Think Tank

On a cool day by Florida standards, overcast, and a relatively dismal day, we ventured into Tampa for a visit to the Florida (Tampa) Aquarium. It's a nice aquarium, poised at the precipice of a major renovation during which the goal of making it one of the world's most interactive aquariums should be realized. There was an ongoing art show within the confines of the aquarium displays that had some really terrific stuff, including the one below called "Think Tank."

This aquarium features the usual fish displays, but has some really dynamic indoor/outdoor environments to explore as well. Inside this massive greenhouse is a "working" mangrove swamp with fish, turtles, rays, otters, nesting birds, orchids, and more.
The giant Manta Ray at the entrance gives you the feel of being in the water with these magnificent and absolutely gigantic creatures. They do not have a live one on display. As far as I know they have never been kept in captivity. But I sure would like to discover otherwise...or get a chance to swim with them somewhere, sometime. Memo to self: Add that to the "to do" list.There is a widely diversified "touch tank" that offers contact with many more marine creatures than the typical starfish and conch experiences offered by a lot of aquariums. This one had a variety of anemones that were touchable- often they are not!
This clown fish swims with a giant clam and some lovely anemones. Giant clam. Did I mention I love sushi and clams on the half shell??? Just asking....
The Florida Aquarium already offers the world's ONLY interactive experience with, of all things, Penguins. We gathered in the big tank theater room in anticipation of the "Penguin Promenade." Kids get to sit on the floor up front. That's not fair! I couldn't make myself look small enough to make it up there, but what the heck. Even from the Peanut Gallery the view of the crowd awaiting the penguins was fun.
Once the penguins arrived, the kids weren't quite as brave about being up front. But the crowd had me penned in up back so I took whatever shots I could from back there.
You know, if you have ever been to a penguin display, that they have a very strong odor about them. It comes from "guano" which is, well, penguin poop. Here is one of the interesting factoids we learned about the real "poop" on penguins. They can project, that is to say, "shoot" their poop a distance of about four feet. You can challenge this fact if you wish, but as I was there and a penguin poops every 10 minutes or so, I can tell you that this fact was, in fact, demonstrated on more than one occasion. So when the handler tells you their poop can shoot four feet- believe it. But here's the thing, when they pick them up to bring them close up and personal for the photo shot- that range doubles to about 8 feet. That too is true. Eau de Penguin. Very fashionable I hear.
Before back surgery caused me to discontinue scuba diving, I tried to see jelly fish in the water column for the express purpose of staying away from them. But now that I watch them through the glass in an aquarium display, I find the fascination with them much more interesting and appreciable. While they are some of the most simple creatures in the sea, they are spectacularly beautiful, especially when the light catches their structure just right. I love to photograph them, so here's a sample from the Tampa Aquarium jelly display.
The lion does not always roar. Sometimes he moves slowly and silently through the grass and waits for the perfect moment to take his prey. This lion operates like that all the time.
Something for every one. Pretty little thing, eh?

Pillow Talk

Not that it has anything to do with anything, but back when I was in high school, I "starred" in a drama club presentation of "Pillow Talk" - a wonderful piece of theater that took me further into drama in school, and then eventually into the role of drama coach as a teacher in Maine quite a few years later. It (the flare for drama) was evidently in my sole and being, as even my parents called me "John Barrymore" more often than they called me by my given name. Whether being dramatic is a skill or a curse, I will leave you to decide, but I have always been comfortable with that attribute and used it for the good when ever possible. But as I say, that has nothing to do with this post, excepting for coming up with the title and the lead. At my age, "Pillow Talk" has more to do with sewing than romancing, excepting to say what a great job Marilyn has been doing with her mother's vintage sewing machine, which, as I have previously mentioned, is now a functioning part of our coach equipment. And to that end, she has been working diligently at realizing her design concept for the coach- something that got placed on the back burner until we found ourselves with some "down" time when things like this can be worked on. She started by making a new bed for Abby, two of them actually, which we, and Abby to be sure, like much better than the old and functional, but artistically unacceptable one we used up until now. Then she started on a few pillows for the sofas and bed that added some pizazz to the color scheme we had to work with. After hours in the fabric section, material was selected and the project got off the ground, and after a few days of concentrated effort sandwiched in between retrieving tax records and other mundane tasks, the mission was accomplished in great style. We are both pleased with the results and think that surely "mom" is happy as well.
Like I said, she did a great job! So great in fact that I "let" her sew a padded vinyl, custom cut and shaped, draw-stringed, very classy indeed cover for my table top grill! Now those of you who travel know that much of what you see in the possession of other campers looks a whole lot like what you have. That's because you all bought it at camping world or the like. But me? I got a "cool" grill cover hand made by my personal seamstress.....and I feel special!

