St. Andrews State Park

I would like to welcome Russ Krecklow.  Welcome and hope I don’t bore you too much.

Today we drove down to St. Andrews State Park which is about 6 miles down the road.  It’s a beautiful park.  They have a campground there which is really nice, woodsy, and basically right on the beach, but they don’t have sewer hook-ups.  And to me, if you’re staying for awhile it’s just a PITA to unhook and drive to the dump every few days.  Not sure if they have 50 amp either.  The beach there is absolutely beautiful, clean, white sand, turquoise water.  But as in just about all beaches in Florida, no dogs allowed.  What a shame, because Jackson would have had a ball running on that beach.  But it only takes one or two bad apples to spoil it for the rest of us.  We walked about 2+ miles on the beach.  Perfect day for it, not too hot, with a slight breeze.  Here are some of the pictures I took.

Waiting for just the right wave…

Sand dunes.

We’ve had a couple sad events here.  First about a month ago, the GM who runs the campground had a stroke, he is just 71.  He is still in the hospital undergoing therapy and apparently responding very well,  His right side is still in need of a lot of work though, but they got to him right away and got that shot administered.   He’s a lovely man and I hope he recuperates 100%.  Then 2 days ago, a gentleman (we don’t know him) had a heart attack and passed away, he was just 67.  He apparently had been out washing his rig that day, woke up in the night complaining of a sore shoulder, took an Advil, and sat down in his recliner.  His wife went back to bed and in the morning when she got up he had died.  How awful. 

The weather has been great, much, much warmer than last year when we were here.  On February 1st we’ve been here 2 months.  Now THAT is hard to believe.  Time has flown by. 

We have been doing quite a bit of bike riding.  My rear end is finally getting used to the seat. 

Well until later…take care.

Off to Destin

As we are only 50 miles from Destin, we decided to make a quick trip over there.  We have been checking the weather forecasts and decided that today was going to be a good day.  Until we got up this morning and it was so foggy.  The fog was supposed to burn off around 10:30 or so.  Well it didn’t, but we left anyway hoping it would eventually burn off.  It really never did completely.  We’ll go back again in a few weeks.

It reminds me a little of Myrtle Beach but on a smaller, less glitzy scale.  We had lunch in this great Irish pub called McQuires. I had the beef dip and Ken had fish and chips.  Both were very good, drat should have taken a picture of the food.   What a fascinating place.  There are dollar bills EVERYWHERE, hanging from the ceiling, walls.  Story is that when they first opened the first tip the waiter got he signed it and put up on the wall.  People have been doing it ever since.  They say that there is over 1 million dollars hanging up there.  They also have their own micro brewery there.  I had a glass of one of their brews and it was very good.  And they also brew their own root beer.  We will definitely go back there.

 

Until later….take care.

A Happy Shopper

I have been a M&M (the candy company) fan for a long time.  Although I do enjoy their candies, it is their merchandise that I love.  Every Christmas time back home the local Wal-Mart have a novelty candy dispenser for sale.  They are different every year.  I have collected them for many years.  The latest dispenser was always delivered by Santa.  When I ran out of place to put them, I told Santa that I had to stop collecting them.  Sob…these are just a few of them…

Well…………!!!!!! imagine my pleasure when the Wal-Mart down here in Panama City Beach had a whole display of M&M.  Oh my, I was in my glory.  So I bought a mug, t-shirt,  nightshirt and keychain.  But today I headed back and picked up the whole set of coffee mugs, another t-shirt and a pair of fleece comfy lounging pants.  I had to drag myself away. 

I am now lounging in my very comfy pants.  Hmmmm warm and cozy.

We have had a couple very cold nights.  Last night was the coldest, got down to freezing.  I disconnected from the tap and turned on the utility lights in the bins.  Put water in the fresh water tank and we were good.  Even with the space heaters running during the night I did hear the furnaces kick in, both front and back.  So it was cold out.  But we were lovely and warm.

Paid Five Guys a couple visits since my last blog.  How do they do it?  Their burgers are just so darn good.  Hard to stay away.

We are going to drive down to Destin very soon.  It’s about 60 miles from us here.  We really want to see the town and it’s time for a change of scenery.

Until later then…take care.

