All's well that ends well

March 7 2014 Not knowing how extensive any treatment would be or what kind of specialist we might need, we decided to go to the emergency room at our local hospital. They took lots of blood for testing and we were seen by an emergency room physician.

She was not alarmed at all about the incision, in fact said it was healing nicely. In our defense, it had only started looking better in the last few days. She removed the stitches, gave us wound care instructions and said to continue the antibiotics until they were gone.

It's been almost a month since the surgery and other than a nasty scar, the ordeal is all but over. We're staying home for the rest of winter and the spring. We've joined the Planet Fitness gym here in Myrtle Beach and are continuing out daily exercise regiment.

Our next road trip will be Memorial Day weekend when we go to Virginia to get away from the noise of Black Bike Week and visit relatives. But it is a long way to the end of May, we may just have to take a short trip somewhere!

Going home

Monday March 6 2017 Millie's incision was healing from the ends inward, but the center still looked red. We were both still worried about the infection and had a discussion about what we should do. We decided to go home. In less than an hour we had everything packed, hooked up the jeep and were on our way. Departure from Peace River Thousand Trails campground was at ten minutes to noon.

We traveled north thru the center of the state on hwy 17, then hwy 27. We jumped on the Florida Turnpike north of Clermont, merged onto I-75 and took it to Ocala. We exited the interstate and took US 301 to I-95 north of Jacksonville.

We stopped at the Georgia rest center at dusk to let Maggie pee and briefly discussed spending the night. I decided to push on and we started the straight drive up 95. Traffic was light and we continued listening to an audio book we've had on since we left Wauchula.

At Florence South Carolina we left 95 and headed east towards Myrtle Beach, we put the last disk of our book in the CD player. About 75 minutes later we pulled into the parking lot at the Cane Patch, it was 1:30am.

Pioneer Days

Saturday March 4 2017 Pioneer Park Days in Zolfo Springs is in its 49^th year, the three day event is a antique Tractor, stationary engine and farm equipment show. There is also some historical exhibits of “Florida Cracker” life, a 300 space flea market, many food vendors and live music. Admission is $5.00.

In years past we rode our bicycles the mile distance from our campground to the county park. Because of Millie's wrist we played it safe and drove, parking just across the street. ($3.00)

I find the stationary engines the most interesting part of the show, They range in size from small salesman models to ones as large as a pickup truck. Many of them are running and it's amazing how quiet they are. 

Lots of flea market vendors, we didn't buy anything.

We ate from one of the food vendors set up by a local benevolent association, I think it was the Lions Club. The usual fried food, Millie had chicken fingers, I had catfish, we shared fries and a drink.

There is a large pavilion in the park and they have continuous music all day, mostly Bluegrass and country. The bands rotate throughout the day, we sat for the performance by a group called Swinging Bridge. They have been together for 20 years and were quite good. 

Willie Nelson

Friday March 3 2017. We have been following Willie Nelson's concert cancellations due to a lingering health ailment. We purchased tickets months ago to see him at the Plant City Strawberry Festival and hoped he would not cancel our date.

The show was still going on as of this morning so we drove the 50 miles to Plant City Florida. Arriving in plenty of time we decided to get our strawberry short cake before the show. We stopped at Brandon Farms Market, which is one of our favorite spots for this local delectable delight. Brandon Farms bakes their own cake and also offers ice cream when building the fresh strawberry masterpiece. 

Our bellies filled, we drove the short distance to the fairgrounds. Because of our little detour to Brandon Farms we entered town from the southwest. I'll remember this route because it avoids the heavy festival traffic you encounter going through the main part of town. We pulled right into our preferred parking lot and were soon strolling past all the carnival rides on our way to the Wish Farms stage.

The arena was soon filled to capacity, they said it was the first time an afternoon show had been sold out. There was no warm up act, at precisely 3:30 Willie walked his sister to the piano, picked up his guitar and started singing. No announcer saying “Here's Willie!”, no small talk about how wonderful it was to be there, no jokes, nothing. What he did do was sing one song after another for one hour and fifteen minutes. At one point he did introduce his band and I saw him take a drink from a SOLO cup just once.

Despite his resent breathing troubles, Willie still has his distinctive voice. His vocals are strong for an 83 year old, the only hint of his ailment was from some words spoken rather than sung. I never knew he was such an accomplished guitar player. I'm not a expert but I know good playing when I hear it and he is certainly a master of his craft.

