REALLY??? An Accident?!!

Yep. This has NOT been one of our luckier trips! We've had a flat tire on the car, a flat tire on the motor home, and had our satellite antenna ripped off. Yesterday, however, kind of topped everything. We were in a car accident. No one hurt, thank God, but serious "owies" on my car. We were driving on A1A (I was doing the driving), when the car ahead of us suddenly put on its left turn signal and HIT the brakes. I saw it immediately and slammed on my brakes, but I don't think the car behind us even touched its brakes. So there were two big crashes, literally one second apart: Crash! Crash! One was the car behind us hitting us, and then us hitting the car in front of us. It happened SO fast. The car ahead of us got hit hard enough to require towing, but we were able to drive away (albeit, with the hood tied down with a bungie cord!). The lady behind us was fine and was more concerned about her hair appointment than about any of us. The police arrived within about 2 minutes, which was great, and were very nice. The worst part though, was when I got into the back seat of our car to dig my driver's license out of my purse, and Brandi jumped out of the car. She was scared and she went running down the road, crossing the whole line of traffic on A1A and taking off toward some apartments. I was completely shooke up as it was, and that was the last straw-I started crying immediately. One of the cops took off after the dog and Dave grabbed her leash and followed the cop. Poor Brandi had run up the stairway to the second floor of an apartment building across the street and was up on the balcony. The cop went to one of the stairways going up, while Dave went to the other one and squatted down with the leash and called her to him and (...miracle!) she came down the stairs and went right to him. What a relief! So now we have a problem: the car is drivable but the damages are certainly in the thousands of dollars. I looked at the Kelly Blue Book last night and the car is only worth around $6500 so I'm scared to death they're going to just total it. It needs a new hood, new grill, new bumpers and fenders in both the front and back, one new headlight - a LOT of stuff. But we love that car and we would never be able to get the same kind of car if they cash us out. We're hoping we can just wait and deal with it when we get home because it would be SO very hard to do it right now, with us moving to a new location every two weeks! I have no idea how we could put it into a garage and use a rental car when we move so often. We should know more on Monday when we have our first conversation with the insurance adjuster. (I did call the insurance company from the accident scene and the gal took down all the information, but isn't the one who will be working with us.) So if anyone has any good advice for us, please send me an e-mail!

In the meanwhile, I did get the pictures from my Melbourne Tooth Trot and am attaching them. In case you're wondering, the girl I'm standing next to during the little award ceremony is the TOOTH FAIRY! Yep! Anyway, these are the worst pictures in the world but I have no choice but to post them. But I've been running every other day and I can just feel myself getting stronger and faster, so I can't wait until my next 5K, which is on February 18th. And I just talked to Brenda today and she and Arnie are going to be down here on that date and they're going to come to the run! Brenda's going to join Dave and cheer us on, but Arnie is actually going to run with me! What FUN! I know he'll only stay with me for a few minutes because his pace will be twice what mine is, but he'll probably circle back to me during the run. Regardless, it'll just be a lot of fun to share the experience with Brenda and Arnie. Plus it just gives me that much more motivation.

So tomorrow is our last full day here, then we move on to Wekiwa Springs on Tuesday, and Friday I'll be driving my crunched up car down to Fort Myers to meet up with Cindi and Glennda for a few days. Hopefully (!!!!) our little run of bad luck is now OVER and only FUN is ahead of us!

PS - we do realize that the VERY most important thing is that nobody was hurt during the accident and we are very grateful for that!

AVA Walk #8 Cocoa Beach

FINALLY got another AVA walk in! I really like this Sebastian area, but one complaint is that there are NO AVA walks around here. The only one within a reasonable distance (like less than 100 miles away!) is the one in Cocoa Beach, so we did that one a few days ago. But since this is one that I did last year, it's slightly less fun for me. I really like the variety of doing different walks, so when we get up by Orlando (which is next week) I'll definitely take advantage of the fact that there are a lot of walks within a close distance. Anyway - the Cocoa Beach walk is still nice - I think something like 1.7 miles of the 6.2 miles is right on the beach, which is always fun. I just take my shoes off and walk in the sand - LOVE IT! The weather was beautiful, and Dave was able to ride his bike while I walked so we both had a great day. Afterwards we got my bike off the rack and we rode over to a really cute "beach bar" and had a cocktail. It was fun just to sit and watch the people at the bar and on the beach. So that was my 8th AVA walk of the trip. Actually, that's a pretty low number but it's just because I was only able to do one during our 5-week stay in this vicinity.

