Half way there

Yo my friends,

Well after 6 hours of driving - with a couple of 10 minute breaks we are in a KOA RV park half way to Punta Gorda.

Another 5-6 hours of driving tomorrow and we will be at The Shell Creek RV Resort in Punta Gorda Florida!!!!  WOO-HOO!!!!  This will be a 2 month stay for us - however on Tuesday we have to drive about .45 minutes to a Ford dealer in Arcadia to get the 10,000 mile checkup for the truck portion of our RV.  After that - we will be stationary for 2 months!!!!!  Beaches - painting - writing - reading - day dreaming - checking out the area to see if we would consider looking a property here and areas around Punta Gorda.

The RV park by the way is very nice - pull through spaces with lots of room between sites. WiFi is not usable so we are hooked into Melissa's Iphone as a hot spot and that works OK  It also comes with cable TV and we got 34 channels.

Up early again tomorrow morning - fill up with gas and off to Punta Gorda we go!!!!!

Take care my friends -

JR    :>)

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SEASIDE

Yo blog buddies,

Well today we toured a perfect little town called Seaside which "The Truman Show" movie with Jim Carrey was filmed in.  It is a very neat town with tree lined streets and there is a place for everything and everything is in its place!!!  The ocean view properties sell in the millions.

There is also a little town called Watercolor - which is also a perfect little town with everything in its place.  Very colorful homes in both towns sort of Key West and One Orleans style homes again selling in the millions.

Well tomorrow we will be leaving early- like 7 am  to get a jump on a long day of driving - about 250 miles to cover - with a rest here and a rest there it will take about 5 hours.  I like to if possible keep the driving day to about 3 hours but we need to try and half way to Punta Gorda which we are due to arrive on Nov. 1

We could have left today, but then we'd have too much time on our hands so best to bite the bullet and split the 500 miles up into two 5 hour days.


GRILLED CHICKEN THIGHS FOR CHICKEN TACOS TONIGHT - Hmmmmmmmmmmm

Sooo, once we get settled into our overnight stop, I'll try and shot off an email.

Take care my friends.

JR     :>)

Big Brother

Yo my friends,

There is a site called www.adsensewatchdog.com - they are constantly on my rvpainter site which really irritates me.  I used to have ads on my blog from adsense for which I got pennies paid for clicks on the products they advertised.  One day I got an email telling me that I have be eliminated from the "adsense" program - no reason given and when I tried to contact them they would not reply!!!  Not only did the kick my butt off the program but I had well over $75 in accumulated "clicks" and they took that money away from me.  NOT SO MUCH AS A FRIGGIN REASON AS TO WHY!!!!

ADSENSEWATCHDOG - STAY OFF MY BLOG SITE - YOU JERKS!!!!!

Ahhhhhhh - I feel better now - the nerve of these bozos.

Well another day of roaming about Destin Fl and other little communities in the area - there are some really-really nice seashore communities where houses/condos start at 1,500,000!!!!  I'm looking for a bank repro at about $76,000!!!!!   :>)

Well, tomorrow morning we move from here and drive about 250 - 300 miles to get to about half way to our destination of Punta Gorda.  So a few of the normal "get ready to roll" chores need to be done later this afternoon.  We are scheduled to stop overnight at a KOA near Gainsville Fl.

Some friends of ours who full time RV'd for a year or so reached Punta Gorda - bought a home - sold their RV and really like the area.  They are thinking of getting a smaller RV like ours and use that to leave Florida during the hot muggy summer and hurricane threatened time periods.  We are going to meet with the RE agent they used and have her search for places based on our criteria.  2 bedrooms 1 1/2 baths - nice neighborhood and say about 900 - 1,200 sq ft - short drive to beaches.  We'll see where it goes - no rush as we have a whole west coast journey planned starting around mid April 2013 which is when we will leave Florida after what we hope is a long warm- sunny winter       :>)         

OK - enough jibber/jabber - time to get the day going!!!!

JR      :>)

Easy Day

Hello my friends,

Well we had an easy day today - did our computer and on-line stuff this morning and then took a ride around the area scouting out different communities.

We also had to fill out some paper work for our Florida residency and go get them notarized and mailed into the various Florida departments.  Nothing is ever easy!!!  :>)

Early this evening we are going over to the home of the RV folks we met in Nova Scotia for drinks and snacks and conversation.

So all in all a restful day - got a few things accomplished and enjoyed the day.  It was a beautiful day - a tad chilly and windy but lots of blue sky and sunshine.

