NEW SMYRNA BEACH

We left Saint Petersburg a week ago, and drove across Florida to NSB, where our time share was waiting. We always find it amazing how we thrive in the small space of our Excel 5th Wheel, especially when we move into a spacious two bedroom condo. We stayed one night at the Sugar Mill RV Park in NSB, where we are storing the RV for two weeks.

This place is huge! And it is right on the Atlantic Ocean. We are here for two weeks, through Thanksgiving, and leaving Nov. 28. The beach here is really nice, with very fine sand. It is a very 'deep' beach, and they do allow vehicular traffic all along the beach, but there is plenty of room for everybody.

We spent sunday afternoon on the beach, and then welcomed Fort Dodgers Alec and Charlton Pendry. The Pendry's were with us through early Friday morning. We had a great time, doing some excursions and visiting and playing a couple of games of Settlers of Catan.

One trip was to the Kennedy Space Center which I would call a must-see. The displays were terrific, with easy to read text and clear images. We saw an IMAX 3D movie of Hubbell Telescope images---breathtaking! The Saturn Rocket on display is amazing. We also went up an observation tower to view the launch pads. There is a shuttle launch on one of the pads. This has been scrubbed a few times and I guess is supposed to launch in early December.

the shuttle launch pad

We left the Space Center and dined at the Dixie Crossroads Restaurant in Titusville. Holy cow, excellent food!!! Their rock shrimp is dynamite.

The next day we drove west to near Deland, to see Blue Spring State Park. This is a manatee viewing area and we saw a couple, but when we took the boat tour of the St. John's River we also saw tons of alligators, turtles and all kinds of birds--osprey, various types of herons, ibis, cormorants, kingfisher, and snake birds.

Blue Spring Park Gator

Ibis and great blue heron

our friendly manatee

One manatee came right up to the boat side, munching on some leafy plant, and nuzzled the side of the pontoon boat. The weather was awesome as well. After the boat tour we toured an historic home, built in the 1870s by a settler, Lewis Thursby. He developed a steamboat landing at Blue Spring, which was a major landing during that era for river traffic and shipping between Jacksonville and Orange Park. He eventually grew his holdings from 133 acres to over 900, much of which became orange groves.

Ellen at the Thursby House

This just about catches me up...We took today to catch our breath...Tomorrow Tom and Jo Ewers are going to come over for a couple of nights. We are excited to see them again!

St. Petersburg and what we did

We were in Saint Petersburg for about a month, and spent a lot of time with Tom and Jo Ewers. We had a great time, spending a lot of time on the beaches. Beautiful and so relaxing. Ellen got really tanned, and happily, I did not burn!

We and the Ewers went to a dance in Gulfport, had a lot of fun remembering the steps that we learned so long ago. Also got a little lesson on the rhumba! One of our excursions was to Honeymoon Beach State Park, walking the beach looking for shells.

Tom, Jo, Ellen and I at Honeymoon Beach State Park

We left Honeymoon Beach Park and drove up to Tarpon Springs, a Greek community that is famous for its sponge diving industry. A quaint village with many sponge boats, little shops and Greek restaurants. We just had some baklava....mmmm.

Tarpon Springs Sponge Marina

Tom also drove us to the Tampa Power plane, a manatee viewing area. Wow, we got to see over 60 of the lumbering aquatic relatives to the elephant. Also saw several small sharks, a sting ray that jumped almost 2 feet out of the water, and thousands of fiddler crabs on the shoreline.

Manatees at the power plant

We truly appreciated the Ewers' hospitality and are looking forward to seeing them when they visit us in New Smyrna Beach.

Animal Shelter and Geothermal

Paws and More, the Animal Shelter in Washington

Rio and Ellen cuddling a small cat at Paws and More

We have recently spent time visiting daughter Heather's family in Washington IA. We had a great time, catching up, eating out, playing games (especially Mexican Train Dominos--Rio even dreamed about playing the game!), and seeing where Rio and Nayra volunteer to help at an animal shelter, Paws and More. They play with the cats, walk the dogs, brush and feed the animals, and clean and sweep the place. What a nice thing to do! The facility is very clean, quiet in the cat room, and very loud when you are in the dog room!
Nayra holding a tabby kitten

GEOTHERMAL, A BIG STEP!

Heather and Pedro had geothermal heating and cooling installed this summer. This was a major operation, and much of the work was done when they were on vacation in Colorado. The workers bore several tubular runs for water across their property, 25 feet under the surface!. Water courses through these and runs up into the basement, and through the system. I don't know exactly how it works, all I know is their house was more comfortable than ever, with two zones of control.

It was expensive, but there were grants and tax credits that made it 'affordable', plus a lengthy interest free period where they can chip away at the balance without paying interest fees.

The utility savings will pay for the whole thing in less than 10 years. Heather and Pedro had a huge boiler with radiators all over the house. All that is gone, along with water pipes hanging all over the basement. The workers had to cut the boiler into 3 parts to get it out. The company seels these things for scrap iron. Pedro is having to patch walls and holes in the floors, but they have gained so much space inside the house.

Here is Heather with the main control 'box' for the Geothermal. One of the things it shows is the temperature of the water under the ground, which was like 60 degrees on a 90 degree day in Washington.

