Moth Balls, Mardi Gras, Motorcycles and Babies... OH MY !!

February has proven to be an interesting month.

Early in the month one of our neighbors saw squirrels under our car.  Considering the fact that there are acorns on every square inch of the ground and squirrels everywhere, the squirrel sighting did not concern us.  However, our neighbor reminded us that squirrels love to chew on wiring and they suggested we get some moth balls and put on the ground under the car to keep them away.  Sounds reasonable right?  Well, working on the assumption that more is better (as he usually does), Bill bought and put moth balls under the car and motor home.  The smell was obvious right away.  I hate moth balls but how bad could it be???

We decided to take a short trip to Biloxi, staying again at Beau Rivage hotel and casino.  The Gulf Coasts' largest Mardi Gras parade is held in Biloxi on Fat Tuesday, so we got to see it.  We spent hours waiting for the parade to start. It lasted about 2 hours and by the end of the parade we had collected enough beads to last us for the rest of our lives.  I can guarantee no private body parts were exposed in any way to obtain them!!  This was our first Mardi Gras parade.  These parades have been going on since January so we were excited to finally see one.  It was not like any parade I have ever seen.  Only one high school band but each float was playing music.  Lots of costumes and beads, beads, beads.  All of the floats were made from the same design,.. two levels carrying people tossing beads, toys, and moon pies.  Some were painted fancy, others not so much, but everyone seemed to be having a good time.  The crowd watching was huge, whole families set up camp with chairs, coolers, even bbqs.  These folks were ready for a long day of partying. 













While in Biloxi we discovered that our clothes reeked of moth balls!!  On our first day back from Mississippi, Bill crawled underneath and scooped up all the offending buggers and threw them away.  Now we just hope the smell will GO AWAY soon.  We will take our chances with the squirrels.

On the last day of February Bill finalized the purchase of a used Suzuki C90t motorcycle.  This is another first... not the bike, but the purchase method.  He found the bike online, and purchased it from a dealer in New Hampshire.  He is having it shipped to Oklahoma.  Our friends in Bartlesville have been kind enough to store it until we get back there to pick it up.   The check was mailed yesterday and now we have figure out how to license the bike in WA while we are in FL.  So this bike has become a 4 state effort.  We are sending a big THANK YOU to our Bartlesville friends for making this possible.

Now BABIES!!!!  In February Emma. my daughter, had an ultrasound and found out that she is having a GIRL!!!!  I am thrilled beyond words.  What could be better than a daughter having a daughter?  We were told the good news while in Biloxi and I took some pictures of tutus at a shop in the Beau Rivage.  I can hardly wait to start shopping.  My daughter posted the ultrasound pictures on her blog and they are amazing.  They actually did a 3D one that shows her beautiful face.  Her name will be Penelope Juanita.  Penelope was Emma and Aaron's favorite and Juanita was Emma's late grandmother's name.  I have been given the OK to call her Penny....  but PJ sounds good too!!

Blessings and love to everyone

Bill and Cathy

February in Florida

When I left off in December we were on our way to a candlelight service.  We went to a local Lutheran church, it had an odd layout.  There was an aisle down the middle and one intersecting it that led to a stairs to the balcony... like a crossroad.  Unfortunately we picked a spot in the back and had to watch traffic all during the service.  It was amazing, this was only a one hour service but folks were walking back and forth, up and down from the balcony the whole time.  Then the minister got lost in the service and never recovered in fact I am not certain he ever got through the Christmas story.  He was from Minnesota and recounted his time milking cows.  It was an odd service but will not soon be forgotten, so I guess that is good.

In January we traveled to Orlando and spent a week at Disney World.  We stayed at Shades of Green, a military resort on the Disney grounds.  Our deck overlooked the golf course.  Deer and wild turkey made daily appearances and one day I even got to see an alligator next to the entrance to the hotel.  Neither of us had been to Disney World for quite some time so we were looking forward to seeing Animal Kingdom.  The dining Disney has to offer is amazing... we had Irish food at the Raglan Road (meat pie, spaghetti with Guinness meatballs), Moroccan at Restaurant Marrakesh (kabobs, olive salad, couscous and bastilla for dessert) and Japanese.  YUM!

We thought Disney World would be relatively uncrowded in January...kids back to school, etc.  However, we didn't think about the southern hemisphere and their summer holidays.  The park was filled with folks from Brazilian tour groups.  Who knew??

