Nov 30th Beautiful fort day

Perfect weather for a Fort tour today.  Bette went to the shoulder Doc, got blessed out for being too active, scheduled 6 weeks of therapy-  Have to try to get her to not do.

End of month plate report:  Saw 55, Missed 7.  Most of the missing were from Canada, I only missed Arizona and Wyoming from the US.

Fresh start tomorrow

Also saw these today:

Will be spending time this week getting my Lander classes all ready for next semester, head up to SC on Jan 8th.

November 27th Busiest day ever at the Fort!

Bet we had near 3000 visitors today at the Fort!  Started out a beautiful day, brief rain shower later in the day, fired cannons on schedule.  Found out there were over 4100 folks at the Fort today (11/30) 

Saw these today:

Off to Bingo in a bit, may or may not call- 
Fort Sunday. 

November 25th

Got Bette safely operated on, she is home now resting, and will be in some pain for a bit.
Just learned they closed the fort because of "suspicious activities", which means some people with backpacks walking around.    They've re-opened it.  Too much airing on the side of caution, in my opinion. 

Saw this new county plate for Georgia today, the county seat is Albany-

 

Assuming Bette is feeling up to it, we are supposed to go across the street tomorrow for Thanksgiving.  

November 23rd

Did 2 Fort tours, lots of school kids today- today was our first really cold day, like 42 degrees at report time- Jill did me a solid and got me a beautiful fleece lined volunteers jacket-  Yay! 

This Wednesday, will probably not work, since Bette has her rotator cuff surgery, and will be in a snit for several days.  

Be off to the indoor pool/hot tub tonight. 

Saw these plates today:

Motorcycle plate
 

November 20th

Busy day today:

First was the trip to the Back Doc at 0715 this morning, got my three shots, felt better for a bit, now a bit stiff-  In two weeks, supposed to head back for an eblation, which burns the nerves.

Beautiful and busy day at the Fort-  Seems like we had more 4th graders today than ever before, plus lots of interesting visitors- then over to Wal Mart for groceries now resting up for the back.  

Tomorrow Bette has something about a "golf cart poker run,", which I will pass on- have some school stuff to do.  Sunday may be at the Fort, but it may be raining a good bit so may take a pass.   

Saw these today

Plus an Alaska plate! 

November 19th

Trying to rain a bit, it was expected.

Today, Bette went to her pre-0p meeting for her shoulder, turns out it will be a bit more involved that she let on- and we may be looking at a longer recovery.

Went to men's lunch today, good time at Hastings at Johnnies.  Liver and onions!

Got a big green light at the eye dr., pressure was very low  11! 

Tomorrow is the cortisone shots at Ortho at 0715!   Then to the Fort,  but no cannons tomorrow since the safety guy is travelling.  

Saw these today:

November 18th Fort day, plates, etc

Another busy Fort day-  we had several school groups, and a VIP- the former Army Chief of Staff, and the former Sgt Maj of the Army came to visit with an entourage. 

Saw these plates today:

Also heard from the back doc-  0715 Friday morning for the shots.  Going through the drive thru.

November 16th Great day at the Fort today

Had a very nice day at the Fort today-  Lots of school groups, a couple of sweet families from New Mexico, with about 10 children between them who did the Jr Ranger program, and lots of good room 5 stuff. 

Saw these plates today:

The Florida NG one is a new issue, rework. 

Headed to the indoor pool tonight for exercises and the hottub with the mwf gang

Nov 15th Finally, a diagnosis for my back stuff

In two  words, Ankylosing Spondylitis.  

Essentially, its a failure of the discs in the back, which can ultimately lead to a badly bowed back, since the spine can eventually lose its firmness. 

Current plan is injections, then what's called an eblation, which fries the nerves, basically telling the brain that your back doesn't hurt.  Not sure what else is involved.  Right before Thanksgiving, Bette has to have shoulder surgery-  arthroscopic on her rotator cuff, I believe.

November 15th Back at Coquina

Up early at Ocala, drove the coach down to Alliance, dropped it off, and then headed back up to Coquina Crossing.  Just over 100 miles altogether.

Saw these plates today, plus an Alberta Canada

 



Busy week next week, Fort work, several Doctor appts, and surgery for me Friday on my back. 