We are only here until Tuesday, and then we move up to Wekiwa State Park, in Apopka, a few miles north of Orlando. Since we're leaving here I thought I'd post a couple pictures of the park, but it's mostly a campground (although a very nice, big one) so there aren't a lot of things to take pictures of. One thing that is nice about Long Point is there's a bridge that goes over a little channel and leads to an island that is part of the park. It's maybe a quarter mile long, but there's nothing on it so it's a great place to let Brandi off her leash (even though we're not supposed to!). Our stay here has been very nice - we've done lots of relaxing things like going to the beach, going on walks, Dave's ridden his bike like a mad person, he's done a lot of (...mostly unsuccessful) fishing, he's put his kayak in a number of times. But after a while just doing that stuff every day, in the same park, and in the same area, begins to get a little.....dare I say boring? Maybe not boring, exactly, but definitely both of us are looking forward to being at a new place. I guess we're both sort of "restless souls" - we like to keep on the move. And although this area is absolutely gorgeous, we're sort of in the "been there, done that" mind set, just a little. Plus I'm SO excited because when we get up to the next park, I'll only be there about three days before I jump in the car and drive down to Fort Myers to hook up with Cindi and Glennda for four days. I can't WAIT to see them - it'll be SO much fun! And I'm sure that, after three months of being together every day, Dave is probably feeling okay about a few days on his own!

We did do something fun and out of the ordinary (for us) today - we hooked back up with Barb and Dan (our friend Theresa's mom and her husband). We went and visited their place a couple weeks ago, and I wrote about that. So this time they came up here to us and hung out for a couple hours and then we drove into Sebastian and had an absolutely wonderful dinner at this really cool restaurant called Squid Lips. I know - WEIRD name, right? But what a nice place - one of our favorite types of restaurants: an old wooden building, built out on pylons out over the water, with a marina attached to it. Beautiful view across the intracoastal waterway, excellent menu selection (primarily seafood, of course), very good prices. We enjoyed spending time with Barb and Dan again and will certainlty see them this summer after we're all back home in Michigan.

People frequently ask us about one aspect of traveling like we do, i.e. socializing. We really do not socialize very much when we're on our trips. We love it when we can hook up with friends from home, like Barb and Dan. And I can't wait to see my girlfriends next week, and then a couple weeks later Brenda and Arnie will be down in the area for a few days and I'm just DYING to see my daughter! (and Arnie, of course!) But when you're traveling from one campground to another, you are suddenly put in very close proximity to people you don't know at all. Sometimes you meet people and think "gee, if we actually lived by each other, I think I would like to get to know this person better", but other times you find that your "neighbors" wear pretty thin pretty quickly. We have learned that, for US, it's better to kind of keep your distance. Right now, we have neighbors on both sides of us who are from Canada and are down here, literally, in this park, for four months plus. Because we've been here for three weeks now, we've gotten to know them a little better than we usually do and, quite frankly, they're starting to get on our nerves. Nothing major, just little things, but we agreed tonight that we're both glad that we're moving in another four days - it's time! But that's also the beauty of this type of trip - EVERYBODY you meet, whether you like them or not, is just a ship passing in the night. At some point, when we're no longer able to travel freely and easily, we will probably have to make a decision about where we want to live and who our neighbors will be. But for now, it's awfully nice to be able to just keep moving along. And that's another great thing about traveling - you can make your own decisions about how much you want to socialize. There are people who probably leave every park with a list of email addresses and promises to re-connect the following year. But not us. In general, we're pretty happy with our little "family": me, Dave, Brandi and the cats. Thank goodness we all like each other and only SOMETIMES get on each other's nerves!!!! So, by the time I post my next blog update, we'll be on to a new park and new neighbors and new adventures! CAN'T WAIT!

My First 5K!

