Rambling thru life

 While driving home last night, this spectacular lightning display was ahead of us.   It was more awesome than fireworks.  It lasted a lot longer than this video.   Give a thumbs up if you enjoy it.  Better yet, subscribe to my channel.

The Bike gets out of storage, I head off on the first ride of the season, and I get a third ride of 153 miles. I stopped at Slattengren Farms for some Maple Syrup. I also stopped in Prescott Wis at the beginning of the 2019 Flood Run.  I didn't realize my Mustache was getting so long.

LoriAnn and I both conclude that the trip was successful for a vacation and for the residence hunting. This trip was filled with so many high points.   The greatest of theses was the time we spent with each other. This was a great time to be gone.   We missed at least 5 significant snow falls and numerous sub zero days at home.  Thankfully we had our neighbors and kids on standby to shovel if needing.  A big thanks to Cliff for tackling the driveway.   I hope you enjoyed the treats and gift cards we gave you.  In retrospect, next time we are gone over the winter for an extended stay, we will probably hire a service to clear off the snow. In Bonita Sprints we enjoyed spending time with Mark, Delores, Bev and Idola.   We had a great day out swimming on the beach and watching the pelicans dive into the water around us.   The air boat ride thru the everglades was especially fun. In Daytona  the highlight was the the relaxed atmosphere with just each other.  We then picked a grea

Who doesn't like to see a stick go over a dam. On a walk at the Coon Rapids Dam in Minnesota, we stopped to watch the ice chunks go over the dam when we caught sight of this large stick go with the flow over the dam. See what happens next!

Day 4 - Mar 12 Sometimes you just have to take a break from all the fun and do laundry.   That was the task this morning.   The room had a microwave but did not have any dish's.  For breakfast we used the paper coffee cups in the room as bowls and spoons that we had drug along with us to eat cereal that we still had from Daytona After lunch we drove over towards Marysville.  On the way out of town, we found Dolly Parton getting ready to sing us a song. We took back roads through the low lands and checked out a friends home and neighborhood.   Joe wasn't home so we just did a drive by.   We then started hunting. We found some potential areas to move to between Marysville and Knoxville. That night we went to the Opry House for entertainment.  It was a variety show that just opened for the season.  The music was ok, a bit off key.  It was entertaining. Day 5 - Mar 13 LoriAnn caught some awesome morning sunrises.  Here is one from this morning. Today we tour

Picture from Shoot'em Up Cinema in Gatlinburg TN

Season 5 is not for fun. As I mentioned in Season 1, this trip is a continuation of our search for a new residence.  A location where we can retire to.   We are tired of the cold and snow of Minnesota.  We are also trying to extend our retirement dollar.  With retirement outside of Minnesota, we anticipate a cheaper cost of living due to lower taxes and living expenses. What is our plan?  As we did last November, we will go into a prospective area and get a feel for the land.  We evaluate the terrain. We check out the commerce to tell if the area is prospering or dying. We try to use resources such as google, and AAA guide books to learn about the area.  We tour different communities in the area to see if they have housing that we would like and can afford.  We are not house hunting! We had already ruled out Florida because it just to far South East. Since we want to travel in retirement, Florida would add a couple more days for us to get anywhere. Admittedly, the time with our fri

Day 1 - Mar 7 My cousin Jeff and his wife Sharon picked us up at the motel at 830 AM. I am glad that Jeff drove.  He has been to Charleston before.  He also has a bigger vehicle and will hold the four of us more comfortably. "Charleston, the South Carolina port city founded in 1670, is defined by its cobblestone streets, horse-drawn carriages and pastel antebellum houses, particularly in the elegant French Quarter and Battery districts." Our first destination today was the French Quarter to take a horse-drawn carriage ride through town. It was interesting to hear how the elite class, using slaves, filled in the swamp lands and built the buildings.  We learned that the town was over come by fire, that parts of it were leveled by the gun fire of war and how the different architecture styles impacted the buildings.   We felt our guide/carriage driver knew the town.  Here it seem that a guided tour of any type is vital, otherwise we would have just wondered the city scra

How we packed for a 22 day journery..... LorAnn has a bag for her clothes.  I have a bag for my clothes, We have a bag for shoes. We have a bag for beach wear. We have a bag for cold weather clothes. We have a bag for electronic gadgets.  I have CPAP bag.  Each of us has a (at least one) miscellaneous bag. We have a bag for snacks and treats.  We have a small cooler. And we have a case of water (or remnants of one) We have lots of different bags. And it all has to go neatly back into the car. There is a place for everything and everything has a place. We do not bring all the luggage in each and every night unless we: 1) will be at a location for more than one night and do not want to leave items in the car.   2) We need to repack the luggage to get the right clothing for the location we are going to be in.  Since we were in Daytona for 4 days, we brought everything into the room.   In addition, now that we are leaving the warm weather, beach scene, we need to exchange our s

Day 3 - Mar 4 This morning was a bit cooler than we have experienced in the past couple of dasy.   But it is still a nice day.  So this morning, we decided to take a walk down the beach and see what we could find.  We made it to the pier, where there is a Joe's Crab Shack.   Joe's may be an experience for back home, but here in Florida we prefer to eat at more local places.   Anyway the pier was the objective of the walk, its extra steps to see what we could find beyond it. The pier is where the International Speedway highway meets the ocean.  The initial location where people in the past would drive upon the beach.  It is at this site, that some of the original land speed records were made upon the Daytona Beach sand.  The city erected a cools statue near this location. Like all good walks on the beach, you always need to walk back.  With the sun higher in the sky, it started to get warm.  I suggested we stop in at the Landshark for beach drinks and light lunch o

Day 1 - Mar 2 This trip is really a bunch of first.  Two days ago it was our first air boat ride.  Last week we were the first guests that Mark and Delores had overnight in their new home.   Now in Daytona, LoriAnn and I are enjoying the first time we stayed in a beach side resort overlooking the ocean.  At Cancun we had a house with waves breaking outside our balcony.  In Puerto Rico we had an apartment with the surf outside the building.  But here in Daytona, we open our balcony and here we have the expansive beach with a generous amount of Surf.  LoriAnn couldn't resist the opportunity to arise early to take pictures of the sunrise. It is time to relax.  After taking a short walk down the road to Adam's Egg for breakfast, we then had a great afternoon playing in the ocean, swimming in the pool, and then warming up in the hot tub.  The ocean water was cold.  The warmth of the hot tube was needed. For dinner we drove down the road to Crabby Joe's which is locate

Day 4 - Feb 28 Today our excitement begins with an everglades air boat ride and then a swamp buggy ride at Wooten's Air boat tours in Ochopee FL.  Mark drove us the fifty plus miles to Ochopee using mostly the interstate.  We made our reservations the night before.   We only needed to get to Ochopee in time. Wooten's is located at the very bottom of Florida.   The temperature was warm but moderate and the sun was shining.   We first loaded into our air boat.  DJ was our guide and air boat pilot.  He took a moment to answer our questions, then he instructed us to put on our ear muffs (to muffle the sound) and then he spun up the engine. Heading out of the channel away from the base we saw our first gator sunning himself just feet from the docks.   Once away from the docks, DJ got us moving, slip sliding through the mangrove and grass water ways.   In one area of the grass, we stopped in waters where five gators were floating on the surface.  DJ inched the boat t