Sunday at the Florida Froeschkes

 7-4-2021 - Sunday

Bridgette got up early to meet a friend for a hour-long walk this morning.  When I got up, John was wrestling with Andrew, dogs were barking.  But Bridgette got home and put a stop to all that nonsense, then everyone was mad at her.  John went out and started mowing (today is the only day this week that rain isn't predicted).  She made us a great breakfast, and everyone got back in good spirits.  This place is finally living up to the "bed and breakfast" part!

 Catalina wanted to go snake hunting again, so after John (with Catalina's help) finished mowing the front yard, John sprayed them with bug spray, and off they went on their bikes.  Fortunately, they were unsuccessful again.  (They even drove over to their old neighborhood to check out a pond over there.)

Meanwhile, Joe took the motorhome over to fuel it before Florida runs out of gas.  With even the threat of a hurricane here, gas becomes a problem, so John had advised him to fill it up before the storm got any closer.  He said there was another guy at the gas station filling up his gas cans.

Bridgette has a little flower garden in front of their front patio.  She won't need to worry about watering it for a few days.  I really like the green/purple plant, but it probably won't grow in Arizona. There's more of the these purple plants beside the house, too.  And pineapple plants out front, and a blueberry patch on the other side of the house.

Joe and John worked on the Jeep, trying to track down the water source for the puddle in the floorboard.  They put some caulking on something, so we will see what happens during the next rain (probably tomorrow).  Actually, the Elsa storm track now shows it coming in as a tropical storm just north of Tampa, so we will probably get a few inches of rain out of it, starting Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.  But rain is predicted Monday afternoon anyway, so I'm sure we won't have to wait long.

Doug and Barbara came over about 3:00, and we watched the Nascar race.  Tonight was Taco Night, Bridgette's specialty.  Bridgette said this might be the last dinner we get, so I took a picture.

We were going to the beach right after dinner, to watch the fireworks, so clean-up was in a hurry-up mode.  John even took away Joe's table while he was still eating.

I think Joe was still shocked that they took his table away.

We left for the beach about 6:00, going through Bradenton to Longboat Key, and Anna Maria Island, their favorite beach.  We have been here many times before.  It wasn't crowded, and the water was very nice (much warmer than Lake Michigan's 45 degrees).

The kids brought their boogie boards, and they headed out into the water, ready to catch some waves.

Catalina caught a good one and got a nice ride.

John and Andrew waited for a big wave.  Caught it!

The waves got a little strong for Catalina, so she played in her private pool for a while.

With Grandpa supervising.

Me, too (nice hair).

John and Andrew came in for a little rest (I think John was the one that needed the rest).

The sun is starting to go down, but the temperature here is great.  Very refreshing.

John and Andrew went back out for some more boogie boarding.

Meanwhile, Biology Bridgette is investigating the seaweed.  You know, you can take the girl out of the biology department, but you can't take the biology out of the girl.  She and Catalina found a live clam too.

We also had a heron stop by.

A little family time in the pool.

Here's a good ride for Catalina.  The waves seemed to have calmed down just a little.

Finally, everyone got out of the water, and we settled down (sort of) to wait for the fireworks.  But there were still things to be explored.

Finally, it got dark enough and the fireworks started.  They were pretty far away, but we could see the high ones going off in several places.  

They set off several at a time, and Joe kept thinking it was the Grand Finale.  I think we were at Grand Finale Number 10 by the time we left about 10:00.  And all the way home, we could see different towns setting them off -- every direction we looked.

We were at the beach for 5 hours, and it was 11:00 by the time we got home.  When we left the house, Joe  ad said we should have enough gas in the Jeep to make the trip, but by the time we got off the freeway, the gauge was right at the red line.  Another "Joe-ism" when I suggested we stop for gas - "The low fuel light hasn't even come on yet.  We don't know if it has a low fuel light, but if it does, it hasn't come on yet."  Like that was supposed to be reassuring.  But at the very first stoplight after we got off I-75, the low fuel light did come on, so he pulled into the first gas station.  We don't really know how much fuel that gas tank holds, but I'm afraid we are going to find out the hard way (when we run out).

Tomorrow we will start getting ready for our trip to Indian River next weekend.  I think shopping is on the agenda, after Bridgette gets back from her work.  The rain isn't supposed to start until the afternoon 
(a balmy 77 with 83% humidy at 9:30 a.m. -- the humidy was higher an hour ago).  Another day in the sunshine state.

Raining Cats and Dogs

 7-3-2021 - Saturday

Well, it's raining.  And raining.  And raining.  I can see why they don't invest in a rain gauge, who has time to empty it that often???

We have two small(?) problems with our vehicles.  The batteries on the RV are dead.  We think it's because of the little cooler we have running out there all the time.  And, obviously, the solar panels are not providing any fuel!  Joe is charging them right now, to see if they will come back up.  Otherwise, we will buying 2 new batteries.  The second problem is that the floor on the passenger side of the Jeep keeps getting wet.  Since it never rains in Arizona, we had not seen the problem before we left home.  The first time we found it, we thought the door hadn't got shut good when we went through the car wash.  But it has happened twice since, including today, so it is definitely from the rain.  We have to track down that problem when it quits raining.