We not only got to mark off a bucket list item from our RV travels list, but we genuinely enjoyed the show by one of the last great “outlaws” of country music.

Leaving South Florida

Back at the campground we acting as normally as we could. Millie was not in pain, none that she complained about anyhow. We passed the days as we had for two months, I went to the gym every morning, we enjoyed the warm weather and just took life easy. 

Site of new casino

We have been watching the progress of the construction site behind us and have found out it is going to be a casino. I guess we'll have to bring some extra change when we return next winter.

The campground had a Mardi Gras Parade and we participated in that with Maggie riding in her bicycle sidecar. The Canadian snowbirds here are very social and made up most of the parade, some of their costumes were very interesting!

The first of March was our scheduled departure from Southern Comfort Campground and South Florida. We have tickets to see Willie Nelson on Friday and were moving upstate in preparation for the concert. Before leaving we had an early appointment at the the Dermatologist office for the stitch removal.

The nurse took one look at the wound and said they are not ready to come out. They said they would give us the name of an associate in Clermont that we could follow up with. They made no mention of the infection.

Homestead to Wauchula

Our next stop was not in Clermont but in Wauchula. We were here for the Pioneer Days Farm show in nearby Zolfo Springs and to see Willie Nelson at the Plant City Strawberry Festival.

Our stay here in Wauchula was at the Peace River Thousand Trails Campground. Part of our RV timeshare, we stayed here for free, as usual all the full hookup sites were taken. We settled into a nice water/electric site on the lower perimeter of the park.

The day after our arrival we went to a local physician for a second opinion of Millie's wrist. He took one look at it and said he didn't need to do a culture, he was sure she had a bacterial resistance infection (MRSA) He prescribed a stronger antibiotic and told us to come back in a week. 

The Wauchula doctor seemed very competent and we liked him, we left his office with both a fearful apprehension about the MRSA and confidence in this new physician.

Life is an adventure

Life is a adventure, it's not always a good one but always exciting nevertheless. Our winter in Florida has been cut short by what I'm calling a medical urgency. That's a couple notches below a sirens and flashing lights emergency. We are home in Myrtle Beach and I've decided to chronicle the last few weeks in several blog entries. If you start here, hopefully it will easy to follow. 

On February 15^th Millie and I went to a Dermatologist in Miami. Millie had a small spot on her wrist for several months that would not heal. We were fairly certain it was one of the non fatal variety's of skin cancer and debated whether to treat it here or when we get home. Our schedule was wide open for a couple weeks so we decided to get it taken care of. Besides there are almost as many dermatology offices down here as there are palm trees.

The visit confirmed our diagnosis, and we decided to schedule another appointment to have the Squamous cell carcinoma removed. The following week we returned for the surgery, here's where our story takes a strange turn. After what we thought would be a very minor nip, Millie had a 2 inch long incision and about 20 stitches. 

We followed all the follow up care instructions, but every day when we redressed the wound it looked worse than the day before. I have promised Millie I would not post any pictures, but it was obviously infected and we were getting very concerned.

Car show

There was a car show on Sunday at the Homestead Bayfront Park down the road from us. Millie and I have been looking forward to going since we saw it advertised several weeks ago. The waterfront park is neighbored on both sides by Biscayne Bay National park but is owned and operated by Dade County. It has a small marina, large boat ramp, and a swimming beach on Biscayne Bay.

1 1/2 mile backup to enter the park

waiting to enter the park

Canal Street is a long straight road that accesses both the county and national parks, it is the only access and egress from both parks. Long before we reached the entrance, traffic backed up on the two lane road. I measured it on a map later and estimate the backup was 1 ½ miles long. Even after we reached the toll booth and paid to go in the park we were still stuck in the line of cars. The parking lot was full and they let cars enter as others left. One car out and one car in, as you can imagine it took a while to get to the bay front area where the car show was. 

a miniature corvette

a nice 57 chevy

Camero parked by the bay

T bucket priced at $16K

Hydraulic Mexican jumping cars

Classic cars and hot rods are cool, but not cool enough for me to come back here to see them. When we left the line of cars waiting to enter was just as long as when we arrived some four hours ago.

