Returning home to snow and ice

We were awake by 4:30 so we showered and checked out of the Forsyth Travelodge to continue north toward home. There was a light rain as we drove on I-75. By the time we were through Atlanta, we were ready for breakfast so we found a McDonalds near the exit and we both had sausage biscuits and hash browns although we had trouble getting the kiosk to work for us so Mary just ordered at the counter. We laughed because the drink station had five large containers of sweet tea and one small dispenser of unsweetened tea. This is clearly the South. 

Our GPS showed us that we would be home a little after noon but we figured that our arrival would be later considering stops along the way. We saw that gas was as low as $2.49 through much of Georgia and Tennessee but the average was probably $2.89. This was much better than the $3.29 that we paid in Crystal River, Florida.

Snow had already started by the time we reached Tennessee. Because we heard of heavy snowfall, ice and near zero temperatures in Central Kentucky, we stopped at a Kroger in the Knoxville area of Tennessee for a few grocery items. Because the outside temperature was in the 20s, we weren't concerned about keeping things cool in the trunk. We made a quick bathroom stop at the Kentucky Craft Center in Berea, Kentucky. The visitor center wasn't open, but the restrooms were available. We pulled into our driveway at 1 pm.

The snow and ice were so thick that we could get the car into the garage. There was a two-inch layer of snow with a two inch layer under the snow. Under the ice was another layer of snow. I used a large shovel to clear a way for the car to get into the garage.

We needed to be able to get on the road on Monday morning. My mother's friend, Ron, was to be released from Encompass Health Rehabilitation Hospital after receiving a pacemaker. After several unsuccessful attempts to get the car out of the driveway, I got the tractor ready.

Because of the single digit temperatures, the tractor wouldn't start. After briefly warming the battery I was able to get it to start. As usual, lining up the loader on the tractor took some time, made even harder by the cold and gloved hands. I worked on the driveway for another two hours before it was clear enough for the car to pass. I will certainly have to straighten out the gravel surface of the driveway once the snow melts in a week or so. This snow has already been on the ground for over two weeks and is expected to persist for another week. Temperatures for Monday through Wednesday are expected to be well below zero with wind chill factors as low as -11. Some schools haven't been open since December 20 because of the weather.

Once the driveway was clear enough for the car to pass, I went inside to a cup of hot cider and to stand by the gas log fire. When we tried to turn the heat up on the geothermal furnace, we noticed that the thermostat wasn't working. In the basement, I found that one of the breakers was open so the thermostat appeared to work and we turned the heat up. The house didn't appear to be warming much despite turning the heat up a few degrees. We had heard that the temperature should only be adjusted up by a few degrees at a time to avoid using the emergency resistance heat. The temperature inside the house just wouldn't go up and the air coming through the registers wasn't warm at all. After a couple of hours, I turned all three breakers for the heating system off and left them for a few minutes. When I turned them back on again, the furnace appeared to function correctly, and heat came from the vents. However, the breaker kicked again but after another reset the furnace worked throughout the night. We had Comfy Club scheduled for next week so we would be sure to ask the technician about the issue. This could have been a major problem if we hadn't been home with subzero temperatures and the furnace not working.

Once we warmed up, we watched a special on the Presidency on one of the free over-the-air channels. President Trump's inauguration is tomorrow so stations are running specials on the presidency.

We turned in at 10 pm and planned to leave for Huntington by 8 am tomorrow.

Hiking Annutteliga Hammock

We woke at 4:30 as Mark and Cindy were preparing to leave for the Tampa Airport. They were out of the house by 5 am for their flight to Eugene, OR with a stop in Phoenix.

Mary and I had cold cereal then took the dogs on a walk around "the square" in the neighborhood. As we walked we discussed the weather forecast for the coming week. A huge cold air mass is heading for most of the Eastern US including Florida. Mush of the Midwest, including Cincinnati, Georgetown and Huntington have been in deep snow and ice for over two weeks already with more in the forecast. This would bring near freezing temperatures to the Homosassa area as well as wind and thunderstorms. We decided that the best plan would be to leave for Kentucky after the dogs were fed and walked this afternoon.

Mary spent the morning cleaning, doing laundry and continuing to pack for our return home. I spent more time trying to clean the adhesive from the side of Mark's boat. I carried most of our things out to the car and into the trunk.

The neighbor from the house on stilts came over while we were loading. She had her father, Jimmy Williams, with her. He is a nice 92-year-old man who is a lifelong Florida resident and was a logger for many years. His daughter was trying to turn the water main off in anticipation of subfreezing temperatures. The saltwater and mud from the Hurricane Helene flood made the valve difficult to turn. I sprayed it with WD-40 and was able to turn it off with a crescent wrench after soaking for a few minutes.

We had a lunch of leftovers with coconut shrimp and fries from Thursday's dinner at Marguerita Grill. We also had some leftover potato soup from earlier in the week.

