Driving through Yellowstone on the Fourth of July may have not been our smartest move, but we started out early and was able to see quite a bit of the park. We are staying in Gardiner, MT and therefore are right next to the North Entrance. After checking out a couple of elk hanging out by the inn, we stopped at Mammoth Springs. It was … Continue reading Road Trip Out West: Yellowstone National Park-Day 1

We arrived in northwestern Montana during a cold snap. The highs each day have not reached 60 degrees. Since we are coming from Florida, this was a welcome change. I was excited to be able to wear pants and sweatshirts for a few days. Our first full day in town we decided to drive out to Glacier National Park. The weather forecast said it would … Continue reading Road Trip Out West: Kalispell, Glacier National Park, MT

On our way to Rapid City, we drove through Badlands National Park. Before you get to the park, you go by a place that advertises feeding the prairie dogs. Although we did not buy any peanuts to give them, we saw plenty of prairie dogs and were able to get very close to them for pictures. They are absolutely adorable. Our drive through the Badlands … Continue reading Road Trip Out West: Rapid City, SD (and surrounding area)

We finally got ourselves together and made a plan for our trip out west with Montana as our main destination. We left right before COVID exploded in numbers in Florida. We drove through Florida and Georgia and spent our first night in Chattanooga, a town I enjoyed from our last trip. The next morning we drove through Tennessee, part of Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri. We … Continue reading Road Trip out West: Slow and Steady through 12 states

We made a few stops on our drive to Huntsville. One was a tiny park with Coke Ovens and an outdoor amphitheater and the other was a terrible winery. We woke up early the next morning because we had a 10am ticket for the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. We first entered the museum section in which I wore my mask, but people were not … Continue reading Road Trip: Northern Alabama

As restrictions have relaxed in the south, Jef proposed a road trip. We were first going to rent a class C camper, but we decided to wait on that idea due to logistics of picking it up and where to park it, etc. We decided on a regular road trip in which we were picky about in which hotels we would stay and what activities … Continue reading Road Trip: Tennessee

On our second day, the cruise director announced that we would be unable to even put down anchor near the island due to the weather.  First of all, the only reason I heard this announcement was because I opened our door and stuck my ear outside. The inner cabins are devoid of light and sound. We could have slept through the whole day and never realized … Continue reading Stuck on the boat

I wrote some notes when we were on our first cruise together and thought I would share…even though I have no idea if anyone will be cruising anytime soon. We went on this cruise before there were any reports of Coronavirus in the U. S. I got a serious cold on the day we left. Was it the virus? No idea. I hope you enjoy … Continue reading First Time Cruise (February 1-8)

We spent our final day enjoying a couple of excellent bands (after a couple of hours enjoying the beach of course). The first band was Barefoot Davis on Sapphire Beach. There was a huge crowd on the beach due to the massive cruise ships in port yesterday. Barefoot Davis played mostly cover songs, but with his own twist, often changing words to reflect the atmosphere. … Continue reading Music by the Beach

Yesterday we went to a beach that used to have my favorite beach bar, Iggies. Jef and I went there the first year we visited and I remember lying in the hammock outside the bar while listening to the band play. They had a hook screwed into a palm tree and you had to swing a ring onto it. Everyone tried their luck and if … Continue reading Changes and Turtles