Warm weather..sweet...warm weather

It was time to head for Florida..sad to leave the family, but happy to see no snow and freezing weather!

well our bags were packed and we were ready to go.

 

We drove to Branson to see Bonnie's kids...and I had gotten us two free nights at the Radison Hotel. The only catch was we had to sit through a time share presentation for The Big Cedar Resort, owned by Bass Pro Shops. It happened to work out well as they were trying out the no pressure presentation! Really! It was the easiest time share deal we ever went through...and we got 175 bucks worth of Bass Pro Shop gift certificates to boot!

 

King Kong was loose in Branson



 After the Branson business was over we resumed our trek south,

as we had heard snow was coming...Yikes! Step on it!!!

We passed a goodwill in Alabama, and had to stop.

 



 After 2 days we were on the Florida border! Only 500 miles to go.

Warm weather sweet warm weather!

 We got to the condo Friday night around 8:30 in the evening.

We opened the door after 8 months of no occupancy, not sure what to expect....It looked like we had just left last week. We were tired so we just opened the hurricane shutters and let it cool down in the condo so we could sleep. Sat morning we unpacked the car and got settled into our condo. The weather was in the low 80's. We felt bad for the family as we watched the news and saw winter blowing into the Midwest. At least they would have a white Christmas!

Christmas eve we went down to the beach to see what was going on..

Trying to show the Christmas spirit in 80 degree weather

Loving the beach on X-mas eve

 



As evening fell we decided to go to a movie. We went and watched the move Lincoln. Not alot of action, but a pretty good movie overall. I found it interesting how they had partisan politics way back then. Same stuff (you figure the adjective I really wanted in there) different day.

I must be desperate...taking pictures of the movie theatre

Christmas day I was feeling lonely as I was used to spending it with the family back in Iowa. :( 

Lighthouse point park...lovely place to spend Christmas.

So we decided to find somewhere to get a good holiday meal. You know the kind I am talking about...turkey or prime rib, mashed potatoes, cranberry's etc. etc. etc. We found out Muddy Waters, a restaurant, had a holiday buffet featuring all the above mentioned goodies...so we beat a trail to get some.

I ate that...and another plate full.

this place is pretty cool. we were sitting out on the patio.

So that gets us up to date...we got our high speed Internet hooked up today!!!! I will blog more often now!
Later gators!!

Let me explain my long absence...at my house in Knoxville it is north of town about 3 miles. Now the town is not real large so the internet options are minimal. I have no options where I live, well I do have one, a satallite designated for internet. The problem is it is quite spendy. So I took option 2, which is a Virgin Mobile USB device. You pay as you go and it was quite a bit less than the same Verizon option. The problem is I only get one bar...so my signal sucks...it is about as fast as dial up. LOL. I am very limited in what I can do. As a matter of fact it took me 20 min just to get to this page. I can only imagine how long it is going to take to upload some pictures? Enough on that subject, I will have blazing fast internet once we return to Deerfield Beach.

What have I been up to?? Let me think....
I have done a couple of shows since we last spoke.. I just checked, and I only did one..The Big E out in Mass. It is the Fair for Rhode Island, Maine, Mass, Conn, Vermont and New Hampshire.
It was pretty cool to do that one, as I had never been up in New England before. The only bad thing was, we were in a tent.

Ok, I just tried to upload a photo of the Tent...and it went 10 min with no progress on the upload bar. I will try to post some pics with my phone after I am done with the text part. If no pictures show up then my phone idea was a failure.

After the show in New England I had a Dr appointment for follow up on my health. The Dr stongly suggested I go on disability so I have sent my application in. I will post later when I hear something. The Doc says I am a shoe in, but we shall see.

We got the basement living are done since I have no work responsibilities, and it look great. As a matter of fact the whole house looks great. I can't believe we got this place for only 40k.
We feel like this is the best buy we ever made on a house.

Well I am going to get on my phone and try to acess this site and
upload some photos...if this gets posted with no pictures, then my efforts were in vain.

Later...

San Jose

My little doll!!!

Fiidid

 

 First of all I need to share this picture of my granddaughter Allyssa
as I think it is adorable. And congrats on starting kindergarden this year!!

