to steal a line

from Chad's blog, there are no photos today (or bananas either, for that matter).

But as King Richard pointed out to me this evening over a veggie pizza with a whole wheat crust (NO I did not create such a gourmet delight, but I certainly DID enjoy said delight), persons would rather click on the blog and see not much new, but a new post rather than the same thing they've been clicking on for the last week!?! Point taken, I guess, so here we are.

With that said, no photos on this post, no new adventures to post about. I guess the "biggie" in these parts is the continued cold (I won't continue to "go there"), as well as, it seems the entire country is cold but can I/we really complain about cold when, thankfully, we are not trying to dig ourselves from rubble post a 7.0 quake ~ how can they, how will they, in Haiti, so impoverished prior to this catastrophe, recover from this devastation?

Because of the "cold" and my continued laziness, we have not done much of anything. King Richard did venture out on his bike today (it is a fine line between NOT wanting to deal with the "cold" but having a need to be on the bike - I whimp out and the cold rules and I stay in with a book and/or a nap). Rick ventured out about 15 miles south then returned (yes, with a stop or two along that route) but seemed genuinely delighted to be back in the coach with the heat on at the end of the trip.

Sir and I went out for a walk this afternoon while Rick was out - seriously, if the temps are in the low to mid 60's it seems like great walking weather. Along the way we passed two iguanas and one snake. All rather "creepy" to me, but I did NOT "freak out" about them - we just carried on with our adventure, and Sir remained totally clueless!

Word has it that the iguanas go into a natural (??) hibernation mode in these cold weather situations (snakes, I guess do the same?). I do remember last year when Sir and I were here walking, very early in the morning out behind the coach (remember King Richard gets to sleep in and I get early morning walk privileges with Sir??) that there was an iguana (aka in Tracey lingo a "glizzard) that was motionless and I thought Rick was playing a trick on me to freak me out (NOT so much) and someone pointed out to me that this is a natural behavior with the "glizzrds" to go into this hibernation thing. Anyway, along with all the glizzard behavior is the fish behavior. ~ the water has been so flipping cold that fish are dying - not hibernating - but in the morning when Sir and I go down to the waters edge there are many many dead fish there who have washed ashore with the cold cold water. We did rescue one guy yesterday - I swear, true story, but I don't know what kind of a fella he was ~ he was in a shallow pool, but clearly still alive and "we" made sure he got into deeper, continually deeper water and when we returned an hour or so later, he was gone - do NOT even go there with any scenario other than that he swam off into the sunset (in search of warmer waters and perhaps Nemo?).

So hopefully there may be two bikes out tomorrow ~ or perhaps Friday, but NOT Saturday or Sunday - rain strongly predicted.

Key West next week ~ well strongly predicted and strongly anticipated!

Field trips

One of Rick's favorite places in Key West is Capt. Tony's, not sure why but he's always enjoyed the place. So with that said, we went on a field trip to Key West last week - maybe Thursday, maybe Wednesday, I don't remember. Of course we had to stop by Capt.'s. One of the "things" about Capt. Tony's is they have these bar stools (what a shock huh!) with entertainer's names on them - according to the bartender, these people have actually been there and sat at the bar ~ whatever .... check out the stools above - Sir Arlo's name sake and another of our favorite entertainers (John Prine).

And, as always, Sir is happy to "belly up"

and make new friends. Is she a cutie or what?!? Another two year old female (like the cutie he met at the dog park in Tampa) full of "piss and vinegar" for sure - OH how I wish there had been a big field or beach close by, because these two would have had a whole lot of fun playing.

Since we never got to the fabric shop there that I wanted to visit, we will be returning (probably next week) - I guess I should research off leash parks there before we return next week!

As always, there are roosters in abundance in KW - and a Coast Guard boat or two (just for you Chester)

After our "big day" in KW we "laid low" for a while - what IS up with this weather anyway? I did figure that after a couple days in the house Sir probably needed some chillax'in' so we went down the road to the "Caribbean Club" whose claim to fame is the filming of a teeny, tiny, itsy bitsy portion of "Key Largo".

Anyway, they have a boat launch there where we often take Sir for some "free play". Here at the Lodge we have to be very aware of people outside their coaches and other dogs so sometimes it's good for Sir to be able to just let loose a bit. We always take a couple tennis balls and at least one "Wilson" with us, but this particular day there was a lot of boat traffic and Sir ended up being quite content to just sit with us and "enjoy the show" (I think he may be getting old and sedentary too!!)

The sights are usually pretty nice there and there are several photo ops on any given day - case in point below. I'm not sure about the color quality of this new camera though ~ sort of blah ~ oh it may be the photographer you say?

