Second last week in Dunedin - Jan 23 - 29

More of the same this week, great weather, getting warmer all the time, longer days, yeh! We had haircuts, had a gathering on the street, met some more of the neighbors, all so helpful and friendly. Gerry took the RV to an RV dealer to get it diagnosed, re the engine symbol light that came on while driving here. It needs a new part, on order. Since our home was gone for the day, he dropped me off at a mall on the way, so I had a great 4 hrs! Went into Penny's wearing some baggy size 12's and came out with 6's & 8's! Love these US sizes, he, he!
Our friends' Bill & Donna (neighbors at Lobster Point in the summer) came up for the day on Thursday, from their winter home in Bradenton. The guys golfed and Donna & I went out for lunch and then checked out the shops in downtown Dunedin. We barbecued some steak at our shack for dinner. Gerry golfed again in Friday, with the group from the park.
We spent some time this week looking for a bigger RV, driving south to Port Charlotte to look at one and to Tampa for another. Gerry has spent over 200 hrs online, looking all over the US, so when we leave here next weekend, we'll be going to look at some on our way to Texas.

the Dunedin Green market

Bill & Donna

The octopus Gerry marinated and barbecued.

The finished dinnerThe Edgewater Linear Park,Clearwater

On Sat. we went to Dunstock, a holistic gathering outside in downtown Dunedin. Bought the recipe book Forks over Knives, which follows the movie of the same name. Lots of wonderful recipes included. 

Still More Dunedin - Jan 19 - 22

Thursday, Jan 19th brought Lifeline Screening to our park, and Gerry was tested for:
Stroke/Carotid Artery disease, Perifpheral Arterial Disease, Osteoporosis, and Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm. He is fine and will get full results in 3 weeks or so. It's pretty neat testing, as this is not available in Canada unless you are at risk, as far as we know!
More Yoga & golf, a bike ride 20 km each way to see Howards Beach Park, a great white sand beach with a causeway to get to it, just north of here. It started out a lovely sunny day, but turned cloudy and cool by the time we got there, but was a great ride nonetheless!
On Sat night we went out with our friends' Tom & Ruth from Michigan, to the BD Mongolian Grill, similiar to the one in Halifax & Whistler, we've been at. Choose your own meat & veggies and then they grill them while you wait. We had planned on seeing "the Descendants" after, but it was sold out. Back to their RV to play Sequence, the men whomped the women!
We completed our 14 day liver cleanse, with Milk Thistle, and no alcohol, little sugar, lots of fruits & veggies, and a lemon drink first thing in the am. Our livers have thanked us for the holiday! We both found it a "piece of cake"...but are now back to enjoying a wee nip of wine!

I biked 3.5 miles x 2 to buy this loaf of bread, made from a whole grain blend of sorghum, millet, quinoa, flax seed and white rice flour. I paid 6.50 for it! Was  it good? yes. Will I order one this week? NO! 

This Friday I biked to the market, and used all compartments on my bike to bring back goods...

When unpacked this is what I had...amazing Millet & Flax crackers, made nearby, whole wheat bread, huge loaf, cotton socks, bee pollen, dates, ginger, pepper, cherries, monster brussel sprouts, fennel, broccoli, a beet, 2 red pears, lettuce.  We'll eat good this week!

More Dunedin Jan 13 - 18

Well we've had lots of fun and great times outdoors, especially. Gerry has been golfing 2x/week with the fellas from the park and with John across the street, at several different courses. I've been biking downtown to attend  Hatha yoga classes 2 mornings/week. We've gone to the great Green Market downtown (Fridays & Saturdays), picking up lots of neat things and yummy food. Almost every weekend there is an art festival there also, with some amazing products from all over the US.
In Sunday paper there was a $10. coupon for Beall's, a popular department store here. We biked there on Monday morning, 6 miles each way. Found some great buys on golf shirts, shoes & other stuff. Someone else in the store gave us their coupon so we had $20. off. From our purchases we got $30. in Beall's bucks to be used on Wed or Thurs. So on Wed I biked back again (to have my own leisurely 2 hr look around) and find more bargains, but had to work for it - another 12 miles! We really feel like we are fitting in here with the coupon use, now!!!

The girls, Ruth, Tia & Joan, knitting and making a  photo board. Hubbies, Jim & Tom observing!

Us at the end of our street: Osprey

On our way back from biking to Bealls on Monday, Gerry had a flat tire on his bike, about 4 miles out...but we were due to test drive an RV for sale in the park. So he biked back with my bike, and test drove the RV to come and rescue me. We didn't buy the RV....
For dinner with the street neighbors, we went on Wed to Chopsticks, a "super buffet", great sushi, hibachi. It was excellent! There are so many restaurants around here, you'd never try half of them!

Dunedin, Jan 7 - 12

Well we had a great weekend, our friends from Charlottetown, John and Gayle Cormier are nearby at Indian Rocks, they came and picked us up for dinner and a sleepover at their condo. We toured around Tarpon Springs, Dunedin and then south thru Clearwater, had a lovely beach walk and then out to dinner at Salt Rock Grille. Amazing food cooked on a wood fired grill. We had chicken, duck and lamb. My 1/2 barbecued duck was a huge fowl, took most of it home and had another meal and a soup from the bird, yummy! After dinner we went to a great little coffee shop with live music, owned by a Canadian, that John and Gayle had frequented. Breakfast, another beach walk and a drive back to our park, great visit, shame we have to come to  Florida to get together!