Pulling IT All Together

It really doesn't matter where you live- in a house or a coach or a condo or a cabin in the woods. It doesn't matter what state you reside in (or happen to be traveling through) either- taxes must be paid! And the annual effort is always daunting. But we are finding that pulling it all together from the confines of an RV, no matter how big it may be in comparison to others, is even more challenging than it ever was before. For starters, when we had the house(s), we always had at least a four drawer file cabinet filled with receipts, and reports and a closet full of boxed old records. We had a reference library close by too if we needed it. We had a much bigger computer, a bigger calculator, a much bigger desk, a much bigger space in which to "figure." No room here for any of that! In the coach, there is only one small file drawer in the main salon, a plastic portable file buried in the back closet, and a few more older records that we still need tucked away down below. No matter what we need- it seems it is not at our fingertips, it's "somewhere else." Still, we have made good progress, especially considering that all the annual forms like filing forms, tax organizers from the accountant, 1099's of every type - all have to come to us in the indirect path from the mail forwarder that reroutes all our necessary mail to us. So while we wait for the facts and figures from the banks and so on, we compile the necessary data from our businesses and prepare to reorganize the business venture going forward. It all takes time and concentration. And it takes more time now than it ever did before. Yet while it is necessary in more ways than one, it's not much fun, so it tends to be a more, rather than less, stressful time. But after a solid week at crunching the numbers, there is light at the end of the tunnel! Now if only that light turns out not to be the proverbial train!
Our total time allowed for tax prep this year, before materials get sent off to the accountant will be three weeks. One down, in East Tampa, and two coming here at Bay Bayou on the other side of Tampa. Hopefully there will time to play, because, well, you know, all work and no play makes Greg a dull boy....

Annual CheckUps

It never fails! If I stop and take a break from writing the blog, the calls and e mails start up in short order: "Hey, we don't see anything new on the blog. Where are you? Are you OK? What's wrong? How come?"

Well, in truth we are still in Florida and were camped out within easy commute of the old stomping ground of Cape Coral. Why? Annual check ups of all kinds. Each by itself is not noteworthy and certainly not great reading for the masses, and I'm not real sure that collectively it is much better, but I'll try to bring you up to date with the personal stuff, at least as much as I think will quench your thirst for knowing what's up.

Life on the road is a real blast. We all love it! But there are certain elements of necessity in life that are made more challenging by the life style. Getting the annual blood tests and physical is not so easy when you are in Alaska and the doctor is in Florida. You get the idea. And dentists? That's a story in and of itself. Of all the services that are possible on the road, getting you teeth cleaned is the least easy to accomplish. Actually, it is nigh on impossible, and although we tried our level best to do that, even going so far as to carry recent x-rays, letter of recommendation and referral from our hometown dentist office, we were not able to "git 'er done" as the cable guy would say. So the nature of this visit "home" was to fit in all the business of appointments, services, check ups, repairs, etc. Here's the partial list:

The car needed two new tires from Sears under warranty. Go Sears! Oh, and an alignment- we were pretty rough on the old Honda Odyssey, which came back from it's first 24,000+ mile trip thinking it had become a Hummer! It took three visits to get all this accomplished, and we fit appointments in where ever we could so as to multi-task.

