Sao Miguel Island, The Azores: Mon. Apr. 2 (Happy Birthday, Mom!!):

Marv got out of bed when he heard Kris talking to Norberto. It turns out that there is someone staying in one of the places across the courtyard from us. She had called him to say that the power was out and Kris saw them outside talking. Norberto threw a switch outside and all was restored. He gave Kris the keys to the box in case it happens again. The day was cloudy and it would occasionally spit rain. After a breakfast of tangerines, eggs, and bread we headed a little ways east and then up across the island. And I do mean UP. We find ourselves climbing to 2500 ft. in a short way with switch backs with hairpin turns that can be a bit harrowing. We have seen signs here warning of 30% grade and anything less than 10% doesn’t warrant a sign. We also see cows walking in the road several times a day so you have to get used to watching for them and just plan on taking a break and slowing down for a while. Our first stop was at Maradoura Lagoa do Fogo (Fire Lake). The lake is in a crater of an extinct volcano whose caldera was formed during an eruption in 1593. The 2km long/1km wide blue lake is surrounded by high mountains. At 2500 feet we were far above the lake looking down into the wide caldera. We were lucky to have a pretty clear view and took plenty of pictures before the clouds rolled in, obscuring the view. We dropped down to Maradoura Barrosa for another wonderful view. From there an extremely steep path goes down to the lake and we could see people on the shoreline far below. But we felt the climb out was too much for the likes of us and so continued on our way to Caldiera Velha. Here there are volcanic hot springs with natural mineral water. One can bathe in the pool farthest up the trail but that water felt lukewarm at best and the waterfall that feeds it has left heavy deposits on the rocks so it wasn’t enticing. The first pool along the trail was boiling hot, steamy, and smelled strongly of sulfur so there was no question of entering it. There was some light rain falling at that site but luckily that was it for the day. The road descends on the other side of the island and we came to Ribiera Grande, the second largest city on the island. We parked at the city center and wandered for over an hour around the town square, looked at the gorge that the town is named after, walked up to the large main church and had coffee at a cafe across the street from it. When we had seen our fill we drove just outside of town and had our wine, cheese, bread, and apples picnic at a small roadside park. We realized that the factory I had seen on the way out was the ceramics factory we wanted to visit so we drove a short ways back and both couples bought a couple of things from there. We continued east, avoiding the short amount of the freeway that is finished on that side of the island. We much prefer the lovely and exciting older road with its curves and flowers and cow herders. We stopped at several spots to take pictures of the ocean and the long vistas and made a stop at Cha Gorreana, the largest tea factory in Europe, where we tasted three kinds of their tea, walked outside among the tea fields and bought some tea as presents. Marv continued driving us through Maia (in honor of Kris & Heidi’s daughter) and then cut back across the island by way of a road that passed high above Furnas, our destination for tomorrow. We looked down on it from far, far above and took pictures before taking a different road around it and over the mountains back to the west coast. We tried to find a restaurant in Vila Franco do Campo, which was the first capital of the Azores until it was completely destroyed by an earthquake in 1522. We walked along the waterfront where there were colorful fishing boats moored and up to one of three nice churches in the village. But we never did come across an open restaurant so we headed back to Ponta Delgadas. After parking at the Sacred Art museum we walked a short ways to Jordao’s for dinner. Marv & I had grilled fish, Kris had the chicken kabob and Heidi had their house special steak. It was quite large and was served with a fried egg on top so she had quite a meal! While we waited for the food we called my mom to wish her happy birthday. It was a nice evening with the moon peaking through scattered clouds as we walked back o the car and headed home to the villa, with a stop at Sol Mar for some groceries.

