Further Adventures??: Quail Run, CollisionRV and Candlewood Suites

March 17 to April 5, 2018                                                                               Most Recent Posts:
Paynes Prairie State Park                                                                                Mid March
Micanopy, Florida                                                                                            Finishing February

It was January 25 when life as we knew it changed once again.  That story was told in a previous post Another BIG Bump in the Road.  I scrambled to find accomodations in the middle of a winter near Tampa in Florida.  Quail Run RV Park came to my aid and we are so grateful.  Our first 6 weeks there are covered in the above two posts.

During our last two weeks there David continued to improve and on March 21st went back on treatment for his Multiple Myeloma which had been suspended for two months for the Heart By Pass.  In that time according to his blood tests, the myeloma, which had been as near remission as it has been in years, doubled itself to one of the highest levels it’s been since his diagnosis.  David’s version of this disease is aggressive.  It seems insidious to me.

Going back on the cancer treatment seems to have caused some negative interactions with the new heart drugs he’s now on.  He’s having cognitive and memory issues and some balance difficulties.   We’ve been working with his heart doctor to try to get his statin changed to see if it is the culprit but we’re getting hard push back from our insurance company who feel they’ve already paid for a statin prescribed for 90 days and shouldn’t have to pay for another one even if he’s having side effects.  All the good guys are working on it but to date, the new drug isn’t “ready for pick up” and he must have a statin so the effects continue.

We have managed to have some fun during our last two weeks at Quail Run.  We skype  with Carrie and Celia.  David took this screen shot of Celia trying to shoulder her mother’s purse and her diaper bag, put on her hat and wave good bye to us.  She did this over and over, walking off camera and returning.  Taking things out of the bags and putting them back in and leaving again.  She had us in stitches.

I don’t believe I’ve mentioned that Celia will have a little brother joining her in September.  We are all very excited about this and things seem to be going perfectly for Carrie.

On our daily walks, we see Mama Crane on her nest.  I was hoping we might be here for the birth of her little ones but that didn’t happen. 

One day we saw these two mallards swimming around not too far from the nest.

The crane kept her eye on them.

She doesn’t seem bothered  but shortly she stood up and for the first time we could see her  eggs.  BIG eggs.

She checks on the eggs.

When she turns to face the ducks, they decide perhaps they should head further away and do.

Meanwhile, when I walk around on the other side of the park, I am joined by her mate casually walking down the sidewalk ahead of me.  I pass him and then turn to see if he follows along but he’s heard something and has turned around.   Not sure what he thinks of this guy’s fake crane call but if you’ve  never heard a Sand Hill Crane, here is a one minute video of my walking companion having a conversation with the guy in the blue shirt.  The second more clacking sound is the crane.  The higher pitch is the man.  A friend of blue shirt throws some food out which you should never do to a wild bird but luckily the crane thinks better of it. 

Time for a Flowbee haircut.  I’m not terribly satisfied with the results so no picture but they are about as good as the last two haircuts I paid for.  Not sure why I can’t find someone who can just layer my hair back away from my face.  Doesn’t seem like one of the more difficult cut request.

We also managed to attend the last two park dinners.  The first was “Taco night” and the second “Lobster night”.  They flew in 1.5 pound lobsters from Maine.  OH MY were they good!  We ate the tails and bodies and brought the claws home to extend the yummy.  David looks pretty pleased.

We finished watching the Women’s Basketball Tournament, congratulations to Notre Dame, and saw the Men’s Final 4 before saying goodbye to Quail Run on April 1st.

From there we drove South on I-275 to CollisionTec RV in Clearwater Florida for Winnona’s doctor visit to get the infamous Winnabago windshield frame repaired in order to get our windshield replaced.  CollisionTec has both an auto and an RV shop.  The above link has reviews of both.

When we parked Winnona, we were thinking that perhaps we should swap toads and take the gray one with us.

Doubt it would look quite so smart with Ruby’s kayaks and bikes.

We are unable to stay in the RV during this 4 day process so we had to rent a hotel room which during April, spring break month, is more costly than we were hoping.

We stayed at Candlewood Suites just down the street from CollisionTech so we would be easily available if need by.  The pictures in their link are much better than mine and are of our exact room

Our one bedroom suite had everything we needed, a large bathroom, very comfortable mattress on the bed, and a fully equipped kitchen although we could have done without the smelly carpet.  For such a nice place with so many amenities, I am surprised at this.  But at this point, after the past 2 months and one problem after another, I just don’t have the energy to move to another room so I buy a can of Glade instead. 

We’ve moved in on Monday so we are able to use their cable to watch Villanova win the Men’s NCAA Championship game.  We’re sad that our basketball overdose is over.

Since we had a kitchen, we prepared some meals this past week-end and brought them and our bags with us to Candlewood Suites.  Of course by Tuesday, we’d thought of a number of things we’d forgotten and were very glad that Winnona was only just down the streeet.

We found her without her windshield and without her front cap. 

You can see the rust from here but it’s even more clear in the close ups below. 

A lot of rust, really nice design Winnebago.  NOT!

If you own a Winnebago, this is in your future.  It’s just a matter of time.  Dar, the owner of CollisionTech RV told us he has seen inumberable Winnebagos in here for the same problem.  Still, he has owned and still owns Winnebagos becasue he feels they have fewer problems than most and parts are always available and the company sound even if they are still using this same windsheild design. He also says that many other manufacturers have the same problem.  I suppose the moral of the story is either deal with it as we are or trade your Winnebago in before the 10 year mark..  We are still very happy with Winnona and are pleased that this is actually the most expensive problem we’ve had with her.

