Lets go exploring!

 Monday December 26

The only significant event today was a drive up town to a Goodwill Super store.

Tuesday December 27 2022

Went to Costco, two thrift stores and found a good restaurant, GG’s of New York. 

Millie got a deal on a small ceramic Christmas tree and I bought some one dollar DVD’s. That night we watched the last episode of Better call Saul on DVD.

Wednesday December 28, 2022 

We went to downtown Fort Lauderdale and took a 90 minute boat tour on the Jungle Queen tour boat. Fort Lauderdale is known as the Venice of the East because of all the manmade waterways. We traveled along some of them and also took a spin around the commercial harbor where the big cruise ships were docked. The trip was narrated and our tour guide had interesting stories about many of the large yachts and mansions of the super rich. 

The end is near, December 29-31 2022

Its been a full week since I’ve written in the journal and to tell the truth I don’t remember us doing anything worth writing about. I seem to remember a Lil Caesar’s pizza that was fresh baked and really good.

I read most of a book called “Hell’s Bay”. It is one of a series written around a reclusive, anti-social man with no visible means of support who lives in the back waters of Key Largo and always ends up being the hero when he helps people who have been wronged.

Millie is also reading a book, it is one from the Stephanie Plum series written by Janet Evanovich, it is called “Going Rogue”. All of the Stefanie Plum books are fun easy reads, I think there are thirty of them published.

On Saturday I broke camp and put most everything away so we could go out for Breakfast on New Years morning. We only have to go about 65 miles on Sunday and breakfast eaten out will kill all the time we need to kill so we don’t get there too early. Check in at our new campground is 1:00pm.

That’s about it, the campground is the same on New Years eve as it has been since we arrived, quiet. That is quiet people, we have plenty of noise, the campground has two main arteries that run the length of one side of our urban jungle, the perpetual din from interstate I-95 and dual railroad tracks. A very fast commuter train runs multiple times a day and once or twice a day we hear the clackity clack of a cargo train.

2022 in review

All things considered, Millie and I are living the best life we can. I written and deleted this years end review several times because it always ends up being a political rant. The country has been through a lot in the past year and is still in a precarious condition. But there is nothing I can say here that will change anything. Besides this is a travel blog, so in celebration of a new year and our hope for the future I leave you with the wisdom of Calvin and Hobbes' final comic strip (December 31 1995)

Cancelled flight and 900 miles in a mustang convertible!

 Friday December 23, 2022

We cleaned up the camp site and put out our outdoor rug today. As we are here for another week or so we might as well make it comfortable. The Kolman’s spent the day in a huge indoor gaming arcade. Millie and I went to Walmart for a few groceries; we figure most of the stores will close early tomorrow and be closed Christmas day. We had beyond burgers cooked on the grill today.

The Kolman’s are still planning on flying home tomorrow afternoon. Time will tell if they have a plane available for the scheduled flight. The whole country is being blasted with a winter storm and flights are being cancelled left and right.

Saturday December 24 2022

Temperatures went down to 20 degrees in Myrtle Beach last night. It dipped into the forties here in Fort Lauderdale. Lots of the rest of the country are suffering with temps much worse than that. I had my friend Doug shut off my house water main valve yesterday just in case. As it turned out the power did go out at home last night but did not stay down long enough to freeze anything in the house. Our one mistake was Millie’s tropical house plants, we set them up with a watering system on the enclosed Carolina Room but we didn’t turn the heat on out there, we never dreamed it would get cold enough to freeze. The damage is done now, they will either survive or they won’t.

We went to the AirBnB  to spend the last morning with the Kolman’s. We all went to the Peter Pan Diner for lunch and then they started the long trip back to New Mexico.

It was standing room only when the service started.

Millie and I attended Christmas services at the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church here in Fort Lauderdale. It was a very nice service in a stunning church building. The Christmas event was a huge performance with a 100 person (my estimate) choir, an orchestra, solo vocalists, two pulpits and a professional video production crew. I’ve been in a bar in New Orleans with dueling pianos but never seen dueling pulpits before! Seriously though, there was two preachers but they had a compatible message, no dueling sermons!

Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Fort Lauderdale Florida

A while back I had purchased the DVD of “Downton Abby a new era” and Millie decided that we would save it and watch it on Christmas Eve. Well we did, but I can tell you this, it won’t be a Christmas tradition in our house. It was horrible, poorly produced and an unrealistic storyline, I can’t think of anything good to say about it. Even the scenery shots were short glimpses of some wooded hills, no panoramic spectacular landscape to be seen. I hope they paid the cast a lot of money, they need some consolation for being part of such a weak ending to an otherwise great series.

We are also nearing the end of the final season of “Better Call Saul” and it is going downhill too. We really enjoyed the first 5 seasons and the 6th up until this point. The continuity of time is lost and the script is jumping to different episodes of Jimmy’s life without any clear reason why. Four more episodes to go, we’ll see, I’m not expecting a happy ending but a conclusion that makes sense would be nice.

Sunday Christmas Day 2022

We spoke with the Kolmans this morning; they are driving across Texas on their way to Albuquerque New Mexico on this Christmas day. A major winter storm has been whipping across the country which is presently a challenge for the airlines. The family made their flight from Fort Lauderdale to Houston Texas yesterday afternoon, but the connecting flight to Albuquerque was cancelled and the next available seats for a family of four isn’t for days. They rented the last available rental car, a mustang convertible and are driving a distance of almost 900 miles. Once in New Mexico they will pick up their car from the airport and drive two more hours to their home in Los Alamos. A Christmas to remember!

Who wouldn't want to waltz across Texas in a mustang convertible!

Christmas day is quiet here in the Easterlin Park Campground, it is still only 50 degrees here at 11 am and no one is outside. I haven’t even seen any dog walkers yet. Millie is watching a live stream of Christmas service at her home church in Myrtle Beach, technology truly is amazing and we’re starting to take it for granted. We expect cell service and high speed internet every where we go now days. The RV is warm, we have two built in heaters, a gas furnace and an electric heater, either one will provide abundant hot air. 

We ate leftovers from the Peter Pan diner for lunch and dinner today. Chicken Phillly sandwich for lunch and Chicken from the diner and green beans and mashed potatoes Millie made. Both meals were delicious.

Between lunch and diner we took a drive around town. It never got out of the low 50’s today and there was not much traffic due to the holiday, so it was a good day for driving. Speaking of driving, Millie has been keeping in contact with RaeAnne all day and at 7 pm they are still on the road. They have been traveling now for over 24 hours via airline and rental car. They still have several hours to go before they get home. I’m afraid this will squelch any future plans to meet somewhere warm for Christmas. Can’t say I would blame them though.

Yes it may have gotten a bit cramped after a while!

This afternoon we watched a DVD movie, a Tyler Perry rendition of Alex Cross. Well, he should go back to comedy, he’s no Morgan Freeman. I’m sure it was as bad as I think, but my opinion is also biased. I have listened to many James Patterson audio books in the Alex Cross series and I’ve become jaded to the miraculous case solving and the always superior Cross family. In this story they didn’t boast about the better than everyone family but Cross pulled many rabbits out of the hat to track down the assassin and then the man who hired him; it was totally inconceivable that anyone could solve the mystery with so little evidence. I know it was just entertainment, but it should have been somewhat plausible. 

After doing a proof reading of this journal entry specifically my movie reviews it seems as if I have become a grumpy old man. I assure, that is not the case, I’m still the same easy going guy, older true but still happily living my best life. I’m blessed to be living in the warm south and unconditionally grateful for my life with Millie. Grumpy…..that’s impossible! 

Airboating in the Everglades

 Monday December 19, 2022

Two meals from the griddle today, breakfast of scrambled eggs with green pepper, onions and a dab of green chilies. Lunch was grilled squash, zucchini, and onions topped with grilled chicken tenders. Everything was good except the chicken, it was tough. This was due to my amateur cooking skills I’m sure. 

