Indiana and home

Very cold last night, and I'm not used to camping in the cold. Apparently many are though, there are 20-25 trailers and RVs here! The campers next to us say they live in theirs full time, my question was "why here?" They told me that they were originally from Indiana and were visiting, brrrrrr, they aught to visit when it's warmer!

Tuesday we hit the Simmons winery (wasn't open yet) and the Buck Creek winery (small, friendly, and very good wines) on the way to the Dickinson's. Ann welcomed us in, chatted a bit, then we went into Carmel for a quick look around. Stopped at Ferrin's Fruit wines (mostly fruit wines, a couple grape), and the Grape Inspirations (40 kinds and they also let you make your own!) before going back to Ann's for the night. We went to a place around the corner from her called Sahm's for dinner. Nice place and decent prices, and after dinner went back to Ann's for the night. I did find out that the RV can't take really cold windy weather, it wants to drain the battery quickly, had to get up about 4:30 to start the RV and keep the battery charged up.

Wednesday morning Ann made breakfast for us, and we hit the road about 10:30. Without many stops, we made it home about 4:00, took us a little longer because of ALL THE SNOW!!!!! We hit some nasty lake effect whiteouts, now we are really back to reality. I had to shovel for an hour before we could even get the RV in the driveway. Called Pat and blamed him, said we wouldn't be in this mess if he hadn't pushed us out of Florida so fast :-)

Had some problems Thursday morning, the HHR wouldn't start, battery was down, but after a jump we were on the road. Back to normal.......if you can call record amounts of snowfall normal.

All in all it was a great trip, got out of the cold for a while, visited with good friends, saw some nice sights, a few wineries and distilleries, ate some great seafood, listened to some really good music, a February to remember.

See you next year........................

Georgia, Kentucky and Indiana

After spending the day in St Augustine on Friday, we stayed at the Stagecoach RV park near there, nice park, but nothing there, not a place I would want to stay for any length of time. Saturday we started north again, drove to Jacksonville to check out the Total Wine and More store. Picked up a lot of stuff, some wine for Lisa, some bourbon and beer for me, stuff I can’t get or much cheaper than we can get back home.

Seeing as we are not in that big a hurry, when we left Jacksonville we started on the State roads going north instead of the Interstate. Lots of nice scenery, and Lisa likes it that we don’t have to share the roads with the truckers (they shake the RV a little when they pass us). Into Georgia we decided to head to Dublin GA just to say we had been there, and on the way I noticed a sign for a State Park. So Saturday night was spent at Little Ocmulgee Lodge Park.

Now this is a place I could spend some time at! Very nice camping facilities on a beautiful lake and it has a golf course! But I sure can tell we’re not in Florida anymore, woke up in the morning and as I let Molly out I could see my breath, temps are in the high 30s I think. We went down to the Lodge for breakfast, real nice buffet and less than $7 with coffee. They have packages here which combine golf and camping that seemed reasonable. About $270 for 7 days camping and unlimited green fees for 2 people, may have to look into this for next year.

Took off driving and made it to a Wal-Mart near Lexington, Kentucky for the night. In the morning we started back on the Bourbon Trail with our first stop scheduled as Woodford Reserve. A beautiful drive to get there, and then found out it is closed on Mondays….grrrrrrrr…so on to the next one which was Buffalo Trace. Now this was a very educational tour. Learned a few new things about the history of bourbon in Kentucky, into one of the bonded storage areas, watched them bottle some 20 year old Pappy Van Winkles, and back to the visitor center for a tasting. Some great bourbon here, and they also make a vodka (Rain Vodka) that was really smooth. It’s distilled seven times. The tour was almost 2 hours long. Afterward we drove to the Four Roses distillery for their tour.

This one was a little more hands on again, we went through the grain testing room and the production facilities. They do all the distilling here and then send it off for storage and bottling. We were even allowed to sample the “white dog” as it was coming off the column still (130 proof), and then as it was coming off the doubler (140 proof), which is essentially a pot still. (I think that Woodford Reserve is the only one that is strictly distilled in a pot still.) Then on to the tasting room, and back on the road headed to Columbus, Indiana for the night at Woods-N-Waters Campground.

As we hit the Indiana state line we start seeing snow again, back to reality I guess. In fact the campground has a inch of snow on the ground. Rained all night, and it is still a mixture of rain/snow as I type, hope it doesn’t affect us too much for the ride. We are planning on seeing the Dickersons today, but will play it by ear.

This may be the last post until we get home so see you all soon.

