Trip to Ringling Museum with Debbie

I know Randy wanted to spend hours in an art museum, but I really thought we needed some time away from each other, so I jumped at Debbie's invitation to tour the Ringling Museum in Sarasota. They have a fabulous collection of Reubens and other Renaissance paintings, made even more interesting by the fresh flower arrangements exhibited and inspired by the paintings. Taking photos was okay, but no flash. I struggled to find a manual light setting and in turn forgot to compose the photos. Hopefully, you can see what the flower arranger was trying to do.

We left the art museum and went to the circus museum. This beautiful wagon was transported on rail cars until the circus reached it's destination and then was part of the parade advertising the circus. I have only seen one small circus and had no idea that in it's hay day the Ringling, Barnum and Baily Circus was huge, employing 800 people and putting on a show under a tent larger than a football field. The circus no longer belongs to the Ringling family and the house and museum were bequeathed to the State of Florida. Truly a great place to visit... very well done, reasonably priced and the pork barbecue for lunch was yummy... not quite up to a Sonoran hot dog though.

Randy spent the day meeting the new neighbors, a couple from Ontario who Randy says look and talk like the Clampetts. We are now sandwiched between ZZ Top and Jed and Granny. It just makes you want to spend your winters in a trailer park, doesn't it. I am out of taffy so time for sleep.

We try to go to the beach.

After spending the weekend doing laundry, cleaning, and trailer maintenance, (just a little pipe leaking problem, tail light out, and Yuk, Yuk, Yuk, sewer back up problems), we decided it was time for a Beach Day. We packed up the coolers, lawn chairs, straw hat, sunscreen, dog water, dog treats, dog and headed for the only dog friendly beach: Fort Meyers Beach. As you may remember, we had visited the beach when we first arrived, a cool, overcast day, no problem parking and very few people. After sitting in traffic for one and a half hours, we realized that our only hope of remaining civil with each other was to turn around and head home. Boy, are we beach newbies, who knew that that the beautiful 80 degree weather would inspire every other Snowbird in Southwest Florida with a dog to head for the only dog friendly beach. It may not seem obvious to my blog followers, but Randy and I do eventually learn from our mistakes and we have concluded that next time we travel, the dog must either board with Aunty Lissy and Uncle Tim or learn how to stay alone in The Land Yacht.

It wasn't a completely ruined day, I discovered Beall's Fun and Funky Florida style clothing outlet. I had great fun picking out shorts and shirts for Randy, pants with embroidered matching tops with beach themes for me and some cheap flip flops... I realized I was out of control when I noticed that in my Southwest Florida induced "dare to be tasteless" frenzy, I had put some denim capri pants with flamingos gracing the pant leg in my cart. I traded them in for some salt water taffy.

It is time to sign off, not only am I getting tired, but my fingers are too sticky to type... damn that salt water taffy.

Another cool day in Fla, but we're not complaining

Remember our neighbor, Charles Manson, well turns out, when he is sober and not stoned out of his gourd, he's actually a very nice guy. He came over to apologize for the first night, said he had just been laid off from his job and was understandably depressed. (Not really a good time to decide to meet the neighbors, but we all have lapses in judgement.) Because he is home during the day, we asked him if he could dog sit so we could go to the Edison Museum in Fort Meyers. He agreed to do it for a case of beer. Randy thought this was a pretty good deal... who wouldn't want to be paid in beer. Edison was an extrordinary man... I knew about the light bulb and the phonograph, but the list of his inventions was incredible. He was such a forward thinker. He realized that we would become too reliant on foreign oil and thought we should be looking at the sun to meet some of our energy needs. At the end of his life, he was trying to find a way to grow and harvest a plant on American soil that would provide a source for domestic rubber. He tried many different plants and trees, including the amazing Banyan Tree. His original sapling is now a tree which has spread over an acre. That is the Banyan tree behind his statue. Eventually, he developed a hybrid of the lowly Goldenrod which stood 12 feet tall and could provide many pounds of latex. Sadly, he was already 84 and died before he could bring his final dream to fruition.

Now that we have an on site dog sitter who we can pay in beer, we may try to go to Sarasota and the Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey Musuem. Randy does not know about the fabulous art collection and I think it best to let him find out after we have driven the fifty miles to Sarasota. Now if I could just figure out a way to trick (I didn't say that) him into seeing a professional production of West Side Story, playing in Naples, my trip to the Gulf Coast would be complete. Maybe dog sitting neighbor Dominic would go with me for a case of beer. You never know...

Bonita Springs and exotic birds

Randy and I spent the day with my friend Karin's daughter Debbie and her husband John in Bonita Springs. Deb and John have exotic birds at their Florida home and Randy and I were introduced to them. One of the birds had an amazing vocabulary, it even sounded human when it was mumbling to itself. Deb insisted that I get into the large cage with it after telling me "Ruby" could be unpredictable. Against my better judgement, I stepped into the cage to get some photos and while clicking away, I swear I heard this bird say: mumble, mumble, bite it's arm, mumble, grumble, mumble, snatch out it's eyes, mumble, grumble, grumble, steal it's camera. As I was quickly exiting the cage, I know it said: mumble, mumble, missed my chance. The bird Debbie was holding was friendlier and she thought maybe I would like to have it walk all over my body. I saw those scars on Deb's arms and thought to myself, I know the chemo I am on only lowers your white count slightly, but I am NOT risking some exotic birdy disease for the chance to have this thing perch on my arm.

