Sharp's Travels

It’s hard to believe we have been here in Baker acres a month already. Where does the time go when you’re having fun? We were slow getting around this morning and Cheri didn’t think we had time to walk in order for us to get ready for church. We picked up Grandma and Ed & Lorraine at 9:15 am and head for church. By the time we got back home it was 11:30 am. Cheri fixed a nice salad for lunch while I finished reading the Sunday paper. Early afternoon we took the Sunday paper over to Grandma’s. Then we walked over to see Dean & Betty. They were outside putting up some Christmas lights. We didn’t stay as Betty has caught Dean’s cold and wasn’t feeling that great. So we kept our distance and only talked for a couple of minutes. Then we walked down to see Norm & Nata Lewis. They had just arrived from the north on Friday. We had a nice visit with them. Then we stopped by Bud & Verlin’s to visit as they were sitting outside. Then we stopped to see Ken & Eileen. There was no answer at the door, think they were napping. Then we walked on down to see Bud & Joyce to see if Bud wanted to go for a motorcycle ride tomorrow, but they weren’t home. So we headed back home and enjoyed a Papa John’s Pizza for supper and watched some TV.

When we got back from our cool 43 degree walk this morning we didn’t have any electricity. The whole upper half of the park was out. It turned out to be a broken high voltage wire behind the 5th wheel. It was almost 10:00 am before the power company found it and got it repaired. We felt sorry for the people that had no water or heat as it was cold. It didn’t bother us much as we had water in our tank for an emergency. With our batteries and propane we also had heat and hot water. So the only things that didn’t work were the TV and microwave. The temperature finely did get up to 60 degrees and didn’t see the sun until this afternoon. Cheri did some laundry and worked on her recliner throws. I put a coat of wax on the front of the 5th wheel. This afternoon we walked over to see Dean & Betty as it is their wedding anniversary today. They weren’t home so we stopped to see Ed & Loraine and asked them if they wanted to go to church with us in the morning. Then we stopped to see Grandma and she was sleeping, didn’t want to wake her up so we came back home. On our evening walk we stopped by Grandma’s to tell her we would pick her up for church in the morning at 9:15 am.

So today is Black Friday. If everyone did as much shopping as us which was none, it would be known as Bright Red Friday. We had a low of 43 degrees this morning and a high of 59 degrees for the day. I waited for the 5th wheel roof to dry off which was after lunch. Then I put a coat of wax on. It was a good time to do it as it was cool. Glade to have that much done, want to get a coat on the front also but the old bones said I had enough. Cheri has started a new sewing project, said she is making throws for the recliners. Don’t know much about them so we will have to wait to see what develops. We did our evening walk before dark, been a long time since we have walked in the daylight. Being cool out there weren’t anyone out walking. It is also dark in the mornings when we walk, but always see the same people walking. Nothing much on TV, but did find a couple of movies on the Hallmark Chanel

Here’s wishing everyone a very Happy Thanks Giving. We all have many things that we are thankful for. We all should take time to count our blessings and realize how lucky we are to have so many friends and family and live in a great country where we are free. We took it easy this morning after our walk. The daily paper was full of advertisements and took a while to read. At 1:00 pm was the Thanks Giving pot luck at the Rec Hall. The park furnished the turkey and dressing and everyone brought a dish to pass. We had 147 people attend and the food was great. We left as soon as we got done eating and a little visiting as I wanted to get back to the 5th wheel to watch the Packer play. They played a good game and fun to watch when they win. While I watched the game Cheri went down to Ken & Eileen’s to play cards. She got home shortly after the Packer game was over. Nikki and Darren both called us this evening, was nice to hear what they have been up to.

Shortly after we got back from our morning walk it started to rain and it was still raining when we went to bed. So with the rain there wasn’t much to do. Cheri did do some laundry and she trimmed my hair. Then she worked on getting her salad made for the pot luck Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow down at the Rec Hall. I spent most of the morning on the computer and reading. This afternoon we went to see a movie. It was called The Blind Side with Sandra Bullock. It is the best movie we have seen in years. We highly recommend it for everyone to go and see. After the movie we headed over to Wal-Mart to get some groceries.

