As it was due to rain over the next couple of days we went for a drive along the coast through Gulf Breeze, Navarre, Fort Walton Beach, and Destin. It started out nice as we drove through Gulf Breeze....
but soon the mist and rain started and it made the rest of the coastal drive pretty miserable. We stopped at Eglin Air Force Base to check it out and drove up to Crestview to collect our mail. The rain stopped and it cleared up for our drive home. We drove alongside part of historical state route 1 and the old brick road.
The weather wasn't that good for our last few days in Pensacola and so we stayed in and around the house. Packing it up and getting ready to leave between rain showers.
The Australian Open starts tonight.... :) C'mon Andy, although not expecting too much. Just happy to see you playing again. Roll on Monday midnight CST when you play your first match. Why am I traveling on Tuesday???? Note to self, bad planning!!!!
January 13th
We left Pensacola today for an overnight stop at Tallahassee RV Park. We arrived at the park about the same time as 5 other rigs and there was only one lane in and out so we had to wait to get to our spot which was in front of the office. Eventually I got out and asked a couple of people in cars if they would let us through, in my nicest polite voice of course. They didn't mind at all. One thing about being an RV'er is that usually everyone is really friendly!!! We got parked, set up and took CoCo for a walk before the heavens opened up and it poured with rain. We were fortunate today to miss the rain as we were traveling.
We are now in the Eastern Time Zone, three hours ahead of Las Vegas and five hours behind the UK. I intended to stay up and watch Andy's match tonight but lasted until about 12:30am, it was 2-2 in the first set and I decided I had better go to bed as we have another travel day tomorrow. I recorded the match to watch in the morning.
January 14th
I got up and watched the rest of Andy's match which he won.
Today we have a long drive to Thonotassa which is North East of Tampa and we had a couple of problems. We started off with the fuse controlling the radio and cigarette lighters blown and after searching for it we decided to look for it later. We use the cigarette lighter socket to charge our GPS which gives us directions but hopefully it will be charged enough, if not we will resort to my phone or paper maps (perish the thought!!!) It lasted most of the way and we arrived safely.
Unfortunately we didn't beat the rain and had to drive some of the way in it, although it wasn't for too long. That was fortunate as one of our windscreen wipers stopped working. Bryan looked at it and determined that the grooves inside the arm were stripped out and we will have to get a new arm.
Luckily it was on the passenger side and so Bryan could still see to drive!!
We arrived at Happy Traveler RV Park in Thonotassa. We are here for a month. There are a lot of trees here and we were worried we wouldn't get a satellite signal but they told us we should do and once we were set up we got the signal straight away. I was relieved as I want to watch Andy Murray in the Australian Open and being here for a month would be difficult for us with no television as we have certain shows that we like to follow.
January 15th
Today was the opening day for the Florida RV Supershow that we wanted to go to. We knew we wouldn't be able to see everything we wanted to in one day and so decided we would go today and Friday to avoid the weekend crowds. One advantage of being retired, ha!! ha!! We got there and managed to get good parking close to the show. It was huge and we split our time looking around the booths where campgrounds were advertising their sites, and vendors were trying to sell their products, and looking around the numerous rv's that were on display. We split this up by sitting in on a couple of seminars and having lunch, which gave us some much needed rest. It was a good day. I set the recorder to tape Andy's match which was due to start about 4am tomorrow morning and went to bed.
January 16th
Got up at about 5am to watch Andy and found out the channel he was supposed to be on stopped at 4:30 and so it didn't record. Fortunately, because of the heat the matches had been delayed and he hadn't started yet. Unfortunately they didn't show all of his match which was a little frustrating. Still watched what I could and he won which was the main thing.
We had to go to Macdill Air Force Base as it was time for me to refill my prescriptions. It is about 35 minutes away from the campground although took us a while longer as there were roadworks. They have to transfer them from Davis Monthan which is the last base we were at and will call us when they are ready.
We also wanted to get a new phone for Bryan as his isn't working that well. He had selected the one he wanted and we are going to try the Straight Talk plan from Walmart. There were a couple of stores here that have it in stock. Unfortunately we went to both and they were both sold out. We looked at the other phones that were available but there wasn't much there so we eventually called it a day and came home. It was a little disappointing. We are going to look at ordering it online. We want to use the Verizon lines and so you have to get a phone that works with those. Once we get this, we will have one phone on Verizon and one on AT&T so hopefully that will give us a wider range and connection throughout the States. We also had to swop phone numbers as my plan is eligible for renewal and can be cancelled but his isn't yet. So, I now have Bryan's number and he has mine!!!
It was another exhausting day and not quite a s productive as yesterday but at least I ordered my prescriptions.
January 17th
Wow, another day at the RV show. Our feet don't feel as though they have touched the ground this week. It has certainly been hectic....
We looked around the other half of the RV's that we hadn't seen yet. There really wasn't anything that really amazed us. We still like our Georgetown. There were a couple of fifth wheels that had two separate living/sleeping areas and it would be nice to have a separate area for guests to be able to sleep but we will be sticking with Lily until we decide to stop traveling at least.
The weather was nice and when we got home I took CoCo for a walk and then we sat outside for a short while.
Andy was due to play about 10:30 tonight but didn't start until closer to midnight. I was going to stay up and watch but was so exhausted that I went to bed and recorded it.
January 18th
Got up and watched Andy's match. I have to watch the match before I see any news or hear what the result is or it spoils it. He won again which was good news as he was playing Feliciano Lopez who is a more difficult opponent. We saw Andy play Lopez in Los Angeles a few years ago and it went to three sets but Andy won. I also met Andy, got him to sign a shirt and had my picture taken with him.
Needless to say it was a wonderful weekend that I still vividly remember 3 and a half years later. Here are my pics from the archives of 2010.
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| Final Score |
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| Andy & Sue |
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| Pam Shriver interviewing Andy |
January 19th
We had another quiet day to rest our weary bones. As I say that I was reminded of one of the people who got on the shuttle bus at the RV show for a ride back to the car park on Friday. Him and his wife had hurried to get on the bus before it left. He had a stick and his wife got to the bus ahead of him and told us he would be there as quickly as he could. We could see him trying to hurry. As he got on the bus he just said "It sucks to get old" The bus filled with laughter as we could all relate to him. We were all exhausted from walking all day long and most of us were older. Bryan and I have often used this exact phrase as we sometimes feel limited in what we can do because of our arthritis and other ailments.
It is still wonderful though to be retired and able to explore this great country. To the younger people out there, make sure you do anything that you really want to do before you get too old and may not be physically able to.
Until next time, take care everyone........
Until next time, take care everyone........
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