Why did the Alligator Cross the road- to get to the Christmas tree

Strange title I know but more about that later. An early start and we finished the last bots of cleaning and Noel did the bathrooms and then finished loading the car with our overnight bags and all the last bits of food that we were going to take with us. Jennifer made the sandwiches for our journey and by 10.00 we were ready to go when the chap who monitors the cleaners and check on property turns up and so delays us for a few minutes.
We left the house shortly after 10.20 and headed down to the petrol station to fill with with fuel for our journey and then headed off to the I 75 towards Tampa. The motorway was quite busy really considering it was a Sunday although perhaps less trucks than usual. We continued North and then left the motorway to travel on more country roads. Its strange when the Sat Nav says turn right in 98 miles and then 98 miles later is says turn left for 58 miles, that's how you the distances you travel.

Anyway you get in to a routine with these roads as there is 98 miles of pretty straight road and so you put the car in auto cruise and just keep going with few cars around and the suddenly out of the blue a small alligator appears from the side of the grass and starts walking across the road about 40 yards ahead and were were travelling at around 65 mph and so a quick manoeuvre around it as no chance to stop and a couple cars behind me had the same difficulty but by this time I had put my warning flashers on for the cars behind. So on we continued through the odd interesting old towns with the occasional nice views but we have no time to stop and take photos unfortunately.Then further down another road which was about 60 miles long and miles from anywhere was a four foot Christmas tree covered with decorations and heavens knows what it was doing there, but again travelling to fast to take a photo.
We finally arrived at the town called Perry which approx. 35 miles South of Tallahassee and we checked in to the Hampton Inn and we were so lucky as just as we were unloading the car the rain started and then came down in torrents as soon as we arrived in the Hotel reception, gosh that was close. After a nice cup of tea we looked in to restaurants and several were closed as it was a Sunday but there was an Italian Restaurant down the road, actually it was a lot nearer than we thought and we could have walked there but by  we we had already gone by car.
The waitress at the restaurant appeared at out table and I explained some of my food challenges and said it really was important that the instructions are followed, and she I am the owner and boss so the kitchen staff will be told what to do, and it worked out well for us. Then back to the Hotel and we some some Tv before going to bed.

Last complete day here

Well this is last complete day in this house and we have had a great time with really good weather and lots of swimming in nice warm pool.

Its been good take the time to to relax before going home and continuing with the house sale and all that entails. However today we finalised most of the cleaning and packing the car and so we can have a good start tomorrow without delay.In the afternoon we BBQ’d some loin pork steaks , some for a late lunch and one to make in to sandwiches to be used on our travels tomorrow.

We watched some tV and and went to bed early as we would be having an early start tomorrow.

Nearly there

Another nice morning with the sun shining down although overnight it was little cool, but not cold in any way.
Today is our packing day and so after the usual breakfast and washing up etc, Jennifer did some washing and Noel after cleaning one of the bathrooms started packing his case and of course after using loads of pills etc there is now more room in the case so should be no problem for when go home. With our plan to meet friends we are all now ending up in Santa Rosa beach for three nights for Brian and Sheila and four nights for us and so it should be a good time for chats.
We decided that when heading to Tallahassee it would be a good idea to do some last minute shopping at the Costco Branch there and I mentioned it to both other couples and so now we have a shopping list which is quite large and will probably take us a couple of hours to complete, but we don't mind. So by mid afternoon both cases were packed evening the overnight ones were nearly there and so all we have to do is add the jammies and washing gear and away we go and hopefully it should be a quiet day with a mid afternoon BBQ of Pork Loin Chops and then leave the Barbie to cool down and then give it its final clean. I am not sure if this is usual in the USA but it seems that people really don't clean Barbie’s except by scraping a rather crumby looking brush up and down the grill which can only add germs and not take them away. So when we first got here Noel spent about half an hour cleaning up all the bits that he could but some of it in the depths was to bad to even attempt but as those bits don't come in to contact with  food we had to leave it. Our UK BBQ outfits are always spotlessly clean and always following a party or whatsoever  the first thing we do is clean up..

Dinner tonight was a chicken stir fry with rice and then we finished the UK Detective series which attempted to prove a lot but actually seems to have achieved nothing. Whilst flicking through the Netflix lists we came across a film about the ‘Rolling Stones’ South America visit in 2016 and so we watched that for a while and it is very good and the director a Mr Paul Dugdale has made a number of films about pop groups including Coldplay and many others and is a very talented English guy who has won quite a few awards.
Oh well last full day tomorrow with final clearing up and possible start packing the car.

