QC41-14 Rear Window & Northerly

February 24, 2014 (Mon)  South Bay, FL (5) 62/??° - An early morning walk on the levee gave us a wonderful view of the sunrise - and lots of mosquito bites. (Well, lots of mosquitoes anyway, not so many bites.) The fact that Joy suggested that we do it, and as yet feels no ill effect from it, speaks volumes for the improvement in her back.

Jack, a high school friend of Mark's is someone else we try to see when we are in Florida. So our jaunt today was into Stuart, FL to have lunch with him. Our visits are always good to stimulate old memories and catch up on the doings of old friends. And, of course, to hear about Jack's adventures over the past year. Probably the most significant of these is his recent foray into the world of antique cars. He is a new member of The Antique Automobile Club of America with his 1979 Mercury Cougar. The car, as old as it is, has only 9000 (I believe he said) miles on the odometer and is in immaculate condition. As far as he knows, and there is some documentation to the fact, everything on it and in it is original. i.e. it is not a restored antique. The one exception is the tires. He recently replaced the originals (35 years old) with reproductions. (He's hoping the certification folks will allow this for unrestored cars.)  It won a first place trophy for him in a local car show over the weekend.

Christopher Columbus was in town. It's true!! We saw his ships, two of them at least, tied up in the marina in Stuart.

The picture above is of the Pinta. The Nina is behind it. The Santa Maria was nowhere around. We think Chris may have taken it to do some sight seeing since we didn't see him anywhere either. Jack let us out of the car so we could walk out onto the bridge for a closer look at the ships while he turned the car around. There were no signs indicating what was going on so we corralled an official looking photographer (he had several cameras and equipment bags hung over his shoulders). He reluctantly paused in his determined dash up the sidewalk to say there was some kind of tour tomorrow.

Q091595 South Bay RV Campground w/e/s/c/w $25 B+ (x5)
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February 25, 2014 (Tue)  South Bay, FL to Hudson, FL (233/1899 miles) 67/83° - We mentioned the broken glass in Q's rear door a few weeks ago. Today we headed for Hudson, FL and Suncoast Designers to get if fixed. The appointment is actually for tomorrow but since they open and start work at 6:45am, we took up residence in their parking lot for the night to be sure we were here in time. The drive here was relatively uneventful except for:

• An osprey flew across the road in front of us carrying a large (3 feet long at least) palm branch in his talons - building or renovating his nest we assumed.
•  A large very long tear drop shaped, obviously old trailer pulled out of a rest area as we pulled in. On down the road later he passed us (he must have stopped for gas) and we saw that it was a "1957 Airfloat antique trailer" per the plaque on the back.

When Mark checked in at Suncoast Designers, he handed the receptionist the paper work for the repair last year and told her we were here to have the window they had installed fixed. "Not covered by the warranty," the woman said. "I thought not, but I was hoping." "Doesn't hurt to hope," she said smiling.

February 26, 2014 (Wed)  Hudson, FL - Lakeland, FL (57/1856 miles) 60/79° - The young fellows from Suncoast Designers showed up right on time at 6:45am to remove Q's rear window. They covered the resulting hole with cardboard to protect us from the elements - though there were no elements to be protected from today - and took the window inside to do their magic on it. We hung out in what felt like a canyon of big class A motor homes pretending we were experiencing spectacular scenic natural wonder views all around.

Just as we began to discuss what we might do for lunch (at about 11:30) the young men brought our window frame back, complete with sparkling new (unbroken) glass. 10 minutes later the told us that as soon as we'd completed the paperwork inside we were good to go. Then came the pleasant surprise - no charge! They had determined that the glass had cracked because of some burrs in the frame that should have been removed when we were here last year, so it was fixed under the warranty. They didn't have to do that since they'd already told us it wasn't covered. But  they did. Good guys!

When we got to Ed and Kathy's, they gave us a tour of their new motor home - a 2013 Newmar Ventana LE. Very nice!

February 27, 2014 (Thu)  Lakeland, FL (2) 59/70° - Lunch at one of the best (and a favorite) Chinese Buffets we've ever experienced with Ed and Kathy was the highlight of our day today. Other than that we made a few shopping stops and pretty much hung out the rest of the day. Oh, we also stopped by an RV dealership to look at small motor homes. Seeing Ed and Kathy's new one made us begin thinking maybe we could use one ourselves. The good news (especially for Q) is; we saw nothing that came close to sparking any desire to have anything other than our trusty little Chinook. While new would be fun (and expensive!) the floor plans we saw just didn't come close to being as functional as what we already have.

February 28, 2014 (Fri)  Lakeland, FL (3) 49/64° - It was chilly last night. I guess we are headed north after all. A cool day was a good day for a road trip. Englewood, FL is where Joy's folks moved when they retired and where her mother lived for many years. Today was the first time we've been back there since Lelia's memorial service 2 1/2 years ago. Jeannie, the proprietress of the group family home where her mother lived before she died was not available for a visit but Doris, her condo up-stairs neighbor was, and we enjoyed a delicious lunch together at the Mango Bistro downtown Englewood. It was both fun and emotional to later visit some of the familiar places in the area.

Traffic on I-75 and I-4 on our way back was unbelievably bad, making the two hour trip exhausting. Apparently it was just as bad east of Lakeland because Ed and Kathy had to abandon I-4 for back roads when they came home from their work day at Disney World.

March 3, 2014 (Mon)  Lakeland, FL (6) ??/??° - On Saturday we packed up Lamont with enough luggage to sustain us for an extended cruise and headed for Plant City for a couple of days with Ruth and Gordy (Mark's aunt and uncle). As always we spent a great deal of time around the dinner table and on their sun/screen porch discussing a wide range of topics from family doings to current events. And, all too soon, we had to say good bye. Thanks guys for your hospitality and a great time.

Q091886 Ed and Kathy's yard (x6)