Alabama to Louisiana

Happy Birthday to me!  For my 62nd birthday I got social security and...(drumroll please) my National Parks Pass!  Yay!  After we left Fl we stayed at Rainbow Plantation, our Escapees park outside Summerdale Alabama.  We spent 5 nice days there.  We like this park.  The weather was nice, the people friendly, the park well maintained, the staff welcoming and effecient.  While we were there we enjoyed the locality.  We took several pleasant bike rides, one of which took us to this area, where I got my new pass.  You might notice I'm wearing two different shoes.  One is my bike boot, the other is my walking shoe.  Two days before we left FL I sprained my ankle.  My walking shoe accomodates my ankle brace. 

 

 

 

The refuge consists of a wide variety of habitats:  scrub,

 

 

sandy areas,

 

 

standing water,

 

 

sand dunes,

 

 

beach, (the low gray area is the ocean)

lilly pond,

 

 

tall grass

 

swamp.

 

Another day we ate in Foley at Lambert's Cafe, home of the "throwed rolls".  Inside the restaurant large booths lined the walls while long tables and benches filled the middle. People come for miles to sit here and have hot rolls thrown at them.  With your entree you get two sides plus the extras:  macaroni and stewed tomatoes, boiled cabbage, fried okra, fried potatoes and onions, black eyed peas, molasses and applebutter, and of course, hot rolls.  Waiters walk around the room with pots of these foods.  If you want any you just raise your hand.  You can have all you want.

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One of the famous rolls.  They are huge--really three rolls in one--and hot and yes they are all tossed at close range or thrown across the room. This place boasts plenty of good food and lots of smiles and laughter.  A very fun place to eat. 

 

 

We stayed 5 days in Rainbow Plantation before moving on to the Shreveport, LA Elks.  This is one of the nicer Elks clubs and located in a housing area close to shopping.  It is small--room for 6 rigs and tight for larger rigs like ours.  30 amp service, no other hookups but does have an easily accessible dump and water fill up.  Parking is on two concrete strips.

 

 

The complex is bounded by this levee on two sides.  There are houses on the other side.  The property backs up to a row of buildings on a third side (I think they are businesses) and a shallow lake on the fourth.  The result is that the place is pleasantly quiet.

 

 

There is a really nice swimming pool/picnic area/play area.  The pool is separately fenced and anyone can buy a pass.

 

 

Pool with clubhouse in background.  The weather has been quite cool with lows in the 30's climbing to 50's at night and 60-70 days.  Never the less, on Sunday ten guys enjoyed several water vollyball games.  BRRR!

 

 

Tomorrow is our last day here.  We came here because we still have a dentist here (appointments tomorrow) and because Duane gets his annual CT scan here.  That was today.  The result showed a solid mass on his left kidney.  His options are:  biopsy with probable surgical removal, wait and watch with CT scans every three months for a year and probable surgery, or immediate surgery.  He opted for the last.  The surgery will be scheduled for mid to late May.  After the dentist tomorrow we will head to Texas, but that's another blog!

 

Later, dudes and dudettes,

 

Louise and Duane

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

We have left the state of Florida..
We were finished with our assignment at Sumter Oaks the end of March. We had to wait for Louise's glasses to come in. She had received her new glasses but was not satisfied with them, so the eye doctor had them remade. While we were waiting we took the time to do some riding on the motorcycle and playing some pickle ball. Wednesday, while playing pickle ball, Louise twisted her ankle. I took her to the emergency  room to have it xrayed. On the way back to the rv, we stopped at the eye doctor to pick up her new glasses. She seems to be getting along with these much better.  Thursday she went to see an orthopedic doctor and was told it was a bad sprain and was not broken. Back at the rv it was get ready to leave time. I had put a lot of the "stuff" away already but still had to get the work shop area ready to travel. Get the bike loaded, stow all the carving tools and secure all the things that seem to grow legs when the rv is on the road. While setting for 5 month, the rv seems to "throw up". Things are left setting out all over the place because "we will use them tomorrow".  Getting ready to move, everything has to be stowed so they don't fly around while moving.
Friday we hit the road.. We drove about 250 Miles to a Passport America park in Quincy, Fl. Full hookup for $20.00 a night. Not a fancy park but we were only there for the night so didn't matter to us. Saturday, we headed to Summerdale, AL to the Plantation, an Escapees RV Park. We will be here until Wednesday. I have a doctor appointment in Shreveport, LA on Monday. They called and told me I had to be there on Friday for blood work. From Shreveport we will head over to Texas to visit the kids and do some sight seeing in areas that we have not visited yet before heading toward Ohio.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

The Sumter Oaks Biker Gang is breaking up.

During the winter there were as many as 6 bikers in the park at one time. On one occasion friends come from other parks to join in the fun of a ride. This past week we took a ride to Parkesdale in Plant City to get our last taste of strawberry shortcake. We have made this 4 times since we arrived at Sumter Oaks. On this trip we were joined by Brock and Leola and Larry and Rena.

