Be Careful Where You Park

April 15 -

Our last shopping trip to the PX and the Commissary-

As Lou was looking for a parking spot on our last trip to the Commissary, we finally found one and as we were getting out of the car, Lou remarked at all of the mud splattered on the car parked beside of us, and for some reason I looked up and there was the reason for the "mud" that was splattered on the car,

Dinner with Jim and Judy

April 14 - Thursday - 87 degrees -

Today was the day we had to take the RV back to Tarpon Springs to have the right rear jack replaced, the service department told us it would be a two hour job at the most, we pulled back into our spot here at MacDill at 4:00 pm this afternoon, and had dinner reservations at 4:30 pm, think we had to hurry? you betcha ......

Jim and Judy, which are some of our friends from SMART are leaving to start home to PA tomorrow and we all wanted to have dinner together so they picked us up and we went to The Colonnade Restaurant on the Bay which is located on Bayshore Boulevard. The one picture shows the view from our window while we were dining on our seafood. Lou and I love driving up Bayshore Blvd, the view is just beautiful. This is in Tampa, and across the Bay is St. Petersburg. Tonight while we were eating we say a Carnival Cruise ship go by and then a fleet of sail boats were out enjoying the evening.

I dined on coconut shrimp, Lou had shrimp and scallops. None of us had room for dessert, so we by passed that. On our way home we say our first armadillo. This is the first one we have seen, last year, we had them in our yard, and Estee loved watching them, don't know the difference. Maybe they don't like the mosquitoes either.

We are counting down the days now. Tomorrow we have to go to the PX and Commissary and I want to go to the beach for a bit, then Saturday, we go to Venice, Doris' and Scott's and Sunday we get ready to leave on Monday for Patrick AF Base.

Lunch with Mike and Christy

April 13th - Wednesday - Beautiful Day - 80 degrees - Low humidity

Lou, Estee and I left for Yalaha, FL. Mike and Christy had chosen this location, as they felt this would be a half way point for us to meet and spend the afternoon together.

As it turned out, it was the perfect location, as we had to take Estee with us, as it was too long to leave her by herself, and this Bakery/Restaurant had a lovely outside eating area that was shaded and breezy and a perfect place to spend the afternoon.

Christy's parents, who are from Big Flats, NY came along also and it was so nice to get acquainted with them. They are wonderful folks and so easy to chat with, I felt like I had know them forever and came away anxious to spend time with them again soon.

Mike and Christy are always fun to chat with, they have so much going on and are so down to earth. Christy was telling us, how she was signed up to grow some trial potatoes this summer ,she will grow three different kinds for Cornell University, all different trial grades. Sounded very interesting. Mike and I are interested in spinning flax and have been trying to glean a little more information on this old time task.

All in all the afternoon passed very quickly, with all of the chatting and the eating, I forgot to mention the food, oh my gosh, the freshly baked bread and bakery items were out of this world.

I had a chicken salad sandwich, which was chicken, fresh cranberries, pecans, mayo on sunflower bread with lettuce, tomato and sweet onion and a huge dill pickle. We all picked out a dessert and before we left the men folks went back in and picked out desserts to bring home to snack on at home.

It was a wonderful day and a perfect weather day. Mike and Christy rode the train down from Syracuse and will return home on Friday. We are so glad they chose to spend a day with us.

Our Day with Cheryl and her Family

April 11th - Monday - 91 degrees - With a nice breeze

I have to write about our day at Cheryl's house yesterday. We left here about 12:30 yesterday. I had made a strawberry jello cake to take for dessert and wanted to have strawberries to put on the top with the pudding and whipped cream and all we could find here were from California, so we decided to drive into Plant City and get fresh ones there, and that we did and they were wonderful, so we were a little late getting to Cheryl's house. It all worked out well, as Kevin was still grilling the ribs. They had prepared a regular feast. Kevin had grilled ribs three different ways, along with chicken, hot dogs, brats, grilled peppers that were stuffed with cream cheese and rolled in bacon, Lou really liked that. The ladies had all gotten together and prepared all sorts of salads, baked beans, black eyed peas, corn bread casserole and all kinds of desserts, what a feast for everyone to enjoy.

All of her family had worked hard to make the yard as cool as possible. Her yard is shaded by big trees, but they went the extra mile and had a canopy and large fans to keep the air circulating, I don't think anyone realized it was over 90 degrees.

The afternoon passed quickly. Lou and Cheryl's husband, Royce, found they had a lot to talk about, as he had spent time in Vietnam, they spent the afternoon rehashing their service time and we even heard some new stories.

While the guys talked, Rexa, Cheryl and I went in the house to look through Cheryl's quilts, now you talk about a girl that does serious quilting, this is the girl. She had shown a quilt to Lou and I last year that she had started, that was a volcano, well she finished it and submitted it in a quilt show, and you guessed it, she won, it is simply amazing. The picture I took of it just doesn't show the glorious depth of it.

The other quilt that I liked shows all the beads and embellishments that she has added to it and the bright and brilliant colors that she had chosen to use. She has so many projects going, that it just amazes me where she finds the time to do so many things things, plus the normal sewing that she does for her grandchildren. She is truly an amazing lady. I look forward to when she can come to Pennsylvania to visit me again.

It was truly a wonderful day for Lou and I and even Estee had a good day, she played with the little girls and she even slept in the car all the way home last evening, and she never sleeps in the car.

Thanks Cheryl and Rexa for a great day....