Busy in the Keys

I guess the old adage is true, when you retire, "When Did I Find the Time to Work?"is the mantra of the day.  Each day as the sun sets, we turn around and look at each other and ask, "Is it Bed Time Yet?" or "Where Has the Day Gone?"

Morning typically will bring out the cooking in me.  It's my time to get the day started for us with a great breakfast.  Nothing better than starting the day with energy for what's to come.  I'm a firm believer that in order to perform well, the body needs good fuel.

While cooking, it's usually the time for the sun to rise.  We make it our special time to thank God for bringing us and our family and friends safely through the night and ask for a bountiful day.

We have volunteered to help out every other Saturday morning with the Venture Out pancake breakfast cooking.  That means we are up at 6 AM to go and get things ready to start serving at 8 AM.  By the time we are done cleaning up, it's almost 10:30.  Then it's home to wash up and get rid of the vanilla pancake essence.  Saturday is also our day for a little exploring around the Keys, along with any other day we feel like going.

Then during the week, there are the regular things like morning walks, bike rides, water aerobics, catching up on the latest national & political news, emails, telephone calls to family & friends, laundry, dominoes, mah jongg, cooking gourmet meals, up-keep on the RV, reading, and of course, fishing.  It's amazing how the time just seems to fly accomplishing all this and more.

Then there are the special events.  Our church here, St Peter's, recently had a friend of theirs, Jim Trainer, from New York here for a visit and a night of Christmas entertainment.  It was a lot of fun joining him in singing Christmas carols.

For the Christmas season, I joined a choir and will doing a Cantata  at three different venues this month, including St Peter's, Venture Out and the Methodist Church.  I guess that's being ecumenical in the season.  It sure does take a lot of practice to get it sounding decent.

We have also decorated the RV inside and the area outside with our lights.  Many people in the park have decorated their units really nice.  We enjoy it all.

Oh, I mentioned fishing as one of the occupiers of my time.  Virgil & I went out on Wednesday for about 6 hours and came back with these fish.  The one I'm holding is a Mutton Snapper that was 28" long and weighed in at 11 lbs.  I must say that it was a really fun day.  I also caught 2 others that we threw back because of size and caught 3 others that never made it on the boat.  I came close on one that we identified as a dolphin but the other two are unknowns.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Then there is just sharing good times with our friends here in the park.  It always amazes me on how different the RV community is from the one that we lived in in the different cities. It this community, people get out and meet others through their walks around and just in the daily activities outside.  In the city community, people were more apt to get inside the house and stay there.  Here, life is more outside and prone to interaction with each other.  It would be nice if more communities were like this.  It reminds me much of the times when I was growing up and people spent more time visiting with neighbors and out and about.

I guess the lesson we are learning is that there is so much more to life than just work and we are glad that we have this great opportunity to experience it.

The rest of this month will be even busier with birthdays, family visits, community holiday happenings along with daily life.  Hopefully we'll also be able to a little more fishing in with everything else.

A Very Special Day, Our 47th Wedding Anniversary!

Today was a very special day for us as we celebrated our 47th wedding anniversary.  We've had all sorts of weather changes, rain, wind rough seas and this evening with cooling breezes, calm seas and sunshine ending a wonderful day.  I guess it was much like our life has been thus far.  It all started some 47 years ago in Berwyn, Ill at St Odillo;s Church when I said "I DO".  Oh wait, I think I meant to say "Yes Dear".  Just kidding.  This has been a wonderful partnership in life. 

It's been a wonderful journey with Roseann at my side.  Together we have shared some incredible times and events, too numerous to list.  Today we get to share this day with our friends Virgil & Jo.  Virgil & I went fishing for a while (or is it fed the fish) and Roseann & Jo played Mah Jongg. 

We all went for dinner to No Name Pub on Big Pine Key.  It was built in 1935, has wonderful food and their walls & ceiling is covered with one dollar bills.  You can check them out  at www.nonamepub.com.  We opted for a spinach lobster dip w chips, garlic bread w marinara sauce and then a Royal Pub Pizza.  This 14" pizza was enough for the 4 of us and was really really good.  We finished it off with Key Lime pie, of course.  It was a great night of fun & laughs for all.  Then it was time to go home for entertainment.  I'll leave that part of the story to your own imagination.  Suffice it to say that we laughed and enjoyed ourselves immensely.  

We are looking forward to many more years together.  So far we are blessed with great health both body & mind.  We pray that it continues that way as we travel together on our journey of life that began this day 47 years ago when two teenagers promised each other their hearts and had dreams that seemed crazy then but are being lived out today.  Thank you!

Thanksgiving Dinner for 80 People

Thanksgiving day started like most days we've seen so far here in the Keys. We were given a spectacular sunrise.  I used to think that only the mountains in the west provided gorgeous scenery.  I've changed my mind and have seen the flat sea do the same.

We lazied around this morning.  We had coffee on the patio watching the sunrise and had a simple breakfast because we knew what the afternoon was to bring.  We were going to attend a potluck Thanksgiving dinner at St Peter's Catholic church in Big Pine Key.  It was a great time to meet some of the parishioners from the church.  There were 80 people at dinner.  I cannot begin to tell you how great the meal was.  Everyone brought the best dishes and the roasted and fried turkey was so tasty.  It truly was a meal fit for a king for all who were there.

It turned out that we met a lot of people from the RV park that we are staying at, which was good.  I especially enjoyed meeting Margaret & Bob.  They have been married a really long time and shared their success story with us.  At 92 Bob still fishes commercially and enjoys life to the fullest.  What an inspiration they are to Roseann and I.  We'll definitely be seeing more of them and Sarah and Ken during our stay.

