Just few more days

Friday, Nov 9^th

We were so excited that it was finally Friday (see even retiree can be excited by Fridays!)… On Friday, the Naples Flea Market is opened! So we went with André.  If you are looking for sunglasses or jewelleries… it is the place. We were not! We wanted some tools and bungees cord and were disappointed not to find any.

We were right there at the opening, so we didn’t have to fight the crowd.  I expected the Flea Market to be outside but, interestingly enough, to me anyway, the Flea Market is inside in a looong building where you just walk the aisles.

We bought some Christmas stuffing for the girls – You understand, we will not be posting pictures of those…

In the afternoon, we went to Sam’s club… got our membership card and we just had to try out the card… bought a camera. It’s a Canon SX260 HS.

Our black box!

The difference between our old camera and the new one is like going from snail pace to warp speed in nano second!

Its zoom… amazing! Just to give you an idea: Christiane could not read some small print on a package of rechargeable batteries; she asked me if I could read it… Heck No! I could guess some characters but that was it. So I thought,  (kidding she is the one who thought) using the zoom of the camera could be helpful. It was! We could read the entire small characters without guessing… I am so clever sometimes (but not this time, she was)!

Later in the afternoon, after so much stress, I just stayed home and read. Speaking of reading, I finished my daughter book “Earth Abides”. Without giving too much away, it is a story about Dooms day, where most of the humans die. It took me 5 weeks to read it, I was expecting to read at least one book per week, but we are just too busy (a good thing we don’t have j-o-b-s!). I started another book and I have less than 100 pages left to read and should be done on schedule (this is MY deadline now :-)).

In the evening, while the ladies were playing Skipbo, I watched Hockey with André… it was a junior game, Halifax against Gatineau. After 2 periods, I heard my bed calling; the score was tight 1-1, so I decided they could finish the game without me… I was wrong! Gatineau lost 5-1!

Saturday, Nov 10^th

In the morning, Christiane went shopping with Jo and André at Kohl’s clothing store. I was so worried! I am the responsible one and didn’t know if upon her return I would need to get a job ha ha ha. She came back with… a piece of wood from Lowe’s. She used it to hit me right in the  back of my head… NOT! She wanted to make a small shelf over the stove. (UPDATE: She changed her mind, we will return the lumber … I avoided that w-o-r-k project fast, ouf!!!)

While she was gone… I washed the beddings… which I rather do than shopping! When I first started the laundry load, I noticed a man cleaning the front end of his fifthweel.  Doing the laundry took me about an hour, and I was checking his progress…  Well, after one hour, he was still cleaning the same spot over and over …

In the afternoon we slept, this lifestyle can be tiresome at time… It was a bit warm so I had left the air conditioning running. When we woke up, the temperature inside the trailer was 13.4 C. (56 F.)!

At 16:00, of course happy retiring hour was upon us. We played 2 games of dices, André won the first one, and I couldn’t hold it any more, I had to win the last one! I just hope by writing this, my reputation won’t get tarnished and no one will want to play with me anymore hahaha.

For supper, we had Lasagna at André and Jo. Delicious!

 

 

Better late than never

Wednesday, Nov 7^th

In the morning we installed the awnbrella. The operation involves drilling holes in the trailer. I enjoy drilling holes in the trailer! My wife was assisting; I think she just doesn’t trust me with my electric drill!



Before
See how much the awning sags in the middle

After
Voila!


It was windy so, while installing one bar, the other bar kept falling down. It was NOT because my holes were not perfect, it was because the awning was not stable and kept moving with the wind. I solved that by inserting some awning holder clip.

We visited Sam’s club with A & J. I found that it is larger than Costco. I know it sounds like we are doing a lot of shopping but we are just making our house on wheel homier. We don’t have a Sam’s card, in the near future, we will get one! 

We bought a table that adjusts to three different height (coffee table, dining table and counter height) and some wine (with all the happy hours, it looks like our wine cellar has a leak! ).