Bud and I left for our motorcycle ride at 9:30 am this morning. We rode south to Ellenton where the Prime Outlet Mall is, they have over 100 stores, a women’s paradise. We looked in a couple of stores and found that they had some good prices. Now I will have to take Cheri there. On the way back we ran into some sprinkles between Plant City and Zephyrhills, not enough to get wet. It turned out to be a 165 mile ride and got home at 4:30 pm. Cheri worked on her purse project and got that done. We were getting ready for our evening walk and it started to rain. So we waited awhile for it to stop raining and then started out to walk, had to cut it short as it stated to rain again.

It was damp and foggy this morning and figured it would be a good time to wash the roof of the 5th wheel. I also got the front cap washed. Now if I can get a coat of wax on before its time to put up some Christmas decorations. Last week we brought some snow flake lights to put around the front of the 5th wheel. Cheri has started a new sewing project. She is making some kind of purse. She quit working on it around 2:00 pm this afternoon, said she was having trouble with it. I did take a bicycle ride around the park this afternoon for some more exercise. When we went for our evening walk we got to see Dean & Betty, they just arrived and were unloading the car. We stopped just long enough to say hi. They both looked tired from the long drive.

Today was the first church service here in the park for the season. They had coffee and cookies after church. Ken & Eileen invited us out for lunch today, but didn’t go as we are trying to lose a little weight and eating out doesn’t help. After lunch we made a trip to Beall’s to look for some new tennis shoes for me. I always buy New Balance 608 shoes and they didn’t have any in my size. I have a very narrow foot and have to have a B width shoe. For the last four years I have been buying them at Beall’s and was surprise they didn’t have any. When I got home I checked on the internet to see if I could find some. I even went to New Balance home page and apparently they don’t make a narrow width any longer. I sent them an e-mail and now waiting for an answer. Cheri read this afternoon and I watched the last NASCAR Race for the season. I wasn’t able to get the Packer game, but see on the internet that they won. We got ready to go for our evening walk and just as we walked out of the 5th wheel it started to rain, so no walk tonight.

The last few days when we walk we see a couple that came into the park that has two motorcycles with them. One of the bikes is just like ours. It has a tour trunk on the back of it and I have been thinking about getting one for our bike. So this morning Cheri and I decided to go for a bike ride. We rode down by their place and stopped to talk to them about the tour trunk. Their names are Larry & Denise Loeffen. We talked about different bike related things and I told them that we would stop back this evening with the information that they wanted. We took a 75 mile motorcycle ride and ended up in Brooksville. They had a small flea market on the main street so we stopped for a break and to eat lunch. Then we worked our way back home using all the back roads. We like doing this as we can take our time and see more things. We got home around 2:00 pm. This morning before we left Cheri started some potato soup in the crock pot and when we got home, the soup smelled so good when we came into the 5th wheel. At 5:30 pm we started our evening walk and stopped by Larry & Denise’s to drop off the motorcycle information for them. We sat outside and had a very nice visit with them, in fact we didn’t get home until 8:30 pm. They are leaving tomorrow and moving farther south. I hope we can keep in touch with them and get together again this winter.

Ken & Eileen picked us up at 11:00 am along with Grandma and we headed to Lakeland for Chinese. It was our first trip to Lakeland this fall. In fact Cheri and I haven’t been anywhere since we got to Florida. It was around 1:00 pm when we got home. I have wanted to get the lawn mowed and this afternoon was the time to get it done. I have put it off long enough. I mowed two other lawns beside ours, the neighbors on each side of us. Then I got the weed eater out and did the trimming. After I got that done I was soaking and wet with sweat and dirty, so it was time for a shower. Cheri finished her table cloth quilt. Yep I know I have said that before but this time she said it is done. It really looks nice and here is a picture of it. This evening we went to CVS to pick up a few thing and then to Wal-Mart for groceries.