Boy, I am WAY behind on my blog-my last post was January 30, and a lot has happened since then. In particular we've had two big things that I need to write about - one very good and one pretty bad!. The good one first: I ran my first 5K race yesterday. It was the "Tooth Trot 5K" in Melbourne. I would say there were 300-400 runners - not a huge run, which is one of the main reasons I selected this race. OK, I know some of my followers are athletic, so they'll think my time is pathetic. But I had been timing myself and I thought I was running 5K in around 42 minutes or so. But on Saturday I did the race in 38 minutes 21 seconds. I am VERY happy with that time for my first event. PLUS-I came in third in my age division, which made it even more fun for me. (OK-to be honest-I don't know how many women were actually IN my age division, but it doesn't matter! I STILL came in third!) Dave came with me (and we had to get up at 6:00 to get there, so I was even more impressed that he came along!) It was very fun to have him there cheering me at the beginning and then at the first little loop through the parking lot, and especially when I came across the finish line. I'm just bummed because I didn't even think to bring my camera so I don't have any pictures. But there was a photographer there, taking pictures as each person crossed the finish line, plus he took pictures when the awards were handed out, so somewhere out there should be two pictures of me. When I find them, I'll post them unless they are TOO awful! I had a BALL doing it, and felt GREAT afterward. Plus I did the whole thing without walking one single step-I ran (...OK, maybe it's more of a jog) the entire time.

So now I've picked out my next one - it's a St. Patty's Day 5K up in Jacksonville on March 18th. I think it's really important for me to set another goal immediately, because otherwsie it would be easy to slack off, and I don't want to do that. I definitely want to improve my time by 2 or 3 minutes minimum, which I think should be pretty doable. And then I would love to do the Tulip Time 5K when we get home. FUN!

OK-now the not so good thing that happened. We got big-time ripped off the other day. I don't remember if Imentioned it, but on Jan 10th we bought a new Winegard Carryout portable satellite TV antenna. It's a little satellite dish inside a dome that you just plug into your cigarette lighter and it spins around and around and finds a satellite and locks in. When you move, you just pick it up, throw it in the back seat of the car, and plug it back in when you get set up at the next location. It's absolutely wonderful and I LOVE it! Finally-the perfect TV solution for us. So we are now at Long Point county park, across the inlet from the Sebastian Inlet State Park, and we were only here two nights and when Dave got up Friday morning he looked out the front window and sae that our satellite dish was GONE!!!! Someone came in the middle of the night and CUT THE WIRES and stole it, along with the tripod. The set up was worth around $800-$900. The dish sat on a tripod, and Dave had hung a milk jug filled with sand underneath it using a little S-hook - this was to keep it from blowing over or anything. Well, the bastards just cut the wires, left them laying in the yard, and left the jug of sand. They took everything else, including Dave's S-hook! We were just SICK about it. Dave immediately reported it to the office, and they called the police. The police officer took down the details, but it's absolutely impossible to catch the guys. But then we got some good news!!!! I called the insurance company and found that this is covered under our "personal effects" coverage and there isn't a deductible for that part of our coverage. So all we had to do is buy a replacement and send the receipts to the insurance company for a full reimbursement. So that is good news - but it was still a nuisance to have to find a replacement unit (about 60 miles round trip), and get it set up. Plus we had to order the tripod and will have to make another trip to pick it up next week. But primarily it's just the PRINCIPAL of the thing-what a crappy thing for someone to do! Dave put the new one up on top of the roof and tied it down with a zillion bungee cords - nobody's going to get this one unless they literally climb up on top of our roof! This is the very first time we've had anything stolen in seven years of trips, so the whole thing has been very upsetting to us.

So those are the two big things to report. We did one other fun thing last week - we went about 25 miles south on Vero Beach and visited our friends Barb and Dan. Barb is our good friend Theresa's mother, and we knew they stay in this area for about six months. They had told us to contact them when we got down here, so we did and went over and spent the afternoon and evening with them. They gave us a golf-cart tour of their gorgeous park-Ocean's Resorts, I think it's called. Barb fed us a great supper and we drank yummy wine and admired their absolutely beautiful fifth wheel (...it is REALLY nice!). We had a great day with them and will definitely see them again before we leave the area. Unforunately I didn't take my camera there either (I'm gettting REALLY bad about remembering the camera!)

So, other than that, we've been loving this area, doing lots of fishing, biking, hiking, walking the dog, kayaking, and just relaxing. We really do love it here right on the side of the ocean. I've been to the beach a few times, but the last few days have been kind of rainy and colder and extremely windy, so we're hoping for a weather improvement this week. In the meanwhile, I'm posting one picture of Dave and me, visiting the Barrier Island Sanctuary, and a BUNCH of pictures of some of the mailboxes here on the island. Apparently one of the requirements for living out here on the island is that you must have an appropriate "ocean-themed" mailbox. Cute, aren't they?