December 2022 

We went to the AirBnB after lunch and visited with the family. Their rental was built in the 60’s or 70’s I’d guess, but it has been refurbished and is very nice. BTW, I looked up the last sale of this house and it went for $799,000. Don’t retire to this part of Florida unless you have lots of money.

Dave and Marcus went to a trampoline park in the afternoon, we came back to the campground and just lazed around. We watched TV in the evening.

Tuesday, December 20 2022

The big event today was an airboat ride in the Everglades. Actually it was in a state controlled portion of the swamp called Sawgrass Recreation Park. Airboating is restricted in Everglades National Park and people who go there are actually airboating on an Indian reservation within the boundary of the park.

Evan and Marcus

The whole family went, it was ok for an introduction to airboating and the Everglades. We saw one alligator in the wild; he was about 4-5 feet long and not at all impressed with the visitors’ to his little island. We did see several in the exhibition park which is run by the airboat company including one 700 lb monster. They also had an American Crocodile there; he was very fierce looking even though he mostly ignored us.

The Kolman’s went to a swanky restaurant for dinner, Millie and I opt’ed for a cheese pizza from Lil Cesar. 

Wednesday, December 21, 2022

Dave’s sister left today and flew back to New Jersey. We went to the house and Millie and the boys made Christmas cookies and a gingerbread house. I left and went to refuel the truck, stopped at Home Depot for a knife sharpening stone and found a RV Park along the way. Stopped and got some info from them, it was ok but more like a trailer park atmosphere than an RV park. The county park will be my first choice if we ever come back.

On the way back to the RV I stopped in the office of our campground and one of their employees, Luke went above and beyond to search the computer for a way for us to stay here until the end of the month. He found space for us but I would have had to move twice to different sites, but he called me later and told me shuffled some booking and we could stay on our site C1 until the 1st of January. On January one we go to Southern Comfort RV Resort in Homestead for the whole month.

In the afternoon, Dave took the boys to a trampoline park. Millie and Rae Anne took the truck and went shopping. I organized my stuff in the RV. I still had things packed from home and I found a place to put everything. I made dinner from leftovers, not bad. The Kolman’s went out to a restaurant again tonight. They’re on vacation; Millie and I are here for the long haul, so we’re living more like we do at home and they eat too late in the evening for us.

Thursday, December 22 2022

Dave and Evan drove down to Key Largo today to snorkel at John Pendecamp State Park. They will be gone all day. Millie, RaeAnne, Marcus and I went to the Peter Pan Diner for a late breakfast. We loved the diner, great food and atmosphere. We had a very friendly server named Daryl. Later in the day Millie and I went to the Goodwill store down the road, neither of us bought anything. On the way home we stopped at the kolman’s AirBnB for a short visit in the afternoon. 

Evan Grandma and Marcus at the AirBnB

A surprise visit

 Sunday December 18, 2022

We didn’t expect to see grandkids this morning, their Aunt Lisa (Dave’s sister) sister is here for two days and we wanted to let her have their attention for her short visit. RaeAnne called and asked if she could bring the boys over to the campground as they wanted to see Grandma. They stayed for about and hour and a half, the boys have really rocketed up in height since we last saw them in the spring. They are still skinny as bean poles though. I had bought them some Cheap (throw away) toys, thinking they play with them in Florida and wouldn’t have to worry about getting them home on the airline. They spent almost the whole time playing with whirly gigs that you launch with a slingshot. They had as much fun retrieving them from the trees as they did launching them, that’s boys for you!

Marcus and Grandma

Millie and I stayed in the camp all day, I installed a device called LevelMatePro. It is installed in the RV and Bluetooths wirelessly to my phone. When you pull into a campsite, you bring up the app on your phone and it will tell me how level the trailer is to within ¼ inch. This gives you the opportunity to move the RV within the site if it unlevel before you park and unhook the RV. If the site is seriously unlevel you may still have to use block or ramps.

Big boy toy

During primary activation it works perfectly. At our next stop we will be in an unpaved campsite in a state park, so that will be the first real test.

