This morning we are joining Charles and Agnes and heading to Ybor
in Tampa.
Here are some photos of the main street in this historical
neighbourhood.
Charles taking a photo of me, taking a photo of him, taking a photo of
me...
One of the restaurants has been in the same family for the past 6
generations.
They have painted their family tree on the exterior wall.
This used to be the bank, but now it is a restaurant.
Don't you love the door handles?
Nobody like somebody reading over his shoulders. This guy is
not complaining!
After a good walk on main street, it is time for food.
Charles and Agnes have eaten here before, in "La Creperia Cafe"
we go.
The plated may look the same, but I had a crepe "French Quarter",
Charles had a crepe "Jambalaya", Michele had a crepe "Muffelatta" and
Agnes had a crepe "Al Mare".
This is a cute little restaurant.
It is with a belly full that we leave the restaurant. On the way
out, we saw the chef cooking a crepe in the front window of the
restaurant.
What should we do next?
We take the streetcar to go downtown Tampa.
We got in the streetcar where the top right arrow points and we got off
at the arrow on the bottom left. The arrow in the center
indicates where the "River Walk" is.
This streetcar is electric. we paid $5 each to ride the streetcar
all day
Charles and Agnes.
Charles makes a funny face because the bench is very hot.
We started the "River Walk" at mile 0.4.
This river walk is not like the one in San Antonio. This one is
just a nice place to walk along the water.
It is hot today, +30°C and even next to the water, it is not cooler.
It is very pretty along the river.
You can ride your bike on the river walk and we came across this?
A bicycle repair station?
It is and it has all the basic tools to fix, adjust your bike right on
the river walk. There is even an air pump. All this is free.
Now ask yourself if this would stay in good condition in your
neighbourhood?
We have had a great day with our friends Charles and Agnes in Ybor City.
Back at their place, we had a few beer to cool off.
On the way back home, we stopped at Beals and bought a pair of Crocks
for me.
A neat sunset.
Tonight we are supposed to have a decorated golf cart parade.
Hummmm! Only 5 golf carts took part of the parade!
Michele waiting for the parade.
A hot, but very good day..
Thursday December 17, 2015
Darn, no photos today!
Another +31°C with humidity at 96%, ouffff.
I did some laundry this morning before it got too hot.
Michele went shopping and I stayed home to read. I could not help
it, I had to take s nap in the afternoon.
Michele bought all the ingredients to make meat loaf and shepherds pie.
I am going to be cooking tomorrow!
Friday December 18, 2015
It rained almost all night and this morning it is only +15°C.
Now that we have all the ingredients to do some cooking, I get started
this morning.
I made 3 meatloaf and 3 shepherd pies.
Shortly after lunch, we skyped with Jeremy and Gabriel.
We have a north wind and it got only to +20°C.
We are not complaining, but after a week of +31°C, it is on the cool
side.
Saturday December 19, 2015
We went to Walmart to buy a new digital camera.
They did not have the model we wanted.
Why not some geocaching at the same time!
We found 6 caches today.
With this cold front going by it is not very warm to BBQ outside
(+15°C).
Another good day.
Sunday December 20, 2015
We finally found our new camera at Best Buy.
The camera is a Canon Powershot Elph160.
We even took the time to look for a cache.
What a nice week we had.
Monday December 21, 2015
We are at the Webster Flea Market with our friends Charles and Agnes.
Nice shot of the live oak.
This is a big flea market and we sure look at many things.
We walked around the flea market from 9 am until noon.
It sure whets the appetite...
After the flea market, we put down one of the carpet we bought and had
a cold drink at home.
We talk so much that we had to order pizza for supper.
This was a good day with our friends Charles and Agnes.
Tuesday December 22, 2015
First thing we did this morning, we put down both carpets.
We think we did the right thing to buy two of them.
It is one more hot and humid day.
I mostly stay in the shade and read.
I also visited neighbour for a few beers.
It is time to reorganize the basement again...
Since I sold some of our stuff, we now should have more room.
I was successful in my reorganizing! I ended up with 3 boxes that
I no
longer needed and a lot more room in the basement. This also
translates in less weight to carry around for no reason.
We have some frozen turkey and I tried to make a turkey stew.
It turned out pretty good!
We had a cloudy sky all day, but with the humidity, it was still hot.
Thursday December 24, 2015
Christmas Eve!
It is another hot day!
Regardless of the hot weather, we still went and looked for caches.
We went to a preserve to look for caches.
We only walked 4 km today, boy did we sweat.
It is time for a dip in the pool. It was not very refreshing as
the water is in the low 90s.
Michele event went in the hot tub, it was almost boiling water!!!
Victor and Loretta, our neighbour, invited us for a 2 to 4 cocktail
with their friends.
We had a lot of fun.
Our other neighbour...
When people in the RV Park need some cement/concrete work done, they
always call the same person.
This man is from Hispanic origin and has a big family, 12 kids!
To show his appreciation to the people of the RV Park, him, his wife
and the 12 kids come and sing Christmas carols to the residents.
They even sing O Canada!
We finish the evening with a nice fire...
This was a nice December 24th.
Friday December 25, 2015
Merry Christmas!
The RV Park has a Christmas diner at the clubhouse. They supply
the turkey and ham, the residents bring other food.
It is a potluck type of meal. It will be this afternoon.