Goodbye 2011

In a few days, it will be time to say goodbye to 2011.  Where does the time go?  Since we retired we find the time is slipping away even faster.  I suppose that is just the way it is.

The Christmas dinner was lovely.  All my cauliflower with cheese sauce was eaten.  Love that, at least I know it was enjoyed.  There was so much great food.  And so much of it.  The turkey and ham was excellent too.  They had stickers on some of the chairs.  Ken’s chair was one of them and we won a bottle of wine and (now wait for it) a redneck wine glass.  Do you believe it????  So now we have 3.  It never rains but it pours I guess.  We had a really nice Christmas Eve dinner out with several people here at the park.  A very pleasant evening.

We had a doozey of a storm the other night.  The rain was incredible.  Torrents and torrents of it.  Then as the rain moved out the wind started.  There were gusts of 40 to 50 mpg.  It was very bad.  I just couldn’t sleep as I just hate wind when we’re in the rig.  The toppers on the slide outs flop and make so much noise.  So at 1:30 AM I got up and went on the computer for awhile.  Then spent the rest of the night sleeping (or trying to) on the couch.  The next day was still quite windy but not like during the night. 

There is a New Year’s Eve party here.  Just bring ‘your favourite beverage’ and an appetizer. I am bringing meatballs in BBQ sauce.  The Campground is providing champagne at midnight but someone at the office told me that last year by 11 PM the party was over and everyone had gone home.  I don’t make too many midnight New Year’s Eve myself.  But I thought that was funny.  Guess they don’t have to worry too much about spending much money on champagne!!! LOL.

In our RV kitchen if there is one major appliance running, like a coffee pot or toaster then you must turn it off before you use another one.  A couple times we have forgotten to do that and the breaker has tripped or because all the plugs are GFI, the main GFI plug had to be reset.  Well on Tuesday night I was using the electric skillet and forgot that the space heater was on.  So when the thermostat on the heater clicked on, the circuit blew.  Strange though, cause the main GFI plug still was on and no breaker had been tripped.  I searched and searched thinking there was another GFI hidden somewhere.  NOPE.  Even checked those silly little fuses, the ones that cars use.  NOPE.  So I called a mobile service and they came the next day.   Turns out that the GFI was getting power but not passing it on to the other plugs on the line.  New GFI installed and all was well.  Was very relieved, imaging all sorts of nasty things wrong.

 

I was out walking the other day and came across this little guy.  Thought he was so darn cute.  Reminded me of the Tin Man in The Wizard of Oz.  There are several crafty people here.  I’m not one of them.  I knit, used to sew all of my own clothes and the kids too, fix computers, oh and we make our own wine, which is pretty darn good but that’s about it for my craftiness.  But some of the things people make here, just amazing.  That’s like Paulette and her quilting.  It’s just so beautiful.

Until later..Happy New Year and take care. 

Just a few more days

It’s just a few more days until Christmas.  I want to wish my fellow bloggers and readers a very happy Christmas or Happy Hanukkah or Happy Yule or whatever you celebrate at this time of year.

We have started bike riding in the last few days.  The weather here has been great for doing that.  We take this route around the campground and it’s approximately a mile.  We do this 4 or 5 times at a good clip.  But now the weather forecast for the next 5 days includes rain.  Warm, but rain.  Maybe we can get in a spin between showers.

The Christmas dinner is at 3PM on Christmas day.  They provide the turkey and ham and everyone brings a dish.  I am bringing cauliflower with cheese sauce.  We have noticed that several people have left their rigs and taken their cars and are gone.  I’m supposing that they must have family nearby and have gone for Christmas.  There are several of us going out for dinner at an Italian restaurant Christmas Eve.

Jackson sure has been getting a lot of exercise here.  He likes to lay looking out the screen door and whenever he sees one of his ‘buddies’ walk by he figures that he should be going out too.  Next week his ‘bestest’ buddy Kooper is arriving.  I’m anxious to see if he remembers him. 

I got my redneck wine glasses.  As I mentioned there is someone here who makes them so I bought 2.

I’m attaching some pictures I took of around the campground here and Jackson at the dog park.


This is a stocked pond.  They also have paddle boats.

That’s Ken & Jackson coming back from a walk.

As always if you click on a picture it will open in another window much larger.