After scanning a map of the area, we decided to walk around an area about 30 minutes to the south that is a part of Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area that we hadn't visited. The Annutteliga Hammock area has 570 acres with 8 miles of easy trails through sandy soil. It was a beautiful day with temperatures approaching 80 degrees but there was a slight comfortable breeze. As we walked, we saw a lot of tracks but three deer were the only wildlife that we saw.

When we returned to the house, we took the dogs on a short walk on Standish and Battle Creek then put the last-minute items in the car, locked up and left by 3:30 pm. We hoped to get to Atlanta by the time we stopped for the night.

The drive north through Crystal River took longer than we expected because the Manatee Festival was going on. We were listening to playlists on my old iPod Touch to make the ride go by faster, Clouds were rolling in as predicted before the forecast storms to hit the area.

We took US 98 all the way to Chiefland then cut east to pick up I-75 north near Lake City. We stopped for dinner at an Arby's Restaurant near Lake City, Florida. The restaurant was attached to a TA gas station and was very slow but we enjoyed our sandwiches as we continued driving north.  We enjoyed the break before driving on to Forsyth, Georgia where we stayed at a Travelodge near the exit. The room was only $50 for the night and was an older motel in need of a remodel but it was clean and quiet, so we were fine with the room and the rate.

Preparing to leave Florida

We went downstairs after doing our morning language lessons for a breakfast of scrambled eggs and maple bacon. The morning temperature was 57 degrees but the forecast was for a sunny 70 degree day here in Homosassa, Florida.

We had planned a kayak outing today, probably to see manatees in the Crystal River nearby. However, Cindy hadn't been feeling well so we considered other plans. Mary knitted most of the morning and I helped Mark straighten tools and building materials in the garage. I took the tools that Mark wouldn't need out to the trunk of the car and left one of the nail guns for Mark. He would be installing trim around the doors and windows as well as putting down baseboard in the room above the garage. We also configured the internet capability of the garage doors. The MyQ system is easy to use and allows the garage doors to be opened and closed from anywhere.

We had been watching the monarch caterpillars on the milkweeds in front of Whittington’s house. As the caterpillars grew, we noticed that we no longer saw them. We assumed that they crawled into the nearby palm tree to form a chrysalis. We wondered if the adult monarch butterflies that we were watching today were the same as the caterpillars that we were watching a few days ago.

We came in for lunch when Mary called us in. She had used some of the leftovers in the refrigerator to make chicken quesadillas. Cindy came out for some leftover potato soup but continued to feel ill. We decided to scrap the kayak trip for today and do a few more things around the house.

After lunch, Mark and I started removing the chrome lettering from the boat. Some of the letters had fallen off over the past year due to what the dealer says is a weak adhesive. Mark decided to completely remove the lettering. Getting the chrome letters off was very easy. We used a blow dryer to heat the letters and pop them off of the boat hull. However, the adhesive adhered well to the paint. We tried alcohol, Goo Gone, WD-40 and charcoal lighter fluid to remove the adhesive. We had the best luck just using a plastic putty knife to scrape it off. We decided to get some acetone this evening to remove the adhesive.

Since we decided to forgo on the paddling trip today, we unloaded the kayaks from the bed of the pickup and replaced the paddles, seats and other gear into the garage. One kayak went out to the dock, the other was hung on the wall of the garage.

Cindy was feeling a little better so we went out to run a few errands. Cindy and Mary went to Walgreens to pick up a prescription while Mark and I sat in the car and looked for candidates as “Florida Man” as people went into Walgreen’s spirit store. We drove to the nearby True Value Hardware where Mary and Cindy found some drawer pull knobs for a bedroom dresser and Mark got a quart of acetone to use to try to remove the adhesive under the boat lettering. Our last stop was at Publix where we picked up a few grocery items and a bag of dog food,

After returning to the house Mark and I tried using the acetone to remove the acetone with mixed results. The acetone softened the adhesive but seemed to smear it over the side of the boat rather than removing it.

Mark made a stir fry with mixed vegetables, Asian noodles and Korean beef that was very good. Cindy didn't join us for dinner since she was still not feeling well. Everyone was hoping that she would be able to make the trip to Oregon in the morning. Mark and Cindy are buying a house near Eugene to rent to Robert and Sheena. They will also celebrate Robert and Michael's birthdays while they are there. We had planned to take them to the airport in the morning, but they found that it was less expensive to leave the car parked at the airport for the five days that they would be gone than to pay Airport Dan to transport them back home next week.

Since Whittingtons plan to leave before 5 am, we did our language lessons and turned in early.

Manatee Springs and Fanning Springs State Parks

We took the dogs on a walk around the neighborhood after doing our language lessons and a breakfast of oatmeal with nuts and craisins.

