The Missing Weeks! - Part 1

The last week we were in Florida and the week on the road to Sedona, we never had time to post. Not because we had nothing to report, but because:
1) We didn't have WiFi
2) And the real reason, we were just too busy having fun!!

There are so many things that I could report on, here are a few. I will eventually move this and Part 2 (still to be reported) to their rightful chronological order.

February 7 - 14, 2009

The Houses of Summer Bay are one of our timeshare highlights and we were looking forward to moving into the House with Merritt, June, Sondra and Mike and also the predicted better weather.


This is a 3 bedroom house with a lanai that included our own personal hot tub and pool ...........and a view like this!!

Now that's what its all about!!

The girls didn't waste any time getting into the pool.


And there were toasts all around!!


Saturday we had a great night at Old Towne for Cruise Night and Merritt found an identical Mustang to the one he used to have.


Mike (and June) cooked up some great dinners!


On the Monday, Chris and I took a trip to Honeymoon Island to do some shelling. This was something we had looked forward to for a long time.


We walked for miles on the beach which is a sheller's delight!


We saw many of these friends who were escorting us along the shore!


After several hours we had two very full bags of some great looking shells which also included 11 sand dollars!


We spent a very enjoyable afternoon in Dunedin at a number of antique stores and then had lunch at the IHOP in Clearwater Beach where we had eaten two years ago.


Temps had warmed to 77F


We took a drive along the Gulf Coast towards John's Pass. The section below is near Moe's Timeshare. This specific section has been under construction now for 3 years!!!


Moe's Timeshare looked to be in good shape!

We spent a great late afternoon in John's Pass and Chris got to go to a couple of Beall's stores and her all time favourite Dollar Store (Yawn!!) before heading home.

June taught Chris how to crochet!! Nice potholder Hon!!!



The one evening we got back to our house, Sondra went into her bathroom and initially thought that Mike had not flushed properly!!!


On closer inspection!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ............. A TREE FROG in the toilet!!!
ARGHHHHHHH! Just think about it for awhile!!!!

We finally got him to jump out and Merritt exercised the precision of a well seasoned frog hunter catching him mid-air as he lept out of the toilet and he released him to freedom outside!!!!
Okay, so the question still remains...............how does a tree frog get into a toilet (we had all been out) ???????? I still think he came up the pipes! Yikkes!!!!!

Merritt mixed a few drinks to help calm the girls down. What he didn't realize was that it was a Pre-Mixed drink and he not only added vodka, but he put in a little extra to help calm them down.
The result............


I fished the lake we were on several times from shore.
This is my idea of ICE Fishing!!!


I caught about a dozen of these guys. No biggies, in fact, I could have been charged with assaulting a juvenile some were so small!!


But a lot of fun none the less.



It was enough to wet the appetite of Merritt, June and my honey who all gave it a try.



There were several odd sightings through the week in addition to the tree frog!

We found this floating in the pool one evening!!


Merritt got a little scary more than once!!!!




It was a wonderful week with wonderful friends. We sure had a lot of laughs!!!


Just a fabulous week!!

Hair Repair

Thursday, March 19, 2009
A day off from Bass Pro today. I work 7 of the next 10 days. This is almost like work!! Geez, I'm working more than the guys at Dofasco!! .................... but also having a lot more fun!!


Met my fellow FishGuts (Moe, Barry, Bud & Paul) for a coffee and a lot of laughs at Lowes today (notice how Barry gravitates towards the flowers!), before heading to my trusty barber Angelo to see if he could realign and rescue my much maligned hairline!!



Things are much better now and I can face people without having to wear a hat.
Thanks Ang!!

Getting Caught Up

Tuesday, March 17, 2009
We finally got to take the girls out for a day of Birthday Shopping. Miranda and Maddy picked up a few new outfits and stuff and then we headed to Kelsey's for a late lunch...........Cheers!

We're taking them out again in the next few weeks to a Mystery Spot for Dinner!

Had a few minutes of quality time to spend with my little buddy before my Condo Board Meeting.



He's right back to normal.

We had another uneventful Board meeting in large part to Brian McKeon on the left, our Property Manager for the last 7 years. Fellow Board members Glen, Linda and Jim. Larry is still in his RV somewhere in the deep south making his way back from Mexico. A great team!


I picked up the latest copy of Bassmaster Magazine last night!!

Branson - The Shows!

March 1 - March 8, 2009
We saw some great shows while we were in Branson!
The first show we had to see was Jim Stafford. The last time I saw him I never laughed so hard in all my life! It was another great show by Jim (and his kids).


Here's a sample....


Wouldn't you know that I would forget my camera the night he comes down and shakes my hand!!..... Dang!!
Anyways, he was singing one of his old hits, Cow Patti and he throws a few out into the crowd and I got one! This should look good in my music room when I get it finished!!


We went to the Legends Concert later in the week at the brand new American Bandstand theatre. It was a great show and featured a great Alan Jackson look and sound alike.


Tina Turner


The Blues Brothers were great!!


Here's a Rod Stewart impersonator (who was a little light on his feet) doing Maggie Mae with the Alan Jackson guy playing mandolin (Ed take note!)


And finally a pretty good rendition of Elvis!


A few nights later went to see Pierce Arrow who had a big buildup, but we came away a little disappointed.


The main highlight of the show was their Comedian Jarrett Doherty (see below)

Our last Saturday in Branson was a very busy day! I went to see the Roy Rogers Museum in the morning (reported earlier) while Chris got her nails done. We then went to a Timeshare presentation (which got us a lot of our tickets). We had to hustle from there to get to the James Garrett (formerly of the Grammy winning Kendalls) tribute to George Strait and also featured a tribute to Patsy Cline. It was in a small theatre called the Little Opry Theatre, which consisted of about 5 rows of seats. This was an early evening show and started at 5:00 pm. We got our tickets and when we got to the entrance they said that they weren't sure that the show was going on! Evidently, we were the only paying customers!!! There was another couple there, but they were from Branson and were getting in free!
A few more people showed up and the show was a GO!


Interestingly, this was our favourite show!


James did a great job, and Jim Glaspy, his guitar player was awesome!! One of the best flat pickers I've ever heard! He also played a great dobro! He had a 5 string banjo there that I wish I would have heard him play


The show also featured a couple of ladies who were sitting in the audience and came up to sing a few songs. They were called Two Hearts and Hymn and was some of the best gospel songing I have ever heard. When they walked on stage, Chris said "I've seen that girl before!" It turns out that she is the Aunt of the kids on the TV show "18 and Counting" , an interesting show about a family bringing up 18 biological children. Chris had a great conversation with her and her Mother (the Grandmother of all the children).



From there, we rushed off to see the biggest show in town "SIX".
They are six brothers that sing acapella, but you would swear that they have a full band behind them with all the unique sounds that they make. Pretty amazing!


The last night there we went to see Tony Roi who is recognized as one of the best Elvis impersonators around, he was pretty good, but a little over the top and to be frank, we weren't that impressed.

All in all though, some great shows and many more that we could have gone to see.