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UPDATED 05/17/18

After we left San Diego we were going to drive to Terlingua Texas (Mike was not ready to fly yet).   Our good friend Cynta offered to let us stay with her for awhile while Mike recovered.   The rental car agent  in San Diego took one look at Mike and his brace and said that he would not be able to get into the SUV we rented.  Since they didn’t have any other cars in our price range available, they offered us a 2018 Jaguar for $20 more per day.  It was tough (LOL) but we decided to take it.  The ironic part was that we where going down the slide in Mexico to see a baby jaguar they had (which Mike never saw) and here we were driving around in a Jaguar.  The worst part of it was Mike loves Jaguars and he couldn’t drive it.  Too ironic huh.

It was wonderful to be back in Terlingua to see our new friends and was just what Mike needed.  We stayed one week and then drove to Dallas to fly back to North Carolina.  We stayed with David and Tristen a few days and then drove to Connecticut to see more family.  We had a nice relaxing week with Mike’s mom.  It was nice to slow down and just visit. We got to see snow again, though we didn’t really need to or WANT to.  LOL

While we were there, Mike went to see a Neurologist (recommended by doctors in San Diego).  It was all good news.  He was healing and doing great.

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DISNEY

We traveled back to North Carolina and then headed to Disney World with David and Tristen.  We had so much fun in Disney with them.  Mike couldn’t go on many rides, but spending time with our son and his girlfriend was the reason for the trip.  Tristen and I had our nails done with Disney characters.  I got Winnie the Pooh.

David and I did a behind the stage tour.  We went underground and to creative costuming, laundry facility (which is much more interesting than it sounds), welding dept. lunch, and so much more.

  

We made a lot of good memories.  On April 21st David and Tristen headed back to NC and Mike and I flew out to Eleuthera Bahamas.

ELEUTHERA BAHAMAS

This was our next “work” location.  We were going to house sit till the end of July for a couple we met in Grenada.  This is the house.  Everyone on the island knows it as the “pink pig” (take a good look at the cement wall).

Our view from the front porch was  of a beautiful bay with amazing turquoise water and loads of fish.

The town was very small and quiet.  The swimmable beach was a 1 mile walk (good exercise) and mostly deserted.  We walked down the beach to a local beach bar and visited a few of the churches in the area.

 

Check out the snail leaving a path down the beach (LOL)

We decided to rented a car on my birthday and went to the small island of Spanish Wells, just  1/2 mile water taxi ride from the North point of the island.  It was very quaint  (like Mystic, CT).  We had a nice lunch and walked around.

On the ride back to the “pink pig” we stopped at a cave called the Preachers Cave.  This cave was where the first settlers hunkered down.  It was very different because the cave has many chimney vents which made it ideal for fire smoke to leave the cave and allowed light to get in.  The history is as follows (disclosure… I copied this from a website)…

“Bahamian history buffs must visit Preacher’s Cave in North Eleuthera. Standing inside the cave leads you to imagine the Eleutheran Adventurers who were shipwrecked on the Devil’s Backbone in 1648 and suffered through their early years with few supplies in a location where agriculture and raising livestock were a major challenge. The Adventurers built the first permanent settlements in The Bahamas. They were tough, Christian souls whose descendants in Harbour Island, Spanish Wells and Governor’s Harbour have maintained their traditions of hard work and charity”

  

Next we stopped at a place called “Queens Bath”.    It is an area on the Atlantic side of the island where natural pools (carved by centuries of waves pounding the rock) are filled by these same waves.   In low tide the sun warms the water, creating a bath like temperature tidal pool that’s perfect for soaking.

Since there was no one there and Mike and I didn’t bring our bathing suits, we decided that we could enjoy the pools in just our “birthday” suits.  (After all it WAS my birthday).  It was wonderful.  At first you kinda freak out seeing waves that are 10 feet over your head heading toward you.  When they are about 5 feet from you they crash on the rocks and just spill over into the pool.  It is an amazing feeling.  Well, no sooner had we gotten dressed when a group of people came by.   We started to laugh and was happy they had not come by sooner.

We were enjoying our time on the island but had one major issue.  The internet was not able to support Mike working at his consulting job (yes he does do a little consulting).  A decision was made to leave Eleuthera and head for the Villages in Florida.  We had always said we would rent a place there to see if it was a somewhere we may consider retiring to someday.

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FLORIDA

So we flew to Orlando on May 4th and are currently staying in a nice 2 bedroom home in The Villages.

Just some of the activities we have done  here are…  swimming, archery, air gun, hula dancing, ballroom dancing, dart baseball, ping pong, going to the movies, going to the time squares each night for live music, meeting new people and going to dinner, saw Bill Engvall at the theater here, attended some polo matches, went to the many gyms and pools, attended an aviators meeting (Mike likes that one), a photograph club meeting for me, and there will be a classic car show here this weekend (5/19).

Some pics of the polo match and I can’t forget the beer cart that drives around so you can purchase snacks, beer on tap, or wine.  Crazy!

There is still a lot more we haven’t done yet.  OH did I mention that we haven’t visited David yet to pick up our car, so we are traveling to all these events by golf cart.  It is a lot of  fun.  There is even a place to park the golf carts and watch the sunset with a beverage of your choice.  It is call Sunset Point.

        

Till next time…   Keep your options open. You just may be surprised by what you find!

 

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UPDATED 07/09/18

So we have been enjoying our time in The Villages in Florida.  We have attended some clubs (i.e. hiking, air gun, table tennis, trivia, photography, pilots, etc.)  We have met a lot of new people.  Some turned out to know some of our family back in CT.

 

 

My friend Terri visited from Tampa for a weekend.  Our other friend Tracey flew down for 5 days from CT.  We went to NASA, airboat riding, saw a few shows, and things like that.

   

This little guy was hitching a ride on the golf cart. He hung on till we got to our destination. Way to go!!

We went to a car show, which is really cool around here.  Some of the older residence have some beautifully kept old cars.

 

One gentleman and his wife, dressed the part.  The golf clubs in the picture were his grandfathers.  Cool right!

 

One of the patrons was dressed a little more modern. LOL

Mikes back is doing much better.  We are definitely ready to get back to some work-away adventures.  Someone here thought the “workaway thing” was so cool they told a reporter of the local paper.  He stopped by and interviewed us.  Yesterday the article came out.  It was 3 pages.  What a nice job he did (he did have a good subject – LOL).

We have a few more weeks here, then off to Ct to visit family and friends, THEN off to New Zealand.

Till next time…

Recover, Travel, Save, Repeat !!!