Sep 4, 2021 - We made it home

After just under two months, we are home. It has been a great trip in spite of the Covid-19 issue. We had the opportunity to see so many great things in this country. Our trip total was 8122 miles on the coach and 1800 miles on the scooter. We traveled through countless national and state parks, an unbelievable number of national and state forests, and were successful pretty much in avoiding the cities. Several people have asked what parks were our favorites. This is how I would classify. Best park overall is Yellowstone. Second best...

Jan 23, 2021 - January 23

Sally and I went fishing yesterday not catching anything. WE did see a lot of sugar cane trucks on the highway. Lately we also have been seeing a lot of crop duster airplanes flying low over the campground. The weather has been very good the last few days with highs in the high 70s and sunny.

Jan 21, 2021 - Kayak trip from Bokeelia on Pine Island

Another big group went to Pine Island to take advantage of another beautiful day in Southwest Florida. It was sunny and pleasant, with a high in the low 70s - perfect for kayaking in the sun without getting hot! The first thing we saw when we went out to Pine Island Sound was a large capsized sailboat! Wonder when and how that happened and how long it will stay there! Then we saw the group of 5 islands made up of mangroves that harbored lots of pelicans last Spring, so we went there. While there weren't many birds in the mangroves (a few...

Jan 20, 2021 - on the road to freedom

According to the news, exactly one year ago today the first person was diagnosed with COVID in the United States. Today was the day my sister who works in the medical field got her first vaccine shot and her daughter who works at a nursing school received her second dose. And we drove to the Brevard County Health Department and got our first shot sitting in our car in the parking lot. Because I still can't believe that it finally happened, that we were among the lucky ones, it still hasn't sunk in that we are halfway to freedom and normal...

Jan 16, 2021 - January 16

Today was quite cool. WE wore 2 sweat shirts most of the day. I went fishing with Jerry We had one bite. I did get it in. It was a walking catfish about 15inches long. It is a invasive species so we killed it.Here are Tori's Wedding pics. HereHttps://amberryanphotography.pixieset.com/victoriaandjasonwedding/ Copy and paste address

Jan 14, 2021 - Kayak trip at Lover's Key State Park

After a cool week and rainy day on Wednesday, today was a perfect day for kayaking in a natural canal at this wonderful park. At least 18 of us traveled over an hour to get here and everyone is very helpful getting each other onto the water - wearing masks of course! Since we all paddle at different rates and desire different types of water, we didn't stay all together very long. This made for a very peaceful day without a lot of talking about the world we are enduring at this time. We simply enjoyed the beauty around us and each...

Jan 13, 2021 - lifted spirits

I was feeling somewhat down after we got back from our Everglades adventure. The weather is cool limiting outside activities and of course; inside activities are out of the question in COVID times. Then friends from home stopped by for a short visit and lifted my spirits immediately. We took them on a nature walk with Betty, our local nature guru, and as always she pointed things out that we would have never noticed ourselves. We came to an ever so slightly elevated area where trees that normally do not grow here naturally were. She said...

Jan 13, 2021 - Settled In At Red Oaks

Almost 2 weeks here already. There hasn't been much to talk about. We've just been taking life slowly. We're slowly doing little fix up jobs, one at a time. Ellen has been back to a doctor for followup on her wrist. She starts her physical therapy today. We haven't had much rain at all, but the weather has not been what we come to expect in Florida. Temperatures have been below average, with a few mornings in the mid 30's. On Monday, we trekked over to Webster for the big flea market. As expected, it was much smaller than we've seen in the...

Jan 8, 2021 - camped in the cane

Shortly before COVID clipped our wings, we joined Harvest Hosts, an organization of businesses that agree to host RV'ers overnight on their property without hook-ups, often in a parking lot. In New York state we spent over a week traveling from one HH site to another having unique experiences. There aren't as many HH sites here in Florida and many of those are on golf courses, not so interesting for us at the moment since we have a wonderful golf course at The Great Outdoors where we can play by driving our own golf cart to the course. So...

Jan 7, 2021 - Pembroke Pines FL

We spent the weekend in seclusion as my ear healed and we caught up on re-doing some storage and filing things and catching up on daily life tasks...all in preparation for a busy Monday. We were out the door just after 8:30 so I could drop her off at the nail salon then get me to the doctor for the blood draw for my late-by-a-year annual physical by 9:15, then back to pick her up and then after dropping off an envelope to go to Evanston, we were northbound on the turnpike for lunch with Alan and Donna. I worked with Alan and we have been...

Jan 7, 2021 - a thorough examination

The first time we came to southern Florida, we visited the main part of Everglades National Park, which is the best known. After many more visits, we have discovered there is a treasure trove of protected land here at the bottom of Florida also worth a visit. In addition to the national park there's also Big Cypress National Preserve, Fakahatchee Strand Preserve State Park, Picayune Strand State Forest, the 10,000 Islands part of the national park only accessible by boat, and the western part of the national park called Shark Valley. I...

Jan 5, 2021 - wet feet

After a visit to Clyde Butcher's studio, we joined one of his guides for a walk through the swam nearby that has inspired Butcher's career for decades. Butcher is known as the Ansel Adams of the Everglades. For decades he hauled a heavy 8x10 view camera into the swamp, manually making black and white images that he later printed in his darkroom in formats as large as 4 by 3 feet. Photographs that size are so much easier to produce today. My personal expectations for a photo safari went unrealized. I'm sure Ken did better with his water...