And Another Monday (5/11/205)

These days are just rolling by, and all of a sudden, another week has passed.  Not too eventful a week. Bridgette finished up her teaching for the semester, got her finals all graded and the grades posted.  John just put in another week, but no travel right now so that's good.  On Tuesday, Joe, Andrew and I took the boat down to the dealer at Bradenton to get it fitted for a cover.  We left it there, and headed back home. Andrew found a boat seat there that fit him pretty good.

 Joe and I got to spend some quality time with Andrew this week.  We did some writing.  And he and Grandpa hung out waiting to get seated at the restaurant.

We stopped at the farmers market on our way home and Andrew picked out a watermelon.

 

  Joe and I drove up to Dade City on Wednesday to have lunch with Sherry and John Hedge, another Decker Chapel friend of mine from our school days.  We had a nice visit and a good drive.

  Joe and I shopped a little for things for their boat, Joe got the faucet finished and I think John shoveled most of the dirt back over the line he put in.  Mostly, we spent our time getting ready for this week's trip (John and Bridgette's vacation).  One day some of Florida's white birds visited the back yard -- the dogs about went crazy but we kept them inside until the birds left.

Saturday morning Joe and I went to a Flea Market looking for a new phone case for him.  We picked up some Ruskin tomatoes, fresh corn on the cob, and some other items at the farmer's market there. Then we got back and started loading. I saw a mirror that I thought John could try, with pieces of driftwood decorating it.

Andrew was a big help, both with the loading and helping Grandpa wash windows.

Sunday we left Tampa about 10:00 and drove 3 hours over to the East Coast, to Long Point Campground near Melbourne Beach.  On the way, we saw several converted school buses that look a little different than the Indiana ones we are familiar with.  Maybe they just do convertibles in Florida.

It was a nice drive across Fla 60, and when we got to Vero Beach we headed north for a little while, then east over the causeway to our campground.   We crossed the bridge and saw the swimming beach and the jetty where we hope to fish this week.

We drove over in the RV, and John followed in his truck, pulling the boat.  Joe researched campgrounds before we made these reservations, and he picked a good one.  Grassy sites, the boat ramp is right in the campground and puts you into the Indian River Lagoon, lots of roaming room for the little guy. We walked over the wooden bridge and there's a clearing with a floor of pine needles that opens up into some fishing spots too.

After we got settled in, we went up to the restaurant right outside the campground and had some lunch.  They had a few gift items for sale --Andrew got two new books.  I saw this fish that I thought John, with his new woodworking skills, could make for me. 
 
Then we headed back to the RV, hooked up the boat and took a little boat ride.  We hadn't bought any bait, so although we threw our lines in the water, we didn't have any luck.  The lagoon here is really shallow, with lots of seagrass beds.  We came back in at low tide and had to stop a couple times to work our way around the seagrass.  We found a little island to beach on, so we waded out in the water for a little while.  We saw some interesting things on the boat ride -- a sea turtle, a sting ray, various other things I usually missed.  And Bridgette found an awesome starfish, oops, not a fish (a brittle star) where we docked the boat on the island. A brittle star does not have a backbone, nor a urochord, or a placenta, and therefore, they are a sea star, a penta radial symmetry (which means 5 sided, equal sides).  Anything on them is in groups of 5.  OK.  Lesson over.  I don't know why I see 8 legs (instead of 5), but I'm not asking!~!!

Being raised by biologists, Andrew gets to touch lots of interesting things, and he is usually not afraid of any of it.

Captain John is liking his boat.

 I stopped an osprey in the top of a tree -- at first I thought it was an eagle, until it flew and we saw it's white belly.  There are always lots of birds to see in Florida.

We headed back to camp just before sunset.  It was low tide by now, so John had to really look to keep us in the deeper water.

After a quick dinner of cold sandwiches, we called it a night.  But Monday morning we were ready to go again.  After breakfast, John and Joe went out and got some bait (shrimp and crabs), and we loaded up the boat and hit the water again.  We saw a bull shark right off the boat ramp, and John spotted another turtle, and some other fish (I have to get tome polarized sunglasses because I don't see very much of what he spots).  We drift- fished the seagrass for a while with no luck, so he drove us over by the jetty.  And just inside the swimming area, Bridgette spotted a manatee!  We watched it for a while, and spotted a second one.  Some people waded out right next to them, which is against the law to be that close, but it didn't seem to bother the manatees.

Some pelicans were guarding the entrance to the swimming area. 

