& Then I Bought an RV!

Between trips, and we are in that mode from now til early November, we still maintain our Tampa Home. Some of our friends have opted to sell and travel fulltime for a few years. We are not going to move to that extent. We enjoy home, and our activities in Tampa.....Elks Lodge.....Duchess' water aerobics and water volleyball, etc.

The picture is the arch over the front walk which I installed about 18 months ago, and now covered in Confederate Jasmine and Bleeding Hearts. It has been one of my gardening successes. I never dreamed it would cover so fast, and in fact I have to re-weave and trim the thing about every two weeks currently. (The plants along the sidewalk in front of the arch are crotans...There are at least three types)

While examining the picture a sharp eye will also note the evidence of my major yard problem......brown pine needles on the roof. Our yard has two huge Oak trees.....one at left of the picture and one behind the house. In addition we have a stand of some 8-9 60-80 foot pines. These beauties drop pine needles year around, and also from time-to-time drop 20-30 foot limbs! Twice in recent years the limbs have wiped out our electric power to the house. The roof has to be de-needled at least twice yearly. I won't even begin with what the needles do to the guttering and downspouts.

Enough of this, as it does not relate to my RV stories....however, it does perhaps give the reader a sense of our overall life.....we love the road, but also our Tampa base.....especially in non-hurricane-producing years such as this one has been!

Have a great week.

Duke