Sebastian Inlet Pictures

What a pretty place this is. We continue to have absolutely gorgeous weather - I just can't believe this trip! We still haven't had a single "rain out" day, and almost no days of clouds and overcast skies. The last couple days have been pretty windy, but that doesn't really slow us down too much. Mostly, we've just been enjoying the park and doing things really close by. We've biked together a couple times, we made our first visit to the Sebastian Beach Inn (the "SBI") which we enjoyed last year, we've been into the town of Sebastian a couple times for groceries and to take Brandi to the exceptionally nice dog park there. I've done a lot of walking and Dave's done a lot of fishing and biking. And it's been just wonderful. Tomorrow's a big day - we're going into Melbourne (about 35 miles north of us) to go to the zoo. BIG adventure! But in the meanwhile, I wanted to post a few pictures and that'll pretty much be it for this post.

One quick comment on a much sadder note-maybe people back home have seen the stories on the national news about the horrific traffic accident down here in Florida. It happened Sunday morning, just south of Gainesville, on I-75. Apparently there was a brush fire in Payne's Prairie (which is a state park we stayed at last year and absolutely loved) and the visibility on I-75 was down to virtually zero, and cars and trucks and semis started piling into each other and exploding. Ten people were killed and another 18 or 20 injured. I think there was one RV involved also, at least according to one of the reports. When we see stories like this, especially involving roads we've traveled and places we've visited, it just makes us so very grateful for all of the safe miles we've put on and the traveling mercies we've received. It's a grim reminder that we all take our lives into our hands every time we venture out on the roads and makes us realize how fortunate we've been that (...knock on wood!) we've not had any bad experiences with all the thousands of miles we've traveled.

Whew-that was kind of grim- so let's just get back to the pretty pictures, OK?

On To Sebastian Inlet and the Ocean!

Well, I guess I only did one post while we were at Jonathon Dickinson State Park. So I'd better finish up with that quickly. I know I already talked about the AVA walk, so I'm trying to think what else we did while we were there. Well, one day we did something that we said we wouldn't do again-we went to another one of the Florida state fairs. I think we went to the Central Florida state fair last year and said one fair every five years was sufficient. And, what do you know, we actually went again - this time to the South Florida State Fair, which is held just outside of West Palm Beach. And, actually, it wasn't too bad.... there was some very "fair"-like entertainment - a local "Big Band" group of VERY senior citizens, a trained dog act, some little junior American Idol wannabees, etc. And we DO get a kick out of walking around the grounds and looking at things-lots of cute animals, lots of really big and/or weird-looking people (....you wish you could just whip out your camera and say "really???? would you mind if I just take a picture of you to share with folks back home???). I'm posting a couple of fair pictures just for kicks. But I think the best part of the day was the realization that Dave can actually walk around for three hours without his knees hurting him-what a treat for both of us (probably especially for him, right?).

On another day, one of our last ones in the park, we put our bikes onto the car and drove into downtown West Palm Beach, and rode around. There is a very nice bike/walking path along the water - this would be the intercoastal waterway, not the ocean. So we rode on the path, then over one of the bridges to Palm Beach itself, which is pretty staggering - FILTHY rich! Then we road back over one of the other bridges and stopped at a really cute bar just before we got back to the car. It was one of those great Florida bars where the majority of the place is outside under palm fronds for a roof-very cute. I think it was called Bradley's or something like that. Anyway, we had a couple drinks and shared some chips with three different dips and dropped almost $50, including tip - YIKES! Thank God we don't do THAT very often! But it was fun to get out and ride our bikes together.

And then it was time to move on. We like Jonathon Dickinson State Park-it is a really attractive park, and the site are huge (see picture - nice, huh?) but for some reason it just doesn't "grab" us like some of the other parks we visit - not sure why. Maybe because it doesn't have that "campground" feel-it's more like a place where bigger rigs park for a while on their way to other places.

