Happy New Year!

Here we are with our friend, Jan, enjoying refreshments at Sloppy Joe's, Ernest Hemingway's favorite haunt. We were fortunate enough to get a seat on the veranda overlooking Deval Street. Jan, who lives in Evanston, decided to join us for the New Year's weekend. Now that we have moved closer to Key West, we will have more time to visit and less time on the road.

It was a hot one today, 8o degrees with 82% humidity. Before we joined Jan in Key West, we settled into the Sugar Loaf Key KOA. We decided to take quick showers to freshen up for our Key West evening. As Mel stepped out of the shower, the power went out. With no air conditioning, the RV quickly heated up, like a tin can waiting to explode. We dressed as quickly as we could, leaving behind several items that I thought we'd need in Key West, but we just had to get into the air-conditioned car.

We picked up Jan, from Eden House, and drove a little ways out of Key West for lunch at Friday's-not too exotic but old Key West was impossible to manuever through. The party started early at 3:00 p.m. We arrived at Mallory Square just in time to catch the sunset. It was interesting watching the variety of street performers.

After enjoying our libations at Sloppy Joe's, we walked Duval Street. We found a small theater and bought tickets for a musical, The Spitfire Grill, with book and lyrics by Fred Alley of Door County fame. It was a delightful play and set in Wisconsin so it gave us a feeling of home.

After the play, we stopped a snack and refreshments. The police had put up barricades for vehicles as the partyers had taken over DuVal Street. We walked back to Jan's hotel and set out for home at 11:00 p.m. We are all such party animals. We made it home by 11:20 p.m. just in time to see Dick Clark and the New York crystal ball drop at midnight. Since the RV park was having a party, too, Mel stayed up until 1 a.m. before he crashed.

It was time for 2005 to end. Three of our Florida families were affected by hurricane Wilma, however they are all grateful that it wasn't any worse for them. They have sustained only property damage, but their lives and livelihoods were spared. I am humbled by their resilence in the face of such devastion. Even though Katrina got all the press, clearly Florida suffered too.

Wishing all of us a safe passage in 2006.

Last Sunset of 2005, Mallory Square

Here is the last sunset 0f 2005 from the southernmost tip of the USA. Because of cloud cover, the sun did not sink into the ocean but this is just as spectacular.

We left Marathon this morning and moved to a KOA in Sugar Loaf Key. Isn't that the cutest name? We wanted to be closer to Key West so we wouldn't have such a long trip back after the New Year's Eve festivities. Also, we plan to spend the next three days exploring one of the country's most charming and exotic cities. Fun! Fun! Fun!

The Day of the Iguana

As we were boating out of nephew David's canal, he spotted an iguana sunning high up in a tree. Evidently, iguanas are all over the Florida Keys and are a real nuisance. They love to eat the plants in the beautifully landscaped gardens in the villas along the shore. But really, how much more Florida can you get-finding an iguana in a tree down your street. Now that Mel knows that they are out and about and sooooo big, he has pledged not to leave the camper after dark. The iguanas don't bother me, but the alligators are another story......

We slept in a little this morning. We both had a miserable night-Mel with his head cold and me from being bitten over every inch of my exposed body by no-see-ums. This morning, poor Mel actually had to run to the local Walgreen's to by me some Benadryl as I was having an allergic reaction to all the itching.

For lunch, we headed north to Islamorda with Dave, Arlene, Mel and myself. Our nephew, Dan, stayed behind to work on his boat and watched our grand nephew and nieces. We ate at an adorable beach restaurant. The tables were set on a shaded patio but there were umbrella tables scattered all over the beach area. It was truly Key-like, loved it.

After lunch, Dave took us out for a boat ride in his big cruiser. It was a lovely day. The ocean was flat and the temperature around 75 degrees. It doesn't get better than that.

All the fresh air is making me groggy so bedtime for Nancy.

Kudos to Michelle and Doug

As happens, the photographer seldom gets photographed so I wanted to include a picture of daughter, Michelle, with son-in-law, Doug.

