Life is what you make it...so let's make it rock!

This is going to be a week of miscellaneous pictures and inputs. I thought after we returned from our GA trip we were going to settle down awhile....what was I thinking???????

Saturday morning was "Pancake Breakfast" Although they have one every month, this is the first one we attended. Salt volunteered to work so when I went to pay for my ticket they said I didn't have to pay since I was his s/o. Of course, I immediately volunteered him for all the upcoming events!!!

Monday was NY day, which was a catered lunch in the club house with a trivia contest put together by Diane Kone (Ithaca, NY). This is Rick Russo who along with his wife Donna organized the event.

And of course, Mr. NY himself, selling jackpot tickets....(Dave Kone).

and more New Yorkers...

Monday evening, Salt and some of the guys from the resort drove over to watch the launch from the Cape. Of course it was difficult to get very good pictures since it goes at "rocket" speed. I actually thought he did pretty good.

Emma had her music concert this week.... I love her in her glasses...she reminds me of a little librarian!

Here she is with her Dad after the concert. He surprised her and crossed the river in the nasty weather to get there.

Your such a good dad, Frank!

Sometimes it feels like it's raining all over the world...

Next stop St. Augustine......When we left the motel Friday morning we were once again having tornado warnings. Now most people would just stay put or head home....oh no, we wanted to get our money's worth and not miss that trolley tour through Florida's oldest city....home of the Fountain of Youth.

These pictures are not very clear as they were taken in the rain as we were being blown through the streets.

This is the entrance to the "fountain".

Here is the "Old Senator" who drinks from the fountain of youth daily. The tree is as wide as it is tall.... Because of the weather we never did actually get into the faux fountain.

The tallest cross in the nation.

walls (made from shells, water and sand).

Flagler Memorial Church and crypt....

Flagler Hotel...now Flagler College...this is the dining room which is all glass....Tiffany Glass!!

Here is Salt who decided to put up his hood and use his poncho on his lap. Doesn't it look as though he is traveling with a bunch of St. Augustine ghosts?????

Of course me with my "cup always half full" was happy that if we couldn't finish the St. Augustine portion of the trip at least we would be back in time for BINGO! And....I won a game!

Georgia...where the peaches grow, they drink sweet tea and talk real slow

After sitting on the bus for about 15 minutes, we were transferred to a trolley. I was actually pleased we had the opportunity to take that tour as the trolley was able to go into areas where the bus could not go.

Of course, if I had a chance this would have been my personal mode of transportation. I love watching the carriages lumber through the tree laden streets.....shades of Gone with the Wind.

A few fun facts we learned while on the tour....Savannah hosts the second largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the nation. They are expecting 700,000 people this year....yikes. The day after we left they started turning all the fountains green. I would love to see it but NO way could I tolerate those crowds!!!

Savannah is also the 4th largest shipping port in the nation. It is 44' deep and can accommodate 98% of the worlds' ships.

Spanish Moss is really not Spanish or moss. It is a breathing plant and does not kill the trees. Years ago, people tried to use it to stuff their mattresses....it seemed like a good idea until the bugs that were intermingled with the moss started to bite. Hence, don't let the bedbugs bite. Henry Ford also tried to use it to stuff the seats of his early automobiles, with the same results....bringing on the first Ford Recall!

It is believed by many, that Eli Whitney did not actually invent the cotton gin. Supposedly, a WOMAN and her slaves invented it, however, due to the fact that neither a woman or slaves could obtain a patent, Whitney was asked to apply.

According to FOX news River street is the most haunted area in the nation.

Many of the streets and walls within the city are made from ballast stones. When the ships crossed the ocean they used the stones for ballast. After arriving in Savannah, they would unload the stone and then stock the ship with the exports.

Here is the famous Whistle Stop Cafe....where the movie Fried Green Tomatoes was filmed...and yes they still serve them.

This is the Telfair Hospital which was the first hospital for women only. It was owned and staffed by women and the only time men were allowed in was to visit their wives and babies.

The architecture is beautiful and much of it reminds me of the French Quarter in New Orleans.