So now we are about 100 miles further north, at Sebastian Inlet State Park. I'll probably post a LOT of pictures from this park - it's very scenic! The park is right on the side of the inlet that opens from the intercoastal out into the ocean (for anyone who followed my blog last year, this is the park where Dave and his kayak almost got swept out to the ocean by the outgoing tide!). Anyway, it's a HUGE fishing location - virtually everyone in the park is here to fish! And the marine life is actually pretty incredible - you can hardly walk along the edge of the water without seeing dolphins jumping. Very cool! Our site here is smaller, but still very nice. But there are a LOT of no-see-ums and mosquitos, especially in the morning and the evening, so not the best park for just sitting outside and reading. We got here on Tuesday and mostly just got set up and stuff. Yesterday we had a bunch of errands to run (ending up with buying a new table-top Weber grill to replace our old one) so most of the day got used up that way. But Dave and I did get out for a nice bike ride later in the afternoon. We rode over the bridge that goes from the south side of the inlet (where we are) over to the north side and then we walked out on the pier and watched the guys fishing and other guys surfing. Very "ocean"! It really is beautiful. Plus there is a great bike path that runs the full length of the island - all the way from Vero Beach up to Melbourne, which is a LOT of miles! So I'm still "training" for my big 5K - the Melbourne Tooth Trot - YAY! It's in a little over two weeks now, on February 11, but I'm doing the whole 5K distance each time I got out, mostly "running" (and believe me, I use the term loosely) with just a teensy bit of walking. So I'm beginning to feel kind of ready for the big event! I even went online to see the results from last year, and as far as I can tell there were only TWO female runners in the 60-64 age category and, since they give ribbons to the top three finalists in each category, I'm almost certain to win a ribbon - what a HOOT, huh? But it's kind of fun to have a goal and push myself a little - but wouldn't you THINK the weight would be just dropping off me like crazy (.....not!).

So that's a quick update... we'll be in this area for five weeks (two weeks in the state park, then three more across the bridge in the county park) so there'll be lots of Sebastian updates. For now, I'm just posting one ocean picture to get us started. But be ready for LOTS more.

AVA Walk #7 West Palm Beach

Gee, I feel like my last post was eons ago, even though it's only been a few days. We've moved on from Pine Island and are now at Jonathon Dickinson State Park just north of West Palm Beach. It's a beautiful park, but it's basically a "filler" that we used to bridge the gap between Pine Island and Sebastian Inlet. So we're only here for a "brief" eight days - we always chuckle when we say things like that because for most people eight days would be their entire vacation! Oh well.

But before I talk about our new park, I need to just finish up with Pine Island. We went over to Scott and Deb's on Saturday to attend a party they were throwing. Good food, lots of people, good fun - but we have to chuckle a little because so many of Scott and Deb's friends are "seniors" so they have to start their party at 2:00 in the afternoon, and by 5:00 most of the guests had left. They weren't being rude - it was just time to go home. But then the more serious partiers had the place to themselves. Having said that, we were actually home by 8:00 ourselves. We kind of laughed when we got home and realized we could still catch the last part of Jeopardy. Oh my! But Scott and Deb are wonderful hosts and had all kinds of yummy food, including a turkey in the smoker, fish on the grill, and some kind of wonderful kielbasa and veggies in a boiled-dinner dish. Very good. We stopped back over on Sunday just to say our final good-byes and drop off a couple bottles of rum as a "thank you" for all their hospitality during our stay.

So Monday we get up and are all ready to pack up and head over across the state to the ocean. We pulled up our jacks and some guy walking by stopped and said "gee, that tire looks kind of soft, doesn't it?" Yep, it did! So we were delayed about an hour in order to refill the tire with air (hoping it would hold), make a few phone calls, and take the rig down to "Carl's Repair Service". Well, he was great and found the problem within minutes (thank GOD!)-it turned out to be just a leak in the valve extension on the front tire. All he had to do was remove it and VOILA we were on our way - YAY!

The trip across the state only took about three hours but is kind of interesting because the road (highway 80) goes below Lake Okeechobee, through some small and kind of scary little towns, and then through miles and miles and miles of sugar cane with no houses AT ALL-just refineries and these huge, huge fields. And then, all of a sudden, you're in West Palm Beach, almost literally from one minute to the next. From there, we had a short drive north on Interstate 95 and arrived at Jonathon Dickinson State Park, which is very nice. The campground is very new so the sites are really big with gravel pads and full hook-ups, and very clean and shiny tiled bathrooms (which is SO nice after the fairly nasty bathrooms at the KOA on Pine Island). There are tons of things to do here: you can throw your kayaks in the river, fish in the river or a little lake (called the Gator Hole), tons of hiking trails, long smooth roads for biking, plus a very nice bike trail for a mile or so. This year they've added an equestrian area and there are about 20 or so horses available for riding. There's a large nature center with exhibits and films, and quite a few ranger-led activities.