 

 

 

The ride down is about 50 miles. We have written about this before so I won't spend much time repeating myself about it, but it sure is good eating.

 



 This place has a large store area that sells all kinds of veggies and berry related items such as jams and jellies.

 

On Saturday we all took off for Sleppy Hollow Bar and Grill one more time. This time we were joined by Dick and Donna. Dick has been a regular with us all season. He had to miss the ride for strawbarries  so he could pick up his gal friend at the airport. Donna had never ridden a motorcycle before. After riding with Dick for the last week, she said she loved it.

 



 

We ate our steaks at the bar and then were off to travel the Ozella Trail out to the gulf for dessert. We each got a piece of pie. The road to Ozella is a really curvy road and a lot of fun to ride. The waitress was good enough to take a picture for us so we could all in the pic.

 

 

 Brock, Leola, Donna, Dick, Larry, Rena, Louise, and Duane

Aren't we a handsome couple

 

 

On the way back two of the couples split off to go their own ways. Dick and Donna and we decide to head to Lickity Splits for ice cream. A great end to a great ride.

 

 Brock and Leola and Larry and Rena both pulled out of the park in the last 2 days. Our gang is getting smaller. Louise went back to the eye docror today and they are remaking her glasses so we will be here for a while longer. We will be heading out of here the day after she gets them back. It should take a bout a week. We have really enjoyed our stay here and all the rides we have been able to take. We have made some great new friends and I hope we can meet up with them down the road somewhere.

 

We have been able to play pickleball on a regular basis since we are no longer working in the park. We are playing on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. As long as the weather holds we will continue to play untill we leave here.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

DAYTONA BIKE WEEK

 

 On March 9th I rode to Daytona Bike Week with 3 other bike riders from the park. The trip over was about 120 miles. Louise and the other women decided to stay home so it was a guys day out.  We spent the day walking around several of the vendor areas and riding around Daytona. This was my first trip to Bike Week and what everybody says is true, it's a zoo. There were so many bikes that it was hard to find a place to park the bike and it don't take up much room. The bad thing about the trip was when I tried to take a picture, I found out that I had left the battery at home. We had a great time looking at all the bikes and all the bike "stuff". We went to Ormond Beach to the bikers mall. There is a BIG area that has all kinds of bike related stores. We had to park about a mile away and ride a tram into the stores area. As one of the fellows that went with us said " there are acres of bikes here".

 

On March 16th, Louise and I went with friends Brock and Leola to the Daytona 200 Bike race. We to rode over in a truck this time. This was the first bike race that we had ever been to. The race was a rode race where the track is laid out with a bunch of horse shoe turns and lots of "s" curves. This time I remembered the battery.

 

 As you can see in the pictures, when they go around the horse shoe turns they really lay the bikes over. There were 3 races of different distances. The main was race was 200 miles long. The shorter races were actually a lot more interesting. In the 200 they got so spread out that you lost track of who was leading. In the end the winner was ahead by 28 seconds and had lapped all but 8 of the other racers. In the short races they were close together for the whole race. We had a great time but don't know if I would go to another race of this type. We could see about half of the track from out seats. We were able to position ourselves  so we could see 2 of the horse shoe curves and we were able to see them going around the 31 degree banked track on one end. On the back stretch they reached speeds of over 200 miles a hour.

 

In the parking lot we spotted his bike with a just married sign on the back. One of the signs was written in Oriental symbols. I don't think they were locals.

 

Today was our last day of work here in Florida. We will be here for another week or so while waiting for our new eye glasses to show up. We plan on taking in some sights here that we haven't had a chance to get to yet. Then the plan is to head for Texas for while. We have not committed to work anywhere for the rest of the year. I think we will take some time off  and just sight see for a while.

Till next time
Duane and Louise


Tarpon Springs

The last thing we did in February was on the last day, Thursday the 28th.  The Sumpter Oaks Motorcycle Gang, which at the time consisted of Brock and Leola, Dick, Duane and me and two new members--Karen and John rode 2 1/2 hrs. to Tarpon Springs.  Paul and Sharon and Dan and Barbara were unable to come.  That's Dick behind us and Karen and John in the suv.  Karen rides a scooter on short trips, but has some physical problems that prevent her from riding the bike  long distances.

 

 

For the long trip Brock put the training wheels on his Goldwing.

 



Tarpon Springs is a working seaport and shopping district with the unmistakable feel of a Grecian fishing village.  Its downtown is a showcase of proud historic buildings and homes from the gracious Victorian era.  It is a showcase of both cultures, from its vintage Victorian-era mansions and historic downtown to its lively Greek traditions and community.  That is a quote from the pamphlet.  The pic below shows the area we toured---the main tourist street on "the pier".

 

This is a side view of the street above.

