2010 - April 21 - 25 Camping at Rend Lake in Southern Illinois

Our first camping outing of the year was really enjoyable, despite the intermittent rain showers, most of which were at night. We had about 21 campers in all throughout the event. Some came and left early. Some came and left late. Some, like Marsha and me, came early and left late! We were the last to leave the campground on Sunday morning. The wind was strong and gusty on the way home, causing us to lose BOTH of our strap-on towing mirrors. Oh, well, they were over a year old. Surely there's something better out there by now! Hope you enjoy the photos.

Adi's First State Gymnastics Tournament

Adi got 4th (out of 12) in Trampoline & 4th (out of 9) in Double Mini Vault. The tournament was at Pana High School on 4/17/10.

Adi's First Gymnastics Competition

The competition was held at Lake Land College in Matton, IL.

Grandkids

Adi spent two days in the hospital last week with pneumonia. One of the days was her 7th birthday! A pool party was planned for Saturday, but was postponed until Adi is back to normal. As you can see, Grayson didn't mind missing the pool party. We visited on Saturday and enjoyed seeing Chad and the kids.

Florida Trip, 2010 - February 18

We're home! Drove from Kent & Tracey's house in Cumming, GA (first picture) to home (second picture) in one shot. No big deal. Left at 8:30AM; got home at 7:00PM.

Florida Trip, 2010 - February 17

Today, we left Adel, GA at about 10:00AM and headed for my cousin, Kent 'Zip' McCray's house in Cumming, GA. After stopping for lunch, we got here about 2:30. We've been drinking beer since then, so that explains the brevity of this post and the two pictures below. The strange woman is Zip' wife, Tracey. The fat guy is me! We'll be leaving here in the morning and should be home late tomorrow, so this may be my last post on this trip. Hope you had a wonderful time - we did! 

Florida Trip, 2010 - February 16

We left Marsha's aunt's house this morning around 10:00 and took the long way to Fort Desoto County Park which is out on a peninsula, south of St. Petersburg, at the opening of Tampa Bay. A friend, Mark McBride, told me about it, so we decided to check it out while we were in the neighborhood. What a GREAT campground. Some sites are right on the water while others may be as much as 50 yards from the water. It's a bit pricey, but it would be a great place to spend a few days. Maybe next year! The picture below is the only one I took today - a couple walking in the campground in "sunny Florida." Notice I didn't say, "warm!"

Florida Trip, 2010 - February 15

Today, we went to the Sarasota Classic Car Museum, then drove out to Anna Maria Island Beach. As you can see by the beach photo below, it's not very warm (by Florida standards). The temperature was 62.

 

Florida Trip, 2010 - February 14

Happy Valentine's Day! No pictures today. We went out to BJ's (kind of like a Sam's Club) this morning and looked around, but not much else. Just finished dinner and are flipping back & forth between the Olympics and the Daytona 500. Still cool here, but sunny - about 35 degrees warmer than Springfield! More later.

Florida Trip, 2010 - February 13

Here's Marsha and her Aunt Sheila and Sheila's husband, Ray. We got here last night and are going to visit (and eat) at Marsha's Aunt Jo's house this afternoon. Obviously, I now have a good Internet connection (Sheila's son, Matt, is a network engineer), so I'll be posting more stuff while we're here.
















Jack says, "Push me, Daddy."

Florida Trip, 2010 - February 11

This morning, Marsha and I went to breakfast at the restaurant, here in Barefoot Bay. From there, we drove to the library, which doesn't open until noon on Thursdays, so we sat in the parking lot to use their Wi-Fi connection. For some reason, I could not download or upload any files, so I could not use my email client. Instead, I went directly to the email server to read and reply to emails. I'm typing this blog post on February on 2/11, but probably won't be able to post it for a day or two when I have Internet access via a better connection.
For dinner tonight, we went to a little hole-in-the-wall restaurant, called The Red Rooster, that had seating for about twenty people. Dad had never been there, but he thought it might be a "good place to get a hot roast beef sandwich." Well, it turns out that the guy running the restaurant used to be a big city chef somewhere and the menu and, as we would discover, the quality of the food reflected it. The ol' man almost had a stroke when he opened the menu. After I got him settled down, we ordered and enjoyed our meal. I slipped the waitress my credit card and when Dad found out, he complained, but I think he was secretly relieved.

Florida Trip, 2010 - February 10

Went to the library this morning to print out Dad's tax return and e-file it. While I was doing that, Marsha bought ten used paperback books for $.25 each. The taxes transmitted with no problem, but for some reason, I couldn't send or receive email over the library's s-l-o-w Wi-Fi network. That's why I've got a few days of blog entries stacked up waiting to be posted. Probably won't get that done until Friday when we get to Marsha's aunt's house in Bradenton.
The rest of the day was spent doing chores. I fixed the lock on the sliding Florida room door. Then I added some bracing to the railing on the front porch to make it steadier. The third and final chore was fixing the leaky faucet on the kitchen sink. Had to go to Home Depot to get a kit to replace the internal parts of the faucet. It turned out well. No more leaks!
All the while I was doing my chores, Marsha was making a huge pot of Chili. We had some for supper and she put the rest in small containers in the freezer for Dad to eat after we're gone.
After supper, Dad and I went to his Wednesday night Euchre game. There were 31 people playing cards. I managed to get thru the evening without making any REAL stupid plays, but I didn't win any money. The evening's entertainment cost me a whole 50 cents.

Florida Trip, 2010 - February 9

After walking to the restaurant for breakfast this morning, we worked on Dad's taxes until it was time to drive to Palm Bay for lunch with Marsha's cousin, Mary Ann, and her husband Leroy, pictured above. We met Mary Ann's sister, Marge, and her husband, Tom, at a Dustin's Bar-B-Q place. After a nice lunch, the six of us went back to Mary Ann & Leroy's for an afternoon of socializing. We're back at Dad's now, looking forward to his neighbors, Carlo & Jennie, coming over this evening for a visit. They are snowbirds from Massachusettes and both of them are crazy! I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow to finish Dad's taxes.

Florida Trip, 2010 - February 8

Marsha and I got up this morning to sixty degree temperatures. Just right for a brisk morning walk. We walked about a half mile to the restaurant for breakfast. After breakfast, we walked a mile or so to the post office and a mile back to the house. I took the picture above somewhere along the way. We spent most of the rest of the day doing paper work for my dad. Tomorrow, we'll probably do his taxes. Went to Woody's Bar-B-Q Restaurant in Sebastian for dinner. Great food!