My brother, Scot, got to his motel in Melbourne late on Tuesday, 2/21 after driving straight through from Columbus, OH. Marsha and I took Dad to Melbourne on Wednesday for his 8:30am cataract surgery appointment. The surgery was over with by 10:30 and we took Dad home. It was almost comical listening to him exclaim how bright the colors were and how much better he could see every-day things - like traffic lights!
Scot met us at Dad's and we all stuck around for the day while Dad napped and dozed and napped. We got the Cobb Grill out and cooked a pork loin for dinner. Marsha fixed a salad and corn. Everyone enjoyed the meal.
Thursday, Marsha and I walked the mile or so to the 2002 Cafe and met Scot for breakfast. After some visiting time at the house, it was back to Melbourne for Dad's post-surgery checkup. All was well. He asked the surgeon if she could do the other eye "tomorrow," but he'll have to wait until March 14th for that.
On Friday, the three of us met for breakfast again, then that afternoon, the guys went to one of the recreation centers in Barefoot Bay and shot pool with Dad's cronies while Marsha stayed home and got ready to go to dinner with her cousins. The most you can lose in one of their games is $.50. I think I did that twice and paid smaller amounts after each of the other games.
After saying our good-byes to Scot, who was heading home early Saturday morning, We headed for Palm Bay to meet Leroy and Mary Anne at their house, then drove to a biker bar to meet Mary Anne's sister. Marge and her husband Tom. They and their friends, John & Teri were riding their Harleys. After a good meal and a few beers, and good conversation, the bikers went down the road and we went back to Leroy & Mary Anne's for a visit.
I slept in on Saturday morning. The afternoon found Dad and me shooting pool again while Marsha stayed home and watched the Daytona Nationwide 300. I think I won enough that day to come out with a net gain from shooting pool.
More lounging, then out to Wendy's for "dinner." Dad likes Wendy's almost as well as Burger King, which is where we had lunch on Thursday.
Sunday (today) was laundry day, in preparation for going camping when we leave Dad's tomorrow. Prior to doing laundry, Marsha and I went to McDonald's to grab some Internet time and a cup of coffee. After that, we went to Walmart to print a picture of Adi and Grayson for Dad. The afternoon was spent doing laundry. More lounging.
Adi had a gymnastics meet in Monticello this weekend. We got a text from Chad saying that she made a clean sweep. She took first place in all three events, trampoline, double mini trampoline, and tumbling! As Chad said, she was "stoked." They gave her an extra large 4th trophy for sweeping the event.
Well, tomorrow it's off to Highlands Hammock State Park in Sebring. More from there, but I can't promise it will be as exciting as this post, but we'll tell you about it anyway!
We left the Big Wheel RV Park in St. Marys, GA at about 10:30 this morning. It's only about 3 1/2 hours to Dad's house, but we stopped at a rest area and once in Palm Bay for gas, so we didn't get there until about 2:45. Dad wasn't home when we arrived and by the time he showed up, we had unloaded our stuff, including a cooler full of frozen chili, and parked the camper in the neighbor's driveway. Marsha always makes a giant batch of chili for Dad and packages it in small freezer containers so it's easy for him to thaw and eat.
We didn't know where we were going to park the camper. Dad's driveway is just a single car width, so we need to get the camper out of the way. And, of course, he wouldn't want to put the camper in first under the carport) and park his Prius in the sun! The house across the street, where we usually park it, has a double carport and only one car, but now it also has new owners. I was going to see about using a vacant lot down the street when the next-door neighbor came out. She is a snowbird who rents the house and it has a double driveway. I asked her if she wanted to rent a space in her driveway, but she wouldn't hear of it. She told me to just park it there, no problem. So that problem is solved.
Tomorrow, we have to get up early to have Dad at his appointment for his first cataract surgery. We have to be there at 8:30 and it's about a thirty minute drive to Melbourne where the clinic is.
There probably won't be too much worth posting while we're here, but I'll be sure to let you know if anything pops.
We spent the day relaxing in the Big Wheel Campground. Made a short trip to WalMart to grab some stuff after lunch and visited with a few folks during the afternoon. One guy was out in the yard working on his train set!
We grilled some burgers for dinner and after we cleaned up the dishes, we headed for town and Seagle's Saloon to see if Cindy Deen the Porno Queen was working. Yup! She was there, and in rare form. A black guy walked in and ordered a beer and before she served him, she told him to show her that he had money to pay for it. Told him she was tired of paying for his welfare and his free cell phone! And he laughed about it! He was born and raised in St. Marys, so I guess he was used to her. What an evening!
Turns out, Cindy is getting married to Bob (no pics of him), a real quiet, laid back guy(!) on March 24. WOW! Cindy asked us if we wanted to come to the wedding, but we'll be home by then.
Enjoy the pictures.
2/18:
Just a lot of driving. After leaving Adi's birthday Party in Mattoon about 4:30, we tried to get as far south as we could because we want to be in St. Marys, GA by tomorrow evening. Just a couple of pics along the way.
2/19:
We drove a bit over 500 miles today to arrive at Crooked River State Park in St. Marys by about 6:00pm. We got there to find that the campground was full due to it being Presidents' Day weekend. Right across the road from the park entrance is Big Wheel RV Park so we drove over there.
When we pulled in, the office was closed, but a lady came up to us and said for us to just pull into a site and come join them for a pot luck! Turns out that most of the campers are "regulars" here for the winter and have all become friends. They have a potluck every Sunday and play cards three nights each week. The food was good and the people are great! They said we can check in at the office in the morning when "she opens up around 9 or 10."
After we set the camper up, we headed into St. Marys to see if Cindy Deen the Porno Queen was working at Seagle's Saloon. Turns out, she had the night off, but will be there tomorrow, so we just had a couple of beers and visited with folks. We'll see Cindy tomorrow night. Oh! If you don't know who "Cindy Deen the Porno Queen" is, just Google it. She's in the 4th picture down from the top. She's also in my blog on last year's Florida trip.
We towed the camper to Mattoon so we could attend Adi's 9th birthday party on our way to Florida. It was a pool party held at the Day's Inn, which was the Holiday Inn back when I was in the area. There were about 25 kids and a few adults there. The cake and ice cream was good and Chad even provided a few adult beverages.
Grayson was just getting over some kind of rash that he'd had for several days. They're not sure what it was, but it made him very uncomfortable. His legs were still swollen, so he didn't go swimming. We left the party about 4:30 and headed south.