esides the actual park activities, the outlying area itself is nice with lots to do. The park is located between Hobe Sound and Jupiter Beach, maybe 20 or so miles north of West Palm Beach. And, guess what - there are some AVA walks in the area! So yesterday I did my seventh AVA walk of the trip - bringing my total up to 49 - one more and I can send in my little stamped book and get my next certificate! OK - I KNOW it's stupid, but I really do love this whole thing! Anyway, I did the West Palm Beach walk last year, so this time it was a repeat. I don't mind doing a repeat if that's all that's available, and it has been a whole year. The weather this time was SO much nicer than when I did the walk a year ago, so it was a much more pleasant experience. I'm attaching a few pictures just to convey a sense of the town. West Palm Beach is very nice, but not too "over the top", as opposed to when you cross over the intercoastal waterway and go to Palm Beach, which is CRAZY rich! When I was walking along the waterway I could see over the intercoastal to the back side of some of the mansions on the island, with these monstrously HUGE yachts moored to the docks behind their houses. I'm telling you-there is SERIOUS money out there on Palm Beach. But we laugh a little because last year when we were down here there was a story on the news about the 10 most unhappy cities in the country, and Miami was #1 and Palm Beach was #2 - can you explain that???? Anyway, I can tell I'm getting stronger (...training for that big 5K on Feb 18, you know!) because I can do a 10K walk without even the very slightest bit of effort - THEN I came home and did about an 8 mile bike ride in the park afterward. SUPER WOMAN!

One last thing - Monday afternoon Dave and I took a little ride (in the car) through the park to re-aquaint ourselves with the layout and we had just pulled out of the boat ramp area when all of a sudden we stopped dead - there was a REALLY BIG snake in the middle of the road. And when we took a good look at it we realized it was a RATTLE snake - probably 5 or 6 foot long, stretched out. That was a first for us. I'm sticking a picture of it in here just for my good friend Glennda!!!!

(PS-this is just for us-we go crazy when we try to remember the names of people we meet along the road, so I'm listing some names so Dave and I can come back to this blog in a few months when we're desperately searching for the name of that one couple. Paul & Mary (SO nice!!!), Betty & John, Kitty & Ken (the bikers from Punta Gorda), Phil "the fireman", Linda & "Tommy Tugboat", Kirk & Judy (the neighbors), Barb, Shelly & Matt (Betty's daughter), Betty & Candy & Jim, Jim & Lynnay (Sue's brother), Ronny & Tommy & Jimmy (...I know-REALLY?), Aunt Sissy, and others that I already can't remember. It was great!)

And, finally - hurray for FaceTime - Tessa got an I-Phone so I was able to FaceTime with Emma, my sweet little great-granddaughter. What fun!

AVA Walk #6 Sanibel Island Lighthouse

Hello from Pine Island! So-let's see-on Tuesday I did my last AVA walk in this part of Florida. We leave the island this Monday so there's no way I'll get any more in before then - but the good news is there are AVA walks on the ocean side too! The Sanibel walk was very nice-actually, there are two walks on Sanibel-one is primarily on the beach and the second one is more along streets on the island, ending at the lighthouse on the far southern tip. I did that one because I wanted to take Brandi with me and I was pretty sure she wouldn't be allowed on the beach. I think I made the right decision because she did fine on the walk and there wasn't anyplace she couldn't go. But it is LOT of work to take her on a 6.2 mile walk, primarily because she wants to smell EVERYTHING and stop at EVERY little bush and tree (to pee), so I'm constantly having to "reel" her back in on her leash or pull her to keep going or whatever! But she seems to be having SO much fun that I actually didn't mind at all. And we had LOTS of chances for her to practice her "stop-sit-stay" routine because there were about a million bikes on the bike trail/sidewalk route and I always make her stop and sit when a bike passes us in either direction. But she got lots of "good dog!" comments and I got lots of "thank you"'s from the bicyclists so we both felt pretty special. The walk itself wasn't the most exciting one because it was primarily just walking along residential and resort-lined streets, without really any views of the water or the beach. At the end of the island there is a nice park with a beach and an old lighthouse-and then you turn around and pretty much come back the same way. But the causeway going over to the island is very pretty, with a beutiful view of the bay, and the parts of the island that I saw were very nice. I did take a minute and drive past the resort where my friends Cindi and Glennda are going to be staying when they come down in March, so that was another benefit of being on Sanibel. I'm SO excited because I'm going to drive down and spend a few days with them when they come-YAY! We'll be camped at Wekiva State Park, which is just a little north of Orlando. It's a nice park-we've been there before-and Dave likes it and will be fine on his own for a few days. It'll be great to see them and now that I've seen where they (....we!) will be staying it makes it even more fun to look forward to!