St Augustine

Friday today, got up early, went in for a shower and Kathy (Mike's wife) was just leaving for work, so said our goodbyes. Mike showed up a little later after taking Cathy (his sister) to the airport for her flight back to Michigan. Mike, Isabella, Lisa and myself went out for breakfast, and said our goodbyes back at his house. He gave us a route to head north that took us through some pretty scenery as we made our way to St Augustine. Our first stop there was the San Sabastian winery. Took the tour, did the tasting, and bought Lisa a bottle of Chablis.

Afterward we took our time and walked the town. Supposedly the oldest town in the US, don't know about that, but it is very old. Lots of neat architecture, and there are lots of artists there. Some neat old stores, had a beer and lunch at the A1A Ale brewery, nice Scotch ale and a Red ale. Wandered around all afternoon, then headed to the RV park for the night.

Weather is muggy today, looking like a storm may kick up tonight, but it's quite warm, low 80s. Storms rolling through north of us in Georgia and South Carolina, not sure if they will get this far south.

Tomorrow we are headed to Jacksonville and on to Georgia. It's getting to be time to head north. Hope the weather warms up a bit before we get there!

Ormond Beach

Nice ride to Chase's house, when we got there his sister Cathy welcomed us, Mike had a contractor giving him a estimate on a little remodeling job. Got set up in the driveway, introduced Molly to Mike's dogs Elvis and Rickie. Went for dinner to the Gryphon's Lark, nice British style pub. When we got back to their place, Mike built a fire outside and we swapped lies for a while til it got too cold (I know, 65 ain't cold you all of you in MI)and we called it a night.

In the morning Lisa took a walk down to the beach, I hung around and let Molly have a little exercise. In the afternoon Mike took us to Blue Springs State Park where we got a chance to watch the manatees swim around. Nice park, we saw lots of different fish, birds, and half a dozen or so manatees. Hard to get a picture of them, they stay under water all the time except for poking their nose out to breath. Great afternoon. Isabelle (Mike's 2 1/2 year old daughter) entertained us all. We stopped to the fish store on the way home, Mike is going to cook dinner for us all. Cathy (the sister) has to be to the airport very early tomorrow, so after dinner we will be saying all our goodbyes, we should be gone before they come home from the airport.

Our plan is to hit St Augustine tomorrow........

Key Largo and our trip starting north

Monday was a "retiree" day for me, we did nothing but enjoy the warmth and sunshine. Actually kind of humid, then a nice breeze came in and made it very comfortable. There were the obligatory trips to the store, but that was it. Julie slept til 1pm after a long night at work, shes on 11pm to 7am hours. Lisa made kale and potatoes with grilled chicken for lunch/dinner, and Pat and I finished off a lot of the scotch and bourbon.

Tuesday I started putting the RV in order so we could leave. Julie stayed up after getting home from work so we could visit, we had to dodge a lot of rain for about an hour, then things settled down. Pat and I make breakfast, and afterwards we did our goodbyes and hit the road. Made our way up to Fort Pierce where Dave and Shirley Huff have made their new home. We are camping at the Road Runner park, Dave picked us up to go to their house, Dan and Ardi Coby are there too so we had a great visit, burgers and dogs on the grill, and laughed about old times. Dave brought us back to the park for the night, and after putting on some long pj's, it's cool tonight, we sacked out.

It's Wednesday morning now, and we are going to drive to Ormond Beach to see Mike Chase in a little bit. I'll fill you in next time.

Later.......

Key Largo

We left Boyd’s campground about 11, and stopped at Parrotdise which is at the 28.5 mile marker. Cute little restaurant and bar, Lisa tried their house wine, called Big Pecker wine, and ended up ordering a glass of the chardonay. Didn’t want to eat lunch there as we planned on stopping in Marathon for lunch. That place was the Island Fish Co., great food and service, it’s at the 54 mile marker. Kept going afterward til we got to Pat and Julie’s place and set up for the weekend. Today was Friday, so we went to Smuggler’s to listen to Pat’s band play their regular Friday night gig. This was the first time we met the rest of Pat’s band, I met Pete last week when we were here. It started out as a 5 piece, and ended up a 7 piece after everyone showed up. Great music, but the worst service I have had in a long time, and the food was average but very overpriced. I don’t think this place will make it long, too bad because it’s a nice regular gig for Pat.

