We have Scooters!!!

The latest addition to the Adventure is our Scooters!
As you know here in KW parking is an Adventure so the locals get around by walking, riding a bike or a scooter. Of course with us it has to be scooters! We have parked the car and it already hasn't moved for a week and it has been 3 weeks since I have driven a car. We are truely becoming a KW local.

Anyone can drive a scooter without a motorcycle license as long as the motor is 49cc or less. It is hard to imagine Tom riding anything that has only 49cc but it is TRUE!

We went over to Andy's (one of the local scooter shops) and came home with 2 new scooters. They are both TGB (Taiwan Golden Bee) with Tom's being a red R5 Laser and mine is a yellow Key West. TGB sold so many of these scooters in KW that they actually call one of them by the city name.

So we went to the scooter shop to get just one scooter to try it out and see what we would use. Somehow we came home with 2 of them which was an Adventure in it's self (since you know our shopping habit you know it is no surprise we came home with 2 even though the plan was for 1).

It has been YEARS since I have driven a motorcycle and so I had a little trouble getting the hang of it after we left the scooter shop. 2 parked cars were barely missed in my lack of being able to make a left turn! I finally made it back to the house (had A LOT of beer) and vowed to master the yellow beast. The next few nights (late at night when there was little traffic) we toured around the neighborhood until I got the hang of it. No, I am not an expert but I can get to where I need to go and back.

Tom of course was a natural! He rides his each day to the boat yard. You will not be surprised that he is already planning on how to make his scooter go faster. That is why we were only going to get one when we went to the scooter shop. I was not convinced that he would be OK with a scooter and not want a larger bike. He has his motorcycle license since he was able to get it when we got our FL drivers license so he can get a larger bike without a problem.
Anyway we have already been back to Andy's to talk to the mechanic about what Tom can do to make his 'go faster'. There is only so much that can be done with the 49cc motor! At this point Tom has to wait until his bike has 500 miles before he can do anything. Since it only has 40 miles on it in the last week he may have to wait MONTHS before he can start tweaking it! We shall see if he can wait the 500 miles or if a large bike will be in his future.

So we are now KW scooter kids as the Adventure continues!

The Adventure According to Dyna

We thought we would pass on the Adventure as seen through Dyna's eye's.

Let's start at the beginning, weeks and weeks ago... it appears we are moving AGAIN! The human parental's are doing a lot with boxes and that thing I hate the most - a noisy, obnoxious, 2 wheeled contraption (the hand truck)!!

Then what is with all of these boxes and packing. I HATE it! The human parental's are so noisy and LOUD about it with the discussions of what will go in the boxes and what won't. Why all this noise and confusion. Why not just pack up some food and water and head out, I don't get it at all!

It has taken me months to get adjusted to this place and I can't believe we are moving again. Oh well, as long as I get to go along.......

After all of that they put me in the car with the 'others' in the family pack (I love car rides since the car takes me to the park for walks). I do love these 'others' but they just don't seem to understand that in the pack hierarchy they are beneath me (that would be Taryn and Brandon)! By the end of this ride I am sure I will have them convinced of their place.

We spend days and days traveling to who knows where! I have adjusted to the fact the 'others' expect me to pee on demand whenever they stop the car. Most of the nights have been spent in strange places that have a lot of new smells. There was also this small room that moved when the door closed (an elevator) that I am not crazy about. We had more than 1 of them that I had to go into and once I almost got caught in the doors that close without anyone around them. I am glad that there isn't one of those at my new house.

The best place we stayed had a room high in the sky with a great window where I could look out 0n the pretty lights (the 13th floor of the Loew's hotel in New Orleans).

My next favorite place had a great bed with a big window looking out over a pretty garden and lots of grass to play in. The parentals and the 'others' kept going in and out all the time which interrupted my naps (riding roller coasters at Universal Studios). The naps were greatly needed after so much time in the car. It is hard to get a good nap with all that goes on when traveling.

At last we have arrived at what appears to be my new home. The boxes have started to disappear, things that have a familiar smell have appeared and I have a doggie door to come and go as I please, so this must be the place. So far I like it. A little to windy for me but overall a great place. My favorite thing is the front porch and yard. It isn't a large area but I LOVE all of the people who come by to visit me. This is the most friendly place we have ever been! (The pictures show Dyna as she is every afternoon, looking for people who walk by to pet her. She is also greeting Tom as he returns from the boat yard.)

There are a couple of strange things in this new place.

First there are LOTS of cats who continually taunt me outside the front yard fence. I am not sure why there are so many of them and why they won't go away.