They started bringing in equipment on Saturday

Back at the campground construction has commenced in the field behind us. We still don't know what they are building, I'm going to walk across and ask someone before we leave for the season. So far all they are doing is scraping off the topsoil, if you can call it that. Under the thin layer of dirt is a porous plateau of karst limestone. It is under the entire state, but most areas have more soil over it. 

Scraping the soil from the limestone base

It's making a lot of dust, I was planning on washing the motorhome this week, I'm glad I haven't done that yet. We'll miss the convenience of parking our jeep behind the motorhome, almost everyone on our street parked back here.

Half way through the winter

Millie doing some hand stitching

We are in residency mode, Millie is working on a sewing project for her daughter and I have been milling about, not doing much of anything. I didn't think I really had anything blog worthy to write about. As usual, once I start, I blurt out a lot, but like I said none of it is very exciting. 

Church rummage sales, the Hispanic market and the Salvation army thrift stores are some of our haunts when we want to get out of the RV for a while. That, and going out to eat, which explains why after six weeks of going to the gym everyday, I still weight the same. We've been to; Cracker Barrel, which only makes me homesick for Bakers Restaurant Chicken and Dumplings, Bonefish Grill, still very nice but getting expensive for my retired budget, The mall food court Japanese, not bad, a local grill called Offerdahl's which was good, El Toro Taco which is our go-too Mexican eatery here in south Florida (Thanks John Fraser for that tip) and Alabama Jacks which has it's own story later in this posting.

Larry at Alabama Jack's

We took several bags of DVD's, audio books and printed books to the Salvation Army Store and then I bought 3 DVD's before we left. We could probably make a few bucks selling things like that during one of the campground yard sales, but we feel good about donating them and we don't have to waste any of our time trying to sell them. We've watched one of the DVD's we bought, it is a comedy called Saving Grace, very clean, very cute.

We stopped at a Habitat for Humanity store right after they had received a lot of products from ACE Hardware. They had lots of electrical parts and they were really inexpensive, I really had to hold myself back from purchasing a bunch of it. First, I don't have room to store it and 2^nd, I'm retired. I did buy an assortment of things I felt I may use.

We went to a new-to-us theater which is 12 miles up the turnpike at the Southland Mall. Nice mall with few if any, empty stores, we ate at the food court here. The Regal movie theater was clean and had nice comfortable seating. It will be our south Florida movie theater of choice from now on. The show we saw was called “Lion”. It is the true story of a 5 year old boy from rural India who becomes lost while out at night with his brother. He falls asleep on a train and is transported 1000 miles to Calcutta. He survives on the street for two months before he is taken to an orphanage. He is adopted by a couple from Australia. That is not the end of the story, go see it, we both recommend it.

IMHO Sunny Pawar as the young SaRoo stole the show

We got a note from the campground yesterday telling everyone on the perimeter road we can no longer park in the field behind our our RV's. I asked them this morning what is the problem and was informed construction was to commence back there soon. Nobody seems to know exactly what they are building, I heard two buildings in the center of the field and parking around them. I guess when we come back next year we'll have a new view out the back. Who knows, maybe we'll get a shopping center with a Lil Caesar's Pizza or a Wendy's.

Alabama Jacks

Last Sunday we went to Alabama Jacks down in Key Largo for lunch. It's a busy place located on a canal by the bridge toll booth on Card Sound Road. Card Sound is the old road to the keys, it is a less used local road now-a-days.

Waiting for a table

Jacks is a popular place, the clientele a mix of Harley bikers, snowbirds, tourists on vacation, as well as a few locals. It's open air dining under a long shed roof, it's definitely not high end, more of a ramshackle place that has been here a long time.

Alabama Jacks

It's only open from noon to six pm which seems odd for a restaurant or a bar, but it's the Keys and they hear a different drummer down there. The Keys attitude probably also explains the chaotic way they run the place. There is no seating host, the busboy does that along with his other duties, the tourists wait in line to be seated, and the locals just walk in and wander around looking for a table.

If that's not crazy enough, it doesn't appear that the wait staff have an assigned section, you just have to catch one as they rush by. They put a table number on your order and someone else delivers your meal. You may not see your waiter again until you track them down for your bill. They have a bar and live entertainment. If you're looking to hang out and drink beer this may be your “Margaritaville!”

PS: The fried pickle chips were great!