We watched an old Tom Hanks movie (Volunteers) this afternoon, In addition to John Candy the movie also featured Rita Wilson who would someday become Tom Hank’s wife. Millie says they are still married. It was a farcical comedy, cute.

No ToTo this definitely wasn't Kansas!

 Saturday December 17, 2022

I almost forgot, I always say my plan in Florida is to drive south until I get to 80 degrees and sunny. Well it was 80 degrees and sunny when we got to Easterlin yesterday!

We only one task to be done today, but it turned into a day long affair. We could not get into the AirBnB until 4pm to deliver a grocery order that RaeAnne had placed with Target. We decided to visit some of the thrift stores in the surrounding area; it turned out to be quite a few. 

Always a treasure hunt!

The first one was a pet benefit store, it was a little cluttered, but not too shabby. I bought a couple DVD’s for a buck a piece and two audio books on CD, I think she charged me a buck for them also.

The second was theoretically a church benefit shop; I doubt it had any organized church affiliation. It was mostly a warehouse filled with used furniture; the sign in the window promised 3 minute approval for financing up to $6000. We didn’t touch anything and kept a distance that we figured a bed bug couldn’t jump. It was that kind of place.

Yes, its that kind of store

I admit I was suspicious of the third store; its name is “Out of the Closet”. When we turned onto Wilton drive my suspicions were confirmed, all the couples out on this fine Saturday afternoon were males. As we rounded the curve and entered downtown Wilton Manor, the rainbow flags were everywhere, even the liquor store had a giant “Be Proud” painted on a rainbow background covering the entire front of the building. We found a metered parking spot and as I fumbled with the meter Millie pointed out that all the meter poles were painted in rainbow colors. You know, it’s hard to concentrate on electronic parking meter instructions when they are placed so low you have to bend over to read them, if you know what I mean. 

Not that there's anything wrong with that!

As we walked to the store, if there was any doubt about the store or its customer base it disappeared when I saw the “Free Aid’s testing sign. We persevered, there were racks of designer fashions for Millie to browse through and I headed for my usual, the DVD movie section. With my senses on heightened alert, the first thing I noticed was the 2 foot high collection of Will and Grace DVD’s. I also had the feeling, probably paranoid feeling that men kept making eye contact with me. I don’t know why, if they had their gay-dar on, I would clearly be registering in the straight as an arrow side of the meter! I think I bought two DVD’s, I don’t even remember what the titles were, I must have been rattled by the experience.

Who you looking at?

Our next thrift store was a mixed bag, still in rainbow territory, but the customers seemed ok. I did notice that like the pervious stores they had a lot of DVD’s. Everyone is selling them for one dollar now days, we use them in the RV so it’s buying season for us.

The last thrift store of the day was a branch of Out of the Closet, I was prepared this time and didn’t quite panic while in the lions den, so to speak. Like the other stores they had a huge selection of DVD movies. In this second gay run store it dawned on me that they had an awful lot of the DVD’s on the bottom shelves. It was like the parking meters, you have to bend over to see the movies, and yes the paranoia started creeping back in. Were those guys looking over the clothes rack checking me out? I bought one DVD; I made Millie stand behind me in the checkout line. 

Disclaimer: I am in no way offering any opinions on the Gay people, but they are a different breed, that’s for sure. They have a right to live their life and my story is just a bit of humor and was in no way meant to be derogatory. If I have offended anyone, pull up the big boy pants and get over it!

PS: Millie reminded me of this story while we were in rainbow land. It seems there are homeless or undesirable people in every neighborhood. While we were working the parking meter we couldn’t help but notice the downtrodden couple sitting on a nearby bench. They stood out in this neighborhood not only because of their unkept rag tag appearance, but they were a male-female couple. At least we think it was a female, it’s hard to tell sometimes.

Got any weed?

Anyhow, about the time we registered some time on the parking meter the female looking person saw an approaching young person and she bellowed for all the world to hear, “Do you have any weed?” He replied that he did and she could hardly contain herself. We were on the back side of the bench so couldn’t see if any money was exchanged, but in a few seconds she was lighting up what appeared to me to be a crack pipe. All this took place across the street from the city Hall.