Second are these strange noisy, feathered creatures (chickens and roosters). I have never seen such an animal and we seem to always come across a few of them on our walks. I don't understand what they are.

So for now I am settled in and happy in the new home just as the parentals are!

Hopefully my Adventures have come to an end!!!!!

Meet the Neighbors

The latest part of the Adventure is getting to know the neighbors. Ours are very interesting and with the close proximity that we live you get to know them VERY quickly. Remember this is an island that is only 4 miles long and 2 mile wide (with 25,000 residents) so closeness is a way of life!

To the North of us is the set of what I call the Daily Neighbors. These are the people we see EVERY DAY and have learned much about their lives already. On that side of our house there is an access way to the houses that are in the rear of these 2 lots (see the picture and our house is on the left).
We have 1 house behind us and there is another house behind the 2 story 4-plex next door. So in this area where we were used to it being us and 2 neighbors there are 13 of us (think of 13 people on 2 FH lots)! This has been interesting for us since this time of year is when we sleep with the windows open..... we now know more about our Daily Neighbors than we thought possible! When they leave, when they come home, when they walk the dogs, when they have been drinking, who has friends over and so on.

Who are the Daily Neighbors......
The house that is behind us has a mother, Karen, and daughter, Susan. They run the KW Wildlife Rescue Center. To say the least things are never dull there! Permanently they have 6 dogs and an attack parrot. Yes an attack parrot! Ricky only likes Karen and Ricky goes everywhere with Karen, riding on her shoulder. If you walk to close to Karen you will get BIT! Their dogs range in size from a miniature dachshund to a german shepard. Then of course there is a temporary animals they bring home when they have to have overnight care. They are all quite a menagerie!

The 4-plex has 2 condos in the front and 2 in the back.
The bottom front has Bill and Susan. If they are not at work they sit on their front porch each morning and evening so we talk with them a lot. They are the resident pet sitter since they currently don't have any of their own. If you want to know whats going on with any of the Daily's then you check with them.
The top front is Jaime who has a black cat named Jazz.
Bottom rear is Jane and Paul. They have 2 dogs, Spike who is a labradoodle and Max who is small and fuzzy.
Top rear is Karen and Dwight. Karen does freelance design so she works from home like me so I see her a lot. They have love birds that I hear each day.

The rear house behind the 4-plex is Tony and Kristy.

Every other Thurs the Daily Neighbors get together and have a BBQ potluck in the access way between the houses. Karen (who lives behind us) is the organizer and Susan communicates the info when you pass by her porch. Last Thursday we had the pleasure of attending since it is DIRECTLY outside our side door. A temporary fence is put up across the access way so that our pets can attend (yes there were 6 dogs and a parrot included) which Dyna loved since she attends too. The shared BBQ grill (which is also DIRECTLY outside our bedroom window) is opened up, someone brings a table, we all bring our chairs and whatever we are drinking along with what food we want to share. They also invite others from around the block so Joe (who lives a block down) was also invited. It was a great experience and one that we will do again.

To the South of us is an empty house so no neighbors there. In fact it looks like the house is going to be condemned. That doesn't mean it will be since many of them look that way but at this time there is no one on that side. They are building a new house in the rear of the site so I get to hear constructions sounds each day when I work. It is not uncommon to have 2 houses on the same lot due to the limited amount of land.

Across the street and East of us are 2 very different houses. One is very well kept up and the other is not. Both of them have families living in them where the grown children are living with the elderly parents. There is a very nice elderly lady that sits on her front porch every morning and evening. She waves to me when I come out to sit on ours.

So that is what we know of the neighbors so far who are becoming KW friends and the Adventure continues!!!!!

Tom's Has Entered Slavery!

Big News! Tom has officially entered Slavery! Yes he has started a job with Mel Fisher.

Currently there aren't any open positions for a salvage diver. Both of the boats already have a full set of divers. One of the boats, the Dare, is in dry dock being worked on and they need help with getting it ready to be out to sea in a month. He has hired on to work on the boat until that work is done and then will be next when a diver position opens up.

Today was his first day at a new job in 30 years. It was a lot like sending your child off to kindergarten on their first day. We made sure he had the right clothes to wear, packed his lunch and sent him off to the boat yard. We were both nervous when he left.

Eight hours later he returned. I was setting on the porch having a beer (it is a daily routine for the neighbors to hang out on their porch in the afternoon since the weather is nice) when he came dragging his tired, painted body (yes he had white paint everwhere) to the closest chair he could find. The look on his face was PRICELESS! All he could say was "what have I gotten myself into". Tom had spent the day in the bottom of the boat painting the engine area, yes that is what he did all day! 8 hours of paint fumes and small spaces since every nook and cranny in a boat has to be painted (and it is not all done yet). I could see that he was amazed that he had left the vendor lunches, golf outings and 'unlimited vacation days' for All of This!

