VA TRIP TO FLORIDA

Sid and I had 1 ½ days to get the boat and house ready for our trip to the States for more VA doctor appointments for Sid plus picking up his hearing aids.  

We had to spend the night in town as our flight was fairly early in the morning. The great thing with our Jubilado (retirement visa) Card is we get discounts in the hotels (50% during week and 30% on weekends). A great deal! Well, depends what kind of room you get LOL.
What to expect for 20 bucks?!!!

Just a littel small!

The bathroom was a miniature version as well but all was clean and hey we just needed a bed for one night.

It was a fast flight 2 hrs and 27 minutes to Miami. Not just was it a fast flight but it was a fast 10 minutes to get through Immigration.  Arriving at the luggage conveyor belt we were the only ones there and the luggage had already been taken of the belt, we just had to pull them out of the many suite cases. The customs guy didn't even want to know what we had in the suite case but rather told us that he owns property in Coronado, Panama, so we chatted for a couple of minutes then headed to the car rental place.  10 minutes later we were in our rental car on our way to Orlando.

First things first, getting the phones re-charged and some food for the road and our socks and long pants and jacket out of our suite cases, BRRRRRRRRRR it was cold in Miami!!! Orlando was even worse!

Shanna lives in downtown Orlando, my first thought, why would someone live in the center of a huge city? My question was soon answered. Downtown Orlando does not even give you the feeling that you are downtown of a huge city. It’s rather a very charming, historic district with stores, bars and restaurant all within walking distance. The view from Shanna’s 24^th floor apartment was breathtaking. It was great catching up with Shanna, had a tasty dinner at a local Tapas restaurant then walked in the cold rain to her favorite bar where we met all her buddies, had a restful night and left her house at 5 am. Did I mention it was freezing cold!! Shanna has the cutest little cat, a Scottish fold, which has more a personality of a dog.

We had a long day ahead of us.

We did limited stops on our way to Knoxville, only for bathroom runs as it was freezing cold. About two hours distant from Knoxville we had some sleet and snow flurries, oh no, not good. Luckily it did not get any worse and we arrived in one, but cold, piece in Knoxville were we were warmly greeted by Bob and Kari. Did I mention the cold!!!!

Both looked great and Bob feels great with no side effects of the chemo he is and has been going through.  It was a very happy reunion and we were looking forward to celebrating the New Year in with Bob and Kari. Mary Mondello, widow of Joe Mondello, both long time friends from LA lives an hour away from Knoxville was invited to join us. We had such a good time and it was so good to catch up with all our friends, not to mention the wonderful food and wines.

Bob

Kari and Mary

Kari the Beautician

Are we having fun yet?

Before....

.....and after. WOW!

Since we were not able to visit Sid’s cousin Nancy on our last whirlwind trip through TN and NC she took priority on this trip. It’s a long drive from Knoxville so we arrived mid afternoon, but used every minute to the fullest to see her. Did I mention it was cold, freezing cold?!!!

Nancy looked fabulous and is doing great and loves the farming life plus her newly bought Mustang which she demanded Sid take for a spin. Man you should have seen the grin on Sid’s face when he returned and stepped out of her hot-rod  I was impressed with the mustang logo appearing on the pavement next to the car when the lights are turned on. 

While the girls were preparing dinner there was a knock on the door. When Sid’s second cousin O’Neal got wind of Sid being in town he went out of his way to drive to Nancy’s to see Sid even just for a few minutes. 

It made Sid feel good to know he still has roots here. It was a quality time visit but unfortunately we had only the one night to spend and were on the road to Miami early in the morning. Did I mention yet it was freezing cold?!!!

It was an 11 hour ride to Key Largo and a rainy day until we hit the Florida border and imagine that the closer we headed south there was a consistent change in temperature and the cold weather was fast forgotten, the heater was adjusted to AC and our noses breathed a sigh of relieve from the dry air and the socks, long pants and jackets came off. We were once more in sweaty weather yeah! We made good time and arrived at Dale and Sandy’s before cocktail time, 5 pm.

Sid ‘s first doctor appointment was early the following morning to draw blood then the days just ran into each other between doctor appointments, getting his hearing aids. On our way to the appointment we had to drive through a school zone. Let me tell you that the cops here are very strict, so strict that they radar check you when you when the light changes to green and you accelerate to the 20 mph in this zone when the warning lights blink. We noticed them pointing at us and sure enough one hoped in the car in hot pursuit. Sid pulled over; the cop approached the window and told him that he was doing 34 in a 20 mph zone. Honestly we never saw the meter over 20, I know because seeing the cops I kept an eye on it. Anyway, when Sid pulled his wallet out the cop saw Sid’s badge and let him go. We had a wonderful time with Dale and Sandy.

