Maiden Voyage

This weekend we fired up the truck put her in gear and headed out the drive  heading north to Chain of Lakes state park up by Albion, Indiana.  Nick and Shelly invited us to come up so we knew we wanted some trial runs before we leave for Alaska  in June of this year so we did go.  Saturday was a very nice day, but Sunday was a good day to pull up stakes and head home.  Gotta admit we don't have any stakes to pull up with the truck camper,   just need to put in the awning, lift the jacks, say our good-bys and were gone. Here are some pictures we took this weekend.   Now about the pictures I did not take many cause now I'm having camera issues,  So that's not going to be good going to Alaska, because I will be taking pictures. Can't do a blog without pictures to share!!

 Our camp spot  #279

 
 
 

   




I THINK we can survive a few weeks together
  in this ???

NOT the Motorhome but we CAN do it               

 Nick definitely gets his grill on when he cooks


They shared their pork chops with us & they were very TASTY!!

  THANKS NICK & SHELLY

 
 

Have no new news but I need to keep up on how to use this blog spot.   I will post some pictures but they will probably be about nothing family and friends.  

 

 Camping at the Fites campground  2012

               Friends  Von  &  Jenny

                              Whoo Hoo 
                                                                                                    
                                                                                                          Racoon in Turkey Run

 

                         Our Game Table

COUNT DOWN TO ALASKA

Now that spring break is over it is time to look forward to our trip to Alaska.  Last night Kent & Nick put the truck camper on the truck.  Yes it looks like a monster on the truck.  Here are some pictures, what do you think.    With us going to spend 6 to 8 weeks in the truck camper, more room the better, that's what I think.

Cleaning the camper & putting in supplies
will  be my next project.   I am anxious to
get to work. 


We will keep you posted on our progress.







Until Next Time
    Kent & Martha

WEEK OVER & BACK HOME IN INDIANA

Guess they didn't want us to leave.   Just approaching the bridge red lights came on & the bridge started coming up.  We had to wait for the pirate boat coming through.

 

 

 

Now this  guy is getting some age on him.  We have been coming down to

Treasure Island Florida since 1986 and he has been bidding us

farewell since then & he is still in the same spot.

He is on top of a building where we enter onto I-275

 

 

 

 

From here our travels became a nightmare  a few hours later.  Traffic this whole

trip was the worst we have ever seen it in the many years we have been coming.

Between the construction and the accidents it was a toss up as to which was worse.

Almost makes you want to think about flying.     Although Sheila is an avid flyer but she opted to ride home with us because  she wasn't sure she could get a seat flying stand by, turns out she could have when she checked the status but by then the decision has already been made whether your going to try or not.   We did some fun things on the way home though like stopping to eat and then doing some geochaching,  hence the pictures below.

 

 

 

Then we come to the bridge that makes you feel like your almost home

Crossing the bridge at Louisville into Indiana

 

After stopping to let Sheila off we headed on home.  We arrived here

at 12:30 am

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

HALFWAY THROUGH THE WEEK

Wednesday brought us more sunshine so several of us decided to drive to Ft Desoto and take a boat out to a shelling island to look for shells.   When we got to the boat they told us it was full and that we should have made reservations.  We didn't leave but was just going to watch the boat go out, all of a sudden she tells us they have room for us so they let us on.   It was about a 20 minute ride over to the island.

                                                      This was the boat that took us over

 

A couple freeloaders that we found on the Island

 

 

These guys are all over the island

 

 

There was even a geocache over there that Sheila saw on her phone

and Kent was the eagle eye that saw it first

 

 

 

 

If you go to an Island like this make sure you secure your belongings.  One lady had her bag

sitting on the beach while she was looking for shells.   Seems a bird swooped down and grabbed

a ziplock bag that had her money and id cards in it.  He flew up into a tree and deposited it UP

there.  Her husband found a ranger and they pinpointed where it was and he did retrieve it for her.

LESSON LEARNED I HOPE

 

 

It was a nice change of pace for a new experience.

 

Wednesday night we went to the RBAR so Darren could have all u can eat crablegs.  We waited an hour,  but  I guess it was worth it.  What do u think.

 

 

It's hard to tell who is eating who !!

 

 

We were taking family pictures while Darren was busy elsewhere

 

 

From here we went to John's Pass

 

 

 

Today Thursday we got up to pouring down rain. YUCKY

 

(Von & Jenny had rain yesterday in Gulf Shores)

 

We left to do some pawn shopping  and then headed south to Sarasota

to take Darren to the airport.

He got on the flight to head home

 

Probably staying in tonight,  we need to clean out the refrigerator

Florida Spring break week

Today is Tuesday and we are in Florida.  We got in on Saturday around 7:30  after waiting 4 hours  in very slow moving traffic in & through Tampa and trying to cross the Howard Franklin bridge crossing Tampa Bay.     We found out that there had been a fatal motorcycle accident & the traffic was probably 20 miles long and moving at 5 mph  doesn't get you too far too fast.   Here is one picture of a portion of the traffic where we were, not counting everywhere else.



4 hours of misery !!


After getting there and in the room we just relaxed.    

Sunday was a new day*****We got up & went to the flea market.  We spent most of the day there, then Sheila flew in to Tampa and we picked her up around 6pm
Went back to the room & ate in **  all was well

Monday was Shopping day.  I went with Kathy to Bealls 15% off for seniors on Mondays
I did my damage that's for sure !!!!    Got some good things....

Tuesday morning****Darrens  flying in to Tampa

 

see the jet in the sky

He made it in**Welcome to Florida


Then we did breakfast

Doe  Does Restaurant

 

 

 

 

 

Friends of ours Kathy  & Terry