On our way back, we stopped at Publix (grocery store). My wife and I split the grocery list. I went one way, she went her way. I was done finding all the items on the list, while she only had ONE item to find but was nowhere to be seen. So I went to the cash register and paid. I was just about to leave when she got at the register. She started talking to me in French, I looked at the cashier like I didn’t know her. I told him: “You have some strange customer here, that women is talking to me”. He smiled! I told him that next she might be asking ME to pay for her! He kept smiling! I said, I sure hope she won’t follow me home… Hey if you can’t have fun at the grocery store, where can you have fun!

We Spent the happy hour with J & A, Lillianne and Alain… it was windy and too cold (for us snowbirds), so I didn’t need to fake loosing at dice; we just didn’t play!

In the evening, we ate spaghetti and watched Survivor  on TV. This show reminds me of us; we also have to keep surviving this lifestyle… poor us! Ya right!

 

Thursday, Nov 8th

In the morning, we went for a walk downtown Naples with Jo & André. It’s so amazing to just be here. We can see some nice buildings, coconuts in palm trees, flowers. There were several workers in the street putting up Christmas decorations. We are wearing shorts… my mind can’t register that soon it will be the holiday season. 

The distance walked according to Google map as shown in purple is 3.6 mi /5.76 km walk. But for one stretch, we really walked on the beach, orange line shown here, so let’s be fair and call it an even 3.99 mi. J

 

It's a bird, it's a plane, It's... on a building!
 

 

We saw our first Gator... it is wearing camouflage in order to attract tourist and get them closer!

 

Coconut!!
It's above the sidewalk... if one of those fall... you might get a splitting headache!

We had lunch at Pincher's Crab Shack at what is call Tin City (not to be confused with Sin city pleeeeease!). Tin city is a grouping of tin buildings along the river where you can enjoy all kind of tourist boutiques and restaurants. If you have a boat, you can dock by your favorite place, enjoy a meal and go back to sea. Not wanting to look pretentious, we left our boat at home...

 

 

 

We had delicious fish and chips. The restaurant had a special, 2 margaritas and/or 2 beers for the price of one. Christiane and Jo had the girly drink (margaritas). Myself and André had the manly drink… beers! We were sitting right by the canal, after our walk, I was so happy to sea food!  

 

 

At four o’clock, you might never guess what we did? If you guessed happy hour… you were right! It is important to be consistent in life!

Till next time!

More days of the NOT rich nor famous

Monday, Nov 5^th

In the morning, we went to Camping World in Fort Myers. I should have forgotten my wallet at the trailer but I didn’t…  $450 later, we had bought:

-2 LED light fixtures. We had to replace some in the trailer, and we chose LED because they last longer and mainly they consume less electricity. It is a really important feature when we are not connected only on the battery (like at a Wally). I already installed those and what a difference! It is so much brighter.

 

 

 
 
- A water filter. As we are never too sure about the quality of the water where we are, this is a must. Because there is only one water entry, even our toilet will be getting filtered water :-(

- 4 Awnbrellas (tension bars for the awning to rest on which creates an arch so the rain water drains away. I will post picture as soon I have them installed.

- A shower head. My wife is so happy with it, I can’t barely get her out of the shower anymore ha ha ha (Note from Christiane:  This should have read: “- An Oxygenic shower head. (this adds water pressure and also saves on water. It works really well and I recommend the productJ)) (Note from Richard: I wanted to take a picture but Christiane is in there... again! JJ)

After coming back from our shopping trip, we just stayed home and relaxed.

Around 4ish, we met at Jo’s for a happy hour. This seems to be a daily occurrence where we try to solve all the world problems… One thing I learned… Don’t talk politics!

In the evening, we stayed home and watched TV.

Christiane didn’t have a good night sleep… and since the house is 180 square foot… neither did I!

Tuesday, Nov 6^th

In the morning, I went for a bike ride. I biked 22.5 KM (13.5 Mi.). I took my time; the weather was perfect, there were a few clouds, no wind. I started on a bike lane… which is located on a boulevard where cars drive 55 Mi. (95 Km) an hour!  There is only a white line that separates you from them… I was glad that I didn’t have a rear view mirror showing me the traffic coming at me! As soon as I could, I took a side road, but it was a dead end… I went back on the boulevard and after a while, I saw a road where there was no bike lane but a side walk. This seemed like an excellent alternative for me. I rode to the beach, took a couple of picture to tease my ex-colleague on Facebook, and just took my time exploring.

