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1 to 15 December 2012 16 to 31 December 2012
Sunday December 16, 2012
The RV park still has many empty sites. We were told they will be full in January.
Today the park has a "Bike Parade/Poker Rally". We were in!
Our bicycles all dressed up.
We are ready.
The parade getting organized. We even had four Harley Davidson at the front for the parade.
First the Harley's, then the bicycles and the golf carts closing the parade.
Once all the park roads were traveled and we had our five envelopes containing the cards for poker, we got back to the clubhouse to show our cards see who the winner will be.
We did not win, but we had fun.
A view of the clubhouse.
Back at the motorhome, I watched some TV outside, I like that.
First day down and we had fun.
Monday December 17, 2012
Our friend Dave from Cold Lake, Alberta, is here in Largo. He got here on the 15th, like us. We contacted each other and he will be dropping by later on the day.
Before lunch, we went to Costco to buy a "jetpak" from verizon so we could connect to the internet. It did not go well. After one hour of waiting for the "stuff" to get done, we finally left and were told it should arrive home by Friday.
Some pool time and reading while waiting for Dave.
Shoot! We forgot to take photos of Dave while he was here. Next time!
Tuesday December 18, 2012
Every morning I try to go for a bike ride of an hour.
We had forgotten how often we could hear the sirens during the day at this RV park.
We are going to use this one month "down time" to catch up on some overdue maintenance and repairs.
On Wednesday and Friday morning, the RV park offers free breakfasts.
Our site as we were heading to the rec hall for breakfast.
From bagels, muffins, yogurt, cereals to coffee and juices.
Out for a bike ride in the neighborhood in the afternoon.
Another laid-back day.
Thursday December 20, 2012
A few Christmas decorations in the motorhome.
A great lunch with pancakes.
A major clean up in the basement. I changed all the big plastic boxes for smaller ones made of clear plastic. This will make the "searching" of stuff much easier.
The results.
Here I was working on the next up dates for the web pages. I use the outside TV as a monitor for the laptop.
Friday December 21, 2012
After our free breakfast, we played shuffle board. Our first time in a very long time.
The rest of the afternoon was leisurely spent at the pool and also reading and bicycling.
Saturday December 22, 2012
A cold front is currently over the Tampa area. It was only +5 C last night, not too bad, but for the locals it was winter cold. We went to the Flea Market in the afternoon and we saw many people with gloves, warm hat and winter coats on. Then, the next person was in short pants and t-shirt, they must be Canadians. Some kids playing in the ball in the pool.
Photo from my Ipod, just trying it out.
We hit a cool +15 C today.
Sunday December 23, 2012
Last night, it got down to +4 C, but today the thermometer went as high as +18 C.
We went back to the Flea Market this morning, on Sunday they have more vendors.
Some of our purchases... I wonder who that is for?
More decorations.
I spent the afternoon with my friend Dave. Michèle stayed at the motorhome for some reading and napping!
Monday December 24, 2012
The sky is grey and raining a little. We treated ourselves to a nice lunch at the buffet and after lunch, a movie.
Here in the US, most movie theaters are open in the afternoon. Some even open before lunch.
For the 1.20 pm show, we only paid $4 per person. We went to see the movie Jack Reacher. I read the book before. I have to say the movie is pretty close to the book.
I really like Lee Child, the author of the Jack Reacher series, .
Christmas eve was spent at the motorhome watching TV.
I forgot, I finally got my mobile WIFI device. Only 5 days late. I was told it was easy to get connected. Continuing my bad luck with this device, it took me over two hours to finally get connected to the internet. I am using it now.
Yé!
Tuesday December 25, 2012
Merry Christmas!
Santa must have taught we have been good in the last year because he left gifts for us.
We were spoiled.
This afternoon the temperature is +22 C and I am in the pool. The water is at +26 C.
Really nice for Christmas day!
We had dinner at Dave and Shelley's place. We had a great time catching up on the last two years.
The day started with rain and isolated thunderstorm. It sure came down hard for a while!
I had forgotten to lower one side of the awning and a big "bubble" of water was formed.
We can see the water seeping through the fabric. Lucky us, I managed to push the water off before any damage was done to the awning.
