Going flying!

Marc called and asked us to meet him at No. County Airport, so here we are and about to take off! Wooohooo...
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Friday fun...

TGIF, so that means Scotty B's tonight with Wade and Ginger! Well, the place has sold and changed names, but somehow or other, it'll always remain Scotty B's to us.
It is sunny and beautiful here in WPB, and the wind is not blowing very much today--finally! This has been the coolest and windiest winter we've had since we've been doing our moho living. At least the weather has been better here than back in Mayberry.

So what are we doing today? Dick put distilled water in the moho batteries and did a little other piddly maintenance. He is even contemplating washing the moho, since it is so nice outside. I need to run out a get a few items on my list and do a little straightening up inside. I think we can handle all this without too much stress!

Just another day in paradise. Hope y'all are expecting a good weekend. We sure are! Go out and have some fun. Life is good!

Thursday things...

I finally got pictures downloaded last night from our Cruise and Crop on the Monarch of the Seas adventure last weekend. Here are a few of the journals that were submitted for judging on various categories. Haley's winning journal in the one on the far R:

And Joy's winning entry is the one above on the L - "Thinking outside the box" - she cut strips of paper to look like piano keys on the left-hand side of the journal. Pretty clever! She is VERY musical--plays the piano, organ, and sings beautifully...played the cello in her youth...disgustingly talented. And she is a sweetie. Now she is gonna put various musical pictures on the inside. Oh yes, her two daughters are also musical, along with her brother and nephew........no lack of musical talent in that family!

Here we all are hard at work cutting, pasting, stamping, coloring...thanks to Dick for catching this shot...

Queen of the Crop Haley and Joy with their winning entries...

And the whole Mayberry group all gussied up for dinner...

Hope y'all enjoyed cruising with us. Who wants to go next time?

Fun in the Bahamas...

Sandy and Joy in Nassau, with three ships in the background...

Shells for sale...but we resisted temptation.

Haley and Amy having fun...
Beer wagon on CocoCay...

Dick on the beach, but where's the beer???


The day was sunny, but that water was still cold...
As you can see, we had fun. The ship was an older, smaller one. And........the captain was Captain Karin, the very first FEMALE cruise captain anywhere! We were quite thrilled to sail with her. Gals sure have come a long way!

We began today with breakfast at John G's (gosh, it's been a week since we've been there!), taking Bill and Barbara, since they've never been and we just have to fix that! Then I'll fill in at the park office today, since the office is short handed. Enjoy this Ash Wesnesday! Hmm, time to think about giving up chocolate for Lent. Who is joining me???

Fat Tuesday...

Go ahead, let the good times roll on this last day of Mardi Gras. I'm wearing my beads...Dick asked what I did to get them. Haha...I'll never tell!

We'll go to St. Andrew's tonight for the traditional pancake supper that signals Lent is beginning tomorrow.

Who out there has attended a 'real' Mardi Gras celebration? When...where? I'd love to go to New Orleans one of these days to celebrate there...well, I don't really like big crowds, so I probably will never attend other than through what we see on TV. Oh well...

Happy Fat Tuesday, y'all! Party safe!

Home again, home again...

Well, not the real home home in Mayberry...we are back at the moho in W Palm Beach, our winter home.

We had a fine time on the Monach of the Seas, most especially because of daughters Haley and Amy being there with us, along with friends Joy and Debora. We are unpacked, clothes are washed and in various stages of hanging around inside drying (I can't dry them all the way in the dryer b/c they'll be all wrinkled). The suitcases are stowed...snailmail is picked up and dealt with (for the most part). Reality. No Royal Servants...no one to bring our dinner to the table; no one to turn down our bed. Dang. Why'd we leave the cruise ship???

Missy was happy to see us, even though the sitter spoiled her terribly. She'll probably be ready for us to leave soon so Dottie can come back and spoil her!