I was still at the new york state fair and I saw this tractor in a parade they were having...it is a tribute to my sister Deb!

Pink tractors? whats next?

The local New York guy that was running the show is named Marty, and a real gem of a guy. On my day off he asked if I wanted to go golfing, so he picked me up and took me out to a golf course pays for the golf and he tells me he let me win (I do not think so as I beat him by 11 strokes) 87 to 98. Then He takes me over to his house to meet his wife, they then grill some local sausage some salt potatoes and whatnot. very pleasant day off.. Thanks again Marty!

Marty and I tearing it up on the course!!

On the last day of the fair Charlie Daniels was playing on the free stage outside the building our boothe was located in, so I stepped out and caught a little of the show. Pretty cool!!

Charlie on stage...at least i think it was Charlie

Then I was home for a blink of an eye and it was off to San Jose for a weekend home show! They put me up in a pretty nice joint downtown....on the 9th floor.

downtown San Jose..Really quaint and cool!

The view out my 9th floor window

 

 

On Sat nite the gent running the show (Manny) took me out for dinner to Santa Cruz down by the ocean. really nice place and great sea food. One of the cool things is the sea lions..we do not have them down in Florida!

Me and Manny getting ready to grab some beach grub!

Sea lions! way cool!

 

So the last night there I decided to run over to the Winchester House. Apperently it was built by the widow of the guy that invented winchester guns. She was nuts after he died and went to a fortune teller who told her she had to keep buildin to keep the ghosts of all the indians that her husbands guns killed from haunting her. so she kept construction going all her life on this house, it covers six acres and has 180 rooms..yikes.

 

the picture does it no justice! the place was huge

blow it up and read this

 

 

And right as I was leaving I had to gas up and wanted to share the price of fuel out in California! I am out of here!! 

retarded gas prices! LOL

I love NY

 

I had to do the California State fair and it was 3 weeks long! It was the longest show I had ever done. It actually was not as bad as I had imagined...Larger area mass than the Iowa state fair but less people.

I found it interesting that on my rental car I had Hawaii license plates? how did a Hawaii rental car get here?



 

Even California people were stopping, pointing at my license plate

 The fair turned out some decent numbers, but does not compare to the Iowa fair. It was next on my schedule. At least I would be home for a while.

The famous golden bear at one of the entrances

 I had a week off between fairs so I got a little down time. We had the nationals going on in Knoxville. (I know...what the heck are nationals?) I found out they are kind of a big deal. it is the sprint car nationals, and drivers and fans come from all over the world for this event. We did not go to the races, but went into town to see all the festivities and people.

one of the sprint car teams from Texas

 On the weekend before the fair started, my son in law Michael came out with the kids and stayed with us. On Sat we took our granddaughter Alyssa with us garage sailing, and I have to tell you, she loved it! We gave her some change so she could have her own money, it was quite comical watching her look through the stuff and then ask me if she had enough to get something. She really wanted a cat we found for sale at one house....what a dilemma! We had to explain to her that her mother may not like her bringing home a new kitty, to which she replied, we could keep it at our house. LOL!

Allysa really loved this kitty!!

 that night our grandson Andrew fell out of bed and split his head open so Mike and I had to run to the Knoxville hospital in the middle of the night to get his head stapled. Uffda! luckily it was not
anything too serious!

Andrews head with bonus staples!

Mike and the kids checking out the barn.

 On around day 5 of the fair, I went outside to get a cup of coffee and to my suprise...A bags tourney was underway! All I could think of was my family should be here! I was laughing to myself thinking about it. (if you are a member of my family you know what I mean)

The world champions Petersen's were not even there..

 After 11 grueling days I was done with the great Iowa fair, but I had another scheduled in 2 days in NY. So I did what any responsible husband would do...I taught my wife how to drive the riding mower.

Bonnie has it figured out!

the old homestead looking good!!

 So off I went on Wednesday and headed to NY. I had a layover in DC. ON the way down I saw the Washington Monument and the White house in behind so I fired up the phone and grabbed a picture!

DC from the air...or at least a little of it.

 

Is it just me, or all these fairs beginning to look alike??