After the tour we headed for lunch at Lady and Sons, Paula Dean's restaurant....where once again we ate too much. I told Salt I am heading back to the Island with 2 cases of Slim Fast and a new pair of running shoes!!!

After the tour we had some time to browse the city on our own. The boys got very excited when they found this bar....unfortunately, it opened after our bus left.

This is the club where the famous (or infamous) Lady Chablis, the transvestite who played a large part in the book and movie Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil still performs once a month. She/he played him/herself in the movie. What a cast of characters this city offers!!!

All kinds of shops along the river....this one is for you Emma, Rachael and Sarah. I know much fun you would have in this candy shop!!

Although we saw so much while we were in Savannah, our time there was way too short. It is definitely a place I want to go back to.

Georgia on my mind....

The trip to Savannah was everything you could ask for as well as everything you would not want to happen. I will break this blog up, as there were so many things happening in the past few days.

We boarded the bus for Savannah at 7:00 am on Wednesday. The first thing our bus driver said was..." I have never been there before"....we thought it was a joke...stay tuned.

Our first stop was at Pebble Hill plantation in Thomasville, GA http://www.pebblehill.com/ . As soon as we arrived we picked up our box lunches and ate them in the cow barn. The only thing I can say about pimento and cheese sandwiches is thank God we had Paula Dean's to look forward to!!

This is the plantation up close as well as an overall picture. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, which was a bummer but that is pretty common as supposedly the continuous flashes ruin the quality of pictures, materials, etc. It was an interesting tour but not the "Gone with the Wind" (Tarra) we were expecting.

Isn't this tree so cool!! I love ferns and would love to be able to grow fern on some of our trees!

After touring Pebble Hill we were back on the bus headed for our hotel....the driver got lost, everyone was hungry, no one wanted to use the bus bathroom. The bathroom was clean enough, just SO small I think we were all afraid we would get wedged in and would be embarrassed to have to ask for help to get out. Finally we pulled over at a Western Sizzler and by that time we were all so hungry we ate WAY too much at the buffet. It was good food though, what they call low cooking which I think means "fattening". They even had pork rinds fried in lard....I think maybe they should rename it the Heart Attack Cafe!

Back on the bus and once again the driver got lost. The hotel (which was a very nice hotel) was evident ally, difficult to get to with the traffic pattern. We could see it from the bus but went around in circles before we finally got there. We were all so tired we went right to our rooms and after a shower we were in bed hoping to rest up for the big day on Thursday.

Thursday morning after another BIG breakfast at the hotel (there was entirely too much food on this trip) we gathered in the lobby. We were all chatting when all of a sudden our friend Ruth exclaimed..."oh my God, I think that is our tour guide...or is it Ranger Rick?". We rushed out to greeted by our guide who was dressed as Juliet Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts. Since she is a big part of Savannah history www.girlscouts.org/who_we_are/historylow_biography I guess it was appropriate for the outfit????? She actually turned out to be a great guide with a fantastic sense of humor! Never judge a book by the cover....

Our first stop was the Byrd Cookie factory http://www.byrdcookiecompany.com/ We took a tour with the highlight being the samples. They make two of my favorite cookies. The first being the Benny, which is made with Sesame seeds. They became very popular in the south as the Sesame seed was brought over by the slaves, one of the few things they could grab before they were shipped over. The other cookie we like is the Key Lime Coolers. I had one of each and quit, knowing we were headed for A Lady and Sons (Paula Dean's restaurant) at 2:00.

There is just SO much history in Savannah and so little time. I took so many notes and pictures but since I don't have that much time to blog I am going to pick and choose and then try to add some web sites where you can find information on subjects you are interested in. I know Emma is loving her affiliation with girl scouts so hoping she will be checking that out.

Our next stop was the dueling grounds. This is the square where people settled their quarrels. Since dueling was against the law in South Carolina, many arguments from that state were also solved here. The grounds are adjacent to a large cemetery which folklore says was so that they could throw the body of the looser over the fence.

