Saturday January 31, 2009

Have a little catching up to do: We went for an early dinner last night at Ruby Tuesdays which was right next door to our motel. They had a great salad bar and broccoli and cheddar cheese soup - yum! We decided to hit the sack early and read for a while (at least one of us did) before falling asleep. We had a phone call and since the phone was on Dave's side of the bed, he answered it. What I didn't realize is that he answered it in his sleep! When he hung up, I asked him who was on the phone. He mumbled something about a phone message at the desk and the password was "hearts". I let it go and eventually shut off the light and went to sleep. We woke up quite early this morning (that's what happens when you go to bed early), showered and went to the office for breakfast. I asked the desk clerk about messages for us and she said she didn't put through any calls and that there were no messages for us. The only thing we can figure out is that someone was calling room-to-room and got a wrong number (they don't know how wrong it was!). So anyway, the magic word is "hearts" if you should get a call from the twilight zone!

We met a nice couple from PA at breakfast. They were on their way home (brrrr!) and had been in FL a month just visiting with various relatives and friends. We left the motel at 6:30 and drove across the street to gas up ($1.63). It was 27 out - thank god for seat heaters! We continued on I-95 for quite a while and then cut across through the boonies of GA before dropping down into FL about 50 miles from Tallahassee. We found our new home (a Best Western suite) with no problem thanks to our new GPS (Thanks, Louise!). We arrived here at 2 PM and the weather was 65 and sunny - a glorious day. We unloaded the car and went for a walk to orient ourselves to the area. We are on a main strip full of fast food places and stores of all sorts. We called all of the kids to let them know we had arrived and then walked over to a huge mall and ate dinner at the food court at a place called McAlister's Deli. Dad had a turkey sandwich and I had a caesar salad with chicken. We then walked through a parking lot and went to the cinema. We saw "The Uninvited" - certainly not a relaxing movie - basically a psycho thriller with a number of twists and turns. We found our way back here and will now relax for a while before going to bed. Our room is quite nice - king sized bed, mini-fridge, microwave, couch and chair, coffee table, desk and dresser. I'm sure we will be quite comfortable here.

Friday January 30, 2009

We're back!!! We have decided to revive the blog as we are on our way to Florida for our month of volunteering with the National Park Service. We woke up this AM at 2, showered, put the last items in the car and were on the road at 2:30 AM. We did quite well - hit a small amount of traffic just before the George Washington bridge and some heavier traffic in Baltimore and the D.C. area - but altogether not bad. We stopped in Virginia for brunch and then just snacked in the car until we stopped for the night in Florence, South Carolina at 3:30 PM. We stopped a couple of times for gas, but otherwise just to change drivers. We drove 785 miles today - 13 hours in total. As soon as we checked into the motel, we went for a very long walk - we both were suffering from DB (dead butt)! The temp was 20 when we left the house and it is now 58 and sunny. There are palm trees on the grounds of our motel!! We think we have about 7 hours or so of driving tomorrow to get to Tallahassee. We will be anxious to settle in to our home-away-from-home.

Sunday February 17, 2008

Got up early this morning and got on the road by 5:45. This is the perfect day to travel - no weather worries and not too much traffic as we go through the major cities on our way home. We fairly flew up I-95 (staying at the speed limit as there were lots of police cars about) and made wonderful time. We got home at about 4:30 PM and Amy has dinner waiting for us. We spent the first few minutes in a hug-a-thon - it was so good to see everyone! Zoe was a little hesitant at first, but she started warming up to us by dinner time. We look forward to seeing everyone this weekend and giving lots more hugs! Well, this adventure is at an end, but I'm sure there will be more along the way. I have really enjoyed putting thoughts in the blog so may try to keep it up on a less rigorous schedule - we'll see. So bye to all for now . . . until our next adventure!

Saturday February 16, 2008

Our original plan was to visit with Ed and Bet and then drive down to Del Ray Beach to visit with our friends, Larry and Sandy. We talked with them yesterday and learned that Sandy's sister is very slowly recovering from heart surgery. They have been visiting her almost daily and are pretty worn out and stressed with all of the running around. As it doesn't seem like a good time for a visit - after all we are here 2 weeks earlier that we thought we would be, we decided we would head for home. As much as we are enjoying the warm weather and being away from winter, we miss home, the kids, and the grandkids. Our original plan was to crash the birthday party next weekend which the kids are having at our house - we thought we would just show up as the party was taking place, but since we are going to be home a week early, I guess we will let the cat out of the bag. So, kids, we will see you next weekend (are we invited?)!