Well until later..take care and Merry Christmas.

Not a whole lot of anything

We really haven’t been doing much of anything.  But then again isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be?  We’ve hit ‘Five Guys’ a couple times and I know there will be many more visits there.  This is the best burger place, hands down, anywhere.  I think their burgers are even better than mine.

We went to the Christmas party on Sunday the 11th.  Lots and lots of food.  They have a secret Santa thing.  We brought 2 gifts so we got to pick 2 other gifts.  When we were on the Caravan in the US Southwest, some of the members had these redneck wine glasses which they would bring to the happy hour.  They are just mason jars with a stem glued on the bottom, tacky, I know, but great around a campfire.   I always liked them and thought they would great for the RVing lifestyle.  Anyhow there are a couple ladies here who make them and they brought 2 of them as secret Santa gifts.  When it was my turn to pick a gift I ‘stole’ these from a man who had originally chosen them.  He didn’t seem enamoured with them anyway.
 
Well it appeared that some other ‘lady’ had her eye on them and she stole them from me.  Actually she literally snatched them off the table very abruptly. There is a limit of 3 exchanges so that was it for the glasses.  But as it turns out a friend that we have here saw how disappointed I was and she is going to ask one of the ladies who makes them to make one for me.  That would make me very happy.

They still don’t have their internet working properly yet.  So we are using the Verizon mifi that we bought.  They better get it working soon as the snowbird crunch starts to really happen right after Christmas.  There will be alot of unhappy campers, literally, if it’s not fixed.

The people next door in a 5er have a Corgi, Zoe and a American Eskimo dog, Joey.  Now Zoe is great around people but not so much other dogs, but Joey just loves other dogs.  Jackson and Joey when they get together have a real tear around the dog park.  He is really a cute little guy.  Just a little worried about his size as Jackie is probably twice his weight.  But Jack does seem to be aware of that, but we still keep a good eye on them.  Here’s Jackson and Joey.

We had a couple days of lots of rain and cold, but yesterday and today was beautiful.  Yesterday we rode our bikes around for about 5 miles.  The forecast is for nice weather for the next several days.  Did some laundry and hung it out on my clothesline on the back of the rig and it dried in no time.  Plan to get out on our bikes again today for a spin.

We were out last night for dinner for our ‘sacred 13th’ at a place here called Salt Water Grill.  They have a huge 25,000 gallon salt water tank.  It’s so interesting watching the fish in there.  The food is very good too.  We’ll be back.  (when something is in a different colour it means you can link it to).

And lastly this is what our Arthur does most of the time…

Until later then…take care

Tough Life !!!

Yup it sure is a tough life, but someone must do it.  Since we have gotten ourselves all set up we really haven’t done too much.  A bit of shopping here and there, reading, surfing (internet, not water!!). 

Last night there was a pot luck supper.  It’s amazing the dishes that people put together all in a RV kitchen.  It sure was great and lots of delicious dishes.  I made a huge Caesar salad and most of it disappeared.

We have been struggling here with their internet.  They have installed a new system and I suppose are working out the kinks.  Several people, no rhyme or reason to location, are having issues.  I am one of them.  I get a good strong signal but it continually drops me, up and down, up and down, like a public washroom toilet seat.  They are as perplexed as I am.  I have been coming up to their clubhouse to do anything that need to be done on the internet.  But finally got fed up with it so went out and bought Verizon’s mifi.  It works great, and I’m a happy camper again.  It’s not cheap but since I have suspended my internet at home while we’re away, it all works out, basically.

On Monday, the 11th, they are having their Christmas Party, just an hors d’oeuvre  is required.  And your beverage of choice.  Sounds like it should be fun.

We have have great weather, but last night the rain came, and today the wind.  It’s gray and gloomy and very windy.  Had to bring in the huge awning and one of the little side awnings.  The huge awning is a Weather Pro awning and is supposed to sense the wind, depending on what you’ve set it to, and come in automatically.  We have yet to have it retract by itself, except for the cold.  It does retract by itself if it gets around freezing, safety issue, can’t have water on it freeze.  But wind, nope, never. 

We put up a couple more Christmas decorations on our site.  I took a picture of some of the sites too.  It’s really pretty.

 

 

So until later…take care.