Over the years, Michelle and Doug have provided the venue for the Karasek Family Christmas. This all started when Mel destroyed our condo and we had no where to entertain. Year after year, Michelle has beautifully decorated their home, set lavishly-themed tables and prepared sumptuous meals for our family. As Kate told her friends, "I am going to Martha Stewart's for Christmas dinner." This year was no exception. The table had a nutcracker theme and prime rib was the main course.

Doug was no slouch either. He was the legman, researching our bicycle purchases, putting them together, adding special features like headlights, taillights and reflectors and providing components like a rack and tire pump. Tomorrow is the big day. We are going to try riding our new bikes for the first time.

I have been pondering the reversed roles-that of children giving their parents bicycles. Each and every bike that we gave the four kids have special meanings and remembrances for us.

I remember in my divorced years, when I scraped and struggled to gather up funds for new bicycles for Michelle and Brian. It was summer, no one's birthday or Christmas. Just summer. The kids had been on vacation with their Dad and I so wanted to surprise them. My good neighbor, John Meade, went to K-Mart with me to purchase the bikes. He built them in his garage. When he finished, we took them to the second floor bedrooms so the kids would find them when they arrived home. Oh the joy of it all!

Of course, when it was time for Charles and Mark to get their first bicycles, Mel built them from scratch-custom made bikes. Too beautiful for words.

Then, topsy-turvey, we get bikes from them-too much! This is a Christmas that we won't soon forget.

Happy Birthday to Mel!

This too cute picture of granddaughter, Malory, adoringly gazing at her grandfather, is impossible not to blog.

Today is Mel's 55th birthday and the poor guy celebrated by driving from Tampa to Marathon in 7 hours, plus he has a miserable head cold. However, his sister, Arlene, had one of his favorite dinners prepared-Sloppy Joes and topped off with a yummy birthday cake.

We celebrated his birthday with the family on Dec. 26th with a dinner at Gridley's Grill on 83 at Gilmer Road. They gave the birthday boy cherries jubilee for his special birthday treat.

After touring our two grandnieces, Alex (10) and Alyssa (9) through the RV, I shared our Christmas pictures so the girls could acquaint themselves with their Chicago families. They said, "You sure have a lot of parties up there," as there were pictures from 5 separate celebrations. I guess that we like to party.

A Good Time Was Had

This is a picture of our family's Christmas party. Michelle took the picture so she is not in it and I will post her picture in the next blog.

We left Tampa at 9:30 a.m. It was a warm sunny day in the 70's. For the first time since the start of our trip on November 14th, I am wearing shorts-not that I should be wearing shorts but it is finally warm enough to wear them. We arrived in Marathon at 4:30 p.m. and were met on Hwy. 1 by Mel's sister, Arlene, in her new VW convertible bug. She guided us to nephew Dan's house.

Dan and friend, Lisa, were in their front yard waving us in. The RV is parked on Dan's extra lot next to his 38' cigarette boat. Mel is beyond jealous.

I am very excited about being in the Keys. I don't know what it is but I love the island atmosphere. After the two long driving days, 1st from Chicago and then to the Keys, we are looking forward to just chilling out.

Belated Merry Christmas!

Our children got together and bought us new Schwinn "Jaguar" blue & silver 7 speed cruiser bikes for our Christmas and birthday presents. Pretty nice of them. We were surprised and thrilled about receiving them. We have seen some great bike trails while on our trip so it is going to be fun.

On December 27th, we drove for 20 hours from Chicago to Tampa, leaving at 4 a.m. Chicago time and arriving in Tampa at 2 a.m. Tampa time on Dec. 28th. We took turns driving, then sleeping in the back of the Jeep. We were exhausted so I called the RV campsite office and asked if we could stay another night so we could recoup.

By 11 a.m., we were awake so we showered, dressed and took off for West Shore Plaza for lunch at their food court and a movie, Rumor Has It, (that Jennifer Aniston is so adorable). Afterwards, we went to my sister's home and had a great Cuban dinner of paella, (chicken, yellow rice and black beans), topped off with flan.

Tomorrow, we are heading to the Florida Keys so we will be able to test out our new bikes.

I'm Back!

