Yesterday’s destination turned into a lovely journey

 Benno needed some specific Seastar oil for the steering system on our boat that is not readily available in all marine stores and especially up in Canada. However, the “Boat Owners Warehouse” marine retail store in Stuart, which is not too far away from us, carries it. That let us to another reason for an outing. 

When we took off, we let the GPS in our truck do the navigation while I just sat back to enjoy the ride. Now I knew we would pass by Indiantown on the way to Stuart. Our friend Richard from Ontario keeps his boat in the Indiantown Marina where we had seen him back in January when he was busy painting the hull of his sailboat. We thought we drop by on our way back from Stuart to say “Hello”.

Our GPS directed us onto County Road 714, which is also called the Martin Grade Scenic Highway, but I didn’t know that when we started out. 

As we rolled along I mentioned to Benno how nice the scenery looked. Soon I realized just how special this road was. The lush trees to both sides of the road formed a canopy with their overhanging branches over the road that went on for miles. It felt like driving through a tunnel. I was almost sad when we reached Palm City, an affluent area in Florida, and then onto the marine store in Stuart. I thought I should check the Internet if there was any info on the country road 714 we had just driven and I learned it is called “The Grade”. Take a moment to view this video.

After Benno got his oil and a little bit of store browsing at the Boat Owners Warehouse, we were on our way back home. At the Indiantown Marina we could not find our friend or his boat but saw his motorhome parked on the lot. The girls at the office said that he had launched his boat and was probably cruising the Bahamas right now. Nice!

Because of the disappointment of not seeing our friend, I treated us each to a Value McChicken Meal Deal from McD. It consisted of a chicken burger, French fries, 4 chicken nuggets with sauce and an iced coffee flavoured with French vanilla or caramel, all for $5/ea. What a deal.

The rest of the day found us relaxing by sticking our noses into our books and iPads. 

Lately I have noticed new blossoms on trees and shrubs here in the park that had been dormant during the winter. One of those trees in our park caught my attention as it is so very pretty and has a wonderful fragrance. The Internet told me it is a Bauhinia (Hong Kong orchid tree) in case you are interested. 

That is all for today. Thanks for dropping in.

Meeting up with fellow bloggers and an afternoon at the Griffin Scenic Tower

 When I started my current blog to capture photos and happenings in our travels I had no idea who would read them as I put them out into the world. Travelling to the same places others have gone before us, I occasionally made comments on their blogs. That let to reciprocal comments on my blog.  Over the years we have met several blogger friends, which is always fun. Last week we got to meet Barb and Jim from Jim and Barb's Adventures who have been RVing a lot longer than we have done.

They were parked at an RV Park in Crystal River, north west from us here in Florida for a month and we agreed to meet up at a German Beer Garden/Bakery in Yalaha that Benno and I had visited in 2023, you can read about it "here"

Barb and Jim

For all the folks that have been following Jim’s blog, let me tell you, those guys are just as nice, interesting and amusing as their blog posts reflect. Although we have RVing in common, our conversation at the table, complemented by “Warsteiner” beer, pretzels, bratwurst and such, revolved mostly about boating. The ambiance under the trees canopy in the outdoor beer garden added to this nice get-together.

Barb, Jim and Benno

Upon departing we all took home a pastry from the “Yalaha Bakery” delicious selection of German baked goods. The only downside that day was that our friends and mutual bloggers, Linda and Ed from We2Travellers living the life  were not able to join us four because of major severe rainstorms at their Florida home area near Jacksonville that morning.

The two desserts we took home from the bakery

Last Sunday was a warm, but very breezy and overcast day. We had nothing planned, but thought we should stretch our legs a bit. Just a few miles from here there is an observation tower overlooking some part of Lake Okeechobee, called:  Sam Griffin Scenic Tower and that is where we went. It being such a windy day we were surprised to see so many fishing boats at the park which is at the end of the Herbert Hoover Dike and it features numerous boating ramps with lots of space for truck and boat trailer parking. 

View from the foot bridge

The other side of the foot bridge

View from the 1st level up the ramp

View from the 2nd level of the tower

View from the top of the tower

The ramps going up/down are easy to walk

In the park surrounding the scenic tower

View over Lake Okeechobee

It looks very shallow in this area of the lake and you might get stuck with a boat

There were families without boats fishing from shore pulling up fish after just casting off their lines. I’m not sure all the fish went home with them though.

People out fishing from shore

This kid had just put in the rod and immediately got a fish

We had a great afternoon there and even our dogs loved the new scenery and smells.

Thanks for visiting again, I do appreciate all of you.

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy valentine’s day to everyone. Love is the one and the only thing that can make the world into a better one.

I can’t believe we are halfway through February already and if this pace keeps up it’ll be spring time before I know it.  Although weather wise here in Florida it felt like summertime these past weeks. I am ready for a bit of a cooldown so we can enjoy the outdoors more and I don’t break out in a sweat when just sitting outside our travel trailer.

Yesterday we drove all the way down to Miami. The International Boat Show is on and runs until Sunday evening. We have been to this show over the years a number of times but not since 2013 I think. Lots has changed since then, but then what hasn’t. 