Right after lunch the sun came out, but it was still pretty cool outside.
Our friends Daniel and Sylvie are camped not far from us, about 15 minutes away, and they dropped by for a visit. We spent a few hours talking about the places we have been. We are invited to their motorhome for a cocktail on Friday.
A very good day, but no bike ride today.
Thursday December 27, 2012
It was cool and humid today. Time to change the front rotors on the car. I changed them in BC last summer, but somehow they got warped. It took me longer to set up for the job then to do the actual job...
Michèle having fun...
Michèle did a lot of "Thrift Shops" shopping for our grandson Gabriel.
After I changed the rotors on the car and had lunch, I tackled another job. Building another bike rack because our old one is pretty beat up after 2 years.
Here is the raw material for the construction.
Measure twice and cut once, I still managed to make a few mistakes.
Dry assembly to confirm the measurements were right!
With Michele's new bike, I have to confirm the distance between the two bikes.
The completed bike rack, all glued together and drying out.
That evening I "Skyped" with my brother Rolland.
Michèle spent the evening playing poker at the Rec Hall.
It was a little bit on the cool side for Florida, but we did manage to get to +20 C today.
Friday December 28, 2012
After our free breakfast, we played shuffle board. Only three teams this morning. We did have fun, but we lost. After the holiday season, we will have more players.
We had sun in the morning, but the sky got cloudy after lunch.
We were on our way to Daniel and Sylvie's place for a cocktail.
You can imagine the cars at this dealership?
Just as we got to Daniel and Sylvie's place we got hit by the rain. We forgot the camera in the car, so no photos.
Saturday December 29, 2012
We had undecided weather today. I washed the roof of the motorhome including the roof vent covers.
It was a little windy and we even got to a high of +20 C. This time I washed the roof with a hand brush. It sure made a difference. Michele helped me for the side of the motorhome.
Sunday December 30, 2012
This morning it was "Flea Market" time. We were there for two hours.
As we got home, we saw a short note on our door from the "Tire Inspector" telling us they were at site 128.
What a pleasure to see June and Pete again.
We had a lot of catching up to do!
Monday December 30, 2012
The day started with a bike ride of 12 km.
I saw this house with a big tree and branches over the house. Interesting!
I had never seen concrete pipes with this shape before.
The weather was warming up nicely and I stopped to have a beer with Pete and Mike.
This 1931 Ford belong to one of the camper in the RV park.
Tonight was the New Year Party at the club house.
We went with June and Pete.
They danced the night away!
We even had a few games...
The DJ even had some props for the participants.
Bill with his new glasses.
A nice way to end 2012 and begin 2013.
I decided to post some of our expenses for the year 2012.
Some of the numbers were rounded off. I will only show the statistic for the car, the motorhome, campground, propane and the generator. I did not convert Canadian dollars to American dollars, I just did 1 for 1.
Let's start with the car.
We drove 18,305 km in 2012, which is a lot less than 2011.
The average price for gas was $1.135 per liter and our consumption average was 9.66L/100km or 33.1 miles per gallons.
Total cost for the gasoline was $1,879.43.
On to the Motorhome.
15,459 km was traveled by the motorhome. Our detour by British Columbia was the reason for the big increase in kilometers.
The average price for diesel was $1.142 per liter and the consumption average was 29.79L/100km or 9.98 mile per gallon.
Total cost for the diesel was $5,038.69.
As for the propane, we used 217.8 liters at a cost of $0.834 per liter.
Total cost for the propane was $181.04.
The generator ran for 89.9 hours in 2012.
Campgrounds.
I averaged over 366 days or should I say nights! This includes night at campgrounds, at family and Walmart.
Our average per night is $19.18, a dollar less than last year, not bad.
Total cost for the campground was $7,021.24.
The most expensive night was in Golden, BC at $42.56 per night and the cheapest was in California at Salton Sea at $11.00 per night. Of course, we had the cheapest of all at family and Walmart for $0.00 per night.
If we add the diesel ($5,038.69), gasoline ($1,879.43), propane ($181.04) and campgrounds ($7,021.24),
our total is $14,120.40 for 2012.
