Cooper's summer trip

On Tuesday, we'll be leaving Florida to head on up to Greenwood so we can pack the motor home and pick up Cooper, our 9 year old grandson, and head up to the Maine coast. On the way, we plan to stop at Charlotte and Advance in North Carolina, Lynchburg in Virginia, Hershey and Scotrun, Pennsylvania, Sturbridge Massachusetts, and then on to Moody Beach Maine. While we're in Maine, we plan to visit our California friends, the Williamsons at their summer home in Meredith, New Hampshire. We are certainly looking forward to the trip. Cooper has said he wants to keep his own blog of the trip, so we will be helping him out with that. We've got lots of activities, ball games, and amusement and water park visits planned to keep Cooper busy, and wear Pop Pop out. Can't wait!

Quick stopover at Rossmeyer's

On the way back from our Daytona visit to the flea market, we stopped off at Bruce Rossmeyer's Harley Davidson, who bills himself as the largest dealer in the US. It's a big one, for sure. And it was super crowded with visitors. There's a whole set up for bikers, with food places and such. Got a dealer pin to add to the collection. Texas TC, saw some nice bikes you should look at next way you're in this area, if you ever are again!

The Mother of all Flea Markets - so far anyway

Friday, I found a brochure for the Daytona Flea and Farmers Market, and this morning, we drove on down. Got to tell you, this one is the mother of all flea markets. They advertise as 1000 vendors, and 3 miles of walking to get through it all. It's true. We spent about 4 hours there, and Dan and Kippy, we will have to go there when we get back from our trips. It's a nice weekend excursion destination. Check it out at:
http://www.daytonafleamarket.com/

Casualty of the recent rains, no visitors to the pond

With all the recent rains and very bad weather we've had, I've noticed that we are not seeing any visitors birdwise to the pond in the last week or so. We used to have an ahina bird that came and stayed every day, and two gators that visited each day or so- Now none for over a week. I'm guessing they moved on for the bad weather, and it will take a while to re-populate, or at least I'm hoping that's the case. The rain and winds also took out the tree that is in this photo, it's not there anymore. We also lost the big flock of turkey buzzards that lived across the way, no great loss there.

Today, we're waiting for the bug man to come, and then its a full retirement day- maybe I'll get energized and head over to the indoor pool and work off some calories.

Just a wasted day.....

We got up this morning with the intention of delivering a motorized scooter down to New Port Richey Florida to Bette's brother, who suffered a stroke some years back. We first made a stop at the local scooter store to secure the power cord, which was somehow missing in between all the recent moves we did. No worries, on our way. Get down there by about 2:30, getting drenched in storms, which don't seem to want to leave Florida.

On a whim, I suggested to Bette that we check with the facility first to make sure they had no issues with him having it, and of course, it turns out they did.

On top of that, unannounced to us, Jim was not even on campus, he was out on some sort of field trip.

We decided not to stay with her cousin Scott and his wife for the night, and just headed back. Oh well, got to see lots of nice Florida countryside, since the GPS took us almost all on back roads up and down. Got to see lots of shrines, as you will see below. Got back by about 8:30. Oh well, easy come, easy go.

Candidate for shrine hall of fame

This one is for an unnamed young child, got to be. We know her only as "Princess", but on closer inspection, look at the bottom shot- all of the little statues, and especially the little rubber duck. Man, this was a tough one. This is of the PVC pipe construction- you see this type ever so often. It is certainly durable. Wonder what the rest of the story is on this one.

Three shrine day, number 2

I was able to Google search this one, I originally thought this one might be cycle related due to the motocycle helmet, but apparently not so. There were 2 deaths in this accident, Mr Groff was the driver of one car, that left the roadway and swerved into another car, killing another man. Not sure if that was Boogie or not.

A Three Shrine day

This shrine was perhaps for two folks. For sure, Ashley, who as it seems a 14 year old. The smaller cross said "Ashley and Marc, riding with the angels. Assume this was maybe a motorcycle wreck? It was on a curve, on a rural road.

Obligatory visit to the Daytona Speedway

We made a quick pit stop at the Speedway, it wasn't far, and got a pin to add to the Florida collection. We didn't do any of the other things you could do- Think Brandon and Cooper have been here before, on one of their previous trips to Florida.

Lunch at the Golden Lion, of course

On the way back from Daytona, it was no contest where to do lunch, we stopped for the 4th time now at our favorite place, the Golden Lion in Flagler Beach- Here's why, the view from across the parking lot from the restaurant

Fish Tacos for me, dude.... They are the best! Bette had a Philly Cheese......

Another view from the front- Today, they had a guitar player and a keyboardist, and it was very pleasant to listen to music as we ate.

The almost famous Golden Lion- Gazza, this too will be on our list of things to do next April when you visit, for sure.

A1A Shrine at Flagler Beach

This shrine, courtesy of the State of Florida, was at a driveway intersection on A1A. Guess Mr Scott Smith pulled out in front of someone. This was shot on the fly.