We had breakfast with Ed and Betty this AM before we left - pecan waffles (yum!) and then after hugs all around got on the road. It was a little foggy when we got up this morning, but it didn't take long for the sun to burn it off. We had a lovely day for driving - warm and sunny - and we were listening to a John Sanford novel on the CD player. We only have 1 disc to go and neither Dave nor I are really sure who did it - the sign of a good mystery. We have stopped for the night in Fayetteville, NC and walked across the parking lot to Ruby Tuesday's for dinner. We will see how far we get tomorrow - we are anxious to get home, but can only spend so many hours per day in the car. It seems hard to believe that our winter journey is almost at an end - some parts of it seems like yesterday and others seem like they happened a lifetime ago.

Friday February 15, 2008

After breakfast this morning, we drove over to Ed's and we all climbed into Ed's car (Ed, Bet, Deb, Dave, and I). Ed took us on a lovely ride through Plant City where the trees grow over the road to make a canopy that is draped with Spanish moss - really quite lovely! We ended up at Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park where we started our tour with a quiet boat ride up Pepper Creek. We then walked over to the underwater observatory where we watch the hundreds of fish in the spring. Next we went to the manatee educational program. The volunteer was in the water with the manatees - he had a hard time keeping his footing as the manatees kept nudging him to remind him to feed them more sweet potatoes! They were quite insistent and would not stop even after he showed them the empty bucket. They were quite funny as they have a large flexible upper lip (a rudimentary trunk? as they are related to elephants) which they used to pick up the sweet potatoes. All of the animals in the park are native to Florida except for a hippopotamus which was leftover from when the park was privately owned. The hippo was made an honorary citizen by the governor so he does reside there quite happily. He (Lucifer) was quite a sight - 6000+ pounds of hippo basking in the sun (makes one want to go on a crash diet before swimsuit season!). They also had bobcats, black bears and a Florida panther. There were hundreds of birds - flamingo and roseatte spoonbill (today's blog pictures), egret, blue heron, sandhill and whooping cranes, stilts, vultures, pelicans . . . most of these were free to come and go at will, but a few were in cages as rescue birds - especially raptors like eagles, falcons, and owls. Some of them are nursed back to health and others will remain in the park as they will never be well enough to go back to the wild. We thoroughly enjoyed the park and spent much of the day there. We went for lunch at a nearby restaurant - Margaritagrille - which is totally decorated with a patriotic flair - they even serve American fries on the menu! The lunch was delicious and then Ed took us for a bit of a circular route back to Bushnell. We came back and took a walk around the park, stopping to play a game of shuffleboard - Dave and I had never played, but we did okay. When we got back to the house, we played a game of hand and foot (Florida style) - same basic game, but slightly different rules - didn't make any difference as the girls won again (way to go, Betty!). We went back to the motel, but arrange to meet them for breakfast before we leave.

Thursday February 14, 2008

Happy Valentine's Day everyone! We got up this morning and headed across the panhandle of Florida. It must have been cold when we first came out as there was quite a frost on the car. We have nothing of note to report on the drive except for the A-10 warthog (plane) which buzzed us on the highway. We heard it after we saw it - must have been practicing map of the land flying as it went over just 50 feet above us and was going so fast we heard it (loud) after we saw it go over. Scared the c..p out of us! We got to Bushnell about 2 and found Ed and Bet's house - Deb is here also and it was good to see them all. We had the five minute tour of the house and then went for a walk around the neighborhood and met some of their friends. Betty is doing very well after her major accident in the fall - she is walking without assistance and can go quite the distance - it really is a miracle! We came back and chatted for a while and then went out to dinner at a BBQ place (Sonny's) - delicious! It reminded us of the great BBQ we had when Amy was living in Kansas. Ed took us for a drive around the town and then we came back to the house and played a game of hand and foot. We are going back after breakfast tomorrow and will spend the day with them.

Wednesday February 13, 2008

We delayed our start this morning so that we would miss the commuter traffic into Houston - didn't seem to make much difference as we hit the traffic anyway. At one point we saw a HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane and thought - oh, good - this will get us out of the traffic . . . WRONG! The HOV lanes here are a quicker way to get into downtown - not around it! After wandering around downtown Houston for a bit, we finally found our way to a highway going north and from there were able to connect back to the road we were on originally on the correct side of the outskirts. We fairly flew through the rest of Texas and Louisiana. We thought of the houses we worked on as we passed through Mississippi and were hoping that by now they were finished and occupied. We were amazed anew as we drove through Mobile at the size of the bay - it is huge! We finally stopped in Pensacola, FL for the night. We called Ed and Bet and let them know we will be with them tomorrow afternoon. We look forward to being out of the car and staying somewhere for more than one night. We saw an interesting license plate on our drive - DEDAK8BED What do you think? Mattress salesman or professional sleeper? As tomorrow is Valentine's day, we wish our family and friends a wonderful day - we will be thinking of you all!