The first two days I wore the wrong shoes and ended up with blisters.  I never knew that you could get one on the top of your foot.  By the 3rd day I had figured it out and fixed that problem.  On the fourth day I spent the evening in the ER.  Turns out I had a gall bladder attack, too much of that rich food I think.  Luckily that did not slow down any of our Disney adventures.  Our last day there Bill came down with a major cold so he spent the day in bed.  I was out and about shopping that last day.   Despite the medical issues, we had a great time.

We returned to Niceville and spent the next 3 weeks dealing with Bill's cold.  It turned into acute bronchitis, so off to the Eglin AFB base hospital we went.  There they loaded him up with meds.  It still took 3 weeks to get rid of it.  I joined the family of the infirm but mine never got that bad.  Some folks in the campground stopped by to see if we were all right, since we hadn't left the rig much.  They said they could hear us coughing.  GADS.

We are now back in the pink and have been enjoying the beaches.  Subway sandwiches on the beach is the perfect way to have lunch.

One thing I never knew about Florida and Alabama is that they celebrate Mardi Gras in a big way.  I thought it was mainly a Louisiana deal but there are lots of parades...2 and 3 a day on the weekend.  We get both Pensacola, FL and Mobile, AL on cable TV and Mardi Gras is the big news maker.... except for the unbelievably frequent home invasions in Mobile.  There is supposed to be a parade near here this weekend, so we may have to go check it out.






And now on to the BIG news.  I am going to be a grandmother!  My daughter Emma is expecting in July.  She is still in Austin, TX so that is where we will be this summer.   We are all thrilled and looking forward to the newest addition to our family.  So far everything is going smoothly.  Emma is healthy and enjoying her pregnancy. 

We send all of you our love and hope you are enjoying every day as much as we are!!!

Bill and Cathy

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Twas the day before Christmas and the is coffee brewing.

The presents are wrapped and under the tree.

Our new neighbor, an osprey, is singing his song,

I love Christmastime, but dang…. another year is almost GONE!!!

Merry Christmas !

This year we spent Thanksgiving day at the beach.  We drove to Mexico beach, about 60 miles from here and enjoyed a Thanksgiving buffet at a restaurant called "Toucan's".  After dinner we walked on the beach, picked up shells and just soaked up the sun.

The next couple of days were spent decorating our area for Christmas.  We had purchased one of those blow ups, ours is a little RV.   Along with Bill's knack for holiday illumination, we have the best looking space in the area.  A few others have put up a string or two of lights but that is it!  

The first week of December we drove over to St Augustine, FL.  It was founded in 1565 and is "the oldest continuously occupied settlement of European and Afro-American origin in the United States".  The Castillo de San Marcos, now a National Monument,  was built to protect Spanish interests in the area.  Despite that the fact that the town itself was burned to the ground more than once, the castillo was never defeated in battle .

They deck the town in lights for the month of December.  We went to their Christmas parades, did a trolley tour, retoured the city in the trolley singing carols, went on a ghost tour, visited the Castillo when they fired the canon, did some wine tasting and walked every street.  We spent 3 days exploring.  

Bill lived in Spain a number of years and really hoped to find a restaurant that served paella.  The first night there we discovered the "Columbia", owned by the same family since 1905.  Bill got paella AND sangria!!!!  

The next morning was the Christmas parade.  I love parades and it is always fun to see the differences in the areas.  This time we saw Rudolfodillo (an armadillo with a red nose), Spanish colonial soldiers, pirates, horse riders, a live alligator and US Customs and Border Protection trucks.  Quite a mix.

ORB

ORB in right corner

Our ghost tour was fun but without any ghostly emanations.  We did get photos with "orbs" and while scientific types will tell you that it is just illuminated dust, we still wonder..........

One thing that has really surprised me about Florida is the number of horse ranches.  They are all over.  I don't remember seeing this many anywhere else. 

We then traveled to Mayport NAS, FL,  it only a short distance north of St Augustine.  We stayed at the Naval Lodge for 2 days.  It is a fantastic spot.  Right on the ocean just outside the mouth of the St John's River, we sat on our balcony and watched fishing boats, container ships and naval ships come and go all day long.  It was perfect.  