A summary of our travel in 2012.
2012 started in Port Aransas, TX. We remember the weather the most, crappy! It was an unusual year they told us. In February we learned that we were going to be grand-parents for the first time. Our travel plans changed. We are now going west and north to BC where Jérémy and Danielle live. We traveled through New Mexico and Arizona. We could not believe how blue the sky was and no rain... Once in California we spent some time in the Salton Sea area and Death Valley National Park. At the west coast, we started to go north and traveled through Oregon and Washington State. Boy did it rain. Again, it was a very wet spring compare to normal... Made it to Comox, BC in mid April and just in time for the birth of our grandson, Gabriel.
Guess what? The weather was unusually wet even for the island. It did not get warm until July! In mid July we started to travel back to Ontario for our medical and dental appointments. We got extreme weather as we crossed Canada. Heat wave as we crossed BC and the rockies. Hail in the prairies. Stayed a few nights in Calgary and some friends came from Cold Lake for a visit. We also stopped in Nipigon, ON and more friends came for a visit. We stopped a few places to visit some friends.
We stayed in Carrying Place for a month to get all our appointments done. We also helped Michele's sister, Odette and our niece Onyx, to move to Toronto. The next six weeks were spent in Québec visiting friends and family. Back to Ontario for a short spell and crossed the US border on November 3 to travel to Florida. We followed US 19 and US 29 for our trip down, all the way down to Mobile AL. It took us six weeks to travel from Canada to Largo, FL. We ended 2012 here in Largo, Florida.
Our plans for 2013?
Keep going down towards Miami and then start our way back to Canada slowly. Michèle's brother is supposed to come to Florida and so is my brother. Spend some time in Ontario for the usual appointments and then travel to Québec for a while and continue on to the Maritime Provinces. Our plans are to go back to Texas and New Mexico and maybe Arizona. Not exactly sure at this time.
As we say, "The plan is written in the sand and it is windy".
Until next time.
Life is good...
January February March April May June July August September October November December
1 to 15 December 2012 16 to 31 December 2012
Sunday December 16, 2012
The RV park still has many empty sites. We were told they will be full in January.
Today the park has a "Bike Parade/Poker Rally". We were in!
Our bicycles all dressed up.
We are ready.
The parade getting organized. We even had four Harley Davidson at the front for the parade.
First the Harley's, then the bicycles and the golf carts closing the parade.
Once all the park roads were traveled and we had our five envelopes containing the cards for poker, we got back to the clubhouse to show our cards see who the winner will be.
We did not win, but we had fun.
A view of the clubhouse.
Back at the motorhome, I watched some TV outside, I like that.
First day down and we had fun.
Monday December 17, 2012
Our friend Dave from Cold Lake, Alberta, is here in Largo. He got here on the 15th, like us. We contacted each other and he will be dropping by later on the day.
Before lunch, we went to Costco to buy a "jetpak" from verizon so we could connect to the internet. It did not go well. After one hour of waiting for the "stuff" to get done, we finally left and were told it should arrive home by Friday.
Some pool time and reading while waiting for Dave.
Shoot! We forgot to take photos of Dave while he was here. Next time!
Tuesday December 18, 2012
Every morning I try to go for a bike ride of an hour.
We had forgotten how often we could hear the sirens during the day at this RV park.
We are going to use this one month "down time" to catch up on some overdue maintenance and repairs.
Wednesday December 19, 2012
On Wednesday and Friday morning, the RV park offers free breakfasts.
Our site as we were heading to the rec hall for breakfast.
From bagels, muffins, yogurt, cereals to coffee and juices.
Out for a bike ride in the neighborhood in the afternoon.
Another laid-back day.
Thursday December 20, 2012
A few Christmas decorations in the motorhome.
A great lunch with pancakes.
A major clean up in the basement. I changed all the big plastic boxes for smaller ones made of clear plastic. This will make the "searching" of stuff much easier.
The results.
Here I was working on the next up dates for the web pages. I use the outside TV as a monitor for the laptop.
Friday December 21, 2012
After our free breakfast, we played shuffle board. Our first time in a very long time.
