I can’t imagine being with anyone but you

or with anyone but you for the next chapter of my life.

December 23rd, 2024
Another tough day, LP for the trailer, the truck needs washed and I need to start planning for our move on Friday. Two out of three isn’t bad. Lunch is more important, grilled sirloin, fried potatoes and a salad.
The car wash is great. Hand wash and they will do the inside too.

Along with the car wash is a produce stand, a greenhouse and a place to eat. No, I didn’t eat there, he wasn’t open yet but I bought some fresh vegtables and a plant for the window box on the trailer

December 24th, 2024
Christmas Eve.
It was a very quiet day relaxing on the beach, walking Buddy and talking with neighbors. Overcast today no real sunset but everyone collects on the waterfront for the event. It’s a good time to meet new people and share experiences and events of the day.

December 25th, 2024
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and takes time to remember what it’s all about.
This year is quite different for us, traveling like we are. I remember only three Christmases in the last fifty one years where we didn’t have at least one of our boys around. Now it’s four. Things change and we are having a good day. We are making stuffing with gluten free bread and red bell peppers instead of onions. Stuffing and steak, an interesting combo. I will let you know how it goes.
I am sitting on the beach watching people fishing and parasailing in the background. No cold weather and no ice or snow. I do miss the winters we had when I was young. Cold weather and six to eight inches of snow, a wonderful sight.

December 26th, 2024
The stuffing was different because the bread has a stronger flavor than white bread as does the bell peppers to the onions. So we need to work on it. Turkey or chicken go better with stuffing because of tradition but the steak was good.
The weather is great, started packing to leave in the morning. Wanted to beat the rain. It always rains when we move. We are going to northern Florida, in the back country with cougars, gators and cooler weather. Not sure what will happen after that.
My sister Sue called so I talked to her for a while as Carol talked to a friend of hers in California.
There wasn’t a lot left to do so I went looking for Carol and found her at the pool. She helped out for a couple hours and then she was gone. O, yeah, earlier I did said thanks for helping me, I’ll do the rest. Forgot

December 27th, 2024
Got up and it wasn’t raining so I went out to finish disconnecting everything and get on the road. I talked to the guys that maintain the lot and said bye until next year. Carol came out to help on a couple jobs and it started raining, lightly. It rained intermittently until we got to alligator alley (US 41) where Carol saw about twenty alligators and I saw three. I was driving.

We ended up on I75 for a couple hours and the traffic was extremely heavy and almost as bad as Baton Rouge (code for crazy ass drivers). We finally got off and traveled the back roads.

Suwannee River Hideaway, Old Town FL (428m).
I drove for nine hours and did a basic setup on the trailer. I’ll finish tomorrow.

I am really tired and grumpy, good night!

December 28th, 2024
Couldn’t sleep last night and Buddy wanted to go out in the middle of the night and roam around. There is no light where we are in the park. With a waning crescent moon this is a great time to look at how the stars light up the night.
We bought our Jayco jay flight  in January of 2023. It was a year old model but it was new.
We have had a number of problems with it and we aren’t done yet. While I was driving yesterday I noticed  air is pulling the siding out on the side of the trailer, like a bubble. This is the first problem I would at least talk to Camping World about but I am sure it is out of warranty.
Many people travel like we are, to see the country, the national parks or even the capitol of every state. With our RV, the goal is to shop at every Ace Hardware for parts to repair our trailer. We haven’t been anywhere without stopping at Ace. I have a new Ace jingle “Ace is the place with the helpful RV parts”. I work on this trailer more than I did our home.

December 29th, 2024
Getting close. We will be starting a new year and doing it in our trailer. I hope the new year goes better. I am waiting for February to actually start our journey. Having to go back to Indy in January is not a good idea and expensive. The weather will be extremely cold, causing us a number of problems with the trailer.
Suwannee River Hideaway, WOW. They are working at restoring this old campground. The managers are really nice and working hard at creating a good environment. The park is busy! They have Sandspur grass here and it has small (sharp) burrs that Buddy gets in his paws. He is good about letting us know when one needs removed. You can have packages delivered here and yes there is an Ace Hardware close.
The storms that went across the South hit us today, and we had a few small thunderstorms but nothing bad.

