January, 2006 - Bridge Coast to Coast Saga

January 1-
January 1. HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL OF OUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO VISIT THIS SITE!!! It was a beautiful day, mid-80s outside, although slightly foggy in the brain. We spent the day taking down Christmas decorations at Jonnie's house - there is now a room full of boxes waiting to be put away.

January 2. Delivered the Suzuki to Lightning Conversions near Tampa today. The fellow has been working with them since they showed up on the market back in 1985 or 86. He will be rebuilding the motor, then it should be dependable from this point on - sure do hope so, because it is a great little, easy to tow vehicle and we like it.

January 9. Another beautiful Florida day, mid-70s and sunny, sunny, sunny. Jonnie & Marty joined us today and we went to Silver Springs State Park, hiked the swamp trail, and walked around the historic cracker village. Nice and relaxing and a great little getaway.

January 11. Today, we met John and Lucia at Rainbow Springs State Park for a ranger-led kayak trip down the Rainbow River. This is one of those unspoiled Florida beauties; clear, warm water, lots of bird life to view along the route, fish and turtles swimming around, and not a lot of motorboat traffic. Just a 2-hour float down the river, very enjoyable.

January 19. We've spent the better part of the last week putting a good coat of wax on the motor home. The fiberglass parts required marine wax and the painted portions took regular auto paste wax. It was a long process but I think we will appreciate our efforts when we get on down the road.

We've been applying for jobs to earn $$ for our trip to Switzerland. Hope we succeed - we're somewhat restricted with only Sh*&%y brown to get us there - hoping for the same schedules.

The weather has been nice - warm days and really cool nights, a few dropped down to freezing. The furnace keeps us warm though.

January 21. Went to the Villages tonight for their monthly car show. It was a great show, lots of beautiful cars, and a fun parade around the square. Had pizza at Pauly's after the show.

January 22. This morning, as I drove to the grocery store, I was pulled over and given a warning ticket for speeding, my 1st ever. This afternoon, Jonnie & I finished the "jigsaw puzzle from he*! (see photo)". We both agreed that this was the most difficult puzzle we had ever done and the only one where the outside border was done last, not first. It was a picture of an old Mickey Mouse cartoon poster. Mike bought this one for us girls and I think he knew EXACTLY what he was doing. I enjoyed the challenge.

January 23. Jonnie's shed was delivered today, it will serve as her storage space and a workshop.

January 28. A crisis for the 2 gadabouts today. Mike crashed the computer while trying to "fix" a problem, lost all of our files and had to reinstall the system. Fortunately, it hadn't been too long since I had backed up some of the files that were near and dear to me. Not only did that mean starting from scratch, it also brought a long-term argument to a solution. We bought another computer so he can't lose my stuff and I can't mess up his stuff. We'll see if this improves our relationship!

January 29. Today we spent the morning installing programs and getting our computers up and running with all of the goodies we both need. Around mid-day, we decided we had to get away, so took a ride to Lake Griffin State Park, not too far south of here. It is a nice park but geared mostly to boats and canoeing. We hiked the trails and found some interesting sights along the way. The trail went along the Dead River that feeds into Lake Griffin. All along the river were signs warning of alligators nearby and not to swim or antagonize them (we didn't see any).

Jonnie's workshop has really come along this week. It is now complete with a wall and door separating the storage from workshop, outfitted with shelving, a work table, tool stand, and screen door built. Today, she and Mike H ran the electrical. I've gotta say that I'm impressed with her workmanship and talent.

Created on 01/05/2006 06:47 AM by bridge
Updated on 01/29/2006 03:05 PM by bridge