Andrew likes the boat, and it's roomy enough that he can play.  He even has a water table and swimming pool on board, and he likes to play with the shrimp bait in the pool.  Then we went back to our "island" and got back in the water.  We caught some small fish here -- 7 of them, mangrove snappers.

After lunch, Andrew took a much-needed nap, and John went fishing while I worked on the blog.  Joe was going to take a shower, but they turned the water off to the campground, so he had to delay it a little.  We checked the water a little later and it was back on, so he went off to take a shower.  John came back and said he was catching some things, so I headed down there.  I pretty well put a stop to his successful fishing.  My first 4 casts were 2 in the mangrove trees and one catching his line.  I finally did catch a little catfish.  John caught catfish, pinfish, puffers, mangrove snapper, and a southern kingfish.  Joe never did catch any, but we helped John use up all the bait (as well as a few hooks).  John mentioned that fishing with me and Joe was a lot like fishing with Shooter.  It was really hot and humid, so we all finally headed inside the RV to cool off. 

Another Monday (5/4/15)

It's been a rough week.  Andrew and I both came down with some kind of stomach flu and were sick most of the week.  I had been thinking I wouldn't do a daily blog since we aren't traveling -- I don't need it to be a diary of our day -- so I thought maybe I would just do highlights now and then.  But there weren't many highlights last week.  After another (mis)diagnosis of an ear infection at urgent care, John got Andrew in to a new pediatrician on Friday (he couldn't get in to see his regular pediatrician, so now they have changed), they diagnosed him with the stomach flu.  He had a fever of 104 when he got in so the doctor took him serious.  He had vomited that morning.  Mine worked the opposite -- I had low fever and diarrhea.  But I think finally by Sunday we had both kicked it.

So Sunday we got to go out in their new pontoon boat.  That was a fun day.  We started getting ready to go about 8:00, it was a beautiful day, and the boat was wonderful, very roomy.

I think Joe and I had only been on one pontoon boat before, and we were really impressed with how roomy theirs is, how easy it is to move around, and how much more maneuverable it is.  When we are stopped, Shooter has plenty of room to play with his toys (lawn mower, water table, etc.).

 And of course he has to help Captain Dad drive every once in a while.

We went out to Davis Island and lauched into Tampa Bay where we fished for a little while (John caught a mackerel), but then headed up Hillsborough River, past the harbor where the big ships and cruise ships come in, to a water park right across the river from the beautiful University of Tampa (UT) campus where Professor Bridgette spends her work day.

University of Tampa Campus

Shooter loves the splash park here, and they have a dock where you can tie up your boat and walk right over.  There was some kind of event going on, but we just stayed by the splash park, where he was a regular fashion model in his fish suit.

We loaded back into the boat and sat there and ate our lunch before heading on upriver.

Eventually, we turned around and headed back to some mangrove trees at water's edge, which looked like possible fishing hideouts.  We didn't have our lines in the water very long before Joe hooked the first fish -- a catfish!  All the way from Arizona to Florida to catch catfish!!!!

Then I hooked one.  Andrew had been napping but all that excitement woke him up, and he was equally excited to see the fish coming in.  He even touched it (unlike his Arizona "girly-girly" cousin Kaylee who is always reluctant to touch the fish).

Then Joe caught another one.  Shooter liked playing with the shrimp (bait), and he would put them in his water table, but then he would throw them over the side -- chumming for his Grandpa, I think.  Joe finally hooked a different breed, a white croaker, and he put it in the water table, but when it jumped a little, it scared Shooter, so it went back in the water too.

Bridgette played with a needlefish for a while but didn't get it in the boat, and I hooked a large blue crab, but again, didn't get it in the boat (which was fine with me!).  We finally had to quit and head back to the boat ramp, but enroute we had an interesting encounter.  A huge tanker ship was coming into the port, and the Coast Guard  was stopping all boaters to allow a 500 yard safety zone around the tanker, which essentially closed the boating channel until it got turned into the port.  It probably took 30-45 minutes for it to move out of the channel.

We finally got the boat loaded, made the 30-minute drive back home, stopping off at a car wash to hose off the truck and boat, and unloaded everything.  We were all exhausted, so John and I ran out to pick up dinner.  Their neighbors walked over for a visit, so we got acquainted with them, but finally got to bed shortly after 9:00.  Exhausted.

Sunday was a nice end to a week that wasn't very.  Nice, that is.  With Joe trying to baby his foot, and me and Shooter being sick, we all just got through the days.  Joe and I certainly haven't set the world on fire here, but so far they are putting up with us.  Maybe we can earn our keep this week.  Joe is working on that faucet this morning, so maybe he can get that finished today. 