Later on Tuesday afternoon,  I divided 3 loads of laundry in the free laundry room (nice perk Candlewood) and doing 10000 steps on the treadmill  in the adjacent gym.  Great idea to place them next to each other to encourage exercise rather than waiting although while I was there others came in and did their laundry but just left and came back..  The fella in the picture had no laundry.  He was on the eliptical that David also used later in the day.

On Wednesday, David had to go to the Cancer Center for Myeloma Treatment in the afternoon so I took the car in the morning, early, and headed out to the Florida Botanical Gardens where the grounds opened at 8 but the visitor center not until 10.   I was determined not to do another 10000 steps inside on a treadmill.   I pulled into the parking LOTS for the Gardens, shown on the map above the red line by all the Ps, and the entire lot as well as the roads leading to it were completely parked full of utility vehicles.  Seems the gardens share their parking lot with the city’s utility division and there was a meeting this morning, of course there was, and every single worker had driven a separate truck.  Not a parking spot in sight.

I drove on down the road to the adjacent Heritage Village and pulled into their parking lot.  The Village doesn’t open until 10am but the grounds were obviously open.  After looking at their map (above) I could see there was a bridge connecting the Village to the Gardens.  GREAT!  I parked at the yellow star near the bottom of the map started out on the red trail toward the bridge with the blue star.

When I got to the bridge it was locked.  Hmmmm.  I looked back at the map and saw there was  another connection at the other end of the Village Grounds but it was probably locked too.  So, being all alone here, I just climbed the fence at the spot of the red arrow, took this picture looking back and headed on over to the Gardens.

As is often the case, the map looks easy and the facts not so much.  When I get across the bridge it doesn’t look anything  like the map but I wander around here and there until I find what I’m looking for, an entrance to the Natural Trail Area.  This turns out not to be as nice as I’d hoped.  It’s pretty much a trail around the edge of the property and the road adjacent with two short trails crossing the middle.  Notice the green star.  That’s the biggest bat house I’ve ever seen.

I wonder if it has any bats?

Sections of the trails are nice.

I spy a pilleated woodpecker with something fuzzy in his beak.

He’s a striking bird and always surprises me with his size and his call.  When I hear him, I can imagine I’m in a jungle.  We had resident Pilleateds at the farm so they always bring a smile to my face when I see them.

This was the only other hiker I saw on the trail this morning as I went round and round and back and forth.

After wandering around the “Natural Trail” I headed over to the Botanical Gardens where I found it must have been clean up day.  There were workers and workers and volunteers with machines and mowers and tools everywhere.   This isn’t my idea of how to visit a gardens so I checked my map and found that I could pass through the gardens and make a big circle back to my car.  Map reminders make it easier to tell this tale.

Notice the purple star near the top of my red route, that’s where I did get detained for a bit by a family of what the Cornell Ornithology Lab is now calling the Common Gallinule but will always be known to me as the Common Moorhen.

Mom and Babies.

Actually there seem to be two moms and lots  of chicks.  I watch for a while.  They are really cute.

Even with that big red circuit, I only had about 6700 steps so I came back, got on the treadmill and finished it up.

David takes the car and on the way to his Cancer Center appointment stops for lunch at Big Storm Brewing which is also conveniently right down the street from Candlewood.  He provided these pictures and said their beer was excellent.  So excellent he brought some back with him.

He reports that it was an excellent place to visit and they have particularly good Imperial Stout.

While David was gone all afternoon, I spent some of my time sitting by the heated pool and reading Shakespeare Saved My Life by Laura Bates.  I highly recommend it as an easily readable interesting story about the impact of Shakespeare on the author and on the prisoners, one in particular.  It’s a very though provoking look at parts of our prison and “justice” system.  Yes, Shakespeare in prison.

The pool is not salt water and I  might have braved the chlorine if there had been a hot tub but otherwise, no thanks.  It was nice being outside though even with the noise of the traffic from nearby Ulmerton Road as background.

 

It’s Thursday which we hope is our last day in Clearwater.  It has been touch and go all week about whether Winnona would be ready on Friday.  I had only booked Candlewood for 4 nights as Dar Fortney of Collisiontec said that was his estimate of the time to do the work..  So we’d brought her in at 10am Monday.  Unfortunately Mike Howard of RV Window Replacement hadn’t been able to come and take the glass out.  They are the ones replacing the windshield.  Dar is doing the metal work.  So now Dar is a day behind.  We are crossing our fingers as we leave to spend at least a few hours at the beach here in Clearwater though it is 13 miles from the hotel.   I REALLY don’t want to do any steps on the treadmill.  Even with a book on tape it drives me crazy.

LOTS of traffic on the way so it takes nearly an hour to go 13 miles.  It is spring break I remind myself.  Of course parking is a joke – $30 for parking all day in a dirt patch?  Really??  I don’t think so.  After a bit of  looking around we find a spot on the street for $1.25 an hour and pay for two hours.  That should be more than 10000 steps worth and neither of us feels the need to sit on a beach this busy.

Clearwater Beach is a lovely broad white sand beach with clusters of people, umbrellas and little igloo looking sun tents clustered all along the edge of the water.

Looking North, the beach seems seems not so inviting for a walk

Looking south seems a tad better so I set off that way for 5000 steps and turn around.

There is a fairly wide line of shells along the edge of the sand.  Lots of people are walking along and picking them up.  They are about the size to use for one of those shell filled glass lamps.

As with most public beaches, if you walk far enough you move beyond the high rise developments and there are now houses and fewer and fewer people.  Beautiful skies, gorgeous water.  A great hike down the beach.

We’re pretty happy when Dar calls and says that he has finished the metal work and Mike will be over to put the glass in so we will be on schedule to leave in the morning.   They’ve done it inspite of all odds.  So we will be leaving tomorrow and get back on our schedule after so many park cancellations.   Tomorrow it’s Paynes Prairie.