A complete day of doing almost nothing but laze around

When planning our last few days and knowing we would have to pack up our clothes and also clean the house and take all our bits and pieces away we decided that we would do this on Friday, tomorrow rather than having a busy day on Saturday and then a long day driving North. So as part of that plan Thursday would be a day in the sun buy the pool and we fully succeed in achieving this.
So what with the usual breakfast most of the day was spent relaxing by the pool and with the occasional burst of sitting in the sun to to[p up the tans before returning to the safety of the shade. During the day sent off a couple of Birthday wishes and also completed the letter of condolence to a ex colleague. Yes unfortunately another one bites the dust.
in planning our visit to Santa Rosa we asked our hosts if they wanted something from Costco Tallahassee and of course being Coscochololics ! a bit like us the list has grown a bit but no worries we have a large enough car, we hope.
For dinner we are finishing off the fish and prawns and together with a beer was nice. Watched an old BBC programme on an ex detective who runs his own investigation company where he is looking for a young girl who went missing in the early 70’ without any trace of her car or her body, quite interesting but they always keep repeating bits just to make the programme longer it seems. 

I wont mention the UK Parliament otherwise the blood pressure will blow the top of my head off I fear.

Oh well off to bed

Shopping and another quiet day

Needed some fuel for the car before we leave this weekend and so went to the garage nearest to us only to find they had run out. There is another garage with different brand but not sure the credit card trick will work and so will need to try again this Sunday when we leave here. We visited our local Publix Supermarket probably for the last time this year to purchase some basics which we will need over the last few days of our stay.
Not sure if I have mentioned this before but Publix, probably others, employ elderly and disabled people to assist packing of your food bags and helping you carry same to your car if you need help. This is a great idea as it give employment to the over 60’s and 70’s and sometimes 80’s also those in a electric wheelchair, one guy in his wheelchair was collection used supermarket carts in the car park to return them to the storage area. There is an added benefit is that they help speed up the bag packing process thereby reducing waiting time of those people in the queue. We also noticed that certain supplier, like Coca Cola and certain other suppliers come and top up the shelves of their products with their own staff which means the supermarket does not need to store any product as the main supplier come each day with own staff and do the job for them. Not sure of any UK supermarket chain using this method?
So we have enough stuff to last us until Sunday having worked out a daily menu and hopefully that's it.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing by the pool and enjoying the sun and in the evening spagbol for dinner followed by the remaining episodes of the series called ‘Delhi Crime’ and then early to bed.
On the political front I would say that Trump seems to have come out of this enquiry quite well although many democrats still cannot accept the Muller report, more fool them. And as for the UK PM and all the member’s of Parliament from all parties they should be fired for incompetence. I still cannot get over seeing the photos of Mrs May arriving in Brussels for important Country negotiations with a smile on her face and kisses and cuddles for EU Presidents etc, Mrs Thatcher would turn in her grave as she knew how to fight

Lots of doing nothing really

Quite a nice day today and the weather is fantastic and around 27 C and the pool around 32 C so really nice for swimming. Jennifer is still learning her crochet and Noel did some paperwork and then had a pleasant zizz in the afternoon ending with a warm swim and a BBQ of rib eye steak and salad.
I am, beginning to realise that unless I write this blog the next day one tends to forget what you did when actually you did no do much, maybe its a sign of age. The Osprey was whizzing about yesterday and lots of birds here which keeps Jennifer busy with her binoculars, the Lanai is great as it keep out any flies or mozzies etc but if you want to take a photo you need to go outside and so by the time you have gathered the camera and gone through the swing door the bird has usually gone somewhere else. Maybe I will just arrange to be outside with a sunshade and try and take some photos, we shall see.
We have only five nights left at the house and by pure chance our friends form New Zealand who have an RV in USA have arrived in Atlanta to collect it and may be able to meet us with our friends in Santa Rosa Beach next week but we will have to wait to find out as they may need to do some work on the RV, but we hope they make it.
On Netflix last night we started watching a series called ‘Delhi Crime’ which about the appalling rape of an Indian girl who subsequently died and the efforts by the police to locate and track down the offenders.Its a six part series and we watched three episodes it was so well done which meant a late night which I think I regret today. The story is so well presented but the police methods were something else, crime scenes walked on by anybody, they have a lot to learn. However we will aim to watch some more tomorrow night as it is really good TV although a very sad story.
And so to bed as we must do some shopping tomorrow to tide us over till the end of this week.

