January 27, 2013

01/20/2013

Last week Joyce and I welcomed Bob "Snakeman" Schnake for a visit.  Bob and I served in the 604th Military Airlift Support Squadron at Clark AB, Philippines in 1974 and then again at Travis AFB, CA as flight engineers.  Bob was in the 86th Airlift Squadron and then went on to fly C-130's at Yakota AB, Japan.  Bob and I had a great time catching up on the "good ole days".

On Thursday we drove over to Weeki Wachee to visit our friends Rodney and Susan Ziehr at Cody's RV Park.  You might remember that we volunteered at Cody's during  the winter of 2008.  Rodney and Sue have been going to Cody's for several years and are back there again this year.

On Friday we went down to Tampa and took in the Tampa RV SuperShow, the granddaddy of all the RV shows in the country.  If you can name it, think it or just dream about anything to do with RVing, it's there.  The show takes up the entire Florida State Fairgrounds so if you want to see everything, you should plan for more than one day.

If any of y'all have an extra million or two laying around gathering dust, I sure would like to have one of these:  http://www.libertycoach.com/available-coaches/2014-Liberty-Coach-Elegant-Lady-759 or maybe one of these:  http://www.marathoncoach.com/gallery/index.cfm?coach=1193&contemporary
All of the major manufacturers were in Tampa and from what I saw, they seemed to be doing well.  I did hear one of the vendors who was selling furniture, that this show was the worst he has had in several years.  However, you wouldn't know that if you visited the Camping World Store.

01/26/2012

On Tuesday we drove down to Orlando to meet up with Gary and Marsha Stevensen of Oakridge, OR.  We had a beautiful room at the Armed Forces Recreation Resort, Shades of Green, located in Walt Disney World.  They are in Florida to take a cruise out of Tampa.

View from our room.

 

Shade of Green.

On Wednesday we met Gary and Marsha at Universal Studios Orlando where we toured several parts of the park including the Harry Potter village.  Now I know what the Harry Potter rage is all about.  I just might read the books.

Enjoying a little refreshment.

The next day we drove up to Orlando to visit our friends Ron and Kattie Cutler from Payson, UT.  We volunteered with them at Vail Lake Resort in Temecula, CA a few years back and they are in Florida visiting family.  We had a wonderful time "catching up".

Out for supper with Ron & Kattie.

Ron is into making knives, some of which he brought with him.  He does some fantastic work and of course, I had to get two of them.

My new knives.  Beautiful!

Have you seen the Alfred Hitchcock film, "The Birds"?  Well, they left Bodega Bay, CA and transplanted themselves to Anastasia State Park.  Well, maybe just one.  Anyway, there was one little guy who flew out of the tree directly behind our rig, landed on the ladder, saw his reflection in our rear picture window and either was mad at what he saw or, had romance on the mind.  Then, he attacked!  The window...a lot, numerous times!  In fact, this went on for a couple of hours driving Joyce to the point of murdering the poor creature.

After it got dark the "Rage of the Crazy Bird" stopped, only to begin anew at the break of dawn.  At this point I was thinking of borrowing my neighbor's 12-gauge shotgun and sending him to Bird Heaven.  But, here is what I did to stem any more attacks on us:

Barry's Bird Attack Repelling Device, 1 each, Spec No. BarryJan2013BagDucktape

Take that bird!  Ya think we might get some reactions from other drivers if we ran down the road with this on the ladder?

That's all for now folks.

Barry & Joyce

Jan 12, 2013

01/10/2013

Happy New Year everyone!  Joyce and I wish you all a very prosperous and exciting 2013.

On New Years Eve Joyce and I went to the Elks Lodge for supper and some dancing.  The dinner was good but the guy doing the singing wasn't.  We were hoping that they would be doing some boot-scoot'in music but he was doing 50's and early 60's stuff.  We left early.

On the 3rd, we drove down to Patrick AFB to spend the night on our way down to Miami for our 3-day cruise.  Patrick has some really nice quarters and also retirees can dine in their dining hall which has really good food.

The next morning we got an early start and arrived at the parking lot around 10:30.  It was just a short drive from there over to the Royal Caribbean terminal where we boarded the Majesty of the Seas.

Majesty is one of the oldest ships in Royal Caribbean's fleet and is much smaller than the other ships we have sailed on before.  You can actually walk from one end to the other in about three minutes.

Our first stop was at RC's private island, Coco Cay on the north end of the Bahamas.  We decided not to even go ashore here and we were rewarded with the ship almost to ourselves.

That evening we went to the Top Tier Reception for Platinum and above members.  The captain (who is only 30 years old) presented a talk about the history of Royal Caribbean and what is in store for the future.  Two new Oasis class ships are going to be built starting next year.  Additionally, RC has decided to build a new Sunshine class that is going to rest between the Oasis class and the Freedom class.  During the reception we heard an emergency alarm being announced which got everyone's attention.

During dinner, the captain told us that because of a medical emergency we were not going to be spending the night at Coco Cay but would leave immediately for Nassau. He also said that anyone who would like to go ashore to enjoy some evening entertainment in Nassau could do so after clearing customs.  Joyce and I elected to stay on the ship.

The next morning after breakfast we hit the town of Nassau.  The area around the cruise ships is all about shopping for jewelry, jewelry and more jewelry.  There are a few shops selling t-shirts, hats and other junk and also a few clubs.  In Nassau if you want to do some really serious sight-seeing you will need to book an excursion on your ship or do some research about how to get around in the area.

After walking around for a while, we got in a taxi and headed over to the Atlantis Resort on Paradise Island.  You've probably seen the commercials about this place on TV but you really can't really see how big this place is from them.  It's huge!  And to stay here will cost you a huge dent in your checking account as well.

We had heard about the aquarium here so we decided to check it out.  We paid $40 each but it was worth that price.

After doing that, Joyce wanted to make a donation in their casino so I went back to the ship.  She stayed and actually won $120.

Nassau from the ship

The Masonic Lodge is the yellow building with white trim.  Since it was Sunday the Lodge was closed.

 In the background, there is a new hotel/casino being built.

 Atlantis

At Atlantis.  The "bridge" is actually a 5000 sq. ft. suite.  $25,000 a night!

Some thoughts about this cruise:
1.  A 3-day cruise is just too short.  By the time you figure out the lay of the land, it's time to get off.      Minimum for us is 5-days.
2.  The Majesty of the Seas is small so some of the cabins are small as well.  We like the medium size ships like the Jewell of the Seas.
3.  DO NOT use Primer Parking in Miami!  I won't go into the details here but rest assured, you will not like what will happen when you get back into port.
4.  The easiest way to do sight-seeing at ports of call is to book excursions with your cruise line.  However, they are usually expensive.  With some research you can get all the information including downloading guides and brochures.

OK, that's enough for now.

Barry & Joyce