Next Sunday we are all heading over to the East Coast for a 5-day camping trip at Long Point Park near Melbourne Beach.  We will all be staying in the RV and taking the boat.  Should be fun, although John said last night there is some "tropical weather" maybe heading that way.  Great.  I'll have to keep an eye on that.

Our First Day Taking Care of Andrew (4-27-05)

Andrew stayed home with Grandpa and me today, so he ruled our day.  I got my laundry caught back up, and finished unloading stuff from the motorhome.  John is just thrilled with all the treasures I have loaded him down with -- his high school collection of baseball/basketball cards, his baseball bats from 3rd grade, etc.  And of course, he is excited about the saw and books Collins sent him.  Not so much the rest of the stuff.  But I told him I had been storing it for almost 30 years so it is now his turn.  I even found some of his Dukes of Hazzard matchbox cars for him to pass on to his son.

 

I tried to get Andrew down for a nap in the morning, but couldn't get him into a sound sleep.  So eventually, we went to Plan B.

We played inside and out, and all was going well until Grandpa decided to try to dig out their outside faucet to see where to tap into it to bring water to the back yard.  Unfortunately, he broke a water pipe and had water flooding the side yard before he figured out where to shut it off.  John got home just as we got it shut off, so we made a trip to Lowe's to cap it overnight.  Bridgette made her famous tacos for dinner, and when we finally had water again, we got our dishes cleaned up, baths taken, and another day in the books.

Road trip to Bass Pro (4-26-2015)

It seemed strange to not have an extra blanket on the bed last night, and digging out the shorts this morning, but a welcome change from that cold, Indiana weather.  The weather forecast was "windy, change of storms," so boating in their new pontoon boat was out.  Andrew played with the dogs as he got friendlier with us.

So after breakfast at Bob Evans, John drove us all over to Orlando to the Bass Pro shop.  Joe is trying to take it easy on his foot, but he managed to walk most of the store, checking out the depth finders with John, and fishing poles with Bridgette.  And Andrew had to look at EVERYTHING!  John bought boat bumpers and Bridgette got her fishing pole to catch the sheepheads fish that are her research project at University of Tampa.

Of course we had to check out the pontoon boats here, so Andrew got to practice his driving skills a little.

It rained while we were in the store, but was down to a sprinkle when we walked next door to Fuddruckers for lunch.  It was in a little strip mall, so we shopped it just a little before heading home.  

Andrew slept most of the way home, which was good because we hit a traffic jam and had to get off the freeway.   Of course, they still had their weekend chores to take care of, so John and I went to Costco and the grocery store while Grandpa Joe read to Andrew and Bridgette did her 9,000 things to do.  Andrew really enjoyed watching videos on Grandpa's Notebook.  Everyone was tired and they had work tomorrow, so we got to bed at a decent time.

Arriving at the Doctors Froeschke in Brandon, FL (4-25-2015)

Our night on the Cracker Barrel parking lot was quiet and uneventful, and we woke up early to start our last day of travel.  After breakfast and fueling ($2.259), we were on the road by 8:30.  It rained most of the night but quit during breakfast, the continued to rain off and on most of the day until we got a ways into Florida.  When it finally cleared off, it was a balmy 86 degrees, and we changed out of our jeans into shorts at one of our potty stops at the Florida rest areas.  I will have to say Florida does the rest area very nicely, they are about every 40 miles or so, and are easy on and off.  By the late afternoon, we were hitting every one of them. 

We stopped for a break at the Tifton, Georgia exit and walked around Adcock Pecan shop, which we had seen billboards for miles advertising it.  Pecans were very pricey there, but they had a nice shop.  $17.06 for 24 ounces. 

 

We walked around there for a little while, fueled ($2.329) and I walked across the parking lot to Little Caesars Pizza for a to-go pizza.  Then it was back on the road. We crossed the Florida state line at 2:20, pedal to the metal.  Joe suggested I drive at some point, but I didn't take him up on it -- traffic had gotten a little heavier, there was wind, some rain off and on.  And I was tired too, so he toughed it out.   

We arrived at John and Bridgette's about 6:10 p.m., very happy to be there!  Joe honked our big air horn and they came running out.  Joe drove 518 miles today, from about 10 hours in the drivers seat!  We moved vehicles around, unhooked our car, and Joe backed the RV into their driveway.  We will let it set here for the next month, and we began moving into a bedroom in the house.  We went out to grab some supper since we missed it by an hour at their house, then settled in for the night.  Andrew started warming up to us, but wasn't ready to let go of his mommy just yet.