Sao Miguel Island, The Azores: Sun. April 1 (Palm Sunday)

A night’s sleep was wonderfully restorative and we woke up ready to really start exploring. Even better, it was a sunny warm day! We explored the northwest side of the island. We headed north from the villa and saw our first herd of cows walking right through the neighborhood. Further on, after stopping to take pictures of an old aqueduct, we pulled over for a large herd of goats being driven down the road by three shepherds with a truck and a dog. About half were wearing bells and it was quite charmingly noisy. We continued on, climbing higher and higher up the side of an old caldera. We turned into Lagoa(Lake) do Canario Park. We took a short steep hike on a trail lined with azaleas to Miradouro (viewpoint) Lagoa do Canario, one of the best, most stunning views in the Azores, overlooking the twin lakes of Sete Cidades (seven cities). Nearby we hiked down into a ravine leading to a deep, narrow little valley with steep sides and a stream. The area is filled with royal ferns, 30 to 40 feet tall, as well as more azaleas and other endemic plants. Following the winding road up further we stopped at a pinnacle called Vista de Rei (King’s Sight) in honor of a visit there of King Carlos in the early 1900s. From that point we could look down one side to the Sete Cidades and to the other side see the Atlantic Ocean. We descended to the little village of Sete Cidades and ate our picnic lunch of bread, wine, cheese and apples sitting on the shore of Blue Lake. The lost city of Atlantis is linked to Sete Cidades volcano by legendary tales. It also has a charming legend of the lakes being formed by the tears of a princess (Blue Lake) and a shepherd boy (Green Lake) who wanted to marry but were forbidden by her father. Climbing out of the village we made frequent stops at the well marked and very numerous Miradouras, each one a spectacular overlook. We passed through many tiny villages, each with its characteristic white square church outlined with black volcanic stones. The roads are lined with hydrangea, azaleas, Kahil ginger, calla and cannas lilies, nasturtium, and other flowering plants in profusion. We circled around the end of the island stopping at one of the ocean beaches that has warm water because of hot springs that mix with the ocean water but we didn’t join the handful of bathers. We managed to find a restaurant called The White Stallion in Santa Barbara that was recommended in the travel book Kris had brought along, but it wasn’t open either because it was a bit too early or because of winter hours, we couldn’t really tell. Instead we went a bit further and found another recommended restaurant called the Solar do Canto, which is in an old manor house. We were about an hour too early for their dinner time of 7:00 so we wandered around their extensive gardens until we could be served. It’s a very nice restaurant but the four of us were joined by only one other couple for the evening. We had the suggested daily menu and enjoyed a good, local meal which included coffee, wine and water, as well as dessert. When we headed south across the island to return to our villa we were surprised that it was only about 10 miles away on a wide, well lighted road. We got ready for bed soon after returning but Kris blew the power out plugging in a hair dryer for Heidi so he and Marv stayed up a bit longer trying to get it back on, to no avail. We figured we’d call Norberto in the morning and deal with it then.

Sao Miguel Island, The Azores: Friday, March 30-Saturday, March 31

The beginning and end of this trip promised to be among the most challenging for our systems of the many exotic trips we had taken with Kris and Heidi. Kris had found The Azores on Budget Travels Best Trips list for 2012. As we did some research and looked into it more they sounded like a good choice for us. There are nine volcanic islands in the archipelago and with just a week we decided to visit only the largest, most developed one, Sao Miguel. We were cautioned that if you’re looking for long hot days on the beach, The Azores are not for you. If you like hiking, beautiful lookouts, and wine and cheese, they could be just the place. That sounded like us so we made our reservations before Marv & I went on our winter trip. We could only fly from Boston to the city of Ponta Delgada on SATA airlines so we used Expedia to get cheap Continental tickets to Boston. While we were in Florida we got word that United had bought Continental and dropped our 10:45 return flight on Easter morning, instead booking us on a 6:28AM flight through Chicago. It’s hard to understand why we would be charged $150 to change tickets but the airlines can make a radical change like that and we have no recourse. We would have flown out of Boston Saturday evening rather than paying for a hotel room in Boston only to leave it at 4:00 in the morning! Oh well, nothing to be done about that.

