Yea, warmer weather

Wednesday 18 February

   After a quick breakfast we went to downtown Apalachicola for a bit of site seeing, by the third boutique store it was lunch time.  Stopped at a food truck and split a Cuban and it came with homemade chips, it was all very good.  Hit a few more stores then the Rainey Museum Home. It was very informative took about two hours; it was one of the first big houses built in Apalachicola. Another shop or two when I got the munchies, so we hit the 'Up the Creek Oyster Bar' for a snack. Split an order of steamed oysters 

Beautiful view from the deck!

and had our first afternoon drinks Margarita/bloody Mary.  Back to the camper walk Rudy and leftovers for dinner. 

Thursday 19 February

   Breakfast at home. Cleaned up a bit and down to Costal Family Restaurant for late lunch.  Much warmer today but still needed a jacket to sit on the deck for lunch.  I had gumbo (grouper, scallops, shrimp) Diane order grilled scallops but ended up with fried.😒  They were still very good. Stopped at antique store, and Boutique, bought a tee shirt for Diane then back to camper, Brad not feeling well. We watched Hacksaw Ridge (war movie) very good. If you get a chance you gotta watch it. Grilled cheese for dinner.

Friday 20 February

   First shorts all day weather day. Diane made breakfast.  She is not liking not having a gas grill for quick cooking. Only cooked breakfast outside once since we have been here. I got another bike ride in, up to almost a hour. Boy am I every out shape surprised I made it that far.

   Diane bought us some charcoal so I could grill the stuffed deer loin for dinner. I had to use campground charcoal grill (see picture). 

Our old school grill.

No heat adjustment except for manual adjustment.  How old school. It took much longer (3 glasses of wine) instead of the normal two. 😏  In the long run it was one of the best I ever cooked. Walked around the block and enjoyed the warm weather.

Saturday 21 February

    Up and moving by 7 AM.  We are going to meet Shari and crew for lunch at The Back Porch Restaurant in Destin, a 3 1/2-hour drive.  We hustled right out of here at 9 AM, we should arrive around 12:30 and have a half hour to spare.... or so we thought. Terribly foggy for the first hour of driving, considerably under speed limit. I'm keeping an eye on our arrival time 12:30 then 12:35, slowly the fog starts to lift, arrival time 12:45 still time to spare. We had to stop for a bathroom break, 5 more minutes, get back on the road glance at the arrival time and surprise it is 11:50.  Yep, we crossed the time zone. Now we have an hour to kill. Stopped at Public's for wine, probably the only Public's in Florida that doesn't sell wine and we found it. 😑 We did find an ABC store and our wine was on sale.... sold out.  After all that we still arrived at 12:30. Diane went in to make sure they could seat the 11 of us in the pet friendly area. No pets allowed the guy tells her; it was a mistake on the google map site. We drove around the parking lot to find some shade to park in. Finally, all settled in, Rudy parked in the shade and Matt, Shari and crew roll in.

    After hugs and hello's, we head in.  Nice place right on the beach. Big waves rolling in just like East coast ocean beach. The food was very good😃 but very pricey! 😕 I had crab stuffed shrimp and Diane had shrimp tacos. Oh YUM. 

    So good to see the kids. We talked for some time got hold Eamon Kent (third named after the now famous Bradley Kent) 😁 Then we headed out to the beach, kids played in the sand and got ankle deep in the water (Gulf of America). 

   All good days come to an end!  Walked to the ice cream/candy store right beside the parking lot. Then it was hugs and goodbyes. 😔 

   Now a 3 1/2 hours drive home.  Arrived 8 pm. 

Go to FL to meet family from CO

It looks ugly but was a nice day!

Getting to know E. Kent

BACK ON THE ROAD (for a bit)

 Vacation February/March 2026

Well, it has been a year since we said goodbye to the Moho and took up residence in Wellsville. Then came 2026 after 25 days of below freezing temperatures, we headed south.  To Carrabelle Fl. for a month. We are at an Airbnb which is actually a travel trailer beside a house. It only took a day or two for us to realize how much we miss having a camper. But here we are.

We arrived Thursday February 12 around 3:30. We unloaded the car, getting the frozen food into the freezer as quickly as possible after the 3-day drive down. Rudy quickly went room to room sniffing the place out. The unit is only four years old, but it is made by Thor (cheapest possible). We hid our winter coats and put on shorts. 😉 And just like we did while full timing first night we had burgers on the grill.

Friday 13 February 

    First day here we headed 'downtown' to look 'around'. Justa little rhyme there. We found the grocery store, hardware store (looking for food dishes for Rudy we forgot) had lunch at The Fisherman's Wife, it was verry good. Then over the bridge to Apalachicola to look around, and found the Piggly Wiggly grocery store

Saturday 14 February   (Happy Valentines Day)

  We stayed at the camper today just to decompress from the trip and to enjoy Valentines Days. We enjoyed breakfast on the grill then exchanged cards this morning......I gave my card to Diane (it was a nice card) ...... I waited for mine OH NO she forgot it!!😔 But I'm very understanding and it will be waiting for me when we get home (she paid for that all day) 😀.  Brad scores a BIG ata boy card to be played later.  We had a wonderful day, warm (a bit breezy) and sunny. Did I tell you there is no snow down here! 😏 Steak, baked potato (on the grill) with mushrooms and garlic bread. YUM.

Sunday 15 February 

   Headed back into to Carrabelle had breakfast at Morn' Bites. Interesting place, go in one door it is Morn' Bites, in another door it's Eve'n Bites. Same restaurant two names and two different reviews! 😐 
  Back to the camper to wait out a storm with hail and possible tornado. We had some rain and thunder but nothing bad. The sun came out; it warmed up nicely. Grilled sausages and enjoyed the sunset.

Monday 16 February

     A real vacation type day. Diane cooked us a nice breakfast then off to Panacea. We were late leaving so first was lunch😋.  First pick was closed Monday and Tuesday, go figure.  Diane quickly found

another restaurant The "Angelo & Sons Tropical Trader Shrimp Co.". What a mouth full!  We sat outside, a bit of a breeze but comfortable. We shared a queso and blackened shrimp appetizer and shrimp salad. both very good. Up the road to Woolley Park (a city park), walked around they had a nice fishing pier to walk on. Next was the Gulf Specimen Aquarium. We spent at least two hours in the place (avg 30 according to the internet).  Just as we were leaving it was feeding time for an injured sea turtle.  We were invited to watch it was amazing. what docile creatures they are. 
  Back to the camper, wings from a local food truck, Diane says the best we ever had. End of a great day.         

Tuesday 17 

   Our first "work" day today.  Headed up to Crawfordsville this morning we were looking for an antique store couldn't find it. So we stopped at a Goodwill walked through the store didn't find a thing but killed enough time to make it to lunch.  We ate at B W's Grill, rough looking but the food was really good. We both had grilled shrimp with a side. When the waitress brough out the food she looked right at us and said " One thing I ask is you roll up the shrimp tails and put them in the center of the plate". I guess she saw the surprise on our face. Turns out she was very allergic to shellfish. That made sense so we carefully wrapped up the tails and put them in the center of the plate.
   Next was the work, laundry, groceries, credit union and gas before heading home. Leftover for dinner and a nice walk for Rudy.