No Snow in Florida

To start with there is no snow in Florida, rain yes but no snow.

The Curry's are still showing us the ropes. Today's tip is to buy your gas at Wal-Mart and use a Walt-Mart Gift Card. Wal-Mart has the cheapest gas and if you use the gift card you get another 3 cents off per gallon. And of course if you use your credit card to buy the gift card you get another 1% back on your credit card. I'm learning fast.

We went down to the Red Barn which is a huge Flea Market. Polly bought a watch for $5 plus a lot of ofter stuff. As always we visited a relative. Holly (the daughter of Sandra and Gary) has a permanent store there (Painted Gate). Isn't she a doll? She has her mother's looks and her bright smile.

On the way back we stopped at the Apollo Beach Power Plant which has a ton of Manatees gathered around the water outfall from the plant. This year has been a cold winter so the gathering of manatees is the largest ever. The shutter on my camera isn't fully opening so I had to crop this photo down to a couple of Manatees so you'll just have to take my word that there were hundreds.

We went up to Winter Haven to look at a couple of houses and on the way we stopped at Plant City where the Currys showed us a fruit stand that specialized in Strawberry Sundaes. These cost only $2.50 and were delicious. They had a tented garden with all kinds of alcoves for you to sit and eat them. Polly couldn't have one because of the seeds - and she complained about it all day.

Lakeland and Winter Haven look promising - houses on a lake for only $150K.

Checking Out The Area

We started checking out the area, looking at homes for sale. On the net we got the addresses of a whole bunch of homes on RT 17 for sale. We put in our criteria which included 1 acre of land or more. Some of the places that came up seemed perfect. 4 bedrooms, 2 baths, 2 acres of land fenced in, trees with Spanish Moss hanging off them, outside porch and only 150K - What else could you ask for? I know - Location, location, location. We found the place by driving through a migrant work camp and the fence needed watch towers, search lights and machine gun. And that is how the entire day went. We have since modified our criteria to less land so that it picks up housing developments, eliminated the inland Rt 17 which is mostly farming areas and will now concentrate on the more coastal areas that are populated with fellow Yankees.



On our way back to the campground we stopped by to see our local real estate experts, Cousin Sandra and Gary who live near the Gulf at Holmes Beach. Their recommendation for our target price range - a couple of miles off the beach area. While we were there they went to their backyard and picked us some fruit for breakfast - Now that's the Florida I was dreaming of.

It's Florida

Well, we finally made it. Got in at 7 PM and had to set the camper up in the dark but Paul Curry was here and, since this used to be his camper, he knew where everything went. The next day was just what Florida was supposed to be.

The sun, a beer or two and a beach chair. (Actually it was only the low 50's and I went back in right after Polly took this shot.

The last mission of the Space Shuttle was launched at 4:14 AM on Monday. Guess who got up to take this shot, me or Polly?

Still Going South

We made Atlanta and are staying with Cousin Ginny and John and it's still cool and rainy. We went for a walk around there neighborhood and low and behold there are daffodils coming up and there are buds starting on the trees. Winter is over in Atlanta, GA.

When we left Cousin Russell (Ginny's brother) in NC he gave us a sweet potato that he had grown in his garden to bring down to Ginny. Russell's wife Jean used a magic marker and gave it some eyes and a smile. Some size to it - he says this is usual for the sweet potatoes he grows.

We left Atlanta and stopped in Newnan, GA for a quick visit with another cousin Lois. Her husband is named Bubba and both have a thick southern accent (she was born in New York). Bubba is related to Brett Favre and asked if we were going down to Florida for the Super Bowl. We talked football (not my best subject) for a lot of the visit. Luckily I said I hoped the Saints won cause it turned out that Bubba came from New Orleans (that's where he met Lois) and was an avid fan of the Saints.

Back into the truck and ready for another 8 hour drive to the Masonic Campground in Wimauma, FA (near Tampa bay).