The rest of the afternoon was leisurely spent at the pool and also reading and bicycling.
Saturday December 22, 2012
A cold front is currently over the Tampa area. It was only +5 C last night, not too bad, but for the locals it was winter cold. We went to the Flea Market in the afternoon and we saw many people with gloves, warm hat and winter coats on. Then, the next person was in short pants and t-shirt, they must be Canadians. Some kids playing in the ball in the pool.
Photo from my Ipod, just trying it out.
We hit a cool +15 C today.
Sunday December 23, 2012
Last night, it got down to +4 C, but today the thermometer went as high as +18 C.
We went back to the Flea Market this morning, on Sunday they have more vendors.
Some of our purchases... I wonder who that is for?
More decorations.
I spent the afternoon with my friend Dave. Michèle stayed at the motorhome for some reading and napping!
Monday December 24, 2012
The sky is grey and raining a little. We treated ourselves to a nice lunch at the buffet and after lunch, a movie.
Here in the US, most movie theaters are open in the afternoon. Some even open before lunch.
For the 1.20 pm show, we only paid $4 per person. We went to see the movie Jack Reacher. I read the book before. I have to say the movie is pretty close to the book.
I really like Lee Child, the author of the Jack Reacher series, .
Christmas eve was spent at the motorhome watching TV.
I forgot, I finally got my mobile WIFI device. Only 5 days late. I was told it was easy to get connected. Continuing my bad luck with this device, it took me over two hours to finally get connected to the internet. I am using it now.
Yé!
Tuesday December 25, 2012
Merry Christmas!
Santa must have taught we have been good in the last year because he left gifts for us.
We were spoiled.
This afternoon the temperature is +22 C and I am in the pool. The water is at +26 C.
Really nice for Christmas day!
We had dinner at Dave and Shelley's place. We had a great time catching up on the last two years.
Wednesday December 26, 2012
The day started with rain and isolated thunderstorm. It sure came down hard for a while!
I had forgotten to lower one side of the awning and a big "bubble" of water was formed.
We can see the water seeping through the fabric. Lucky us, I managed to push the water off before any damage was done to the awning.
Right after lunch the sun came out, but it was still pretty cool outside.
Our friends Daniel and Sylvie are camped not far from us, about 15 minutes away, and they dropped by for a visit. We spent a few hours talking about the places we have been. We are invited to their motorhome for a cocktail on Friday.
A very good day, but no bike ride today.
Thursday December 27, 2012
It was cool and humid today. Time to change the front rotors on the car. I changed them in BC last summer, but somehow they got warped. It took me longer to set up for the job then to do the actual job...
Michèle having fun...
Michèle did a lot of "Thrift Shops" shopping for our grandson Gabriel.
After I changed the rotors on the car and had lunch, I tackled another job. Building another bike rack because our old one is pretty beat up after 2 years.
Here is the raw material for the construction.
Measure twice and cut once, I still managed to make a few mistakes.
Dry assembly to confirm the measurements were right!
With Michele's new bike, I have to confirm the distance between the two bikes.
The completed bike rack, all glued together and drying out.
That evening I "Skyped" with my brother Rolland.
Michèle spent the evening playing poker at the Rec Hall.
It was a little bit on the cool side for Florida, but we did manage to get to +20 C today.
Friday December 28, 2012
After our free breakfast, we played shuffle board. Only three teams this morning. We did have fun, but we lost. After the holiday season, we will have more players.
We had sun in the morning, but the sky got cloudy after lunch.
We were on our way to Daniel and Sylvie's place for a cocktail.
You can imagine the cars at this dealership?
Just as we got to Daniel and Sylvie's place we got hit by the rain. We forgot the camera in the car, so no photos.
Saturday December 29, 2012
We had undecided weather today. I washed the roof of the motorhome including the roof vent covers.
It was a little windy and we even got to a high of +20 C. This time I washed the roof with a hand brush. It sure made a difference. Michele helped me for the side of the motorhome.
Sunday December 30, 2012
This morning it was "Flea Market" time. We were there for two hours.
As we got home, we saw a short note on our door from the "Tire Inspector" telling us they were at site 128.