We decided to drive north to Manatee Springs State Park near Chiefland, Florida. The drive took a little over 90 minutes on US 98 through mostly agricultural areas of Florida. Mark's annual Florida State Park Pass got us into the park without charge. We walked on a few short trails in a wooded area then out a boardwalk where we saw three manatees including a calf, an alligator sunning on a log, many turtles and fish of all types. The boardwalk took us from the springs out to the Suwannee River. The water from the spring was absolutely clear allowing us to see a lot of aquatic life. There weren't many people at the park, but one couple was snorkeling in the area near the springs. So much water was coming from the springs that they were unable to swim back up to the springs and had to go to shore with the current and walk back. There were several sets of scuba gear near the spring. As we were leaving, we saw several people coming in with scuba gear so we supposed that there was a program starting this afternoon.

The day was starting to warm up, so we sat in the sun to have peanut butter on Ritz crackers, nuts and corn nuts for lunch. The temperature was up to nearly 70 degrees, so we were able to shed jackets and sweatshirts.

We drove the short distance from Manatee Springs State Park to Fanning Springs State Park. As we walked toward the boat launch area, we saw a young armadillo that didn't appear to be afraid of us. We watched it for a while then walked to the boat launch in the park. This is a small launch that is suitable for canoes and kayaks. Fanning Springs State Park is about 7 miles up the Suwannee River from Manatee Springs State Park so we discussed taking two cars there and dropping one at Manatee Springs then launching kayaks at Fanning Springs to float downstream to Manatee Springs.

We walked through a wooded area in Fleming Springs Park and noticed a good bit of damage from wild hogs. There is a variety of local vegetation throughout the park that we noticed as we walked. The 70-degree weather was perfect for our walk. We got to the springs area and walked around the area where swimming is permitted and out toward the Suwannee River. We saw two manatees in the water that surfaced from time to time. We also saw schools of fish swimming in the clear water.

When we got back to the parking area the armadillo was still digging around looking for food. I stood trying to get a photo when the animal came toward me and almost walked across my foot.

The drive back to Homosassa went well, and we arrived back at the house by 4:30. I took a quick shower and changed clothes for dinner at Marguerita Grill.

We go to Marguerita Grill every time we are in Homosassa. The restaurant and bar are decorated in patriotic themes with banners from each branch of the military as well as fire, police and EMS logos hanging throughout the restaurant. The restaurant's owner is very conservative and makes a point to display the commitment to patriotic causes.

I was hungry so I had Gavin’s Seafood Platter that included fish, shrimp, scallops, clam strips and a crab cake. My sides were French fries and a garden salad. Mary had Aspen’s crab cakes for dinner with fries and a side salad. I had one of her lump crab cakes and she had some of my shrimp, fish and clams. When ordering a margarita, I learned that a "medium" margarita is served in a beer pitcher and serves four. We got four glasses and shared the margarita. We all enjoyed our meals. The food and service were excellent as always.

This was another great day with the Whittingtons.  We have really enjoyed our time here in Homosassa.  We aren't ready to face the subzero temperatures back home but we look forward to seeing family and friends at home.

Back at the house, we did our evening language lessons then watched two episodes of Vienna Blood on PBS before turning in for the night.

Hiking at the Hog Pond area of the Withlacoochee State Forest

We had cold cereal and a bagel for breakfast after doing our morning language lessons. Mark and I took the dogs on a walk around Eldred, Bassett and Cedar Gate then came back to the Whittington's house on Standish Drive. The walk was short since we planned to take the dogs on a longer walk this afternoon.

The weather at home continues to be cold and snowy.  The thermometer at home showed -1.3 degrees this morning.  We are happy to be in Florida with much warmer weather.  All of the locals think that these days in the 60s are cold but we are enjoying the escape from the extreme cold at home.

Mary and Cindy continued to work on their genealogy in Familysearch.com while Mark and I went out to the garage. Mark cleaned and straightened in the upstairs room while I sorted the things that I would leave for Mark to continue working on finishing the room. I know that he would need one of the finishing nail guns but he has plenty of tools and supplies for finishing the drywall. I packed up the MantisX laser academy shooting system and my two pistols to come home with us.

Mark came down and we put another coat of primer over the patch in the garage partition. We put a large fan on the floor to speed drying then used a can of orange peel texture spray on the wall. It didn't give quite enough texture so Mark tried his can of knockdown texture. This would normally give a lot more texture than the orange peel but he set the spray to the lowest setting and moved quickly to get a texture matching the rest of the wall.

While the texture dried, we went in for a lunch of cheddar cheese and leftover beans in a tortilla wrap with salsa. We discussed afternoon plans for a walk to the Hog Pond area of the Withlacoochee State Forest.

The texture spray was dry after lunch so we applied a coat of white Behr Marquee Satin Paint. To get a match, we painted the entire wall, ceiling to floor rather than just the patch. The wall looked good although it would require another coat in the patched area.