We enjoyed Greek food at a nice waterside restaurant called Dimitrios.  I'm sitting between Dick and the picture taker (Duane).  Karen and John are across from me.  Brock and Leola are showing the tickets we bought for the boat tour, which got us each 10% off our lunch bills.  The weather was sunny but the wind was chilly all day.  We all wore our jackets except John who is apparently a tough guy!

 



 

 

The tour was 20 min at a slow chug up the Anclote River and back down.  The owner was the narrator and also guided the boat with the rudder between his knees.  Nifty!



 

 

Our boat  The roof is the corner of the restaurant roof.



 

On our tour we learned that the Anclote River in Tarpon Springs is a working waterfront with commercial shrimp and fishing boats in the harbor along with sponge boats.  We also learned thet in 1896 John Cocoris  was the first Greek man to come to Tarpon Springs.  In 1905 he and five other Greek men started a prosperous sponge diving business.  Word of their success quickly spread to Greece.  The migration of skilled sponge divers and processors soon made Tarpon Springs the sponge capital of the world.  We learned that there are hundreds of types of sponges, but the most commonly used are the ones below.  These are used mainly for bathing, cleaning, and decorating. 

 



We watched as a diver in the original sponge harvesting suit demonstrated how it was done.  We enjoyed our cruise and the demo, then went our separate ways to explore.  John and Karen went shopping for sponges for family gifts.  Dick went for a walk along the pier.  Brock and Leola and we walked along the pier randomly examining the boutiques, deciding on all the things we didn't need.  We found a tiny free museum explaining the sponge harvest from search to finished product.  There was also an very old but very interesting brief film.  We cruised a bakery shop full of delicious Greek pastries, and bravely bought nothing.  We stopped at the end of the pier and watched the water birds while Brock walked back to the parking lot for their cooler.  When he returned they shopped for fresh shrimp and fish in their favorite seafood shop. 

 



 

We all met back at the parking lot at 5pm and caravanned home.  The sky had clouded over and the sun disappeared.  I put the camera away when we stopped for fuel and a stretch.  Back on the road, I noticed that all the black clouds had disappeared and the sky was pink.  I managed to get a nice shot of the beautiful sunset--a wonderful end to a wonderful day. 

 

I want to emphasise that we explored only a small part of this town.  There were many other interesting shops, houses and points of interest.  There were many places to eat.  The ones we looked at were all competively priced with only slightly different menus.  We may return some day to explore more of this nice little Greek settlement.

 

 

Enough for now,

 

Louise and Duane

February doin's

Hey everyone!  I know, I know, it's been a long time.  The first part of Feb. nothing happened so we had nothing to report.  The second part of Feb. was jam packed, so we didn't take time to report!  Now we can breath, so here we go.  On Jan. 19, our oldest son Matt and daughter-in-law Beth welcomed Melanie Jane to the family along with big bro Jack and big sis Katiel  Beth's parents were there for the birth and the next two weeks.  I arrived on Jan. 29 for the following two weeks.  Grandma's job was to get Jack up, fed and on the school bus by 7am, leaving parents to sleep in if the baby was asleep.  The time went by very pleasantly with lots of baby holding and bonding time for Melly and me.  One morning we had a photo shoot.  The best pic is below. (I made the turtle blanket for her.)

 

 

 



 

Harley mama

 

Beautiful grandbabies

 

In between baby holdings, playing with sibs, and watching a little evening tv with mom, dad and Melly, I learned to make round bread, cinnamon rolls, and to-die-for expresso mousse.  We walked the excellent Contra Costal hike/bike way, and experimented making new dishes from Bon Appetite magazine.  When I got home I entered a whirlwind of dr's apptments and working, catching up on chores and reinstating my exercise routine.  In addition to walking the park and swimming in the indoor heated pool (82-86d f) we have found a place to play Pickleball.  We try to play at least once a week. 

 

Our friends from Ohio, Barbara and Gene Lucas, to escape Ohio in February, stopped by on Feb. 21 for a few days visit.  They have family and other friends here so they were making a liesurly loop of visits.  While they were here we visited various local restaurants, spent a fun day at Weekie Watchie Springs, and attended the Pasco Co. Fair and PRCA Rodeo.

 

Team ropers 

Happy to be out of OH in Feb and relaxing in Sunny FL

Yes these are the racing pigs. I finally got a pic of them.

 

 

The Pasco Co. fairgrounds are very small but impressive.  We have been to state fairs and county fairs around the country.  Some were larger than this but not impressive at all.  These fairgrounds were built on a hill in three sections.  They are very well laid out with a good mix of  buildings, food, and games.  The rides are on the top.  There was something for everyone.   

 

 

 



 

 

After Gene and Barbara left we were busy with our usual stuff, adding in a bike ride or two here and there.  The gang did go on a long ride, but that's another story.

 

Outta here for now,

Louise and Duane