This is what I post on FB! I had that it was the hallway to me office!
No one drop me from their friend list... yet!

One of the mask superhero

 

On my way back, I was happy about the ride and I was smiling and thinking about how lucky I am… and that’s when I swallowed a fly! I know it sounds “cliché” but that’s the truth! When I got back to the trailer, I told my wife that I probably wouldn’t be hungry at the same time as her since I already had a little something to eat. 

In the afternoon, we went with André & Jo. A friend had told them that on 2^nd Ave., there were stores where Jo could buy a small credenza she wants for their Motorhome. André had programed their GPS to get there… a good thing because trying on our own would not have worked… It is a small road that is about 100 feet long and ends up in a parking lot… No store around! We thought that maybe it was on the other side, and we drove around a few blocks and couldn’t find the 2^nd Ave. You would think that it is between the first and Third Avenue… but no, couldn’t find it anywhere!

No dear crossing sign, Puma crossing!
For crying out loud, it's only a cat!

We also went to visit another campground.  We don’t have reservation for January and would have liked to stay in the area. But at $1200, the campground is too expensive for my taste.

We drove to Island of Marco. It is located beside Island of Polo (just joking!). You can see a lot of houses with their own personal dock. Let just say that if a gardener, a cook, pool maintenance persons are not in your budget, you might not live there!

No officer, I was not trespassing!
 

One of the local... From what he said, he hates tourist!

One of the rich owner... she took me to her home!
Does that made a kept man?

When we came back, we played dice. The last time we played, I won all the games. But this time, I decided to graciously let others win.

In the evening, we watched some TV. The US election was on every channel … Barack Obama won!

 

 

Working on weekend

Shopping mall in Naples

Saturday, Nov 3^rd

In the morning we went to Costco. I wanted to get there as early as possible to beat the rush, you know, the workers who w-o-r-k all week long, and also because I had some work of my own planned for the afternoon.

Naples, Florida

Other than selling boats, Dom Perignon champagnes and caskets, you can find pretty much the same thing you find in Costco in the Ottawa area.

The biggest difference for us… living in our trailer is that we just don’t have the space to store 24 rolls of toilet tissues or 30 box of Kleenex!   So we just buy what we can use right away (like a cooked chicken, prepared soup, etc.).  Strangely, at the cash register it still cost $$$$!

André and Jo came with us as our guests (they don’t have a Costco card) and they scored big time… they upgraded their Verizon usb key for a 4G MIFI hot spot. It cost them only the tax ($4.80) on the device and their monthly bill came down by $10 for the same amount of data (5 GB).

As mentioned earlier, retirement is not all fun and game… I had decided to work… on my tan. Being Saturday, I figured I should be getting double time! It doesn’t work that way.

Taking a break from the work (sun tanning)

We have an outstanding beach less than 6 KM (4 Mi) away. After lunch we went to get some UV rays. I should tell you that around here, in a crowd, people need sun glasses to dim the brightness from my really white skin :-)

Not crowded

The cost for the parking at the beach is a reasonable $6. Which I didn’t pay… André did, we were in our truck and he got the money out first, so he won hahaha. Next time we go we will be the one paying :-(

The water was a bit cold. I am the type of person who unless you can boil an egg in it, I will not be getting wet!  The other 3 crazy Canucks went in… the sane one went half way in!

My plan of working the tan didn’t work that good… that might have something to do with getting 1 inch of sun screen all over my body!  I have to remind myself that Rome was not built in one day!

Sunday, Nov 4^th

I don’t know if you heard the noise last night, but around 02:00, all the clocks fell one hour back! After all that commotion, I got up at 02:30. I didn’t want to stay up too long, so I didn’t take my morning coffee, I just turned on the computer and won a couple of solitaire games. Doing this got me so tired that I went back to bed at 03:30!

We were still up early… so what do you do when it is early and Sunday… you go shopping!

