Whelan's Wheels (go round and round, round and round): bad bad bad again

Friday, December 5, 2008

bad bad bad again

Got no pictures to post! This is such a beautiful area of Florida and we still haven't been out on a picture taking trip ~ although the camera is in my purse at all times.

I guess it was just one of those days that perhaps is best to have no photos! Some days are like that ya know.

We started at the local flea circus (aka flea market) and farmers market which runs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I love love love farmers markets and have been trying so desperately to find local produce ~ I hate buying produce at the grocery store but sometimes a woman's got to do what a woman's got to do. So, I love farmer's markets .... flea markets, well not so stinking much. I've tried and I've tried and I've tried and I just don't get the logic that attracts droves of people to these things ... there's probably 500 "vendors" at this flea circus and I swear 60% of them are duplicates. Socks, what the hell is with "vendors" and socks? There must have been 40 booths selling socks! Someone please help me with this "logic" cause I surely don't get it.

From the flea circus we came home and I needed to lay down for a while - fighting yet another head ache.... this is getting kind of old. After a while Rick decided to go out on his bike - I went to a couple fabric stores to get fabric for a project I'm working on and got so frustrated with lack of competent help in the stores here that I just decided to scrap the whole plan for today and come home. Seemed like the safest option for said "employees" and me .... will unfortunately have to deal with it all over again tomorrow ~ UGH.

We have been seriously thinking about buying a piece of property here (yeah I know I wanted to do that in Spearfish and definitely in Sioux Falls, but has been a unanimous thought with us since we've been here, again, in central Florida) and I've got to say this experience today made me take a few steps back and reassess this plan. We love this area ~ the beautiful rolling hills, the vast amounts of open land but close to the things we want ... the people are a very friendly mix from all parts of the country .. we shall see how this plays out. In the meantime we need to decide if we are extending our stay here or moving on ~ we are scheduled to be in the Keys in 17 days.

So, that's it for now ~ I will truly have some photos of this gorgeous area soon ..... it's really worth the wait (gotta get away from retail ~ incompetent retail) though!

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This is our story ~ and we're sticking to it.

Our attempt at a blog - quite scary isn't it?

We left MA in early October, 2007 after I (Tracey) retired September 5 as an executive assistant for a software developer and Rick retired from his job on October 1. We passed papers on our house September 28th and off we went. We traveled down the east coast to the Florida Keys ~ where we planned to spend three nights but 17 nights later had to leave our site because someone had reserved it a year prior! We then stayed in northern FL for another month and headed off to meet our Marine returning to the San Diego area after his second tour "over there". We spent several wonderful weeks realizing why grandparents get tired easily! After the San Diego area we headed to the "low desert" (certainly a new phrase for us) of CA and into western AZ .. and decided it was finally time to start the blog we'd talked about since August or so!!

So many wonderful things we saw along the way. And the people, oh the people. I have said so many times to Rick the best part of this journey has been the people. So, so many people with so many interesting stories. Think about it - think about the stories YOU have and multiply that by the many many people we must have met along the way ~ particularly a social person like Rick .. we met a rattlesnake milker in Sweetwater, TX, we met the camp hosts in the Keys who summer back in NH ~ talk about the best of both worlds! We met the female police Sgt. at the Sweetwater Elks whose son was also in Iraq at the same base as my son. We met people in Slidell, LA who survived Katrina and had a great attitude and a smile on their faces and were proud to share their local cuisine with us. We saw the Blue Angels, purely by chance, in El Centro, CA. Or the "campground" where within an hour of arriving our house had been hit three times by golf balls! Or the Elks lodge in Indio ~ the sweetest, bike riding, bartender ~ I just wanted to pack her up and bring her along on our adventure. Not to mention the aerial tram while we were there, the warplane museum for Rick who does NOT do aerial trams! The Salton Sea ~ WOW just WOW. We stayed in the lovely little town of Wilcox, AZ - there was just something about that town. How about Pensacola, FL where the Elks Lodge on the beach is now built high, very high, off the ground! Or what about Huntington Beach State Park in Murrels Inlet, SC - talk about beautiful. What a great place that was to spend our first Thanksgiving on the road with good friends - that was something to be thankful for, for sure. Our first Christmas and New Years in the Keys!! WOW. The love and support of a dear friend in FL while Rick had to fly back to Boston and we dealt with all that entailed with unexpected follow ups back in FL .. how fortunate were we through all of that. Not to mention having the new trailer outfitted in Myrtle Beach and staying at what a week or two a year is the Broken Spoke? Or the kind and soft spoken LA Police Detective who is on the gang unit? So many people, so many stories. And there is so much ahead. The people .. did I mention how wonderful the people have been - all different walks of life .. so many personalities, so many stories! I have said many times ~ I need to pinch myself every morning to be certain it REALLY is happening to US! We are so grateful.

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