Us gals had 'stampin' fun' and got a lot accomplished, well, SOME of us did. And Haley won Queen of the Crop...and Joy was selected as a member of the court! I'll get the photos downloaded soon and show y'all their projects. It was sooo fun seeing our two sweeties...and Joy and Debora, too, of course. Amy informed our waiter that last night was her dad's birthday, so they made a fuss over him, which he loved. He enjoyed his birthday, and appreciates all the nice birthday wishes.

Brian is home after his Cali-Cali adventure with the Tour (glad he did it, but probably won't do it again)...the girls are almost home...and I promise to make the rounds of my fave blogs and get caught up! Whew...it sure takes time...and I survived being 'computerless' for the weekend, but I missed everyone in cyberspace!

Are y'all ready for Mardi Gras? Shrove Tuesday (Fat Tuesday) is tomorrow, so pancake supper it will be. I'll have to pull out my beads to wear. Do you have yours???

Day 3 - Cococay - and Happy Birthday!

Think Dick needs new Birkies for his birthday? Naw...he glued this one back and it's good as new! Happy birthday, honey!


We'll be spending the day on Cococay. How's that for having some birthday fun? Not bad!

Well, I'll go to the Travel Journal class at 9 before heading to the beach. The crop queen will be crowned at 3 this afternoon, but that isn't high on my list of things to do today, our last day of the cruise!

Out having fun in the sun. Life is good!

Day 2 - Nassau, Monarch of the Seas

We have a window, but not a balcony on this cruise. This pic was lifted from the RCI website:

Nassau was overcast when we were here in January, so hopefully it will be sunny and pretty today.

The "Crop Room" is open from 7 until 2 today, with the Christmas Album class from 9-3. I think I signed up for that one but I can't remember. Oh well...I'll figure it out. Then at 8:30 tonight is a pajama party in the Crop Room. Um...I don't own pajamas, but I do have a long black sleep tee that I'll wear. I guess. I'll certainly be more covered in that than I am in my bathing suit! Not that any of you will EVER see me in a bathing suit!

I'm sure we are all having fun today...Dick included. I hope your Saturday is great!

Back to the dock...

We are back at Pt. Canaveral due to a passenger medical emergency. Fortunately, we were not too far out. The ambulance is outside waiting to whisk away the patient.......now we are underway. We sure hope it turns out well.

Dinner was good...now back to scrappin' on the high sea. Enjoy your evening!
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Welcome onboard!

Here is Dick's harem. Cheers!!! We will be setting sail soon. Life is good, but the weather is chilly.
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Gone cruisin'...day 1

Dick and I are driving north this morning to Port Canaveral to meet up with the girls--Haley, Amy, Joy and Debora, who are driving south from Mayberry. They spent last night in Gainesville in order to be at the port today in time for lunch and the pool! Can't wait to see them!!!!!! Lido Deck, here we come!

And this is a map of where we are going...Nassau tomorrow, then Cococay on Sunday. Amy already said that she is hitting the beach with the new snorkel and mask we are bringing to her.

We have a 3p 'meet and greet' today at the scrapbook room. Oh yes, we'll have fun. Life is good. Y'all have a great weekend. Check back and see what we are doing tomorrow, OK? And now that I know that Blogger on the Go works, I'll try to blog a new pic when we get to the port.

Blackberry blog

This is a test to see if BB blogging will work, posting directly from my phone...blogging on the run! Oh, the possibilities...instant posting of pictures, for example. Be patient with the learning curve! Here goes...
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Washing Wednesday...

First item on the agenda for the day was to meet Terry and Lynn at John G's for some cinnamon-nut French toast with fruit cup. Boy, is that stuff GOOD! No, it's better than good! It's OUTSTANDING, especially with a bit of butter and honey. Quit slabbering on the keyboard!
Next stop was at JT's house to pick up some bamboo he found...who knows from where. Dick has an idea in his head for a water fountainish project, so he is outside sawing away on the bamboo. Stay tuned, peaches...project man at work!

Cruise countdown - two days! So I am washing today, packing tomorrow, loading the car tomorrow night for early Friday departure. We can't pack too far ahead of time here in the moho...but for a three-night cruise, it won't take very long to pack anyway. We have this cruise wardrobe down to a pretty fine science. Besides, we don't care if there are any fashion police onboard.

