Back at the marina and it has been a busy couple of days. We were able to get the hot water heater fixed. We managed to get the flow meter apart, cleaned, then put back together.......and "bingo!" we have hot water. The only problem is I don't think it is getting hot enough.....we'll see how the next few days go.

Last night we met with some fellow RV-Dreamers at an Olive Garden here in the Tampa area. It sure was good seeing everyone and we had a great time. One of the highlights of the evening was meeting "Filmore" Doug and JoAnn's poodle. He is such a character and it was clear he enjoyed all the attention from us. You can read follow Doug, JoAnn, and Filmore on their blog "Living Our Dream".

Going to be a busy day today. We will be getting ready and heading over to the RV show today. We have never been to the show here in Florida before and I'm looking forward to the day.

Today is moving day.....back to my Uncle's Marina in Tampa. Saturday and Sunday here at the park brought the coldest temps we have seen here in Florida. Saturday it never made it out of the 30's and we never made it out of the fiver. We were warm and toasty and only ventured out for the furballs to do their business. Sunday was about the same, but I think the temps reached into the 40's, but the wind was really blowing! We opted for another cozy day inside.

Our on demand hot water heater is still on the fritz so that will be our first order of business.... once we reach the marina. The first place Bill called no longer works on the units. I sure hope we find someone here in the Tampa area that can repair this thing.....I'm really tired of heating water on the stove! Check out here is 11am and I have a lot of things to do.....so have a good one everyone and stay warm....

Pelicans at the "Pier" in St Pete

Beautiful beach as seen from the top of Fort De Soto

Just been having too much fun.....even in these somewhat colder temps here in Florida. Last Wednesday we headed down to John's Pass. For those of you not familiar with John's Pass, it is a nice little touristy shopping district in St Petersburg. There is a nice boardwalk out by the water and lots of great restaurants. We did some shopping and Billy managed to find himself a pair of awesome flip flops. Too bad it is too cold to wear them at present. Next, we found this fabulous little herb, tea, and spice shop and purchased some great spices....now we just need to stay home long enough to try them out. We finished the day with a nice meal at Bubba Gump's Shrimp house!

Thursday we headed over to the Fort here in De Soto Park. Lots of interesting history there and as you can see a great view of the beach from the top of the fort. Next, we headed to "The Pier" in St Petersburg. Once again we found some nice little shops to peek around in. We had a map of the area with some coupons and I managed to find this quaint little restaurant called "The Garden". The coupon was for 1/2 off one meal. It was in an historic building and actually had a garden area where you could eat outside. To cold for dining under the big oak tree, but we had a cosy booth that overlooked the courtyard. The food was wonderful.

Friday....moving day! We are enjoying our stay here at the park so much that we decided to stay through the weekend. We did have to relocate to another spot....site 144 which is a nice pull through. We are having some problems with our on demand hot water heater....it ain't working! So, we are boiling water at present. We plan on heading back to my Uncle's Marina on Monday and hopefully we can find someone in the area to take a look at it before we start making our way to New Orleans!

Here we are at Fort De Soto Park and yes, we have internet! Our Verizon card is working great. Our cell phone is ATT and that signal is marginal, but it is there. The phone does show that it is also receiving a 3G signal, but I have not tried the internet on my phone as of yet. The above photo is of our campsite. You can see there is not a lot of width, but we have 3 slides and still have room to walk around in back. This particular site is about 60 feet long. The sites are rather close together, but you have a lot of foliage on either side for privacy. You might be able to hear your neighbor from time to time, but it is rather difficult to see them. Our site and the others we have seen are level and you will be sitting on some hard packed sand and crushed shells. The road back to our site was somewhat narrow and foliage on either side, but we made it just fine. Not all the sites are this large, so I recommend taking a look at the parks web site. From the web site, you can go into online reservations. There most of the sites have a photo and description. There are some pull thurs, but most are back in sites. This is a very popular place....so book your spot early!
This photo is of the shower and laundry facilities. You can click on it to make it a bit larger. There is one washer and one dryer located outside the building....$1.00 each. The biggest surprise I had was the bath house is 'open air'. There is about a foot gap between the walls and the roof. Guess we will not be bathing at the bath house, since the temps here have been in the low 40's and 50's.....brrrrrrr.......to cold for outdoor bathing!

