Kansas City time!

I flew into Kansas City on March 28th, to be here for Mom's hip replacement surgery on the 29th.  All has gone really well with that, she's home and moving around better than she has in at least a year, and has not had to use much pain medicine at all.  She's on strict orders to use the walker at least until her follow-up in two weeks, but I'm betting she gets down-graded to a cane then, and that won't last long, I don't think.

Today, 4 days post-op, Wendy, Mom, and I took our first field trip out of the house.  We were determined to go see the Salvy billboard in Westport.  It was quite the excursion!  Lots of traffic, lots of people, but I dropped Mom and Wendy off by the billboard and parked a couple of blocks away, and walked back to meet them.  We took along a folding chair in case Mom wanted/needed to sit, but it stayed folded up.  Mom did use her walker while waiting in line, and walking back to the car, but we left it out of the pictures.

This was so much fun!  Everyone there was in a really good mood, and people were helping take pictures for each other.

Part of the line of people waiting.

A wedding party waiting to get their picture taken.

This seemed like the perfect day to have some Jack Stack for dinner.  Yum!!

Mom's BBQ chicken.

My burnt ends with beans and slaw.

Settling in to chill out for the evening.  24 hours until BASEBALL begins again! 

Happy anniversary to us!

We had a wonderful day today.  Great memories from the last 5 years.

Today we tootled around The Villages in the golf cart.  We saw an alligator beside one of the golf cart trails.

And then a sand hill crane couple and their 2 babies needed to cross the path.

We went to Sumter Square to sit outside at City Fire and have dinner and people watch.  We had some bacon wrapped, cream cheese filled jalapeños.

And some nachos.

Oops, dropped some on Brad's toes.

Happy anniversary to us!

Ooh, and Brad got me an actual, real, authentic Clint-made cutting board, as in Clint from Fixer Upper, Jojo and Chip's woodworking guy.

Last day in Cedar Key

We've revised our timeline for Cedar Key a couple of times.  Originally, we were staying through the end of March, but we changed that to the 27th, so we can be closer to Orlando on Monday for me to fly to Kansas City.  After looking at the (very rainy) forecast for the next 3 days, we decided it would be best to skedaddle on out of here tomorrow to avoid that.  We are spending April at Brad's parents' place in The Villages, visiting with them some, before they take off on their own adventure.

So, looks like today is our last day.  Sad, but we've already made our reservations here for next year.

We decided to try out the one place on Dock Street that we hadn't tried yet, The Big Deck.  We heard they had fantastic sandwiches, and that was right!  We also ordered their curly fries with "the works".  Oh my!

After this picture, we added sour cream.  Have mercy!  This could have been a meal all by itself!

Our view from The Big Deck was of the boat launch area.

This looked like an interesting and fun contraption.

Just hanging out...

On the way home, we stopped off at the museum in town.  It gave a lot of the history of the town that we've read in other places, but was mainly dedicated to the whisk broom factory that was here.  The broom fibers came from the Sabal Palm, and the factory was initially out on Atsena Otie Key, where we have kayaked and hiked.  It was moved to Way Key, where Cedar Key is located, after the hurricane of 1896.  The brush fibers were sold all over the world.  The fiber mill was in operation until 1952.

Since we'll be staying at Dick and Marilyn's house in April (and also since I am flying to KC) we have to pack tonight... Ack!  And I have to pack for warm Florida weather, as well as crazy KC spring weather.  With all of our travels, we haven't had to pack or unpack anything, because our house just comes with us.  But there's not room to park the RV in their little cul-de-sac, so packing it is.

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So, packing is mostly done.  We decided we needed to make one more appearance at the Tiki Bar before leaving.  The sunset was pretty non-existent tonight, but the company is always good there,

The posts out to the dock are decorated with all kinds of shoes.

There are three RV spots at the Tiki Bar... Soon to expand to 7 or 8.  One of the RVs there has a cool bird.  I forget what kind it is, but it is mostly grey, with awesome red feathers on the underside of the tail.  I got to hold it!

Brad has been telling me how awesome the bartender at the tiki bar is at playing the guitar and singing, and tonight I finally got to hear her.

Walking back to our park, I just had to get pics of this wagon that has been parked at Sunset Isle for the last few days.

Good bye, Sunset Isle.  See you next year!

Making plans!

Today on our walk back from town, we decided to detour along the old railroad trestle walking path.  This was part of the cross-Florida railway that shipped goods to Cedar Key, and also transported pencils made here at two factories to the east coast.  There aren't any railroad ties or tracks to see any more, but there are still some of the posts that held up the tracks across part of the water.

And then this afternoon, we started planning for next year.  Some of these parks fill up pretty quickly, and if you want to stay a month, you have to book early.  So we've already got our reservations to come back here to Cedar Key, and we reserved a month in Port Aransas, TX, near Corpus Christi, instead of Galveston.  We love it in Galveston, but we've heard good things about this park in Port Aransas from several people, so we thought we'd give it a try.  And then...... We booked a week near Surprise, AZ, in March!!!   Eeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!  I'm so excited!!

And sunset...

Beginning of our last week in Cedar Key

Today we said good-bye to Bruce and Roberta, who are heading over toward Orlando now.  Then we walked into town and met up with Hubbard Lake friends Gerry and Joann Kraft, who were just passing through Cedar Key yesterday and today... And it's not easy to just pass through Cedar Key, since it's an island at the end of a road!  But they've been coming to Cedar Key since before we ever did, we found out after our first visit here.

So we met up for lunch at Annie's Cafe.

Tonight I cooked up some of the fish that Brad caught back in Orange Beach, on the Great Fishing Expedition.  Pretty tasty!

Sunday

Our last day to spend with Bruce and Roberta before they take off.  We all walked down to Dock Street to eat at Carlin's.  This was our lunch view.

One last group pic.

And sunset at our park.... Amazing!