On Monday we did another "last time" thing-we went to the 4th of the FGCU (Florida Gulf Coast University) basketball games-all double-headers so eight games in total. I'm posting a couple pictures of their arena. Honestly, if I was a kid I'd look into this school because it is so gorgeous and new and pretty and in such a great area-what a wonderful place to attend college all winter. I don't even know what KIND of a college it is, but I don't care! We've had a LOT of fun coming to these games and are already looking forward to being down here next year and returning to the arena! Go Eagles!

Wednesday and Thursday were kind of quiet days for us-the weather was a TEENSY bit less wonderful. There was a very brief cold front and it got kind of windy, so we mostly just hung out on Wednesday. But there was an "Italian night" here in the park, so we went to that. These types of things are pretty hoaky and we kind of roll our eyes just a little, but it actually was kind of fun. We had an all-you-can-eat "Italian" dinner (OK-not GREAT, but it's the thought that counts!) and met a few more of our fellow RVers. That part was kind of fun because there were six of us together at a table and we all swapped RV mishap stories- kind of like war stories except that awnings figure predominantly in the plots. It's actually always fun to talk to other RVers because it helps remind you that EVERYONE who RV's deals with the same types of problems and emergencies and misadventures. Then on Thursday Dave put the kayak in and fished all afternoon, while I took Brandi up to the dog park in Punta Gorda. There were some slightly rougher dogs there and she did a lot of running, and then last night all of a sudden she started limping and not wanting to put any weight onto one of her hind legs. It's always scary when something happens to your pet while you're on the road, because you have NO idea how to find the best possible vet in the area. Thankfully, by this morning she was putting a teensy bit of weight onto her leg, and tonight she is ALMOST back to herself. Whew-dodged another bullet!

Today we went up to the American Legion and had lunch with Scott and Deb and-I don't know-five or so of their friends. I swear they are the MOST social people we've ever met! They just LOVE having people around them ALL the time. In fact, tomorrow (Saturday) they are having a party at their house-only 50 or 60 people expected! THAT should be interesting! We love them to death, but honestly I could NEVER live this way. For one thing, we eat and drink WAY more than we would normally, so even though I'm exercising a LOT I can't seem to lose an ounce. And Dave and I are just more "private" people-we like to socialize but could never do it like this-every single solitary day! I don't know HOW they do it. But they've been wonderful to us during our visit so, in our case we're glad they're so sociable. We've had a great time here on Pine Island and the next two days should be fun, but five weeks in one place is plenty long enough and I think Dave and I are both VERY ready to move on to our next destination. And that's the beauty of RVing-you just pick up and move on and you get a fresh new start and new things to see and do, over and over and over. So my next post will be from Jonathon Dickinson State Park over by West Palm!!

PS-a quick word on technology. I am LOVING having my I-phone on this trip. I've used the map feature about a million times, plus lots and lots of odds and ends like the Dog Park Finder, the Sam's Club app, the "Couch to 5-K" training schedule; I've put lots of music onto the I-pod app and am gradually building up a running playlist for my upcoming "5K Tooth Trot"! And best of all, I'm getting pictures and videos from home, which are absolutely wonderful. I'm also really enjoying having my Nook-I've downloaded lots of library books and am getting lots of the "Free Friday" selections from Barnes and Noble. And I think we FINALLY have the right TV solution-we got the Winegard Carryout Portable satellite dish. It's primarily earmarked for sale to RVers and tailgaters and other "outdoor" customers, but (knock on wood) it seems to be the perfect solution for us...FINALLY! It continues to amaze me how the technology available to those of us who spend so much time traveling has changed and improved over the 7 years we've been doing this. VERY cool stuff!