Old Friends
Seminole, Florida
Wednesday – Thursday, May 9 -10, 2018
Clear, 85°
“Old Friends may not see each other often but that friendship stays strong through the years.”
I am excited today leaving Key West for the drive to see Old Friends of mine from the time I lived in Atlanta so many years ago. John and Anne were friends, business associates and all around a fun couple. They moved from Glasgow, Scotland in their youth and he became a general contractor in Atlanta. I did plumbing work for him before I moved to Alaska and we were best friends traveling on vacations together and enjoying the time our families spent cooking out or going on trips together.
It has been over twenty years since I last saw them, as the last few trips to Florida over the past six years we seemed to kind of miss each other. I would be coming through the area and they were either out of town, leaving during the time I would be there, or just out of sync trying to visit with each other.
This trip everything worked out and I spent a couple of days with John and Anne. When the RV pulled in front of the house both headed to the street to greet me. It was like old times with no time passing as we picked up from when we last saw each other and other than everyone aging a bit dealing with bad knees or other slight ailments we were all fine.
Anne cooked another one of her wonderful dinners with their typical British flavors and we sat around talking late into the night before finally deciding it was time for some much needed sleep.
They live on a small lake and there are several types of waterfowl that visit them each day looking for food.
There was an Egret and a Heron that stopped by both days and a large Frigate swooped in and sat on a rock just past their sea wall.
It is interesting that different people in different places have things that come by their houses giving enjoyment. Mine is the deer and birds, John & Anne have waterfowl and Jeff & Mindy had butterflies and birds.
The RV needed a propane refill so we crossed the Bay into Tampa to a Camping World to have it topped off once again since it powers the refrigerator while driving or if there is no shore power (electrical plug in) to use while remote camping. It also powers the heater but that will not be needed for a while with summer here and temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s each day.
While in Tampa, Maria visited her friends who all had lived in Germany and Oklahoma at the same time when her husband was in the service. They had not seen each other in many years so it was a great visit catching up on all of their children, retirement, and health related issues.
Driving past a concert venue while heading back across Tampa Bay we noticed Alan Jackson was going to be playing a concert that night and the roadies were getting everything ready. You could see them working setting up everything as we drove past.
Back at John’s I spent time getting all of the lovebugs off the windshield and front of the RV, as it was covered. I hate those squishy bugs as they are hard to remove. Getting a long scrub brush and hose helped but took a while to get it cleaned off. Anne and John made another great dinner as we grilled out. It was wonderful and I hate to leave in the morning.
It has been too long between our last visits so we will do better keeping in contact with one another. They head out to New York next Friday to board the Queen Mary for another trip back to England and Scotland to visit relatives still living there and we head out continuing our journey Traveling Life’s Highways.