Teddy and Trey

We spent our first day in Tarpon Springs and it was a beauty! Mid-70's and sun. My brother, Rich, and Robin stopped by to visit with my new cat, Teddy.  I guess you could say they hit it off! The funny thing is that until a month ago, Teddy was totally wild.  He has spent the past year prowling my property and hunting everything from squirrels to birds.  Who knew what a sweet little guy he would be as an "indoor cat".  Life was hard.  Now it is easy!

We also spent time with my nephew, Richie, and my grand nephew Trey.  Trey is a cutie!

We had a terrific lunch at Johnny Grits, then fun at the playground! More fun tomorrow!!!!

Water water everywhere!

But none in the faucet! We just arrived in Florida last night on the motorhome and settled in. I am getting too old for 10 hour stints at the wheel but we wanted to arrive last night. No water though as "somebody" improperly winterized the water system and the water purifying cartridge cracked. Plenty of water in the storage compartment but none in the pipes! That same "somebody" will drive over to Camping World this morning and try to get a replacement.  Hope they have one! Otherwise, no shower for Joanna and me.  After 4 days on the road, bathing is needed all around. 

We spent 3 nights at truck stops. Just a big parking lot with lots of noisy diesels pumping out fumes.  But heck, it’s free!  We call it anchoring out in honor of our boating days. Now we are at a real RV park in preparation to visit with Rich and my nephew here in Tarpon Springs!! Should be a good weekend once I sort out the water problem!

Day 1- 12/27/16
We shoved off from home base in Upstate NY on December 27th. We managed to get 250 miles done before stopping in central PA at Pine Grove.

Day #2 - 12/28/16
Pine Grove to Mt. Airy, NC. 430 miles in one day. I am getting too old to do such a long day! 2nd night at a truck stop with a dinner buffet and a hot shower!

Day#3 - 12/29/16
312 miles today under bright sunshine.  We are near Atlanta and hoping to enter the "human drain" tomorrow. (That is retiree talk for Florida) We have managed this trip without driving a mile on I-95!
I-81 to I-77 to I-20. I-75 tomorrow. A pleasant journey overall. Today we drove on the Carl Sanders Highway. I never knew the Colonel's first name was Carl!!!:-)

There's no place like home!

We arrived home on Tuesday amid news that I am now a great grandfather! Sophia Catherine Young made her debut on Monday evening, March 21st.  A real spring gift to us all! We have spent the week trying to get caught up on things here at the house, what with dealing with the big flood.  Much work ahead and sadly our wonderings are over for a little while.  We had a great time and we are looking forward to more fun as we travel next winter!!! 

Creeping North during March Madness.

I haven't had time to write as my free time is being sucked up by NCAA basketball. We are in Summerton SC at Palmetto Shores RV park located on Lake Marion.  I had to ditch my shorts today for the first time in 2 months as I now am wearing long pants and a flannel shirt.  Cooling down! :-(
Going to break hard for home tomorrow but still 800 miles to go!
Catchup pictures:

 Mets game

 My cuzzint Judy and husband Walt on Daytona Beach!

Let's Go Mets!

Saturday was Mets day as we had tickets for the game at Tradition Field with the Cardinals. The last time I attended a spring training game, 2 years ago, tickets were easy to come by.  Now that the Metsies have had some success, I was barely able to get tickets at all. We had a very warm day for the game as the temp. went all the way up to 90. We were in the sun and I am sorry to say I only last 6 innings. Enjoyed the whole experience and got to see some of my favorites.  Missed the young arms as old man Colon pitched.  Mets had a lead but got blown out in the later innings. The big thing of the day was my Mets t-shirt..."We don't suck any more!"  Had many positive comments.

Jupiter Light

We had breakfast on Friday morning with a couple of "locals",  Kathy Kull Bossinger and her husband, Skip.  They are part of the reason we enjoy coming to Stuart.

With full tummies we bid the Bossingers farewell, as they were heading out of town.  We climbed into our car headed for Jupiter...Florida that is! Tourists for the day, we stopped at Jonathan Dickinson State Park on the way to check it out, then moved on to Jupiter to visit the lighthouse. I have seen it from the water on my boat, but now as a landlubber I wanted to visit it up close.
Quite a structure which dates back to the 1850's. There is a museum and park, but the prize is climbing 139 steps to the top for the splendid view.  Here are some pics:

The shot of the drawbridge brings back memories of our 2006 boat trip down the ICW.  It was here that we almost met with disaster when a bridge tender encouraged us to keep coming and he would have it open when we got there. Ha! At the last minute I had to turn Crossroads around against a four knot current. We made the turn, but it was a very close call! We have done over 100 drawbridges over 27 years and this was one of only 2 times that a tender jerked us around. The overwhelming number of tenders are wonderful and do a great job! The other smart alec tender is in Stuart.