Saturday we got up and headed to the mainland. Pat and Julie wanted to show us a few of their favs, so we went to "Robert is Here" fruitstand, tried a lot of different honey that they sell, we bought some avocado honey along with a few other things. Our next stop was the Schnebley Winery, all their wines are made with different types of fruit, no grapes here. The only one any of us found tolerable was the Mango wine, and after Pat and I competed in the "carambula stomp". The carambula being the name for star fruit, which is one of the fruits they make wine out of. The stomp being a contest on who can stomp 1 gallon of juice out of the fruit the fastest. The winner received a free bottle of wine, and I won! LOL. I picked a bottle of Mango wine to take along. This was the opening weekend for the winerys new visitor center, the help didn’t even know where everything was yet. Very beautiful place, new building and grounds, couple of waterfalls, some tiki huts, a sax player for atmosphere, all first class. Pat gave them a card as he would like to play there.

The ride home found us taking the Card Sound road, which was the old road to get to the keys prior to Highway 1 being built. Stopped at Alabama Jack’s for lunch and a listen to the house band. Pat had mentioned they played all C&W, especially the old stuff, and of course, they were playing newer songs, and not all C&W. Some more good food, we ordered 2 meals for 4 people and couldn’t eat it all, and we sat next to the canal watching the fishing boats go by. There was a little excitement, someone dropped some money in the canal, and they had to get a fishing net to rescue it. The rest of the evening was lounging at the house. We did call Cory though, and he mentioned that he would toast us, so here is our toast to him......


We took our time getting up on Sunday, left the house about 11, stopped at the local fleamarket for a bit, and drove to Founder’s Park for Pat’s gig at the Relay for Life benefit. The weather was warm but cloudy, and it was too bad that more people weren’t there, Pat’s band (Blues Lagoon) played for a hour and a half, we had a BBQ pork for lunch. A nice afternoon, except that Lisa and I both got sunburned. A storm popped up on the drive home, and we stayed in Sunday night, exept for a quick run for groceries, because of the rain. Julie had to nap, she starts her third shift hours tonight, 11-7, and after she left we went to bed. Got woke up during the night with all the rain again, but didn’t mind, I don’t have to shovel this stuff :-)

Pat says to say hey to everyone back home so.....


Great weather now, gonna be 85 today, hope you are all staying warm.......

Key West

Found the bus schedule and where it would pick us up and took the “blue” bus into Key West. Fascinating little town, we did most of our wandering in old town down by Mallory Square. Had to make our stop at Kinos today, so we could get all the Kino sandels that we had to buy to fill requests (and of course Lisa needed a pair). Walked around Mallory Square but didn’t stay, it was cloudy and not very many people there. We had a wonderful cheese and fruit plate at Island Dogs Bar.
The liquor laws here allow you to carry out your drinks, just get it in plastic and carry it with you, so we stopped several times to try different beers and “umbrella” drinks. Also went in to the Key West Winery and tried several fruit wines. They only have one grape wine, which is based on the muscadine grape, so I didn’t try it. Bought a bottle of Coco Polada, coconut flavored of course. They ship to Michigan, so if we need more we can get it. The clerk kept looking at my shirt, I had on one of my Hat Trick t-shirts from the One Trick Pony, and after we talked, I found out she was born in Hastings and moved downtown by Diamond and Michigan Sts and was very familiar with the One Trick! Small world for sure!
Lisa did some more shopping along Duval St, we stopped at Ricks for a beer and some coconut drink that came with a cute Easter Island head shaped cup. Free chips and salsa in a heated popcorn popper dispenser, nice treat. Finally caught the 9:00 pm bus back to Boyds Campground, cost $1 for Lisa, $0.50 for me being a senior you know :-)
Thursday we eased up in the morning, lazed around til 10:30 then bused it back in to Key West. Got off at the other end this time, and walked toward old town, just planning on stopping if something caught our eye. Went through the Hemingway house, lots of history there, walked through the Lighthouse grounds, but didn’t want to pay the $10 to walk up the tower. Enjoyed a nice walk making our way down Duval St back to old town, finally stopping at Caroline’s for lunch. It was recommended by Pat and Julie, and after eating there I can see why. Very good food, and reasonably priced (for Key West). I had the conch fritters and a southwest salad, and couldn’t eat it all. Lisa had the quesidias and had the same problem.
Found our way to Mallory Square for the sunset party tonight, the weather being much better. Enjoyed the buskers, sword swallower, fire breathers, bed of nails guy, and all the artists. Of course the “guy with the cats” was there, and I got some nice sunset photos. Had the caricature artist draw one for me, did pretty good. Glad we were here today, made for a nice weather day for our exploration of Key West. Our nightlife was spent at Sloppy Joe’s, of course made famous by it’s Hemingway connection, but we were here for the “Put-In-Bay”connection. Pat Daley is playing here each weekend, so we stayed for the show. Lots of Put-in-Bay people here, they even have a Put-in-Bay festival weekend t-shirt for sale, but was sold out so I couldn’t get one. Lots of Ohio people in town today, even walking down the street we were hearing the “O-H-I-O” being yelled out from the bars. Paul and Peg would be in seventh heaven!
Took the bus back after the show, and in the morning we got ready to leave and head back to Key Largo.