Later my friends.

JR     :>) 

Exploring the area

Good morning my friends,

Well, this morning at 7:30 it is 45 degrees!!!!  Brrrrrrr!!!!  60 degrees inside our RV - so the heat is on to warm things up to take showers!!!!

Today we are going to explore various areas around here and perhaps check out some for sale properties in the local RE brochures just to get a idea of what's what in this area. It is very nice here  tho I'm thinking it may get a bit chilly during the height of the winter.  But we can perhaps relate prices here to those in the Punta Gorda/Bonita Springs area which is further down the west coast and of course further south.

We got in touch with the folks we met in Nova Scotia and they invited us over to their home here for drinks and snacks.  He is a retired military officer and they have a 6,000 sq ft home here in Destin Florida.  You may remember they were our neighbors at the campground in Hubbards Cove NS for about 2 weeks this past summer.  They spend part of the Florida hot/muggy summers RV-ing in cooler climates.

Sun is out - sky is blue although the temps are only predicted to be in the mid-high 60's during the day as the hurricane is still dragging down cold weather into Florida.

Well, that's about it for this morning so I won't bore you with senseless jibber/jabber and I'll touch base with y'all later today perhaps with some photos of our journey.

Later my blog buddies.

JR                 >)

Good afternoon my friends

Yo buddies,

Well ---- about 11 am the clouds went away, the sun came out and the sky turned blue!!!!

We went to the art show ( photos to follow ) and on the way back we noticed a sign TOMMY BAHAMA
We turned into the shopping mall and found the Tommy Bahama restaurant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now that may not seem like a big deal to you folks - BUT - when we lived in N. Scottsdale AZ there was a Tommy Bahama restaurant near us and it became our favorite place for lunch!!!  The food is great, the service is great and the prices are fair.  Now this did not just happen - we don't not believe in coincidences - so seeing that sign happened for a reason.  We stopped in and had lunch!!!!!!!  It was just a good as the one in N. Scottsdale and it was a trip down memory lane!!!!

Now that lunch is over - back to the art show:

LOTS OF ART

SOME NICE MUSIC

This took place with the Gulf of Mexico as a back drop.  This area of Florida is known as the Emerald Coast - the water is just beautiful - 

The sand dunes are quite large

As they say - Leave only your footprints

Miles and miles of sugar white sand

Hope you enjoyed your trip to the art show and your time at the beach on the Emerald Coast

Take care my friends.

JR      :>)

CLOUDY DAY

Good morning blog buddies,

Well ----------------- our first cloudy day in Florida!!!!!!  The wind has picked up a bit and it's about 55 degrees now.  It got down to 45 last night which is a heck of a lot better then the 39 degrees forecast!!!
There is an art show today that we plan on going to and then if it stays cloudy we will have a day at home painting-writing-reading-napping!!!!!  I kinda hope it does stay cloudy for today!!!!!!   :>)  

We are only here for 4 nights, leaving on Wednesday morning and there is a lot to see in the area plus we met some folks in Nova Scotia this past summer who live in Destin Fl (just down the road) and asked us to call if we came thru the area.  So a "down day" can be nice and we only seem to take these when it is not sunny & warm.  We still suffer a bit from the "We are on Vacation" syndrome and still need to settle into a NORMAL life style!!!!

Sooooo the plan is to go to the art show - stop for a Starbucks mocha and come home and stay home the rest of  today.  I love a good mocha, topped with whipped cream and have not had one for quite a while now - part of a half-hearted diet!!!!  For the most part I've cut out sweets and will try and stay "sweet free" for a few months to try and settle back at 155 pounds which is "fighting weight" for me!!  :>)

So my good friends - hope your weekend is shaping up nicely and that you have a great day!

Later Dudes--------------------------------------

JR    :>)

GRAYTON BEACH

Yo my friends,

Well this morning I check the pressure in the tire that has been losing air and overnight it lost 6 pounds!!!!
So this told me that it was not a problem with a valve stem extension but a tire problem.  On our way out of Pensacola we stopped at DISCOUNT TIRE and asked to have the tire checked.  Off came the wheel and sure enough a big old rusty nail was in the tire!!!

DISCOUNT TIRE repaired the tire and when I asked how much - the answer was NO CHARGE!!!!!!

We have always bought our tires for our cars at DISCOUNT TIRE and now I know why!!!!  Even tho we have a road hazard insurance on the RV tires, he still insisted that there was NO CHARGE!!!  I'll be sending an email off to Corporate to let them know what great service this store gave us!!!!

Sooooooo after arriving at Grayton Beach State Park we got setup in our space for the next 4 days, and went and found the beach - a 5 minute drive and then went and found a grocery store to stock up on a few things.

The hurricane going up the East coast is pulling down cold weather into Florida - the forecast is for daytime temps in the 60's and night time temps in the high 30's to mid 40's  YES!!!!!!!  I"M NOT KIDDING - tonight is forecast at 39 degrees!!!!!!!  Good snuggling weather!!!!!  :>)

We have a full tank of propane so the heat is on and just in case we also have an electric heater - so no problems keeping warm!!

Some photos of the area tomorrow-------------------------------

Later my friends,

JR        :>)

MELISSA'S BIRTHDAY

Yo my friends,

Well, we had a great time at CRABS last nite for Melissa's birthday.  I got a Mahi-Mahi burger and Melissa got Crab cake sliders and a Margarita.

DON'T SHE LOOK BEAUTIFUL!!!! - I'M A LUCKY GUY!!!!

Started cutting my hair with the 1/8 inch blade - keeps me nice and cool!!!!!

The sunset driving home

It is soooooo beautiful here.

Well, as mentioned before - we'll drive 60 miles to the east today and be a a State park Grayton Beach for 4 days - catch up with Y'all later.

JR      :>)

GOOD MORNING MY FRIENDS

Well nice day today - so this morning I did some "HIT THE ROAD" chores to the RV.  Checked the tire pressure in the 6 tires on the RV and the 4 tires on the Honda.  The outside rear driver side dullie on the RV has been losing about 6-8 lbs over a two week period.  So we need to get that checked out.  It's a slow leak and most likely is in the valve stem or the valve stem extensions.

Ford in it's infinite wisdom created a dullie wheel system on the rear axle of the E-450 chassis making it impossible to put air in the inside dullie without taking off the outside dullie!!!!!!!  These design engineers make huge salaries to do stupid things like this!!!!!  Sooooo one needs to install valve stem extensions and by nature these can have slow leaks - anytime you attach an extension onto anything - leaks can be common!!!

I also checked all the fluids in the RV and the Honda as well as the fluids in our on board generator - in addition I cleaned the inside of the RV and washed the floor.  WHEW!!!!!!!!  Now I need to go to the beach to relax!!!!

Today as I mentioned is Melissa's birthday so it's out to the Crab Shack tonight to celebrate!!!!  This place is GREAT - right on the beach on the Gulf of Mexico and has GREAT FOOD and since we love CRAB - it works out well for us!!!!  They also have live music and some entertainment - to top[ it off, the prices are very reasonable!!!

Take care my buddies and the week-end is on it's way - I hope none of you live in the path of that hurricane coming up the East Coast - NOT A FUN TIME!!!!!!
Stay safe!!

JR      :>)

Thursday 10/25/12

Hello my friends,

Well today we spent some time in the morning printing off forms to be come Florida residents - that is we will claim Florida as our place of residence while we are full time RV-ing.  We signed up with a "mail forwarding service" today and come April when our NM registrations and insurance expires we will register our RV and our car in Florida - we will also register to vote in Florida and get our Florida driving licenses.

We now have an actual residential address in the town of  Green Cove Springs Florida!!!

After doing this - we went to the beach - YES AGAIN!!!!  It was a beautiful day - blue skies and sunshine.  Spent about 3 hours at the beach and then went food shopping.

Photos of the day:

Some more photos for consideration to do some more dune paintings

This was my view for most of the day- I KNOW- I've got great knees!!!!  :>)

Melissa had a great view as well!!!!

(that's a bag of Doritos she is trying to hide!!!!)

Soooooooo - our stay here is close to over - as I mentioned we leave Saturday morning- drive about 60 miles due east and end up on another sand dune beach still on the gulf of Mexico

.

We will be at a Florida State Park with full hookups and the cost is $19 per night!!!!!  Great bargain!!!!!!

Until next post - take care and live life to the fullest!!!!!

JR     :>)

Thursday 10/25

Yo my friends,

Well today we'll head out to the beach for the day.  We are down to our last 2 days here - the 2 weeks went by quickly!!!!  Friday we'll need to spend some time on the chores needed to get the RV ready to travel again.  Saturday we leave and are only going about 1 hour east of where we are now.  Going to Grayton Beach RV park which is a State of Florida park and not under the control of the federal government so our daily rent will be a tad more than $10 as it was here  :>(  We'll be there for 4 nights and then start a 2 day trip down the west coast to Punta Gorda Florida, arriving November 1 where we will reside for a 2 month stay. Staying put for 2 months will do our budget some good as the RV won't be using any gas!!!!! The gas prices down here have been in the $3.42 - $3.45 per gallon price range.  Not bad - but - at 9 miles per gallon driving is quite expensive!!!!  Additionally since we are staying for 2 months, we get a real nice discount on monthly pricing.

As I mentioned, Friday is Melissa's birthday and we'll go to the Crab House and celebrate.  I won't tell you how young she is going to be!!!!

We did go out for our $1 fish tacos last night and I only order 4 and once again they were the best fish tacos I've ever had!!!  Nice blackened fresh fish - Hmmmmmmm - so GOOD!!!!!

Enjoy the day my friends.

JR   :>)

EASY DAY

Yo my friends,

Well today we had a few RV chores and then we went back to the Navel Air Museum.  There was an additional 50,000 sq ft to see that was not opened the day we went as the A/C was not working.  We saw that exhibit today which had to do with planes from Korea, Viet Nam and the Gulf War.

Today being Wednesday the Hemingway Bar & Grill has fish tacos for $1.00 each so we will be going there for an early supper.  Last time I had 5 and polished them off without a problem.  But I've been trying to lose a few pounds - 5 so far - so tonight I will only have 4 fish tacos!!!!   :>)

I lost the 5 pounds from giving up sweets - I was starting to eat way too many of them - I like could not NOT eat sweets - so just 10 days of NO SWEETS - 5 pounds gone!!!!  We do not have a scale in our RV - no room - :>) but having been down to 150 a while back and then settling in at 155, I would guess I had gotten up to 160 - 162 and now back down to about 155 - my ideal weight - the one I feel best at.

We don't eat a lot - normally a 6oz low fat yogurt for breakfast - a sandwich for lunch and a lite supper.
So once in a while 4 or 5 fish tacos is a treat!!!

Well- take care my friends - tomorrow to the beach for us!

JR   :>)

BLUE ANGELS

Yo my friends,

This morning we went for a walk and got to see the Blue Angels practice some of their formations.  They fly over Pensacola Bay and the Gulf of Mexico.  It was quite a show as 6 of them performed all kinds of formations.  4 of them flew directly over our heads at I'm guessing 400 - 500 feet off the land - WOW are they ever loud!

Spent some time at the beach today and now for a nice nap!!!

Not much going on other than complete relaxation - so I won't bore your with jibber-jabber.

JR    :>)

NAVEL AVIATION MUSEUM

Hello blog buddies,

Well, today we did laundry and then went to the National Navel Aviation Museum which is located at the Pensacola Navel Air Station about 40 minutes for our camp site.

We took a guided tour - admission was free and the guided tour was free and WOW what a place!!!  They even have an IMAX Theater in there!!!  Lots of history with restored 1 of a kind planes from WW I and WWII and Korea.  Very, very impressive!!!

A few photos:

Very interesting tour - well worth the visit.

JR    :>)

ALL MOVED

Yo my friends,

Well, we got ourselves all moved into our new spot.  Five spaces up the street and on the opposite side as before.  Took us about 15 minutes to move and get a setup again.

Went down to the beach for a couple of hours and tonight we are going out for a light snack at Hemingway's Bar & Grill. I;m going to get a Cuban pork sandwich!!!!!  Friday is Melissa's birthday so we'll go out to eat at the Crab House - they have music there and we went there this past May and really enjoyed the crab.

Boy - I tell ya - this going to the beach everyday sure does tire you out!!!!!!  The sun - the salt air and the gentle noise of the waves - I'm exhausted!!!!!

Time for a power  nap and then off to Hemingway's.

Later my friends,

JR     :>)

LAZY DAY

Hello blog buddies,

Well today was another lazy day - sitting on our butts at the beach for 5 hours!!!  It was another perfect day with blue sky and not a single cloud.

The sky today - Hmmmmmm - just like yesterday!!!!!   :>)

Tonight we are having beans and hot dogs!  We do this in memory of Melissa's dad - Bob.  He loved his beans and hot dogs on Saturday nite - an old New England tradition of course!!

We found a Trader Joe's in TN and we just love Trader Joe's!!!!  We get their all natural 100% beef hot dogs UNCURED - NO NITRATES - NO  CHEMICALS OF ANY KIND!!!  It is the next best thing to going to a farm and biting a chunk off a cow!!!!

Tomorrow we move from the site we are in and move down the street a few sites.  We tried to get one site for the two weeks but had to settle for 2 different sites - not a problem - it takes about 15 minutes to move and get setup again.

We observed a wedding at the beach today around 4pm - about 30 people attended - right on the beach with white chairs set up for the guests - Never saw that before today.

The beach we go to has a pavilion with about 20 picnic tables in it and bathrooms as well.  Outside they have free standing showers with a tier of three nozzles - one for the feet - a middle one for little people and one up high for the adults.  They think of every thing here - it is quite the place!

We went up to the main strip today after the beach and bought a nice beach umbrella -  really needed, as the sun can get pretty intense so - better to be able to get into the shade.

Well, take care my friends and I'll blog Ya all tomorrow.

JR     :>)

ANOTHER DAY AT THE BEACH

Good morning my friends,

Well me thinkith today will be another day at the beach! The 14 day weather forecast is for temps in the low 80's to high 70's and no rain in the forecast until 11/1 WOW!!!!!!!

On 11/1 we arrive in Punta Gorda for a two month stay - so perhaps rain will not be in this area on 11/1.

This is truly a beautiful area of the country - I would not want to be here during the summer - way to muggy but from this time until about May-ish WOW we are lovin' it!!!!  There is a tad bit of humidity right now, but the nice breeze at the ocean takes that away and it is as close to perfect weather as it can be.

Well not much to talk about this morning - so I'll stop the jibber jabber and check back in later today!

JR :>)

GREAT DAY

Hello my friends,

Well, today was a GREAT DAY - we went to the beach this morning and stayed about 4.5 hours.  The sky was pure blue - not a cloud in it and the temperature was nice with a slight breeze off the ocean

The sky stayed this blue all day!!!  Not a single cloud could be found!!!!

DW testing the waters

JR studying sand dunes for another painting!!!

I just noticed that I have really nice looking knees!!!   :>)

Hope you enjoyed our beach day as much as we did.

Later my friends.

JR     :>)

BEACH DAY

Good morning blog buddies,

This was the sunset last night - not quite the real pretty sunsets that I had anticipated for the Gulf of Mexico - but maybe I just have not hit it right yet!

My RV friend Steve Conrad keeps talking about the "green glow" on the ocean that can be seen at sunrise or sunset - I'll be dammed if I can see it.  Of course he is down in the Keys of Florida so I'm thinking the sunsets are far better then way up here in the panhandle!!!!!

Well, today is suppose to be a beautiful sunny day - so it's off to the beach for us!!!!!

Enjoy your day my friends and put a smile on as it will make a big improvement in your day and in the day of others.

JR     :>)

  

LANGSTON BEACH - GULF BREEZE FL.

Yo my friends,

Well more showers rolled in so time to do another painting!!!!!  :>)

This is 9 x 12 on canvas sheet - done with Chroma Interactive Acrylics wet into wet - quickly & loosely.

Langston Beach is about a 2 minute drive from our campsite.  It is on the Gulf of Mexico, in the town of Gulf Breeze and the water is turquoise/blue very, very beautiful.  The sand is soft and an off white.  It is HEAVEN my friends!!!!!  There are hundreds of sand dunes and lots of vegetation.

At this time of the year butterflies are migrating ( never knew they did that ) lots of them flying around.

Some detail 

Later my friends

JR   :>)

GOOD EARLY AFTERNOON

Well it has not cleared up yet and we've had a couple of light showers.  So Melissa is writing so I decided to paint.

This painting is 9 x 12 on a canvas sheet done very loosely and very quickly as an exercise to loosen up my style to that of the painters of Old Quebec City area.  They have a style in which they use very intense color and they do not pay lots of attention to straight lines and all the other archaic painting rules.  Do's & Dont's are cast aside for freedom in strokes and image.  I applaud this style.

I"m working on getting to a point that I mimic this style but with my own style dominating.  This painting is not yet loose enough.

St. Jean - Old Quebec City Region

Detail

I've learned to loosen up a painting style one needs to paint with what I call ABANDONMENT - GUSTO and very little regard for the "standing rules of painting" as well as having a preconceived attitude that your main concern is not how well or "pretty" the painting comes out.  I call it "THROWING PAINT AROUND"

Well, I hope you enjoy this "STUDY"

JR     :>)