Sat, Dec 9, Miami Everglades RV Park, Homestead, FL:  Up this morning and walked the trash over to the dumpster.  Walked back and it started raining.  Went downhill after that.  Stayed inside reading and playing cards.  Watched the Army/Navy game which made me cold just watching it because it was snowing so hard.  I think it was 76 this morning.  It’s now in the 60s on its way down to the 40s.  This sucks!

Rattle snake on the trail.  Badlands NP.

Fri, Dec 8, Miami Everglades RV Park, Homestead, FL:  Mike dropped me off at a nearby nail salon and then he went on to a Walgreens to pick up his prescriptions.  He picked me up in an hour and then we came back to our site and sat outside enjoying a last day of really warm weather.  Back out at 3:00 to find a restaurant for dinner.  Nothing much around us except fast food places.  So, we got on the turnpike heading south towards Homestead where we’re more familiar with restaurants in that area.  Unfortunately, the turnpike was slammed, moving ever so slowly.  So, we bailed off at the next exit and drove around forever and finally found a barbecue joint and had some dinner.  The food was actually pretty good.  It wasn’t a steak with baked potato smothered in butter and sour cream.  But the food was good, and we were starved by then anyway.  Back home and relaxed.  Supposed to be a nasty day tomorrow and turning colder.  It’ll be a good day to hunker down playing cards and reading.  85 today.

Flaming Gorge, Wyoming--2008

Thu, Dec 7, Miami Everglades RV Park, Homestead, FL:  What a day!  Late morning we went for a walk.  Didn’t make my back any better.  Undaunted, we took the bikes down and went for a bike ride.  I love my new bike!  They have a bike path that runs the perimeter of the park.  Not very long, but was about all we could handle anyway.  We haven’t biked for a while.  Anyway, after lunch we decided to do a dry run and drive to the port of Miami.  What a CF!  The GPS kept telling us to turn where we couldn’t because of construction.  We exited the turnpike and on the exit ramp there was a person in the middle of a three-point turn and heading the wrong way back to the turnpike.  I called 911 and told them.  What an idiot!  Kept going.  We’re now in downtown Miami and every exit she told us to take was wrong.  We ended up getting on Rt. 1 and headed back to our park.  Of course the GPS person kept telling us to make a U-turn, etc.  We finally shut her down and continued on to our park which took forever since the traffic was terrible.  I had already set up a taxi to pick us up on Monday.  He wants $70 to take us there.  That’s fine with us.  Anything to avoid that hot mess!  Came back and made myself a huge vodka tonic.  Mike is amazing!  He’ll drive through any big city.  Even in Paris we rented a car with GPS in French and we actually made it to Normandy and Giverny.  He is awesome!  84 today.  Oh yes, and a cold front is coming.  On Monday the high is going to be 69!!

Tropic Cinema, Key West.

Wed, Dec 6, Miami Everglades RV Park, Homestead, FL:  We did the laundry this morning here in the park.  But my back was killing me.  Managed to get it done and then laid around the rest of the day.  I’m really tired of this.  It’s been almost 6 months.  84 here today.

Key West sunset.

Tue, Dec 5, Miami Everglades RV Park, Homestead, FL:  Went to our little strip mall late morning and did the grocery shopping.  Our park is in a big agricultural area—mostly tree farms.  All kinds of palm and other tropical trees.  And there are beautiful, gated homes in the area—tree farming must be booming.  Especially since the hurricanes.  I heard a royal palm goes for about $20 thousand!  Went for a walk and then sat around reading for a while.  We don’t get much shade in our site, so most of our reading is inside.  83 today and beautiful.

Key West

Mon, Dec 4, Miami Everglades RV Park, Homestead, FL:  Slept in this morning.  Then took care of some banking issues.  Took a walk and then relaxed and read for a while.  Put a casserole in the oven and then played rummy for a while.   Saw on the news that they caught and killed a 17-ft python in the Big Cypress preserve in the everglades.  Yikes!  At least they killed the damn thing!  83 today.

How would you like to see this thing slithering in your back yard?

Sun, Dec 3, Miami Everglades RV Park, Homestead, FL:  Drove over to James and Carolina’s apartment this morning.  It’s quite a drive.  I thought it would be much closer.  They’re in N. Miami Beach which is much less busy than Miami Beach.  They look out over a pretty little park.  We had mimosas and Colombian pastries and then went to the Pier for lunch.  A nice day.  Had a great time with them. 

View from their 25th floor balcony.

Enjoying mimosas in their kitchen.  They have a beautiful apartment.

A wine bottle night light my brother-in-law made.

View from our table at the Pier.

Another view from our table.

On the pier looking back at the beach.