We gathered a few things and loaded the dogs into Cindy's Toyota Highlander to go on a walk through the nearby Hog Pond area of Withlacoochee State Forest. There was only one vehicle in the parking area when we arrived, and we put the dogs on leashes to take them on a walk on the trails..

This area has a variety of habitats including palmetto thickets, areas wooded with live oak trees, scrub meadows and sandy prairie. We saw a lot of evidence of tortoises in the area but the day was just in the low 60s so we didn't see tortoises. Two armadillos were very near us and appeared to have little fear. Of course, there were a lot of squirrels to excite the dogs. We saw tracks of raccoons, deer and wild hogs but no other animals. Two young men came by us, one on a Segway electric bicycle and the other on an electrically powered skateboard with one large wheel. By the time we were back to the car, we had walked between 6 and 7 miles.

After the short drive back to the house, I vacuumed and cleaned the inside of Cindy's car while Mark got dinner started then came out to brush down cobwebs on the front of the garage. I put one last coat of paint on the garage partition wall.

Dinner was cheesy potato soup made from Bear Creek soup mix along with a garden salad and hard rolls. Everything was very good.

We watched two episodes of Vienna Blood on PBS after doing our evening language lessons. We turned in by 10 pm.

Lunch at The Freezer

Mark was making some of his excellent breakfast burritos when we went downstairs. We had finished our morning language lessons and had our beverages before going down.

We checked the weather at home and felt bad (a little) because temperatures were in the single digits and they snow and ice continue to pile up.

Mary and Cindy had a morning of shopping planned but would take the dogs on a walk before they left. They shopped for swimsuits at Lands End so Mary found three that were 70% off that she liked and put the order in to arrive after we returned home next week. Cindy was also expecting the cabinet installer to come for a final measurement before ordering the replacement kitchen cabinets. They hope to have a small dishwasher included in the cabinets and would like to keep their granite countertop.

Mark and I loaded the drywall scraps and old trim boards that had been flooded into the pickup. When we arrived at the Citrus County Landfill we were pleased that the line was short. We dumped the drywall and trim sections. When we weighed out we learned that we had over 200 pounds of material and the fee was less than $20 for the dump fee.

We stopped by Gulf to Lake Marine Sales so Mark could check on ordering a cover for his boat. From there we stopped at Lowe’s to see options for trim and moulding for the room over the garage. We found that the pine planks at Lowe’s were less expensive than the ones we bought from Home Depot. The boards were also in much better shape than the Home Depot stock. We bought some drywall corner bead, trim for the doors and windows and a tube of construction adhesive. Our last stop was at Crystal River Marine, the boat dealership where Mark had the hull of his boat painted with a coating to resist growth of marine organisms.

On the drive back to the house we saw Cindy and Mary driving out to go shopping. Mary had moved her car to the neighbor’s driveway so Mark could back the boat trailer onto the gravel pad. He was able to park the boat and trailer easily so we chocked the wheels and put the jack down to disconnect from the pickup. As we were doing that, FedEx arrived with a nightstand that Cindy had ordered from Wayfair. We carried it into the first floor bedroom so Mark could unpack and set it up. I moved Mary’s Camry back to the gravel pad where we had parked earlier but parked parallel to Standish Drive in front of the boat.

We put a skim coat on the concrete board that we installed on the garage partition and hoped to get it completed before we leave on Sunday. About the time that we were finishing, Mary called asking us if we wanted to meet them at The Freezer for shrimp. We didn’t hesitate to agree on lunch so we cleaned up and drove the short distance to the dockside restaurant. We had a pound of shrimp boiled for the four of us. Mark and I also had cups of their clam chowder. They were out of smoked mullet dip so the four of us shared a cup of salmon dip with crackers. Lunch was very good. We have always enjoyed our meal at The Freezer every time we have visited. We only wish the day were warm enough for us to eat outside on the dock where shrimp is brought to the restaurant by boat.

After returning to the house Mary and Cindy worked on genealogy. Both of them had some things on ancestry.com so they consolidated their research on familysearch.com, a free genealogy site supported by the LDS Church. Mark and I put a coat of primer on the inside wall in the garage where we patched the concrete wallboard.

I used some of the leftover exterior paint for the garage to touch up the wall near Mark’s sauna. Mark used the same paint to paint the mailbox post and an area where saltwater from the flood caused a short circuit in a power line going to the heat pump. A relay blew making a scorched spot on the wall that covered nicely with the paint.

Mark & I loaded the two kayaks and boating gear onto his pickup in anticipation of paddling on Crystal River or another nearby location in the next few days.  We knew that the temperature would be cool in the mornings but would warm up into the mid 70s each afternoon.  We have several things that need to be done but a trip to see manatees would be nice one afternoon.