It was a sometimes bizarre and sometimes shocking day today for these old simple country folks!

Before we could venture into some other never never land it was time for us to pick up the Target order and deliver it to the AirBnB. The streets got straighter, literally and figuratively as we left Wilton Manor and drove to Target. Soon we were back in the city with all its noise and traffic and panhandlers and who knows what else. Somehow this was strangely normal to us, our town Myrtle Beach is becoming a city with all undesirable qualities common to them.

The grocery order delivered safely to the AirBnB we stopped at an Aldi’s grocery store to get some provisions for ourselves before returning to the campground.

Since dinner I’ve been tapping away at this blog entry. 

The family that snowbirds together..... stays warmer than you!

Home to Flamingo Lake RV Resort

 

Wednesday December 14 2022

We departed Myrtle Beach at our normal 9 AM-ish and traveled on secondary roads through South Carolina and most of Georgia. We entered I-95 for the first time near Brunswick Georgia and traveled on it to Jacksonville Florida. After the days drive of a little over 300 miles we spent our first night in Flamingo Lake RV Resort. (A Sun Resorts property) 

Nice place but too rich for my wallet.

Cost was a wopping $80 for one night, that’s what happens sometimes when you have no plan and look for an overnight spot when the sun is low on the horizon. Nice place though. On the plus side it was a paved level pull through site and we were able to leave the truck hooked to the RV. Day one ended with a peek of sunlight, which was nice after a day of driving in overcast dreary weather. Temperature was 70 degrees at sundown.

Sabastion Inlet, one of my favorites in Florida.

Thursday December 15 2023

We got underway on Thursday morning at nine AM, our usual departure time. It was raining when we left Flamingo Lake and it would continue to rain the whole day. We circled the west side of Jacksonville on I-295 narrowly missing a traffic backup due to an overturned truck. It happened a few seconds before we got there, but there were already a group of men who were assisting the driver so we went on by. We were looking forward to escaping the break neck speeds of the interstate when we exited onto Highway 17, but this road was busy too. After about ten miles the surroundings became rural and the traffic thinned. We enjoyed a relaxed country drive all the way to Deland before turning east to the Daytona Beach area. 

Sabastion Inlet State Park campground.

We traveled south along the ocean on A1A and arrived at Sebastian Inlet State Park at 4:30pm, it was raining buckets and we were only here overnight so we did a minimal hookup. Our site was close to level so we left the truck connected and just hooked up water and electric lines. Didn’t record the temperature, but the air was cool and it rained into the night. We traveled a bit over 200 miles today.

Our site at Sabastion Inlet.

We started watching the final (6th) season of Better Call Saul on DVD, we are only watching one episode a night. We watched the first five seasons on Netflix and didn’t want to wait for the 6th season to be on Netflix next year, so we bought it on DVD. We filled in evening with a couple episodes of Arrested Development, the wacky comedy series from the early 2000’s.

Sabastion Inlet (view from the north)

Friday December 16, 2022

As the day dawned we were pleased to see the sun, the air was still cool but not bad, not bad at all. We delayed departure and walked around the campground before embarking on our short driving day of about 125 miles. 

Sabastion Inlet to Easterlin County Park

We drove the first half of the day on A1A down the coast. We passed many obviously rich homes and coastal communities; there are not many working class people out here on the barrier island. After Titusville the traffic got increasingly congested and by the time we got to Stuart we decided we might as well be on I-95 if we have to be amongst all these road warriors. We continued the journey on the interstate, traffic was heavy but moving. We had one short backup so everyone could rubber neck a minor accident. Leaving the interstate near Fort Lauderdale the passage began to look familiar as we neared our destination for the next week. We had stayed at Easterlin County Park several years ago when we stopped to visit an old friend in nearby Davie Florida.

Easterlin Park, an urban wilderness.

