May  7th 2024

Back home to Chippewa! Yay! trip home went pretty well. we stayed at a few new places and enjoyed them. took a different route thru alabama in order to meet up with breanna, tj and kolsyn near Huntsville alabama. one incidence of dropping the camper onto the truck bed that was totally my fault. fortunately no real damage to truck or camper. scary tho.  we luckily avoided most of the bad weather coming home. lots of bad weather coming thru the country on a weekly basis but except for some bad wind one day which caused us to stay an additional day in DuQuion Ill . no big deal tho. things looked good in the big camper except for some shredded paper in the silverware drawer. hummmm. no leaks and everything hooked up well. took a full day to empty  sydney out and put everything away in the beast. another to clean up sydney. now onto getting everything set up around the yard, garden and of course the cleaning of the bathrooms. still on duty for that. oh well, keeps me busy. had a kentucky derby pot luck on saturday here at the campground so it was good to see everyone and catch up on the winter.  saw mom, cindi , joel and karen over the weekend. 

took 2 weeks to drive home. nice traveling that way. also stayed 3 nights in atmore al and el paso ill one night

duquion ill state fair campground

view from akron al JenningsFerry  Landing

tallahasse COE landing park

grandpa and kolsyn enjoying a popsickle by the fire. beyounder getaway campground hillsboro al. #304 $27.50

was fun in the water until the snake crawled over tjs foot!

milan tn. city park $25 #3

us, tj, breanna and kolsyn in alabama

 april  7 2024

another winter is nearly over. a very quiet winter. gathered up with beth, todd and laurie. but it didn't seem like near enough times. tom is still struggling with his hip and looking forward to getting a new hip. not much for company this winter. aprill and kendall came for a couple of nights so we could  go to the  world equestrian center for a day. always good to see them. mike and sue from pine harbor came over for a day from orlando when they came down on vacation. i rode my bike well over 500 miles this winter and swam in the pool at least 3 days a week. now it is time to get the house ready and sydney packed up for the trip home. granddaughter breanna and her fiancé are in Huntsville alabama for a bit and we will try to connect up with them on our route home.  going to take 2 weeks to get home this year.

erics family at christmas

concert at the Manatee festival in Crystal River

Withlacooche Bike trail

always a pretty ride

50 years. yikes!

Our azala bush this year

listening to music at Big Bass in Lake Panasofkee

sunrise in Inverness. b

 

 Jan 7 2024

Another yr gone by. We are pretty settled in the house and having a quiet winter. It has been much cooler than last year here in florida. windy and cloudy too. i have done quite a bit of bike riding and started out going into the pool 3 times a week. but the  pool  had some issues and was closed for a month. . hopefully, now things will get back in a routine. friend laurie got here from canada and is all settled in Sydney.  beth and todd are here too but i dont believe they all are as happy at their campground as they were last yr.  beth and todd are in fact looking to buy a home somewhere in the area. we all got together at our house for christmas day and had a great time. eric and heather  were here at the house the first week in december and it was a lot of fun. heather and i got in a couple of bike rides, we did a airboat ride in crystal river out into the golf, saw a few dolphins playing. went to a christmas party at friends fred and sharon in Hernando and also had them over for dinner one evening. they had a park wide thanksgiving dinner and the food and company was amazing. nice to be getting to know the park residents a bit better. 

beautiful sunset one night

opps ran into an alligator while riding the sidewalk near our house. he won. i turned around

friend laurie loves the new lounge chair

we had windows put in one of the bedrooms . turned out well. and we now spend most of our down time in the new 'Man's Cave"