We went to Walmart, the store was empty, and apparently at 07:00 it is a good time to go! I needed to buy all kind of product for cleaning the trailer. I also purchased a 20 foot sewer hose to empty our tanks. At our site, the sewer connection is about 15 foot from the trailer drain and I had only 10 feet of hose… This could have been a really messy shituation Yerk!

Before going on this morning adventure, we didn’t have our breakfast, so we stopped at Duncan Donuts. It was a small one with only few tables available. We were sitting right under a speaker and it was blasting music really loud, it was probably Kenny G, whom I like, but it was too early and to loud to enjoy. The TV was also blasting beside us… you just couldn’t hear anything. We were not talking, we ate as fast as we could to get out of there!

Now being fed and shopped, we just kept driving without any destination. We ended up driving in some nice neighbourhood where they had their boat docked beside their house. We don’t have pictures but we will go back to walk around at another time.

My goal for that day was to clean the trailer. After spending 2 weeks on the road, it was overdue! I started by washing the roof. Once you do that there is no turning back; the dirt from the roof end up on the side walls. Then there was soap and dirt on the awning, had to clean that one too. But before starting, I had to remove the sun screens so they wouldn't get dirty…

I sweated, I cursed, I wanted a beer, I worked my a** off… under a nice warm bright sun, without a shirt, without SUN SCREEN… My skin is a nice glowing reddish colour now grrrrr

Funny thing on campgrounds… As soon as one subject (me) get the hose out to do some cleaning, the neighbours get their hoses out to also do their cleaning… it is CONTAGIOUS! LOL

I haven’t done all I wanted to do, but in case you missed it, I am RETIRED, so I’ll finish whenever I have time to do so! There is NO rush… Well maybe if one of my neighbour gets their hose out today :-)

Talking about retired and time, I find something very strange… one of my hobby is reading and I thought I would be reading several books a week, but in a little over 5 weeks of retirement, I still haven’t finish the first book I started… just too much things to do!

Busy day (for retirees)

Nov 2^nd

Christiane went shopping with Jo and Lilianne at Bealls. This is a store that offers serious discount on clothing and household items. It is Jo’s favorite store! I had given my wife an allowance of $20 but was hoping that she would bring the whole thing back… I don’t think she was appreciative of my allowance because she just smiled and looked at me… this usually translates as “Ya, right!”

I was glad to see her go… I got my drill out and started drilling holes in the trailer...

At the campground there is cable TV, however you have to pay for it. We are retired; we don’t like to pay for anything! André has a satellite dish and said we could hook up to it. Alain has a spare decoder and said we could borrow it, but that he didn’t have the remote control for it. André has a spare remote control for the decoder… See isn’t it great to have good neighbours! Now, I’m only wondering who will replace the batteries when they die… Ha ha ha

Yesterday when we arrived, I tried to connect to the satellite by using the external cable outlet. It didn’t work! Apparently it is an outlet that is only good for cable not for a satellite feed.

So I ran a cable from the decoder to the outside, going through cupboards. But at one point, I couldn’t run the cable; there was a space that was not accessible. I removed the panel and surprise, surprise; I discovered an empty compartment that the manufacturer had condemned!  I still can’t figure out why the manufacturer of the trailer didn’t provide access to that space!  The floor is even finished and all!  

Look at the extra storage space!
Where is MY beer?

I am not sure if my wife would have let me remove the panel had she been there… You see, the process involved a hammer…

When she came back and saw what I did, she was excited to see that extra space.  Darn, I was thinking of storing my beer in there but I think she has other ideas! Thinking back, I should have just put the panel back and kept the whole storage secret for my own usage. Hahaha  (Note from Christiane: “When I got back I saw a wooden panel lying outside the camper and I thought, oh no, what did he do?! But that extra space is worth it.  Richard did a great job.”)

Our site has a cement patio.  Our trailer end being lower to the ground than big RVs, we couldn’t use our steps, which meant that coming in and out of the trailer was a bit of a nuisance. So we just moved the trailer by 4 feet. Now the steps are deployed and we can easily go in and out of the trailer. I didn’t mind moving, we are further south now :-)

In the afternoon, we installed our sunscreen. It looks like we are not going anywhere for a while now… Ye!