So this is not exactly the job he was looking for but at least he has gotten his foot in the door and is paying his dues (major manual labor) until he can hunt treasure.
Tomorrow we will pack his lunch and in keeping with the Adventure it is back to the engine room......

The Art of On Street Parking

As you know we don't have any parking at the house, no driveway, garage or anything of the sort (Tom does miss his garage!). This has proven to be an Adventure in it's self.

First let's understand how the parking works......
All of the street parking is marked with lines so you can tell if it is Scooter parking, Residential parking, Handicapped parking or Open for anyone.
On our street we have NO Open for everyone spots. All of them are marked Residential or Scooter with 1 Handicapped. In fact we have to go more than 3 blocks and there are only 2 Open spots (which are always taken).
Of course the parking is first come first serve and with the number of scooters people drive they just park their cars and leave them for weeks in the same spot. Usually only driven when they have to.
Also remember that our street is narrow and one way so it only has parking on one side.

So that brings us to parking our car. Now we currently don't have FL plates. We are working on that but somehow in the move we lost the title to the Murano so now we are trying to get a duplicate title (with the help from Shirley and yes this HAS NOT been fun doing it long distance).
Without a standard FL plate or a residential parking permit (without a title we can't get either one) we aren't supposed to park in a Residential space but since there are no Open spaces it has been a full time job looking for a spot to park and then when one opens up close to the house moving the car so that we do not get a ticket. We have already had NUMEROUS notes left on the car about not being allowed to park in ae Residential space. People think we are tourists so it happens a lot.
Parking is taken VERY seriously here. Yesterday someone parked and overlapped the scooter parking in front of our house. It created quite an issue and the parking police was called to ticket the car!

To add to the fun these spots are all small parallel spots. Now you can just imagine me trying to back the Murano into one of these spots when both front and back spots are full. I will tell you it DOESN'T happen! I have been known to park many blocks away just to get a spot I can get into. To say the least Tom doesn't let me drive if he doesn't have to.

Then there is the Unloading Sprint and Relay (a new Olympic sport coming soon). This is when we have been some where and need to unload the car since we have NO idea where we will park. Due to our narrow, one way street you can stop and unload but it has to be quick if cars are coming. You should see Tom and I's latest speed round. We are getting it down to a science!

I tell you now there is a scooter in our very near future since there is Scooter parking in front of our house!

WE HAVE ARRIVED!!!!!!

We finally arrived around 3:30 pm on Friday afternoon. It was a long 8 hour day of driving but worth it! We had to park down the street about a half a block (remember only street parking) to unload the trailer and then were lucky that we were able to get the truck into the small access space beside the house. Of course it was 85 degrees with a bit of humidity but we had it all unloaded by 5:30pm and the trailer back to the Uhaul place just before it closed.
With doing the unloading so fast we had boxes EVERYWHERE!!! First things first, we had to find the beds and get those together so we could at least sleep. We found everything for the guest bed so the kids were set. The master bedroom set was another matter.... it took awhile and we found everything except the mattress pad, that wasn't found until today!

Saturday was spent with trying to organize and spend time with Taryn and Brandon in Key West. It was quite a Saturday night when they finally found a great place to get the tattoos they have always wanted, Taryn got a lily on her ankle and Brandon a cross between his shoulder blades. They look great!

Another Adventure came on Sunday when we got to the airport and found out that the kids missed their plane... guess what.... we didn't change our clocks for day light savings time! We had been out of touch with not having any TV or Internet since Thurs night and of course aren't used to doing the time change thing. What a shock that was!!!
So off we went to Ft Lauderdale to get the kids to their next flight. From KW you usually have to fly to Miami, Ft Lauderdale or Tampa. We were lucky that the kids had a 4 hour layover in Ft Lauderdale so off we went at record breaking speed. The trip can take up to 4.5 hours but we were luck since it was early (and Tom was speeding) that we made it in 3.5 hours. They got to their flight and made the rest of the trip home without a problem.
Of course Tom and I had the trip back to KW so we spent another 4.5 hours in the car (just what we wanted to do after the miles drive in the past week). The traffic was heavier on the way back so we didn't make as good of time.
This resulted in a day lost but a lessoned learned - we are East Coasters now!!!

