Trade winds, pool time, ocean, biki……

Oh, that too!

We arrived in St Maartin on Sunday afternoon after getting up at 3 AM for a 6:15 flight from Orlando to Atlanta. About a 2 hour connection then on to St Maartin. The rooms are very nice. We are in a studio with a kitchen and dinning room, a balcony over looking the pool and the ocean. Very, very, nice!

We have restaurants nearby and a small grocery for most things we might need. The roads are very hilly here at Pelican Point near the bridge from Simpson Bay. We can see the planes land and take off from the airport and it's infamous beach at the end of the airstrip.

We have spent a lot of time in the pool and lounging in the shade. When the trade winds are blowing it is really nice but rather hot and humid if they stop.

Some photos from our stay so far.

Cindy and Clyda in the pool.

 

Nice pool with ocean in the background.

 Clyda, Cindy, and Gary.

 

Cruise ship heading for Phillipsburg nearby.

 

Sunset last night.

 Dinner at Bon Appetit (French).

Waiting for a bus.

 Lunch at the beach.

At a Timeshare South of Disney World.

Our trip from home to Florida was looooonng. We took the Airbus to Los Angeles at 6 PM for a 11:15 PM flight to Detroit. We had time for a leisurely dinner at LAX before our flight. The flight was fine and we arrived about 6:30 AM. Why Detroit you ask? Our friends Cindy and Gary were flying to Detroit from San Francisco so it made sense to meet them there and fly together to Orlando.

We had only minutes before our flight left for Orlando as they were calling our name when we arrived at the gate. We actually got an upgrade to seats closer to the front to the plane. I had asked for a wheel chair for Clyda and glad that we did as it was a half mile between gates. Oh, we also had a TSA pre-check on our tickets so we didn't need to unload everything from our bags to go through security.

Arriving in Orlando, we got the rental car and drove to Mystic Dunes, a Diamond Resorts property South of Disney World. It is a big property with 23 buildings and over 900 rooms. Beautiful grounds but outdated furnishings in the units but Diamond will eventually upgrade them all.

We drove to what we thought was Downtown Disney where there is shopping and restaurants that you can visit without paying a Park entrance fee. Everything is under construction and all the close in parking lots were full so we left.

We came back the next day when there were less people and took a ride on the free boats that travel between parks. We went to “Key West” and had a leisurely lunch before going back to Downtown Disney, now called Disney Springs (The name changed last week). We saw the movie “The Martian” which was very good. 

 Disney Springs.

 

Boat ride around Disney Springs.

After the movie we drove towards Orlando and the “Orlando Eye” a giant wheel like the London Eye or The LINQ in Las Vegas. We all rode the “Eye” which takes about 25 minutes to make a complete loop. It was dark by the time our trip started but as flat as Florida is you can see a long way. As a matter of fact, we can see the fireworks from Disney if we go to the 6^th floor balcony at our timeshare.

The Orlando Eye.

 

Aboard the Orlando Eye.

Yesterday we drove to Cocoa Beach and did a 2 hour boat tour of the Banana River where we saw lots of birds but no Manatees. We picnicked at a local park, walked to the beach which was interesting as it was full of people, unlike our February visit when very few people we on the beach.

Ed and Clyda prior to the boat tour.

Cindy and Gary .

 

Pelicans roosting in the Mangrove trees

We drove North of Titusville to a Manatee viewing area the boat captain had told us about and saw numerous Manatees feeding in the shallow water of a boat launch area. There were large and some quit small Manatees along with one who appeared to be very large. It was snorting and showing its flipper. Quit interesting.

We then took a 7 mile drive through the St Johns National Wildlife Refuge and then drove to Christmas, FL where we had camped in February while on our Florida trip. We went to the Orlando Wetlands Park nearby which we had also visited last February.

Today, Thursday was a pool day.

Update on weekend trip.

Weekend trip to Pismo Beach to celebrate our friend Don's birthday.

A great weekend with friends and lots of good food. I cooked brats Friday night for about a dozen people. They are best cooked in beer with a sliced onion for about a half hour then grilled for a few minutes. Serve with sauerkraut and condiments.

On Saturday I helped grill tri-tips for 18 or 20 people. We cooked outside then wrapped the tri-tips in foil to finish cooking. We ate in the RV park club house which has a nice kitchen with lots of counter space to serve from. The meal was finished off with a birthday cake for Don.

On Sunday morning Budd and I cooked bacon, sausage, eggs and pancakes for everyone. We have this breakfast down to a science as we have done it so often. Budd does the bacon and eggs to order and I do the pancakes.

Later, Sunday morning we drove to the Lompoc Elks club for a one night stay. We have friends who live next to the club which is convenient. After visiting for a while we drove to Buellton for a relaxing wine tasting at Alma Rosa winery followed by a very nice dinner at Industrial Eats next door to the winery.

I had read about Industrial Eats in this months issue of Sunset magazine. They featured wine and food on the West coast starting in Santa Barbara and ending in Southern Oregon. We each ordered something different to eat. The restaurant menu is printed on brown paper hanging on the wall and features PIZZA and NON-PIZZA items. The meats are outstanding as they do their own butchering. I had probably the best burger every which was the Sunday special menu item. It was a perfect way to end a Sunday with friends.

