USA travelers

Saturday, August 6, 2016

Where Have We Been??

The time has passed quickly and a year and-a-half has elapsed since my last post. Life is funny sometimes; one day you are doing what you dreamed of doing and the next you are back to the daily grind of everyday life. Such is the case with us.
Doreen and I returned from our last road trip in October 2014 and we settled in for another Florida winter. The days were filled with golf

and socializing and other events such as a day at Tampa Downs:

A spring training game, Pirates vs. Tigers in Lakeland at Joker Marchant Stadium:

Trips to the Disney parks:

In October 2015 Doreen took a train trip to Scranton to see her family, leaving me and the cat to fend for ourselves:

Winter Haven Amtrak Station

I picked her up at the Lakeland Amtrak station two weeks later:

That brings me to the question of "where have I been and why haven't I been posting anything about our travels?" I became restless so I decided to find a part-time job. I got hired by a security company called G4S Secure Solutions and began working as a Custom Protection Officer at the Polk County Courthouse in Bartow, FL in April 2015.

The courthouse was opened in 1986 and is rather bland when compared to the old courthouse located a block away:

Part-time turned into full time and I have been working ever since. Our travels are on hold temporarily, perhaps until next summer.

Friday, January 16, 2015

Winter Update

Hello friends. Today is January 16 and I hear winter is in full force for those of you in the northern climes. Two months have passed since my last post. I hope everyone had an enjoyable holiday season. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years were far less chaotic for us than so many previous years. No parties to plan; no big dinners to attend; no Christmas decorations to put up and take down; and no work schedule to do it all around. Just golf, golf, and more golf!
Here is the South Course scorecard:
south-course-card

Here is the North Course scorecard:
north-course-card

(Almost all of my rounds are on the South Course. I usually only hit the North Course late in the day once every two weeks or so just to keep the short game fresh.)

One would think that playing so much golf there would be a decrease in my handicap but alas, such is not the case. I played 59 rounds in 2014, and with the exception of three rounds played when we were in PA the rest were split by the six months we were on the road. I believe the long layoff affected my game. My handicap index was 13.1 but has now ballooned to 19.5. Mainly due to the fact that my scores have been no where near what they were before we left. I was hoping 2015 would bring me better luck but so far 2015 has gotten off to a rocky start for the Karanzas household.
Actually 2014 ended badly when on Dec. 24, while playing golf, I broke my cell phone. A stupid mistake on my part: I rode with a fellow golfer and his cart has a different way to put the bag on the cart. He has a rear facing seat and this causes the bag to face the side of the cart. Plus he had no room under the dash where I would normally place my phone so I put it in the tee pocket of the bag. I totally forgot it was in there. I was playing hole number 3, a par 5 slight dogleg left with water all along the left side. Now I had been struggling with this hole for several rounds putting my second shot into the water repeatedly with my 5 wood or hybrid trying to get on the green in two. Today I decided to not go for the green in two and instead lay up to a comfortable yardage. This is a good plan if you don't hook your 5 iron into the water, which I did. I was beside myself for hitting such a shot and angrily swung the offending club against my bag probably making better contact with the bag than my ball.
A few holes later I wanted to check the time and pulled my phone out of the bag. I was aghast at what I saw. For a moment my mind could not comprehend what it was seeing. There was the phone but the screen looked white, like it had snow on it. This couldn't be! I was in Florida and there was no snow! What the heck was going on? Had the phone exploded? If so, why? Closer examination revealed the screen was shattered. From what? Well you guessed it- I made square contact with the Galaxy S3 screen with the 5 iron several holes earlier. Obliterated! The phone was destroyed apparently. Hold on, I see a sign of life; the little blue light is still flashing! Its alive! Its alive!
Alive it was. I hear the "meep meep" of my Roadrunner text notification. Then a little later the "Loony Tunes" ring tone of an incoming call. I just can't see anything because the screen is shattered. By the time I get home and get ready to go out to dinner there isn't much I can do about the phone at that point. I will have to wait until after Christmas Day to investigate my options. I ended up taking the phone to a place in the mall called IFix. I plop down $175 plus tax and the phone will be good as new the next day. Sure enough I was back in action. The phone worked great plus I had a small crack in the old screen anyway and now I had pristine new screen.
Fast forward to last week. We decided it was time to buy some living room furniture. After looking around at numerous furniture stores we decided on a set at Rooms To Go. A great deal including leather reclining sofa, love seat, three tables, two lamps, TV console, and even a 50" Sharp HDTV. A grand total of $3700.

