T o Plant City, FL - #51-02

January 7, 2005 (Fri) Englewood, FL - Well we're getting ready to move on tomorrow. Bom (Joy's mother) is making great strides, so to speak, in her recovery. She graduated from her walker to a cane after about a week and last week she resumed her daily swim. Her doctors, home care nurses, and physical therapists are all amazed at her strength and determination. At 93 she's an inspiration to us all. Although a little stressful, what with care taking (albeit minimal) and a bit crowded at times (Joy's sister, Gail was here also for 5 days,) we've enjoyed our visit. With the help of all of Bom's kind and generous neighbors we've eaten far too many holiday sweets but we've managed to keep our weight under control with a 6 1/2 to 7 mile walk every day.

Joy's sister Frannie comes tonight for her yearly 2 month stay so it's back to the Q and the highways for us. We'll be stopping by here once in a while to say hi and to pick up our mail but now we're free to wander.

Q009318 SunTrust parking lot (parked) x17

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January 8, 2005 (Sat) Englewood, FL to Plant City, FL (102 miles)- It was hard to say good-bye to Bom but not as hard as it could have been. She is in good hands with Frannie there and we'll be back soon. It was almost 71° when we left Quail's Run at 9:30 and a beautiful sunny Florida day. The traffic was "normal" for this this time of year in Florida - heavy but uncrowded - and the trip up I-75 was uneventful. Henry did a good job of guiding us to the Brandon, FL Costco where we picked up some things we needed.

There were a few groceries we needed too (items not available in Costco) so we decided to stop on the way into Plant City where we could also pick up messages from our home machine and eat some lunch. In the process if getting to the appropriate parking lot we passed through one intersection several times. Each time we saw a car covered with small statues (at a distance looking like it had spiked hair) and religious messages crossing the intersection. It was also there an hour later as we left the area. He must be spending his day going back and forth through that intersection. (Maybe he thought the same of us!)

We got to Ruth and Gordy's at about 2:30 and took Q over to the pool parking lot for the next couple of nights.

January 9, 2005 (Sun) Plant City, FL - We just kinda "hung out" with Ruth and Gordy today - they are so easy to be with. For activities we went to the Plant City library where there was a quilt show going on (no quilt show left behind) and took a walking tour of some double wide mobil homes on display. The quilt show was a good one for its kind but not spectacular. Looking at the mobil homes was very interesting. We had no idea they were so "elegant". They were, of course, spiffed up with all the bells and whistles (they were display models). They ranged from one to three bedrooms. We liked the three bedroom the best.

Q009420 Parked (x2)

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January 10, 2005 (Mon) Plant City, FL to Lakeland, FL (124 miles) - We left Plant City at 9:50 (67°) headed for Palm Harbor, FL. Thanks Ruth and Gordy for another wonderful time! Henry got us to and through Tampa (I-4 & I-275) without incident - even though the traffic was horrendous - but had a terrible time finding Carol's house. We went round and round so many times that Mark did the unspeakable - he asked for directions. It turned out that he had programmed the wrong destination address! After a delicious lunch with Carol and a couple of hours of relaxing chat we headed back East for Lakeland, FL. Exit 33 on I-4 is under construction so we had to go a couple of miles further to a temporary exit. With this diversion and the problem in Palm Harbor, Henry had a mental breakdown. He'd begin to tell us about the next turn but suddenly recite our location (highway, direction, speed, city, county and state) over and over until we deactivated the voice navigation. After several attempts to calm him down we finally turned him off.

We got to Ed and Kathy's at about 5:30 and found Bob and Pat already there. We all had a great time catching up and sharing our activities since we were last together but went to bed early. We'd all had a stressful day.

Q009544 Ed and Kathy's yard