More later…………….

Key Largo and Key West

Left Punta Gorda on Sunday morning about 10, hit the Eden Vineyard Winery at 11:00. Lisa did the sampling and enjoyed these wines more than at Lakeridge. They have the hybred grapes here, and you don’t get the muscadine grape flavors like you do at the Lakeridge Winery where they use more of them. She even bought a couple bottles to take along. Noon we were headed back south to the Everglades. Took the Tamiami trail which found us driving right through the middle of the Everglades. Stopped at the Everglades welcome center, and just down the road found a airboat ride so we stopped and had one (ride that is). Saw a couple gators in the swamp, and the boat captain was explaining a bit about the lack of water in the Everglades and how that, along with all the snakes (boas), was affecting the ecosystem. Fun ride, he would spin the boat to stop it a couple times to show off, but with the wind blowing as hard as it was, he was having a hard time turning the boat in a smaller space. Shopped in the tourist trap and picked up a alligater foot for Bradley.

Kept going east on US-41 and saw the Indian Casino, thought we would stop for a bit, and saw RV parking so we set up for the night. Went in and played a couple slots, had a drink at the Cypress Lounge, and listened to the singer before going back to the RV for the night.

Up in the AM and on the road to Key Largo, another windy day driving. Made it to Key Largo about noon, found a laundry to do some clothes washing, and over to Pat and Julie’s about 2. Got settled in, Pat was there, Julie showed up after work about 5, and Randy and Gloria got back from Key West about 6. We all had dinner together, and a nice evening spent visiting.

Got up in time to wish Randy and Gloria goodbye, as they were headed north to see friends in Bradenton, and then making their way home. After breakfast Pat and I ran a few errands, I got my hair cut, we were back in time for Julie to leave for work at 2. Lisa and I went for a nice walk, picked up a couple coconuts, and Pat helped us crack one open and get the milk and meat out. Went to Gilbert’s Tiki Bar for dinner, I had a conch sandwich with sweet potato fries. Back to Pat’s after dinner for a little talking, watching TV, trying out a couple different whiskeys, and off to bed at 10:30.

We were rudely woken during the night by a nasty storm, lots of rain for an hour or so, but as we got out of the trailer about 8:30 the sun was poking it’s head out a little. After a shower and breakfast we bid Pat and Julie a temporary goodbye and headed down to Key West. Most of the drive was clear and sunny, until just before we reached the campground and the skys opened up on us! Quite a thunderstorm, waited a bit to set up the trailer in Boyd’s Campground, and finally got things done about 2:00. Having a little lunch as I type this, and after posting we are heading into Key West for the day.

More later………….

Saturday in Punta Gorda

Saturday morning we took it easy for a while, got a cab about 12:30 back to the Fisherman’s Village for a afternoon cruise on the river. Took the afternoon tour with the King Fisher Fleet. Nice little tour, showed us the city from the perspective of the river. Lots of high dollar homes here, lots on the river go for ½ million and up. Had one dolphin surface off the bow, not enough time to get a picture. It rained at the beginning of the tour, but didn’t last long.

Also had a call from Pat Knott while we were waiting for the boat to take off, seems the Rick Granger and Frankie had just left Pat’s place, they had stopped for the night on Rick’s bike, seems they live in Ocala now, both working and dong great!

Back at the pier we did a little looking around in the Fisherman’s Village, had a coffee and started walking back to town. On the way we saw a eagle’s nest, the mother bald eagle was feeding her chicks, I took a bunch of pictures, was a first for me to see a eagle closeup like that. I am going to try to put a couple pictures in my blog, we will see how they turn out.

Not much open in town on Saturday after 5 so we went to a mexican restaurant for dinner, then to the Celtic Ray to see Paul and Peg and Richie before we went back to the motor home. Cabbed it back about 8, and took it easy for the rest of the night, as our expected visitors didn’t show up.