We had another pretty sunrise this morning but not as pretty as yesterday morning. It was another nice day with a high of 79 degrees. Cheri decided not to take her table cloth quilt to the quilter; she decided to do her own sewing on it. What she has done looks very nice. That consumed her day. I worked on replacing some broken screws on the 5th wheel. I have run out of new screws and will get some more tomorrow. I also worked on the motorcycle. It had speakers and amp for an I-Pod hook up. I wanted to remove it has there is no way to hear it while riding and I don’t listen to music while riding. That project took me all afternoon, had to take a lot of things apart to remove it. I wanted to remove it in one piece so I could sell or give it to someone who enjoys music while riding.

What a beautiful sun rise this morning, had to go back and get the camera to have a picture of it. At 9:00 am I left with Ken & Eileen to take Roger to the airport in Tampa. His flight leaves at 11:35 am. It was 11:30 before we got back to Zephyrhills. Cheri did house cleaning while I was gone. After lunch I took the golf cart manual over to Harold and Joanne. They are really enjoying the golf cart. While Cheri worked on another project I took a ride around the park and stopped to visit with Bud & Joyce. When I got home Cheri was reading and so we watched some TV. We needed to get caught up on some of the shows we had recorded. Weather wise it was a perfect day with a high of 78 degrees.

This morning I received an e-mail from Excel. Jack said that no one from Tri-Am had contacted him about our problems. So I wasn’t happy to hear about that. I sent an e-mail to Rod Speed the sale person that sold us the 5th wheel. The e-mail came back undelivered. I called and asked to speak to Rod and was told he doesn’t work there anymore. I asked for the manager and told him my problem with his people and forwarded the e-mail I got from Jack at Excel and the one I sent to Rod. He told me to give him some time and he would get to the bottom of it. Well I received a call from Jamie (manager) this afternoon. He was all apologetic; he told me we had slipped through the cracks. I wonder how long it would have been if I hadn’t called. He assured me that we would have our TV in two weeks. He said they sent it in for repair this afternoon. The other problems will be address when we head north in the spring. We sold Grandma’s golf cart this morning to her neighbors. They were happy to get it as Harold has bad knees and can’t walk very far. Cheri ran out of sewing thread and had to make a trip to Wal-Mart to get more. I was going to mow lawn today but our neighbor was doing laundry and had clothes on the line. I took Roger for a ride on the motorcycle; Eileen had called and asked me if I would take him for a ride. Cheri has her table cloth done and ready to take to the quilter. We played some games this afternoon (Dice game and Five Crown). It was 6:30 pm before we took our evening walk.

Cheri left at 9:00 am to take Grandma to Wal-Mart to get her medicine and groceries, also a few things for us. Then Cheri made a trip to see get some material for her table cloth quilt. I left for a motorcycle ride with Bud at 9:30 am. We headed for Webster to look around the flea market and then on to Leesburg for lunch a Mc Donald’s. We then stopped at a RV and park model store. Bud had been there before and was looking for paneling for their bedroom, didn’t find anything that he liked. Then it was off to Ocala to the RV dealer to see what was going on with our bedroom TV. It has been three weeks and they said they haven’t heard anything from the factory. So when I got home I fired off an e-mail to the factory to see what they have to say about the TV. From the RV dealer we stopped at the Ocala Harley dealer. It’s always fun to look and not buy. From here we started our ride back to Zephyrhills. We made one more stop at the candy outlet store, Bud said he was out of candy. We got back to the park at 5:30 pm. We had a nice 175 mile ride. Cheri was still working on her table cloth quilt when I got home. She only has a little bit left to do before she takes it in to have the quilting done. It was after 6:30 pm before we took our evening walk. On the way we got a phone call from Roger and he wanted to know if we would pick up Grandma and come down to Ken & Eileen’s to play dominos and watch Dancing with the Stars. We stopped by Grandma’s but she wasn’t home. So we went on down and had a fun evening, the fact that I won the domino game helped.