Saturday afternoon Clyda and I are off on a two week adventure with our friends Cindy and Gary. We will spend a week in Florida at a timeshare then another week in St Maarten in the Caribbean before flying home. The flying portion of this trip will be a strain on Clyda to be sure. I always book her an isle seat so she can get up and move around. This trip has us in the air 4 times with each time made up of two flights. Lots of air time.

A work week.

This was more of a work week. 

I need to step up the pace as I have things to do on and in the RV before we go to Pismo Beach next weekend followed by our trip to Florida the 1^st week in October, (non RV trip). When we return from that trip, I only have 3 days to finish everything before the start of the desert trip.

This week I ordered 4 new shocks from Amazon for the RV as the last time they were replaced was 2010. I had pulled one and there really wasn't much “shock” left. They had been checked last year when all of the under carriage was replaced and I was told at the time that they still had some “life left in them”. Of course, the mechanic didn't know at the time that we were planning to drive to the East coast of Florida.

Replacing the shocks is not a hard job if you don't mind laying on your back with a wrench in your hand for an hour. Job done!

The next thing was to replace the bathroom ceiling fan with a Fantastic fan that my friend Budd gave me. Originally, I started to replace the fan blade last summer on our trip to Lynden, WA but every blade I bought blew air in not out. I now have 3 or 4 fan blades, all wrong, and one new fan motor because I thought I could run the motor in reverse to use the fan blades I had already bought. WRONG!!! The motor ran for 10 minutes then quit.

I was about to order a Fantastic fan from Amazon but during a conversation with Budd he reminded me that he had one which was removed from the bedroom of his RV when an AC unit was installed in the opening. Perfect!

So today I removed the old fan and vent and replaced it with the Fantastic fan. It really went in fairly quickly after about 10 trips up and down the ladder to check the fit. Even the old screw holes lined up ok. I still need to put in the ceiling trim piece inside but I need to remove some of the edge on one side as the roof of the RV slopes in that area.

I used a butyl rubber strip under the fan flange on the roof to make sure I have a good seal to keep out water and then I used Dicor Self Leveling caulk over all the screws and around the flange. I will recheck the caulk tomorrow to make sure I have no problem areas.

Some before and after from today's project.

 

Fantastic fan and trim piece.

 Old vent cover. Really dirty because the Max Air cover made it hard to clean.

 

 Old vent and all caulk removed.

 New fan with self leveling caulk applied.

Thanks Budd for the fan.

Back home from Wisconsin trip.

Another trip to Wisconsin done. This one was only 5 days to attend an All School reunion for Dorchester High School. About 200+ people came to the afternoon social time with a very nice sit-down meal at 4 PM.

Saw lots of people I know. Talked to some I hadn't seen in years. Had a really good time.

Also met some of my cousins from the Goessl side of the family on Friday after a mass for their mother at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Medford. Was really nice to visit with Joyce, Betty, Margaret, and Norb for a few hours. It isn't something we get to do very often.

Also visited my aunt Beatrice who is one of only two remaining sisters of my mother. I try to visit her whenever I am in Wisconsin.

I have a “thing” for cemeteries. To me they are pure history. I walked 2 this trip looking for particular people. I was successful on all counts. I love walking the rows, reading names, and remembering something about the people, friends, neighbors, relatives. I take photos of the headstones and eventually these photos will be added to my genealogy files along with photos of the people represented.

On Sunday my sister Judy, husband Art and I were treated to a tour of the Dorchester Historical Center by Jim Jantsch who is the force behind the center. It contains all things Dorchester. All of it donated. I suspect Jim started the center as a place to store all of the things his mother collected. Jim has also written a book called “Dorchester.” It is a complete history of Dorchester and it's people.

Two of the people on the tour were our next door farm neighbors Sharon and Arlene and two neighbors across the highway, Jeanette and Greta. I once worked for Jeanette and Greta's family during the summer and lived in their house. It was good to see them again after all these years.

I drove to Milwaukee on Monday (Labor Day) and had lots of traffic between Wisconsin Dells and Madison. My rental car this time was the same as last month, a Chevy Spark. Blue this time, not yellow. It got 41.5 MPG. Not bad.

New orchid trellis.

I have been working on one of my many “Summer” projects. This one was to replace the shade trellis over Clyda's orchids. The old one was built with lumber I had on-hand and of course the termites loved it.

The new one is made with all pressure treated lumber which should last longer than I will.

The units are basically two 4x8 frames covered with nursery cloth and that is covered with 4x8 sheets of white plastic trellis. The trellis is needed as the racoons walk on top of the unit and fall through the nursery cloth if there is no support provided. The cloth is 6 feet wide so 2 feet of it hang down on the front to provide more shade.

Her are some photos.

 Posts set.

 Frames complete.

 Some termite damage!

 Completed project.

A short blog.

A short blog this morning.

A thunderstorm moved through about 6 AM and it has continued to rain this morning. The rain is really needed as the crops were suffering with the lack of.

My time here is winding down and it has been a busy one. I have met with most of the people on my list. Lunch today with a relative and then a visit to the Dorchester library.

Tomorrow morning I will check out and drive to my sisters for the last two days. Tomorrow is the surprise 25^th wedding anniversary for my nephew Chris and his wife Ann. Sunday all of my sister's kids will be at her house for the day.

Monday morning I will drive to West Bend and briefly visit a cousin and drop off a family history pack to her. Then it is on to the Milwaukee airport and home.

It has been a busy but good trip.

Oh, here is a photo of my rental car, a Chevy Spark. Not much luggage space but adequate for my needs.