We are bringing mashed potatoes.
We are around 240 people at the clubhouse for the diner.
We do not know many people at our table, but it is OK. Look at
all the food!
Hummm! This will be soooo good.
Unfortunately, it is so hot in the clubhouse that we did not stay very
long after the meal.
It must have been over 200°C in the clubhouse!?!?!? OK,
maybe 35 or 40°C, we were very sweaty at the end of the meal.
Early evening, we decided to go and have a look at a decorated house
everybody talks about.
We could not find the house. We learned later on that somebody
was hit by a car and died at the house.
The owner decided to no longer light-up the house.
To all members of our families, our
friends and the people who read our blog.
We wish you a Merry
Christmas.
Saturday December 26, 2015
WOW! It is still hot out there!
Oups! No photos for today!
Anyway, we did not do much today.
Sunday December 27, 2015
WOW! Second day without photos! What is going on there?
We went to Golden Coral for lunch. It is a buffet style
restaurant.
It was OK.
The rest of the day was spent reading and staying in the shade.
Of course, I had to visit neighbour and have a few beers with them.
It is still hot and humid today.
Monday December 28, 2015
This morning, I was going to open one of the basement compartments and
when I put y hand under the handle, SURPRISE!
A small frog was hiding under the handle. Boy did I jump!
Today being Monday, we have breakfast at the clubhouse for $2.50.
It was good.
We did some reading and took a few walks in the RV Park.
Michele even did some laundry before diner.
We got, almost, a nice sunset.
We bought two religious candles not because we have gone religious, but
because they are pretty and cheap.
We are sending test messages to Manon and Patrice and we learned they
left in the middle of the night between Sunday and Monday.
They say the roads are not too bad.
Tuesday December 29, 2015
We are at Charles and Agnes for lunch for the last time for a while.
They sure have a nice RV.
Two gorgeous ladies and Charles bringing the wine!
Agnes and Charles are a very efficient team when it comes to cooking.
Catfish fillet, fries, Broccoli and salads. HUMMM! HUMMM!
The food was so very good and with our friends, the best!
After this very good meal, we decided to go for a dip in the
pool. The pool was refreshing.
This is the last time we will see Charles and Agnes before we leave for
LaBelle.
We had a great day with our friend.
Tomorrow we will start packing for our departure on Friday.
Wednesday December 30, 2015
Another hot day with a lot of social with neighbour.
One of the ladies gave us half a cheese cake with strawberries.
We can tell you it was very good.
The sunset was actually better than the photo.
We also skyped with my oldest sister, Christianne.
I carried out a big part of the preparation for our travel in two days.
Thursday December 31, 2015
Today being the 31st, they have a lot of good show on CBC French TV.
Time to install the DVD recorder and the small TV to catch it is.
Yesterday, Manon and Patrice decided to come and stay with us at
Zephyrhills for the night. Friday we will be leaving for LaBelle.
Patrice has a gray truck and a Zinger 5th wheel.
What do we see coming our way?
A blue truck and a Zinger!!!
They got a new truck!
Once they were settle in, we had a lot of catching up to do.
Of course, you have to have the crazy photo.
Michele with her pretty eyes and a "big" beer.
We are very happy to have Patrice and Manon with us earlier then
expected. They will be with us for the next 3 to 4 months.
We talked late into the evening.
A small recap from June to December 2015
June.
As usual for June, a visit to the doctor, dentist, etc...
We also traded our motorhome for a new one. It is new, but with a
lot of fixing to do!
"It is normal" they told
us! I cannot wait for the Japanese or Chinese to get into the RV
market. The North-American manufacturer will have to pull up
their socks or stop making RVs!!!
We visited our friends and families.
Visited our son Benoit.
July.
The "visiting" continues.
We were back at the dealership for repairs and the repairs were simply
not done or half done!!!
We started our western migration to visit our son Jeremy and grandson
Gabriel.
August.
We are still traveling west and we stopped at our good friend Robbyn in
Manitoba.
We finally got the generator fixed in Regina, Saskatchewan.
We made it to Moose Jaw. We are with our son Jeremy and grandson
Gabriel.
September.
Middle September we had to take Gabriel back to his mother. That
is what shared custody is all about.
We started our migration, east this time.
Once again, we stopped at Robbyn's place.
We also stopped for a week near Toronto and Michele's sister, Odette,
visited us for a few days.
We made it to our last destination before we cross the border, Near
Niagara Falls.
October.
We are getting into the month long wait and do a lot of caches.
Slowly, we modify the motorhome to our liking.
I start to put away stuff to our next migration, this time south...
November. We hit he road south and travel unusually fast to get
south. Bad weather is pushing us down.
We spent a few days in Knoxville before we made it to Navarre, Florida.
We are in Navarre for a month.
My skin has some issues with the pool water. A short visit to the
doctor and a few pills latter all is good again.
December.
We are still traveling south. This time to Zephyrhills.
We visit our good friend Charles and Agnes.
We socialize with our neighbours.
Surprise! Manon and Patrice are coming a day earlier.
We start to prepare for traveling.
This time to LaBelle and staying put for the next two months.
You are probably wondering why a recap from June to December only?
I decided to have our "fiscal" year starting June 1st.
So this recap is for the first half of the year.
This is a better date to compare every year.