We've had amazing weather, 70 - 80 degrees. We've relaxed at the beach on Honeymoon Island, our nearest beach, biked thru town and south as far as Belleair, on the paved Pinellas Trail (42 miles long), gone to an afternoon movie with friends in the park - Warhorse, great movie, had a rain day where we did some badly needed cleaning in our house, and sat around the pool. Gerry has golfed once, going again tomorrow with the men's group here in the park, and he has walked and biked for errands. We've also had dinner guests and have played lots of Sequence.

Today our friends in the park, Ruth & Tom from Michigan, took us to Tampa to the Super RV show. We toured RV's of all sizes for 5 hrs, until our heads were mush, and we all came home exhausted. We are looking for a slightly larger RV, so the show was a great place to start.

We expect just more of the same sort of schedule in the next weeks, but will post again if anything new occurs!

Dunedin RV Resort- Jan 4 - 6

After a busy day of shopping for a few RV items, and stocking up on wine and food, and taking the RV thru a wash (badly needed!), we arrived in Dunedin. When we found our site, several of the neighbors came out to help us park and to say hello! Across the street is a cousin of our friends' Jane & Munroe from Pictou, so they had been waiting for us. After we got some things unpacked outside, they (John & Barb) came over and invited us for dinner, how sweet! So we had an enjoyable evening of catching up with park news, etc.
Our next day we got the bikes out, nice and sunny, we went up the Pinellas Trail to find the golf course Gerry was planning to bike to the next morning. Then dropped in on our friends that we met here last time, Ruth & Tom and we had dinner at their place! So our first days have been very social!
Ruth & I biked downtown to the farmers' market this morning, what a beautiful outdoor market, the nicest I've seen, so many great foods and fresh produce, and I forgot my knapsack. Open Sat also, so I'll be back, yum, yum!

Welcome to Florida - Jan 3

Saw that sign today, exciting! Spent last night in Tybee Island, GA, after visiting Savannah for a few hours. We enjoyed a horse & carriage ride/tour of the historic city centre (Savannah), then went down to the River Walk and realized we had been here before! Hmmm, have to check my previous blogs before setting out next time...!

Having a few minor issues with the electricals, so found an RV Service Centre and luckily it was only some fuses. Spending the night outside St Augustine, FL, very historic area, walked around the downtown, oldest wooden school, oldest drugstore, very neat! It is very cold today, 42 degrees F (5 C), with a cold wind!

Dunedin RV park tomorrow, yippee!

Heading south

Upon leaving Chantel & TJ's in Vaudreuil, at -15 degrees or so, we were wearing our winter jackets, gloves and sometimes hats in the RV. Drove to Scranton, PA that day, and were able to remove some articles later in the day.
On New Year's Eve we made it to Roanoke, VA, and were able to spend the night in the RV, plugged in at a rather seedy trailer park, found online....However, we drove to find dinner first and after realizing most restaurants were "family", ie. no wine or beer, we found "Three Little Pigs BarBQ", where we had a wonderful rib/sweet potato fry/and delicious green salad dinner, while playing "Toss the Pigs". The couple at the next table invited us to a swing dance (also dry), but we declined as it was in the next town, we had just checked into our park, blah, blah, could have been interesting in Virginia...We played Sequence & Poker instead!

Jan 1 - Happy New Year, all! Getting warmer everyday, down to t-shirts and lighter sweaters. Drove to Columbia, SC today, lovely countryside thru Virginia & SC, beautiful farmland, mountains in the distance, amazing valleys and views!

RV Lesson #2 - when you put your dark chocolate bar in the cupboard, don't put it above a light, as it will melt! Ours has a big hole in the centre....the cupboards are thin.....

On the road again

Well here we are on the road again and all is well so far!
Had a great 3 days of Christmas celebrations with Dean, Anne & Remi, and all family members who we partied with from Dec 21 at Lisa & Bill's, to those that dropped in over the holiday season. It was such fun to share this time with everyone and especially to have the excitement of a 3 yr old  on Christmas morn!
On Dec 27th, we packed up the RV, disassembled Christmas, cleaned out the fridge, did laundry and were out of the house 4.5 hours after Dean, Anne & Remi left. Hadn't planned to leave until the next day, but the weather was so nice for driving and the house too quiet....

After visiting with Mac (just home from the hospital) and Edwina, we made it to Casino NB, in Moncton, where we had an enjoyable dinner & some gambling & they let us plug in our RV at the back of the Casino, where we slept since it was +5!
Our second night out we pulled into La Pocatiere, a small town before Quebec City, snow was falling and it was very windy. The next day we made it to Chantel & TJ's, had a great evening with them, dinner at Smoke Meat Pete's, some live blues tunes, all great!

RV Lesson #1 - when you set out in the winter with an RV (or any vehicle, but especially an RV built in California, for California), don't forget to change the windshield washer to winter stuff. At -15, it freezes, and even if you slosh lots of it on the windshield, you still can't see out the window! Thus started our day 3, which slowed us down as we had to find a garage with a bay large enough for an RV, to thaw out the windshield washer and put in the right stuff that would not freeze. Thank you Canadian Tire!