From here we walked to the garden where the girl scouts were established. The gardens are magnificent. There are 24 squares in the original layout of the city. At present there are only 21 remaining as a couple were converted over the years to such things as parking garages. I did not realize that in the 70's a big share of the downtown area of Savannah was boarded up and disintegrating. The restoration was greatly helped by SCAD (Savannah College of art and Design) as they have purchased over 68 buildings, renovated them and are now using them as classrooms. Many of the beautiful old mansions have been purchased and renovated into the beautiful homes they once were.

For those of you who have read the book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil you will recognize the Mercer-Williams home below. Built by the grandfather of Johnny Mercer, the famous songwriter and owned by Jim Williams, a preservationist and murderer. I had not read the book, but purchased it while we were shopping on River Street. What a great piece of work. If it were not a true story, one would wonder how an author could come up with a wild and crazy bunch of characters.

This is "Flagging Fannie", one of the many statues that stand throughout the city. Fannie was supposedly a 19 year old girl who fell in love with a sailor. He left for sea and promised to come back for her. The story goes that for 44 years she waved at every ship that passed.....and ended up dying with a broken heart.

The magnificent Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist, dedicated in 1876 http://www.savanahcathedral.org/

The inside was so beautiful but it was so hard to capture the magnificence on camera as it is so huge.

Well, right after this stop the bus blew an engine. We were transferred to a trolley, where we continued the tour. I will resume on the next post.

We can't let a sure thing drown in a puddle of doubt...

So, Salt and I had haircuts this morning. We decided since we wouldn't be here on Friday, our regular bowling day, we would go join the Tuesday afternoon group and see if we could improve last week's LOW scores. I had a 212....my highest score ever. Of course, I am not getting competitive or anything like that.....

Time to go pack and watch the election returns. I am not taking my computer to Savannah, so...I won't be posting for a few days. Hopefully when I return I will have good pictures and great memories to record!!

Sometimes you win, sometimes you don't...Sometimes you beat the devil sometimes you won't

Headed for Bingo....kind of a lay back day today. Had a meeting to discuss the Savannah/St Augustine trip and found out we have reservations at Paula Deans' restaurant in Savannah.

Love Paula...will be fun to compare her restaurant to our trip to Emeril's last year.

OK...back from Bingo, close all night but no cigar. I did however win a horse race for $15 so at least we paid for our entry fees.

Check out the golf clubs I picked up at the yard sales on Saturday. $15....The unopened package

is a 18' ball retriever (for water shots). My neighbor gave me that...hmmm, and he hasn't even seen me play yet. Golf is going to be our next adventure when we get back from Savannah.

We have also discovered there is a gun club in Eustis (the next town). We are checking that out next week as well. I have not shot competitively in 20 years but now that we have the time I would like to get back into shooting one day a week. I don't want to spend as much time as Bill and I did when we were traveling all over the country but I would like to get Salt interested and maybe find enough other guys that would like to put together a team.

Haircuts tomorrow and then off to bowling.

They say it's your birthday...We're gonna have a good time!

Happy Birthday Salt!! So glad you are catching up to the rest of us...

The tornado didn't hit us but you can bet I had the new park model switched over to our names and insured first thing yesterday. I was quite surprised to find a company that would insure us at such a reasonable price and great coverage. AARP, but I understand Lake County is one of the very few counties where they will still insure mobile homes.

Salt went to work on the house (Habitat) this morning while I went and took pictures of our friends getting their old home moved out and the new one moved in.

Out with the old....

In with the new.

Amazing....Diane stayed up most of the night and by Friday afternoon everything was completely decorated. Great job both of you!!!

Salt and I went to one of his favorite restaurants for a quiet birthday dinner. We knew the weekend was going to be non-stop so didn't do it up too big.

Friday morning was bowling and I went in with great expectations with my new ball!!! I HATE it, I HATE bowling and I am never bowling again....at least not until next week. I had a lousy 3 games. The guys were all picking on me saying that I bragged entirely too much last week and made Salt feel bad so the "Bowling God" was paying me back. What a crew they are.... I did however manage to get a strike on the "red pin" set and win my $.35. Right after that they pulled my ticket for the $3.00 strike and I got that one too. Now they call me the "money bowler".

