A day at the races

Naples, FL

We have been here a week now. We miss Sarasota but I like it here too. I've reconnected with so many people I met last year. We go for a short walk and can be gone an hour with all the visiting we do.

I've been scrapbooking at least a couple hours a week. The gals here actually go from 8:30 to 4 every Weds. I might make it there by 11!


Here is what our lot looks like this year. This is the back yard looking towards the lake

This is looking in from the road.

We have a beautiful landscaped lot. I like to prune the palm trees and flowering shrubs. Everything has just burst into bloom this past week. 
This is looking from our door out to the street and below is the patio behind the motorhome. the sliding door is part of a coach house (storage shed) that belongs to the owners of the lot. So the privacy is really nice.

Doug is having fishing withdrawals, the water is so low here that he has to walk over to the dock to fish (3 minutes tops!) but he can't just drop the line in and leave it like last year. 

It's been in the 80's for about 3 weeks now, perfect weather for sunbathing and growing tomatoes. It hasn't even rained in 2 weeks, a lot like home - not! 

Ok, I'm caught up for a day or 2 for now.

End of January

Thought I posted this days ago !

We found another nice beach and fishing area south of Sarasota in Venice called Nokomis Beach. It is an inlet and the pier is paved all the way out so I could get to the end too. It was pretty foggy this day.You can see the inlet here. This is way before you would start walking out, the parking lot goes to the end of sight here. There is a handy little sandwich/bait shop and I find it more entertaining then sitting at the Skyline Pier and Doug finds the fishing better here too. Got a big enough one to actually break his rod one day and we were off to Walmart to get another rod. Unfortunately he didn't get another bite.

The beach on the other side is pretty but just before the pier in the right corner of this picture it is piled with shells. I saw people taking bags full of shells and others just being selective.

Survivor

Well, even though I am a dedicated Survivor watcher, I couldn't remember Bob Crowley, million dollar winner of 2008 Survivor Gabon until I saw his picture. He was up against Susie and Sugar (who you may remember better!) What a cool guy, Very entertaining and at ease with an audience. His wife was helping set up chairs and she called him over to take a picture with me. He spoke to us here at the RV park this afternoon and told some interesting background stories. They actually didn't pick him because he said he couldn't lie and be deceitful. Then Jimmy Johnson who was supposed to be on got sick and they called Bob back.

I wondered about all the wild animals, they really are wild and there is no additional protection from them. Bob said that is why he was always walking with a staff, to have a little protection from snakes at least. Didn't think it would help against a gorilla though.  He said when his wife made it on for the "loved ones" show, he sent home with her all the tree mail he had collected.

There are about 400 people there working on the show and he said even Jeff sleeps in a tent. They really didn't have any food besides the rice and food they won later on (most people don't believe that for some reason)

Another story he told is when someone is voted off, they are immediately met by a psychologist to make sure they can adapt back into real life. Bob is from Maine and he has a cabin on an island. When asked if he can re adapt from gathering wood, tending fire etc he said he doubted it because as soon as he got home he was going to gather wood and cook some pancakes over an outdoor fire and then take a crap in the woods.

He and his wife have been staying here this week and he said don't hesitate to stop and ask him a question or take a picture.

 

January 15, 2011

We were driving down the pier and I laughed at this Great Blue Heron just waiting to steal some bait or a sandwich from this gentleman.

Then just when Doug decided to quit fishing this fella showed up. Doug couldn't resist sharing his last bait fish with him. They are certainly well fed. Too bad he didn't have any luck fishing. I enjoyed just sitting in the car in the sun with the seat back, I even had a little nap.

I looked it up and believe this is a Great Egret.

Arriving Florida Jan 8 2011

Ok, you know you are in Florida, when you see truck loads of oranges. And I must say the ones we've eaten so far have been delicious this year.

We brought my new power chair this year. It does everything including standing which is great for my bones to have weight bearing plus I can breath so much better when my diaphram is not always scrunched from sitting all day. The only thing holding me up is the knee pads, the bar in front is just a safety bar and makes a nice arm rest or book holder. The best part is I can drive it while standing so I can reach the upper cupboards now! whoo hoo!


Notice how much room we have for this, (although there is a lot of chair sticking out behind me that you can't see) but when I'm not in it, it is stored in front of the sofa so it cuts down on space a little. You can see the brown curtains behind me that I made to keep us warm up front while driving.

It was quite frosty when we took off at 7:45 this morning (Jan 5). The sun was just coming up over the frozen Connecticut river. But once we hit 91 we knew we were on our way. I made curtains to hang behind the seats of the motorhome this year which helped immensely in keeping the driver compartment warm. We knew it was chilly in the back of the coach because Olive slept on my lap all day long. we don't have to worry about her escaping because as soon as we stopped she woke right up and headed for the back, and as soon as we started rolling again she was right back in front.

Fall Foliage

Janet & I stopped to take some foliage pictures on the way back from the Warner Fall Foliage Festival on Columbus Day weekend. It was a beautiful day and the colors were still bright although the wind was sometimes a problem.

This first picture is looking towards Newport from Country Kitchen parking lot.

These were taken at Mt Sunapee State Park.
Not bad for just my little camera and only out the car window. I do miss traipsing thru the woods to get "perfect" pictures but these please me just the same.

This was on the way to Bradford. The day before I noticed how bright the colors were in the morning when the sun was lower and the sky more blue but the colors this year are some of the best I've seen in awhile.

Yesterday we went to a local "Run What You Brung" where anyone can drive a vehicle to see how fast it will go on a quarter mile. Dougs first try with the 1977 Dodge Aspen wasn't too successful because he tried to manually shift the automatic and went into neutral. Oops. But I though I got a good video of it, (never tried it on this camera before. ) so I have to show it. The second time was much better and his brother Dave immediately said he knows just what to do to make it faster next year. The winner drove a Corvette at 129mph.
It was a beautiful September day and we enjoyed watching the variety of cars, many are just peoples every day car, even I could have tried it but I don't really care how fast my car will go. LOL

Publish Post

This was the 2nd run where he turned 94mph. He was much happier this time.

We went for a ride today about an hour north to Sharon VT but the color is actually prettier around home then it was further north. Not to say it's gone by but in fact hasn't started to change. So I got this pic just a few miles from home. The view outside my window is gorgeous right now. We used to own a hunting camp up in the Downer State Forest and drove up to take a look. It's still standing.
We had lots of great memories from there and a lot of fun. It was nice to reminisce and enjoy the great day. Actually hit 86, quite a high for us.
On the way home we stopped at a huge garden center and I got some mums to put in my window boxes.

Bring on the sun!

We've been home almost 2 months now and are still busy with landscaping. That's because I keep buying more flowers to plant. I didn't realize my raised beds would hold so much! I still have a few more things to plant but here's what it looks like now. We need to wait for everything to fill in now but with the all day rain today and predicted sun tomorrow we should be on a roll.

This is a new rose we got. I just love the color and the fragrance is yummy. I keep wanting to sniff the picture. Doug transplanted the rest of my roses along the ramp so I can actually reach them from the ramp or from the lawn with my scooter. I'll take a picture later. Right now they are traumatized from the move and not doing so well. This rain will certainly help though. I'll probably be taking lots of floral pictures along the way. I'm looking out the window right now at a beautiful peony and some blue delphiniums. Across our driveway is my enormous rhododendron that we gave to the neighbors. It's in the middle of their lawn and right in my line of sight.