Returning to Niceville, we spent our days finishing our Christmas shopping.  

Last week we spent 3 nights in Biloxi, MS at the Beau Rivage casino.  The casino was all decorated for the holidays.  Our room was on the 23rd floor with a view of the Gulf of Mexico.  Another perfect spot.  I have to say we have been really lucky with our views.  

Tonight is a candlelight service and tomorrow we get to open our presents!!

Next week we have to move the motor home to a new spot.  Our reservations which were to extend to March only got made through December.  Luckily there is another spot ( why we can't just stay in this spot I do not know ) but it is not as nice as this one.  It will work nicely nonetheless.  

So as I spring to the shower, to Bill I give a whistle

Lets get in the convertible and fly down the road

There is sand to be walked in and sunshine we are missing

But as we drive out of sight...........

We wish you all very Merry Christmas and a great New Year!!!!

Love

Bill and Cathy

Moving forward.................

In October we drove over to Joplin, MO to see the damage done by the tornado in May 2011.  Nothing could have prepared us for the devastation.  Even now, 5 months later, the damage is overwhelming.   A lot of the homes and buildings have been leveled but the schools and the hospital remain ...  from the street we could see bulletin boards in the school with notes on them... but windows blown out.  The hospital has a temporary ER that looks like a giant tent.  We saw a number of temporary shelters being used by businesses.  It will be a long time before this town is back on its feet.  We left there counting our blessings and sending up a prayer for the residents.

We leave OK with no leveling system but with the promise from Dave and Sue that they will meet us in Florida in February!!!!

We spent 2 weeks in Austin, visiting with Emma, Aaron and my new granddaughter.. a chihuahua named Louisa.  She was lucky enough to be adopted into this family and she knows it.  While we were there we made a trip to the Hill Country.  We took the President Johnson ranch tour and enjoyed it immensely.  On our way back we drove through Luchenback, TX.  It is a post office and a bar....  but fun to see.   Since we were there so close to Halloween; Em and Aaron took us to a pumpkin patch farm.  We got to ride in their new Honda Civic, really nice.  It turned out that this farm had lots of animals to feed and visit, right up our alley.  This particular farm has Jersey dairy cattle and Blue Bell Ice Cream uses them for their advertising.

After leaving Austin we drove across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, and most of that was on raised roadways over bays and bayous.  Fascinating really.  We wanted to spend a night in New Orleans but were unable to find an RV park.  Our New Orleans adventure will have to wait a while.  We were amazed at all the trees all along the panhandle.  Now we understand why it is call the Emerald Coast.


We are now calling the Maxwell-Gunther Recreation Area home.  This is located in Niceville, Florida.  It is actually part of the Elgin Air Force base on the Choctawhatchee Bay.  We are right across the bay from Destin, Florida and close to about 4 military bases.  Elgin Air Force base is the closest.

Exploring the gulf coast is our new pastime.  The Gulf Islands National Seashore is our personal favorite.  White sand beaches and no one around.  Evidently this is the off season for this area, to which we say PERFECT.  The weather is cool nights and highs in the 60-75 range.  This is summer temps in WA, so we love it.  The only downside has been the biting bugs.  Not mosquitoes but some other little varmints, luckily any breeze moves them right along.

We did manage to get our leveling system fixed in Florida, however our extended warranty would not cover the cost because they now say that the Oklahoma repairs were faulty and the cause of our problem.  In the meantime, we are now out more $$$$$$$.  We have complained to everyone involved but no one is willing to help with the cost.  GRRRRRRR  The only option we have is small claim court in Oklahoma.  We will see............

The weekend after Veterans Day was the Blue Angels homecoming, held at the Pensacola Naval Station.  It was a day of roaring jets, aerobatics, sky writers, and lots of one of a kind aircraft.  The show started at 9AM ending at 8PM.  At 2PM the Blue Angels did their performance, but there were lots of other fascinating performances.  We spent the day looking up til our necks ached but loved every minute of it.  The finale was a fireworks display and the "Wall of Fire".  The air show is an annual event and the locals were there to cheer them on.

We have been exploring the Gulf Coast and have been as far west as Alabama Gulf Shores and as far east as St. Joseph Peninsula State Park.  And we look forward to revisiting many of these places. 

We have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving and want to send all of you our best wishes for a great holiday.

Love to all

Bill and Cathy