Tag: #amwriting

The palms

Sunset over the lake

Palm by the lake

First Day in Paradise!

The first nice thing today was that I didn’t have to be in a moving vehicle! I think I will feel like I am moving for several days. If I’m in a moving vehicle, it will be a car and it won’t be on a noisy interstate! This, I say, after almost 1100 miles in the RV! I’ll get over it!

It was nice to wake up this a.m. with the sun shining, blue sky, and it was already above 70 degrees! I woke up pretty early which is a habit. I hope I can learn to sleep a little later over the next few weeks. I would like to feel a little lazy. When I walked outside this a.m., I saw the Pine Island RV Park for the first time in a couple of years. It looks beautiful. Some real improvements have been made recently. Concrete pads for almost every site and every RV’er knows how important that is. At least my husband thinks it is. Large sites, at least in our section. Someone to come help set up the cable TV. I was able to set up the fairly easy WiFi myself and bandwidth seems good. A patio with picnic table. Firepit. Room for the car we towed. I’ve been to enough RV parks to know that this is, indeed, a very nice park.

There are parts of the park where the RVs are a little closer together but we knew where to park! The reason the RV’s are close together is because most are so large now. The sites used to be plenty big enough. Other parts of the park, such as our part, have sites that are still large enough. The park has three lakes that have been maintained really well. The only odd thing is that wood storks used to populate the park. I have not yet seen any which is very strange. I can’t imagine where they have gone. They were here each of the five years we were. They roosted in the trees all around the park.

Before you ask, even though there are three lakes, I have never seen an alligator in this RV park. Not so with the Naples RV park. You practically trip over them there. Both last night and tonight when we were out, I didn’t notice any bugs. No mosquitoes. Nothing. Again, this beats Naples where, one year, I got eaten alive by bugs. Of course, Naples is more tropical.

One thing we really noticed. This is our sixth year at this park. We have never ever seen it so full. It is almost completely full. People appear to be RV’ing this winter.

All seems to be well with Pine Island RV Park. I still love it as much as ever. I had some errands to do today and had to be away from the park but I hope to be around most of the day tomorrow. I’d like to ride my bike on the well-paved roads, walk my dog even more than today, visit friends, and just enjoy myself. I think we will stay in for dinner tomorrow night. I did not make it to the fruit farms at the northern end of the island today, but I may try to do that tomorrow. I want to learn more about the fruit operations. For our own personal use, I did pick up some awesome tomatoes at a local fruit stand along with locally grown lettuce and strawberries which will help make a salad tomorrow night.

I realized today that I have never introduced one member of my little family to you. At the end of this post, you will meet Tigger, our yellow tabby cat, who is more like a dog, and loves to travel in the RV! You’ll laugh at the pose and where he is.

It was a long and rather arduous RV trip to Pine Island this year. I’m so glad we came! I’m surely not a person who could be a full-time RV’er. But, I can be an RV-adventurer and really enjoy it!

More tomorrow from “Adventures!”

Here is Tigger! On the dashboard of the RV!

We have ARRIVED!!!

Good evening, all! It’s not as late as I write this tonight as it was last night. We’ve arrived at our destination! We are at Pine Island, Florida. An island north of Sanibel Island and right off the coast of Ft. Myers and Cape Coral, Florida. Pine Island is not your typical tourist hangout. It is still a little bit of “Old Florida.” It is not developed into a cement and skyscraper environment. Most of it is zoned as agricultural land. Some of Florida’s finest fishing is done around Pine Island and in Matlacha Pass.

Matlacha is a small island between Pine Island and the mainland. The village of Matlacha is a haven for artists and writers as is Pine Island. Crops grown on Pine Island include palm trees for shipping to Arizona and California, mangos, and lychee fruit. Pine Island fruit is very sought after. I will tell you much more about Matlacha, Pine Island, and the other small towns on Pine Island as I explore them this next few weeks. This will be my sixth time here visiting their very nice RV park as a snow bird.

Along with exploring everything about Pine Island, I will take a trip, and take you with me, into the Everglades. Other trips into Central Florida. We will even spend a few days on a sunny beach in the panhandle. So, now that I’ve arrived, there will be lots of adventures and lots and lots of photographs I want to share with you.

We put in about seven hours on the road today and it was mostly uneventful. I calculated our mileage tonight. It was 1052 miles from my home in northeastern Kentucky to this little island in the sea. I think I feel every one of them. 🙂 We arrived after dark or I would have taken some photos for tonight’s blog post. All we had time to do was park the RV and visit with friends.