Day trip to Daytona Beach

The weather finally cooperated this morning, and even though it was Memorial Day, we decided to gamble and take a daytrip down A1A to Daytona. It's about 54 miles one way, all along the coast, and it is beautiful. Here's a shot down beach from the pier on Main Street. Gazza - we'll do this as a day trip when you come next April for sure.

Here's a shot upbeach from the pier.

Here's Bette checking out the pier. It costs a buck and a half to go out on the end, so we didn't go.

Not all Verizon Wireless stores are created equal..

Got up this morning and we decided we needed to get ourselves up to Jacksonville to exchange our MiFi unit that wasn't working properly. We had been told that the store was "on US 1 towards Jacksonville." Can't miss it. Well, we drove up on US 1 and missed it. Didn't see one. So we called Tina, and she looked up three addresses for stores in Jacksonville, including one that was right in the parking lot of the mall where we were, the Avenues Mall. Fine, in we went, found the store, and we told "we don't have that, you need to go to a corporate store." Oh. Off we go with directions to the next store, "2 miles down the road." 6 miles later, we see the store. In we walk. "We don't have that- you have to go to a corporate store." Well fine. Where is it? 5 minutes away..... So off we go, and sure enough, there it is, the third store we have visited, and they do have it. No explanation as to why all stores are not created equal, and that fact not made clear to us, the consumer. Grrrrrr. Anyway, we learned what was up US 1 that far into Jacksonville, and on the way home, we found out about Atlantic Avenue, and the fact it goes over to A1A, and we had a nice drive on back down to St Augustine.

Note to Dan and Kippy- we found by accident, another location for Dunkin Donuts, which is on A1A, just south of US 1 in town, and it is a winner!! Clean, great service, and has the ice cream store to boot- So when were back down together, we can indulge in one of our favorite pasttimes.... Coffee and doughnuts or breakfast at a Dunkin Donuts!!!! We are happy campers. It has been sort of a good day!

Monday or Tuesday we may go down to New Port Richie for the night to take a motorized wheelchair to Bette's brother Jim. Trying to squeeze in a baseball game, either at Dunedin or Tampa. Both are playing at home.

New pond visitor - maybe an egret of some type?

This pretty fellow was wading in the pond on Wednesday before we left- Beautiful colorings.

Three shrines on the way back to Florida today

This one was your standard issue Fred's or Big Lots cross- no indication of who passed, it was right next to a culvert though.

At a 4 way stop sign in rural Georgia. Can't know for sure if there were two different fatalities here, or if they are both for Melissa. I suspect 2 different, given the differences in the crosses.

Bette got this on on the fly- Not sure if it's for a multilple passing, or lots for one person- have to check it out further on another trip

Back at Coquina - Had a scare...

We're back at Coquina, but not without a pretty good scare- we were on I-295 heading just past the St John's River, when Bette had to stop a little short due to the car in front of her slamming on brakes, it was wet, and we got smacked pretty good from behind by a car full of teenagers in a Camry. We got out expecting the worst, but swear to gosh, no sign at all of any damage. Near as I can figure out, we both must have been rolling, but I swear we got a good smack. We were so relieved, we failed to get her information, (I know Tina, bad deal) and we drove on. Count our blessings.

Stop today at the Laurel and Hardy Museum

On the way up from St Augustine today, we stopped in Harlem Georgia at the Laurel and Hardy Museum. Turns out that Oliver Hardy was born in Harlem, and this is a nifty little museum in their honor. The city, which is very small, hosts a tribute in the first week of October which draws some 30,000 people, or at least it did last year, they said. Think we'll add it to the Calendar for next October 3, on the way back up to Carolina for my 45th high school reunion. Cool.

Home at Greenwood, Brandon leaves tonight for his field trip...

We had a nice trip up to Greenwood, started out in the driving rain of St Augustine and wound up in the nice sunshine of Carolina. Took just over 7 hours, 353 miles.

Brandon leaves tonight at 9 pm for his class field trip to Williamsburg Virginia. He'll be back on Sunday night I believe. Have a good safe trip, buddy, and enjoy yourself!

Quick trip home for Linda's passing.

We just got word by phone of the passing of Linda Trott, who was one of the primary care nurses for Bette's Mom at Wesley Commons. She was just 60, and passed away at home, very suddenly. We are deeply saddened by the news of her passing. We'll leave first thing in the morning to go to Greenwood, and the funeral will be Thursday in Ware Shoals. We'll return to St Augustine on Friday.
We had just spoken to Linda day before yesterday, and were making plans for her to come visit with us on a long weekend. We will miss her friendship and compassion. She was a good friend.

Officially a "Nor'Easter"

The weather folks have officially decided this is a NorEaster, rare for these parts, but here for sure. They say it has been 10 years since Florida has seen weather like this in May. The rain is coming in bands, and is accompanied by high winds, sometimes 40 mph or so. It's not a hurricane, that season doesn't start until June 1 they say. Hmmmmm. The house is holding up well, the pond is getting pretty full, and the streets so far are not flooding. We'll see..