Scuba Diving

Man its great to be back in Florida! The weather has been spectacular and we have been busy with lots of fun stuff (updating the blog isn't always fun, sorry).
Last year as we were leaving Florida, I bought an Intova X2 underwater camera, but didn't get the opportunity to dive it. In Ohio, I made a mount for it on my helmet and I started filming and taking pictures so all my peeps can see some of what I get to see on a routine basis.

I mounted the camera so I could see what I was taking a picture of and it was convenient for me to operate.  

 A new box of goodies showed up at my doorstep. Apex sidemount regulators! Me love.

 Ah, back to the fish pictures! First four are from a dive near Ft. Lauderdale.

 My good friend Kary McNeal.

The Spiegel Grove and the Benwood.

Snoopy was the mascot for the Spiegel Grove. Also called the Spiegel Beagle

My dive buddy Pete holds out the flag

Big Barracuda 4 to 5 feet long

The Benwood

Parrot fish

In the center of this pic is a fish. That is a five foot long Goliath grouper. Right above him is a turtle. My camera battery died right after I took this shot so I couldn't get any more.

Heading for Florida again

October 16 We got a late start after running a few errands in the morning. We ran down Route 33 through Ohio to 77 in West Virginia and motored to Charleston. Steak was on the menu for supper and we bedded down in Beckley, WV at a Walmart. This year we convoyed with Becky and Patrick taking turns driving the blue Impala. P just got his permit and logged quite a few hours.

That's us in there. The semi on the right came in and idled his diesel all night. He was noisy.

 Sights down 77 through WV and Virginia

 Patrick takes the wheel. Scary as _______!!!!

 You may remember a few years ago we went out to Washington and spent a month living at the Law's house. Richie retired from the Navy and moved his family to North Carolina. Our lives are busy and we had time to have dinner with Richie and the girls. Tara wasn't feeling well. Hope you get better sweetie!

Spent the night at the defacto RV park, Walmart.

 Had a small stretch of highway on the way down but most were back roads and nice driving. The arrival times were comparable.

 What that old Alabama song: "Cotton on the roadside, Cotton on the ditch, We all picked cotton and we never got rich."

 Walmart over night south of Ocala after a supper of barbecue.

 We arrived! Back at CB Smith Park for the winter and maybe longer.

 Of course we had to go to the beach! It was really windy. We took our part-time kid with us. He was sure glad we were back!

Even Florida was glad to have us back!

The refurbished apartment

After a month of hard work, the apartment was finally done. We gutted the bathroom and put all new fixtures in and tiled the floors. Changed the location of the bathroom door, installed a new front door to alleviate the problem with it dragging on the floor, changed out the window in the front bedroom so it was up to code and fixed all the shoddy studding and insulation. New carpet and vinyl plank flooring and had the drains snaked and cleaned. Wow! was it a job and it was a lot of fun working with Patrick, Becky and my dad. Patrick was quite the good helper and he is learning valuable life skills. I wish he would work this hard on his school work.

Patrick doing demo. His favorite construction job.

We knocked out the door and wall.

We have the wall studded out and the new door opening framed. The old opening is to the left, lower and narrower. The old door hit the tub wall and would not open all the way. Opening the wall helped get the old tub out and the new in.

All new plumbing behind the tub.

Dad and Becky lay new tile.

We put in shelves between the tub wall and the hall wall.

Finished product.

When I first bought this property, I put on a new front porch and the old overhang was left in place. Some of it had already be taken down. I decided this would be an opportunity to remove the rest of it and make things look prettier. The inside of the overhang was filled with walnuts and a squirrels nest.

The old wall was lacking in studding and the window was not adequately installed. It was very small as well.

New window in, restudded and ready for the plywood.

It was rented before we had it done. Made it easy to jump in the truck and ride to Florida.