Our Road Trips: May 2016

Sunday, May 29, 2016

5/29/16 5/16-29/16

We spent May 15th & 16 doing not much of anything and then packing up and heading home. We both love going, but getting home has special meaning too, sleeping in our bed, and enjoying a little more space. Wed morning was a final trip to the foot doctor who released me from coming back. So, the fun I had with my toes, which began on Super Bowl Sunday 102 days before, on a cruise ship, is finally over. Then we had a great lunch outside on the St John's River with a friend from High School & his wife who moved to Deland from Alaska, after 40 years there, a couple of years ago. We spent the next 2 days with Dr appointments and getting ready for the next week.

On Saturday, Barb's two sisters and their husbands flew in for a week of helping our grandson celebrate his accomplishment of graduating from Hagerty High School in Oviedo. Doesn't seem possible Mr Tyler is that old, but time marches on. Congrats to Tyler. On Sunday nearly 40 people showed up for a party at our daughter's home for Tyler. It was a nice day, and getting caught up with some friends & relatives who we haven't seen in a long time, was the business of the day. There was a big corn-hole tournament and everyone had a great time. Thank you for everyone who attended, I am quite sure Tyler appreciated it. Then on Monday morning, we got up early and made our way to the nearby University of Central Florida for the commencement ceremony at the UCF Arena, which is less that 2 miles from the High School campus. With 514 people in the class, there was a pretty good crowd there to help their student graduate. After the ceremony, we all went back to Lisa & Dan's for lunch and more visiting. Barb's niece had a new boyfriend with her that wanted to see our place, so I gave them a tour. Then, they all left for the evening, so we came home to rest up.

The next morning, we all met at Kennedy Space Center for a guided tour and a walk through some of the exhibits. I love that place, some of the coolest toys on earth are there and being close to them is a lot of fun. The way the Shuttle Atlantis is displayed is just plain the coolest and the introduction is amazing. If you get to Central Florida, do not miss it. After the Visitor's Center closed, we made our way to Port Canaveral for an outdoor dinner as the sun set, very cool spot. After dinner, we all went our separate ways for the evening. The next day, Barb went car shopping with Tyler & Lisa, wow, that didn't take long :). He has is eye on a car and he wanted his mom & Grandma along...no decisions yet. I piddled around home trying to get everything ready for our departure June 1.

The next 2 days was spending a day at Jetty Park at the beach and dinner again at Port Canaveral after a scrubbed launch of a hoped for rocket launch from Canaveral. Friday saw another Dr appointment, picking up some new glasses, getting the car ready to go and meeting the gang for pizza before an Arena Football game in Orlando, something the 4 from MN had never done. It was a so-so game that Orlando lost by 3 points after a total of 115 points had been scored. But it was a fun night for the adults as Mark joined us too. I got interviewed during the 3rd quarter and ended up winning a bottle of liquor for answering a trivia question from 2007. There were probably a handful of people in the building that could of answered it, as the guy in question only played one full year and it wasn't even in this building where he played. After the game, we all said our good-byes and went our separate ways. The MN. group was going home the next morning. It was fun having them visit.

Yesterday, I got our car looked at one more time, so we should be ready to go. Then we drove to Tampa for a concert with Joe Walsh & Bad Company, both bands from the 70's. We had great seats and it was a good, fun concert...lots of old favorites. Joe Walsh was a huge influence on the Eagles and since the death of Glenn Frey, there likely will not be too many tours, So it was fun to hear a lot of Eagles songs. Bad Company played a 14 song set list that included a lot of their hits too. We drove home after the show and got some sleep. Today & tomorrow will be planned lazy days. Tuesday will be final packing and we will be off for our summer road trip...166 days planned.

So, stay tuned, there is a lot coming up.

Steve & Barb Larson

Getting the food ready...Becky came from Oklahoma

Barb and her 2 sisters, Sue (L) & Linda (R)