So Marv and I drove to Heidi & Kris’s house early Friday morning, arriving right at 8:00, as planned. Kris drove the four of us to Grand Rapids, where our flight to Newark, NJ airport was slightly delayed by thunderstorms and sleet but we made it without any problems. We had about 2 hours before our flight to Boston so we got a sandwich for lunch before boarding, again with a slight delay for some reason. It was sunny and clear in Newark so weather wasn’t to blame this time. We had a ditzy flight attendant on the first flight who skipped over us for their beverage service until we asked for something. And on the second they only offered a glass of water and they charged for access to their Direct TV. Since we chose not to pay, the individual screens in front of us showed ads the entire flight, which was very distracting and annoying. All in all, we were pretty unimpressed with United Airlines. We had nearly 6 hours to wait in Boston and found that the desks for SATA weren’t even open until 8:00PM. Kris did some walking and found a nice food court in a different terminal so we had dinner there. We had free WiFi so we could do some checking in with family and on Facebook before we flew out. We also had a chance to check with the United desk to find out where our seats were on the way back. Marv and I had been put in the back row where the seats don’t recline for the flight to Boston and didn’t want to repeat that experience! We found out that we were closer to the front for the return flights (through Chicago) but Kris & Heidi weren’t seated together so they got that fixed.

When we returned to the International Terminal we were able to check in and recheck our bags. Finally we boarded the SATA flight and were truly on our way at 10:30PM, our time. The four hour flight was without problems but they had the lights on full most of the time and served us a full ravioli dinner at 11:30 at night. With a couple of glasses of wine and a Benedryl in us we hoped to sleep during the flight but sleep came only in fits and starts. That really hurt when we landed in Ponta Delgada at 6:45AM, Azure time, which was 2:45AM our time. It was still dark and was raining as we landed. We breezed through passport inspection and customs and found the Ilha Verdi (Green Island) car rental desk and got our car. They gave us a diesel Ford Focus that was big enough to hold us but not the station wagon we had reserved. We managed to get the bags in the back so we decided not to fight that fight. By then the sun had come up but the rain continued. Marv plugged in the GPS and she took us to the Villa we had rented online, the only disagreement coming when the street it is on turned out to be one-way the opposite way she wanted us to drive. Ponta Delgada is the capital for the Islands but it is pretty small (45,000 people) and relatively easy to get around in, with many roundabouts, few traffic lights, and narrow, often one-way streets.

Norberto met us at the villa and showed us around. It is very nice and either pretty new or recently renovated. It has nice wood laminate or terrazzo tile floors throughout. There are three bedrooms and two baths, one with a shower and one with a large whirlpool tub. The laundry room has a dryer but no washer right now but Norberto said he might have a new washer this week. The kitchen is quite large and modern with a dishwasher and a large wooden eating table in the middle. We can go up some outside stairs to a large area on the roof overlooking the city to the west and a view of the ocean to the south. There is a large yard and a small vegetable garden, a courtyard parking area with interesting designs in the paving stones, and remote controlled gates for the high fence surrounding the complex. There are some other buildings within the area but we don’t know what they are. The villa is nestled in a neighborhood at the edge of town with fields and cows very nearby. We think it will serve us very well as a home base this week.

