Huntsville, Alabama was new territory for us. In all our travels we had never visited here before. We had heard about the US Space and Rocket Center Museum, and decided to visit it. We enjoyed seeing the absolutely huge Atlas and Apollo rockets on display. There were a lot of exhibits on other aspects of the space program, including a section of space suits. Josie looked like she would make a great astronaut. We also attended a very informative and trimly presentation in the planetarium on the Ingenuity Mission to Mars. The high-def resolution pictures from Mars were spectacular on the big screen.  

We spent an afternoon at the beautiful Huntsville Botanical Gardens. It is one of the best we have ever visited. They even had a piano out in the middle of the gardens for anyone to play, and Josie played her best rendition of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 27. 

After a day of looking for pieces of Josie's pottery collection, [No Luck] we stopped at the Black Bear Brewery for a Chocolate Stout and a shared plate of Fried Green Tomatoes with Smokey Pimento Cheese and Spicy Bacon Jam. 
 
I checked out the new baseball stadium that was going to open last year but didn't because of the shutdown. The minor league season does not start till May this year but there was a local high school game being played on the new field. The new minor league team is called, The Rocket City Trash Pandas.  A Trash Panda is another name for a Raccoon. 

I birded Monte Sano State Park, early one morning and was treated to a lot of birds I had not seen  in a long time. I was able to get a few good pictures.  

We have spent the past two weeks relaxing in the town of Navarre Beach in Florida's panhandle.  Navarre is 25 miles west of Pensacola. We did not do much but relax in the very nice RV Park and go out to eat at a few of the many nice waterside restaurants in the area. A couple of days we drove out to the National Seashore and looked for shells. I did play golf twice and was treated to an airshow by the Blue Angels during one of my rounds. They are stationed in Pensacola and practice every Tuesday and Wednesday. 

There was a very nice birding area just down the road from the RV Park and I was able to get over there early in the mornings and get pick up a lot of good birds.   

Our season has ended here in Bradenton; tomorrow we head north to the Florida Panhandle, and from there we will slowly make our way to Michigan arriving just before Memorial Day. 

The month of February started off with a visit from our Virginia Beach friends Leon and Laura. We met them at Bruce and Audra's RV site at Myakka River State Park, where they are camp hosts. Bruce picked up passes for us to hike the five mile round trip to the Deep Hole. There we saw over 180 alligators, many over 12 feet long. We then came back to the campground and had a great cook out. Leon, Bruce and I taught together in Virginia Beach and have been friends for 40 years. 

Two months later, near the end of our stay Bruce and Audra hosted us for another cookout and this time we were joined by our long time Virginia Beach friends Steve and Diane. 

On February 13 and March 13  Josie and I got our first and second Covid shots at a Publix Supermarket Pharmacy. Florida prioritized seniors over 65 first in line for the shots. This was nice for us but you have to remember Florida has  the highest percent of seniors of any state in the union, so competition for the shots was steep. We were able to sign up on line the first time we tried.

Our friend, Gloria, who we believe has been to every museum in the US. (Ha Ha),  told us we could not miss the Ringling Museum and art gallery in Sarasota, so we purchased on line timed admission tickets. It took us five hours to see all Circus artifacts, a 42000, piece miniature circus, the beautiful Ringling House and the large art gallery. 

Cathy and Scott came over form Boca for a visit in early March. We had a great time, that included a few boat drinks.

We drove down to Ft Meyers one day where I was able to visit with another high school friend, Ted and his wife Norma. We had not seen each other in over 55 years. 

Our Virginia Beach friend Linda came down to Florida and we visited with her at her brother Bobby's and his friend Marty's beautiful home. Marty prepared a fantastic meal which was followed by a piano recital from Bobby. 

I was able to see my old Navy buddy Tommy one more time, as we attended a Pirates Spring Training Game. He is doing very well recovering from his broken hip.

