Lance and Nancy

Sugarloaf Key: Got up early this morning. Mike slept in since he’d been up just about all night playing spades on the Internet. Good morning to sleep in though—drizzly and cool. Started clearing off around 2:00 so we headed out to hit the flea market and take the DVDs back. Flea market closes at 2:00. So, we just took the DVDs back and rented another one. Back home and sat outside and read for a while until it got too chilly. Mike looking forward to the Mizzou game this evening. Talked to our friend, Lance, in Portland, ME. He’s not coming down this year because the water ride he invented is about to go into production and he’s really busy. Besides, he says there isn’t much work down here this year. He’s an extraordinary carpenter. This water ride he invented will make him very wealthy. We can say we knew him when.

New plant for our table...

Fri, Dec 5, 2008

Sugarloaf Key: Up early again and took care of some bank account stuff on the computer. Joan Rivers is going to be performing at the Tennessee Williams Theater in January. Got on line and made reservations for that. There’s also a big reception after the show—usually with food and drink. Not sure if she’ll make an appearance. Also made reservations for a concert at Fort Zachary Taylor—a couple of steel bands. One of them is MM24 which I’ve been wanting to see. They’re also having an evening tour of several historic inns and homes in Key West that are all decorated for the holidays. I’d like to get tickets for that. Late morning we headed to Key West and bought a portable DVD player. Works great, so that takes care of our DVD problem. Stopped and had lunch at the sea food bar and grill attached to the Blue Lagoon Motel. My mother stayed there back in the 70s. Can’t believe it’s still there. Drove to Big Pine Key and rented a couple of DVDs—one was “Taxi to the Dark Side” which was a very good documentary. The other was “The Happening” which was terrible.

Our visitor...

Sugarloaf Key: Finally got the DVD out that was stuck in our living area TV and took them both back to the rental place. Got my money back. She wasn’t happy. Stopped in and got my hair cut. Came back and Mike was cleaning the outside of the RV. I ate lunch and helped him. Finished that up and relaxed for a while outside. Partly cloudy today but warm—mid 70s. A large iguana visited our site. Made chili for dinner tonight.

Sugarloaf Key: Up early again this morning. A pretty, sunny day, but cool. Our DVD player in our TV in the living room is now not working. The door won’t open. This morning we finally got it to open and got so excited we popped in one of the DVDs we rented and now we can’t get it out. Wouldn’t play anyway. We are definitely electronically challenged. Headed into Key West this afternoon and went to our favorite cinema—Tropic Cinema on Eaton St. Saw “How Did This Happen?” with Dinero and Sean Penn. Pretty good. Parked at the old sub base by the eco center and then walked over. After the movie we picked up a chill mat for the laptop. Didn’t even know there was such a thing until I was at my brother’s. It works great! Also picked up some stuff to put down for ants and a plant for our picnic table. Hit 70 today.

Our site

Craig & Debbie's site across from us

The 6-acre lake we're on

Tue, Dec 2, 2008

Sugarloaf Key: Up early this morning and got a bunch of stuff done. After a conversation with customer service, mailed back the remote they sent me to replace the remote that isn’t working because the new one was WRONG. Had to accompany the remote with another letter explaining everything. Can’t wait to see what they send me this time. Mailed Sandy’s book back to her, did some grocery shopping, had some lunch and picked up a couple of videos. Back home and put everything away. Really cool and windy. Hung out inside the rest of the day. Mikey isn't happy because he can't get on the MSN spades site. I told him to quit his bitching--at least he has a remote that works! Supposed to warm up by the weekend. Think it hit 70 today is all.

Mon, Dec 1, 2008

W. P. Franklin CG to Sugarloaf Key: Left this morning at 8:45 after stopping at the dump station. Took the route that my brother Ron suggested which turned out really well. Rt. 29 is a good road even though it’s a one lane road. South of Immokalee Rt. 29 went through the Big Cyprus National Preserve and it got really pretty. Big panther habitat. There was even a panther preserve that had a bunch of hiking trails through it. Sure, they probably need a food source for the panthers. It only took us a little over an hour to get on I75 and from there we hit the Floridas Turnpike to Homestead. They’ve been working for years widening Rt. 1 from Homestead to Marathon. Finally, it’s just about done. In some places it’s been four-laned and in others it’s just been widened and they’ve added a cement barrier between lanes so passing is not an option. It is so much better and I’m sure has cut down on fatalities on this stretch of road. They also built a large bridge over the creek separating the mainland from Key Largo. We arrived at Lazy Lakes at 2:30—a 5 ½ hour drive. And there was a whole group there to greet us. Got set up finally and our cable was out. Comcast showed up and fixed ours, but there are several that are still out. Finished up around 7:00 and headed over to the KOA for happy hour. I really needed a couple of drinks. Oh yeah, the new remote was there waiting for me. However, IT WAS THE WRONG REMOTE! Now I’ve got to deal with that. Oh well, it’s beautiful down here. It will work out somehow. Guess Mike is back to being my remote slave.

Two eagles this morning

Fading rainbow

W. P. Franklin Corps Campground: Cloudy and windy this morning. Two eagles showed up and hung out in the tree across from us. Started raining a little and a rainbow formed. A lot of people left this morning and the laundry was empty so we decided to do our laundry and get that out of the way. Got it done just in time and then it got really nasty. Mike put the awning away and then the chairs. Looked very threatening for a while. Rained sideways for a while. Thankfully we didn’t attempt the drive today since we would have been driving right into the wind. We lucked out (or not) and got the Rams game because they’re playing Miami. Started reading my new book (Shadow Mountain) about introducing wolves back into Yellowstone. Very interesting. Tomorrow early we leave for the Keys. Hopefully the weather will be better.