After bowling our friends Terry and Susie (from Colorado) had a spaghetti dinner for 5 couples so we partied there until time for Bingo.

Saturday was "Open House" at the resort as well as town wide garage sales. Since we have been all about having fun and not very involved with helping out we did a day of volunteering. Salt parked cars and I served hot dogs. We also had the Lake County band here for entertainment.

Tonight was the "Great Umatilla Chili Cook off". We decided to check it out... $5.00 with the donations going to the youth The boys weren't sure they would get enough to eat.....yeah right; I think they are all heading to the medicine cabinet for alka seltzer. These were a couple of our favorites.

This is the first one we tried....it was definitely one of the best. It was called Margarita chili and the booth and presentation were definitely y the best.

It was really surprising to see how much effort went into the event. This is a very family oriented little town. It was so much fun to watch all the kids out dancing to the sounds of the DJ.

Tomorrow after church we are going to lay back and do some catch up work around home. We are leaving early Wednesday morning with a group from the resort, heading for Savannah , GA and St. Augustine, FL.

tornadoes spinnin...I sit here grinnin

Probably no blogging tonight. We are under tornado watch until 11:00.

A thrill seeker making deals...look at the bargains over here!

Saturday was a rainy, gloomy day so we took off for the Markets of Marion, one of the larger flea markets in the area. Diane and Dave went with us, as Dave had promised to get me a "deal" on a bowling ball. I figured it would probably be a piece of junk and I wouldn't want it but...TA DA!
It came with the bag and is exactly the weight I used for my 192....and get this....$5.00! they wanted $15.00 but when I asked the lady why Dave and Diane got theirs for $5.00, she gave it to me for the same. I didn't, however luck out like Diane did on her $5.00 ball and bag. When she got home with her's and opened the bag, inside one of the pockets was a sterling silver Italian necklace and a $200 watch.


I have been using a house ball since we started bowling and either I go half way down the alley with it because the holes are not large enough or I drop it behind me because they are too large. SO....I am taking it in tomorrow to have the holes drilled to fit me. Tomorrow afternoon we will have our first lesson. Should be interesting!




Diane and I found these shirts for $2.00 so we had to have them for bingo night. I am truly becoming a tacky redneck woman....Gosh it's fun!! While I was doing Salt's Corporate Tax return today, Dave and Diane found what is supposedly one of the largest markets in the country...will be checking that out next Monday.




I HATE doing taxes, the only good part is I did get to talk to our CPA (and good friend) Clay Kolle. Hopefully this year, since I am not working we will be able to spend some quality time with Clay and Kay. I have really missed entertaining and having my summer weekends free. It will be so nice to be able to spend some time with our friends from the island.

I can't believe in only a month we will be leaving for Myrtle Beach. Emma and Betty keep reminding us just exactly how long it is before "Spring Break" when they will join us. Boy have they had a cold, snowy winter. Hmmmm, and is that a result of "global warming"?

We are taking possession of the new digs on Wednesday. We won't actually be moving in until next fall. The gentleman we are purchasing it from wanted to stay until the end of March. Since we have the motor home, I didn't see a need to have him out any earlier. He will shut it down for the summer when he leaves. We will be moving some of our things into it but I actually am glad we won't move in until fall. It will give me something to look forward to and some time to think about exactly what I want to do with the decorating. It doesn't really need much, just enough to make it "ours".

too much fun.....what's that mean?

Saturday, Country & Western night.....all cowboys; no Indians. As usual another good time. I can't wait til next year though when I have more some time to work on costumes. Now that I know what all the different themes are I can scope out garage sales, thrift stores and "after holiday sales".

Dancing up a storm, my friend Carol decided to show us all up with her twisting skills. I was going to show her I could do it too when I had this horrible flashback....the time I thought I could still do a cartwheel and split and couldn't get back up. I ended up in the Emergency Room the following morning and was laid up for 3 weeks with a leg brace. So I decided to just rest on my laurels. I'm not jealous Carol....I'm really happy for you!!!

A good ole country band!

How bout those cowgirls.....

The Olde Mill Posse


Look how happy Salt was...right before I told him I signed US up for Line Dancing!