And then there's the hurricane out in the Atlantic, although it did get downgraded back to a tropical storm today, so I'm not going to worry about that anymore.

I got a picture of the new truck when it was just drizzling.  I haven't gotten to ride in it yet, but reports say its wonderful.  

We've gone shopping a few times today, usually get caught in the rain without umbrellas.  We even have rain jackets in the back of the Jeep, but haven't been smart enough to get them out.  John parked in the far west lot at Walmart, and so we got to wade through the parking lot and walk through torrential rain to get back to the truck.  That might be a slight exaggeration, but you get the idea.  I tried to take a picture of the rain, but it just looks like a gloomy day.  But sometimes it rained really hard--I saw Arizona had a possibility of torrential rains today, but I think we got them here.

So during our inside time, Andrew gave John a lesson in MineKraft, but obviously John is just a beginner.  Andrew likes to stand right in front of the TV screen, and would give John instructions, but John kept telling him all he could see was Andrew's backside.  

So John gave up, and we all had some relaxation time. (briefly)

John took us to lunch at Culver's, Bridgette had taken her mom and Catalina to Costco.  After we got back from our drenching, Joe and I took a nap.  When we got up, Bridgette's mom and dad were here, and dinner was underway.

Bridgette and her dad put together a feast--hamburgers, hotdogs (John did the grilling, so he helped).  Lots of fruits, mac and cheese, beans, salad, etc.  Bridgette told me I better take a picture because it might be the only dinner she fixes us.

After dinner, the rain settled down to a drizzle, then finally stopped. And the thunder and lightning finally quit too.    The kids got to play outside, on scooters, and bikes.

Catalina chose running through the puddles, with Dory.

Then, they went SNAKE HUNTING!  Catalina was the driving force behind this adventure.  She checked out the yard, then John took them to a little pond down the street.  Fortunately, they didn't find any snakes.  

After the kids' baths, we played RummiKup and Tug of War before sending the kids off to bed.  It's great to just get to spend family time with all of them.  The weather could be better, but if it isn't rainy, then it's hot and humid.  Florida in the summer is just that!

The RV battery problem got resolved.  The batteries just got depleted because of the little cooler, and no solar.  They recharged and we are back in business, didn't have to buy new batteries.  We think John tracked down the source of the water in the Jeep, there's a spongy thing under the hood that seems to be absorbing water when it rains, then somehow it drains into my floorboard.  Tomorrow they are going to try to figure out a way to stop that, and John said we could get the shop vac out to dry up the standing water.  Hopefully, that will be the end of that, because I'm pretty sure we will get rained on again here.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a dry day, the only day for the next week that it isn't forecast to rain.  However, depending on Elsa, that's likely to change.  I will continue to monitor that situation.  

Happy Fourth of July!!!

Truck Shopping

 7-1-2021 and 7-2-2021 - Thursday and Friday

We have stayed pretty close to the house the last two days.  Joe and John made another trip to Lowe's, but finally finished the electricity box in the garage.  Bridgette said next year she is going to rent an Air B&B in Marathon (on the Keys) again, and not go to Indian River, because it was so much more relaxing.  She thought maybe for a month, and she could do a blog, and John could read about what she and the kids were doing since he wouldn't be able to take a month off work.  His statement of the day:  "Fishing, and reading about fishing, are not the same thing.  But sometimes the results are the same."  

We've got to watch the kids play.  Catalina spends a lot of time playing with her horses.  She was ponying one around the living room here, and Andrew got the gun and started shooting them. 

Then the dogs added to the chaos.

Joe and I went to Lowe's.  The Jeep was hot, and Theo wasn't very happy.  It gets pretty hot in there sitting in the sun when the windows are up, and since it rains every day, the windows have to stay up.

We went out to Beef O'Brady's for dinner, then went to a couple auto lots -- Bridgette is in the market for a new truck.  The salesman at the car lot couldn't find the keys to the truck.  And it was on the back row of the lot (no golf cart).  And it was raining, of course.  We thought she had found the right one, and came home to think about it overnight, since it was raining.  But when they went back this morning to look it over in daylight and no rain, John saw there was rust spots on it, and had found out it had come from New Jersey.  So they backed away from that one.

Today, after breakfast, Andrew had to go to the dentist again, to get a cap on his tooth.  That didn't seem to bother him too much. Joe and I went to Camping World and Lazy Daze to get some things for our RV, the rest of them went truck shopping when they got back from the dentist.  We caught up with them after lunch in Tampa but eventually we had enough so we went back to their house.  About an hour later, they called for us to bring them checks and John's computer, they had found one and were making a deal.  So off we went again.  We got the kids and took them to get some dinner on the way home, and then let them play outside until dark.  They were ready to get rid of some energy.  

They rode bikes and scooters, and Andrew played some basketball.

They had some scooter races.

Finally, we went in, got baths, and played Rack-O until the parents brought the new truck home.  By now it was 9:30, so it was really too dark to check it out.  We will look it over better tomorrow.

Everyone is tired.  Time to go to bed.  We are now officially on hurricane watch.