What a pleasure to see June and Pete again.
We had a lot of catching up to do!
Monday December 30, 2012
The day started with a bike ride of 12 km.
I saw this house with a big tree and branches over the house. Interesting!
I had never seen concrete pipes with this shape before.
The weather was warming up nicely and I stopped to have a beer with Pete and Mike.
This 1931 Ford belong to one of the camper in the RV park.
Tonight was the New Year Party at the club house.
We went with June and Pete.
They danced the night away!
We even had a few games...
The DJ even had some props for the participants.
Bill with his new glasses.
A nice way to end 2012 and begin 2013.
I decided to post some of our expenses for the year 2012.
Some of the numbers were rounded off. I will only show the statistic for the car, the motorhome, campground, propane and the generator. I did not convert Canadian dollars to American dollars, I just did 1 for 1.
Let's start with the car.
We drove 18,305 km in 2012, which is a lot less than 2011.
The average price for gas was $1.135 per liter and our consumption average was 9.66L/100km or 33.1 miles per gallons.
Total cost for the gasoline was $1,879.43.
On to the Motorhome.
15,459 km was traveled by the motorhome. Our detour by British Columbia was the reason for the big increase in kilometers.
The average price for diesel was $1.142 per liter and the consumption average was 29.79L/100km or 9.98 mile per gallon.
Total cost for the diesel was $5,038.69.
As for the propane, we used 217.8 liters at a cost of $0.834 per liter.
Total cost for the propane was $181.04.
The generator ran for 89.9 hours in 2012.
Campgrounds.
I averaged over 366 days or should I say nights! This includes night at campgrounds, at family and Walmart.
Our average per night is $19.18, a dollar less than last year, not bad.
Total cost for the campground was $7,021.24.
The most expensive night was in Golden, BC at $42.56 per night and the cheapest was in California at Salton Sea at $11.00 per night. Of course, we had the cheapest of all at family and Walmart for $0.00 per night.
If we add the diesel ($5,038.69), gasoline ($1,879.43), propane ($181.04) and campgrounds ($7,021.24),
our total is $14,120.40 for 2012.
A summary of our travel in 2012.
2012 started in Port Aransas, TX. We remember the weather the most, crappy! It was an unusual year they told us. In February we learned that we were going to be grand-parents for the first time. Our travel plans changed. We are now going west and north to BC where Jérémy and Danielle live. We traveled through New Mexico and Arizona. We could not believe how blue the sky was and no rain... Once in California we spent some time in the Salton Sea area and Death Valley National Park. At the west coast, we started to go north and traveled through Oregon and Washington State. Boy did it rain. Again, it was a very wet spring compare to normal... Made it to Comox, BC in mid April and just in time for the birth of our grandson, Gabriel.
Guess what? The weather was unusually wet even for the island. It did not get warm until July! In mid July we started to travel back to Ontario for our medical and dental appointments. We got extreme weather as we crossed Canada. Heat wave as we crossed BC and the rockies. Hail in the prairies. Stayed a few nights in Calgary and some friends came from Cold Lake for a visit. We also stopped in Nipigon, ON and more friends came for a visit. We stopped a few places to visit some friends.
We stayed in Carrying Place for a month to get all our appointments done. We also helped Michele's sister, Odette and our niece Onyx, to move to Toronto. The next six weeks were spent in Québec visiting friends and family. Back to Ontario for a short spell and crossed the US border on November 3 to travel to Florida. We followed US 19 and US 29 for our trip down, all the way down to Mobile AL. It took us six weeks to travel from Canada to Largo, FL. We ended 2012 here in Largo, Florida.
Our plans for 2013?
Keep going down towards Miami and then start our way back to Canada slowly. Michèle's brother is supposed to come to Florida and so is my brother. Spend some time in Ontario for the usual appointments and then travel to Québec for a while and continue on to the Maritime Provinces. Our plans are to go back to Texas and New Mexico and maybe Arizona. Not exactly sure at this time.
As we say, "The plan is written in the sand and it is windy".
Until next time.
Life is good...
If you think you have missed an update, just click on the "2012", "2011" or "2010" tab at the top of the page and pick the month you want to read.
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