Another day, we drove up to visit Pat in Dunedin and caught up with her over lunch at an outdoor café.  

For the first time in a while I was able to get to a Sprint Car race, when the World Of Outlaws put on quite a show at East Bay Speedway in Tampa. 

I tried to get out every Monday and see what birds were around. I found a few banded birds along the way and reported them to US Fish and Wildlife. The one Piping Plover was banded by researchers from Virginia Tech on Long Island, New York in 2018. 

We spent Thanksgiving week back in Delray Beach after we came up from the Keys. We had a holiday feast at Cathy and Scott's in Boca Raton, where Josie's son Michael joined us. We also celebrated Scott and Cathy's birthdays and Anniversary. Before we left the East Coast of Florida, we bought a new Jeep Wrangler. It was time to retire the old one. 

We are now spending the winter months on the West Coast of Florida in Bradenton. We are parked at Pleasant Lake RV Resort. Most of the activities here at the park have been canceled due to the pandemic. They did get in the lighted golf cart Christmas parade and Cale Moon, a country singer, did give us a nice concert in spite of the rough wind conditions out on the lakefront. 

I was able to get out on the boat and fish with my local friend and old Navy Buddy Tom a few times before he unfortunately fell off his bike and broke his hip. He has a great attitude and is recovering well . We were visited by  Susan and Robert who came over from the East Coast to see their son who lives in St Pete and we drove up to Dunedin one day to visit with our longtime friend Pat. We dog sat Gracie for a week while her owners Carol and Lee went north. They treated us to a nice dinner at the Riverhouse Restaurant after their return. Gracie was a sweetheart and very well behaved.  We drove over to Plant City and Arcadia, Florida one day and checked out the many Antique stores.  Josie found a casserole dish with no lid and is using it as a planter for her Christmas cactus.  I met Marilyn on one of the street corners in Plant City. 

In December we lost our good friend Gerry Anderson. He was also a full time RVer, who we first met in Arizona four years ago. We had a lot of fun together playing golf, going to hockey games and eating out with him and Bridget. We even spent a week with them in Minnesota a few years ago. 

In January we lost Tommy Fisher "Fish".  I taught with Tom for over 30 years and he was one of nicest people you could ever know. Will miss playing golf with him and talking baseball. 

We left Virginia and headed down I 95, boondocking at a Walmart in Walterboro, South Carolina for a night and then on to Titusville, Florida for two nights. I wanted to get a picture of a Florida Scrub Jay over at Merritt Island NWR. and we always love to stop at the Dixie Crossroads restaurant and partake of their delicious corn fritters and Rock Shrimp. While in Titusville Josie found a nice serving platter in the Orange Poppy pattern she is collecting. We also were able to watch the Blue Harvest Moon rise over Cape Canaveral.  

We were going to spend a week in Key Largo but after 3 days we decided to head north to get out of the way of Tropical Storm Eta. It was a good move as Eta did some damage and flooding to Key Largo. While in Key Largo I was able to meet up with Vince, a high school classmate I had not seen in 55 years. 

​ We stayed 4 night in South Bay County Park, just south of Lake Okeechobee. They said there were alligators in the lakes in the park and we had a six footer in the pond right behind the RV. While in South Bay we drove over to Wellington and visited with Susan and Robert and had a nice dinner at West Palm Beach Brewery. After 4 days waiting out the storm, we then headed back down the Overseas Highway to Key West.

It had been 25 years since we had really visited Key West. We came to the Keys 15 years ago to take a three day birdwatching trip on a boat over to the Dry Tortugas, and did not get into the city on that visit. We thought it would be fun to try to recreate a picture from that first visit to the Southern Most Point. We put this on Facebook and many of you were so kind to say we had not change much. You all might want to get your eyes checked. We watched the sunset at Mallory Square, had great shrimp tacos while a Key West Chicken waited for us to drop him a bite, did not happen. We finished the night with ice cold boat drinks. 

