We Aren't in Florida Anymore

Well, we've left Florida and are now headed north for the summer. We're anxious to see our daughter Kristy's baby bump in person. And we're also looking forward to a visit from Kelly and her beau Chris from Australia. They'll be staying with us while they're in the States. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let me recap our last two weeks at Frog Creek and where we've been since leaving there.

We kicked off the month of April with a drive over the very cool Sunshine Skyway Bridge into St. Petersburg on Tuesday, April 1st. The first stop was at Bed, Bath & Beyond to buy a toaster oven. I know…boring! But we're very excited about this. The convection/microwave that came with the motorhome has served us well so far, but it takes a long time to heat up if used in the convection mode and doesn't seem to do an outstanding job on some of our finer dining choices, namely, pizza - fresh or frozen. Also our standard toaster doesn't lend itself to toasting anything larger than a standard slice of bread and it stores in a cabinet above the sink which discourages use. The new toaster/oven is a Breville Smart Oven that performs a multitude of duties and its stainless steel exterior blends well with the microwave and refrigerator allowing it to stay on the counter full time. And it's heavy enough with grippy feet that it doesn't move around when we're going down the road. Oh, and yes, the pizza came out perfect as well as the large slices of sourdough toast! To allow us to come down from the excitement of our oven purchase we drove out to the Weedon Nature Preserve in eastern St. Pete and took a nice hike along one of the many boardwalk trails. We got a kick out of watching the jumping fish (mullets) from the boardwalk overlooks. Although catching the shot was tough, Lisa even got a few pictures of them in the air. We also saw lots of spider crabs on the mangrove trees and a raccoon hunting for food just below the boardwalk. Although we didn't kayak, the preserve has miles of mangrove tunnels for those who don't mind the occasional spider crab or mangrove snake falling into your kayak. We finished up the day at Paradise Grill on St. Pete beach. Very neat, casual outside venue with a singer performing. Great grouper sandwich and draft beer. Does it get any better? We shared a table with another full time RV couple from Oregon at first, and after they left we met a very nice couple on holiday from Germany. The wife didn't speak too much English so her husband did some interpreting at times. It is times like this that I wish I had retained at least some of the two years of German I took in high school. No such luck. Until I looked back at Lisa's pictures I didn't realize how crowded the beachfront had gotten as sunset approached. After sunset they rang a ceremonial bell. A nice way to end another beautiful day in paradise!

Sunshine Skyway Bridge in the background

Crossing the bridge

Our beloved new toaster/oven

Boardwalk in the Weedon Preserve

Pond overlook 

Jumping fish Batman!

Another jumper

Spider crabs on the mangrove

Fury friend below the boardwalk

Kayaker on one of the canoe trails in the preserve

St. Pete beach 

Paradise Grill from the Gulf side

Singer at Paradise Grill

Picture south some time before sunset

Picture south at sunset

Sunset bell

We golfed again in the Frog Creek scrambles on Thursday, April 3rd. This time Lisa finished on the first place team at 13 under while Dale had to settle for third place. However, I need  to highlight that Lisa had ANOTHER TWO BIRDIE DAY!!! That makes the second in eight days. Even though it was a scramble, Lisa handled two of the par 3's all by herself in two shots each. 

Winning team flashing their cash!

On Saturday, April 5th, we took a ride down to Bonita Springs and Naples to check out a couple campgrounds for potential future stays. Although rather reasonably priced for the area, we were not real thrilled with Imperial Bonita Estates and were concerned about the neighborhood just outside its gate with no apparent security. We then visited Crystal Lake RV Resort in north Naples. Much nicer! Yes, it was more costly, but would be worth it in our opinion. While there we visited friends Jim and Joyce whom we had met in Nappanee during one of our service visits. They've been staying in Crystal Lake for several months each of the past four years and love it. They drove us around the resort which confirmed and improved on our initial impression. After leaving Crystal Lake we drove to Riverbend RV Resort in LaBelle to visit friends Denis and Joanne Krill. Denis is the founder and 'Mayor' of the Newmar Hoots, the gang we gathered with last October in Sevierville, TN. We'll gather with the Hoots again this September.  The group has grown from 13 coaches last year to at least 25 so far this year. Denis and Joanne have a beautiful place in gorgeous Riverbend. Hoots Steve and Lisa Morrison happened to be at Riverbend that evening for a wedding, so we enjoyed a brief visit with them as well. Steve had his brand spanking new Jeep Wrangler Rubicon which he had picked up the previous day that will serve as his new toad. Sweet! 

Mini-Hoots Reunion at Riverbend

Denis & Joanne's site at Riverbend

Hoots Mayor Denis' patio and view. Not too shabby.

We drove to Port Charlotte on Monday, April 7th to visit Lisa's cousins, Rick and Judy Jahn. They enjoy the winters in Port Charlotte in their canal home with a nice pool and their boat conveniently on a hoist out back. After a delicious lunch at their home they toured us around Punta Gorda. We stopped at Harpoon Harry's Tavern for drinks and appetizers. Nice views over the bay!

