The Fam is All Here!

Today, the rest of the crew arrived. Jodi, John, and the kids were scheduled to go to Disney today and head to the island tonight or tomorrow. Toby has been pretty much a wreck for the last couple days that "everyone" is down here but them. So last night, he was in tears because he did NOT want to go to Disney World...he just wanted to go STRAIGHT to "Florida". Gracie was in full agreement. So Jodi and John were faced with the decision-to go, or not to go. After talking to Aunt Sharon and hearing that the weather was predicted to be very poor in the Disney area today, they decided to go with the plan that the kids were pushing for....keep driving and get the heck to Sanibel FAST. So they arrived early afternoon today and for a few days, all of my family is here together.

All the kids had a great time playing in the pool and at the beach today. Toby definitely prefers the pool to the beach, but was most agreeable because he was just so happy to be here with everyone. The girls all seemed to be fine wherever they were. Toby is swimming like a fish. Anabelle and Gracie have both taken off their floaties a few times and are gaining confidence in the water. By the end of this vacation, I suspect that both of them will be pretty brave in the pool. Aly still has tubes in her ears so we are all very cautious to keep the Peach's ears away from the danger of splashes. She has the cutest little pink earplugs in to help in that effort.

Tomorrow our friends will start arriving. Right now, this island is extremely quiet. I suspect that things are going to liven up a bit very soon. We don't like other people's noise and activity, but we all love the times when all of us are together making our own noise! Not to worry...Dwight will keep us all in check. His greatest fear is getting kicked out, as though it has happened a lot in our time here. There is a new security guy here. Mary and I will work hard to get on HIS good side!!! Laurie is going to be late this year. She had the former guy wrapped around her little finger!

A Rainbow Day

The Road to Sanibel

This is Day 2 of the trip to Sanibel 2010, year # 34 for us. We are currently in the mini van on I-75 and I’m trying out my new device that the kids bought for me that gets me internet wherever I am. I’m loving it!
This is our first trip in our new mini van and I have to say, it’s a great ride. We seem to have lots of room and it’s very comfy. Todd is with us on the trip down and so far, I haven’t had to drive at all. WHOOOOPPPEEEEE! He’s a regular driving machine so between Glenn and him, I haven’t been asked to jump behind the wheel. I’ve taken a couple naps, finished a book, and watched a movie. This is the life.
Even though he was all for driving straight through to Sanibel, Todd stopped last night just before the Florida border to spend the night at a really nice Holiday Inn Express, definitely a step above what Glenn and I usually select. We had a really nice breakfast there, then went down the road for the traditional free glass of orange juice at the Welcome Center. Then we drove on down to Micanopy, another traditional stop that Glenn and I never miss. Not breaking these little traditions is definitely a sign of aging I’m afraid. Oh well.
We have kind of been in a race with Chris, Niki and the girls all the way down. They left the night before us with their fifth wheel and stopped a couple nights and at this time, they appear to be about an hour ahead of us. I’m thinking we may be able to overtake them before we get to the island but it depends on who is driving. If Todd takes over soon, I have no doubt we will beat them to the beach. Glenn and I seem to have moved into retirement mode and are rarely in a hurry to get places. We have learned to enjoy the ride to wherever we are going almost as much as the final destination. The kids are definitely not of that mindset yet! Jodi, John, and the kids will be making a mad dash for the island after a day at Disney later this week. So the whole fam will be there for a few days together.
So at this point, we are probably about 2 hours from the beach. That’s two hours driving time…we will stop at Walmart to grab some groceries before we head to the island. Not only did I watch a movie on the way, I also put in one of my home videos that had lots of photos in it from many years back of our Sanibel trips. Wow, we have had some fun times there. Seeing pics of the kids when they were so little playing on the beach brought back so many memories. Many of the photos included some very dear friends that we have made on that special island. For those of you who will be joining us this year, we will be waiting on the beach, among the shells, tropical birds, watching the dolphins, drink in hand. Hurry down…and be safe.

Packing Frenzy

Yep, I'm officially there....in packing frenzy. I'm determined to be packed and ready ahead of time, not staying up until some ridiculous time the night before we leave, trying to have everything just right. Thus, the frenzy.
My goal of this posting is just to make sure I still know how to do it. We will be leaving for Sanibel in a few days, traveling in the new mini-van, not the RV. The mini has two DVD players, a new toy for me, so I'm planning to kick back and watch some movies while Glenn and Todd drive me to Sanibel! Sounds like a great plan, right? This year marks the 34th trip to Sanibel for our family. Let the good times roll.