This is the main unit, showing where the water from the underground tubes come into the house on the lower right. The large ducting to the upper left is the return air duct. To the far left is one of the two large water heaters one of which is for the house water, the other for the circulating water. This whole thing is like super quiet!

Aside from the comfort/savings of not having 2-3 window air conditioners running, the whole house is evenly heated/cooled, and Pedro's art work will not suffer from humidity or temperature changes. They have researched this for a good long time, and they are just thrilled with the quick results and confort. A partial month's utility bill was over $100 less than before! I guess a lot of new construction uses geothermal, as it is more cost efficient to have it installed new as opposed to conversions. We are really happy for Heather and family for making this move!

D.O.G.

front l-r: Charlton, Ronnie, Marcia and Peg

back l-r: Ellen, Alec and Tim

DOG is an acronym for a group of Fort Dodge folks who are the "Dining Out Group"...originally I understand a group from the 1st United Methodist Choir Members who dined out before Choir Practice. The group shifted around a bit, adding some who didn't sing, or some who didn't sing in the choir anymore.

Last night we ate at Rustix, a pretty nice restaurant in Humboldt, IA. The group includied Ellen and myself, Alec and Charlton Pendry, Peg Jackson, Marcia Main and Ronnie Nelson.

Joyce was our highly efficient waitress, keeping the table 'right' and bringing whatever we needed in a very timely manner. Nice lady! The food was well prepared and the portions were outstanding. Both Ellen and I had doggie bags, something that doesn't happen very often. The group never has a 'quiet' moment, as the visiting went continuously for over 2 hours.

This is our last DOG for 2010, as we are leaving Fort Dodge next Wednesday.

On to Mason City

Well, after two reallynice days of weather, we are having sprinkles. Still cool, but overcast. It is still a lot better than the blast furnace heat we have had over the past couple of weeks.

We are heading to Mason City to get some stuff of Ellen's father from her step-sister Susan. We haven't seen her for at least 8 years. While in Mason City we are planning a stop for dinner at the

Northwest Steak House, a fantastic Greek restaurant that serves the BEST filet I've ever had. When we are close to Mason City and it is close to eating time, we pig out there.

Yesterday I did some carving, some cleaning of the RV, and went over to Mike Zahm's house to help him get on to my Yahoo! Fantasy Football League. Struggling to get this thing off the ground, we now have 6 signed up, with another three verbally committed.

Ellen spent the afternoon with Charlton Pendry at Marsha Storbakken's, playing Bananagrams and Chinese Checkers. Later in the evening we watched the rest of an Inspector Lewis episode (nothing like a British Mystery), and then the mindless Bachelor Pad....perhaps for the last time.

Still in Fort Dodge

Wow, time sure flies when you are having fun.

The crossword clue was "diary, of sorts", the answer was "blog" Maybe not true for me, because diary implies daily writing, like a journal....

We are still on Fort Dodge, at the Pendry RV Park. This past week my early birthday gifts arrived from Amazon.com. Thank you Ellen! A nice cordless Dremel Tool and the complete DVD collection of Richard Simmon's Sweatin' to the Oldies. Excited to use both!

In the same shipment was a new Catan game, Histories of Catan, Trails to Rails. We've played it twice, and really really like it. It is played on a mapboard of the U.S., settling cities, then linking them with rails to deliver goods, and delivering all your goods cubes wins the game. Played it with the Pendry's and once with daughter Erin...close games.

I have started carving again, with a couple of signs for friends to be finished in the fairly near future. There is something therapeutic about carving...as long as I pay attention to where the blade is and where it is going.

The rains have stopped, and hopefully Ames IA will get their water back on. It is so sad to see the mess of the flooding through central Iowa.

Lost Island Waterpark

Mason, Jaiden and Pedro had a great ride!

Wednesday we had a great family day, driving to Lost Island Water Park in Waterloo, IA. We rendezvoused with daughter Erin and her 3 kids, Jaiden, Mason and Ethan, at Trinity Hospital parking lot in Fort Dodge a bit after 9 AM. Erin drove us all in her van. Had a nice drive, the weather looked less than pleasant, maybe a little ominous with much of the sky clouded over.

We arrived at about 11 AM, just after daughter Heather, Pedro, Nayra and Rio had parked after their 2 hour drive from Washington, IA. It had drizzled a bit, and just when we were greeting all, the tornado sirens went off. Yikes! But the sky was half clear at that time, and everyone just kept doing what they were doing. No Widespread Panic (hey that's a band). The sky soon cleared off and we had a great time the whole sunny day.

The Lazy River was the best (for an oldie like me). I also managed 3 water slides, and that was thrilling, although on one Rio told everyone later that "in the middle of it Grampa screamed 'I'm gonna die!!!!!!!'" Mason was the only one who looked sunburned at the end of the day, but Erin said his burn always turns to tan the next day.

The kids had a fun time and the adults had a lot of opportunity for conversation and catching up. This was the first 'family time' since Christmas at Branson.

We had a picnic on the grass outside the park, and that was a nice time too. We packed up when the park closed at 6:30, and had a nice mellow and quiet ride home. We've gotta do this again!

Tim, Rio and Erin survived!