Beautiful fountain at lobster pond

Sandy

Their gorgeous house

Their new camper

Sid and Dale saving the world

Grand daughter Cortney and Molly Dog

Dale and Sid doing the manly men stuff while the girls did the girly shopping, hairdresser and such stuff and before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye and so we were once more on our way.

Little less than two hours later we arrived in Coconut Grove where Phil and Nell were awaiting us. Their boat “Moon Dancer” was anchored off Dinner Key and a very wet dinghy ride later we stepped aboard Moon Dancer which was our home for 4 days. It was nice to be on a boat and really great to get together with Phil and Nell we had missed last time when we stayed in their beautiful condo “Cloud 1801”. 

Sid was right away put to work and while he and Phil fixed this and that on the boat, Nell took me shopping. 
Yeah, I finally have bras again; these are very hard to find in Latin countries. 

The view of downtown Miami was spectacular

 Phil and Nell had to get the boat into the yard on the 19^th and we drove to Stuart to first visit Jim and Nancy former Windance. 

This time we also met Jim’s second brother, they had the whole family there and we all had huge fun. The boys had a fun outing, they did the manly men stuff, eating meat and going to a gun show, they had fun. Nancy showed me some kewl cooking stores, wow, was I in trouble, they had such incredible tools (Sid said it’s a tool I can have it), I had to put lots back onto the shelf. After all don’t want to sink the boat!

Took their boat from yard back to slip in Stuart

All made out of old license plates, love it!

 

Sid's new hat, no more baseball caps!

 

Ain't that true!!!

One night while Jim and Nancy had a dinner to go to we hooked up with Tom and Karin Button. We met Tom years ago in Puerto Vallarta and kept in touch. He now is the president of Krogen Yachts here. They had another cruising couple over for dinner who they wanted us to meet. It was a fun evening and it was great to see them.

It was time again to say goodbye and 10 minutes later we pulled into the driveway of Chris and Tracey “Long Gone” and spent two days with them, which of course was mucho fun too.

We had so many more people on the list but the days were just dwindling to an end. Sid had one more appointment at the VA on the 22^nd and on the 24^th was our flight home. It was just not enough time to catch up with any other friends so we decided to just find a hotel for the last two nights. It was pretty funny as we drove towards Miami Beach we thought we for sure would find a motel. I had looked some up on the Internet and they all looked pretty good until you pulled into their driveways. Yikes, photos definitely don’t do justice in this case the other way; they didn’t even look like on the Internet. Besides that the area didn’t look so safe. After driving closer towards the beach Sid pulled a cop over to ask about a safer area for a hotel. At this point we were in a kind of very upscale and clean area. She kind of looked at him, grinned and said: “Well, you are kind of in the hole of a donut. I would suggest driving to the airport and getting a room there.”

We took a room at the Red Roof Inn which had an incredible view over the take off runway and amazingly you could not hear the roar of the departing jets in the room. Very nice hotel.

The last day we drove to Fox rental car so that we could bring Dale and Sandy’s car back, they had let us graciously use while here. Thank you so much you two, you are the best.

When we booked out flights we were shocked to see that the flights were 350 dollars more expensive in January than at the end of December, reason we left on December 28^th. What we did not realize was that this is season for the Snow Birds therefore all prices go up and of course the Christmas season. The car we rented the first week cost us over 650 bucks ouch. If we had known we would have waited with the appointments, oh well, live and learn, after all Experience is something you don’t have until just after you need it.

The 22^nd appointment was for the results of all Sid’s tests. It was really funny, there were several people in the waiting room, of which one was in a wheel chair and his own was sitting in front of the closed sliding glass door waiting for a mechanic to come and fix it. This guy made all kind of noises and comments and was just restless. After a while he pulled himself painfully out of his chair and while doing so and during walking away he had a fart coming out of his behind that was so awful you could hear his butt cheeks flap and clap. We were all sitting on it trying not to laugh out loud until the sliding door had closed behind the talking butt. We all burst out into laughter and finally when it was quite again Sid said: “and I just got my new hearing aids!” – Roaring laughter erupted and we all wanted to know how it sounded through the hearing aids?!!! Oh, by the way the results came back all good, Sid is a healthy man!

Flight home was just the same as getting to Florida, calm and quick and nobody at the airport. We spent 10 minutes and out the door.

Cindy picked us up and two hours after a quick shopping trip to Rey for some groceries we arrived at home.

We had barely time to unpack the next day then get ready for the 6^th Burns Night Celebration of Jim and Heather. But about this you’ll read in our next Blog.