We were most interested in the vendors at the Marine Electronics Pavilion

So to start off, no longer are tickets for the boat show sold at the gate. You have to pay by credit card online and use that QR code digital Eventspass on your phone to enter. If you leave and reenter the show you have to show your phone with the Eventspass every time. That was new to us. Btw they were the most expensive tickets we’ve ever paid for entering a boat show and that even after using a coupon code.

The Miami International Boat Show is spread over 6 locations but you could take free shuttles from one to the other. Even water taxies were available, but for an extra charge. Miami is very congested, so parking can be a problem and with summer like temperatures you would not want to be too far parked from your destination. We were lucky to find parking at the Convention Center parking garage above the show halls, but they would not take cash, only a Creditcard to pay the $20 all day fee. While driving up to the parking roof, Benno said to me “Next time you drive!” as he let out a sigh of relief not having scratched up the truck after the umpteen tight turns going up and later down the parking house, which were going round and round and round. 

Ground floor to all the exhibit halls

We opted to only visit the halls of the Convention Center. Other locations like the Museum Park Marina you could view sailboats. Powerboats were at the Herald Plaza and Super yachts, where bording for a look around was by invitation only, were at the Yacht Haven Grande. You could test drive over 75 sea trial vessels at the Venetian Marina. There were seminars held and a VIP Lounge at theWindward Club etc. Enough to tire you out for sure.

No need to show you all the vendors but the booze stand ($9/shot) had no takers

I had the dogs with me and they behaved great. Benno and I split up but would meet up at certain vendors (we called each other) There were no other dogs that I could see. Lots of people stopped us to pet Reggy and Elsa or to tell me they had a dachshund at home. Later in the afternoon I took the dogs to the truck so they could rest, have a drink and a dog cookie and we had a snack too.

Major cities of the world were on display on the ceiling
"Brampton, 1,241 miles" is a small suburb of Toronto!
Was the installer from there??

The traffic out of Miami was more like a slow moving parking lot :-) We were in no hurry so it didn’t matter much to us, but we sure were glad when things got moving again and back at the RV Park we just wanted to rest up. The show was a good experience and we were glad we had gone to see it. Benno’s highlight was ordering a complete package of a smart “Simrad AP 44” autopilot unit, complete with Hydraulic Pump etc. for our Pocket Trawler. Now he can hardly wait to install it :-)

Next up: the Presidents Day on Monday (but I will hold on to my wallet) 

Finally, here are a couple of photos of our resident Sandhill Cranes. I believe it is a him and her and they keep striding around our grassy areas but loudly complain if you come too close.

Thanks for dropping in everyone.

Florida has turned on the heat

Yes, it has warmed up to seasonal temps, all week long between 82 to 86F/ 29 to 30C. Our outside thermometer showed 33C yesterday afternoon and at the moment 38C yikes, while it’s ok in the shade with a bit of a breeze, you can imagine what it is like walking in the broad sunshine. So we spent most of yesterday with the air-condition running inside our travel trailer.

Our refurbished propeller

Last week we got a call from General Propeller in Bradenton telling us that our propeller was ready for pick-up. If you recall, we had purchased a used propeller a few weeks ago that was manufactured here in Florida at General Propeller. The manufacturer also offers calibration and refurbishing of used propellers so we took the opportunity to have that done on the prop we had bought. It now looks like new and I’m sure it will perform flawlessly too. 

A continuous video shows the process of manufacturing and their services

Inside their customer service area

That is one huge prop

Not giving our truck much of a rest, we drove to Ft. Pierce for the day to meet up with friends from Toronto. They have a sailboat here that they just launched from a year of storage and they will sail over to the Bahamas for some vacation time enjoying the water and eating lobster. We spent the day on a fabulous beach and had the camera left in the camper and the phone in the truck. Sh*t, how could we forget?

In the Curry Island Park

Closer to home I wanted to drive around the loop of Curry Island. It’s ideal for roller skating, bike riding, walking or just slowly driving in absolute tranquility. Our dogs loved to run partway and I spotted bee hives in a clearing off the path. The bees were swarming all around so I didn’t walk any nearer.

There are loops in the park and only one road in and out

Bee hives hidden in the bush

Another day we took an afternoon walk close to one of the locks to the Okeechobee lake. There must be lots of fish there as it seemed to be a popular area for the fishermen.

At the Okeechobee lock

Speaking of fishing, we have a pond here on the RV Resort property. Sometimes I walk there with the dogs. I heard there had been Alligators there in the past, but perhaps not any longer. However I’d seen a Turtle, a couple of Iguanas, Sandhill Cranes, an Egret and many other birds there. So I like to go there in hopes to discover more wildlife. 

Iguana blending in with the palm tree

Egret waiting for dinner

A couple of sandhill cranes

By the way, I noticed that my iPhone camera captures the area in addition to the photo taken once I download it to my photos app. I find that interesting.

A map shows up on photos taken with my iPhone with location

Thanks everyone for sticking with me and seeing where we spend our days. Please come again!