November 13 Some new plates in the last couple of days

Seen these in the last couple of days:

November 13th A statue in Ocala

After arriving in Ocala, we headed out to a couple of locations-  

The first was a statue of a brick horse-  for real- in the parking lot of a motel....

On Thanksgiving Day, November 29th, 1883 fire broke out in Ocala. All of the buildings on the east side of today’s SE 1st Avenue from Silver Springs Boulevard to Fort King Street were destroyed. Five blocks of the business district were left in ashes and numerous records were lost, including files containing a great deal of Ocala and Marion County’s early history. The rebuilding of the town began almost immediately. Frame buildings were replaced utilizing brick, granite and metal. Within five years, Ocala was identified throughout the state as “The Brick City”.

“Brick City Fever” was sculpted by Cliff Fink in honor of our city’s heritage for Horse Fever, a public art project produced by the Marion Cultural Alliance which raised $850,000 for charity.

“Brick City Fever” was purchased by Danny Gaekwad at the Horse Fever art auction and dedicated at this location on July 11, 2002 by Mayor Gerald Engle.

Then, back to the campground, and we all sat out at John's unit for a couple of hours, then the Coles and us headed to Bob Evans to eat dinner, took them 50 minutes for the food to arrive, but they offered us free deserts to say sorry-  Not sure what we may do today, there is a racing museum close by, and there has been talk of the glass bottom boats at the Silver Spring State Park across the street.   There is a group dinner out tonight at a local Italian restaurant.  

November 12th In at The Springs

Left Wildwood about 1000- fueled up at a Sunoco for 2.399 a gallon, 100.00 flat-  then motored up the road to Silver Springs-  got checked in and then to our site, almost didn't make one turn, and almost took out a guys air conditioning unit, and managed to run over some big rocks I didn't see-  But no big damage to the coach it seems.  Have to be careful on the way out. 

Saw a Hawaii plate!  On I-75 just north of Wildwood.  

We're here for the River City Campers group, haven't seen them for a while-  not sure what we will or won't do while we are here.   

Wednesday November 11th

Sunday, we drove down to Wildwood and got settled into the Alliance campground, Monday AM, Will came out and we decided to not start the work, since the controller will have to be sent off to be re-calibrated if it is bad- so we decided just to stay camped and rest for the three days, then Thursday, we head 40 miles back up the road to Silver Springs for the wagon master duties at River City Campers- then on Sunday, we'll bring the coach back down to Wildwood, and just leave it until repairs are made.  

Pretty much been taking it easy- sleeping some actually.  

Nov 7th Busy stuff

Did the Fort Friday, busy day with visiting school groups -  this morning, went to a fund raiser for the local Veteran's group at Applebees-  tonight, there is a going away party for one of my coworkers at the Fort. 

Tomorrow, we head on down to Wildwood for some motor home work- then Thursday to Sunday, we have a campout with the River City group. 

Saw these at the Fort:

November 4th Fort, Hospital visit, new plates

Did a turn at the Fort today, we had several Chinese Nationals visit today as part of 3 ships that sailed into Mayport at Jacksonville this week. 

After the fort, went to the hospital to see after John B, who is pretty ill- he was resting, so I didn't disturb him. 

Saw these plates today, plus several state plates- up to 43 as of this posting- 19 more to go!

Bette says we are starting back walking in the indoor pool again.  Swell.

November 3rd Dr results

Went to see Dr Henry today, he has scheduled another round of injections on Fri Nov 20th, then an eblation of the nerves if that takes, then the other side.  Bette checked with our regular lab and can have her blood tests done there.

Tracy is arriving via Frontier Air on December 5th and will stay through the 9th. 

Saw this pretty plate today:

Also, a NC commercial blue and white plate, no photo for that one. 

November 2nd 32 plates on the first day!

Saw 32 plates today as I traveled around, including an Idaho-  

Also this new one:

Follow up visit with Back Dr tomorrow at 0945- see which way he wants to go- Bette had her follow up with RA Dr.  Not much progress there- A medicine change, and some more blood tests.  

November 2 Plate count for the month-

Saw 51/62 plates this month-  For lower 48, didn't see Hawaii, Idaho, and Wyoming

Not much luck with Canada this month, only 2 plates-  Didn't see Alberta, BC, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, PEI, or Saskatchewan. 
Did see this plate at the Fort last Friday:

 

 

Here are the summary pictures for the month's finds: