Tuesday visiting

On Tuesday, we had arranged to visit Patti's former manager and co-worker, Barbara, in Hudson, Florida.

On the way, we drove by the house in Holiday where Sue's parents had lived when they first moved to Florida.

When Sue and Carl had driven by back in 2016, the lot next door was vacant. It now has a new house built on it.

Three houses down from Sue's parent's house was the house where Sue's aunt, her mom's sister lived - it is currently for sale.

Strange coincidence: the realtor's last name is Wozniak, which was also Sue's aunt's last name!

We drove on up to Hudson, stopping at Hudson Beach - it doesn't really have much sand.

A picture of me along the wall next to the water - behind my right shoulder is the building where Barbara and David live.

Barbara and David's building from the visitor parking area - they are on the corner on the 6th floor on the far left side (actually outside of this picture).

A view of the Gulf from one of their two balconies.

David and Barbara

We went for a walk on a nature trail that goes on the barrier island that protects the lagoon in front of their condo.

On the path

A large seabird with wings extended seemingly drying its feathers.

Barbara and David's building from across the lagoon.

Sunset over the Gulf from their condo

It was nice getting to visit with Barbara and David and getting caught up, at least a little, with what is going on with them!

Happy 3rd Anniversary to Us!

Thursday, February 2, was our third anniversary.

We celebrated by going to Pine Island Beach on the west coast of Florida. A couple of kayakers off the southwest facing beach.

Lots of birds on the beach.

The birds are being "herded" by us walking beside them on the beach side and another group of walkers on the water side.

We did not really remember seeing a sea bird like this before -- Carl used Google Lens (using the camera on his phone) to identify it as a Black Skimmer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_skimmer)

There must have been cooler air out over the Gulf as there were bands of fog that came and went while we were there.

On the beach - looking west across the Gulf. We wondered how far Galveston would be if we took a boat from this beach to there -- Google Maps showed us that it was about 735 miles, and that Galveston is a tiny bit further north and Pine Island.

A look down the part of the beach that faces more northwest.

Obligatory selfie. While we were there, one of the birds gifted Carl with poop on his hat... someone told us that was good luck?

We decided to go for late lunch at LongHorn Steakhouse.

The waitress took a picture for us.

After delicious steaks and baked potatoes, we had a "Chocolate Stampede" for dessert!

A nice day celebrating our 3rd anniversary!

To-do's that get put onto our list!

We had plans to get up and going early on Monday to go to the Webster Flea Market... but the Jeep had other plans...

... it would not start...

We have had an "issue" with the starter (the starter sometimes continues to try to activate (start the Jeep) even after the engine is running), so we weren't positive whether the issue might be the starter or the battery. It sounded like the starter would try but just not get enough juice. Carl got his jump box to see if it would provide enough charge, but that did not seem to be working. He got his battery load tester out and definitively identified that the battery did not have good charge. Thankfully, the Jeep was parked at the back of Gracie, near the engine batteries, close enough to hook up the jumper cables. That wasn't working either until we started Gracie, and then the Jeep got enough charge to start. We ran it for about 20 minutes, and then turned it off and re-started to make sure that we felt comfortable going to the flea market before going to get a battery. We also took the jumper cables with us to the flea market, just in case.

After the flea market, we decided to go to Advance Auto as we had a gift card with money on it from turning in cores from the replacement of our house batteries back in November 2021. I ordered the battery we needed online as we drove there (got a 5% discount for ordering online)...

Carl went in to get the battery, and the fellow behind the counter brought it out and changed out the battery.

Interestingly, when I started it after the battery was replaced, the Jeep did its "starter continuing to try to start the car after engine is running" malfunction. We have, so far, been successful in just cutting it off and back on, and I did that. This is the first time it has ever malfunctioned when someone else (and who might know something more than we do about cars!) would hear it (it never malfunctions around my brother or at the shop!). The Advance Auto guy said that usually the problem is a starter relay on which the contacts were getting sticky. We did a little internet searching and it sounds as if that might be the case and a replacement relay is not very expensive... so we might just replace the relay. Unfortunately since the problem occurs randomly, I guess we won't know for sure it is fixed... but if it happens again, I guess we'd know that it is *not* fixed!

We also stopped at the Bushnell Post Office to pick up a box containing our mail (since mid-December) that we had requested to be sent to General Delivery by our mail forwarding service.

We wrapped up our day out with a late lunch / early dinner at Beef O'Brady's.

Carl told me (and our waitress) a story about eating at Beef O'Brady's near their townhome in St Charles, Illinois. They have boneless wings and will serve them with one of several different sauces. At that time, he really liked very hot and spicy food and asked for them to be prepared with the "Atomic" hot sauce - their hottest choice. The cook came out of the kitchen and specifically asked him for confirmation that he would want that, indicating that it was VERY HOT. Carl concurred that he did. He ate it, and he enjoyed eating it, but he said that he could pinpoint the location within his digestion tract of those wings throughout whole digestion process. From that point on, he has not enjoyed really hot foods - he still likes things spicy (spicier than I like), but no longer flaming hot.