There are waterfront sites, but they fill up fast. DH says one could probably put up a tripod satellite for tv or internet facing the gulf, but anywhere else and you are outta luck. We were able to pull in the major tv stations on our antenna.

Yesterday we walked down to the dog park and the dog beach. It was about 4 miles round trip, but there is a nice wide paved pathway for biking or walking. You can also drive and there is a parking area. The dog park has two large fenced in areas....one for small dogs and one for large. Just past the park is the beach area. Fabulous! Our dogs loved running free up and down the beach. They had never seen waves before so both of them were a little intimated by the movement of the water. Needless to say, we were all pretty tired by the time we were back at the fiver. Today we are heading over to check out John's Pass....a touristy shopping area. I was there many years ago and am looking forward to seeing it today. OK.....that is the scoop on De Soto park....any questions.....leave em in the comment section or email me and I will try to get back with the answers in tomorrows post. Oh yeah.....we are in site 125. This place is beautiful!

Wow! What a weekend.....the party just went on and on!

The party actually started the night before New Years Eve. The family was altogether at my Uncle's Marina getting it ready for the party. We set up tents......in case of rain, brought in food, set the tv in the gazebo for watching the upcoming games, and literally 'set the stage' for karaoke. My aunt has a fabulous karaoke system and we actually do set up a stage with lights and everything. She has two monitors....one for those on stage and one for the audience. She even provides costumes.....in the way of hats....for those that wish to sing in disguise......which is always a good thing! LOL!

New Years Eve Day the rest of our guest were moving in.....you see in order to attend the party you must spend the night at the marina. Both my Aunt and Uncle want to make sure everyone is safe. So, we have motorhomes, fifthwheels, toy haulers, boats, tents, and pop up campers......a regular camp ground. The weather that evening was perfect. We had a campfire, lots of singing, lots of drinking (which of course helped with the singing) and lots of fireworks. Although I generally do not drink....I did have my first shot that evening. Yes, I'm 52 years young and had never done "shots". Some friends had brought this board that looked like a ski, it had 3 shot glasses each about a 6 inches apart....we filled them with Tequila. I was on one end, my Dad was on the other, and a friend in the middle. Down it went.....and I was really surprised at how smooth it was....not bad at all. Apparently, we were drinking some really high dollar Tequila called Patrone. That went down so well that I ended up doing another with my brother......what a night! It didn't take me long to hit the karaoke stage....and no I'm not sharing photos...."what happens at the marina, stays at the marina"! Anyway it was a long evening, it was 3am when I finally fell into bed.

We were up by 7:00am....and breakfast was ready by 8am. A friend that attends the party always fixes breakfast for everyone the next day. We had bacon, eggs, and croissants....mmmm good!

The party continued through New Years Day.....Unfortunately the weather changed and it was cold and rainy. We still managed to have fun with a big campfire that evening. But....some of us were smart enough to go to bed early that night.....I was in bed my 8:30.

Come Saturday, most were packing up and heading home. Lot of hugs and goodbyes as we saw folks leave for home. We are here through Sunday, so we helped with the clean up. Sunday evening we attended an Open House for my cousin. He and his gal just bought a home. It was very nice, once again the party was on......eat, drink, and be merry.......my family knows all about that!!

We are heading to De Soto park today and we will be in site 125. So, please if you are in the area come by and say 'hello'. We will be there through Thursday, but please....no Tequila......LOL! I'm not sure if we will have internet or cell phone coverage....so if you don't hear from me for awhile....no worries....I'll be back and I promise to share lots of info on the park and photos!

I'm in recovery mode today......I'll tell you all about our New Years celebration, once my head clears a little. I hope everyone is having a great New Year.....

Yesterday, we went over to De Soto Park here in Florida. It is very nice park, but we could tell from the web site that some of the sites were small and tight. Since we are less than an hour away, we loaded up the furballs and headed over to see it first hand. Ended up we found a site that would accommodate us so we made our reservation for Jan 4 thru 8.

Tomorrow is travel day for us......yeah, gonna be on the road a whole 30 minutes....if that long. We are heading over to my Uncle's marina. We will be there for the New Year's festivities. I'm sure hoping the weather cooperates.....