California fair

Iowa Fair

New York Fair

I am only in day 2 of the NY fair, with 9 days to go...wish me luck!

cool sand sculpture

lunch today...coney dog...when in Rome..

Tropical Storm Debbie

The new Patio...Bonnie just loves it!!!

 We had a new patio put in at the house as the one that was there was pavers and was in very poor shape. Bonnie was very excited to get this as she loves sitting on the patio and relaxing. She is making the house very homey and it looks great. I feel bad as I am traveling and working quite a bit so the major part of the work is left up to her. Although she enjoys it so, and I am basically lazy, so it works out ok in the long run.

where is the furniture???

I had to go to Tampa for a show and it happened to be in the Tropicana Dome, which is home to the Tampa Bay Rays major league baseball team. It was pretty cool being in the dome and walking to the infield where they play.

Tropicana Dome in Tampa

where is my booth?

put me in coach!

The show was just 4 days long, however on my last day there Tropical storm Debbie blew in. that was not fun, and I was just hoping my flight would not get delayed or cancelled.



this is my normal drive to the show

TS debbie making the drive interesting

I like the water coming over the barriers! Not!

I don't think the sewer system is handling the 11 inches of rain.

After returning home I had been wanting to find somewhere close to Knoxville where I could shoot my handguns. I was told about the sportsman's club. I was told they had a shooting range just out of town. I had to go to the Fairway store and ask for "shooter" or something like that. So I did and found out he was  the store manager, and a very nice guy. He told me the annual cost to join was 50 bucks, which I quickly paid, and drew me a map to where the club was located. I grabbed a couple of handguns, some Ammo and took my Buddie Terry out with me to locate it. It was fairly easy to find as it was just on the outskirts of town. I was expecting to find a dirt lot with a large bank at the back to stop the slug. What a nice surprise to find a locked gate, which I had been given the combination to,  and a very nice park like area with a pond, a nice clubhouse and a couple of nice areas to skeet shoot. the gun range was at the very back of the place. it was quite nice with a covered area to shoot from with marked banks of ranges from 25 ft to 300 yards.

The sportsman's club in Knoxville

Terry at the range

members can rent the clubhouse for 10 bucks...really!

My daughter Sarah called and wanted to see if I would like to ride with her to Kansas City to take the kids to see their dad, and I hadn't seen the kids much , so I agreed. It was a nice trip and gave us time to catch up on what had been going on. I enjoyed the trip a great deal.

my little babycakes!!!

Batman ready to go..

I had to run to Sioux City for my nephews reception and I was going to have my brother David fix the brakes on Bonnie's car.

My granddaughter Katelyn and my brother Dan rode with me.

It was actually a very fun trip as we took some back roads , went through elk horn, or as Katelyn called it "Velkomen".

We stopped and saw some sights and a couple of garage sales.

A signed Ernie Banks card. My brother kinda found at a garage sale

and it is real as this certificate testifies!

After arriving in Sioux City and playing some bags on Friday night (and a trip to the casino of course) we slept for our customary 3 hours then it was off to my brother Dave's house to get the brakes fixed.

my old rotor...

Dave getting ready to put the new one on.

After the brakes were done we went back to moms for the reception. It was quite a nice time.

The loved ones trying to find some shade...and avoid the inlaws.

Then Sunday my brothers and I and a Friend went to the old golf course to try our luck. Of course we were golfing with severe sleep deprivation, but it was a blast anyways! and I beat the tar out of Dan. so overall a good day. We had a great time in Sioux City but had to head for home so off we went. I had a 3 week show I had to go to in Sacramento. It is the California State Fair. I need to make some money to pay for the slab we got poured. we also had gutters put up. Yikes....new old houses are expensive.

Bonnie's daughter DeNae lives in Sacramento so I stopped over to say hi. I found out a few houses down from where she lives, there was a female mass murderer used to live. I guess she would take in boarders that were on SSI and then poison them and bury them in her garden and continue to get their checks.

 

DeNae and I out to get some healthy hot dogs for lunch.

The mass murderers house



they had another sign that said "trespassers will be poisoned and buried in the garden" My phone camera didn't get the Pic.

Our booth at the State Fair! I know...it looks just like the rest of our Boothe's...

I got to go to sleep...need to sell some beds.....