All is good of course until the next day. At some point Doreen tells me something is wrong with the microwave. I take a look. Power is good, the timer works, the buttons work but nothing is humming and the turntable is not rotating. Okay great, now I have to buy a new microwave. After researching prices we head off to Best Buy for a new microwave. We buy the microwave and Doreen then wants to go to Lowe's to get new hardware for all the cabinet doors. While in Lowe's we look at different door pulls and compare prices. I attempt to take my cell phone from my pocket but can't seem to make the move smoothly and the phone falls from my hand to the cold, grey, concrete floor. It seemed to fall in slow motion. I saw the device twist and turn on its collision course with the stark and menacing surface. The phone seemed to contort itself to avoid the inevitable. I saw the upper left corner strike the concrete first and land screen down. For a brief moment, I am reluctant to retrieve the less than a month removed from repair Galaxy, from the abyss of grey for fear of the worst. I brush aside my fears and look at the screen. No cracks, good. Finger swipe; nothing. The Galaxy ignores the command of my index finger. The thumb has no better result. I remove the battery to restart the device. Once again nothing. My digits go undigitized. Off to the mall to see the IFix people.
The young fellow with the handlebar mustache greets me and I explain what has occurred. He diagnoses the Galaxy and states the digitizer had been damaged. What is the prognosis I query. He states it was a most unlucky event, one that does not occur too frequently. The screen will need replaced again. Perhaps the manager will give me a 10% discount because he feels badly for me. I decide I do not want his pity and lousy 10% discount. I will survive without a cell phone until the expiration of my Verizon contract on April 14, 2015. That is why I bought a house phone and a Magic Jack. If anyone would like to know my number please e-mail me or text Doreen.
We did attend a Penguins game here in Tampa. The Pens got thumped by the Lightning 4-3. The score wasn't close until late in the third period when the Penguins decided to show up.

We got a good view of the Lightning cheerleaders as did this little fellow:

There were plenty of Pen's fans in attendance.

I have to say this was one of the most expensive sporting events I have ever been to. Parking at the Amalie Arena was $25, tickets were $125 each, dinner in the Firestick restaurant was $37 per person for the buffet, and a 16 ounce can of domestic beer was $13!

We have tickets for a Bob Seger concert in February so I will do it differently then.

I hope everyone keeps warm through the winter. Stay safe.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

The Trip Back to Florida

Well it is November 9 and it has been over a month since my last post. We are back home in Florida so I have a lot of catching up to do. We left PA on October 4 and drove to Colonial Beach, VA to start our trek home. We stayed at Harbor View Campground which was in the middle of nowhere. The closest city was Fredericksburg, VA about 45 minutes away. The park was virtually empty and the leaves were falling. We were close to a small pond

We were very close to George Washington's birthplace so we did a tour there.

As you can see there is a scale replica of the Washington Monument that was erected for the bicentennial of Washington's birth. There are no surviving structures of the Washington homestead and replicas of the house and out buildings were constructed for the centennial based on scholars ideas of what they would look like. Unfortunately they couldn't have been more wrong. After the home was built:

archaeologists uncovered the original home's foundation here:

They realized their idea was more grandiose than what the humble Washington's actually lived in. Their original structure was quite small with only a few rooms and over the years several additions were added. George lived here for only the first three years of his life until his family moved to the area of what is now known as Mount Vernon. There is a short film chronicling the arrival of the Washington's and their lifestyle here. The park is a working replica of what their daily lives were like with livestock and crops such as tobacco and corn being grown. Tobacco was the money crop and everything else was used as food crops.

A short drive down the road is the family graveyard:

Even though everything is a reproduction the park is very informative and it was a nice side visit.

Afterwards we also stumbled upon a local winery and stopped by for a taste:

We left Virginia four days later and headed to Lake Gaston RV Resort in Littleton, NC:

This was a very nice park and would be an ideal place for a summer on the lake with a boat. They had numerous boat slips and a pier to buy gasoline and boating supplies. Great views of the water and plenty of places to fish.

We didn't do much at Lake Gaston other than get a good fire going and relax.

We were fairly secluded with nothing but woods behind us. There were sites closer to the water but sometimes you just want to get away from it all. The only drawback was no cable; no over the air TV; and no satellite. After four days it was time to pack up and head to Forest Lake RV resort in Advance, NC:

Once again, another fabulous resort. We had a huge site with good views of the southwest horizon for the satellite. A nice sized lake for some fishing:

Forest Lake was very convenient to the interstate and was close to stores and restaurants so I didn't need to drive 35 miles to see the Steeler game like I did in Virginia. Once again we didn't do much. At this point I think we had had enough sightseeing and just wanted to get home. We were still several hundred miles from home though and had two more stops. Next was The Oaks at Point South in South Carolina:

This is probably the most rustic of all the parks we have stayed in. Nothing fancy here. A small park with perhaps 80 sites. A small lodge and a pool, that is it. The Oaks is on the opposite side of the lake from the KOA we stayed at last year on our down to Florida so we were familiar with the area.

Our final stop we decided to stay for a week at the Orlando RV Resort. We would be only about 30 miles from home but I wanted to see this place because I heard so many good things about it. Plus we could take our time transferring all of our stuff we brought back with us and do a thorough unhurried cleaning before putting the trailer into storage. We could also open the house and get the cable and water turned back on. First let me tell you about the park: it is fabulous! By far the nicest place we have been. A huge selection of sites to start with. You can have a site close to the two pools and clubhouses or you can go to the wooded side with lush foliage and shade; or you can have a pull through site awning to awning if you have friends staying there too. Our site was a huge one on the corner with a nice big live oak providing shade.