We flipped a coin for the bedroom with a bathroom (Heidi & Kris won that one), unpacked our bags and laid down for an hour or so. Norberto had shown us where the nearby supermarket was so we headed that direction first. Although we can see it from the villa it wasn’t as easy to get to and we missed it the first time. So we continued on down into the main part of town on the harbor (less than 10 minutes away) to look around a bit, to get the lay of the land. It is small, cobblestoned and old world-ly. The temperature was probably in the mid- to high- fiftes and the rain/heavy mist continued as we returned to the grocery store to get some staples. Since everything is shelf-stable we decided to go back to the city center/waterfront. We found a parking spot and walked to the “National Restaurant” for a nice dinner of local specialties. It looks like we will have a lot of pork, beef and fish while in The Azores. The museum we wanted to visit was only blocks away but the rain was heavy enough that we drove to be closer. The principal museum on the island is Museu Carlos Machado and housed in a large, old convent. The information we had said to allow as much as 4 hours to see it all. We were much too tired to imagine we would last that long but we gamely went to try. On arriving we were torn when we found that it was closed for renovations. A sign on the wall outside directed us to the church across the street to see some of the exhibits housed there temporarily and the museum of Sacred Art nearby. The first had a display by a local artist who does wonderful and intricate paper cutting displays. It also has a small charming chapel for the nuns that has been renovated recently. It was very beautiful and surprisingly light and uplifting. The second was a short walk away and was a much larger church with three wide and impressive doors that are no longer used for entrance. It was a Jesuit church taken over when they were driven out in the 1500s. It eventually reverted to the government along with some beautiful paintings and other artwork. Some of the paintings have been cleaned and refurbished and are now on display. The sanctuary itself had more paper cuttings and has an amazing baroque carved wood chancel area that has also been fully restored. We spent a long time looking at it and marveling at the craftsmanship. There is a large oil painting on canvas of “The Coronation of the Sacred Mother” that, when it was taken down for cleaning, was found to be covering an even more impressive and older painting of the same scene that was oil on wood. That must have been an incredibly exciting find for the restorer to have found!! We all felt like the aborted museum trip was actually just about right for our energy level. Back at the villa the rain finally ended and we snacked on wine and bread and cheese for our evening meal. We sat on the rooftop for sunset, which peeked out from the clouds just a bit before disappearing behind the hills. Marv & Kris went for a walk around the neighborhood. After the daylong rain the villa was too cold for us to enjoy sitting inside, even with a space heater in the TV room so we drank some decaf coffee to try to warm-up and went to bed.

Chapter 16: Working Our Way Back Home (Mar. 7-12)

We got on the road Wednesday shortly after 9:00 and drove straight up I75 with only short stops to Atlanta, arriving in mid-afternoon. Along the way Rachel called to take us up on our offer to bring dinner to their house. So after setting up the camper at the Marietta RV Park (where we stayed last year, too), we went on-line to find some take-out food. I had a hankering for Middle Eastern so that’s what I searched for and amazingly there was an Iranian/Persian place right across the street from the RV park. We ordered what sounded good, picked it up and got to Rachel and Michael’s around six. Michael’s mom, Kelly, was there for the week to help out with the baby. We spent a nice evening chatting and admiring little Michael Louis Savage Bednarz while we ate the yummy food. It turned out that the owner is a patient of Michael’s, who knew the place well and told us that that owner was a scientist in Iran who had escaped the Ayatollah after the Shah of Iran was taken down. He couldn’t work in the US as a scientist so he opened the Falafel Café in Atlanta. Interesting story! We headed back to the camper soon after 10:00.

Thursday morning it was easy to take down the camper since we had done such a minimal set-up for just one night. We made good time but as we got into Tennessee we got into a large system of rain that would plague us the rest of the day, as we drove through the mountains. We had found an RV Park online called Oh, Kentucky! that was in Berea, KY and looked pretty good—until we got there. We parked in a puddle covered spot and dropped the camper so we could try to find something to do in Berea. First we went to the very nice Cultural and Craft Center at the next exit up I75. From there we headed into town, which has an artsy, folk craft, historical part of town, but pretty much everything was closed as we arrived around 5:00. We went on to Berea College and learned more about this historic institution, begun in 1855 and offering a balanced student body of blacks & whites, male & female. This is what their website says: “Berea College, founded by ardent abolitionists and radical reformers, continues today as an educational institution still firmly rooted in its historic purpose "to promote the cause of Christ." Adherence to the College's scriptural foundation, "God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth," shapes the College's culture and programs so that students and staff alike can work toward both personal goals and a vision of a world shaped by Christian values, such as the power of love over hate, human dignity and equality, and peace with justice.” They are committed to offering free programs to the most needy and promising students, primarily from the Appalachians. We walked through historic Boone Tavern and then went to a coffee shop to try and wait out the rain. There was a walking tour with cell phone audio guide that we might have done in better weather. Checking the weather online we saw that the rain wasn’t going anywhere for a long while so we gave up and returned to set-up the camper in the rain, securing it as quickly as possible but not even setting up the jacks.

