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Well thanks again to the travel Budha for allowing us to arrive problem free. I spotted five shoes on the way from Orlando.
Well Donnie and Rachie’s wedding is over. (see the photos here) It was a great time, stressful at times but worth it! We got to see so many friends and family. The reverend Marvin “Scooter” Ahrens performed the ceremony, and he did a great job. Nanny even got to come down, we love Nanny and enjoy spending as much time as possible with her, she seems to glow these days, she is all healed and even has a hearing aid!
— On Behalf of Sharon and I, also Rachie and Donnie, we would like to give a special thanks to all those that helped make the wedding a huge success, it could not have happened without the help of our wonderful friends and family! —
Went searching for a shoe yesterday but did not find one anywhere! Guess they only show up when I am not looking for them.
This next story is a portrayal of the dirty part of RVing :)
Well Donnie and Rachie rented a porta potty for their party and Sharon and I thought it would be perfect to dumped our black water (sewage for the non-RVer) into that porta potty. Sounds easy, until as we are pumping the hose slips out of the potty and spills nasty stuff all over. We got to it quick so maybe only a gallon spilled out. Still very embarrassing and yucky. So I finished emptying and sprayed it all down with a hose. All cleaned up except tiny wet masses of green toilet paper blow everywhere. In hindsight, that was not a great idea :) :) :) The next day when the guy comes to get the potty I can see him right outside my window struggling to move it. This was an overweight black guy whose pants kept falling lower and lower as he pushed it. I felt bad for him, but could not help wonder why no one ever told him about belts. He kept looking in to see how full it was. “Whoops”, I thought. I did not realize they moved those things by hand. I came out and asked to help him push it. “Did someone pour water in here?” he asked. I replied with a puzzled look “ I don’t know, I stayed inside last night, is it overly full?” :) “ I need to call and get a truck to come and pump it out. “oh crap” I thought. I figured they would charge Donnie for that so I pushed harder. “No need to do that, we can get this” I said, as water inside the potty sloshed everywhere and his pants fell to his knees . Just about that time Donnie and other guys came out of the house and helped push it to his truck and then we hoisted up onto his truck. Poor guy, his job is bad enough without people like me making it worse.
We had too run the kids to Tampa to catch their train back home and finally came across a shoe, or three. Three in a 1/4 stretch actually. All different, it was a gold mine. I also found a small sneaker the next day just a block from Rachie’s house. It must have just “arrived” as it was not there that morning.
I would like to ask everyone out there to send some positive energy northward to my brother-in-law who is struggling with life’s obstacles and pitfalls, may he overcome and find a happy existence. The family has being going through alot at this time but I am not going to elaborate out of respect for their privacy.
Well another birthday has come and gone for me. I am 37 now and that seems like a number that should not be associated with me in my mind because I still feel in my 20’s. Wait until it says 57, I can only hope I still feel in my 30’s. I got a great gift from Sharon and Rachie. It was basket full of my favorite things, expensive import beers, dark chocolates, hot sauces and more! Thanks to all that helped make my birthday fun!
Got to visit two dog parks in one day. The Bonito Beach Dog Park by Fort Myers and the Cape Coral Dog Park. Neither seemed to suit us. The beach park was pretty nice as far as location but there were too many big dogs, pit bulls, rotties and such. Ones that traditionally do not get along with smaller dogs. And the people were not friendly at all, it just had a bad “vibe”. Eventually a bulldog and black lab ran us off because they were getting aggressive with their humping on Jack and Jack was looking at them scrooked, which is his signal for getting ready to attack.
The cape coral park went a little better, it was a well kept park, big and small dog sections, a wooded area and an open area for play. But the “vibe” there was not good either, all of the same types of dogs. Something about unfixed, unsupervised pit bulls that makes me nervous :) Anyway, we did learn that we like Venice Beach Park alot better and will just stick to going there. But the day was not all lost as we did find a shoe on the road back.
Here is a tip: Be careful what lies you tell in a pub, because you never know who might hear you. For instance I was at the Celtic Ray and this dressed in a brown leather bombers jacket with the collar turned up (straight from the 80’s) was saddled at the bar next to a cute young lady talking her ear off. I heard bits and pieces, like he was being presented an award from the US Senate, was in the movie Dave, yadda yadda yadda right? It was not until he mentioned he played a college sports at Boston College, well this is where I had to call bullshit. I turned to him and asked “I could not help but hear you played a sport at Boston College, what sport did you play?” “Hockey” he said. Okay this is going to be fun. “When did you play there?” I inquired. “Around 91 or 92” he replied. I then asked “What position?” “Goalie” he said proudly. “Wow, my friend Scott LaGrand played goalie at B.C. 1989 to 1992, were you his backup? Although didn’t you say you started?” (I became friend’s with Scott and his wife in Pensacola and he was the exact same age as I am so i knew when he went to college because of that) His face lost some color and his posture sunk a little. The stare from the girl he had been feeding bullshit to in order to impress her was all ears, looking for his answer. He continued to try and say he played after Scott left school in 1993. “You mean you forgot what years you played college hockey?” He stumbled and mumbled a lot until I finally let him off the hook and went back outside with Sharon and Rachie. Guess he did not get lucky that night :) Of course later that night I had to go check online the rosters for the B.C. hockey teams and sure enough he was nowhere on them anywhere. What a freaking tool, but he was entertaining.
Back to the subject of brewpubs :) we went to get a brew at Steamers Crab and Ale House. They had a great selection of drafts, 24 in fact, but none were home brewed. We had a nice Downtown Brown, it was more like a stout. They bartender was very knowledgeable about beer and very nice. Overall good experience.
A new restaurant in Downtown Punta Gorda, Zen, was the choice for our 1 year anniversary dinner. Really good food, we give it two thumbs up. And staying on the subject of food we had a great night of dining at the Peruvian restaurant in Punta Gorda. The Ceviche was delicious and the entree as well. The salad dressing was downright addictive!
Well since we are Gypsies sort of, we always are looking for side jobs to make a little cash. We were asked to bar tend and hostess a christmas party in PGI. It was a great time actually, we met so many nice people and the couple hosting the party were good people, Gene and Sharon, thanks for a nice time AND paying us for it :) I have to admit Sharon and I made a great team. I also made a lot of great contacts to help me further my photography and design business here in Charlotte County.
Speaking of photography we participated in the Gallery Walk in Downtown Punta Gorda again. It went much better than the last one, we sold several photos and had fun doing it, we will for sure do it again next month!
On a quick note I caught my first snook aboard Scooter’s custom 21’ center console boat he built by himself. To see this amazing performance boat go to the Tribal Boatworks website, http://www.tribalboatworks.com , it was so fitting that I would catch it on his boat. Thanks for the trollin’ trip Scoot!
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