Lake Wales, FL – Apr 2024

I know April of 2024 was all about the total solar eclipse that was visible from Texas through New England. Sadly, not much to see here in Florida.  However, a future total solar eclipse is predicted to make its way right through central Florida and is scheduled to arrive in August of 2045.  So, assuming I’m still around, I’ll have another opportunity to see one.  Other than the eclipse, there were lots of happenings here at the home base – a summary of which follows.

Family & Friends

I would like to introduce everyone to my newest granddaughter – Emmarie Claire Clayton!  She arrived in this world on April 18th, 8:24pm, weighing in at 6 lbs 6 oz, stretching out a full 18 inches. Mom, dad, and big sister are all doing great. She is absolutely adorable, and I can’t wait to meet her. In fact, before I head out on this year’s journey, I’m going to take a quick flight to the north and spend a week up there seeing her along with the very happy mom and dad. I’ll also spend some time with my other grands, and the rest of the family while I’m there. It will be a quick trip, but oh so nice to see everyone before I head for the west. Congrats to Sam and Justin – you done good!

Also in April I got to share in the birthday celebration of my grandson Henry. This April Fools baby turned 2 years on the 1st, and had a spectacular Mickey Mouse themed birthday event. I of course had to join them virtually from here at the FL home base, but it was none the less a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. There were lots of presents, various games to play, and a Sam special custom made Mickey cake to enjoy.  It sure has been a quick run to 2 yrs old – it seems like just the other day that I was touting his birth announcement. Oh well – Happy Birthday Henry and I look forward to seeing you too next month.

So, before all of us brothers and cousin take off in various directions for the summer, we got together for one final lunch.  BJ’s Restaurant & Brewhouse in Melbourne was the chosen venue.  It was a nice place, and the food was terrific!  Brothers Don, Gerry, and Dave, sister-in-law Debbie, and cousin Louise were all present.  Don will be heading up to New Hampshire for several months this summer, Gerry will be driving out to Washington state to be with his family for a few months, Dave and Debbie will be traveling up through the north spending time in Maine and later visiting Niagara Falls, and Louise will be trekking out to Las Vegas for who knows what (whatever it is, it will stay in Vegas).  Actually, she indicated seeing some shows was top of her list.  In any event, I hope everyone has a terrific summer.  Safe travels to you all!

Community Happenings

I mentioned in last month’s blog that I have been working on a down low project for a couple of months.  Well the cats out of the bag now as we did a pre-release demo of the new community website during this month’s Board of Directors meeting.  While it is not yet ready to launch, it certainly is sufficiently progressing such that it was time to show it off.  I have really disliked the existing community website since I bought a place here in Saddlebag, and have been hoping for the opportunity to help replace it with something much better. As luck would have it, that opportunity presented itself and I was asked to lead a team of tech and communications committee members on a mission to develop something new. And that we did!  I’ve devoted a lot of time on this project and I’m really proud of what we’ve built.  I’m looking forward to wrapping up the final tweaks of this initial phase and seeing it “Go Live” in the coming months.  But it won’t end there!  Lots of new features and capabilities as yet explored await us to bring forward in future releases.  Never a dull moment!  If you care to take a peak you can do so HERE – (understand access is limited for the non-owning general public).

I was also able to get in one more show at the Lake Wales Little Theater before my departure.  In April they featured the show Every Little Crook and Nanny.  It was an excellent show featuring a story about a boarding house, a giant cat, a bank robbery, and a police academy graduation.  It had lots of comedy, twists and turns, and a a very unexpected ending.  Among its casts was one of Saddlebag’s own residents, as well as one of my favorite actors named Dorinda who has been featured in many shows I’ve seen these past several years.  I was especially happy to have seen this show as it would be the last Dorinda would be featured in as she is moving out of the state of Florida onto new adventures.  I’m looking forward to seeing what the 47th season will bring next season!

