Lazy Lakes RV Resort, Sugarloaf Key, FL: A beautiful, warm, sultry day. Went from record lows a week ago to an almost record high today. Think it hit 85 today. Went for a walk this morning. Came back and sat around for a while enjoying this beautiful day. Mike caulked the shower drain yesterday, but after we both took our showers it’s still leaking, so he called an RV repair place and they’re coming out Monday morning. Looks like it might be a gasket or something—accessible from the storage compartment. Decided to head to Big Pine and do the laundry. Headed out and the truck wouldn’t shift out of first gear and was belching black smoke. Jeeze! What now! So I said forget Big Pine. I don’t want to get stuck somewhere on Rt. 1. So we headed to the GMC dealer in Key West and Mike dropped me off at the Key West laundry on Kennedy and he went over to the GMC dealer. They couldn’t do anything since it was a Friday afternoon. So he made an appointment for Monday morning. At least we got the laundry done. Back home, put everything away and then we threw caution to the wind and drove to Marathon to have dinner at Chappy’s on the Atlantic side. We both had the grouper with a creamy white wine sauce with olives. It was delicious! And another magnificent sunset.

Lazy Lakes RV Resort, Sugarloaf Key, FL: Another lovely, beautiful morning with just some high, thin clouds. A beautiful day to finally go for a bike ride or something, but Mike discovered some water in the storage compartment—turns out from a leak in our shower drain. So, he had to take out a bunch of stuff from the compartment so he could get to the pipe in question. Thought he could fix it himself but he couldn’t get purchase on it with a wrench. So we decided it wouldn’t be such a good idea to go off hither and yon with stuff from the storage compartment spread around outside. The book I’m reading about the Santa Fe Trail is very enjoyable anyway. Speaking of which—one of their favorite breakfasts on the trail was a calf (buffalo) head. They would dig a pit, line the bottom with hot coals, put in the head and cover it with more hot coals, then fill the hole back up, tamp down the dirt, and then build their camp fire on top of that. The next morning they’d uncover the head and have their feast. On what I don’t know. Calf brains? I’ll take my smoothie any day.

Typical freight wagon used on the Santa Fe Trail

Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf Key, FL: Cool this morning but warmed up nicely. Sat outside in the sun reading/dozing for a while and the sky was so clear and blue. We went over to the rec hall around 4:00 for dinner. Floyd and Terry bought four huge briskets of beef and cooked them over the grill all day. Everyone brought something and we had a huge feast. Some people played jokers and others sat around talking or played shoes or pool. We didn’t come back until around 11:00. Fun day. Will be sleeping in tomorrow.

Floyd the Pit Master

The Jokers Group

Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf Key, FL: A pretty morning this morning with the promise of a beautiful day. The woeful sound of the mourning doves has been replaced by the upbeat call of the red wing blackbirds which are back. Had to go back to Big Pine to pick up some things for a chocolate cake I’m making for a get-together with some friends in the park tomorrow. Stopped at the Galley Grill for a great breakfast, picked up the things we needed and then drove back home. Started to cloud up (sigh). Since the day was turning to crap weather-wise, I whipped up the cake and then we watched “Hurt Locker”, which was a pretty good movie about the Iraq war. Left-over pot roast for dinner. It’s getting cold again, but is supposed to be in the mid-70s the rest of the week.

A day at the flea market...

Lazy Lakes RV Park, Sugarloaf Key, FL: Started out chilly, but warmed up nicely. Mike went over for donuts in the morning and I did the cleaning and washed out a couple of things and hung them out. Mike went over to play shoes at 1:00 and I sat out in the sun enjoying a beautiful afternoon and reading my latest book—“On the Santa Fe Trail.” The trail started in western Missouri near Boonville and ended, after almost 1000 miles, in New Mexico. The book is a compilation of narratives by individuals who traveled the trail, starting around 1821 and ending with the advent of the steam engine around 1880. What brave people these early travelers were. After shoes we all met at the KOA for happy hour and then over to Boondocks for wings.

Mike and Richard--Happy Hour

Lazy Lakes RV Resort, Sugarloaf Key, FL: This morning was cloudy, but the Weather Channel said only a 30% chance of rain. So we decided to go to the Galley Grill for breakfast and we called Gerald and Esther to see if they wanted to join us. Gerald wanted to take their Harley and meet us there but Esther wanted to pick some stuff up at the grocery store, so we picked them up. While we were having breakfast it started pouring. I mean a deluge. Good thing they weren’t on the Harley. So after breakfast we made a dash for the truck and then went to Big Pine for some groceries. Now we’re all wet and the air conditioning in the grocery store was set at arctic levels. We just about froze. While waiting for Esther and Gerald to finish up we went a couple of doors down and rented the movie, “Julie & Julia”. By now it’s a worse deluge. Mike went and got the truck and pulled it up to the front of the store and we all made a dash for it. Totally soaked again, we headed back and dropped Esther and Gerald off and their awning was messed up. Left them and came home and watched “Julie and Julia.” What a great movie! Meryl Streep should get an Oscar for her role as Julia. She did an amazing job. There’s been a lot of activity at the Boca Chica Naval Air Station in Key West lately. Probably because of the Haiti disaster. Speaking of that, I did the text thing to donate money for Haiti relief and used Mike’s phone because he gets a better signal than I do. I texted once and it said it went into the draft folder, but no indication that it sent, so I did it again. Same thing. So I did it again. Same thing. Did it a few more times. They finally all went after a short delay. So now I’m not sure how much money Mike donated. We are texting illiterates I guess. That’s okay because they need all the help they can get. After watching the movie we went over to the rec hall to the Sunday party. Only stayed a couple of hours and then back home.

Esther and Ted

Lazy Lakes RV Resort, Sugarloaf Key, FL: A little cloudy this morning, threatening rain, but the clouds rolled away revealing a beautiful clear blue sky. Sat outside reading. Everyone is outside from being cooped up for so long. Ray stopped by with his dog, Munch, and we played with him (the dog) for a while. Debbie and Craig were outside with their dog, Rusty. Talked with them for a while. Esther stopped by with Shadow. Everyone is out and about. This morning I set up a pot roast in the crock pot and it smelled so good in here all day. Going to watch the 4:30 football game between the Phoenix Cardinals and the New Orleans Saints. Rooting for Kurt Warner and the Cardinals. Hopefully we’ll get that game in before we leave for the Lily Tomlin show at the Tennessee Williams Theater. These are the hottest tickets in town. Bought our tickets on line in October.

Our little lake