Mark made chicken enchiladas for dinner but made them casserole style like Mary sometimes does. They were very good and we all enjoyed them. After dinner we went out to the garage to challenge Mary and Cindy with the MantisX Laser Academy shooting system.  Both did well once they became comfortable with the pistols.

We did our evening language lessons and watched two episodes of Vienna Blood on PBS before turning in.

Completing the room over the garage

After waking early, we did our morning language lessons, and texted birthday wishes to Sarah. She said that she would video chat with us after the boys got home from school.

We had Great Grains cereal for breakfast and started back to work on the ceiling in the room over the garage. The paint was dry on the planks that Mary and Cindy had stained yesterday afternoon, so we carried the 8-foot boards up to the second floor. The boards went up fairly quickly, so we moved to the last section that were 9’ 3” wide so we had to use the 10’ boards. We slowed down to cut around an electrical box for a ceiling light. We cut an access hole to for the ventilation fan in the attic. We had to rip a thin board for the last row on the ceiling, but it went into place fairly easily.

We stopped for a lunch of turkey sandwiches with tortilla chips and queso dip, then went back to work.

We finished the ceiling by around 3 pm and were pleased with how it looked. Since we had some stained planks left, we ripped pieces to enclose the windows at each end. The boards required some fine tuning to fit around the windows, but we got them nailed into place. Then we cut a plywood cover for the ceiling access then covered it with stained planks to match with the ceiling. The room still needed to have the Sheetrock finished and trim to be put up around the doors and windows as well as between the drywall and the stained pine planks. We started cleaning up the space since it was covered with sawdust and tools were placed around the room where we were using them.

Mark could tape and finish the drywall when they return from Oregon in two weeks. They were going to Oregon to finalize the purchase of a new house where Robert and Sheena will rent from them. They also planned to celebrate the boys’ birthdays and visit some of their Oregon friends. Mark does a good job with drywall and should get the room looking good soon once they return from the trip.

Sarah and the boys video called for a video chat, and it was great seeing them. We look forward to having them down for a sleepover soon.

We decided on leftover red beans and rice with a garden salad for dinner. We did our evening language lessons then watched two episodes of Vienna Blood on PBS.

Putting up the garage ceiling

After waking around 5 am, we did our morning language lessons and had a cup of tea. Mark made sheet pancakes with pecans and blueberries for breakfast. I had soaked a pound of red beans in water with baking soda the night before. I rinsed the beans well and added them to five cups of beef broth. I brought the beans to a boil then set them to simmer until dinner.

Mary and Cindy took the dogs on a walk through the neighborhood before going to Seven Rivers Presbyterian Church at Lecanto, Florida. Mark and I went to the room over the garage the continue installing pine planks on the 27’ long front side of the garage. Since we had the starter strip of planks already in place where the pine meets the drywall sheets the process of nailing the 8- and 10-foot planks on the wall went quickly. We noticed that we had incorrectly mitered one of the 8 foot boards after we had nailed it down with 16 gauge finish nails in the nail gun. That is when we were convinced that the holding power of the nails was more than adequate. That board was difficult to remove. We worked quickly and efficiently getting the wall completed by lunch.

We came in for a lunch of turkey sandwiches and tortilla chips with queso dip, then back out to the garage to work on the ceiling. I added andouille to the beans for Cajun style beans and rice for dinner. As expected, the first board was the most difficult but important. We wanted to use all 10 foot boards to eliminate joints in the ceiling. We needed to cut the boards to the exact length with a miter on both ends to meet with the planks on the angled walls. We installed the boards perpendicular to the direction of the boards of the walls.

Once the first board was up, the other 10-foot boards went up fairly quickly in that section of the ceiling. Because the selection of 10-foot planks was much more limited than the 8 footers, some of the boards had a slight bend. One of us had to screw a short section of 2 X 4 into a joist and pry the planks into place while the other one nailed it to the joint. For all of the planks, we used a short section of waste board to coax the tongue and groove boards together without damaging the edges.

By the time we had installed planks on the 13-foot section of ceiling we were tired and knew that we would need more planks to finish the ceiling. We measured the length of the ceiling requiring 8-foot planks in inches then divided by five which is the width of the planks, to get the needed number of planks for the ceiling. We did likewise for the ceiling section furthest from the house that was 9 1/4 feet wide and would need 10-foot planks.

We took Mark’s pickup to Home Depot and picked out the best planks we could find. Like most of the employees at the Crystal River Home Depot, our cashier was very old. She had difficulty scanning the lumber and had to hand enter the UPC for the boards. We fortunately had only 8’ and 10’ tongue and groove pine planks. The bill showed up as nearly $2000! It turns out that she had entered a quantity of 200 boards at the 8-foot length rather than the 20 boards that we were purchasing. She was unable to find the price for the dozen 10’ boards so she rang them up as the less expensive 8-foot planks. We got things straightened out and brought the boards into the garage where Mary and Cindy stained them while Mark and I moved the boards that were already stained upstairs to be used on the ceiling.

