Siesta Key and Legacy Trail, Sarasota on Jan.27th

Another beautiful day in paradise. Tom & Marci met us and we followed each other in our Jeeps for a fun day of bicycling on the Legacy Bike Trail in Sarasota.

Kinda cool we both have fun Jeeps!

We stopped at Roberts Bay for a short rest

Laurel Park was a nice place to stop for a snack and restrooms.

We finally made it to Siesta Key Beach!

It's advertised to be the #1 Beach in America.

It is beautiful, although Bill and I have been to better.

We walked around downtown Siesta Key. Cool little town with lots of restaurants and gift shops.

Bill and Tom finally had their oyster fix at the Oyster House. I should've got a pic of both of them. It was crowded in there.

We caught a glimpse of the sunset at Shell Beach before it hid behind the clouds.

We topped the day off with frozen yogart at ?Meechies.
Tom & Marci will be moving on to their next destination next week. We will miss them.

Lido Key / St Armando - Jan.25th

A good day to enjoy beautiful Lido Key beach and St Armand Circle. We had not been there until today.

Lido Key south beach/bay side. We walked the beach around to the gulf side. The beaches have many, many shells.

From the parking lot - south beach

St Armands Circle

St Armands Circle Statues 

We had dinner at Cha Cha CoConuts on the circle. 

St Armands Key features a large roundabout with a small park in the center. This roundabout is known as St Armands Circle. The circle has many restaurants, tobacco shops, clothing and other retail stores, and is famous for it's homemade chocolate, fudge and ice cream shops. There's even a Tervis store and a Crazy Shirts store.

Our anniversary and January 24th update

 After a relaxing day, we celebrated our anniversary on January 20th with a very nice dinner at The Beach House Restaurant. Our table was right on the beach with a beautiful sunset.

Beautiful sunset from our table.

Bills Seafood boil & my Black Grouper was scrumptious. 

The friendly people at the table next to us to our picture for us.

Sweet memories from 2010

The next few days weren't as eventful, but fun. I didn't take pictures.

On Sunday, the 22nd we had some strong storms passing through. We received a tornado warning on our cell phone. The news on TV predicted its path to be within a few blocks of us. So about 20-40 of us RVers gathered at the bathhouse until it passed over. 


Monday, the 23rd we had a fun time playing cards with Marci & Tom, Rita & ?Joyce at the clubhouse library while listening to some of our musician neighbors play in the main clubhouse room. 

Tuesday, the 24th Bill and I biked the Legacy Trail in Sarasota. We met a couple from Wisconsin, Jeff and Deb in the parking lot and biked for 22 miles with them. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to keep up with them because they have "Road" bikes that are designed for much faster riding than our Trek hybrid bikes. Fortunately I didn't have much of a problem; we averaged about 12 mph. It was a fun, pleasant day and so nice to meet more people with common interests and hobbies. They are newly retired and are staying at an RV Resort in St. Petersburg for the winter, which is only about 30 minutes from ours. 

Afterwards Bill and I had dinner at Mar-Vista Restaurant on Long Boat Key. Very nice 'rustic' atmosphere on the water on the bay side. Food and service was wonderful. 

2017 - New Chapter in ours lives - fresh start!

We had planned to arrive in Bradenton, FL on January 1st. However; because of problems with our motorcoach, we had to leave Gulf Shores, AL on Wednesday, December 28th to head to Tampa General RV for repairs. We spent the night in their driveway so that we'd be 1st in line when they opened. They were very accommodating and made most of the needed repairs. We are still waiting for a few parts & will have to return when the parts come in.
    Our site at Pleasant Lake RV Resort is spacious.

   We spent the first few days setting up and settling in. We had a fun New Years Eve beginning with a drive out to Bradenton Beach for a beautiful sunset dinner at the Beach-house Restaurant. Our table was right ON the beach.

   Afterwards we joined about 60-80 people at our Clubhouse for dancing, munchies and drinks. We sat with our new friends, Tom and Marci, along with 6-8 other people. At midnight the hole group held hands in a circle and we sang "God Bless the USA" and the National Anthem.
   We spent a few days trying to shop for organizing shelving options and supplies. We spent a day driving to Sarasota's Welcome Center and drove out to Anna Maria Island and had lunch at the Sandbar Restaurant.
   On Friday, Jan.6th we road bikes on the Venetian bike trail around Venice and had dinner at Sharky's with our friends, Marci and Tom. Fun day!

On Wednesday Bill and I drove out to Ft Desoto, an Island west of St Petersburg that has over 7 miles of paved bike trails. We biked 13 miles and then sat on the North Beach to watch the sunset. Afterwards we had a scrumptious dinner at Billy's Crabshack.
     Pics from North beach on Ft DeSoto

Thursday we stayed close to home and went to see the movie "Inferno" after meeting Tom and Marci for a yummy pizza at Demetrios.

On Friday we loaded the bikes on the Jeep and drove out to Bradenton Beach for beautiful, fun & eventful day. Tom & Marci road their Jeep out there as well. We all biked 11 miles, a little hiking & beach walking. Then we road the free trolley from Bradenton Beach to Anna Maria where we had dinner at the Rod & Reel Pier.

Cortez Drawbridge

Anna Maria Pier

Saturday through Monday. 

We had a pleasant, mellow few days. We went to a pool party at our clubhouse Saturday. A musician played guitar & keyboard & sang. He was pretty good. We met a few new people there as well as some we've met previously. Sunday we went to the Gem & mineral show. It was very nice, but much more pricey than out west. We're not in the buying mode, just looking. Monday we walked 1.5 hour around the neighborhoods in the area. Shopped at Bealls a little.  Then went for dinner at Geckos.

2016 - Huge changes in our lives . . . the next chapter.

We made some huge changes in our life in 2016. We finally made the decision to sell the house in Lansing, MI. Also we traded our 5th wheel and truck in for a 43 foot Motorcoach and 
 we bought a Jeep. Time for a fresh start and new chapter in our lives.

                 Good bye to our beautiful home on the hill.                                       Good bye SNOW!!!

Good bye beautiful yard! :'(

We stayed in Michigan for the December 9th closing on the house. Although we didn't enjoy the cold and snow, it was nice to be able to visit family & friends and spend Thanksgiving at my parents. We had an auction to sell the majority of Bill's woodworking shop, as well as most of our furniture etc. Stanton's did a wonderful job. We moved our kayaks, 2 bikes, living room furniture & mattress along with many boxes into a 10x15 storage room. We managed to head south on the 14th in a blizzard. It took us 4 hours to get to the Indiana border. Thankfully Circle B RV park in Angola, IN is open year round.

            Our new home on wheels.

I plan to update 2015 & 16 when time permits. For now I'll post our current events in 2017 while their fresh in my mind.

2015 - Updates are pending

  2015 was awesome, but not quite as eventful and the previous 2 years. I will post when time permits.