Final Posting for Trip to the Keys

OK, don't get me wrong-Glenn is awesome at driving the motor home. I have never had any concerns about being safe, etc. with him at the wheel This said, I must add that each and every time I move out of my navigator's seat he somehow ends up in a precarious situation. Such an incident will be described as follows:
We departed Todd's at about 11am. It was a fairly decent temperature- like sweatshirt weather. I'm not sure exactly where it happened, bt at some point the temperature began to drop. I might even venture to use the word "plummetted". The white stuff began to fall. Glenn starts looking frequently at the digital thermometer, checking the outside temperature. He is getting nervous about our pipes freezing since he decided against doing the winterizing at Todd's as I thought had been previously decided upon. Eventually he pulled into a roadside rest and emptied the water tanks. He used all the RV antifreeze he had brought along which apparently was not enough. He decides to pull off at a Walmart to purchase more. While we had been stopped, I had moved to sit in the back and work on editing some photos. I was in the middle of something so I continued working as he drove. I heard him mutter something about Walmart and he pulled off the interstate. Soon I heard curse words, something about "losing Walmart". By the time I closed up the computer and returned to the navigator's seat, we were on a dark road that had turned into one lane or less, heading up a steep hill that soon turned into a dead end! When towing a vehicle, meeting with a dead end means only one thing-get out, unhook, and Deb drives the jeep while Glenn finds a way to turn the RV around in a very small space. So he exits the RV, the step breaks as he goes down, nearly sending him to the ground. (more curse words) He unhooks the jeep, turns it around, and I get in, ready to head out of the narrow spot that we are in. Oh, did I mention that it's freaking freezing????? So Glenn drives the RV forward to see if the drive we are in has a spot to turn around. I no longer have sight of him in the rear view mirror. I wait and wait, getting a little nervous about what he met with as he proceeded. At this point, I don't even know what STATE we are in! Finally, I see the headlights behind me and we got the heck out of there, a bit muddier than we were a few minutes before. We drove and drove, finally finding a parking lot that we could use to hook the keep back up to the RV. As Glenn opens the door to the RV to come back to the jeep, Sparkle ran out and took off across the parking lot with Glenn in hot pursuit. It becomes evident at this point that she needs more practice on her "come" command. As I got out to assist in the chase, my glass case fell out of my pocket and rolled under the jeep- no easy feat to recover that. Glenn finally snatched Sparkle, returned her to the RV, and got things all hooked up. Sparkle received a lecture about running from us and wouldn't even look at us for several hours. We proceeded down the road, found another Walmart, and got everything taken care of. We located a truck stop that had an RV dump and were able to empty the holding tanks and all was well. During the entire drama, I was pretty much chuckling to myself. We weren't on a time schedule and no harm was done- well other than the broken step. However, I will say this- if there was any possible way that I could have been remotely to blame for any of it, the whole story would have gone altogether differently and I know for sure that it would have included tears by me! In conclusion, I can only say- THANK GOD I DIDN'T DO THAT!!!
This concludes another summary of a trip with Glenn and Deb.

DC Stopover

After leaving St.Augustine, we traveled north on I95. We decided to stop in DC and see Todd. We ended up arriving at his place about 4 pm, after some near death experiences in traffic getting there. It was nice to see his current residence and spend some time with him. Glenn pursuaded him to go to Murphy's for dinner in spite of Todd's reluctance. Glenn insisted on having the Jamison Steak for dinner and Todd finally relented. So we had dinner at Murphy's and coffee at one of Todd's favorite coffee houses, Misha's. We spent the night at Todd's house and departed at 11 am Monday, heading for home. At this point, we have been gone for three weeks, longer than any previous trip in the RV. It was in the 60s in DC.

Photos from KOA and St. Augustine Beach

Sparkle was scared of all the birds but she wanted just a bit closer

Don't know what kind of bird this is, but it looked like a snake in the water

These almost looked fake!

Just chillin'

Glenn and his new friend, Eddie Paolucci

Our home on the beach

Sandy Sparkle