We went in for dinner of red beans with andouille and white rice which we all enjoyed our meals. After doing our evening language lessons we watched Astrid and Vienna Blood on PBS then went up to bed. We watched the last episode of Astrid until new episodes are released next year.

The Florida Aquarium

After an oatmeal breakfast, Mark and I changed some of his Wyze cameras to updated models then we all took the dogs for a walk around Eldred, Bassett and Cedar Gate. When we returned, we primed the garage wall that we had repaired with concrete board last week. We plan to allow the primer to dry for a day or two then spray with orange peel spray.

We left for Tampa at 10:30 for our 12:30 tickets to the Florida Aquarium in Tampa. We were meeting Steve and Marcia at the aquarium to spend the day then go to a late lunch nearby. We had purchased our tickets online and had the email with our barcodes for admission. We parked in the lot that is used for the aquarium as well as cruise ships that leave from Tampa. We paid $25 for five hours of parking.

Steve and Marcia were already at the aquarium when we arrived, and we were happy to see them.

We walked around the many displays and especially enjoyed the large tanks with schools of large fish as well as marine invertebrates like algae and sea anemones. We also enjoyed the very colorful and unusually patterned fish as well as the very large fish like groupers and the Māori wrasse. Some of the larger tanks had several varieties of sharks and one tank had a large Ridley’s Sea Turtle. Smaller displays throughout the facility had snakes, lizards, turtles, alligators, birds, otters and other animals associated with water.

We had made it through the aquarium by 3 pm and we were all ready for lunch. We had planned to eat at Half Moon seafood restaurant which was only a couple of blocks from the aquarium. The restaurant had very good reviews online and offered seafood and a variety of other options. However, when we arrived we saw that they did not have an indoor dining room, only some shared tables outdoors. Since the day was cool and windy we opted to look elsewhere. Mary searched for someplace to eat nearby that had good reviews and a menu that would suit everyone. She suggested BurgerFi with an average rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars. We had never heard of this chain found only in the Southeastern US, but we were hungry and the restaurant didn’t appear to be crowded so it was our choice.

There was a table of six open in the small restaurant when we arrived. The counter employee at the BurgerFi greeted us when we arrived and was exceptionally pleasant making us feel welcome. We ordered burgers and chicken sandwiches. Everyone ordered onion rings that were highly recommended. My burger, the CEO, was a double patty of Wagyu beef with cheeses and sauces. My burger was excellent and everyone enjoyed the meal. We were glad that we arrived when we did since the restaurant filled up once we were seated.

Steve and Marcia had parked in the parking garage across the street from the aquarium, so we said our goodbyes and parted and drove back to Homosassa. We were not hungry for dinner, so we did or evening language lessons the watched Astrid and Vienna Blood on PBS.

Paynes Prairie

We had our morning beverages and did our language lessons before going downstairs for a breakfast of scrambled eggs and maple bacon. We gathered binoculars, cameras and lunch snacks for a trip to Payne’s Prairie and perhaps the Kanapaha Botanical Gardens near Gainesville.

It was about a 90-minute drive north to the Ecopassage Observation Boardwalk at Paynes Prairie State Park. Mark’s Florida state park pass got us admission without cost. We drove by the visitor center for a bathroom stop then on to a boardwalk area over a large wetland area where we saw a huge variety of birds including bald eagles, ospreys, sharp shinned hawks, harriers, red shouldered hawks, snail kites, limpkins and many types of waterfowl and wading birds. Near a large flock of whistling ducks we saw two alligators, one of which was especially large. Since the day was cool, in the low 60s, we didn’t expect to see alligators out basking in the sun. As we walked, we were certain that we heard a SpaceX launch going up. Although we scanned the sky for the several minutes that we heard the roar, we never spotted the rocket. After we got back to Homosassa, Mary looked up recent launches and confirmed that we had heard a rocket launch. The boardwalk passed over an area that appeared to be frequently inundated with water. There were many snail snail shells of all size scattered along the top of the damp soil.

We had a snack lunch of Ritz crackers, stale peanut butter, corn nuts and chips as we drove to the Bolens Bluff area of Paines Prairie. We walked about a mile through a wooded area with a lot of damage from wild hogs. When the trail opened into the prairie we could see wild horses in the distance near an observation tower. These small horses are descended from horses brought to Florida by Spanish explorers in the 1500s. As we walked toward the tower, we saw a variety of birds including several sandhill cranes and several species of predatory birds.

At the tower we counted 10 wild horses including one with a cattle egret on its back. We watched the horses grazing in the damp prairie grass and looked for birds and Mary spotted a bison herd in the distance. Using binoculars, we could see about 20 bison grazing.

As we walked back to the parking area, we chatted with several groups walking out to see the horses and bison. Mary read to us about the nearby Kanapaha Botanical Gardens. It sounds like the garden would be a good visit in warmer months, but we knew that most of the featured tropical plants wouldn’t be growing at this time of year. We drove through the parking lot then headed toward Homosassa.