We found the food at the Hogfish Grill, which was very close to the RV park, to be outstanding. We took one of our old South Dakota license plates over and they added it to the wall of plates from all over the US. 

Josie joined me at the Botanical Gardens one morning while I birded and she took in the tropical plantings. I was able to get in a round of golf on the Key West Golf Club, but it was so wet I lost a ball in the fairway when I hit it into standing water from all the rain from the storm and it plugged in the mud. 

We finished our visit to the Keys with a week on Ohio Key at the Sunshine Key RV Resort. We had a beautiful site with great views of the tropical water.  Scott and Cathy came down from Boca with their friends, Steve and Sylvia, and we met them for dinner at the Lorelei Cabana Bar in Islamorada. 
 
Josie again joined me on a birding adventure, this time to Crane Point Hammock in Marathon. One of the quirky things you can do there is get a Fish Pedicure. You stick your feet in the water and the tiny fish come and eat the dead skin off your feet. Anyone who has ticklish feet might not enjoy it. A few days later we went back up to Islamorada and sampled a brew at the Keys Brewing Company, then on our way back south stopped at the Keys Fisheries Bar for boat drinks and Stone Crab Claws. 

You cannot come to this section of the Keys without visiting the No Name Bar on No Name Key. Inside the bar there is said to be over forty thousand dollars stapled to the walls by visitors from all over the world. We chose to eat outside under their huge grass hut. While eating a resident endangered Key Deer came by to entertain us. 

Birding in the Keys is always exciting. You never know what might show up. Tropical Storm Eta blew in a couple of Cuban and Caribbean birds that were lifers for me. A Cuban Pewee and a Black-faced Grassquit. I also had a Great White Heron, White Morph fly right onto the beach in front of the RV. This is a bird you can only see in the Keys. (last Picture)

We have spent the last six weeks back in Virginia. Aaron was gracious enough to let us spend the first two weeks of our visit parked in the lower driveway of his lake house. He was a great host and Missy was also able to join us for almost a week. She drove down from DC in her new car. We played a lot of golf and Aaron treated us to one of his famous shrimp boils. We saw many of Aaron's neighborhood deer, who came to visit us every day. '

We did not get out to eat as much in past years due to Covid but we did manage to have dinner with a lot of our friends at least one time. Hutch and Lynn had a nice dinner on their deck one evening for a few of us. I forgot to get a picture. Leon and Laura had us over along with Audra and Bruce for oysters one evening, and once again I forgot to get a picture. We also ate crabs one evening at the RV Park with Aaron and Lindsey. We met our friends Bob and Kathy one evening along with Aaron at the Bonefish Grill. 

​ Josie, was able to catch up with the Haddad family that she was a Nanny for. They are all grown up now and are young adults.

Our friend Gloria came down from Michigan to Williamsburg so we drove up and spent a few days with her. She was gracious enough and one day took the Jamestown Ferry, followed by lunch at a Williamsburg institution, The Olde Chickahominy House.

I played a lot of golf with the old gang.  Missy was in town long enough to be able to play with Leon and me, something we almost never get to do. It was great playing with, Tommy, Mike, Hutch, Leon, and Aaron. Joe even treated us all to a round at the Country Club one morning and we had a great time playing as a sixsome. The foursome behind us never caught up with us. 

We now head south to Florida for the winter. 

We have spent the last two and a half months in Lake Orion, Michigan, visiting with Josie's son, Michael, his daughters Abby and Anne and their dog Sully. We did not plan to stay this long but with everything canceled and the Canadian border closed we were lucky enough to have a great place to spend the summer. Cathy and Scott flew in from Florida and we had a fun long weekend celebrating Josie's birthday. 
 