Where have we been? Short answer: Disney World, Orlando, St. Petersburg, specifically Ft. Desoto, trying to soak up as much sunshine as we can before we head north for the holidays.

We get at least two days of rain a week and the rest of the time we are out and about looking at the countryside, which is actually beach and Gulf waters.

Besides running about, there have been computer issues that took 2-3 days to resolve. Then, we moved from Disney to Fort Desoto that is a long narrow penisula at the end of the Tampa Bay area so we have a very hard time obtaining, then maintaining a signal.

Anyway, please don't give up on us. There are many pictures to share so I will download and describe when the computer issues are resolved.

As for the picture above, I took this on the Kilimanjaro Safari ride at Disney's Animal Kingdom. If I may say so myself, it is a great picture, considering that we were bouncing around at the time.

Weekend Off

Here is a picture of our campsite at 538 Buffalo Bend. Yes, we have neighbors but with site widths and landscaping, we feel relatively shielded. Our new neighbors have a nifty set-up with a screened tent covering their picnic table and with room for lawn chairs. So, I plan to replicate it and will ask them where they got it tomorrow. While it is easy to be outdoors at Disney, other places will be far more difficult to enjoy the great outdoors. Disney has some remarkable mosquito & bug controls that won't be duplicated elsewhere.

We had some major downtime this weekend. I came down with a dandy cold and sore throat either from last Monday's downpour or from being in an unventilated closed pre-ride room, when someone, next to me, sneezed hard. Mel has been bummed by this since we have had two gorgeous days that I've had to waste by staying in bed sleeping.

Yesterday, I tried to be a trooper and joined Mel for breakfast at Trail's End. It was such a beautiful day and we walked around other camp loops looking at RV's and decorations. That activity did me in. I came back to the RV and crawled in bed, falling asleep immediately. Mel took himself to the movies and saw Saw II, a movie I had refused to go see.

When he came home, we headed to EPCOT for fireworks at the World Showcase. We took a boat ride from Mexico to Germany. We arrived in time to hear the Candlelight Procession, with Christmas carols sung by the Mass Choir and the Christmas story being read by Haley Joel Osmet.

I am really proud of Disney, none of the politically correct stuff. They are out & out doing Christmas the old-fashioned way. At MGM, there is a life-size creche and they play hymns as well as pop tunes and Disney songs. It is actually refreshing. They do say, "Have a Happy Holiday" so as not to directly offend anyone but they are unabashedly recognizing the original meaning of Christmas. I guess when you don't accept government funding, you can do what you want. That is probably what make Disney World a target for terrorism. I now apologize to anyone that I may have offended with these comments but there are some things about the past that I do miss.

Then, we went to the American Adventure always an inspiring show about our history. We walked by Italy and at Germany bought a pretzel. We stopped and took in the China travel film.

We learned how to say "thank you" and "goodbye" in Chinese but we feel that we are going to have to learn to say a lot more as China emerges into the world market. Mel said, "I guess it is their time." He is so insightful sometimes.

We had a great spot for the laser/fireworks show, Illuminations. Because it is the holiday season, they added on a post fireworks show, in which they play and sing, "Let There Be Peace On Earth." I found it ironic that the show ended with another slam bang fireworks display-so much for peace.

This morning I woke up with more sniffles, a sore throat and the blahs. Mel went off to Magic Kingdom by himself saying he misses his tour buddy. I slept until 1:00 p.m. Our big outing was for pizza at Giordano's, needed a little bit of home, and a stop at Walgreen's. I was so happy to be back at the RV but I know Mel was bored to tears. Here's hoping that I have miraculous recovery tomorrow so we can continue our good times.

Nouba

It was chilly today in Orlando, sunny but 64 degrees and windy. We saw that it was 14 degrees and with wind chill of 0 degree in Chicago. BRR!

Today was laundry day that was challenging. Mel went to check that washing machines were available. All 5 were open. As we arrived with our laundry, a man drives up in a golf cart and proceeds to load up 3 washers. So I loaded up the other 2 and took our quarter baggie and started loading up the coin slots. But we needed 16 quarters and had only 12 and the coin machine was broken. Yikes! I asked a lady who was folding laundry if she had any quarters. Mel gave her a dollar in exchange as I was trying to count out a dollar's worth of change from pennies, nickels and dimes.

