When you fly by the seat of your pants….

You get what you get what you get…meaning what ever… We left Melbourne early hoping to miss the rush hr. traffic…did not…Headed south on US-1..to busy so slipped over to I-95 .. thought we might head over to Lake Okeechobee…Carolb wanted to check it out…and since I had never been there …ok…went to  the Stuart area and cut across 76 to 441…looked like 441 followed the shore line around the lake on the east side…got there and started down the road…we thought we would at the south end of the lake hit a Visitors Center that was on the map…drove and drove and around each bend we were sure we would see the lake to our right..but all we seen was a big mound of land and here and there men and truck working hard at something we never did figure out…I think some where between Bean City and Lake Harbor we seen a nice size park…but still could not see Lake Okeechobee…we drove the whole way thru the park…signs saying watch out for gators…so Carol did not want to risk the 3 pups…we stop to talk about our next move …and I told her about the free dump station I seen on the way in…so we went back to use it…might as well get something out of this…all the while we were spitting and sputtering about where is that dang (&^%$%^) Lake….I seen a couple workmen over by a small retention pond..went to talk to them about the lake and what was behind this big mound that we see where the lake was suppose to be the lake was behind it…...but on this side it was mostly swap grass…any way when I got over to them one was beside the pond making a growl like sound…

See the gator….he started out at the end of the red pipe thing ….

as I was watching him I seen an alligator on the other side…he told me he was calling him…and sure enough the gator start slowly across the water toward us…longer story short ..the gator came right up to the shore in front of us ,..then seen it was not a gator calling and disappeared under the water not to be seen again….

He was calling with his hand cupped over his mouth..

As he called the gator got closer and closer ….

We were standing on a bank about 6 ft. above the water and the gator…he did come closer than what you see in the pic above before he went under the water and left …from the noise I have heard on TV that gators make this guy was really good…This was the first encounter with gators…

At one point we stopped at a rest stop and walked the pups and our selves …we did a lot of stopping on this trip…

Carol and her fur babies….

One other place we stopped in pic below …we both found a few things we needed…like we each found a skirt …decided it was much cooler to ware skirts…

Later we stopped near Miami Lakes at a Wal-Mart for the night…

well that’s about all for the first day…as I remember it…Carolb did take me in circles a few times…lol…anyway more to come on this road trip…

Today is Thanksgiving ..Happy Thanksgiving all my family and friends wish I was with any.. all or some of you..…watching the parade…not cooking first time I think in my adult life have not cooked …even when I was alone some years still cooked because I love the Thanksgiving dinner left overs…I eat for a week on them….but since I am on the low fat…low carb…low salt…very low sugar diet…really a life style change in eating…no more TG dinner..I am working on all my new life style changes…all for now thanks for looking and come back soon…blessings to all G&M

SUNDAY NOV. 8

Good morning everyone….

Greeting you with a pic of one beautiful sunrise seen while I was at McIntosh FL…been a lot happening since then…some good some not so good…I went to the dog thingy at Cocoa last weekend and it was a bust …no dogs for adoption only a bunch of vendors trying to sell you something and not all of it was dog related….

Theses cuties was spotted at the festival…riding around in this quad dog buggy being pushed by their dad…it this pic they had just spotted their mama at a booth….look at them soooo sweet….the one on the left back was really small and hard to see and get a pic of…

And the rest of the story…

Only a couple of pix this time…have been taking myself and dad to a lot of Doc appointments…It seems that when my back Doc sent me to a neurologist to have to spine/pinched nerve test done and upon his exam and evaluation he thinks I might have had a stroke at some point…so had MRI  of brain and ultra sound of carotid arteries …had that done last week…my follow up is not until Dec 7…but I don’t want to wait a month …if I did have one I want treatment started right now not in a month…going to call and see if I can get in sooner….I have did some research and know more life style changes I have to make more than I have already do for the spine/back …I have already got a leg up on that…more exercise and diet changes…things that I should have been doing all along…3 years ago I was in a good place walking ..going to the gym and eating right ,..lost some wt.… then life stuff happened and I got lost…in my younger years I did eat and get exercise …not sure what happened over the years…I hope I can reverse some of this problem…I will let you know what the test say…this morning I got up again before the sun and started out on my walk…(having problem sleeping also with stress chasing me) came back …checked my oil and the water in the rig engine battery…I hate that job…I got a new house battery a deep cell closed gel battery…expensive but worth it to me…holds good charge and last a long time…also I have developed some leaks …so when I examined the rig …I found a lot of places there was no caulking…where I thought should be from the factory….When I went to the RV show at the mall a few weeks ago I check the new rigs and all of them had caulking everywhere…mine did not…so started on the back end where I have a problem (because of a big boo boo I made on the way south) not going to talk about it either…anyway cleaned it with denatured alcohol and then caulked…going to do a little at a time …so I don’t hurt my back or anything else…anyway by 9 am it was to hot to be outside…this is not normal Florida Nov, weather…well all for now I will leave you with my sunrise I seen this morning….thanks for looking and come back soon blessing G&M..