Homeward Bound

   Here it is, the beginning of December, and our time in Florida is nearly done. It's been a blast being able to hit the beach every day. A couple of days ago this guy sidled up to me to have a chat:

  I'm sure he's not related to this guy I saw a few days ago. It seems a vulture on top of a dead tree with a threatening religious sign below encapsulates Florida very succinctly:

  Sort of "abandon all hope ye who enter"... right?

  The weather here has been wonderful. It reminds me of a Queensland tourism ad from when we lived in Australia back in the 80's: "Beautiful one day, perfect the next".

  It's kind of been that way throughout our travels this year. The number of rainy days we've had can be counted on one hand and, aside from three days of cool temps in Mobile I'd be hard pressed to come up with any other days when it was less than 20C.

  We've done all the things there are to do here, given there's nothing to do. We're on a long island with a long beach.

  If we drive over to the mainland the only thing there is to do is go to the island to go to the beach. We're stuck in a loop. I'm not complaining but three weeks has been long enough. I mean, how much eating and drinking and going to the beach can one do anyway? I don't think that came out right.

  We did manage to play some golf, although it requires an hour's drive to find a course that isn't private. The entire "Treasure Coast", as this area is called, is littered with private golf course communities. Driving down the highway you see one after another, perfectly manicured landscapes hidden behind walls and lined with palm trees and sculpted shrubberies. I fail to understand the attraction. I mean, what is so good about living next to a fairway where drunken groups of middle-aged men drive around swearing and hitting balls into your backyard? Not for me.

  We also managed to take a run down to Palm Beach so we could mingle with the celebs. Yep. A movie star walked past me. No idea what her name is but I've seen her in a movie or two. Famous.

  We drove past Trump National Golf Course and gawked at Mar A Lago. We saw the old Kennedy compound where JFK spent his last weekend with his father before going to Dallas. The only thing left of it is the frontspiece as the buildings within are being knocked down after the property's recent $75M resale.

  We strolled Worth Avenue and pretended to be a white linen-wearing old money couple in search of a few gold spoons to compliment grandmama's sixty place settings that we inherited along with the beachfront manor. We even managed to ignore the homeless encampment by the beach on the mainland. I think we'd fit right in, if we had a billion or two. Anything less would relegate us to "riff-raff" status.

  Closer to home base we came across this:

  Vote Trump. Oh, by the way, buy some shit here and save 20%. Well, that certainly piqued our curiosity so we turned in and found this:

  We're pissed! And, Merry Christmas. More intriguing so we ventured further and found the owner's truck:

  I feel like this guy was part of the January 6 mob. He's certainly filled with grievances. Merry Christmas to you too. Only in America.

  Last night was another SpaceX launch so we managed a better vantage point than last time. It was perfectly legal and didn't involve grappling hooks, scuba gear or a helicopter. It's strange how they close the beach accesses at 10 pm around here. We tried to sneak into one when we were blinded by the sudden activation of a police car lightbar in front of us. Weird. We ended up driving twenty minutes up the beach to a waterfront park that was open and caught all the action... again.

   When Elon Musk is finished screwing up Twitter and his Starship is ready to launch I want to get tickets to see it up close at the Kennedy Space Center. Big rockets. Cool.

  It's a cool spot to spend a couple of weeks and we'll be happy to come back if invited. The animals appear to like us:

... and there's lots of interesting things on the beach:

... and lots of shells to keep Penny busy:

  Speaking of being invited, we just agreed to return to Montgomery, MN in May as the homeowners are going to Iceland. I agreed on the condition Tom lets me cut the grass with the giant tractor. I'm looking forward to this 😀.

  As it turns out, when the 2024 Blue Jays schedule was released I mentioned to Penny that the Blue Jays would be in Philadelphia and Washington in early May and those were two more ballparks I haven't been to. I'm going to try lining up a sit in the Philly/DC/Baltimore area for early May. If all goes according to plan we'll do that then head off to Minnesota and finish the trip with seeing the Jays play the White Sox in Chicago at the end of May.

  Of course, our next trip is to Cyprus, leaving the end of January. We'll be there for the month of February followed by ten days in Greece. The next few months looks like a lot of fun.

  With this trip completed we're headed home for the holidays and there won't be any house sitting news happening now that we're booked for the next six months. I won't be writing any new blog episodes until we get ready to leave for Cyprus so until then I wish all of you, my faithful readers, a wonderful holiday season and a healthy and prosperous New Year. Later.