The mornings of late have been on the cool side, but nice for walking. We picked up Grandma and other friends and headed for church. Church stared 15 minutes earlier this morning as they are going to start having two services. We bought a Sunday paper so Cheri could look at the sale advertisements. I headed over to Grandma’s to get the golf cart and take it for a ride. I stopped back at the 5th wheel and picked up Cheri. We rode around the whole park. I took it back and put the charger on it again. The afternoon for me was spent watching football and the NASCAR Race. Our son in law is a big Cowboy’s fan and me being a Packer fan, I called him and had to rub it in that the Packer beat the Cowboys. I had to rub it in as most of the time the Cowboys win the matchup. Cheri worked on her table cloth quilt.

We were late getting around this morning and didn’t get our morning walk done. Roger and Ken picked us up at 9:30 am. We headed for the airport for our 10:00 am ultra Light ride. When we got there the guy (Larry) that was supposed to take us up was gone to a fly in. I gave him a call on the cell phone and he told me that no one informed him that we had an appointment. So he said he would come back and be there by 1:00 pm. So we headed for the Big Top Flea Market. Roger wanted to get a set of numbered dominos and we wanted a dice cup. We both got what we wanted. I was real happy about the dice cup. Everywhere we have looked, they were $20 to $25 dollars and we got ours for $6.00. On the way back to the air port we stopped by Burger King for lunch. Roger was the first to go up in the ultra light. When he came back he was so excited about the ride. He said what a rush! Then it was my turn, I had gone once before about four years ago and still enjoyed it very much. Then it was Ricks turn to go, he also thought it was great. When we got there Janis said there was no way that she would fly in one of those things. Well before it was over she also went up and had a big smile on her face when she came back. So it was a success for all of us. We were a half hour late getting back to the park to set things up for the 5:00 pm pot luck. When we got there everything was already done. We had a lot of good food and as usual I eat too much. After we got things cleaned up from the pot luck we went over to Grandma’s to play dominos with Grandma, Ken & Eileen and Roger.

Well Friday the thirteenth, is it a lucky or unlucky day, let’s see. It was a cool 51 degrees this morning. I even started the furnace to take of the chill in the 5th wheel. Yes I know we are getting soft (and lazy). Cheri worked some more on her table cloth quilt. I worked or should I say played on the computer. Today was Roger’s birthday so we used Grandma’s van and at 12:30 pm to pick up Grandma, Ken & Eileen and Roger. We went to Golden Corral for lunch. We met Rick & Janis there. We had a nice lunch together and the food was great. Then we all went back to Ken & Eileen’s to visit and play dominos and five crown, it was a fun afternoon. It was 7:30 pm before we got home. Nothing bad happened so I guess it wasn’t an unlucky day.

The first thing this morning we went over to Grandma’s and put the charger on the golf cart again. We were going to use the van to go to Wal-Mart but Grandma was already gone. So we walked back home and got the truck, on the way out of the park we see all the cars down by the Rec Hall. We forgot that this was the first Thursday morning coffee hour and Grandma was there. When we got home Cheri started working on her quilted table cloth. What she got done today looks very nice. I did some work on the computer this morning. I took the car charger a part as it had quit working, the transformer was shot. This afternoon I rode my bicycle down by Bud and Joyce’s to visit with Bud and see how much was done on their new roof. They are having three inches on insulation added to the top of the old shingled roof and then a rubber roof over that. It should make a big difference in the heating and cooling. Later I stopped over by Ken & Eileen’s to see what Roger was doing. We jumped in the car and went down to the airport to check on the ultra light ride. If the weather is good on Saturday we are set to go up. When we walked this evening we stopped to see how Grandma was doing and to take the charger off the golf cart. It looks like it could be put on charge for another day.

There was a little mist in the air when we walked this morning. In fact we had a mist on and off all day. I took the air compressor over to Grandma’s to pump up the tires on the golf cart and also put the charger on it again. Then I went down to Ken & Eileen’s to see what Roger was doing. They were still trying to get the golf cart to charge. I took the car charger and put it on two other batteries for a while and then on the last two for a while and then plugged in the cart charger and it started to charge the batteries, Ken was happy. This afternoon Cheri, Roger and I went Geocaching. We found four caches and did a lot of walking through the state forest near Zephyrhills. On the way home we made a stop at the airport to inquire about doing an ultra light ride. The person that gives the rides wasn’t there, so we will stop back tomorrow. When we got home I hopped on the bicycle and rode over to Bud & Joyce’s to see about our motorcycle ride tomorrow. They were suppose to have a new roof put on the park model today, but didn’t do it because they thought it was going to rain. So now they are coming tomorrow to do it, which means no motorcycle ride tomorrow.

