Our Road Trips: March 2016

3/26/2016 3/1-21/16

We are 3 weeks into March. It has been busy, and we are mostly planned out for our summer trip west. We will be leaving on June 1, having waited for Tyler to graduate from High School (where the heck did those 18 years go?). We will go west as far as there is land, stopping at numerous places along the way. We will spend about about 5 weeks getting to New Mexico, another 3 weeks getting to California, 5 weeks in California, 8 weeks to get to St Louis, and 3 weeks to get home. We plan to be gone from June 1-Nov 13. We have a lot planned and if all goes well, it will be a fun summer.

The first week of March we traveled again to Miami for our 4th music cruise of Spring. This one was not put on by Sixthman, our first since Jan of 2013. But it was also our 25th Music Cruise...we have had a ball, over 500 performers/bands have entertained us along the way. We have spent 102 days at sea since 2007...rockin!! We have made friends from all over the world and experienced moments that will live with us forever. This cruise mixed some Southern Rock with a theme of The Big Lebowski mixed with Craft Beers & Beer tastings. There were roughly 100 of our friends on board from Finland, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden & all over the US. There were old favorite bands like Molly Hatchet & Stolen Rhodes and new music from Blackfoot, Sour Diesel Trainwreck & Doc Holiday. We had a ball, We partied late into the night every night, in fact, we were still up when we tied up to the dock in Miami on our return at 330 am with our friends from Finland...what a great time!! It was sad to say goodbye.

But we have things to do: The Sunday after we got back we drove to St Augustine, spent some time with friends Tom & Lynne before a show to see Robert Plant (lead singer from Led Zeppelin) sing new music & old favorites. It was a fun concert...the 2 hour ride home after 11 pm was long. But we made it OK and got some sleep. 2 days later was a concert by The Moody Blues in Melbourne, FL. It was an OK show, lots of old favorites by guys in their 70s...you get my drift? These concerts are fun for the simple reason they enjoy being in Florida this time of year, so they give it their all.

2 days later, we had 5 couples over for a day of gabbing and sharing our latest adventures. All 12 of us were part of the 48 that traveled to Alaska together in 2014 and the 5 couples have been spending the winter in Florida vs in the north, 2 couples from Ohio & 3 from upstate New York. We had a pot luck lunch with pulled pork sandwiches. It was a fun day.

Then it was back to getting things ready for our 2+ weeks in the Florida Keys & finish up the planning for the summer. Between all of that, I have been dealing with a healing big toe and getting ready to go on Medicare April 1...officially an old guy. We also drove to Daytona Beach to see George Thorogood & The Destroyers (with Jim Shuler in the band-he was on the Blues Cruise) and The Outlaws and to Hard Rock Live at Universal Studios to see Joe Satriani with our son Mark & grandson Tyler...3 generations again at a rock concert....very cool. We are ready to go to the Keys.

Steve & Barb Larson