Saturday

This morning we had breakfast at the café – you could have anything you wanted, as long as it was a combination of egg, sausage (sausage patti) and biscuit (scone!) and they all cost $3.00, sadly no beans for Ron (Ron’s favourite food), though there was TommyK , so Ron was moderately happy. We moved quickly into a Slow Jam (no marmalade) where we enjoyed ourselves playing with other people new to bluegrass. Here we met up with Sandy and Don, some friends we had met when we were at Arcadia in April, who had driven over form West Palm Beach that morning. After that Ron went to mandolin workshop and I went to a guitar workshop, very nice. This meant we got a quick bite to eat before the concert started ant 1.30. Some very nice music, although it was all bluegrass, each band showed a different aspect of it. One was very good at harmony, another was just very tight, and yet another band just had excellent lead instruments. (That was the people next door), so it was a fun afternoon. Carol sat outside the Trailer, which was parked all of 20 metres from the stage and read while she listened, we took our chairs and sat under the cover of the barn. Ron went right down the front, Sally and I sat in at the back, so that we could get quick access to the ice cream which was on sale. It was a lovely afternoon. Straight after that we went to a pot luck supper, with burgers and hot dogs provided by Seth and Roxanne. Then it was into another jam session, which was very relaxing. All in all, a great day. (although there was also the bit about being kept awake, which I have already mentioned and won’t mention again, although it did keep us awake until 2.00 and when Sally went to complain they just told her “That’s bluegrass Ma’am, that’s what you signed up for, that’s what we do.”).

Friday - Bluegrass - Here We Come

Friday we broke camp and set sail for Arcadia for aour bluegrass weekend with the SWFBA. We arrived and set up safely, we were in one corner of the field looking out over a pond and the local woodland. Friday evening we had a great time jamming with a number of people, Tom on a Dobro, Seth on guitar, Roxanne on double bass, Wendy on banjo, Betty on guitar, and some others who drifted in and out of the circle.

Saturday saw us rise nice and early, mostly because the people in the trailer next door woke us up with their noise, oh and by the way they had also kept us awake until 3.00 with their jam session (not too much fun there). Oh and by the way as a piece of anachronistic literacy, they also kept us awake until 2.00 on Saturday night drinkin and laughin and playin and havin fun. The people next door were the original backwoods boys who were called Bob-Billy and just lived to play bluegrass, drove pickups, drank beer and had girl friends called Ellie-May. You might have called them Hill Billies, except there are no hills in this part of Florida, and Flat Billies just doesn’t sound right. The trouble is, though that they were absolutely brilliant bluegrass players, and they were the number one band for the Saturday concert (perhaps they were Top Billies). On Saturday night Sally stood it until about 12.00 and then wnt out and suggested they be quiet, they said ‘no’. Sally didn’t get too angry, but they didn’t shut up either. Meanwhile Ron and Carol and I were hiding under the bed clothes (respective beds), because we had seen the film ‘Deliverance’ and knew better. (actually, I had seen the trailer for Straw Dogs and was even more worried) (Carol also wore a high necked collar all the next day, because here second favourite film is Dracula). I am digressing here, slightly, because I have written this on Friday night and that didn’t happen until Saturday night. (I did say it was anachronistic literacy). Any way we had a good time.

Thursday - A State Park Not to be Missed (Although we did)

Today seemed like a good day to visit a State Park to see the local wildlife. We chose Alafia River State Park, because none of us had been there before. We called in to see some ramps on the way, which meant that we did not arrive until lunch time. We saw the picnic benches and the sign for the State Park, so parked the car and chose our picic bench. However it was a bit like Custer’s Last Stand, as there were two men cutting grass. They chose to cut the grass round our bench as we were eating, so we sat munching away while the grass cutters went round and round the picnic bench, putting up clouds of dust and grass. The park looked a bit basic, but we were determined to enjoy our visit. We walked a little way along the river side, but it was very hot and we saw very little wild life. In fact most the wild life we saw was very little. We found a number of very interesting spiders, some were an inch and a half long, and we are talking the body length, not including legs, they were ugly. We also saw some interesting hairy spiders, they looked similar to tarantulas, but smaller. No we didn’t attempt t find out if they were poisonous.
As we were about to leave, slightly disappointed by the lack of facilities and information we saw a notice board that said the Alafia River State Park Visitor Center was 1¾ miles down the road – we had come to the wrong place. However the actual park wasn’t much better. When we got home we had a BBQ, very nice.

Wednesday - Celebrating a Ruby Wedding Anniversay

Another relaxing day, as BatesRV were sending someone round to sort out one or two of the problems with the van (nothing major, just niggling warranty issues). Carol and Ron spent a lot of time by the pool, we did a bit of tidying round and chatted t the bloke who was mending things. This afternoon we had a gentle wander round Brandon Mall, though there was not a lot there that was very exciting.

This evening we all went to Carrabbas, an Italian restaurant, to celebrate Ron and Carol’s ruby wedding (Sally and I had been waiting till we got on holiday to celebrate). It was meant to be a nice quiet evening, unfortunately the waitress was a real laugh and it got a bit noisy. It was an excellent meal. Ron and I had a steak each, Sally and Carol had a very nice dish of chicken stuffed with cheese, mushroom and Italian herbs. We followed this with some very nice puds. Overall we had a very enjoyable and memorable evening.