December 30th, 2024
We have to make a decision about going to Avon for my pre-surgery exam and a number of other things we scheduled or cancel everything. With cold weather from the Golf Coast up, and weather in Florida being unpredictable we will have to winterize and heat the trailer or remove everything that could freeze and just winterize the trailer. Anything that could freeze (liquids, powders and plants) and we want to keep will have to be packed in the truck for the trip to Avon. Carol thought that we could store the trailer in Florida and stay in Avon for the duration then come back and get the trailer. Everywhere we talked about going while waiting for the surgery will be cold so this would be the best plan. Since we need to get through January and hope February offers better weather this could work. Every time I turn around I am going back to Indy. One big nightmare!

December 31th, 2024
We went to the Ichetucknee Springs State Park to see the springs and the river.

You can enjoy swimming in either of the springs or take a relaxing ride down the river in the mode of your choice.

When your finished you can grab a snack at the grill and pick up a souvenir at the General store. Definitely a great way to spend the day. You can book trips and check pricing on line.

Time to get ready for the New Years Eve party. Carol is planning on baking a cake and I will bring beer.

January 1st, 2025
Happy New Years
With lower temperatures at night and the high humidity there is a lot of condensation on the bathroom ceiling vent located over the toilet. When I go to the bathroom in the morning, It’s like being outside in the rain. It does wake me up.
48°, cold morning and still very humid here. The truck bed cover has puddles of water on it and it didn’t rain.

We walked the trails and roads through the park today to get some exercise and see the area.

The boardwalk goes through the swamp down to the Suwannee river.

We didn’t see any wildlife but it is a beautiful area and the view of the river is great.

All the weather reports point to bad weather from as far south as Miami up through Indiana. Cold weather down here and snow up north.

January 2nd, 2025
We woke up to 34° weather in FLORIDA and the days to come will be COLDER. We are in Florida wearing winter clothes at night and in the morning.
I went to Walmart early to pickup an electric heater and a bed for Buddy. I wanted to get Buddy a bed with a side wall for him to lay against so he was off the cold walls at night.
I have to repair the siding on the trailer before we leave and I don’t have any options other than pulling the molding off the trailer and taking the lower piece of siding partially off to reattach the upper piece of siding to the trailer then reinstalling the lower piece of siding that I removed. I’ll have to reattach and seal the molding with Butyl tape Friday. It got late and the temperature dropped making it hard to work with the tape.
Perfect Campfire weather, cool enough to enjoy the fire and clear skies to enjoy the stars.

Besides having the moon at my back Venus and Saturn were above it, great night.
Time to watch TV for a while then go to bed.

January 3rd, 2025
I took Buddy out last night around 2:30am and had clear skies. I saw the Big Dipper, the Little Dipper and Polaris. Another great night.
The trailer is back together and sealed. I need a few hours to clean off the excess butyl tape. The temperature dropped making it hard to work with and I was getting cold and tired. I told Carol that if we have another problem like this, that we need to reconsider what we’re doing. I don’t want to spend all my time repairing our trailer. I know that it will hurt Ace’s profits but there is more to this country than Ace Hardwares.
We leave here tomorrow and will spend a couple days at Emerald Beach RV Park in Navarre FL. This will give us time to winterize the trailer and pack the truck with what we want to leave in Avon and the things that can’t freeze. Navarre is five hours closer to Avon.
When we leave for Avon we will be driving into the aftermath of a significant snow storm with freezing rain according to the weather reports. They are normally wrong so we are keeping with the plan. I will be glad to get through January.