All set up

Our Florida room

 

Following all that excitement, we had a few drinks with Jo, André, Alain and Lilianne, at Alain and Lilianne’s site.  Here they call it the Apéro and it looks like it’s a daily occurrence at 4 p.m.  Now, that I can’t hide my beer in the secret compartment, I might as well enjoy it…

For supper, we warmed up some homemade Chinese chicken rice. We had planned on cooking steak on the BBQ but instead we decided to do something quick so we could go to the play room where we played dices. We played 2 games… I won 2 games. I think we were playing for money… I’m still waiting to collect from the LOSERS… (Note from Christiane: “You can take the guy out of Statistics Canada but you can’t take statistics out of the guy : )”)

Our daughters are back from their week in Walt Disney. Maybe now they will have more time to skype with their poor neglected parents! ha ha ha ha ha ha

Total distance today: 4 feet

 

Crossing the finish line

Who was checking who out?

Oct 31

We left Jasper at 09:00 with the sun in our faces, but at 6 C. ( F.) we were anxious to get still further down south.

Oh no! We lost the truck!

On our way to Bushnel, we did the mandatory stop at Walmart to replenish our cupboard. It was a really nice Walmart, they have dedicated parking for RV… now that is service! We even run into someone we knew (André).

 I bought ONE *coughs* *coughs* bottle of wine, a yellow Tail, at home, I was paying $13. but here, at $5.56… you ditch the coke in the sink!

We traveled a respectable (for retiree) 240 KM ( Mi.) and reach our destination. This is about at the same latitude (or longitude, I’m never too sure which is which) as Orlando.

Jo and André were already setup and we got a site beside theirs. This was a Passport America camping and the price was around $14. It was just for one night so I don’t have much information. On the minus column… we were close to the interstate (noisy) on the plus side, with enough wine, you just don’t hear…

Nov 1^st

Yesterday the plan was to go and camp around Tampa (without a “x”). We intended to spend at least a week.

But before going on the next leg of this race… we went with André and Jo to Center Hill. There is a warehouse where you can buy material to do sunscreen. This is a really strong tissue and other than a nuclear bomb, you can’t destroy it. We bought one large one to use as a mat with the trailer. I’ll post picture when we are setup with it.

By the time we left, it was already 10:15 and it was a nice 19 C. ( F.). We say goodbye to André and Jo who were driving To Naples. We were to joined them on the 11^th.

 I programmed the GPS for a camping. It was a short 75 KM ( Mi.) away. We first got on the I-75 South and we didn’t even drove 15 minutes that I asked my wife what she thought of rather than going to Tampa we would go to Naples. We had reservation starting on the 11^th but I was confident that we could move it to the first.

She saw how perfect my idea was… (they are always perfect, NOT!) and agree with me to the change of destination. This is flexibility at it’s best folks!

While driving down, I was passed by this motorhome that was speeding and driving like a maniac... It was André hahaha! I followed him all the way to the camping. It is so much easier to have your personal escort to wherever you are going.

When we arrived at the camping, it was no problem to move the reservation. This is not yet the big time for the campers; Jan-feb and march are their biggest month! Now please don’t call them, this is a 55+ resort, I was nervous of them asking me proof of age! They didn’t! I was acting like I was old and mature :-) two things that I am not :-)

After 2,622 KM (1629 Mi.), 2 weeks, we reach our southern destination. For the next 6 weeks, we will not be moving the trailer, we will explore this area. I’m sure that we will spend some time at the beach where we will –I hate to use this word- work on our sun tan!  

If you are from the north you might want to skip this paragraph... Last night, we had trouble falling a sleep... it was NOT because we were excited to be here... it was because of the heat! I had the window open but it was not enough! Don't be worry for us, tonight, I will have the air conditioning on duty!

Home for the next 6 Weeks
Lake San Marino, Naples, Florida

On the dash of this motorhome, there is 2 large dogs sleeping.
Do you see them?
 

Darn I can't play - I don't have any grand child!

 I hope you all have a good weekend!