the house.
Saturday morning, we rode our new (to us) folding bikes to the restaurant for a breakfast snack and road around Barefoot Bay a bit before going back to Dad's house to get busy. Marsha worked in the house and I washed some Algae and mold off of one side of the house, using the Jomax that I brought from home. Beautimus! Then I trimmed shrubbery and picked up palm fronds that had fallen in the yard. I don't know why we're doing all this work before my brother moves in. I guess we're just nice folks!
Saturday evening, we went to Marsha's cousin Mary Ann and her husband LeRoy's 50th wedding anniversary party about 20 miles north in Melbourne. Sunday morning, we went to their house in Palm Bay for breakfast and a visit. Mary Ann's sister, Margaret, and her husband, Tom, just bought a house in Palm Bay, so we went to see it. Nice! They moved down from Addison, IL a few months ago and have been renting a place while they spruce up the new house. They'll move in next Monday.
Sunday afternoon, we went to Home Depot and Walmart to pick up some clean-up & fix-up supplies. I replaced the latch to the screen door before having a few beers while watching TV.
That brings us to today, Monday! I spent about an hour trying to make the TV we brought with us work with the Dish Network. We traded our bedroom TV at home for a larger second TV my dad had. Now our small TV in the sitting room is working here.
I'm at the library getting rready to post this on the blog. No pictures with this post, but there will be plenty soon.
Later!