Mark grilled some outstanding steaks from the beef that they bought from a neighbor in Idaho. The steaks were tender and flavorful. Mark grilled them to a perfect medium.

Mark and I installed the soundbar bracket and Sonos Beam soundbar on the living room television. The sound quality is quite good.

We watched an episode of Astrid season four and rewatched an episode of season one of Vienna Blood with Mark and Cindy.

Hanging pine planks in the garage

The air was brisk but not cold when the four of us moved the stored items across the garage after a breakfast of breakfast and cold cereal. Mary and Cindy walked the dogs while Mark and I went to Home Depot. We got two sheets of drywall to finish that part of the project. The pine tongue and groove planks were about $2 per square foot but we had to sort through hundreds of boards to get 250 square feet that was usable lumber. We estimated that we would ultimately need 500 square feet to cover the upper walls and the ceiling, but this was as much was we could get in this load. Mark picked up a gallon of clear water-based polyurethane to coat the boards before we hang them. We stopped by Harbor Freight to get more saw horses for Mary and Cindy to coat the boards. It was lunchtime by the time we purchased and loaded the boards so we carried the Sheetrock upstairs and started unloading the boards. We tried to get a variety of lengths from 8, 10 an 12 foot boards although most of the boards were 10 feet long. We stacked them in the garage by length and took boards needing sanding outside.

Mary made wraps of black beans, Mexican rice, and cheese for lunch then we went out to the garage to get started. Mary and Cindy worked to brush and roll sealer on the boards and place them on the garage floor to dry. Mark and I finished hanging the Sheetrock and making a crawl space opening in a side wall to access items for long term storage.

Since the sealer dried quickly on the boards, we decided to start hanging some on the 13 foot wall at the back of the garage. We put a long starter board up first with the tongue up, making certain it was level. We put 2 inch finish nails in with the Harbor Freight pneumatic nailer. We continued upward mixing 8 and 10 foot boards with mitered joints where the boards meet in a row. We completed the row by 5 pm and decided to clean up and quit for the day.

The job is looking good, and we were happy that we decided to use the pine planks. We considered options for the ceiling from continuing the wood onto the ceiling to drywall to tin. We would have some time to weigh options before we would be ready to work on the ceiling.

We went in and Cindy made a stir fry of beef, broccoli and Yakisoba noodles. I had never heard of Yakisoba but the noodles seemed a lot like Chinese Lo Mein noodles.  We did our evening language lessons before watching an episode of Astrid and Vienna Blood on streaming PBS. The weather news from Cincinnati, Georgetown and Huntington continued to sound snowy and cold. We were happy to be in Florida during the foul weather. We turned in at 10 pm.

Hanging Sheetrock over the garage

We awoke early, had morning beverages and did our morning language lessons. Breakfast was waffles then we took the dogs on their morning walk. The temperature was in the 40s so a jacket felt good for the walk.

When we returned from the walk, we continued hanging Sheetrock in the room above the garage. We finished covering the wall along the stairwell then cut sheets to fit the bottom section of the side walls. Each section was about 5 1/2 feet long and only had two cutouts for electrical receptacles. Mark and I worked well together to cut and hang the sheets.

We broke for lunch and had leftover black beans with tortilla chips then continued cutting and hanging sheets of gypsum until had the longer wall covered up to the 5 1/2 angle. Then we put two sheets up on the end of the room nearest the house. We had only two sheets left and estimated that we would need an additional two sheets plus the scraps from the cuts on the short walls to complete the job. We would have to move all of the items stored in the room to the area where we had already hung drywall. We would also need to go to Home Depot in the morning to buy the drywall and some tongue and groove pine panels to cover the angled side walls and perhaps the ceiling.

The dogs had a short walk in the neighborhood around Eldred, Bassett and Cedar gate before our dinner of a large garden salad with grilled chicken breast. After showering and doing evening language lessons we watched another episode of Astrid and one of Vienna Blood on PBS.

Starting garage repairs

Mary and I had our morning beverages and did our language lessons then went downstairs. We had some of the leftover biscuits from Sunday along with cold cereal for breakfast. While Mary and Cindy took the dogs on their morning walk, Mark and I went to Home Depot to get supplies to work in the garage. The structure of the garage is concrete block so there was no damage to the exterior walls from flooding. However, the interior partition had damage from the saltwater that filled the garage with several feet of water over the night of September 26 during Hurricane Helene.

We bought a 4X 8 sheet of 1/2 inch Durock cement board to repair the downstairs partition and 11 sheets of Sheetrock to start the process of finishing the upstairs of the garage. We got a small pail of premixed thinset mortar to use like drywall mud for the cement board and the special 1 5/8” screws for the cement board.