Bradenton and Punta Gorda

We left the Wal Mart about 11 on Wednesday morning, started driving south on I-75. Weather wasn’t very good, lots of rain as we were driving, and we were amazed at some of the downed trees we passed. The storm must have raged all around us last night, reports of tornadoes west,east and north of where we stayed, 59 people were killed, and had to have strong winds south to have the trees down that we saw. Our RV didn’t even rock last night, someone was sure watching over us!

Ended up at a RV park in Valdosta, GA called the River Park. Nice place, $26, electric, water, sewer and cable. Relaxed for the evening after fighting all that wind on the road.

Woke up to a nice morning, it was cool last night, but it warmed up nice as we drove on. Took I-75 into Florida, then the Florida Turnpike to Clermont where we visited the Lakeridge Winery. Nice tour, tasted a few wines, Lisa got a couple bottles and I picked up a bottle of port. Left there and drove to the Bradenton area and spent the night at the Frog Creek RV park.

Friday morning we left Frog Creek, which was a very nice park, nothing fancy but very comfortable, and drove to the Red Barn Flea Market in Bradenton. Don’t, and I repeat, don’t try to park a 29’ RV in the parking lot there! Ended up parking in a cross aisle blocking a fire hydrant just to get enough room for the rig. Typical flea market stuff, I did have a good chicken burrito though. Haven’t heard from Bode, tried calling him again and he hasn’t called back, so we drove down to Punta Gorda and checked in for a couple nights into Alligator Park. This one is bigger than Frog Creek, and calls itself a “resident owned over 55” park. I just make the over 55 part seeing as I turned 56 last Sunday.

After setting up, we took a cab into Punta Gorda and wandered the town. It’s a quaint older village/town right on the water, Peace River I believe it’s called. This place was hit hard by Hurricane Charlie a few years back, and is still in the process of rebuilding. There are many empty lots, and some new construction going on. Walked all the way down to Fisherman’s Village, some nice stores and restaurants there. Had a pint in Harpoon Harry’s at the end of the dock, watched the sunset and a couple dolphins swimming around.

Afterwards we walked back into town and made our way over to the Celtic Ray where Paul, Peg and Richie are playing. Ordered a couple Smithwick’s, Lisa got a “toastie” and some colcannon and was in seventh heaven :-) Made our way outside where the band was setting up, Paul got us a table right in front, and we listened to the band play. They started at 8 and didn’t quit til after 11! A good crowd, and for once, us Michigan people outnumbered the Ohio people (not counting the band of course). A great show, even heard a few new numbers – Yesterday from the Beatles for one. Great weather tonight too, it's about 70 and dry, much better than what's back home. Brandie keeps us in the know on the weather there.

Paul introduced us to Pat, the new owner, nice guy, he even treated us to a bottle of champagne. Christine arrived about 9, she just flew in for the weekend, and the Rooster is here til the 19^th. We hung around til 11:30 or so, and then called a cab to get us back to the park and hit the hay.

More later……………………

Stuck in Georgia

Hey all

Well, we are on the road, left on Monday while everyone was shoveling out their driveways! Took off about noon and drove down to a rest stop just outside of Bardstown Kentucky. Nothing real interesting other than getting out of the snow.
Got up at 7, shower breakfast and drove down the Kentucky Bourbon Trail! First stop was Jim Beam, I usually don't drink Beam, but heh, they were giving free samples. Had to dodge raindrops between the buildings, they showed us a 13 minute video of how they make Beam and it's history. picked up a couple souvenirs and drove down to Heaven Hill distillery.
Brand new visitor center here, they make Evan Williams along with other bourbons. Nice center, another short video, no tour to outbuildings as it was raining, couple more souvenirs and on the road to Makers Mark.
Now this was a cool tour. Took us through a replica of the owners house, then into the bottling building, watched them dip their bottles into the red wax, through the printing building and into the fermenting building. Got to dip our hands into the fermenting mash and taste it! Like tasting a sweet beer wort.
This was by far the most hands on tour of the three. I even got to dip my own bottle of whiskey! Cool!
Back on the road about 3, drove to mm312 on I75 just south of the state line (Tenn/Ga) and put up in a Wal-Mart parking lot. Good thing we went this far, the weather overnight was horrible just north of us, tornadoes and the whole bit! In fact, we holed up in a Starbucks for a couple hours on Wed morning just to avoid the weather. That's where I am right now posting this.
We should be getting back on the road about 10:30 or 11.

More later......

Getting ready

Making all our preparations this weekend for our getaway to Florida. My birthday is on Superbowl Sunday, so we are headed to Brandie's for a little birthday party and to watch the game, then up on Monday, finish getting the motor home ready, and on the road we go!