The Shortens, L-R Dan, Lisa, Tyler & Kaylee

Kaylee & Tyler with our son Mark

Becky & Matt with Tyler

Corn-hole tourney

L-R Linda, Barb, Lisa & Patti from Georgia

Seth, Emily, Tyler, Taylor & Jared with their dates

The 4 musketeers-known each other since Kindergarten

Emily & Tyler

Tyler & Uncle Mark

Kaylee, Matt, Tyler. Becky

Tyler with his cool grandparents

Tyler with Mom & Dad

Paul, Barb, Kaylee, Linda. Dan. Lisa, Tyler, Steve, Sue, Mark & Brad

The Shortens

Tyler getting that diploma

The Atlas display at KSC

The Atlantis display

Shuttle Parts

the scenery from our table at Grills

Fun at the beach

Carnival Valor on the way to the Bahamas

Dinner at Fishlips after the launch scrub

Sunset from Fishlips

Orlando Predators take the field

The gal asking me a trivia question

On the Jumbotron

Joe Walsh

One good guitar player

Great set

Living in the Fast Lane

The Eagles

Bad Company

Paul Rogers

14 song set list

During the Encore

Finale

Saturday, May 14, 2016

5/14/2016 5/1-15/2016

May is here and it is going to be a busy month. As we get set for several big events, we are also going to take some time to relax and get set for the summer. The first 5 days are spent with doctor's appointments, going to lunch/dinner with friends, getting a few issues corrected on the motor home & chilling. We also learned we had won the grand prize door prize while at the Orlando Firefighters Benevolent Assn. picnic...a free week at a cabin in New Hampshire at a time to be determined...nice!

On Friday, 5/6, we were supposed to be on our way to Flagler Beach but we had decided to postpone it a day and take in a Classic Albums Live concert at Hard Rock Live at Universal Orlando: David Bowie: The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust. Fun night of great music done very well...thanks to our daughter Lisa & Dan for the tickets & to CAL for the great show, we enjoyed the show a lot.

So on Saturday morning, we made the 2 hour trip to Flagler Beach and a 10 night stay at Gamble Rogers State Park campground on the Atlantic Ocean. This is our first time here. We have camped 6 miles north a lot of times, but never here. We have a nice spot, close to the bath house & the steps/ramp and facing the water. It is a horrible thing to look out at the ocean all day...well, not really.

Sunday was Mother's Day and we spent the day on the beach under our canopy enjoying the day. In the late afternoon, we came back to the camper, got showers & spent the rest of the day outside, playing Yahtzee & cooking shrimp & steak on the grill for dinner. It was a wonderful day.

On Monday, we are off to visit some more of Florida's State parks in the area. We visited 3 parks and then ended up in Ormond Beach at Outback Steakhouse for Bloomin Monday. Our friends Tom & Lynne Marine from St Augustine stopped by too and we had a nice dinner together. Then it was back to the camper for the night. Bulow Creek, Bulow Plantation Ruins & Tamoka Creek State Parks a very pretty places and all 3 very close to Daytona. Hard to believe these very rural looking places are that close to both a pretty major metropolis & to the ocean, maybe 3 miles from both in some areas.

Tuesday was more State Park exploring. We stopped at Flagler Beach on the way and had lunch overlooking the ocean & pier...nice spot. Then it was on to Washington Oaks Gardens & Faver-Dykes, which are both north of us and unattended on a Tuesday, but are both pretty nice places. The State Parks are not staffed like they should be, so the lack of staff is not too surprising. We spent the rest of the evening back at the camper.

Wednesday, I drove to St Augustine in the morning and together with 5 other OFD retirees, we replaced a fence at our friend Rob Mitchell's house so the dog has a place to roam. We all went to lunch and had a good time re-living old times & telling Rob stories. It was a good get together and we helped Rob's wife Sydney out...nice way to spend a day. Glad to be able to help.

Thursday, we drove to St Augustine and toured two forts, one a State Park & National Historic site, the other a National Monument. St Augustine is known as the Country's oldest city, so there is a lot of History there. Fort Mose (Mo-say) has an interesting history, dating all the way back to 1738, 38 years before the Declaration of Independence. Here is the story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Mose_Historic_State_Park. The Visitor's Center is very nice. Then we went by Castillo de San Marcos, a 344 y/o fort in St Augustine...over 100 years older than the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castillo_de_San_Marcos. It was getting ready to close, but we spent a 1/2 hour looking around. We have been in numerous old forts and all are very similar in construction and design, that's why they all survived all these years. After they booted us out, we called & went to Tom & Lynn Marine's house and then went to Beaches at Vilano for some dinner and to watch the sun set...nothing like the Keys, but cool in its own right...nice way to end the day.

Friday, our daughter Lisa took the day off from work & drove up and spent the day. We took the canopy to the beach and spent several hours on the beach, just gabbing and enjoying the day. Late in the afternoon, we came back to the RV and changed and drove 4 miles up A1A to the Turtle Shack for dinner. While there, a big storm could be seen forming just north of us and it was fun to watch. We were sitting outside but never got rained on. Lisa headed home about 7 and we came back. I put the awning up and 5 minutes later it was storming here...lots of wind & rain. Perfect timing.

Today is just relaxing & working on this blog and watching a race on TV. I have a feeling tomorrow will be more of the same. The next two weeks will be pretty hectic and then we will be off on our summer cruise...166 days on the road, we probably need to just relax some more.

Stay tuned, we are just getting started.

Steve & Barb Larson