Feb 22, 2020 - Grandkids and Disney

John, Amanda, Anna and Sara came out to visit and see the sights of Central Florida. They rented a great place near Disney that has a pool for the kids. Headed to the Magic Kingdom for the Peter Pan ride, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean, visited Tom Sawyer Island, Tea Cups and an autograph session with the Little Mermaid. After a day of rest, we headed to EPCOT. Rode up in the "ball"; Spaceship Earth, that chronicles communication from cave drawings to the present. Then off to see Dory and Nemo Under the Sea. Next...

Feb 20, 2020 - Clear Vision

We had a nice visit with Frank and Ann in The Villages. After leaving the Villages we headed further south to the Lakeland area to have the driver's and passenger's windows replaced at RV Glass Solutions. We spent the night in the parking lot to await our appointment on Tuesday morning. There were a few other coaches ahead of us in the que, but by about noon I drove Winnie into the repair bay so the work could begin. Since we still had a couple of hours to kill, I decided to find a car wash to get the Fit washed as its looking pretty grimy...

Feb 19, 2020 - February

Hello everyone, I (Emily) am writing an update with no camping trips involved or great places seen. We have spent the winter working on the Tucson house and visiting places and people in the area. Mike is putting the finishing touches on the porch roof on the house. We have learned that what we would have completed in four days 20 years ago has taken four weeks now. We wouldn’t have been able to complete it without Jeff. He picks up a bundle of shingles like they are a pad of paper, I carry six at a time and we don’t let Mike carry any due...

Feb 19, 2020 - Cool, rainy - great walk and neighborhood party here

Date: February 19, 2020 Weather: cloudy, drizzle Temperature: start 57º High 64º Wildlife count: Year List: 213 Birds: Rainy, cool morning on the refuge – had six for the walk – a pair of young birders – one excellent spotter, and her friend excellent at ID. Made for a lot of fun. We walked Willow Trail, and though the Screech Owl was not present, lots of other small flocks were. Had all 3 kingfishers and teals. A good time. After lunch, took the van to fill with fuel, then home and relaxed – I napped. Sat outside for a bit and the...

Feb 19, 2020 - Page AZ

We’re back! The eastbound trip was pretty uneventful, but horribly tiring. Air travel these days is not for the weak. On Wednesday the 5th, we got up and did all of our packing and house preps, then drove almost 5 hours to Las Vegas, I got a haircut, we grabbed dinner then headed to the airport to sit and wait about 2 hours for our overnight 5 hour flight to Orlando. Brutal...that one word best describes the day. Not that anything went wrong, but the cumulative effects of driving, flying, time zone changes and no sleep kicked our aging...

Feb 19, 2020 - East Lake Snowy Plover - no curlews

Date: February 18, 2020 Weather: sunny Temperature: start 70º High 90º Wildlife count: Red-eared Slider, rabbit Year List: 213 Birds: Short-eared Owl Enjoyed a delightful walk, even though some folks had a lot of difficulty with the heat. Spent the afternoon getting ready for the evening at East Lake – great weather, and lots of shorebirds came in to the lake, but no Curlews. Watched the stars all together at the end of the evening.

Feb 18, 2020 - Halfway Through February

Halfway through February already. One again time is flying by. The weather has been a little crazy, even by Florida standards. We're running the air conditioner one and and have the heat on the next night. We're out in the country here, but it's only 20 to 40 minutes to get to just about any place we'd want to go. An hour's drive would take us to Disney or Tampa. We've run to the flea market in Webster, up to The Villages, Lady Lake, Inverness, and Brooksville. We're mostly just enjoying the peace and quite. Ellen is, of course, drooling...

Feb 18, 2020 - Hello from Sunny Arizona

Happy New Year ! This year our goal is to hit the road in March, Pete has the medical issues that plagued him last summer under control & is doing quite well. So that being said, we are starting to plan some of our trip & starting to get the 5th-wheel ready to roll. Our trip will take us to California first, want to see the kids & grand-kids & get a little time in with some friends. Then it'll be off Oregon, Idaho, Montana & maybe Wyoming (we think). As I said, its in the planning stages. We do want to wish everyone a Happy & safe New Year...

Feb 18, 2020 - Melbourne-LA-Fort Collins-Dillon

It’s a week today already! We are ensconced in Matt and Erica’s townhouse and presently Abbott and I are resting after a snowy walk. Matt is working today and Erica and Mark have gone for a morning ski. It’s Mark second ski so far. The weekend was blacked out on his Epic Australia pass (for those who don’t know, Falls Creek is now owned by Vail Corporation and so we have multi resort tickets although we have to either pay a bit more or accept certain days we can’t ski while in each resort that they are valid for). The weekend is to...

Feb 18, 2020 - Free and Clear

Don’s last dermatology appointment was today. He got his stitches out, and received news that the biopsy was negative. Yay! So now our plan is to leave here on Saturday, between rain storms. With any luck at all the ground will have dried out enough that we can get out of the yard and back up on the pavement. I have dinner tonight, Amber has dinner tomorrow. Then a late breakfast with Don and Sherry on Thursday followed by dinner with Bob (Amber;s dad) and Mignon. Don will cook on Friday. And then we have to quit eating like this!!!!! It...

Feb 17, 2020 - Big Walk

Date: February 17, 2020 Weather: partly sunny Temperature: start 69º High 85º Wildlife count: Year List: 212 Birds: Seventeen folks joined us for the walk including two very precocious 13-year old’s, who were good birders and had just stepped of the plane from Maine yesterday. It was an interesting challenge to keep them moving and the excellent adults in the group as well as the beginners, made for a good head-ache! After lunch, we stayed at the VC working on the Volunteer handbook update, an outflow of the meetings with management....

Feb 17, 2020 - Port Charlotte FL, Harbor Lakes RV Resort - update

The weather has been pretty splendid over the last couple weeks. We have made several trips to the beaches that are nearby. They are very busy this time of year, often times it’s nearly impossible to find a place to park. But we have had fun, found many neat and interesting shells, plus several smaller sized sharks teeth. We took a longer day trip to South to Bonita Springs to look at some other RV Parks down in that area. One of the parks is run by Patty & George Moulton, formerly of Moretown VT. We had a nice visit with them and enjoyed...