Grow old along with me

Good friends “I could do this the rest of my life”, says Steve, as we ride our bikes around Everglade City, Florida. The sky is blue, the temperature is in the upper 70’s, the scenery is green and lush, and we have no deadlines. And for Steve, who has worked so hard to get the RV and car ready for this trip, it finally feels like we have begun this trip we have thought about for so long. We had a wonderful time with Carol and Jerry and Brenda and Thurman, even though neither of us could ever manage a win at the Mexican train dominos we enjoyed every night. We went with them to Solomon’s Castle, a strange but fascinating place where a man took all manner of junk—like oil cans, vegetable processers, ball bearings, etc. – and made art out of it. Mr. Solomon also lost faith in the stock market and invested in refurbished cars all made before 1935- the year he was born. We enjoyed seeing all of it and having a lunch in the “Boat in the Moat”. We also saw Tampa Bay

March 19, 2018 The Pences and Steve White sand, sun, 70-80 degrees-----Eat your heart out. Florida decided to warm up just for us. We did little site-seeing in Charleston for 3 reasons: 1) Steve was still working on making the car towing – capable, 2) Charleston was cold and windy, and 3) we wanted to have time with the grandchildren after school in the evenings. The car was ready to tow by the time we left Charleston. And I was over cold weather.   Towing mechanism Cooper Bridge- too cold and windy to walk it.     We found it hard to find an RV park in all of northern Florida that had an empty site for us. The Gator Classic was at Gainesville. And we were lucky to get one north of Daytona because it was Bike Week for Harley Davidson at Daytona Beach. When we did finally arrive at one in Ormond Beach we were surrounded by Harley Davidisons. Interesting culture. I had not known that the noise Harleys make is unique and patented and cause

March 11, 2018 Driving into Spring Here is what Steve wrote to David and Jessica in Haiti this past Thursday night: A motor home is much like a boat. We were planning to set sail for SC in the morning. But the door won’t open. We crawled into the coach through the driver’s window. Thankfully I had purchased a ladder 2 days ago. The bottom of the window is 6 feet above ground level. I took the interior plate off the latch mechanism and was unable to find any magic inside. A call to Newmar, the manufacturer, found a friendly man who did not have an immediate solution. He promised to find someone to fix the door latch tomorrow. He said, “It isn’t safe for a 66 and 67 yo to be crawling in and out through the window. It also looks bad for Newmar for new owners to have to enter and exit their brand new coach that way.” We are comfy, fed, warm, and not distressed to be locked up together tonight.- Steve We had locked the door that evening before