The rain finally stopped during the night but the temperature got down into the thirties and I saw sheets of ice fall from the top of a slide-out on a nearby RV when they were closing up Friday morning. We dried things off enough to close-up and drained the waterlines and added anti-freeze to the traps so we wouldn’t have to worry about them as we continued north. Even with the extra steps we took, we arrived in Cincinnati in time to take niece Karen Weese and their daughter Julia out for lunch. We got a “tour” of their new house in their suburb of Montgomery and then played Wii with them until Jeremy got home from school. We quickly greeted him and then hit the road about 4:15 to drive to Carmel, IN. We grabbed a quick bite to eat for dinner and arrived in time to see the grandkids before they went to bed.

Jordan’s party was Saturday. Linda Nuttall and AJ had come down on Thursday and the boys were pretty wound up after two days together. Linda worked on a veggie tray while I made 4 batches of playdough. As the boys arrived they started playing with toys and getting together as a group. After a bit they gathered around the table to snack on the veggies, juice boxes, and sliced fruit. Jordan had presents from the family to open while the boys watched and then we had his Captain America birthday cake, thanks to Cessa Andrews-McMullan, cake decorator extraordinaire. The time ended with the boys playing with the playdough I had made. Amazingly everyone got the color they wanted and they got to take it home, along with a set of cookie cutters that Sarah had tied together with ribbon as a favor. It was a very nice 4-year-old birthday party! Craig’s parents and sister, Angie, Ken & Jen, Linda & AJ, the two of us and the 5 Penquites had bean soup for dinner and then the boys and Analyn went to bed and the others hit the road, Connie, Bill & Angie to a nearby motel and the rest to drive home. By the time we got to bed Marv and I were both really tired and it would be a short night because of the time change.

Sunday Craig took the three kids to Mass with his parents and Angie while Sarah, Marv & I went to St. Peter’s UCC to sing with the choir. There were only three other singers so they were pretty happy to have us, I think. Craig dropped the boys off for Sunday school and took Analyn home with him. It was a nice day with lots of sun and temperatures in the sixties so we all spent a lot of time outside playing and riding bikes. Sarah & Craig went to Lowes for some things while Marv raked sweet gum pods in the backyard and I played with the boys. We all watched MSU beat OSU in the final game of the Big Ten Tournament (Craig was disappointed) and then found out that MSU would be a #1 seed in the NCAA Tourney and OSU would be a #2 seed. We got Jordan’s choice (Chinese take-out) for dinner and watched the DVD of Pete’s Dragon that we gave him for his birthday. It was a nice end to a very nice weekend with our kids and grandkids.

We stayed with Analyn while Sarah took the boys to school on Monday morning. When she returned we packed up the truck one final time and drove over to Sam’s with Sarah in her car so she could buy some things she needed and fill her car with the gas that was $3.72 there instead of the $3.98 most places. As we drove north we realized that we would be in Auburn around lunchtime so we had Ken meet us at Subway. We got back to East Lansing without any problems, following rain in many places but never driving in it. During the almost seven weeks we had been gone we had hiked at least 44 miles, as tracked on my Phone, and that doesn’t include all the incidental walking we did around campgrounds and in towns. We biked around 154 miles. At the end of our trip we had driven 5125 miles and used 315 gallons of gas. The gas prices ranged from $3.17 (we saw it soon after for $3.06) to $3.79, making this the most expensive year yet. We were gone 52 days. We had seen much more of Florida and found some places we hope to see again someday. Best of all, we had great weather and returned to mid-March temperature of 60s and 70s in Michigan! The winter that wasn’t continued.