A slow news day in Rotonda West

Not much to report really, we did some much needed shopping but en-route took another look at the house we plane to rent next February and March, we cannot go inside as it is currently occupied, but just to get a feel for the place. The building plots seem larger in the location with a number of houses having double plots perhaps half an acre in size. It is only a three bedroom house this time but from the agents photos seems well decorated although we do understand that the pool is not quite so large as the current one.

So we spent a short while in Publix just topping up bits and pieces and now starting to work out what, if anything, we will have left at the end of the week as our last full day here is next Saturday the 30th March and we have to check out by 10.00 on the 31st March, give or take a minute. Last year Noel made a big mistake about the check out date thinking that the actual date was one day later and then at 0800 when making tea a further check was made and then all hell let loose as we had two hours to pack and clean the place. So we do not want to repeat this fiasco and so we will do most of the packing up and sorting out on this coming Friday and have a relaxed Saturday and then leave  the house around 10.00  and then start our journey to see friends in Santa Rosa beach arriving on Monday 1st April after an overnight stop in a hick-town called Perry.
We received a call from our New Zealand friends who have just arrived in USA and currently on the West Coast but making their way to collect their RV which is parked near Houston, I think, and they are heading down to Tallahassee which is about two hours from where we will be staying with our friends in Santa Rosa and so we hope to get together sometime before we leave for Orlando.
To finish the day we had a salmon salad and then watched the BBC detective series called DCI Banks which is quite well made if not a little violent in content. Oh well off to bed and its a bit warmer tonight.

Where is Guy Fawkes when you need him??

Well it was pretty quite today for us and it was getting warmer and reached 28 C and the pool reached 31 C where are the eggs???

Noel watched the football where England thrashed Montenegro 5 goals to 1 and unfortunately there was considerable racist comments towards some of the English players which I understand has been reported. In the evening a nice port stir fry and then a couple more episodes of DCI Banks prior to an early bed a some light reading before turning in.

During the day I had time to catch up on the UK Brexit stuff and it is quite despicable what the PM and Member’s of Parliament are doing by trying to hijack the vote of the people, I will never ever forgive them for this or vote again conservative, lets hope the Brexit party starts up and I will vote for Farage and hope that he starts to really implement what the people voted for. Perhaps we should ask for the opportunity to re do the last few years General and local elections or even ask Chelsea to play the Carabao cup again a few times so that they can win perhaps. Perhaps we could also have a another go at invading USA and have another go at resolving the famous Boston Tea party. Yes its quite ridiculous, who do these MPs think they are and I still don't have a reply from mine yet. Just wait till I get home.

And all the bulls**t about how we need green cars for car insurance and International driving licences etc, all EU citizens would need to do the same and they would object and so it would not happen, likewise the EHIC card which numerous Europeans take advantage of the NHS would be stopped and so the Europeans would cry foul and that would change as well. such utter rubbish. Time to stop before I blow up.

A day to relax in the sun

The sun was shining as we woke and soon after breakfast we were on the pool side enjoying the good weather. Jennifer has now finished her embroidery and is starting to relearn the art of crochet and so spent quite some time on this and the little piles of squares are slowly building, perhaps a blanket is in sight.
Noel finished one book and started another apart from the usual paperwork and blogs and watching how the rather stupid Prim Minister could not follow the will of the people and perhaps she could not the way out of a paper bag. Whether you are for or against Brexit people must stand back and look how the PM and all ministers have treated the British Public with complete disdain. We pay for the government in out taxes and there are our servants and should do as we wish and not what they want , do you remember the duck ponds and all the other crooked ministers all taking the ‘mick’ and still they do it. Perhaps its time for a revolution and brand new parties made up from the ordinary people and not the career politicians who don't care what happens as long as they have a job and recognised by the press, even the bent press who still make up the news.

Whilst typing this I understand that the Muller report exonerates Trump and his people, what a waste of 3.5 years of investigation caused by the democrats who so wanted to win they would use a dodgy dossier to stop him, they should be jailed for their wasting the peoples time.

Anyway, it was a nice evening and so we BBQ’d a few lamb chops, two each for dinner and the other’s for cold at a later day and it was nice to be at the BBQ as the sun came down.