We are enjoying watching the Tour of California each night. We, of course, always check to see if we can find our boy on the sidelines, but so far, no luck. If you want a quick summary and a few pictures, check out Brian's blog, as he updates pretty much each night. Darn, we won't be able to watch it on the ship, but I guess we'll survive that. I know you feel our pain:)

So go out and have some fun today, OK? Life is good!

Happy anniversary...

Happy day to Amy and Jason!


What a beautiful family...those boys are mighty lucky to have such GREAT parents! We are all mighty blessed.

We love you bunches,
Mom and Dad

Terrific Tuesday...

I love all the tropical plants and blooming flowers we have here in our park. It is cool but windy here today after the 'cool' front moved through. I can't call it a cold front as we do back in Mayberry, because by the time it gets this far south, it is hardly still cold by then.

Dick's puter wouldn't boot up this morning in the normal way, so he had to open it in SAFE mode. Sigh. Its days are numbered for sure and he's not gonna be happy when it officially dies, but it sure is heading to the electronic heap pile before too long. And we are having problems with one of our satellite receivers. We keep losing TV signal and that is annoying. Electronics are great when they work!

Today's project is to finish pulling out all the scrapbook supplies I need to take on the cruise, and to set up my future blogs. I'll take lots of photos to post after we get back.

Three more days until the cruise...life is good! Enjoy your day.

Cruise countdown!

Yes, friends, we are going on another cruise. This is a girlie cruise, but Dick is tagging along for the fun of it (he'll also be having a birthday on this trip!). This is a "Cruise and Crop," so named because it is a scrapbooking cruise, for us gals...not Dick. Haley, Amy, Joy and Debora are meeting us at Port Canaveral on Friday for this 3N cruise to the Bahamas. I haven't decided if I'll take my computer or not, but I'll set up some blogs before we leave to let y'all see where we are and what we anticipate doing. Besides having FUN.

Amy has already labeled the cruise CELEBRATION, so that song by Kool & the Gang has been playing in my mind ever since she suggested it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwEMxYggoKQ



Life is short...go cruising! Happy Monday, y'all!!!

God's problem now!

When the grave side service had no more than terminated, there was a tremendous burst of thunder accompanied by a distant lightning bolt and more rumbling thunder. The little old man looked at the pastor and calmly said,'Well, she's there.'

If you want to know more about the Tour of CA, check out Brian's blog. He discussed the prologue from yesterday, and will be updating daily as he can. He's having fun!

Enjoy your Sunday, whatever you are doing. Dick and I plan to watch the Daytona 500 on TV, and go to an ice cream social this afternoon. Life is good!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day! Chocolates for everyone, but only take one, please, so there will be enough to go around.

Hug someone special today. I did! Life is GOOD (especially with a dozen red roses from my sweetie).

California dreaming...

Somehow or other when Brian said he was going to CA, we didn't realize there would be a sex change involved in that trip! Fortunately, it was only on paper that he was briefly known as Hilary, since that is the volunteer he is replacing. His 6'5" frame wouldn't look good in drag anyway, so we don't have to worry that he is out shopping for a very different wardrobe!

Dick and JT have gone south to look at a mower, so Missy and I are home alone and it is kinda nice for a change, although we do well with our 'togetherness' in small quarters. Heck, I married for better or worse AND for lunch, so I am accustomed to having Dick around pretty much 24/7. And we are still sweethearts after over 40 years. Not bad, huh?

Enjoy Friday the 13th! Life is good...we are goin' cruisin' in ONE WEEK!!!

Brian is going to California!

We have a very excited son--he is flying today to Sacramento to work as a course judge for the Tour of California!