Chapter 15: Stephen Foster Cultural State Park (Mar. 4-7)

Here is the difference between Florida and Michigan—at 8:00 on Monday it was 36°. By 11:00, it was in the mid-seventies. That doesn’t happen in Michigan! After very hearty whole wheat pancakes for breakfast we got on our bikes and explored this large, campus-like park. The roads are all paved and led us first to the Carillion Tower in the center of a green which chimes the quarter hours from 8:00 until 6:00 with Westminster Chimes, and plays a fifteen minute medley of Stephen Foster melodies at 10:00, 12:00, 2:00, & 4:00. We can hear it clearly at our campsite. It’s very pleasant. There is a bit of a museum at the base of the tower, which was installed in the fifties. The museum shows all about the vertical bells and the paper rolls which play them. There are also some dioramas there illustrating some of Stephen Foster’s more famous songs. We learned that he was from Philadelphia and never actually saw the Suwannee River—he was looking for a more romantic sounding name than the “Pedie River” about which he originally wrote the song. His brother found the Suwannee in an atlas and Stephen shortened it to “Swannee” to make the meter fit the melody better. “Way Down Upon the Swannee River” is the state song for Florida, and Foster’s “My Old Kentucky Home” is Kentucky’s state song. We spent some time chatting with a couple from Virginia (now) and Long Island (previously). He was wearing a shirt from the Auburn-Cord-Duisenberg Museum and I mentioned it. They are old car Nuts (and collectors) and they told us about two museums in Michigan that we should visit. When we left the Tower we rode on to the craft village, a collection of 6 or 7 little cabins in which they have artisans demonstrating their local crafts such as pottery, blacksmithing, jewelry making, weaving, cane syrup making, etc. There was only a jewelry maker on duty today but she seemed surprised to find herself alone and thought there would be more people on Tuesday. We visited the Gift Shop and picked up a few things before riding on to a river overlook and then to the Ranger Station, which was closed when we arrived. The woods are full of azaleas and dogwood which are in full bloom and quite lovely. The area is having their annual Azalea Festival in two weeks and we’re wondering if the beautiful blooms will last that long. After checking in at the Ranger Station we went to the Stephen Foster Museum where we watched a video on his life and saw some artifacts and more dioramas. I also saw a collage of pictures from Elderhostel 2008 which included Rick & Jan Bernsten so I took a picture of it to send them. By the time we got back to the campsite we had ridden 3-4 miles, all on paved roads. We shared a sandwich and then drove to “Historic White Springs”. It is really just outside the gates of the park and we could have ridden our bikes there but we wanted to do a little grocery shopping while we were in town. White Springs was thriving in the late 1800s-early 1900s because of the 4-tiered bathhouse that was built surrounding a sulfur spring that people visited, coming from far away to “take the waters”. The foundation and upper tier are still there but the spring was wiped out by flooding in 1978. The town is pretty much wiped out as well, with only one of the original 12 fancy hotels remaining and, as we found out, there is no grocery store. We got a couple of things at a gas station store and decided we could make it through on what we had. Marv did find some corn bread mix that he made up when we got back to the camper and we enjoyed with our dinner. The temperature took a dive and it ended up getting down to 39° overnight, but we stayed toasty.