The coach needed to have the outside basement TV replaced- also warranty. Go Newmar! Go North Trail (And if you're shopping for an RV and want a really good and honest guy, ask for Ray when you call)! Both the coach manufacturer and the dealer have been great with us! There is no shortage of horror stories out there in the wonderful world of RV-ing. The coach keeps breaking. The manufacturer won't make good. The dealer won't fit me in. None of those things have posed a problem to us...and whether we are just lucky or in some way finding things favorable because we like to treat people right and always (well, usually) get the same in return- I don't know! But I'll take it the way I have it-and gladly pass the credit on to those who have taken such good care of us. Getting the necessary service took two visits to the dealer, one upon arrival and one to fine tune at time of departure. So we not only "got in" for service, we got in when it was necessary as well as when it was convenient. And this is the much dreaded high season in Florida! The service department at the dealer (North Trail) and the guys from the manufacturer (Newmar) on the other end of the phone or the e mail treat us like valued friends. They, in turn, are valued friends of ours!

My doctor's appointments produced a clean bill of health, as did all of Marilyn's. It took something like five different visits to the labs and the offices to dispense this annual task with all the necessary health care providers.

The eye doctor found everything "looking good" deep in the eyes of each of us. We first had our check ups and then returned a few days later for lens swapping (glasses, not eye balls). Two visits each in this regard as well.

Below, Marilyn takes a moment from kitchen duty to peek out onto the patio to see what's up with those of us hanging outside the coach. See, there's all kinds of "checking up" getting done on this stop...
Look at that cute little face!

Abby had her check up too. She had a preliminary visit to the vet to check her thyroid meds and a lump on her back right leg. And after we got some test results that showed some cancer in the area it was back to the doggie doc for surgery. Whether it's people family or the four legged family, medical woes produce more than their share of anguish and this was no exception. And while there is always the chance that the surgery didn't get everything that needed getting, the results were promising and I am happy to report that now several days later, Abby is happy and seemingly quite comfortable and back to her old self and her old routine. Oh she clearly saw the worry in our eyes and milked it for all it was worth for a few days....but all seems normal now and life goes on.
It is the fact that someday life must end that, if we appreciate the concept correctly, helps us to make the most of the time we have, whatever the circumstances under which we have it. Life is always what you make it and always a gift.
Oh, and did I mention Marilyn sewed two new covers for Abby's newly improved bed using her mothers old sewing machine which is now traveling with us???

Abby hangs with the big guy and runs with the big dogs on a foggy day at the doggie beach near Lover's Key, Bonita Beach, Florida. For those of you who might be thinking it is ridiculous to spend time writing in a blog about the life and times of a dog---think again. Abby has made as many long term friends on the road as we have. Because we often see camping friends again and again in our travels, the dogs get to revisit old friends as well. And she gets darn near as much e mail as I do!
And speaking of old friends (but not old dogs), here sit Bouncing Bob and Precious Polly. We met these two happy campers in Florida over a year ago...and here they are again! We spent some time with them in Texas and just missed them in Wyoming some time later. Life has thrown us each a couple of curves in this last year that kept us from spending more time with each other, but even a short visit with them is unbelievably uplifting and seeing them again is always on the list of things we look forward to.
I'm really sorry I forgot my camera the evening we stopped in for a visit and a bite to eat with former neighbors Bruce and Michelle and family. I really should have a picture of them! It was a wonderful visit and we were so happy to see them and have at least a quick visit. Like our other friends on the Cape they are people of great character- honest, hard working, caring, loving, generous and just plain fun to be around. So with that- apologies to all of those other good friends that time made it impossible to visit on this go-round. But then it is Gundyville on Wheels and it will be coming around again for a "check up."