So seriously, what the heck is with this weather throughout the country? COLD COLD COLD, major snow in the north and major cold in the southern climates - the past few mornings when Sir and I go out around 7:00 (King Richard gets to "sleep in") it's been 36 degrees! I keep forgetting to cover the plants I have in front of the coach (gerbera daisy, a gorgeous Martha Washington geranium and some herbs) and so far they've gotten through it! Thankfully we aren't shoveling anything but darn, this is the pits!

oh yeah ...

Remember last week (a long long time without a post I know) I was going to "explain" why we got a late start leaving Brandon?

Well the photo above explains it ~ our satellite wouldn't stow properly. In fact it wouldn't stow at all! We ended up calling "tech support" and were walked through how to disassemble some parts of it enough to manually stow it so we could finally get on the road. All the while trying to locate a dealer in FL.

We finally located a dealer who we met in an industrial park in Fort Lauderdale. Because of our size (combined length of 68') it is challenging to find a suitable spot for such repairs. The whole repair process worked out quite well and three hours later we were back on the road. We had been without satellite for two days, but thankfully we were in a real campground that had wifi (Clewiston KOA).

So we finally got back to the Keys last Wednesday (yes a week ago!!) to gorgeous sunsets (although I haven't figured out how to get the new camera to do them justice). The weather here has been unseasonably cool - low 60's rather than the upper 70's or low 80's. But along with the cool weather there has been no humidity, so the AC hasn't been running and the windows have been open and we aren't shoveling anything.

The other night I was pounding some chicken breasts for chicken marsala. Well Sir does not like loud noises - they startle and frighten him. As soon as I started he jumped up in Rick's lap so Rick could protect him - yup, a 93 pound lapdog!!

We haven't done much while we've been here - I've been working on a big sewing project which has kept me house bound most of the time. We did go down to Key West yesterday. On Sunday we went out to watch the Patriots give away another game. We started at a "sports bar" in Key Largo called JJ's Big Chill owned by Jimmy Johnson (former coach for the Dolphins(??)) What a mistake that was - the place may be lovely but the bar tender sucks. After waiting for 15 minutes (NO it wasn't busy there and there were empty bar stools and tables) and watching her saunter by us several times, hands in pockets ignoring us Rick finally called her over to order ~ what an attitude this girl had. We decided at that point we weren't about to stay there for the game and try to get service so since the game hadn't started we headed back to Tavernier to one of our favorite places a mile down the road from where we are at (they don't have a web site so no link) called Dillons. They have a grouper rueben that is out of this world. Anyway, back to the game ... what a difference ~ game day at Dillon's is a blast - with friendly staff (what a concept when serving the public huh!), drawings, prizes, trivia .... and LIFE in the place! The owner (as we found out last year) is from Bennington, VT where I spent some years as a child (five years I think). Don't know his name though, but probably my age or a bit older.

So that's the post for today......

aaahhh

Back in the Keys ....

Isn't that a nice photo (beauty is in the eye of the photographer??) above of my honey with a sunset? These were the first sunset shots I took with the new camera and I pretty much thought they were the pits, BUT I did LOVE the clear silhouette of himself in the shot above so IT was NOT the pits!

I will make a "concerted effort" (as my Mother often said) to figure out this camera's settings soon ...

So that's the post today folks .... stay tuned :-)

agriculture in Florida

So as we were leaving Brandon the other day (Monday it was, and this is Wednesday, well since it's 12:31 as I write I guess it is technically Thursday) I was thinking about how "neat" it was to be passing orange groves and green grass etc. knowing that many of those we love are ass deep in snow - some loving it for daily four or five mile runs (oh you crazy boy), some loving it for who knows why and some detesting it as we well understand - some having their cars stranded on ice three feet from entering their garages ..... different strokes for different folks and I sure in hell hope none of that was interpreted as patronizing because it was NOT meant that way, but we sure don't miss the snow times - people yes, snow no (what a poet I am) ...

Anyway, above in the top photo is one of the orange groves we passed as we were leaving Brandon the other day, the photo directly above is strawberry plants by the gazillion near ready to be picked while the photo below are beds by the thousand waiting for strawberry (I think) plants to go in (what say you Candy and Chuck?) These raised and covered beds remind me of a picture of my Connor taken a few years ago when he was in a strawberry field (oh Beatles fans rejoice!) in California - one of the greatest photos his "Grammie" has of him eating a juicy red strawberry with those big huge gorgeous blue eyes looking into the camera!!!

below are acres of strawberry fields behind the moss laden trees (remember my quirky favorite things down here in the south are tin roofs and moss laden trees)

About 40 or so miles east then south of Brandon we came across these tomato plants darned near close to harvesting (today's travel, about 120 miles south of this photo we came across tomato plants whose red fruit was laying on the ground - UGH, I was sure it should have been between two slices of toasted whole wheat with light mayo and salt and pepper rather than laying in the dirt - strangely enough no one consulted me however)

All along the way we crossed paths with these trucks loaded with oranges (Rick has a "joke" - term loosely used - about a duck, a bar and some oranges - ask him ONLY if you have ten minutes to listen to the foolish "joke" or you want to humor him by asking about said "joke")

And beef farms (or are they called ranches?). I am reminded every time we travel through these parts about the misconception - well mine anyway - about Florida. I had no idea until I was in these parts for the first time at least a few years ago, about the agriculture here - I mean up until that point if you mentioned Florida I would think of a famous rodent, then beaches and warm water - seriously, what would YOU think of?