He was the lucky fella who got to give Lance his 3rd place award at the '04 Tour de Georgia, shown here at the top of Brasstown Bald. That was one fine day! Brian and I were both on the local organizing committee for the TdG for Mayberry. Our county commissioner was supposed to present this award but had to cancel, so he asked Brian to take his place, knowing that cyclist Brian would appreciate that honor. That was the ONLY time I was hopeful for Lance to come in third...and so he did. It was all my fault, but please don't tell Lance! Lance will be racing in the ToC, so Brian will be there with a front row view, still grinning!

Brian wore Lance's shirt that day, and surprisingly, Lance noticed and said, 'Like your shirt, dude.'

Happy Thursday, y'all. Life is good!

Hump day!

Cute little fella I found here in the park, right?
We have just done piddly stuff today. We had to go to Sam's to renew an Rx or two, so while we wait we of course have to walk around and check out the mark-downs. We lucked out and found two camp chairs that have the lift-up small side table to hold a drink and a small plate. We have a couple of 'sad' chairs that need to be retired, so we snapped these two up as replacementments with a bonus. That was all we did to stimulate the economy today. Don't even get me started on the news on TV about that subject!

Now I am sitting here balancing checkbooks and paying bills, while Dick is at his puter, annoyed that it is sooo slow. I'll defrag it for him and see if that speeds it up any. It may be telling us we need to replace it, as it is just a tad old by now. Groan. That's always a pain, trying to get a new puter set up and get everything loaded onto it, but we'll cross that bridge when we have to.

Enjoy your hump day. Life is good but windy here in So. FL!

The farm, the gliderport and the park...

Breakfast was delish at John G's...then we dropped off their rental car and headed out to our old farm. After the farming was all done, Dick and Bob dug shellrock off the property (a lot of it was used to make I-95). When they dug the rock out, lakes resulted! This is what we called 'north lake.' Now the whole farm is sprinkled with homes, schools, shopping, play areas...lots of folks are benefitting from their hard work.This is a shot looking across the 'front lake' which was the first lake they dug. Our house was on that point across the water in the middle where you can see a white house. No, that isn't our house. It got torn down :( cuz the developer couldn't use it as a club house. They have a pool and play ground there now. Lots of our family and friends enjoyed skiing, swimming and picnicing here on this lake back in the '70s and '80s before we sold it all and moved to GA.

Marge and Loyal at the pool house where our house stood...this is on the W side of where our house was.

See that big oak tree? Dick moved it back to this spot in about '80 and planted it on the W side of the house near the boat ramp he put in.

We left memory lane and drove W to Willis Gliderport. Friend Lynn was just beginning her morning walk, so we had a short visit with her before riding around the runway. They are finally putting a crown on the grass runway (one side at a time), which it has needed ever since it was built. Dick didn't do the earthwork for that, but he did put in the road going all the way around the runway. We built the first hangar out there in '76, and it is still standing although it is a bit shabby now.

Our tour then took us up to John D. MacArthur Park.

And finally back to the moho for some steaks on the grill with all the trimmings, and a fine visit. Now how is that for a great day? Anyone else want to come visit us? The welcome mat is out.

Monday with friends...

Ohio friends Loyal and Margie are meeting us here at John G's at 10 for a late breakfast. We hope the line isn't this long, even thought the food is worth the wait! They are escaping the frozen nawth for a few days and will share a bit of their time with us.
We met them a couple of years ago on a cruise in France and invited them to go on the Greek Isles cruise with us, and they did, so they are on the blog already for way back then. He flys for a little outfit, flying a 737. That's just a tad bigger than our 182, of course!

We'll show off a bit of Palm Beach County, take them out to the gliderport where we used to fly out of, show off the farm where we lived, and then bring them up to the moho and cook dinner here. It'll be a fun day. I hope yours is, too!

Oh yes, Happy Birthday to Don (brother-in-law) and friend Ginger. I know this day will be special for both of you. Life is good...and it will get even better if you leave a little comment, OK? I love hearing from all of you!!! And some of you have been silent for too long...you know who you are! I may have to borrow a pox or two if Bee has any to spare! Sarge, Dick and I will be happy to go back to John G's any time you and Bee want to go. Just let me know.

And the score at marbles last night? Guys 1; gals 2...gals rock!!!