You may be wondering about friends in a RV park. Pine Island is such a great place that the same people come back year after year. It has been a couple of years since I have been here but most of my friends are here as they are every winter. I got to see a few of them tonight and will see more tomorrow. Then, we went to Bert’s Bar and Grill in Matlacha for a quick dinner. Bert’s has been written up in food publications, particularly their grouper sandwiches. That is what I was going to have to eat, until I saw LOBSTER ROLLS on their menu. Grouper will have to wait until my next visit to Bert’s, probably tomorrow! I had the best large lobster roll I have ever eaten!

Bert’s is an experience. We sat there and ate and listened to a live band play classic rock. Santana, if you can believe that, and they did an excellent job. I was off in my own little rock and roll world. It was 70 degrees on Bert’s patio, Santana playing, and lobster. How can you beat that!? Oh, I forgot. The patio is on the Gulf of Mexico! I remember listening to Santana when…..oh…..never mind! 🙂

Then, back to the RV. Everyone is in bed and I’m finishing this post to you. Tomorrow, I’ll start taking pictures and will describe everything to you. More “Adventures” coming your way then!

Whew! Remember last night’s post, when I said that I was going to sleep late this morning, linger over several cups of tea, yadda yadda yadda? SILLY ME!!! Just let me tell you what happened this morning at the RV Park in Ringgold, Georgia we hurriedly pulled into last night! Before 7 a.m., I heard beeping outside the RV. Then the sound of big trucks. Then heavy equipment. Right outside our RV! I drug myself out of bed and peeped out the window. As I looked, a crew of men dropped a telephone pole on the bank right above our RV! The crash woke up my husband and he comes roaring out of bed and I do mean roaring. We stood there in incredulous silence (because we couldn’t hear each other). Why had they parked us in that particular spot?

I drank a cup of tea and he drank a cup of coffee. We pulled out of there before 8 a.m. but not before getting our money back. Unbelievable. This did not start the day off particularly well. We were approximately at the northern border of Georgia at that point.

We had not had showers. We had not fed the dog or ourselves. We had done nothing that we normally do in the mornings. Plus the RV needed gas. I needed to stop losing my mind. We drove a little way and pulled off in Calhoun, Georgia at a Flying J. We decided, since we didn’t get much sleep the night before, that the driver needed to sleep and I needed to rest. I, you see, seldom sleep much. So my husband got a few hours sleep while I did chores around the RV, did some computer work, and took care of Betsy (my dog). I tried to sleep, really I did. It just was not going to happen. About 4 p.m., we pulled out of the Flying J and decided to drive at night. I knew that we would go through Atlanta right at rush hour. “Oh well,” I thought, “why not make a really bad day worse.” That it did.

It’s not far from Calhoun to Atlanta and the heavy traffic started as soon as we got on I75. It was wall-to-wall 18-wheelers from Atlanta to way past Macon. In Atlanta, the rush hour traffic was not to be believed. My cousin, Liza, lives in Atlanta and works downtown. So, I decided to call her and let her join me in my misery. Except Liza was not in Atlanta that day. A business trip had taken her out of town. She got my message and called me back and laughed at ME sitting in rush hour Atlanta traffic. That was just not fair. I’m sure she still finds it amusing! It took hours to get from the north to the south side of that city.

We finally got past Macon and it is still many miles to Valdosta, Georgia, which was our goal for the day. We arrived at the Flying J there at 12:40 a.m.

Just about the only thing that had not gone wrong today was something mechanical with the RV……knock on wood!

After eating a bite, doing some RV chores like washing dishes (no dishwasher), setting up WiFi, and sending husband, dog, and cat off to bed, here I am! It’s only 3 a.m. and I am just now winding down. But, we are literally in shouting distance of the Florida state line! It’s 58 degrees at 3 a.m. in very southern Georgia. Not bad. We have 357 (approximately) more miles to go to reach our destination. I am so very ready to get there! It might be tomorrow!

More from “Adventures” tomorrow evening when I am more coherent and when we just might have arrived! For your viewing pleasure, perhaps, below is Betsy, a very good traveler:

We Leave in a Few Hours!

I should be sleeping instead of writing this blog post. I had to do something to wind down after a really hard day of work. The last day of packing the RV for the trip. The last day of really hard work although the first day at the RV park is pretty hard work and the days of driving aren’t easy work. We’re driving 1000 miles and right at this minute, that seems like a long way!

Today, like yesterday, was wall-to-wall packing except for a few minor things. My traveling companion got the tow dollie and car hooked up to the RV. That doesn’t sound like much work but when it is 43 degrees and raining and the tow dollie is slick, believe me, it’s not easy. Now he hopes he can make the turn out of the driveway to drive up the road! These things want to make me giggle tonight even though they are not funny. That’s because I’m so tired I’m on the verge of hysteria! If I did giggle, my traveling companion would not be amused! RV’ing is not for the faint of heart!

