Amazing Experience!

I'm going to interrupt our regularly scheduled broadcast and tell you about an absolutely amazing experience we had thanks to our son, Jason, and our daughter in law, Joanne.  Jan and my 50th anniversary was in October, and little did we know that Jason and Joanne were working on a surprise that they knew would knock our socks off.  We aren't really party people so they realized it would have to be something else entirely, and let me tell you, they knocked it out of the park, both Jan and I were blown away.

They flew down Friday and we all had a nice dinner and visit together to include Jan's sister, Karen, and BIL Tom here at our site.  Karen left the next morning, and we met Jason and Joanne for a nice lunch here in Venice.

But that wasn't the main deal as nice as it was.  We then drove to Tampa to the Epicurean Hotel where they had gotten us a room, we checked in and got a glass of wine and then when we got to the room this was waiting.

Then we got together and walked across the street for our real surprise, an incredible dinner and more at Bern's Steak House!

Into the dining room we went.

As Jason perused the 195 page wine list, I was offered a liquor list with 200 bourbons in it!

We talked to our waiter that has been there for 9 years about what it was like.  He told us that there were several waiters that had been there more than 45 years!  He told us there was a 1 1/2 year training program to include every station in the kitchen to working on Bern's own farm, and this training and experience showed.  We were told the dining experience would take 3-3 1/2 hours and it was perfect.

We started by sharing appetizers, steak tartare and escargot.

So delicious!

That was followed by soup, Jan and Joanne had the French Onion soup, Jason had lobster bisque and I had vichyssoise.

I only got the onion soup, I was busy eating:-)

They shared wine as I sipped my bourbon.  Then the salads.

All dressings are made in house

Then the piece de resistance, the entrees; Joanne had a filet, Jason and I had Delmonicos, and Jan had lamb chops.  They all were awesome and exactly cooked to order, wonderful!

The lamb chops

And the rib eye

Then little did we know that after dinner they had arranged for a kitchen and wine cellar tour!  Bern's has one of the largest selections of wine anywhere, over 600,000 bottles, with more than 200 by the glass!  It was amazing!

All their steaks are cooked over charcoal, you can see the station
in the background, and it's big enough to handle 200 steaks at a time!

Just a small part of it

And that was not all, not by a long shot, we were off to the Dessert Room.  It is a maze of small private rooms made from old wine casks.

Dessert was delicious and decadent:-)

And then for our anniversary, a special little addition.

It was an evening to remember, thank you Jason and Joanne!

A New Year, Short Post

A quick post to start off the new year.  We arrived to first off being surprised that Karen, Jan's sister was here visiting for awhile.  They really surprised us when she popped out the door in the midst of HH with friends, Harold and Debbie, Walker and Mirasol, and Tom.  So needless to say we have been doing a lot of visiting, eating, and Happy Houring together.  

And we've run the gamut on foods, from sushi, Thai, seafood, Vietnamese, Chinese, even hot dogs:-)

Thai beef salad

Lo Mein

Shrimp tacos

Cobb salad

Dynamite Chicago Dogs from Tony's

And in between all the eating, we did accomplish a few things.  Our DirecTV subscription has been going up and up in price for quite awhile and we have been discussing making the switch to streaming.  So the time has come, we had to get a new TV for the bedroom, the one we bought some time ago was only a monitor.

We already had an Apple TV so we moved it to the BR, and bought a new one for the living area, our big TV.  We already had Netflix, Paramount Plus, and Prime, so we added YoutubeTV so we could watch regular stuff and networks, and after a few bumps in the road, it seems to be working out fine.  The bonus is even with all these subscriptions we are over $100/month cheaper so far.  Time will tell ultimately.

The weather here in Florida is not cooperating, it has been cool, rainy, and windy, literally everyone we have talked with is complaining.  Oh well, it is what it is, and even so it is still way warmer than up north:-)  So much for climate change.

The previous year, 2023, will be remembered as the year our future plans starting changing.  And having said that, even now they have not yet been completely firmed up, but the wheels are in motion and we hope to able to share more and more of it with you as we proceed into the new year. 

2023 Recap, Part B, Even Longer

 We arrived at a favorite place in Montana, Ennis to beautiful skies and no smoke.

We had to go into Bozeman to get some groceries and other items and of course while there we had to have some sushi at Dave's.

One thing we wanted to do as soon as we could and the weather cooperated was paint our roof.  Our coach has sat out in the sun and weather for 16 years and the roof showed it.  I had done quite a bit of research into what various people were doing to address it and Rustoleum Marine Topside paint was the winner.  It turned out great.

Before

After

It was a sad year for fishing, not that we didn't try, we were in Ennis for 3 weeks and fished a lot of the days, but not good.  Figured it was obviously just us, but literally every single person we talked to said the same thing, this was just not the year for the famous Madison River.

But we explored, had to stop at Quake Lake for coffee.

Enjoyed the scenery.

Made some great meals.