Just as we were nearing Clewiston (on the south side of Lake Okeechobee - what is the stat about that lake .... anyone???) we came across this accident - it didn't appear that anyone was physically hurt, but there were several men (crop laborers) scrambling to pick up the thousands upon thousands of oranges that were rolling about the roadway. Although you can't see it from this photo, there appeared to be four large trailer trucks and a car involved in this crash - two of the trucks were pretty much destroyed, but it did not appear that there were personal injuries involved - hoping my observations were accurate.

So, the above photos were taken on Monday and it is now Thursday (well the wee hours of Thursday morning) and in our travels today (a whole additional post of the adventures and where's and whys of today and our late arrival) below is a corn field somewhere between Ft. Lauderdale and Homestead - I'm guessing around Dade City, but then again it really doesn't matter where the hell it is does it?!?!?

and below an inflatable Santa next to azaleas for sale at one of the many many nurseries along the road. I remembered from the last coupe years here that there were many nurseries offering orchids for $5. and I had wanted one but knew it was quite likely if I had one, it wouldn't survive much travel with us, but I did decide today that we really should have at least ONE this trip around! Bets anyone on how long it may survive under our care?

With all that said we finally arrived here in the Keys quite late this afternoon - a post for another time about our adventure getting here - but for now it is way way way past my bedtime - in fact I suspect that King Richard may be waking up any moment (which isn't bad, because he can take Sir Arlo out and start their day as I am ending mine)

Since we are back at MY lodge, we have signed up for providing the champagne for the New Years celebration - not that there is much chance that we shall see "the ball fall" (well it has been many many years since I've seen midnight on December 31st) so it isn't likely this year either ...

just a quick "update"

So, the new camera arrived on Tuesday - yippee. We'd been debating buying this for months and finally I just got tired of the quality of the old old camera and really tired of chasing down the best price on the new one and said screw it just order the darn thing! Isn't it lovely!! Very exciting too isn't it!

We finally decided to get our Christmas tree out last Monday or Tuesday. Above, is how we bring home the tree, "full timer style" and "Florida style".

We had planned on leaving Brandon so many times, then extending so we never really got around to it but when we decided to extend yet again, it seemed we might as well do the tree thing. Christmases are so different now - what with no kids around and we don't "do" Christmas anymore between us, so what the heck. In fact it was here in Brandon (Goodwill, thank you very much) that we bought our funny little tree last year) and we have a couple "special" ornaments that people have given us along the way and two special ones from the stick house days. Plus, this beauty came "pre lit" and "pre decorated" - scary indeed!

We did the Yuengling tour the other day at their Tampa plant. Not too exciting - especially since there were only a few people working that day.

Yesterday we traveled up to Summerfield (85 miles or so north) to our friends Dana and Wendy. In the photo above Wendy is trying to explain to Arlo how "yummy" his food is and trying to convince him that she did indeed add some of Patches (their King Charles Cavalier) food to Arlo's food - I think he believed her too, because after this demonstration he did finally consent to eat his food, so I'm certain he believed her. We had a great afternoon - it was good to see our old friends (Rick and Dana go back many many years - to the Weymouth days!), and hear about their latest cruise - crazy people - they go on five or six cruises a year! Wendy and Dana also full timed in their motorhome for a couple years several years ago, but now own a gorgeously outstanding "stick" home on a huge plot of land that Arlo loves to run around and act like a nut on. Arlo is even very gentle with Patches, although Patches has little interest in Arlo (there is quite a size difference there - like about 80 pounds!)

Today will be spent getting things in travel mode in the coach since we truly are leaving Brandon in the morning headed to Clewiston for two nights then down to the Keys for the month of January. The coach is a total disaster area as a great deal of my time is consumed with a sewing project theses days and the floor is pretty much always covered with thread and fabric scraps - this project has me in panic mode as it has a serious time frame and I am way behind! When I had the latest diverticulosis bout a couple weeks ago for four days Rick told me he missed his "play pal" and wanted her back, he has been very good about his lack of "play pal" with this project for sure! His play pal will be back in a couple weeks I hope!

That's it for now - catch y'all from Clewiston, or more likely, from the Keys.

holly jolly and merry merry

Here's wishing you all a delightful, wonderful, loving and joyous Christmas.