January 4th, 2025
We left Suwannee River en route to Emerald Beach RV Park in Navarre FL (306m). With stops it was about a five hour trip. We will be here for a couple days to rest and pack everything we want in the truck and store the trailer in Mary Ester FL. Since there is a chance of freezing temperatures here we have to winterize the trailer and be careful what we leave. I am sure it will be crazy times.

January 5th, 2025
70° and sixteen to twenty mile and hour winds right off the ocean. We also have a high surf advisory and a risk of rip currents. Not a good day to swin. We are taking things back to Avon that we don’t use in addition to what we don’t want to freeze and what we need while we are there. It’s hard cleaning and storing things with such a strong wind.

January 6th, 2024
Got up this morning to 55° and extremely strong winds. I hope I don’t catch a cold from all this. We started putting antifreeze in the trailer water lines and I left a valve open letting the antifreeze run throught the water heater and down the road. Do you have any idea how hard it is to find antifreeze in Florida? After finding more antifreeze and preparing the trailer, it was time to store it. As it turns out the facility we leased from wasn’t designed for trailer storage, just storage units. The isles were so narrow it was difficult to drive down and by the third turn I scraped the right front bumper on one of their units. When we got to our storage location I asked Carol to call and cancel the space. I didn’t want to parallel park the trailer and lock in the trailer behind us. There was a nice storage facility next door and that is where the trailer is.
While getting the storage space we found out that the woman we were talking to had been in a serious motorcycle accident. She was hit by a person driving a truck. She has had a number of surgeries and was doing well but still had a ways to go. She is a very nice person, I hope she does well.
I drove the back roads to I65 and once we were on the interstate Carol drove for around six hours and I drove from then on. The roads were clear except for an area coming into Nashville TN where we drove into sleet and icy roads for about a half hour. The south bound lanes were closed due to accidents but very few problems going north. We drove through Louisville KY to avoid tolls and the city streets weren’t clear.
We ended up driving a little over fifteen hours to get to Brownsburg IN. We checked in the hotel around three-thirty AM.
We had a safe trip, can’t ask for more.

Janurary 7th, 2025
We went out and paid our insurance, picked up our mail, stopped by one of our storage facilities and I stopped at White Castle. That’s enough for one day.
While we were at our mail service Carol realized that she left her drivers license at the storage facility in Mary Ester FL. They are holding it for her.
We talked to Dan & Reda while we were running around and will see them and their boys (our Grandsons) before we leave.
23° here, I miss Key Largo (currently 56°).

It’s a shame that we don’t realize how precious life is until we age.

January 8th, 2025
I went in for the pre-surgery check and everything went well. I am waiting for the results of some test and for a cardiologist to look at my EKG. The doctor I talked to said no news is good news. I should know by Monday.
I got an estimate on repairing the front bumper on the truck on the right side and a couple small marks on the left side. Angel (body shop manager) said I could leave it any time for the repair and it would take three days. He said they would remove the bumper and repair and paint the whole bumper. I talked to Carol and we decided to rent a car and get it repaired. It will cost a little over eight hundred dollars. Trailer storage is getting expensive. Next I will have the oil & filter changed.

January 9th, 2025
Today is our three month anniversary for being on the road and we are back where we started. What will it take to get me out of this state?
I am sure my blog is boring enough without reporting my (our) daily events waiting for my surgery. So I will probably not enter anything until we are on the road again.

January 14th, 2025
Surgery is scheduled. NO! I received a call from my new cardiologist. I wasn’t scheduled to see her until September but my urologist wanted her approval before they would proceed with the surgery. I believe his office called her office and she made time for me. She came in the exam room and said “I have heard a lot about you”. After checking me out and a lot of questions she gave her approval for the surgery. Now we are set.  It was very good of her to squeeze me in her schedule. She is very thorough, I like her.
My urologist knows we are traveling and I think he asked her to help us out. Another good doctor. Thanks to everyone involved!

January 16th, 2025
My urologist office called and said it was time to, as Bob Seger would say “Turn the Page”.