When we got back to the house, we placed the new sheet of Durock against the damaged wall and used it as a template to remove the existing material. Most of the cutting was done with a masonry disc in Mark’s Milwaukee cordless angle grinder. We scraped around the rest of the wall to remove flaking paint and prepare the wall for repair. We attached the cement board with the screws then placed adhesive mesh tape along the joints. The mortar filled and smoothed the joints in preparation for finishing. Mark will prime the wall, spray it with orange peel texture and finally paint it to match the other walls in the garage.

We went into the house for a lunch of a bowl of soup and ham sandwiches then returned to the garage to carry the 4X8 sheets of drywall up the stairs of the garage. We started on the ends of the room since full sheets were required to cover the walls. We tried using the Roto-Zip to cut the drywall around outlets and the windows, but the 25-year-old tool no longer had the power to speed through the cuts. We found that a drywall blade in Mark’s cordless Milwaukee oscillating saw did a much better job. By dinnertime we had one end of the room covered and had started on the wall along the stairwell.

Although the temperature got down to the low 40s this morning, it warmed up to the upper 70s by afternoon. While watching local news from Lexington and Huntington online we are seeing single digit temperatures at night as well as additional snow added to the initial 8-12 inches from the weekend. Continued cold temperatures and snow in the forecast promise no relief in sight. We feel for family in Georgetown, Cincinnati and Huntington but are happy that we are in Florida during this weather.

We cleaned up and drove to The Villages where we had dinner with Grant and Jodie. Jodie had a taco bar and baked quesadillas. We had a variety of desserts and chips to snack on as well. After dinner, most of the group played card games while I read. Grant and Jodie were leaving for a Caribbean cruise, and we enjoyed hearing about their travel plans.

After we got in from Jodie’s we covered a few plants outside in anticipation of possible temperatures here in Florida approaching the mid 30s.

Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge

We slept well at the Titusville Hampton Inn. We watched the local news in Lexington and Huntington online and learned that both areas were being hit by winter storm Blair. Huntington and Lexington had 6-8 inches of snow, but Cincinnati was getting socked with a foot of snow on the ground.

We went down to breakfast at the Hampton Inn with scrambled eggs, sausage, waffles and fresh fruit salad. Mark and Cindy came down soon after we arrived in the breakfast area.

We checked out of the hotel and drove to the Black Point Wildlife Drive of Merritt Island Preserve. This 7-mile loop drive has a variety of habitats that attract birds, alligators, snakes and mammals of all types. We drove slowly along the gravel road stopping frequently to look at the birds in and around the shallow water. Mary and Cindy had a wildlife checklist that they used to list the many varieties of wading birds, waterfowl and predatory birds that we saw. We had a lot of debate over many of the wading birds since most were brown with long legs and slender pointed beaks. There were large groups of ducks and grebes feeding in the water along with ibis and egrets wading along the edges. Cindy was especially happy to see some rosette spoonbills flying over us.

We saw several bald eagles feeding on fish in the shallow water, but the ospreys were in abundance as you might expect in the coastal area. Seeing an osprey snag a fish from the water is always a sight to see.

When we stopped at trails leading to viewing blinds we met other visitors to the area. Since Black Point Wildlife Drive is well known for attracting a wide variety of birds, most of the people we met were birders and photographers. It was nice to compare our guesses of bird identification with people with much more knowledge and experience in bird species.

When we got to the Cruickshank Trail the temperature was over 80 degrees, so we decided to take a walk. As we enjoyed the warmth of the Florida sunshine, we thought about the weather forecast back home with nearly two weeks of heavy snow and temperatures dipping into the subzero range. We had been calling family to check on conditions and how everyone was doing.

The Cruikshank Trail is a five-mile-long walk with water on both sides of the elevated path. The only people we saw on the trail were two young men illegally fishing just off the path. Because they were releasing their catch, they didn’t see that they were doing anything wrong. We had gone about 2 miles out the trail when we came to a shelter with seats beside a gauging station to monitor water levels. While we sat in the shelter, we went online to check the status of a Space X launch that was scheduled for 12:20 this afternoon. Because of the wind, we saw that it had been rescheduled for 2 pm although we suspected that is wouldn’t be launched today at all.

We decided to walk back to the car and finish the loop drive then head back to Homosassa. Along with several other cars, we stopped to view a large group of egrets and other birds. After looking at the birds we started driving when we saw an egret fly onto the roof of the car in front of us and ride along for several hundred yards before flying away. We checked the SpaceX launch schedule again and saw that it was pushed back again so we didn’t wait around.

The drive back to Homosassa was uneventful except for some debate in the car over the best routes to take back. After several wrong turns and missed intersections, we made our way back. We stopped at a Twistee Treat for ice cream at a town along the route.

Back at the house we had chicken corn chowder with some leftover cornbread muffins for dinner then watched an episode of Astrid on PBS.