Day: September 17, 2018

I ended things in Part 1 with us taking off from the flooded campground near Chicago and heading out to Florida.

Trip went well, it is a long two days of driving for 12 hours each day and pulling in someplace where we can get a drive thru so we don’t have to unhook the car, setting up, eating, sleeping and then packing the camper back up and taking off as early the next morning as we can.

Hey! That’s us being reflected in the back of that semi!  No we weren’t tailgating, we were sitting still during some stop and go traffic.

On to our visit with my Dad.

Dad is doing fine and had made fast friends with his neighbor’s dog, Elvis.

Dad carries dog treats in his pants pocket just for Elvis (well and other dogs he runs into when he is out and about).

We had dinners at Eaton Beach or Bonefish Grill every evening. Good stuff!!

Did some driving with Dad so he could re-see many areas he had not seen for quite a while. Went to the Market of Marion and walked around.

We are going to be down to Florida again in a few months and plan on visiting Dad again, but also to stay a few days at Beverly Beach a bit south of St. Augustine. So we also drove out there to see what we would be getting into for the next trip out to Florida.

Just a beautiful beach

Our motor home will be right above the beach with this view-

Yes, there was a motor home in our spot when we visited, but we were standing right next to it.

So there spots are on a seawall sort of thing…cement…the yellow is the curb where the wall stops, then there are stairs down to the beach.  It was actually a rainy day – you can see if you look toward the cloudy area – looks like rain coming our way.  But it was hot and sunny when we were there.  Not many people on the beach though…a weekday right after the kids returned to school after summer. I am excited to spend a few days there.

One of the days we were out messing around we saw this:

Hummm – and it turned out to be:

Yes, a Black Bear cub.

We didn’t hang around…his/her Mom must have had it stay in the tree while she looked around other places.  Though it wasn’t doing that good of job hiding. 😉

We were looking for the Mom, but didn’t see her until we went down the road a little ways and on the other side was a Mom ‘possibility’  A big Black Bear.  Not really sure it was the cub’s mom or not…and we didn’t stop to ask her.  Tried to get a quick photo of the larger bear, but just couldn’t get a good shot from where we were (which was not all that close). 😉

 

We also went by Dad’s old house which was a manufactured home, single wide with a screened in porch and an added sun room.  Built quite a long time ago….nearly 40 years ago?  39?  Not totally sure. But when it was sold they came in and took it away to re-purpose it and donated it to FEMA. New residents build a slab home…looks pretty nice.  But then so did my Mom and Dad’s house.  Still, it was interesting to see the change.  My Dad took his golf cart over by the house on a daily basis and watch the entire transformation.  I believe he has even met the folks that now live there.

That’s pretty much the story for the Florida portion of our trip. Good trip back – again a couple of really long days driving back. But no problems!

And Today…On the Mississippi:

Hot Hot Hot and Humid!!

Mandy: Shade….think shade, Mom!

Happy Monday!

The house is deemed about 90% complete now. Still everyday seems to bring something new.

We had the window measured for window treatments. 14 windows some larger. More windows than we got treatments (shades) for in our old house which was twice as large. There, we were on a treed lot and actually didn’t get window treatments for all our windows.  But this house is all on the ground floor and doesn’t really have any trees that are big enough to block sun or the fish bowl effect.  So it is window treatments for all windows except the high ones (transoms). EXPENSIVE!!!  Bu!!t we had most of our other ones at the old house from the day we built it, to the day it was sold…so nearly 30 years.

We figure these will most likely l figure these will last us quite a long time as well.

Now photos:

Thermostat and doorbell are in.

Lights are going up, These pendants will be hanging over the island.  Which you can see also that the counter tops are in…quartz in the kitchen area.

Front foyer light is hanging.

The above is the ‘flex’ room that will be used for the cat’s litter boxes and storage.  You can see in the ceiling we have had an exhaust vent fan in, and you can also see the smoke detector and light.

Master bathroom light, counter top is in. Can’t really see it…plastic still covering it.  A large mirror will go on the wall and to the right you see the closet and some of the shelving inside it.  There is another closet to the right on that, that has a door on it – that is the linen closet.

This is the dining area in front of the sun room. Lights going up.  Not sure how much I like the location of the chandelier, or the chandelier itself.  We had a couple of light packages we could choose from that were included.  So we really didn’t get to pick out the lights. No doubt, down the road, some will be replaced.

The other white square to the left will be a ceiling fan that we have picked out, not yet purchased, but will have installed after closing on the house.  They just prepped the ceiling for the fans in the sun room, the living room and the master bed room.

They have the outside lights on AND these guys are finishing up the installation of the sprinkler system. Most likely our sod will be in this week.

Back door above…coming off the Sun room.

The circuit breaker box is filling up…because:

We have appliances now. The air conditioner was running when we were there, so they are testing out everything to make sure they work (not the appliances, but the furnace, air conditioner….air exchanger and so on).

Getting ready to put the dishwasher in.

It’s all coming along!