Fried Pickles

I've had another mail odyssey. I ordered some New Zealand Manuka Honey from Amazon. I goofed up and sent it to my home in Myrtle Beach. No problem I thought, I'll just have my friend take delivery, we do this all the time at the condo for our neighbors. The mail handler, who was not our regular guy refused to give it to him, (We don't know why) I scheduled re-delivery, it never showed up at the condo, I checked the package tracking app, my parcel was now in Virginia, next stop who knows where. I sent another message to USPS, telling them to either sent it back to Myrtle Beach and deliver it to my neighbor or send it to my mail forwarding service in Florida. No reply from postal service and tracking said it was on its way to destination. The big question was, exactly where was the destination they were sending it to?

The next morning it was in Jacksonville Florida and I was reasonably sure it was going to my forwarding service. I called them and gave them a heads up that it was coming and the next day someone I trusted had possession of my package. I had them send it to me at the campground, via UPS this time. It arrived here in south Florida in a couple days. Guess what happened next, Amazon send the wrong product. Their customer service rep refunded my money right away, happy ending right? Wrong, they were supposed to email me a return shipping label, it's been four days and I'm still waiting for it.

Southern Comfort Campground Jammers

The snowbird musicians in the campground had a jam session last week. They have one every two weeks but this was the first time Millie and I didn't have something else planned. We're so busy, don't you know! They hold it in one of the empty sites rather than the activity center because of a no alcohol rule there. I guess the musicians and some of the audience needed a bracer to get thru the performance. Our neighbor Marcel is one of the group and is the lead singer. English is a second language for this French Canadian and he does a remarkable job with the lyrics.

Our neighbor Marcel

That's all I can remember, stay warm! Next posting will be after the car show this weekend.

Friday night at the drags

Z-28 vs Stingray

Friday Feb 3 2017

Millie and I went to the drag races on Friday night. The Homestead NASCAR track down the street from us has a locals night on the first Friday of every month. Promoted as Fast Lane Friday you can race anything as long as it is legally tagged for the street. 

 Homestead Speedway

 

The ¼ mile track is laid out on pit road of the big NASCAR oval, spectators have very good seats above the garages. All the grandstand seating is closed for the drag races.

The burn out smoke was from the little Mustang II, not the newer Mustang

 

For five hours, from 7pm till midnight participants can race as much as they like. However, later in the evening the line of racers grew longer and longer, so early birds got more runs in.

Nicely restored Z-28 Camero vs a hopped up Dodge Dart

We saw everything you could imagine racing Soccer mom's in SUV's, lots of those little cars with the beehive mufflers, more Mustangs than anything else, as well as numerous Camero's and Chargers. Foreign cars were represented by Porsche, Mercedes Benz's, even a Mini Cooper and an Infinity.

Mini Cooper, check out the (fake) heat signature radiating from the grill

My two personal favorites were an authentic (not a reproduction) Shelby Cobra and a 1930's Ford hot rod. Both were in beautiful condition, if either were mine, I don't think I would have the heart to abuse them on a drag strip.

Shelby Cobra vs Ford "Hot Rod"

 

One of the highlights was a 1940's ford coupe raced by an 84 year old grandfather. He always ran solo, never racing another car. The coupe was pretty fast and several times lifted the front wheels off the ground while accelerating.

Owned and driven by an 84 yr old grandfather

The sleeper of the evening was a Jeep Grand Cherokee. First racing a Mustang and next a Charger, he soundly defeated both. On his third race against a sports car, (I'm not sure what brand it was) it looked like it was going to be a repeat performance. The Jeep accelerated away by two or three lengths when something happened. He missed a shift or the motor stumbled, whatever it was it gave the sports car enough time to overtake the Jeep. He didn't have enough track left to regain the lead.

Grand Cherokee vs Mustang

 

Grand Cherokee vs Dodge Charger

Grand Cherokee vs ?

The stands were packed with spectators, Millie and I were in the minority on several counts. The mostly young Hispanic crowd, although enthusiastic was well mannered. Behind us was a group of (not Hispanic) men who's pre race banter got old after a while, as they solicited bets for each match up. They moved on after they ran out of dollars or whatever they were drinking in solo cups.

Porsche vs Cobra

Our date night at the drags was fun, it brought back memories of our youth. We stayed for four hours, only leaving early to beat the large crowd out of the parking lot.