Then we came to Monday... cable and internet day (finally access to the outside world)!!!! Of course the cable guy was late (this is KW) and had problems with the hook up so it took 3 hours! By the time that was done there were other things to do (on the To Do List of course) so I didn't even get a chance to log on until today.
While all this was going on Tom was off with the Mel Fisher guys at the boat. No job yet but things are still in the works!!
When Tom finally got back we were able to get the furniture set up and a few boxes unloaded. The living room/ dining room/ office area almost looks like a truly livable space!
Of course no new place is complete without a trip to Home Depot. The house is a rental and older so there are a few things that we need to do to make it our own but that is all part of the Adventure (and Tom's very long To Do List)!

There are more Adventure and Blogs in the works as we settle into island life so stay tuned.....

Rollers Coasters and more Roller Coasters

Our days of adventures at Universal Studios has come to end today. We have spent the last 2 days riding roller coaster after roller coaster after roller coaster and it was a BLAST!!!

Also note the t-shirts that Taryn and Brandon are wearing in the picture. It is the pirate t-shirt that is shown in the 1/30 blog. We all had them for the first day at the parks and were referred to as the pirate family!

Universal Studios has 2 theme parks, Island of Adventure & Universal Studios.
Island of Adventure is mostly rides and has a lot of roller coasters & water rides. Taryn & Brandon's favorite was The Hulk and Tom & I's favorite was Dueling Dragons - Fire.
There were also 3 water rides which we got soaked!
Universal Studios is based on the movies with rides and adventure shows. I found that I am a horrible shot when shooting Aliens during Men In Black while Brandon had the highest score of the 4 of us!

We have stayed at the Royal Pacific Resort which is a Universal Studios resort that is right by the parks. It is a beautiful place and the close location has allowed us to enjoy the parks while being able to spend time with Dyna.

We have also had more than our share of great food and drink. There are lots of places both at the resort and the parks to hang out which has been great to hang out and relax after our days on the road.

EARLY tomorrow we head out to Key West!!!!!
It is a full days drive and we want to get an early start to get in and get the truck unloaded as early as possible. It is also supposed to rain tomorrow so that may result in another adventure. We won't have internet access until sometime Monday when the cable installation is done so it will be a few days until the next update......

4 Days Down .......

We have now completed 4 days of the road trip Adventure!

Day 3 was spent traveling from Houston to New Orleans. We left Houston early Sunday morning which was a good thing with all the freeways and more freeways that we had to navigate through. Once out of the city and in LA there were bridges, bridges and more bridges. One was 18 miles long that went over a swamp!
We were on the road for 7 hours and covered 322 miles.
At last we landed in the French Quarter...... imagine the Arizona Hillbillies meets Nola. Yes it was as if Tom was reincarnated as Jed Clampett when we pulled up in front of the hotel. The picture above is a view from across the street. It was a HOOT! The hotel agreed to park the truck for us but had problems finding a place for it. It sat outside the hotel for 3 hours before they could move it. I am sure they were THRILLED with that.
The evening was spent walking Bourbon St, eating at Acme Oyster House, drinking 151 Pina Colada's and doing the Vampire Walking tour. We had a great time!

Day 4 we left Nola and headed for Tallahassee (after sleeping past 6 am for the first time). The I10 route took us through 4 states and more bridges over swamps and rivers. It was an uneventful day but seemed to be a long one for all of us with being on the road for 8.5 hours and covering 380 miles.

Tomorrow it is off to Orlando for 2 days of roller coaster fun!

Total miles covered = 1871

2 Days Down....

As today closes we have completed 2 days on the road with Adventures!

Day 1 started early with us getting out of Phoenix at 5 am. We stopped in Las Cruses for lunch with my Dad which was good. Then the Adventure started. After we left Las Cruses we got to El Paso and there was an accident on I10 which caused a delay. We sat on the freeway for an hour and then led us on a short detour since they closed the freeway.
I had also pulled a muscle in my back while moving the day before so I spent the day on muscle relaxers and basically missed the day. I tried to help drive but was pretty much a waste. Tom had to do most of the driving.
We finally arrived in Ft Stockton TX at 9:30 pm. We were all so exhausted that we went had dinner out of the vending machine at the hotel and went to sleep.
Day 1 ended with covering 671 miles in 15.5 hours!

Day 2 we left Ft Stockton after a breakfast at IHOP (needed food after missing dinner) and had a wonderful uneventful trip with arriving in Houston at 5 pm. We took the outer loop around San Antonio which was great on getting around traffic. It is great to get in early and have Mexican food at a local place.
The other good news is that the muscle relaxers took care of my back and things are good as new.
Day 2 ended with covering 498 miles in 8.5 hours!

Total miles covered = 1169

Tomorrow is New Orleans!!!! The Adventure will be Taryn hunting for a Fleur De Li's, vampire haunted walking tour and eating charbroiled oysters at Drago's.