Mel had the bright idea to find another laundry in the campgrounds. Sure enough, we found one at Cottontail Curl-aren't the names great? We live at Buffalo Bend. The laundry was empty and their coin machine was working so I exchanged $12 for quarters so we are armed for next time. Since we had two more loads, I added sheets to one washer and towels to another. Then we had to hurry back to the Buffalo Bend laundry to place clothes in the dryers. By the time that we got back to Cottontail Curl, the 2 machines were finished so we loaded up the wet clothes and headed back to Buffalo Bend to dry the last two loads. We folded the first two loads while waiting for the towels and sheets to drive. When the ordeal was over, Mel said that next time we will find a laundromat in Orlando with enough washers, dryers & working coin machines to stay put. Ah, the life of a domestic! I guess he thought this laundry thing was a snap.

Once the laundry was done, we headed out for lunch and a movie. At the Pleasure Island AMC 24, we saw Aeon Flux with Charlize Theron. It is a sci-fi movie, based on a comic character. It was okay but no Monster. We had an hour and a half to kill before our next adventure began so we walked around Disney's West Side with House of Blues, Virgin Records, Disney Quest and Wolf Gang Puck.

The reason that we had a low key day was because we had tickets for Cirque du Soleil-Nouba, our treat to ourselves. While we have seen them on TV, it was incredible to see these athletes perform live. A lady in front of us said that the performers are former Olympians. Amazing!

I was so happy to be home as we seem to be running everyday. Sometimes, I just want to sit and veg. But Mel was full of energy so he kissed me goodbye and headed to the Magic Kingdom for fireworks. About an hour later, he was back and I hadn't heard fireworks. Mel was not a happy camper. He rode the boat to the Magic Kingdom but when he got to the gate, he was turned away. The park had closed at 6 p.m. for a private party. Can you imagine what something like that cost? Poor Mel had braved the windy chilly night and was turned away at the inn. He just wishes the captain had announced that the Magic Kingdom was closed before he boarded. Now he is tired.

By the way, the photo is one of the Christmas displays found throughout Disney World. The campgrounds are filled with those plastic air blown figures that Disney had provided. However, you wouldn't believe the displays at individual campsites. People have gone crazy with decorations. Our next door neighbors have lights, animated figures, a star on the roof of their RV, two airblown figures, etc. It is fantastic. I love when people go over the top like that to give pleasure to others. A big BRAVO for them.

Soarin' At EPCOT

Another beautiful day in Orlando but it was cool, 69 degrees and no humidity. We decided to dine off-property for lunch. We ate at Pebbles, a beautiful Key West-style restaurant. We were served by an adorable waitress, named Ashley. Not only was the food great but the service was A-1. We've decided to dine there again next week and will call to find out what Ashley's shift is. No we aren't stalking her; she was just that good.

We arrived at EPCOT at 1:00 p.m. We decided to tour Future World today and do the World Showcase and fireworks on another day. EPCOT is the largest park of the four and it is a killer to try to do it all in one day. That's why we like having the annual pass. We do 4 to 6 hours and then head home or to some other activity. I call it pacing. Mel is starting to appreciate my plan instead of doing the Bataan death march every time we go somewhere.

As we had been told, the crowds were down. We were walking right onto the attractions. My favorite ride remains Spaceship Earth, a timeline of communication and transportation and their effects on history. It is a lovely peaceful ride. Mel's favorite ride is Test Track. The Land has a new ride, called Soarin' that is a hang-gliding (think Batman ride) ride over California scenery. You feel the wind rushing through your hair, your feet dangle and you can smell the pine forests and orange groves. This was outstanding and we will return as often as we can just for the experience. We finished the day by taking a ride on the EPCOT monorail so we could see the Christmas lights that were very beautiful and keeps us in the holiday spirit.

We are watching the news as I write this. There is a story about gas prices in Orlando. Some stations have lowered prices to $1.97. Yea! The stations on Disney property are selling gas at $2.03 for regular. That isn't bad at all.