The first thing this morning I made a trip to Wal-Mart to drop off a prescription for my medicine. They told me it wouldn’t be ready until evening. Cheri went down to help Eileen clean her cupboards and wash dishes. I worked on Grandma’s golf cart. I got the new connections put on the charger to golf cart. I put the charger on and it wouldn’t charge because the batteries were dead. So I got out the small car charger and put it on two batteries to bring up the voltage so the main charger would work. Around 3:00 pm I was able to get the main charger to work. At 11:30 am I went down to Ken & Eileen’s to see how Cheri was doing and to see if Ken’s golf cart had taken a charge. He had barrowed a car charger to get a couple batteries charge up like I did on Grandma’s golf cart. While I was there Roger wanted me to program the TV remotes. Late this afternoon Grandma said she had to go to Wal-Mart to pick up her medicine. So Cheri and I took her van and went and picked up her medicine and I was also able to get mine. Just as we were ready to go for our evening walk it started to rain, so that was cancelled.

When we did our morning walk we see that Ken & Eileen are here. So later this morning we walked down to see them. They arrived at 7:30 pm last night. I took my air compressor down with me so I could air up the tires on their golf cart. Roger was just putting on the wheel when we got there. This afternoon we went back down to Ken & Eileen’s. I checked out the golf cart as Ken didn’t think the batteries were charging. I used my meter to check the voltage; the voltage was so low that it is going to take awhile before the charger can get the batteries back to where they should be. Cheri helped Eileen wash some dishes before she came home. Cheri fixed a big supper for all of us (Ken & Eileen, Roger and Grandma) this evening. She did a pot roast in the crock pot with potatoes, onions, carrots, biscuits and cherry cheese cake. This evening we are starting to get some rain from the hurricane. I don’t think we will get very much as it has been downgraded to a tropical storm. It was pretty windy today with a high of 79 degrees.

Yesterday I talked about my watch being dead and nothing would make it work. Well when I got up this morning I was going to throw it away. When I looked at it, it was working and so far so good. I pumped up the tires on Grandma’s van; they were about ten pounds low on air. We picked up Grandma and other friends and went to church. We really enjoy going to Cedar Point Church. After church we took Grandma and went to Wal-Mart to get some groceries. Ken & Eileen and their son Roger will be here tomorrow. Cheri is going to fix supper for them as they won’t have time to get groceries and will be tired from the long drive. The afternoon was spent watching the Green Bay Packers get beat and watching the NASCAR Race on TV. We ordered in pizza for supper form Papa John’s. We like their pizza and it is close by so it is always hot when we get it.

Today Cheri finished her fall house cleaning. She is happy to have that done and says she is going to get her sewing machine out and start on some of her quilting projects. I washed the truck and now all that’s left to do is give it a wax job. Hopefully I can get that done Monday. On our way to Dade City to see the monthly car show we stopped at Wal-Mart to have a new battery put in my watch. Well the battery was OK so the watch is dead. I have always bought Timex watches because they last, but this one died after only six years. We had a nice time at the car show. Cheri picked out a couple she said she would like to have and I found a 1936 CMC pickup that would work for me. It’s fun to dream about having something like that to drive around in. Maybe some day after we settle down in one place we can have an old car or pickup. We were back home around 6:00 pm and decided we had enough walking at the car show and so we called that our evening walk.

It was a nice morning with a temp of 54 degrees, very nice for the morning walk. It got up to 81 degrees which made for a very nice day. This forenoon Cheri worked on the fall cleaning of the bedroom and I worked on cleaning the inside of the truck. We both decided to take the afternoon off and relaxed. We were going to take a motorcycle ride and do some Geocaching. But the wind was blowing pretty hard so we decided to wait another day. So it was an afternoon of reading, playing games, and watching TV.