We arrived at Easterlin County Park at 3pm, the earliest time we could check in. I had read that it was rigidly enforced so we timed ourselves to get here at 3 pm.. It seems that an awful lot of campgrounds are along a busy highway or a railroad track. Well Easterlin is the trifecta of noisemakers; it is bordered by an interstate and a railroad track, plus is in the flight path of an airport! It’s all good, after a couple hours you hardly notice the noise. 

Our site at Easterlin

When Millie and RaeAnne decided in October to meet in Florida in December, I started searching for a camp site, not the easiest thing to acquire this late in the game. Every Rv’er wants to be in Florida during the winter. The target was to be in the Fort Lauderdale area the week before Christmas, two weeks earlier than our previous plan. I checked repeatedly for an opening in the area and after my third call to Easterlin, they had a cancellation. It was only because of the RV’s relatively short length of 24 feet that it was not snapped up by someone else before me.

The lake at Easterlin.

At the same time I was campground hunting, RaeAnne was searching for an AirBnB house, probably facing the same challenges as me. Knowing how congested the roads are in the heavily urban southeast it would be a real craps shoot if we booked lodgings close to one another. Well, seven come eleven we were a mile apart. We could have walked between our places, but nobody did that.

One of the campground roads.

I was able to reserve the site from the 16th to the 23rd, not perfect but the best I could do. The New Mexico Contingent will not be here until tomorrow night, but that gives us time to pick up a grocery order for them and put it in the AirBnB house they have rented. We will leave the day before them but that’s ok too, as they will be busy on their departure day.

The park has a very popular disk golf course.

Our site is paved with full hookups, water, electric and sewer. It’s in the rear of the campground with no campers behind us. It’s very quiet at night, except for the din of road noise from I-95 and the occasional airplane on its way to or from Fort Lauderdale airport. The commuter trains seemed to stop running in the evening. 

Beautiful palm trees

We set up the outside cooking area and made Chicken and grilled veggies for dinner. We ended our outdoor activities at dust after a walk around the block. I was surprised we were not attacked by mosquitoes, that was very strange. 

Under construction bathhouse, six months behind schedule.

I will end by speaking nicely about our location. Yes, we are in a city surrounded by cars, trains and planes, probably some boats nearby too, but the campground is nestled in a 46 acre mostly wooded county park, they call it an urban wilderness area. So, while we can hear the outside world, visually we could be in a remote forest somewhere. It’s a nice place, about the nicest place you could be in an RV in a city anywhere.

SOAR

 

Special Operations Association Reunion 2023

Every October the Special Operations Association holds its annual reunion (SOAR). It’s always in Las Vegas, always at the Orleans Hotel/Casino complex. The SOA has never been a large organization, never having more than a few thousand members. 

Cocktail hour before the banquet

You see it’s not an easy group to join; you have to be invited in by a current member and be able to prove that you operated behind enemy lines in a conflict somewhere in the world. Because the organization was formed shortly after the Vietnam War it is mostly made up of veterans of that conflict. Therein lies a problem, we are dying off. 

Banquet

Anyone who has been a long standing member can see the decline in attendance. Gone are the loud booze swilling gatherings in the hospitality room. You mostly see small groups in quiet conversations now, more than likely talking about comrades who died in the past year. 

LarryM and Bill Norden

We’re not the only fraternal organization with this problem; the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association is looking to affiliate with military institutions that will preserve their legacy after they all fly west into the sunset. Our group has been trying to attract younger players from recent conflicts. I don’t think this has been too successful; most people want to be with their own kind. That’s just human nature.

LarryM, Duffy Jensen, Bob Bost, Saunders

One of my friends says he will never miss another reunion because too many of his friends are gone as each year passes. I don’t know if I can do that, but Millie and I travel to SOAR as often as we can. 

At the casino entrance

Some of our Air Force brethren who also flew for MACVSOG CCS [Cambodian mission]
The 20th Special Operations Squadron

Aviators of the 195th Assault Helicopter Company who's daily excursions into the gates of hell itself seemed exciting but strangely normal. (Southern Brotherhood Breakfast)