The Eagle Has Landed

The Eagle is back in the nest!  We pulled into the driveway about 3:30.  Shoveled some snow to get into the house and began the unpacking. 
Snow sucks but it is good to be home.  Thanks everyone for following our journey, it was fun to have you all there with us!!

                                                            Almost there!

                                                !!!!!!!HOME AGAIN!!!!!!

Marlton, NJ

Stayed at the Marlton Elks for what should be our last night on the road. Its a cute little Elks in a converted house with plenty of parking, electric, water and a dump station for Rvers. We opted to skip their spaghetti supper and eat our last dinner at a grill with live music down the street. We'll see how the road (and weather)treats us today.

Charleston/Myrtle Beach/Richmond

Drove thru Georgia and into Charleston, nice looking city but we had no reason to stop so we just drove thru town and on to Myrtle beach. Got to the KOA by 6:30, it started to rain so we settled in and had pork chops with onion cream sauce for dinner. Still raining in the morning so we packed up, drove by the beach on the way out of town. We drove all day and landed at the Richmond Elks around 6:30. Stir fry for supper. Its turkey shoot night here, not sure what that is but they are shooting real guns outside! 

 Myrtle Beach, Like to come back here on a nice weekend.

Here's a cool plate Sandi saw in Charleston

Richmond Elks has their own shooting range out back.  Turkey shoot was a target shoot for meat and cash!  How cool is that!

Everyone got into the picture to say goodbye to us.  I think they are saying we're #1.

Chili in St. Augustine

Pulled into St. Augustine this afternoon.  It was a little chilly so Sandi made a pot of chili.  It was great with fresh avocado on the side.

We're spending the night at a Flying J truck stop.  It has gas, separate rv parking and a dump station.  It will do for the night, tomorrow we're booked at the KOA campground in Myrtle Beach.

Flash Back

Found my old Goomba AG living down here under the witness protection program, going by the code name Honey Bear.

                                    We had a BBQ and home cooking fit for a king. 

We were going to travel off today but Andy hi-jacked us on his boat and we were glad he did. Went to a very secluded beach where Sandi filled up the boat with shells. We did a little fishing and I caught my first Florida fish. It wasn't up to the 15” limit but I would of ate it. Just as well, Giovanna had home made spaghetti and meatballs ready for us when we got back and we ate outside again. If we keep eating like this, we'll need a shoehorn to get back into the RV!  

  

                                                Pelican right off Andy's deck

                                              Tarpon Springs Sponge dock.

                             Using your belly as a bar, see I'm still learning stuff from Andy!

Friends and Family

Two more days of eat, drink, go to the beach and be merry. I would be real easy to get used to this

Met up with Britt at the Marriott

Carole let us use her car for the weekend but Sandi liked riding that electric scooter. 

Got to hang out with Cookie and Angelo in Largo.  You can find a lot of people here who got kicked out of Gloucester.

The Four Amigos, That's Bruce on the phone with us, he never looked so good!

Oh, by the way, the Queen of Spades is back!!  Some of you have seen this before.

Largo

Met up with Bobby at the Bayou club for my ritual Landing Corona. Pulled into his house for some wine with Carol. The weather here is in the high 70's this whole week so we'll hang around for the weekend. 

Met up with Bobby at Chili's for supper....

Hey, WAKE UP!!!

He was just kidding.  We partied pretty late, for old people.  I think it was about 9:00 when we all crashed and burned. hahaha!

Melbourne

Pulled a surprise attack on my cousins Luigi and Judy today. Didn't know if they would be around but we gave him the call and got to see his “can-dominium”. All you can eat buffet for under 6 bucks, Louie always knows the best deals in town. A couple of drinks and a bucket of laughs later, we checked in to the Melbourne Elks for the night.They are closed right now but some other RVers showed us the ropes.  We parked and plugged in - No problem except we are very close to the airport and train.  In the morning we'll head to Tampa.

Vero Beach

The ride up 27 was interesting, through the everglades. Sandi saw 4 alligators on the way and of course the GPS went out on Martin Luther King Boulevard in Shanty Town. It was amazing to me that Sandi could talk on her cell phone all the way across the middle of nowhere but I can't get a signal in my house. Well I pulled over and fixed the GPS power cord and we made it to Vero Beach. We pulled into the Tiley's around 5:00. Mr. Manatee served a great fish burrito and Thursday we got the full Vero tour, Its a beautiful place. Thanks Arthur and Leslie for another great day on our odyssey!

 The bar at the Driftwood Resort, notice the carved whale above.

Lounging on Arthur's sailboat

South Miami

 

If the great plains is America's bread basket then this is America's Fruit Basket. Miles of groves coming in to this place. I think there was a lot of mango and papaya. I will do some exploring tomorrow to see if I can find whats ready to pick. In the middle of it all Sandi found this real nice RV campground, Miami Everglades Resort, located in the Goulds section of Miami. We got some local advice to take rt.27 north instead of rt.95 and pick up some Cuban pork at a local diner / gas station on the way. We will definitely do that when we leave for Vero Beach later today.

Long Key

Long Key is an awesome place, every site is on the waterfront. It's like being in a Corona commercial.

No wi fi, no tv but we do have a good radio station and a dvd player. Porterhouse steaks on the grill tonight.

Don't know where we are going to stay tomorrow. If there is a cancellation, we'll stay here another day. If not, we will figure it out on the fly. It's kinda exciting!

The Journey Continues

Today we leave Key West. This part of the trip we are vagabonds. We scored a night at Long Key State Park so we'll work our way slowly off the keys. This sight does not have an internet connection so we may be out of touch for a while but it is right on the beach so I guess we'll manage.

This post is via a McDonald's connection, thanks for the tip Tom.

Ocean Beach Club

Spent the day at the very exclusive Ocean Reef Club in Key Largo. Sandi's friend Rich invited us and I'm glad we took him up on his offer. We went to lunch and I heard my favorite phrase “Your money is no good here”. Then off on a golf cart tour of this expansive complex. It has a large marina, a small airport, 3 golf courses, a town hall, many shops, restaurants and mansions. Wow!

Thanks for a great day, RB!

Old Friend, New Memories

 

Got to meet up with Joanne Guarrasi Rivas and her husband Bo. It was fun to catch up after many years, we went to a great Cuban restaurant, El Siboney, with homemade sangria, a quick Key West 101 tour and back to their house for a nightcap. Joanne pours a shot of Jack like the St. Peters Club!

Saturday they came to our studio apartment (on wheels) for a cocktail then off to the Square Grouper. The food there was really good.  Sandi finally got her Key Lime Pie but since Grouper fishing is banned right now, I opted for the lamb ribs, not bad at all.

Mission Accomplished!

 

I know this first picture is cliche but it's proof positive, Mission Accomplished!

Put me on the highway, show me a sign, we'll take it to the limit one more time.

Mallory Square to watch the show and have a couple of 10 dollar mojitos, got to do it to make the trip feel complete.

 

Sunset is an event here!