Mike has two boats, one a ski boat on Lake Orion and the other a classic 45 foot Mathews that he moors on Lake St, Clair. So needless to say we spent a lot of time on or near the water. We spent the 4th of July watching the fireworks on the lake from the boat and then the girls wake boarded the next day. On another day Michael took Abby and 7 of her friends out wakeboarding. We had Mike's neighbor Glenn over for dinner a few times and we also spent some time in Glenn's boat house man cave. 

We spent a few days cruising on Lake St Clair in the Mathews and both times we ended up at Bumpers restaurant. We had a great social distancing meal with boat drinks, while listing to Mikes friends Bob and Carl play just about anything we requested. On another trip it was raining when we arrived at the boat, so we plugged in the tv on the aft deck and watched golf till the rain stopped. 

We had a great long lunch with our friend from Arizona, Gloria, who is spending the summer with her sons in the Detroit area. We caught up on how she was doing and what she was up to and basically solved all the world's problems in the span of two hours. Josie mentioned to Gloria that she liked this great beer we had found from ROAK brewery in Royal Oak, Michigan and it turned out that her son Spencer knew the owners and when the owner found out how much Josie liked the beer he gave Josie a case of it. So, we met Gloria and Spencer at ROAK and Josie's son Michael also joined us for a grand afternoon of beer tasting and fabulous food. 

Addison Oaks County Park where we parked for the summer, is very nice with miles of trails. We liked to walk the one around the lake. 

I found a great place to go birding just a few miles north of our park. Seven Ponds Nature Center is very nice, and I found it to be quite birdy.

The United Shore Professional Baseball League is playing an abbreviated season at Jimmy Johns Stadium in Utica, Michigan. I attended an afternoon game where you had to wear a mask when entering and walking around, and you had your temperature taken at the gate. Seats were blocked off in every other row and limited concessions were delivered to your seat.   

Josie and I drove up to Frankenmuth, Michigan and had one of the famous chicken dinners at Zehnder's restaurant, a tradition with us whenever we come to Michigan.  On the way we stopped at a few antique and collectible shops where Josie found three more pieces of the pottery she collects. We spent two night in Frankenmuth,and left the RV back in Lake Orion. My full time RV friend Russ and two of his friends drove up and joined me for a round of golf at the Fortress Golf Course. 

Michaels Birthday was on our last day in town and we celebrated with his favorite Derby Pie and then relaxing in his new hot tub. 

I played a lot of golf with Mike's neighbor Glenn, He is a member of the local country club and we were able to play there once a week and then at some other local course later in the week.

I joined up with full time RV friend Russ and his friends and we played almost every Wednesday at different courses throughout the area.  Just as in Florida, the Sandhill Cranes like to browse for worms on the golf courses. Almost every course we played had at least one pair of cranes in residence.  

Once again this year I was able to participate in the Dads Supporting Downs Syndrome Charity Golf Outing. I was in a foursome with Josie's son Michael and one of his practice partners Matt, and Trevor a medical rep who played college golf at local Oakland University. We shot 14 under par to take 2nd place.

On July 9th my brother Tom passed away. He had a stroke last fall, and it looked like he was going to recover from it, but it was not to be. I spent a week in Kansas City getting his affairs in order. I miss him and our times meeting at the races all over the country. I will especially miss all the funny jokes and cartoons he texted almost every day. 

​ Our first day on the road was not an easy one. Just after we got on the Florida Turnpike near Fort Pierce, a truck pulling a boat passed us and a folding chair in its sleeve flew out of the boat and we ran over it with our left front tire. We pulled over and saw no damage, we dodged the bullet that time. 

Fifty miles south of Gainesville, someone decided to roll their Jeep over and we were held up in traffic for an hour and a half.

Then just outside of Lake City a car pulling a popup camper with three bikes on top of it passed us.  When it was about fifty yards in front of us one of their bikes fell off and I could not miss it and ran right over it. I was able to not hit it with my tires and the only damage we had was our generator exhaust pipe was ripped off.  The bike then got wedged under the Jeep and we dragged it over a bridge before we could get off the road safely. The people did come back and give us their insurance information and the Highway Patrol also stopped to make sure everyone was ok. We were very lucky that we did not hit the bike when it made its first bounce off the trailer and it went under us instead of into us. 
 