Tuesday turned out better than we could have planned. We were going to ride the 7.5 mile bike trail that the Suwannee River Bike Association had established just last October. We had read that it was an intermediate trail and the Ranger on Monday had told us he had just talked with a biker who said it had given him a good workout. Since we had a map that showed several short cuts and cut-offs we thought we could take the day and not push ourselves and manage. We could even pick it up right next to our campsite! But we were surprised to find an orange cone there in the morning with a sign saying the trails were all closed because of a prescribed burn. Marv hopped on his bike to ride up to the Ranger Station to get more information, and found out that they never know when the trails will close; they just got word that a burn planned in another location had been canceled because of the high winds so they moved it to here. Marv voiced his displeasure, since we would have done the trail on Monday if we had known. He came back to the campsite and we decided to go to Big Shoals Natural Area and try biking or hiking there. It was only 3 miles away, but the county road that took us there had no shoulder so it was just as well that we drive the bikes in the truck, rather than biking there. When we got there we went in the Little Shoals entrance and found that there was a 3.4 mile paved trail through the hammock to Big Shoals. It is apparently not a rail-to-trail because it winds through the area and has some elevation changes and shade. Marv would like more challenge, I think, but I loved it because I could look around and enjoy the scenery rather than worrying about watching the trail so carefully. At Big Shoals there were several trails off of a large picnic area so we locked the bikes and hiked the Big Shoals trail along the Suwannee River to…Big Shoals, of course. When the river is high the water running over the limestone formation there forms Florida’s only Class 3 rapids. It is very picturesque and we enjoyed eating our lunch sitting on a bench overlooking the shoals. We saw a volunteer hiking the path on our way back and met one other couple but otherwise had the place entirely to ourselves. When we got back to our bikes we had hiked 2.6 miles. We tried to take two more bike trails at that end but found they were not maintained and therefore were impassable. Instead we biked back to the truck and loaded the bikes up before driving two two-track roads to the Little Shoals hiking trail. It was a shorter trail into the Little Shoals but the path through an old growth hardwood hammock was very interesting—there was more elevation change and sometimes the forest floor was clear and you could see a long ways, and sometimes it was totally full of palmettos. At the shoals we saw a large turtle and a Great Blue Heron. It was a 1.26 mile hike bringing our total to almost 4 miles hiking for the day with 8.1 miles biking. We relaxed at the campsite before we both showered and then enjoyed the vegetarian chili I had left cooking in the Crockpot and the rest of Marv’s corn bread. In many ways, this felt like the last day of our Winter Trip because most of our time now will be spent either on the road or in homes with family, even though we’ll spend two more nights sleeping in the Camper.

Chapter 14: Redington Beach (Feb. 29-Mar. 3)

When we began this trip we were planning on ending it with a week at a Habitat for Humanity Build someplace in Georgia or Alabama. As things developed, we could only see John and Brenda Sternberg this weekend because all their days last week were full. I also couldn’t find any place in those areas that was part of the “Care-A-Vanners” program through which we worked last year. So a few weeks ago we came to the realization that it just wasn’t going to work out this year. But we were also too late to make reservations to guarantee camping anyplace. John was quick to offer their “Beach House” to us in Redington Beach, where we had visited them last year. So we didn’t rush breaking camp on Thursday morning, even taking time to defrost the refrigerator in the camper and packing up everything we would need for three nights in a house. We did pretty well, too. When we got to the house, about an hour and a half from Lithia Springs, we only had to pop the front half of the camper one time; that was to get out our phone chargers. We ate a quick, late lunch and then went over to the Gulf beach, a short three block walk from the house. There we walked down to where the tall condominium buildings start and then back to the access, where we sat on the sand and enjoyed the sun and waves for a while. I went in to paddle around a bit in the water that we were told was only in the high sixties but felt warmer to me than the 72° springs we have been in here in Florida. John had assured us that no self-respecting Floridian would go in the water at those temps but I thought it felt great. We returned to the beach that evening for a nice sunset. After Spanish Rice and salad for dinner we ran over to the Winn-Dixie for some groceries and then read for the rest of the evening because we couldn’t get the TV to come on. We also had a call from Ann & Shelby telling us that Marv’s mom was in the hospital for unspecified heart problems and awaiting tests tonight and tomorrow.