We had a great visit with Deb and John. I hadn't seen Debbie in years and really enjoyed catching up with her and meeting John. We got back to Casa Airstream a little late because we overshot our exit on I 75 by about 40 miles. (Randy was really happy about that) It was nice to find my cozy little bed waiting and that is why I am writing the post on Thursday morning.

Kindle meltdown, RV Park Barbecue, and Tornado Warnings

Finally a lovely warm day, I went for a swim, overused my shoulder and came home in pain. I took some happy pills, settled in a lawn chair with an ice tea and my Kindle, turned it on and zap, screen meltdown. I called Amazon and the great news is I am getting a replacement via UPS tomorrow. And believe me, without my Kindle, the Stunned and Dismayed RV Park would be barely bearable.

However, feeling that we hadn't given the park and the people a fair chance, we decided to go to Tuesday Barbecue night at the "clubhouse". I insisted that we make a concerted effort to socialize and maybe even get a good meal. The sign said to bring your own drinks, so Randy packed up his beer and a soda for me and off we went. Dinner was a tiny hamburg and an even tinier bag of chips, but Randy took solace in the fact that he could at least have a beer. He took a beer out of the cooler and 20 people pointed to the No Alcohol Sign. At least we got noticed. It was time to go anyway, because someone was firing up the old Kareoke Machine and such hootin' and hollerin' you have never heard.

We returned to the trailer just before a huge Florida sized wind, rain and thunderstorm blew in from the Gulf. Randy turned on the TV and saw the warning sign scrolling along the bottom telling people to seek shelter in the sturdiest part of their homes and that trailers and RVs were not safe. (We already knew this, but there was no mention of what to do if your only shelter was an RV.) I have to admit it is a little scary imagining yourself flying through the sky like Dorothy in your tiny airborne silver bullet. We kept watching the news hoping they would announce shelters for RVers, but just the warning..."trailers and RVs are unsafe in a Tornado". Finally, just before the power went off, they removed the Tornado Warning for this county and I am happily writing this blog, secure in the knowledge that I won't be visiting OZ tonight.

Randy and I find a nice beach... dog gets us into trouble

Today was sunny and 65, a good day to explore Fisherman's Village in Punta Gorda. We found beach themed gift shops, clothing stores with Hawaiian shirts and fancy flip flops, one cute gallery with some neat fish prints, (literally, the actual fish is inked and a rice paper print is made from the fish) and Randy's favorite, The Salty Paws. He bought a ball cap with a German Shepherd on it. Keeping with the fish theme, the only thing I wanted was a giant fish cookie from a tiny bakery next to the Salty Paws. I resisted, always mindful of those Weight Watcher Points. Randy suggested I buy a ball cap or a Tee shirt with cookies on it. What a pair we would make... the skinny man loves his German Shepherd and roly poly woman loves food.

We left Punta Gorda and drove northwest to Gasperilla Island. This small island is dotted with very fancy condos and houses, but does have a beautiful public beach. The rules were posted on a post in the parking lot and we actually thought pets were allowed... it was a bit ambiguous to be sure, but there weren't many people, so we leashed up the girl and off we went. It didn't take long for us to realize that people were staring at us with there cell phones to their ears. Randy took the dog and made a beeline to the truck just ahead of the local Sheriff of Snootsville. I was walking with my cane and exaggerated my limp to illicit sympathy, but I don't think it would have mattered to this bunch. We climbed into our "good ol' boy truck" and waved to the sheriff and the well healed looking couple who had done their civic duty. I know rules are rules, but they really weren't all that clear. The very coolest thing on this island, besides the dog unfriendly beach, was a giant Banyan tree... and the fact that no one told us to move on when we stopped to photograph it.

Home to The Sun and Shade and our very modest little trailer... which suits me just fine.

Pizza fire, Pizza fire and none to soon... it's cold down here

It's cold in South Florida! Not as cold as Saranac Lake, but cold. Randy and I decided to find a dog friendly beach, which we did, the very nice Fort Meyers Beach. We even found a handicapped spot that allowed for free parking... well that would have been very nice if the handicapped person had brought her handicapped hang tag. Oh well, we plugged the meter, fifty cents for 15 minutes, which was about all we could handle in the cold. We'll be back when the weather improves.

We returned home, closed the windows and turned on our space heater, (Thanks, mom, that was a great Christmas gift.) Randy had bought a frozen pizza for dinner and fired up the Magic Chef. He popped in the pizza and went back outside, I had closed the door between the bedroom and living/ kitchen room and didn't notice the smoke pouring out of the oven. We opened the roof vents and all the windows. It looked like the trailer was on fire. I was waiting for someone to call 911, but it was after 6:00, everyone had turned in for the night. Even our neighbor, Ziggy Pop, was too stoned to notice. I guess it was for the best, we certainly would not have endeared ourselves to the park inhabitants if noisy fire trucks had been called. Actually, I suspect nobody called, because compared to the fancy trailers in this park, we look like aging hippies in their gypsy wagon.

Praying for warm weather here in South Florida, but glad we're not in Saranac Lake. (Sorry, Kath, I know you love it up there... but you made it on the local news... right here in Punta Gorda.