Apollo Beach, FL

Photos while in the Apollo Beach area.

Sunset at Little Harbor, Ruskin, FL

 Cousin Dana participated in the "wild Christmas contest" at his office.

We think he won. Did you win, Dana?

Christmas lights at Apollo Beach

Skier at Little Harbor

Dolphins at Little Harbor, Ruskin, FL just south of cousin, Dana's.

Manatees come in to swim in the warm water discharged from this big power plant just north of cousin Dana's house.

Manatee & Susie

Below is Showtown Bar & Grill at Gibsonton, FL

During the winter months the carnivals winter here.

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall07/Caramanica/

Ft. Myers Beach - Meeting Gale & Maureen

Stayed on their boat 2 nights... it was fun to be on a boat again.

Sharing a plate of nachos for lunch at Ft. Myers Beach, FL

Enterprise, AL - Heron settled at the storage facility

Moving to Enterprise, AL

Imspecting the damage

Examining the parts

Here is my cousins, Jeff & Barb's house & garage in Enterprise, AL



Fixed & on the road again. 

Now we are heading for Fort Lauderdale, FL where we will pick up Heston from the airport on Dec. 18th.  We will be visiting Susie's cousin, Dana and Jennifer, at Apollo Beach, FL.  I'm sure we'll see their son, Taylor, too.

Shalimar, FL - Heron returns to the trailer

Setting Heron on the trailer

Part 1

Setting Heron on the trailer

Part 2

There is a close up of a brass cover with vents in this video.  Under that cover is the hole.  Bob wanted to take the cover off today, but we ran out of time.  We'll see if we have time to remove that cover tomorrow after pulling into the storage facility in Enterprise, AL.

End of Day 1

Tomorrow we hit the road for Alabama

Just a little trivia that I find hard to believe but it is true.

There have been over 14,500 views on our blog since it's beginning.

Nearly 2,000 just last month.

WOW! I'm amazed.

Our new home

Order of business...

1. Move sailboat to Enterprise, AL
2. Meet Heston, my youngest son, at the Ft. Lauderdale Airport

              (just an hour before we discovered the hole in the boat,

              Heston sent an email with his plans to fly to Florida to

              meet us with us just before Christmas. He lives in W. Hollywood)

    3. Drive ourselves and Heston to Iowa, where we'll spend Christmas & New Year's with family & friends

    4. Jan. 2, 2012 - Pick up our 5th wheel in Wentzville, MO on the way to Yuma, AZ

    5. Relax and play the winter away in Yuma, AZ 

    6. Yahoooo!  RETIREMENT - Highly recommend it.



Traveling to Shalimar, FL

We've spent the last two days traveling from Iowa to Shalimar, FL.  We drove our pickup truck down here with the boat trailer hitched to the back. We left the boat here for one month after discovering the hole in the hull on Nov. 9th.  So the month's rent ends Dec. 10th.  We've made arrangements for the marina to set the boat on the trailer tomorrow (Thursday) and then after we secure the mast for traveling mode and get food items & other personal items out, we will trailer the boat to Enterprise, AL on Friday.  We picked Enterprise, AL because my cousin, Jeff and his wife, Barb live there, it isn't far (2 hours) from Shalimar and Jeff found a storage facility that will house the boat for a great price.  Bob will spend a few days in Enterprise doing the repair on the hole, it the weather cooperates. We may leave it here for a year, we just know that we are done with living on the sailboat for 2011. It's not likely that we will do anything with the boat before Nov. 2012.  Anybody interested in a Pacific Seacraft 25? Video of tomorrow's activities to come tomorrow night.

Moravia, IA - Haircut for Bob

Bob gets his haircut for the first time since retiring, May 1, 2011.

By the way... he cut his upper lip shaving on this particular morning.

Boulder, CO - Pasta Bar after Thanksgiving

Preparing the pasta bar for Friday night's supper.