Friday when Marv made coffee he figured out that the ground fault outlet for the coffee maker had popped at some point and that all the kitchen outlets as well as the outlets on the other side of the wall, including the TV, were out. He pushed the reset and we were in business, although we never did watch any TV while we were there. After breakfast we drove the truck, with the bikes in it, to Seminole Park in nearby Pinellas Park to ride on the Pinellas Park Rail-to-Trail. It is a paved, linear park extending from St. Petersburg to Tarpon Springs (43mi). We took it to the south first, going over three steep bridges over the busiest roads and across the low, half mile Cross Bayou Bridge over Boca Ciega Bay. After that it was getting more industrial so we turned around and went north, past our starting point. It became more residential, there was more shade and it was less busy in general and therefore more pleasant. It was also after noon by then and since there were fewer people on the path I figured we were seeing the proof of “Only mad dogs and northerners go out in the mid-day sun”! But it was a lovely day and we really enjoyed the ride. We had one more bridge over a busy road that direction. Those bridges are pretty satisfying because they have a steep, steep grade, which requires one to shift way down to make it to the top. But then they level off before there is an equally steep descent, where we would coast at speeds up to 21 or 22 miles an hour. There was usually a long way before the next one to give us time to recover. By the time we turned around to head back we were headed into a pretty stiff breeze and our average dropped from 11 or 12 mph to 9 or 10 mph. But our time was our own and we weren’t trying to win any races so it didn’t matter. We found a place along the way where Marv got ice cream and I got a scoop of Italian Ice and then made our way back to the truck, by which time we had ridden 15½ miles. We were pretty hot and tuckered out when we got back so we rested a while and just had a light snack for lunch before taking chairs and books to the beach for an hour or so. I went in the water again but Marv didn’t; he doesn’t like the salt coating from the water. After getting cleaned up we drove about half an hour away to Clearwater to Dan and Jill Land Baker’s house for a visit. Jill is the daughter of Maxine and Harold Land from Kokomo, IN and they have known Marv’s mom since Harold and Marv’s birth father, Ken, were in flight school together in WWII. Marv’s mom wanted us to take them out for Jill’s upcoming birthday so they took us to a favorite local Greek restaurant where I had grape leaves and everyone else had gyros. Then we went back to their house to play cards and while we were there Jill had a call from Ann and then Marv called his mom so we got caught up on how she was doing (better). It was a really nice evening!

Saturday we drove to John and Brenda’s house in Tampa and we all went downtown to walk around a big outdoor Art Fair. It was sunny, hot, and windy and it was nice to just be strolling and talking. On our way back to the car John took us by the University of Tampa’s very impressive administration building which is housed in the 1891 Tampa Hotel, which looks like a Russian Orthodox Cathedral. We sat on the porch in the breeze and cooled off and then drove to a neighborhood strip of restaurants and shops, where we had a nice lunch. They had evening plans so we left them to relax for a while before they got ready and we stopped by Sam’s to get gas and get a few things. On our return we went down to the beach but the wind was a bit oppressive and very humid so everything was feeling clammy. The waves were rolling and crashing, looking very different than our other trips to the beach. I wasn’t even tempted to go into the water for the last chance I would have to swim. We didn’t even stay for sunset, but instead went back to the house to make salads with grilled chicken breasts for dinner, do two loads of laundry, and begin getting ready to leave on Sunday.

We finished packing everything into the truck except the refrigerator contents on Sunday morning and then prepared the lunch we were serving to John & Brenda and Pat & Ross Mack. We made our favorite “Cool Cucumber Couscous” and a tropical fruit salad. We had it all ready but waited for Pat & Ross to arrive from their RV Park in Kissimmee to grill the chicken. It was a nice lunch with lots of talking and catching up on a cooler day (mid 60s) than we had seen in several weeks. After ice cream and cookies for dessert Marv & I got on the road by 3:30 to go to Stephen Foster Folk Culture Center State Park, just north of where I75 and I10 cross in northern Florida. It took us nearly 4 hours to drive there and we arrived after dark, but had called them to get the gate combination. On our way we listened to MSU give up a 15 point lead over OSU to lose the final regular game of the season by 2 points. With the loss to Indiana earlier in the week, it was a very disappointing last two games and means that we have to share the Big Ten Championship with OSU and u/m. Sigh… We got set up in the dark and turned on the heaters as the temperature dipped into the forties and continued to drop. Hot soup made a good, light supper as we settled in for our 3 night stay.