Late in the month, I once again travelled up to the Clermont Performing Arts Center to catch a show.  This time, it was a show about bubbles featuring America’s Got Tallent season 13 contestant Blaise Ryndes.  Sadly, Blaise didn’t make it too far in AGT, but he has successfully developed a show that tours all around the country where he performs his bubbleoligist tricks.  Titled the Spheres Bubble Show, it was a collection of bubble making featuring square bubbles, bubble carrosels, bubble hairdos, encasing people inside a giant bubble, and a massive bubble finale that covered the first several rows of attendees in bubbles.  It’s actually quite amazing what you can do with bubbles when you know what you are doing.  It was a fun show, and a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Well, it’s the end of an era.  I decided to part with my beloved Scoot.  Frankly, ever since the accident I had in ABQ (at right, left side) it was really never the same.  Probably a combination of fear of getting hit again, perhaps next time more severe than the first, or the fact that the scoot frame was slightly out of whack which made many of the plastic pieces not align properly.  Either way, I decided to sell it.  But it was a good run that brought me many years of fun as I hauled it behind the RV similar to how a ship carries a dingy.  But alas it was time to go.  It would be a husband and wife pair that drove all the way from Miami who would purchase it.  Apparently, they run an Uber Eats delivery business, and already own a similar scoot that they use to buzz around downtown Miami to make the deliveries.  Now they will have two scoots so they both can buzz around making those deliveries.  I was shocked that they left at 5am to drive up for the purchase, and showed up with no trailer or carrier of any sort.  When he told me he was just going to put the scoot in the back of his SUV, I thought he was joking.  Well, the joke was on me as that is exactly what he did.  I sure hope it arrived back in Miami in one piece!

2024 Travel Plans

After getting the final clearance on my shoulder towards the end of last month, I’ve been somewhat frantically devoting time to my travel prep and plans for the year.  First up was the need to get new tires on both the truck and RV.  If you’ve been following along in my journey, you might remember that I’ve had a few tire issues on the truck the past couple of years. Fortunately, I’ve not had the same experience with the RV.  But with those tires approaching 6 years old and creeping up on 20k driven miles, it was time to stop pressing my luck and get them replaced too. Well, a bit over $3,000 and 10 new tires later, I’m happy to report that the truck and RV both have brand new wheels. I also had one of the newer truck tires that I purchased last year moved to the spare to replace the one that had been there for who knows how long. In the process, I was also able to verify that the spare is now fully accessible once again. Wahoo!

So I’ve been busy this past month getting my travel route figured out.  Among the many highlights of this years trip, these are some of the top ones:

• Five months of travel, over 8,000 miles, with 43 stops in 15 states
• Focus areas will be Montana, Idaho, and Nevada
• Will visit six National Parks
• Will reconnect with an old Air Force buddy I was stationed with in Japan that I’ve not seen in over 40 years
• Will visit with several friends and family along the way

After the route was finalized, I spent weeks choosing the campgrounds, then securing reservations.  I’m happy to report that except for one campground (actually a place I’ve stayed twice prior, and know they are a bit slow to confirm), I’ve got confirmations for each and every one of my stops in 2024.  There were some tweaks to the schedule I had to make along the way to squeeze things in, but in the end, I believe it to be an outstanding plan.  So, it’s looking like this years trip will once again be an epic adventure.  And, now that I’ve got new tires all around, things should be quiet on the maintenance front (at least I hope so).  Here’s a look at what this years trip looks like with all the stops plotted on the map.

Final Thoughts

Well, I’m certainly fortunate and excited to get back on the road.  It wasn’t the best winter here in Florida as it was colder and wetter than normal, but I’m confident it was still better than being up north.  I’m wrapping up my pre-launch tasks and will be ready in a few weeks to hit the road.  Lots of ground to cover this year, and lots to see and experience as well.  So here’s to a fun, exciting, and trouble-free trip this year.  I also wish all my friends and family all the best as you embark on your summer adventures.  Until next time, be well and safe travels!

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!