As for me, I made a grocery store run, stocked the pantry and refrigerator in the RV, washed all the RV dishes and pots and pans, and generally cleaned things up. Then, I came in the house and started working on my clothes. If you knew about my clothes, you would be the ones giggling! You see, I like clothes. I have a lot of clothes. But, my clothes are not necessarily all suitable for RV’ing. So, I spent a lot of time picking out what was suitable for the trip and realizing I have more cold weather clothes than warm weather clothes. Good! That means I’ll get to go shopping since we’re going to south Florida! I love jeans. Nice jeans. Levi jeans. There is a Levi outlet very near Ft. Myers. What a shame that I have to go shopping there! 🙂 Actually, I have enough jeans but who has to know?

What I don’t have are shorts because I seldom wear shorts. Maybe I can find Levi shorts? Since I’ll be making at least one trip into my beloved Everglades, I’ll definitely need shorts. Hot there! I’m a bit of an environmentalist about all wildlife. The python situation in the Everglades disturbs me.

Back to packing. We’ve covered food and clothes. But, there is so much more. We had already packed linens but we forgot towels. We almost completely forgot towels. That would not have been a good thing. I had to pack a tote for my dog and cat. A tote for my sundries like hair products. A tote for cosmetics. Multiply this by two when you take my husband into account except he doesn’t need cosmetics! Or hair products.

Finally, he is gone to bed and I am writing this blog post. We will leave by 9 a.m. tomorrow. I still have to shower and make a stab at those sundry products. Then bed for a very few hours. I’m the navigator so sleep wasn’t as necessary for me. We will drive only about 250 miles tomorrow.

We will make about a two-hour stop at a good friend’s home in Tennessee. We’ve been friends all our lives but I’ve never seen her home, so that will be fun. We’re taking things a little easier this trip to Florida and stopping when we want. We’re anxious to get there. We aren’t anxious to kill ourselves doing it!

The next time you hear from “Adventures,” (tomorrow) it will be from the road. I’m excited!

More Getting Ready and Why it’s the Middle of the Night

January 11, 2017: Whew! Today has been errand day for me. Today has been a day of working on the interior of the RV and finishing up some exterior things on the RV for my traveling companion. He had some fittings to grease underneath and installed our TV inside. We use the TV very little, mostly for news and weather, but on the occasional bad weather day, it’s nice to have. Since we are both basketball fans, we like to catch basketball games of our favorite college team. He also started putting away his tools inside in preparation for loading the RV. I think he only has a couple of very small jobs left to do on the outside of the RV. Yay!

We take the TV in and out of the RV. We use it in the house when we aren’t using the RV so it is a little bit of a job to put it back in and set it up. Most RV campgrounds where we stay have cable TV that we hook up to. All the comforts of home! Well, almost.

I have spent the day, the entire day, running errands necessary before we leave on our trip. The things you have to do are legion. You have to deal with your finances. You make sure any and all bills are being paid automatically. I use automatic bill pay. If you are going to be staying in one place long enough, you can have your mail forwarded, but it takes 2-3 weeks to make that happen. If you don’t have that kind of time in one spot, save yourself some worry (and save your credit score!) and just have everything automatically debited. Make sure you’re enrolled in online banking so you can monitor your bank statement.

You have to notify any credit cards that you’re going to use when you’re away that you are going to be traveling. Otherwise, the credit card company will think your card has been stolen and someone is using it out of state. That means they will decline it and cause you embarrassment and inconvenience. Just some tips if you’re traveling that are applicable even if you’re traveling by car.

If you take any medications, get your refills. If your insurance company is like mine, you probably can’t get much extra and you have to get refills wherever you are when you run out. A Giant Pain. At least, try to get your doctor to write your prescriptions for a three-month supply. Some pharmacies will give you what they call “vacation refills” once per year. Since I am an insulin-dependent diabetic, I have to be sure I have enough insulin as I am very careful about controlling my diabetes. I had a bit of a run-in (an understatement) with my doctor today over this, but after calling in reinforcements, we came to an understanding and, I hope, I have all the insulin I need! I live on salads, which reduces my need for insulin, but that is a bit more difficult to do when traveling.

While I was out running errands, I had miscellaneous things to do. Pick up food for the cat, treats for the dog, a new purse (or three) for me, a few shirts, a little gift for a friend I will see along the way, and the list goes on.

Now I am home and I wish I could go to bed! I promised I would tell you why it is the middle of the night, but if you have read the above paragraphs, you already know. It’s been a busy day and I have another busy day tomorrow.

More from here and “Adventures” after the day ends tomorrow…..another busy day. Right now, I wish we were packed and already on the road!