Packin’ Up

Thursday August 23, 2012
Quail Run RV Resort Lot 15
Wesley Chapel, Florida

 

 

Things are coming together.

 

Wednesday
We’ve been hanging around since David’s “release” waiting for a number of items we’d ordered to arrive and they finally did.

 

Fed ex shows up today and drops off the 3rd in a series of post WBBU (world’s best beach umbrella) replacements.   I ordered a sportbrella as my next effort at finding a beach umbrella that can deal with the breezes on the gulf coast.  Those of you who have followed us for a while know that the WBBU was grabbed and tossed too far out in the gulf for Carrie and I to swim and get it.  Then there was that fisherman…..well anyway.  We’ve now had two TIBU (totally inferior beach umbrellas) which had various parts crack and break after 2 or 3 uses. 

 

Isaac alters the plan.

As many of you know, I have been collecting ideas and thoughts about where we might go now that we can go somewhere.  I have wanted to move north up the gulf coast to the panhandle area which was our original plan for this past April on our way to Maine after wintering in Florida.  So I’d ordered an umbrella in case we could.  The heat was my concern at the time of the order.  I’ve been checking the weather everywhere going north and the heat doesn’t seem to lighten up much until you get into the mountains of North Carolina.  So I was still thinking…..maybe we can continue on with our original plan.  But Isaac has nixed the beaches idea.

 

 

Still,  Fed Ex delivers the brella and I set it up to check to make sure everything is OK since I don’t know when I’ll use it now.  David supervises.

 

 

 

 

 

Another Fed Ex truck pulls up.  Two in one day!

A couple of hours later, another Fed Ex truck pulls up and they have the new pads that David has ordered for the Yakima Roof Rack.  The old ones had gotten gummy and were slipping.   Yakima replaced them for free and I’ve had this rack for close to ten years.  Now there’s a company that stands behind their product.  They even paid for the shipping.

 

We’re on a roll.  

I call the Optical folks and my glasses have arrived so I drive over and pick them up and stop at the grocery to shore up the pantry supplies.  The glasses are the last of things we are waiting for.   Not sure what I think of them.  I am so unused to glasses but I can see at a distance and that’s what counts.

 

 

 

 

There is a lot of packing up when you stay some where for this long.

Thursday

Another 75 degrees at 7am day.  This is a big reason I want to leave.  I am so tired of the heat and humidity.  I go running.  David walks.  We do the usual routine. 

 

I have a strange green caller moving toward the welcome mat.

 

As I am doing my after run leg stretches with my hands down on the patio, I look over and see this fella strolling across the concrete.  He sure looks like a tomato hornworm only about 3 times the size of any one I’ve ever seen.  And as far as I know, there aren’t any tomatoes growing in this park.  I’ve seen every yard many many times I assure you.

 

So here he is or is it a she???

 

 

Here’s a shot of my foot to show this is a BIG “worm”.

 

He’s raising up his head.  Is he going to attack my shoe??

 

 

Looks like something out of a horror movie.  I assume he has his mouth open here.

So who is he you entomologists out there?

 

After all that fun, we start the clean up process.

 

David puts the new pads on the racks and we put the racks back on Ruby’s nice clean roof. 

 

Then we have to clean up the kayaks which have been sitting on the ground unused for the past two months.  With all the rain and sand, they are a real mess.  This takes a LOT of time. How in the world did tons of sand get inside these kayaks when they were just sitting behind Winnona?

 

 

Then we find that the pads have changed things for the racks and we have to readjust several times how the kayaks fit on the racks.  But we get it done and get them and the bikes loaded onto poor Ruby who looks like a pack mule,  albeit a very shiny one under her heavy loads

 

David takes a break to go pick up some prescriptions so he won’t have to do it while we are on the road.   I plan our route.

 

I put away the chairs and tables and everything else that’s been outside.
We clean and put up the awning.

 

 

By then we are exhausted and ready for some dinner. 

Cous cous with mushrooms and pecans, kale and broccoli.  Have to include the food picture for the foodies!

 

We still have things to do in the morning but tomorrow we’ll be pullin’ out and movin’ on, headin’ north toward Virginia.  Bye bye Isaac!!