Even made time for a Guinness:-)

We moved over to Missoula for a couple weeks and had a nice time when our daughter, Kelly and Brian came to visit.

Enjoyed our time together and showed them around.

To include this place:-)

A couple great dinners.

We said goodbye to Kelly and Brian early in the morning, they on their way back to Lubbock, and Jan and I over to Helena to get new tires for the truck, might as well take advantage of no sales tax in MT.

Tried fishing again in another river.  I caught one but still slim pickings.

Then we moved over to Emigrant, MT for access to Yellowstone National Park.  Nice site right on the Yellowstone River.

Into the park and to Lamar Valley for coffee and breakfast at dawn.

And saw more wolves than ever before, still learning with our diopter for the phone camera on our spotting scope.

Then a ride over the amazing Bear Tooth Pass to include a picnic lunch.

Then another amazing dinner by Jan, and a last dose of sushi before heading south.

A stop at Henry's Lake in ID for some sightseeing.

Then on to Heber City, UT and one of our favorite RV parks, Mountain Valley.  The foliage was incredible!!

And since our troublesome brake light stopped working again, the Diesel Mechanic, Jan went under to run an entirely new wire, adding that this would be the Last time!  It worked though and is still working now.

Found a great place for coffee.

And just to prove I can cook, shrimp and grits:-)

Way back in 2014, we found a sensational Vietnamese place in Salt Lake City called Oh Mai, which has wonderful food, bun, pho, etc, but the Banh Mi's are stellar.  We ended up going twice.

Then to Montrose, CO.

Another favorite restaurant in in Ridgway, GNAR Tacos.

Then the Last Dollar Road, a gorgeous drive, with a coffee stop.

A drive into Silver Jack Reservoir and over Owl Creek Pass with a picnic.

We got a dose of snow, so that the scenery on the way to our secret boon docking site over Slumgullion Pass was absolutely spectacular, the best we have ever seen in all our years doing this.

We had been looking forward to our spot for awhile, but especially this year as we would be there for our 50th Anniversary!  

10,500' north of Creede
privacy at its best

Even had a visitor.

It's a special place.

We celebrated in style.

Then on to Durango and a new campground for us, Durango Ranch RV Resort, very nice.

Spud Lake hike is one of Jan's favorites, and off she went.  I surprised her by doing it as well.

Found a new Asian fusion place, and went back to a favorite pizza place.

Then down to Taos to visit with Karen.

Along the way lunch stop

Even got to see several of the local denizens, YUCK!

On to Lubbock, but stopped quickly in Santa Fe to have the greatest green chile cheeseburger in the world at the newly reopened Santa Fe Bite.

Nice visit with Kelly and Brian at their new house.

Kelly fed us like royalty, an example was this delicious Thai shrimp curry soup.

Eastward now and happened by this place.

Got some catfish in OK.

Then Hot Springs, AR.

On to Nashville.

Couldn't be all fun and games though, the flex drain hose for our galley sink that goes in and out with the slide broke again.  Pretty easy fix except for finding a replacement hose which took several days.

Even got a Guinness fix in, and really enjoyed our site and views on the water.

Then through Guntersville,

And NC,

Back to Ellijay, GA for dentist and dermatologist, and friends.  

A beautiful site

John and Diane came up to visit, went to a local brewery and smoked some cigars

And we went to their place for a great visit, dinner, drinks, and cigars around the fire!

Not all good news there though, Jan's cancer showed back up, and was taken care of and I learned I needed a new crown.  NBD.

Then we back to Nashville to a new place Four Corners, very nice, in fact made some reservations for next year, met a friend Keith for lunch and a tour.

Jan still creating,

And we found a great Thai place.

Then to Gulf Shores, AL, nice place, Sun Resorts, Orange Beach.

Found some great seafood and oysters.

Then our AquaHot troubles began again.  No heat and the diesel burner if it ran put out so much black smoke you couldn't see.  We did all we could do ourselves and finally had to call in an expert to evaluate and determine it needed a new motor which he installed.  We also had the circulation pump for the main living area heat go bad.  

After it got fixed we celebrated with some crab stuffed local shrimp!

Then on to Port St Joe, right on the water but cold and windy.

And more shrimp.

On to Grand Oaks, an equestrian event center and RV park in Lady Lake, where we tackled the replacement of all the AquaHot circulation pumps, a 3 day ordeal as I mentioned:-)

Before

After

Enjoyed our quiet Christmas and dinner.

Then one more stop before Royal Coachman in Nokomis for the winter, Hidden River in Riverview, FL, also a nice place.

Had a quiet week there with some good food, imagine:-)

First excellent pho in Lakeland,

I followed it with a treat from Parkesdale, the best strawberry milkshake in the world!

Some superb sushi in Brandon.

And yes, that finally brings me to the end.  We are now here in RCR for the winter, the posts will slow down now that we aren't moving.  So thank you very much for following along with us on our travels and travails.