A quiet day in Rolonda West and so time to reflect on our stupid politicians.

As the weather is a lot warmer today, after the cooler couple of days, and with all the rain on Monday the pool was little cooler and down to 25 C.
However with everything pretty much up to date Noel finished some blogging and photo uploading to Amazon Storage ( for extra safety) and then in the afternoon watched England beat The Czech Republic 5-0 so a satisfying match and certainly Southgate seems to be doing a good job, lets hope it continues.
Spent a little time reviewing the US Political situation with the Anti Trump Party (apparently called Democrat’s) and the main Trump Party which still seems to be pretty popular. The Judicial Watch Organisation ,You Tube and Fox news are full of the Deep State which support the allegedly corrupt Clinton’s and The Clinton Foundation is trying to bring Trump down. In football they say the best form of defence is attack and that is exactly what the Democrats are doing and quite frankly most of them are making a fool of themselves. JW ( Judicial Watch) has uncovered a load of extra previously unknown emails from the Clinton email scandal including some from Tony Blair which make interesting reading which HC sent from her Blackberry on a non secure email programme.
The Jeffrey Epstein Case is hanging in the background about underage girls and rich people with pictures of Mr Clinton, uhh, we shall have to wait to see if this is true.
Trump is also pretty pissed off as he allowed the organisation of a Military Funeral for ex Governor McCain only to find out that it was him that spread all this stuff about Trump on the famous dirty dossier written?? by a so called spy called Christopher Steele.
The Michael Jackson documentary is now coming under scrutiny as more and more people who knew him well are coming out in his defence and one of the biggest complaints is that the documentary maker did not at all question the accuracy of these reports so hardly a fair judgment. Its all about money which the two guys involved in the film say they are owed by the Jackson Estate.
Now with regard to the Government Handling of Brexit. The People voted and it is the duty of the Government to follow the wishes of the people and not that of their own interest. We pay our Taxes and the politicians are government employees and should do what they are told. I would not be at all surprised if Mrs May has been offered a lucrative job in the EU after this debacle as I cannot see any reason why she would not follow the INSTRUCTION of the people. The following pictures beautifully sums up our view of politicians.

Oh well enough of that and back to more mundane things like finalising the caravan insurance whilst yesterday we found the the travel insurance company has charged us twice, idiots but now thankfully restored.

Its market day again

Its amazing how Thursdays arrive one after another and it does seem like a week in between but that is what happened and the market is on today in Englewood and Noel wanted to get some photos.

So following an early breakfast, early for us that is, we left the house around 10.00 and drove the twenty minutes to downtown Englewood Old town where they hold the market and it was quite busy again. There is the usual range of stalls from fresh fish? to cheese and German food through to glass ornaments and even the local Democratic Party looking for people to sign up on one side of the road and on the other was the Republican Party. So we wandered around for about half an hour taking photos and then had a cup of iced tea and a cake in the local shop before heading back to Publix to for some shopping. Noel bought some Sushi for lunch which was quite good and then afternoon was spent with Jennifer reading and Noel catching up on Blogs and photos.
When travelling it is easy to amass a large amount of photos and particularly when filming flying birds and so set the camera to auto and it fires of as many photos as you like until you take the finger of the button, hence loads of photos and some of them need resetting but will leave this till I get home using my fast home computer and large screen so as to see what I am doing.
Noel went for his usual afternoon swim and the pool was a little cooler following the recent rain and cooler overnight temperatures and the water was down to 27 C from 32 C so we just have to swim a little faster.
After dinner we watched an updated version of the film called Papillion based on the exploits of a Frenchman in the early 1930’s who was sent to French Guiana Penal camp for a crime he did not commit. It was a hard film to watch but well done with a happy ending, well I say happy if you don't mind being locked up for years including at least 7 years solitary confinement and being beaten up by the guards and fellow prisoners.
And so to bed

An afternoon cruise on the Peace River

After a late breakfast and Noel made some sandwiches for our travels we departed the house around midday in the direction of Port Charlotte and then on to Punta Gorda which looks like very much a tourist area with a few Hotel and Resorts and the car parks were very full which was not what we had expected. After about 215 minutes driving in ever widening circles we eventually found a place to park and then walk back to the Fisherman Wharf to try and locate the Cruise Line office.