Webster Flea Market

We weren't originally planning to stop at the SKP (Escapee) park in Bushnell during this trip to Florida, but one of the Thousand Trails parks at which we had reservations for this time was hard hit by Hurricane Ian, and, back in December, we weren't sure that it would be open to accommodate us. So, instead of waiting until later to find out, we decided to see what other options were available, and booked a 6-night stay at the SKP park instead. Carl and Sue had been here back in 2016 and he remembered visiting the Webster Flea Market while here, so we decided to visit it on Monday.

This is said to be the largest flea market in Florida. If there is a larger one, I have no interest in visiting it!

All sorts of things to see and buy!

It is called the Webster West Side Swap-O-Rama (https://websterwestsidefleamarket.com/). This is near the middle of the 40 acres, a roofed structure with little sheds for the vendors to leave items for the week between the Monday sessions.

I saw this set of aqua bowls that I remember our family having when I was growing up...

I did not notice the price on them until I was reviewing the pictures for the blog... It appears that they were $225 for the 4 piece set! Oh. My. Goodness. I am afraid that possibly Dwayne and I got rid of the set from my growing up when we were downsizing to go fulltime in the RV. Who knows? - this might be the set from my childhood!

Carl took a picture of this and said, "Here's our next RV!"

There was an area where fruits and vegetables were available.

Lots and lots and lots of *stuff*!

It was a warm day and quite humid - the shade was appreciated!

There were a couple of eating places on the grounds. This one had a fellow singing to entertain the customers as they were in line (or passing by).

More stuff...

... and more stuff...

One vendor was selling French Bulldog puppies (this was a statue on top of the kennel with puppies).

And more stuff!

This was out toward the county road near where we had come in - a lot of vendors out in the open or with "EZ-up"-type canopies.

It appeared that some of the vendors were primarily selling items wholesale to other folks who then may take items "home" to re-sell in other states or communities. We talked to one guy who specifically recommended some flashlights that he had purchased in a previous year from a particular vendor - he was purchasing another 50 to take back to Arkansas (I think) with him. 

At another vendor, I was looking at a top and asked a worker how much it was - he asked me if I just wanted one or a multiple. I asked how many made up a "multiple" (I thought maybe I would be interested in two if I could get them in different colors) and he said 12 or more... uh... no...

We purchased one top for me (although not from the vendor selling multiples) and we got a number of different fresh vegetables and some navel oranges. 

We heard that the market is over 40 acres. We think we walked 1/2-2/3 of it... and we were TIRED! Walking slowly around seems to be a lot more tiring (and painful!) than a brisk walk!

Sumter Oaks Escapees RV Park, Bushnell, Florida

We left Lazydays RV park on Saturday and drove a short distance to the Escapees park near Bushnell, Florida.

We are enjoying walking around the campground and seeing the neighboring properties...

There is a swamp directly behind the campground. It is actually very pretty although it has duckweed or something like it on top.

On one side of the campground, there is a property with donkeys...

... since we were beside the fence, 3 of them came over to check us out.

We had no treats, so they quickly lost interest!

Some more of the donkeys...

There was one baby...

... so cute!

It appears that their ears are full grown from birth!

Staying close to mom...

... seeing what she is looking at...

... don't let mom get too far ahead!

We are appreciating a few days without scheduled rally activities.

DroneUp!

We stopped at a Walmart in Seffner, Florida, near Lazydays RV park and noticed an interesting display in the parking lot.

It was a setup for DroneUp. We weren't sure what that might be, so we went over to find out.

It is a pilot/experimental program that Walmart is running for drone delivery of items to customers.

The delivered item must fit into this box that is hung below the drone and the weight of the item(s) must be less than 10 pounds.

At this time they only deliver within a 0.8 mile radius of the store. (I have to wonder who would have something delivered if they live only 0.8 miles from the store... as I recall, he said that the delivery costs $3.99.)

The drone is pretty large - the fellow we talked with said that the total weight is limited to 55 pounds (by the FAA?) and the drone itself is 45 pounds (thus the weight limit of 10 pounds for the delivered item).

He told us that the initial project started in Arkansas, and they are now running trial programs in Virginia and Florida, and maybe some other states.

The "pilots" of the drone are located at this spot in the parking lot as the drone delivers the product to the customers.

The fellow that we talked with said that the customers who used it during the initial program in Arkansas often got things delivered that they forgot to pick up when they were at the store. (Patti comment: they should make a list!)

When the drone gets to the delivery location, it can set the package down in the front or back of the house, wherever they are directed to deliver it - however, the drone is limited by the presence of trees. The drone does not land, but has a winch that lowers the package down to the ground (so no one can make-off with the drone!).

More information here: https://www.droneup.com/

We asked the 3 guys there how they got involved with this -- two of them majored in college in drone-something... flying drones, programming them, etc. -- didn't know such a field of study existed!

We asked about the possibility of delivery to RVs. He said that they currently need a street address, and cannot deliver to apartments, though there are probably plans on how to address that.

We wonder how many deliveries they would need to do in a day to make it cost effective -- there were 3 "pilots" plus the equipment to be paid for... we have a hard time figuring how that business model will work (especially if they deliver only a short distance from the store!). It will be interesting to see if and how this develops!