Walt & Mamie

We made it to South Carolina and Lake Hartwell. We're visiting my step brother/cousin Walter and his wife Marion. The last time I was here the Lake was down 14 feet. Everyone's dock and boat were on the muddy bottom. Now it's full again and they've had to open some of the flood gates to release water and stop the Lake from flooding

Walt was given a new (new to him) computer and was having trouble getting on line and printing pictures. So, moi, the computer whiz, helped dig in. Getting the computer to print was easy enough but going online was tougher. After several calls to India, the Internet provider said the drivers for the modem needed to be updated and he passed the buck to Dell. After several calls to Dell who didn't like the fact that the computer was registered on their books to a school and were more worried that they re-register to Walt they passed me on to someone else. After listening to music for 15 minutes, I gave up and suggested that we take it into a computer repair store and ask them to install new drivers. I figured it would take 5 minutes for them to install new drivers but in calling around one place though it would take 7 days. We finally took it to a place that offered to look at it within two days and give us a free estimate. I labeled all the cables I unhooked so Walt would be able to rehook it and it's in the shop now.

Having failed on that task, I tackled the recliner chair that locked in the reclined position and wouldn't go back down. All the mechanism was rivited together and I couldn't find anything to adjust. Another failed repair - suggested they call the furniture store they bought it from since it was only a year old or Marion will just have to sit sideways in it!

On to the wireless headphones that would allow Walt to listen to the TV at a higher volume and not make Marion suffer. They didn't have any manual with it but I went on-line and found one. Followed all the suggested repair steps and did get the lights to come on but never got any sound over the wireless headset. I finally saw some bare wires that looked like they were pulled out of the head set - diagnosis - tose them out and buy a new set.

Three failures and we're out of here.

We made it to Cousin Russell's in Rougemont, NC. Russell and Jean are an amazing couple. They have reduced their carbon footprint to almost zero. They have a garden which produces all kinds of vegetables which they freeze or can for the winter. They have a hot water wood fired furnace in a out building that Russell has piped into his house and through heater exchangers uses it to heat his hot water and forced hot air home heat. I pity the plumber that has to figure out his piping and electronic controls that he has put together to run this system. Of course he has solar panels on his roof to produce his electricity and is talking of putting some more on the barn to make him completely sufficient. He has a great woodworking shop where he has made almost all the furniture in his house and is rapidly running out of furniture to make for his kids. And the pieces he makes are beautiful with wood inlays and polished finishes and specially picked wood burl patterns. For dinner we had barbecued venison (you cut it with your fork) from the deer he shot on a 100 acre wood lot he has back North in the Catskills. Now in his spare time he's an avid letter writer. Letters to the editor, letters to government officials, letters to relatives and old friends. He recently wrote one to President Obama and actually got a return letter from him. What did I miss - oh, he raises grain feed beef, cuts his own logs, then cuts them into boards on his saw mill and drys them in his solar heated kiln before he turns them into furniture.

Question - Is this Connecticut or is this North Carolina? It's Rougemont, NC. When we left Connecticut there wasn't any snow on the ground and here we are 1000 miles south and they have 6 inches.

Almost on the way

Drat. We started out for Florida on Saturday night and got as far as Old Lyme when the people in a car passing us started waving their hands and rolled down their window. They said there were sparks coming out of the wheels on the trailer. I thought it might be just the safety chains hitting the road a little but pulled over the first chance I got. I was wrong, it was a wheel bearing. So I called AAA to get the number of a gargage to take it to. They gave us a couple but no one was open that late at night. So I used my GPS to get a telephone number of a towing service and, since they have somebody on duty all night, I asked them for someplace to leave my camper to get it repaired. His garage would fix it on Monday and they had a locked area I could leave it in till then. So I slowly drove the camper there and we left it there. We drove back to Polly's place in New London (only 1/2 hour away). So $500 and two days later it was fixed and we are back on the road and staying over night at my daugther Ina's in New Jersey.