We wandered down a shopping arcade and whilst Jennifer checked out a swimsuit shop Noel waited outside looking after the bags and then along came a rather large couple with two dogs and both in fancy dress. The female dog I assume was wearing a purple dress whilst the male dog was being pushed in a child pushchair which is common site in this country and many people were coming up to the couple and swooning over the dogs. Jennifer returned from the dress and swimsuit shop where all the swimsuits bar one had the upper bra padding and the only one that didn't that she likes was not in her size. We found the little portacabin where the cruise line have their office and collected our tickets and say down to wait with quite a few other people, mostly with grey or no hair.
The boat left at 14.00 complete with a Captain and two crew plus an excellent Gentlemen Naturalist ( No not a naturist as he had his clothes on) who was to give a full explanation of our journey and what we could expect to see during our afternoon trip. We went under the two bridges and as the river go narrow you could see the mangroves taking over and the smell of methane gas wafting through the air whilst everybody in the boat looked at each other!. We visited two bird colonies which were islands and for security Alligators also hang out ready to catch a falling bird or anything that turn up. The Naturalist provided excellent descriptions of the birds and their habits which was really interesting and he interspersed this with a few bit of humour and its the first time for years that I have heard a commentator that we enjoyed listening to as he did not overdo it.

On the way back a couple of guys on jet ski’s tried to be cleaver and come racing up to the boat and swirled around to push water in to the boat but one of them made a mistake and crashed against the side of the boat and slightly damaging it  and it was lucky he was not hurt. The Captain was going ape at them and some of the words he sent in their direction will not be repeated here. However they will be reported by the Captain to the marine police or coastguard
As we were getting to the end of the cruise we were joined by about four bottle nose dolphins who played in the ships wash for about ten minutes before getting bored and clearing off. I was lucky to get some good video and will add to this if its not to large for Blogger.- which it was. So

a photo instead
By the time we got back to the car it was close to 18.00 and we decided to avoid the restaurants at the pier as they were jam packed and so we headed of a tried a chain of restaurant called ‘Beef O’Brady’s’ which is sports bar type place with lots of television showing baseball,American football etc. Jennifer had the fish and chips and Noel grilled shrimps which should have come with rice and broccoli but we the waitress checked and confirmed there was garlic in the rice and so that was replaced with some chips and bot of us enjoyed our meals.
We got home around 20.00 and watched part one of a series called Jack Ryan based  upon an ex Southern Irish Guarda (police) who turns private investigator but it was all a bit naff and so I don't think we will watch anymore.
Well that was enjoyable afternoon out and tomorrow morning we go to the Englewood market for Noel to take some photos as he forgot his camera for our last visit.

A really wet day and Boeing what are you doing?

Well it pretty much rained all day which meant that we had a quiet day doing odd jobs around the house, cleaning bathrooms and Jennifer did some washing, so a really exciting day!
Noel caught up with some paperwork and bills which always follow you around the world and also started reading more about the fateful Boeing B737-8 Max aircraft crashes and was not happy to learn that there seems to have been, possible malpractice between the FAA and Boeing to enable the manufacturer to certify its own aircraft.

Back in the Obama Government days budgets were cut including that of the FAA and so no doubt aircraft Safety and Cortication was getting slower and Boeing was getting behind its main competitor Airbus who were developing new aircraft. Boeing decided, it is alleged,  took a short cut by reusing the original B737 aircraft design but added new bigger engines which due to size had to be moved to a different location on the wing or they would scrape the ground but this changed the balance of the aircraft. To overcome this balancing problem which could make the aircraft to stall in a high rate climb they introduced a new software, which was suspect, and it would appear they did not really give Airline crew training on this.
The short training was a 45 minute briefing on an I-Pad which you could read, or not as the case may be, this method was to be used as it was cheaper for Boeing and Airlines than retraining all the crew who had been told that this aircraft was virtually the same as the original 737 and so no doubt some crews did look at it but just to make matters worse it was not in the aircraft handbook?
So the US Department of Justice has become involved to look in to this matter and find out if Boeing risked peoples lives by hiding a known fault. Lets see what happens.
In the meantime I have written to my MP Mr Philip Hammond to tell him that I am disgusted with the PM and Government about the handling of Brexit and  still waiting for a reply which I doubt will not happen as he is too busy trying to save his own skin rather than follow the wish of the people.

To end the evening we watched an old British film called, Death at a Funeral, great slapstick film directed by Frank Oz of Muppet fame.