Lisa's cousins Rick & Judy Jahn

Rick & Judy's pool

At Harpoon Harry's

We started Thursday, April 10th, at the Felts Audubon Preserve in Palmetto. We saw several Indigo Buntings, Cardinals, Red Winged Blackbirds, and some other cool looking birds we couldn't identify, from a nice blind building with large glass windows. We had hoped to see a Painted Bunting or two, but were not so lucky. We then headed to Siesta Beach on Siesta Key. It was voted the best beach in America in 2011. We would hardly argue with that title. The sand was so fine and white it was like powdered sugar. According to what we've read, the reason for this characteristic is that it's made up of nearly pure (99%) quartz crystals which don't tend to absorb heat. So it's always cool underfoot. Most beach sand crystals are pulverized coral. The one drawback to this beach is finding parking. We were lucky, but we also arrived a little later in the day so some folks were already leaving. The saving grace of the parking situation is that if you can find a spot it's free. That's right, free parking at a fantastic beach! We finished off the day with a very good dinner at the Yacht Sea Grille on the riverfront in Bradenton.

Viewing blind at Felts Audubon Preserve

Don't move! They can see you.

Indigo Bunting in flight

Coming in for a landing! 

Hey, haven't you ever heard of soft landings?

Would you like the name of my hair stylist?

Parking is at a premium at Siesta Beach

Siesta Beach

If I'd have known she was going to take this picture I'd have buffed my nails

Unique powdered sugar fine quartz sand at Siesta Beach

Can't pass up these top down beach shots

We left Frog Creek on Monday, April 14th, and settled into Lazydays Campground in Seffner for a couple days. The Lazydays complex is huge consisting of RV sales with hundreds of new and used units on display, 220 service bays, a Cracker Barrel restaurant, a Flying J, and a 300 site campground. In addition to the typical full hookups including cable and wi-fi the campground provides the local Tampa newspaper delivered to your site, and daily breakfast and lunch at their Front Porch cafeteria. Shuttles run around the property continuously to get you where you need to be. We were very impressed with the whole operation. Monday evening we got some disappointing news via Facebook that one of our Newmar Hoots, Charlie Barba, had a stroke that morning. Charlie was very active in our original Hoots gathering last September in Sevierville providing name tags, and designing and ordering T-shirts for everyone. He is on the roster for this year's gathering at the end of September. Please keep him in your prayers as he is in ours for a speedy and healthy recovery. Tuesday evening we drove into Tampa to have dinner with cousin John Dau who was in town on business. With the help of Yelp we chose to a neat little Irish pub named Four Green Fields. Excellent Irish beer and tasty fish and chips!

Our site at Lazydays

Lisa wants one of these to put out at our campsites

Tampa

Lisa and cousin John Dau

John & I 

Kilkenny disguised as Guinness

On Wednesday, April 16th, we drove to Independence RV in Winter Garden. They replaced a left rear hydraulic jack which had started leaking.  They started working on the coach almost immediately after our arrival, and we were out of there in a little over two hours. Andy Vernak, our service advisor, was very personable and, even though we had not bought our coach from Independence, made us feel very welcome. Independence RV was great! Due to the quick service we were able to get north of Jacksonville by dark where we spent a pleasant night in a Walmart parking lot.

We pulled into the Hardeeville RV park about 2:30 Thursday afternoon. The campground is less than 10 miles from downtown Savannah. Although we read some reviews on the park that weren't so rosy we decided to come anyway due to its proximity to Savannah. I must say I'm pleasantly surprised. True, the roads and sites are dirt/gravel, but I didn't really kick up much of a dust storm so that was good. They appear to be putting money into the property with the most recent addition being a fenced-in dog park. What I appreciate most are good water pressure (60 psi), good stable power, cable (with Golf Channel), and stable, fast Wi-Fi good enough to stream programming over our Roku. All of this for less than $30 a night. I'm a happy camper.

Our baby getting a new hydraulic jack

Our site at Hardeeville RV park

Friday and Saturday we drove into Savannah. It rained most of Friday, so we simply stopped at a welcome center to get some tour info and then headed to Sam's Club for a couple essentials. After Sam's we had dinner at Moon River Brewing Co. in Savannah's historic district. Nice salmon dinner. On Saturday we drove back into Savannah and walked along River Street. Cobblestone streets and historic old buildings with character housing tempting sweet shops, souvenir shops, gift shops, pubs and an assortment of eateries. Ate dinner at Kevin Barry's Irish Pub. Good California Rueben. Oh, and Guinness, too!

Rainy Friday in Savannah 

Lisa warming herself after a cool rainy day

River Street in Savannah in front of Kevin Barry's Pub. We ate upstairs later in the day.

Stairway up the escarpment to Bay St

Making taffy... 

on a 100 year old cutting/wrapping machine

Upstairs at Kevin Barry's 

Real Guinness this time - no pretenders

Climbing from River St back up to Bay St

Emmet Park

Easter morning we drove into Savannah and attended the 11:00 service at Trinity Lutheran Church. It was a welcoming uplifting experience. We sat next to a nice couple, John and Mary, from Chaska, Minnesota who were (as they signed in the fellowship book) just 'passing thru' on their way back north. Mary had just retired in March so they had taken the opportunity to travel for a few weeks in their car. After the service ended we had a pleasant chat regarding each others travel experience. Then they headed off to Hilton Head to continue their venture and we headed to Perkins, a new favorite for brunch. Did you know they have a 55 and over page?