Oh, life on the road is so much fun!  But not today.

We are now heading north after spending an extra three months in Delray Beach, Florida.
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We have never stayed in one place this long (7 1/2 months) since we have been on the road. Having never visited Florida in the summer before we found out what real humidity is. We have seen torrential rains followed by high temps and thus the humidity is very uncomfortable. 

We were still glad to have Cathy and Scott in the area. Scott joined me one morning on a birding trip to the refugee. Later he made Bourbon Bacon, maple syrup, brown sugar and bourbon mixed together and then basted on bacon. Sweet as candy and made a nice accompaniment to our nighty bourbon tasting. We will miss their company, Scott's cooking and our nightly Mah Jongg games.

With a soft opening of outside dining, we were able to get back together with Susan and Robert again for a nice dockside dinner. They also invited us to use the pool at their beautiful home, so we could beat the heat and humidity. It has been great being able to visit with them for these past 7 months, and catch up with our longtime friends. 

After sitting for over seven months it was time for some TLC for the coach, so, we hired a detailer to give her a spa day. 

One day Josie and I drove up to Juno Beach and visited the Loggerhead Marinelife Center. We were able to see many of the turtles that were found stranded on the beaches of south Florida, and their efforts to heal and rehabilitate them for release back into the wild.  

With the golf courses reopening Robert and I were able to play golf around once a week. Social distancing is in effect on the courses, with only one person per cart and each hole adjusted so your ball only falls an inch or so into the hole and you do not have to ever touch the flag. I took advantage of the off -season rates and one day played the famous Doral Blue Monster Golf Course. 

Hope this post finds everyone healthy.  We are still in Florida and most likely will be for some time to come, since all the travel plans, we had for the summer have been cancelled or delayed. We have to say this has been a great place for us to ride this out. We have Josie's daughter and son in law, Cathy and Scott nearby and we have been getting together with them for dinner and Mah Jongg. 

This is the longest period we have ever stayed in one place in the six and a half years we have been on the road. Like I said before this is a great place to ride this thing out because the family that owns the park are very nice and they shut down new arrivals when the lock down started in March. Many of the people who were here, have gone back to their homes in the north, so the park is only half full now

We have never shown any of the symptoms of the virus, so we have not been tested even though there are many places we could go to get tested. We still wear masks when we go out in public and the beaches and golf courses are just now starting to reopen. Some restaurants and other businesses are also opening very slowly. The Boca Raton Resort which has been closed, shows the LUV every night and the Blue Angels did a flyover to salute medical workers.   

Many of the local farms have been overloaded with fresh produce since restaurants have been closed, and they have opened up drive throughs where you can buy a box full of vegetables, fruits and even flowers. Scott is a fantastic cook and he and Cathy have made us many great meals. On Kentucky Derby Day they treated us to Mint Juleps and Bourbon Chicken. Josie made a Bread Pudding with bourbon sauce for dessert. A few days later we celebrated Cinco De Mayo with beef and shrimp tacos. On Mother's Day they made Josie's favorite meal of ravioli and shrimp with lots of chocolate for dessert. We still try to order out a few times a week and support the local mom and pop businesses.  We also celebrated with Scott after he passed a test he had to take for his job. 

Scott and I treated ourselves to one last Stone Crab Feast before the season ended by pigging out on Colossal claws from the local seafood market. We also have been sampling a few nice bourbons on Mah Jongg nights. 

Spring here in Florida is beautiful with all the flowers in bloom. I have been out to the wildlife refuge a few times, where it is very easy to social distance. I was able to get a rather poor picture of a Swallow-tailed Kite scratching its head in flight, and also pictures of butterflies, grasshoppers and of course Wally Gator.