Sarah and Roseann play Mah Jongg with some other ladies a couple of afternoons a week.  I think that I'll be "shanghied" into learning this new game soon (in between fishing, swimming, walking, water aerobics and oh did I mention fishing).

Again, we are blest on our journey with new people entering our lives and becoming a new thread in our tapestry of life.  How wonderful to have this experience.  We are so grateful to all for sharing themselves in our lives.

Full Timing Lifestyle Blessings

We are often asked how we like this lifestyle of not having a place we call home.  We are most asked about the holidays and sharing of those special days or birthdays, graduations, marriages, and births with our families and especially the grandchildren.  There are always more questions than answers but the one answer that keeps coming up the most is that we are following a dream and fulfilling a promise I made some 47 years ago to Roseann.  I asked her "Marry me and I'll show you the world".  Well here we are exploring the world and enjoying each day.

I was reminded this morning, by an email from a friend in Colorado that we made from this lifestyle, about the gifts that we have received from this lifestyle.  The people that we have met and the friendships that have ensued from those meetings are beyond value.  We cherish each one of them and hold them dear in our hearts.  The friends are from all parts of the USA and Canada and yet we always feels their presence either through meetings on the road, phone calls or emails.  They are always close by.

We have also encountered God's creation up close.   This was our sunrise two days ago.  It lasted long enough for me to get 2 pictures.  That shaft of light pointed right at the door of our "home".  What a way to begin our day.

We also have encountered some fun times with God's creatures.  While we are here in the Keys, I am able to go fishing right behind us in the canal.  Some of the fish are just not what I want but there are those who want whatever I want to throw back.  We named this one "Mikie" because he will eat anything I give him.  He knows that he'll at least get one.

This is why we travel, The friendships, the beauty of the land and God's gifts to us, our world.

Friends - We Are Blest With Many.

This has been a great year for us in reconnecting with our friends from Saudi Arabia and Hawaii.  Since September of this year, we have met up with 3 of our friends from Saudi Arabia either in person or via Skype.

Lorne & Shelly live just outside of Dallas and we stayed with them and then with Jon & Mary Lou in Brownwood, TX.  We had met them in Saudi and had stayed in touch all these years.  Then we met up with Rich & Judy, from our Hawaii days, in Marietta, GA.  The memories they all brought back were fantastic.

Then through the wonders of the internet, yesterday we were able to spend almost an hour talking and seeing our friends Glenn & Judy in New Zealand.  That was a fantastic time.

Friends are chosen by each other.  It is a blessing for us to have been chosen by these people to be their friends.  We must say "Thank You" for this blessing.

It Was a Hard Days Work!

We are in the Florida Keys At Venture Out because of our good friends Virgil & Jo Allmond. We visited with them here this past February. They had invited us to consider coming here for the winter months this year instead of going to the Rio Grande Valley in Texas. It sure was the right decision.

Virgil had a boat in storage this past summer and when he went to pick it up, he found that someone had stolen the motor. A few bummer days followed until he found "Doll's Dusky" while he was parked in Ft Lauderdale. I rode with him up to Ft Lauderdale to pick his "new" boat. WOW! It is great. The next couple of days were spent getting things cleaned up and set for the Coast Guard inspection. It was then time to try out the boat for fishing. The first day was kind of a "dry" run. We hooked a few but didn't them into the boat.

We then waited for a few days until the wind died down and hit it good. We started in 90' of water with no luck. Then after and hour we shifted into 60' of water and it was jackpot. We hit 14 Yellow Tail snapper for 9 lbs. of fillets. It sure made for a great meal with some headed to the freezer for later.

It's a New Day in Paradise!

As you can see, it has been some time since our last post and a lot has happened. We are currently parked at Venture Out Resort in Cudjoe Key, FL. We wake up and get to see the sun coming up from the ocean and stream it's light into our living room. It is a blessing that we are able to experience this beauty.

So what's happened in the time since our last post? We have continued our travels around the country and have met some very wonderful people, renewed old friendships, visited great places, and we're able to participate in some milestone events.

We've stayed in some awesome RV parks and some overnight spots were one night seemed to be forever. Fortunately there were only a couple of those and they are our list of "No Stays". Our favorites thus far and in no particular order are the Air Force Academy, Creede, CO, Ft Sam Houston RV Park @ Canyon Lake, TX, Bentson Palms RV Park, Mission, TX, South Padre Island, TX, Kirtland AFB, NM, Ft Myers Beach, FL and Cudjoe Key, FL.

To help a little on the geography, Cudjoe Key is at mile marker 23. That means we are 23 miles from Key West and all it's excitement. The place where we are parked looks over the Atlantic Ocean. I step out our door of the RV and walk 10 feet beyond the rear of the RV and drop my fishing line into the boat canal. We are able to have a 35 ft boat park at our spot. Who knows what'll happen while we're here.

Some of the milestone events that we participated in were seeing the Brickyard 400 up close from the infield of the track, being at the Grand Ole Opry when the Oak Ridge Boys were inducted into their membership, being at Graceland for the anniversary of the death of Elvis, and being with my friend Virgil when he picked up his new boat, a fully decked out used 2004 Dusky 233.

There were also family milestones that occurred. Our granddaughter Jessica graduated from high school. Considering all that she has been through in her life, we were thrilled to able to witness and celebrate that great day. Then there was the wedding of our grandson Mac to Jenifer. As far as I'm concerned that was the 4th best wedding I ever attended, ours, our daughters and his. The only problem with it is that it means we are definitely getting older. Although we are not feeling it at all.

Our health has been blessed. Rose and I are feeling extremely well. Our biggest issue is finding all of these excellent restaurants around the country. It means that we really have to exercise more than ever. I'm sure that we'll get plenty of that here in the Keys.

Well enough for now. We are going to work harder at keeping up the blog on a regular basis. We've had many requests from our friends who want to share our travels.