 Nov 1 2023

 Now in florida for the winter. as always the last few months have been busy. the garden was the worst garden i have ever had. very poor production for the most part. got just enough tomatoes canned to get us thru the winter. had to dig potatoes  early because something was eating them underground. onions grew but were overall smallish. as were the carrots and peppers. no cukes, corn, peas.  garden was all done before the end of august..frustrating at best. All the kids and most of grandkids all came for visits this summer, which was wonderful. our second camper sydney came in super handy for overnight visitors . Got in a few bike rides  but not as many as usual and only walked with friend wanda a few times.  we did take sydney out for a camping trip once. went to Sarona and met friends val and ken for a couple days. super fun. spent quite a bit of time with mom this summer. she loves Culvers and so that was our usual lunch stop when out and about. tom found out at the end of summer that he needs a hip replacement so it will be a long painful winter for him this year. we cancelled going to Gulf Shores for november this year. just seemed like too many things going on. we had a long stressful trip from wi to fl. we both got covid within a few days of leaving wi. we both felt like crap and wanted to do nothing more than stop for a few days somewhere on the ways to Brads and could not stay anywhere for more than 1 night  except at some questionable campgrounds so we just kept going until getting to brads area. we stayed there for 9 days and definitely needed the rest. from there we were going to stop along the way to florida but just decided to keep on going till we got to the house. glad to get here. everything was good at the house so that was a pleasant surprise.  neighbors all welcomed us back. its starting to feel like a home here. took a bit to get sydney unloaded and things put away in house but its mostly done.

neighbor Diana did a great job keeping the plants alive and well all summer

friend Wanda did a great job on making my quilt larger

questionable walmart neighbors one night

bretts 15!

madison. 5 months. longest eyelashes on a girl ever!

bode's first sleepover in camper. of course campfire and smores are mandatory

New River Gouge NP. it was pretty but overall disappointing. i think we went to the wrong end of the park.

iconic bridge. once a year they close it and people reserve a spot to jump off of it. yikes

rykal brothers and sister in laws gathering before we left wi. randy found out next day he had covid and was kind enough to share with tom and i

end of season campfire at jan and dougs. fun night

brad and madison

eric and grandma. she requested McDonalds for lunch

breanna and kolsyn came for a visit for a few days. he is soooo fun to be around.

grandpa and kolsyn enjoying popsickles

my cupboards needing cleaning out

grandma sperber, bode and madison. fun visit

a  4 generation picture

a visit  to the Irvine parik zoo. toooo hot that day tho. all the animals were hiding inside

grandpa and madison enjoying the sunshine

neighbor Colton brought us a catapillar that turned into a beautiful Monarch.

 

 august 7 2023

not sure where my last 2 posts went to but here it goes again. Got home, planted garden, cleaned bathrooms for start of season. cleaned up sydney after our trip home. eric and family came for a short visit, kevin and family joined us for a day and a half also. had mom over to eat a few times, have taken her out shopping a number of times. seems like i have been too busy or its been too hot so havent gotten on my bike too much. went to cabin a couple of times . met tom and ginny miller for a weekend in june at the cabin. helped ed and pat finish staining the deck in july. went to the casino a couple of times. won a jackpot of $1300 in june. yay! chat with the neighbors here at pine harbor on the weekends.  took sydney out for a couple of days last week. val and ken met us in Sarona. they also came down to Pine Harbor for a few days in june. garden is doing horrible. something is eating the produce before i think it is ready to pick. or the seeds before they can even come up out of the dirt. very frustrating!! thanks to sister in law karen who gave me some green beans i got a few pints canned up. did corn today and strawberry/rhubarb jam in june. wont have to worry about hauling too much south i guess. it has  been a hot dry summer thus far. lots of 90 plus degree days in june. 

val and i at teddy bear tap in sarona

first blt of summer

poor pickings

surprise 70th for tom with our campground friendsgoo

good times with the neighbors

wine and music at Autumn Hill winery

yummy supper of kens walleye

most of the family

wade loves his uncle kevin

lainey and kolsyn enjoying some water time

mom with the babies

all of joels family plus sister cindi and all of us

breanna and Kolsyn

introducing Madison J Rykal. grandchild #9