Tuesday – A quiet day by the pool

Today we set aside time to relax by the pool, the weather has changed and we are now blessed with clear blue skies and much lower humidity. Sally and I went into Tampa to pick up Sally’s new electric chair, which was very nice (red you may remember). The only trouble is that it will not move up the ramps we bought on Monday, so we are having a rethink.

This evening we have had a BBQ. It was a lovely evening, nice and warm, lots of candles to keep the insects at bay. The food was good, a glass of wine or a beer, then we all sat round well into the night, singing and playing the guitar, mandolin, harmonica and maracas. It was a quite special evening.

Monday - Once more onto the beach dear friends.

Good news. Today we have found a guitar for me, we have rented one from a music school. (£10.00 a month) and it sounds quite nice, basic, but nice.

Since we had to go to Sarasota to pick up some ramps for Sally’s chair we thought it would be nice to go to the famous beaches there.

The beach is a huge sand spit about 20 miles long, made up entirely of white sand .

We found ourselves a nice quiet beach on Longboat Key and set up the chairs and umbrella.

Because I was not sure of the local swimming conditions (red tide, jellyfish and rip tides) I thought it would be good to ask a local, so I trudged along the beach about 150 yards to the closest sun worshiping family, unfortunately they were from Iceland.

No worry, a family was coming down the beach, I asked them, unfortunately they were from Peru.

No matter, there were a couple of beachcombers approaching from afar, dark brown and very local looking, so I waited for them to come past and asked them about swimming conditions here. They unfortunately were a German couple who were enjoying the lovely beach.

At this point I thought “*** it” and threw myself into the sea, which was lovely, clear and warm. Ron came for a swim as well, keeping a wary eye out for sharks (he is convinced that sharks lurk in every stretch of sea water).

On our way back we stopped for a meal at an Amish Style Restaurant, although the surroundings were very nice the food was a bit average. Then we drove back over the Skyway Bridge to Tampa – this is a huge bridge several miles long. We caught it just as the sun was setting, it looked fabulous

Communications Update

We have the internet until at least Friday, so you can talk to us, or webcam, through our hotmail email address (either Terry. Or Carol).

We now have Terry’s phones working – we will email the number soon, but it has not changed from earlier in the year.

Carol’s normal phone can receive texts. Though that may be an expensive option.

You can of course leave a message on the blog.

Fogger?

I hear you ask what is a ‘fogger’. After a while one gets so used to the technologies available that you use jargon without even thinking about it.

We have found that there are at least 4 different ways to get rid of bugs etc.

First what sort of bugs are there?

• Fire ants – medium sized, but very nippy (literally), live in a hole in the ground and you don’t want to step on the nest.
• Sweet Ants – almost microscopic, seem to be mostly harmless (though someone said that about The Earth once), but annoying because they are there in strange places.
• Grease Ants – don’t know (don't want to know) what they are, but I’ve now got the poison to get rid of them.
• Cockroaches – Don’t bite, but they are ……. Well, cockroaches. Yuk!
• Fruit fly type things that get in and produce loads of little fruit flies and eggs and things.
• Fleas – quite common, but we haven’t had them…. Yet.
• Chiggers (pron. Jiggers) little tiny beasties that bite and hold and then lose their head – in you.
• Moths – they just reproduce and caterpillars eat anything.
• Hornets – really nasty, huge, waspy things with dangly legs, that make you duck as they come flying by. They build paper nests anywhere.

Well that will do for the moment.

Getting rid of them.

1. Long term: Bait stations, little plastic boxes with poison bait in them, the bugs come and take the food back to their nest and it kills the bugs, including the queen.
2. Short term – Raid spray, or Go Bug spray – shoot and kill, spray and they die – they can kill a hornet at up to 30ft!
3. Drastic – The Fogger. Sometimes called a bomb. An aerosol spray tht you place in a room, seal it up, pull the pin and retire quickly. Leave it alone for 6 hours and then flush away the gas. Kills almost anything in the room, under carpets, in crannies, or cushions. Seems very effective (at least on the ants in our truck.
4. The Final solution – The Rolled Up Newspaper.

Sunday

The plan is to chill out a bit today. Carol is off to a local church this morning, she is really interested to see how it is different to the church back home.

Carol has been a bit upset as we found a creepy crawly in the trailer, but she was the only one to be bitten by it (privilege I would of thought).

On Friday night we put a ‘Fogger’ in the truck to finally eradicate the ants. It seems to have done the job. Even out here people have been surprised that we had a colony of ants in the car, as they seem to think that ants don’t drive.

Ron and Carol chilling by the pool

Bluegrass Part 2 - Saturday

We planned to return for the second part the next day. First we had a look for a guitar for me (Terry) to keep in the States, we had time to look in one hop, saw a couple of guitars, but nothing that was right. Then we travelled back to Largo to enjoy the Bluegrass and crafts. The music was good. Sally and Carol bought a couple of bits from the craft stands and we all went to Denny’s for tea. Carol and I managed a swim in the pool, nice and cool.

This picture shows Ron watching the Bluegrass band 'Bits of Grass'