Sunday review...

After lunch at John G's, the four Bells head N along the beach and stopped at the Little Red School House.

This is the front of it. It was locked, but when we looked through the window, we could see the American flag hanging on the back wall. Dick and Bob's mom made that flag! I didn't know that. Sure wish I could go inside and see more...we'll have to go back. Mom (as we all called her) was a school teacher, so saving this building was important to her. Just a little piece of local history.

This is the backside of the building.

Yesterday was quite windy. We walked across the back of the park and went down and looked at the beach. Didn't take us long to see that only the seagulls were out and even they were hunkered down and not out flying.

Lynne and I cooked supper and took it over to Dan and Joan's house...Joan made a fab cheesecake. After stuffing ourselves, then we got down to some serious marble playing.

Here is the board, handmade by some fella. You can see that cards are also involved. We play guys against gals. Score: guys 2; gals 1. Dang.

Bob and Lynne leave today, but Dick and I are going back over for another marble match tonight, this time with Johnnie and Susan. Everybody root for us gals, OK?

Enjoy your Sunday...we sure will. Life is good!

Saturday stuff...

It is sunny and windy today in WPB. I would also add 'cool' but compared to Mayberry at 42, our 67 is downright balmy! No, this isn't our water fountain, but it is on our road.

Yesterday, I gave Dick the choice of running the vacuum or ironing. Guess what his choice was...the vacuum...and I didn't get around to my end of the bargain but will this morning. I've got to learn to take the clothes out of the washer/dryer when they are wetter so they won't wrinkle so much. I did hear a tip last night that I'll have to try--put two tennis balls in with the wash and your clothes won't wrinkle so much! Has anyone ever heard of this or tried it???

Have a great Saturday, y'all!

Look what we got!

Look at the beautiful gift we got...two huge staghorns!
Dan and Joan came by yesterday with these beauties, and then helped us get them attached to the two trees. Talk about friends! And...Joan arrived with banana nut bread (yummm, my fave!) and brownies (Dick loves those)....and that wasn't all. Hunter Dan provided some venison. Boy, that was our lucky day, getting plants and a nice care package. How cool was that? We love you both!!!

We didn't have anything planned for the weekend and now we do. Scotty B's tonight with Wade and Ginger; Bob and Lynne are coming back Saturday for one night. We'll take dinner over to Dan and Joan's and eat and play marbles. Then Joan is having us and the Tieches over Sunday night to eat and play marbles. OK, y'all can now joke about us finding our marbles! They are at Dan and Joan's house!!! We leave them there for safe keeping...

So what are YOU doing for fun this weekend???

Meeting friends...

BSP sista Diane and hubby Tal let us park the moho in their yard near Ocala after we left the rally Monday. We enjoyed dinner together at Chili's, then Dick and I crashed, plum tired. We met them on a BSP Alaska cruise back in '01 and have stayed in touch ever since. Neat folks.

Tuesday morning, we got up and said our goodbyes, and drove the 'toad' to The Villages to meet Mike and Kay (she and I graduated AHS together a looong time ago) for breakfast (notice how food always plays a part in visiting!). We checked out their new home, then took a spin through town to see a couple of the rec centers and facilities. Mighty impressive, but we don't plan to move!

It's always fun meeting up with friends during our travels. Watch out, you never know when the Traveling Bells will show up on your doorsteps!

It is chilly here in WPB today, but no complaints from us, considering what the temps are back in Mayberry. Enjoy your Thursday, y'all! And a big Happy Birthday to niece Debby!!!

Happy birthday to you...

This is my baby, who had a baby last June...remember Prince Will? And big brother Doodlebug? Yep, those are her cutiepies. And she is ours...and is quite a combination of the two of us. And today is Amy's birthday! Dick and I are blessed to be her parents. She is one fine young woman, and she has enriched our lives immensely. Happy Birthday, honey. We love you very much. Wish we were there to celebrate with you! And it is snowing back in Mayberry right now...what a birthday present!!!

Everyone join in and sing...