On the third John had to go to West Palm Beach for an appointment with our old doctor. He has been having some heart rhythm problems for the last few months and wanted to get this checked out. This is not a new condition, it has been occurring since he was 21, but it increased dramatically last fall while we were at The Ranch. In fact, John got a little concerned when the irregular beat reached every other heart beat last week and we took him to the ER at the hospital in Okeechobee. They hooked him up to a monitor, gave him oxygen and poked a hole in his arm for an IV. (they didn't use it). He sat in the ER for a couple of hours and then they kicked him out! Meanwhile, our friend Becky Hilliard, who is a nurse there, came in to give him a hard time. Also, her daughter in law, Kim came by. She was fairly surprised to see John sitting on the hospital bed there in the ER. Anyway, they told him not to worry about it. The doc in West Palm Beach said the same thing and wrote him a prescription for Beta Blockers. They have helped quite a bit and the occurrence of these old PVCs has decreased. So that is our big adventure for April!
While at Lakeport, we managed to get out in our new
boat a few times. Here is a pic of our second fish. Libby caught the first
one. These are the only two we caught this winter, so they each cost
us almost $5000. (half the cost of the boat) Of course, the very
first time the Fish and Wildlife Officer stopped us for a safety check.
We met lots of nice folks at the park and have decided to winter here in next season. The annual rate for a lease in this park is $1960. That is about two months rent for many parks here in South Florida. The park has a restaurant, a craft shop, a library, a nice pool and clubhouse and it is very cheap for this far south.
Here is a hyacinth that Libby thought looked pretty neat. It is growing
in Lake Okeechobee.
We visited with our friends from the Okeechobee area
and played golf at least once a week. It was good to get back on the golf
course regularly. John managed to break 100 for the first time in
several years. Playing frequently seems to help!
We both played the course in Clewiston late in the
month. The course isn't in very good shape. There were places where the
fairways had very little grass on them. It is a shame in a place where
the soil is so rich you can watch grass grow just by staring at it for
a few minutes! The greens were in good shape, but the fairways could
use some work. We much prefer the course in at the Okeechobee Country Club.
It is in the best shape we have every seen it. Apparently, they have
a new greens keeper and he/she is doing a great job keeping the course
in fine shape. We will probably join the CC next year when we go
back. We used to belong there when we lived in Okeechobee back in the early
90s.
We also went to the local Radio Control Club two Saturdays to watch them fly. John used to fly wire control planes, but this looks too cool. He will probably get a plane and join this club when we get back to the Okeechobee area next Fall.
We had to leave Lakeport on the 25th to go to Tampa and see our grandkids and their mom and dad. We went to dinner with Libby's brother and our sister in law. On Saturday the 27th, we volunteered to babysit for the grandkids. Two almost 4 year old twin boys and Julia, our 3 month old granddaughter. We had a great time, but were not unhappy to see mommy and daddy come back in the early evening. Our son in law has commented on the way out that they would try to be back in three or four days! Right. Kids are for young folks to deal with. Grandparents are for spoiling them and then moving on!
We stayed at the Encore Park Tampa East where we often stay when in that area. On Friday, we drove past Lazy Days to see if our friends Roger and Sally were there. In fact, they were, but we didn't see them. We found their Bounder in the campground but they were apparently off in a meeting for the rally they were attending. We did get chased down by Mary Williams who stopped to see us when we were in Quartzsite in January. She saw us drive in and followed us on her bike until we slowed down enough for her to catch us! It was nice visiting with her again.
On Saturday, we drove back to St. Petersburg (we were there on Friday too) to visit with the kids and grandkids. We told our daughter and her husband to take off and we would watch the twins and our new grand daughter while they had a date. As they left on son in law, Kevin told John that they would try to be back in two or three days. That scared us.
The boys were great. We watched a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine videos and went outside to swing for a while. Julia ate, slept and messed in her diapers. Typical.
Mom and Dad FINALLY got home about 6:30, we hugged and kissed and beat feet for the door. We won't see them again until November, so we are sure all the grandkids will change a lot in six months.
On Sunday, we packed up and pulled out, heading for Summerdale, Alabama and a reunion with our good friends Pappy and Cecile Doughty, from Blairsville, GA. On the way, we stopped at Campers World to exchange an item and a lady stopped John in the parking lot. She wanted to know if he was John Veach. She didn't look like the sheriff or the IRS, so he admitted his identity. She had been on our website frequently and also on the RV America BB, so she knew all the characters that we know. It was fun.
We headed up I 75 to U.S. 98 and then took off on the red roads. We followed 98 to 27/19 and followed 19 to I 10 at Monticello, FL. There, we stayed in the Tallahassee East KOA. Nice folks. Big pull throughs and convenient to travelers on I 10. The next day we headed west on I 10 rolling into Alabama about noon. We tried to get out of Florida before we bought fuel, but since we had not filled up since early March near Bradenton, FL and we had run the generator several hours while traveling to exercise it and run the roof airs, we decided our pocketbook could take the hit and filled up in Pensacola. It turned out that instead of the usual 20 or 25 cent difference in diesel, it was only about 2 cents, so it really didn't matter that we did not make the Alabama fuel stop!
We rolled into the SKP park at Summerdale on Monday
the 29th and settled in to wait for our friends.
Camping Fees for April $463
Diesel Fuel for April
$106.93
LP for April
$0