Cheri took Grandma for her eye appointment this morning and did some laundry this afternoon. I got the bicycle out and pumped up the tires and then we for a ride down by Bud & Joyce’s to see if Bud wanted to go for a motorcycle ride today. He said great, so I headed back to the 5th wheel to get my riding gear on. We did an eighty mile ride up to Webster and back. It was a perfect day for riding. We got back around 11:30 am. We would have done more riding but Bud had an appointment to have cable TV and phone service installed. Cheri got home just before I did. We had lunch and then Cheri finished her laundry and did some reading. I started to take the golf cart connections apart and I need a soldering gun to put the new ones in. I don’t have one and will wait until my cousin get here this weekend as I think he has one I can use. I took a bicycle ride around the park to see if anybody we knew came in for the winter. Then I took a motorcycle ride downtown to the post office to mail a package. I also got the GPS mount on the motorcycle and tried that out on the way to the post office and it works great.

It was another perfect day, not much humidity and a high of 81 degrees and a low of 62 degrees. Cheri is still doing her fall cleaning; she said all she has left to do is the bedroom. I spent all day finishing the washing and waxing of the motorcycle, that was a big job and happy it’s done. I got out the grill and grilled a nice rib eye steak for supper. After our evening walk we did a Wal-Mart run to pick up a few things like ice cream. We were out of ice cream and I needed my ice cream fix this evening.

Cheri and I didn’t do much today. I had one of those headaches that just wouldn’t go away. We did go to a flea market this morning down by the airport here in Zephyrhills. It was very small and not much. We did buy a big bag of craisins (dried cranberries) for $3.00, they sure are good. From there we went to Lowe’s so I could return a couple of things that I didn’t need. After lunch we went over to Grandma’s. Cheri visited with her while I took the power connections a part on the golf cart. I received the new parts today. I brought the connections home so I could work on them here where I had the tools I needed. I also received the North American maps for our Garmin Dakota 20 handheld GPS. Now I have a GPS that we can use on the motorcycle and also use for Geocaching. With my headache I didn’t feel like doing anything else. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and watching TV.

It was a wonderful day, High temp of 81 degrees and a low 64 degrees and low humidity. It was a great day to work outside. The first thing I did was mow Grandma’s lawn and then I spray under her trailer and the lawn for ants and bugs. Then I did a bunch of odd jobs around the 5th wheel. I also spent a couple of hours cleaning the spoke wheels on the motorcycle. Cheri continued her fall house cleaning; think she is just about done. It is hard to get use to the new time as it was dark by 6:00 pm. Some more people came in yesterday. Bud Avery stop to see me this afternoon and he brought his motorcycle with him this year so we will be able to do some riding together.

It’s hard to believe that November is here already. Only 54 shopping days left before Christmas. Today was a lazy day. We picked up Grandma at 9:30 am and headed for church. On the way home we stopped so Grandma could get a Sunday paper. Cheri spent the afternoon reading and watching TV. I watched the NASCAR Race and then the Green Bay Packers. The race was good and the Packers, well we wouldn’t talk about them. Grandma came over at 4:00 pm to watch the Packer game. We ordered in Papa John’s pizza for supper. Grandma went home after the game and Cheri and I settled in for an evening of more TV. It wasn’t as hot today, much nicer with a high of 81 degrees.

Happy Halloween to everyone. It was another hot day but the humidity wasn’t as bad today, we had a high of 87 degrees. Cheri was cleaning cupboards today and my project was cleaning the motorcycle. I spent most of the forenoon power washing and cleaning the wheels. For a break we took Grandma’s van and filled it up with gas. We also stopped a Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. We did the no-no thing by going there near noon and on a Saturday. It was so busy we could hardly get around the store, how soon we forget. We took our evening walk around 6:00 pm so we could see the park during the day light. We got to talk to several people along the way and didn’t get back home until 7:30 pm.