Herb and Nancy's in San Antonio, Florida

Friday, 2/10/12

We left Manatee Springs State Park this morning.  We drove down toward San Antonio, Florida where our friends, Herb and Nancy Gwin have bought a new house.  They live in Eagle River, Alaska.  We met them on our first trip to Alaska when Herb was canning salmon at his site in the campground.  Winkie (our friend from Georgia) and I walked over to their campsite and asked how that was done.  Herb and Nancy invited us to stay for dinner (fresh red salmon). Who could turn that down?? And we have been fast friends every since.  We are so happy they bought a house down in Florida.  It's a lot closer to us than Alaska!!  Their plans are to retire in 4 years and move to Florida.

 

After we stopped at Wal-Mart and got a few groceries, we got to San Antonio around 6:00 p.m and dry camped in an empty lot across the street from Herb and Nancy's house.  Nancy and Herb served us salmon dip (yes, canned salmon caught and brought from Alaska on the plane!) and crackers for dinner, which was SO good.  We talked until about 9:00 p.m.,  then we headed over to the RV.  The temperature dropped tonight.   We turned on the furnace and it kept us both awake most of the night popping off and on.

Saturday, 2/11/12

Today,  Herb, Bob (Herb's brother -in-law) and Ed played golf.  It was so windy, we couldn't believe they were going.  Nancy, her sister Penny, and I went shopping.  We went to Tampa, stopped at some high end shopping, then stopped at a store named Leaders, which sells indoor/outdoor patio furniture.  We all bought a few things, then back home to Nancy's.  We went to dinner at Beef O'Bradys where we heard lots of golf stories!  Upon returning, we decided to head to the RV.  The temperatures dropped into the low 20s tonight so we were pretty cold!

Sunday, 2/12/12

Today, Herb and Nancy took us into Tarpon Springs and to the beach at Howard Park.  Tarpon Springs is cute and touristy.  It is the sponge capital of the world.  There were tons of stores that sold "real sponges", not the kind you buy at the grocery store!  Nancy and I went into a store that carried handmade soap in lots of fragrances.  They had sponges melted into the bar of soap.  The girls will love these.  We had lunch at Mama's Greek Restaurant.  It was cold and windy so we didn't stay out too long.  We drove over to Howard Park, passing lots of huge antebellum homes in beachy colors.  It reminded us of Charleston and the battery.  At the beach, there were wind surfers about to go out.  It was a nice drive.  We got back to Herb and Nancy's and had cheese, crackers, and salmon dip for dinner.  We had so much lunch, no one was really hungry.  I made mint juleps.  We talked and laughed, then headed to bed around 9:00.  We used our extra comforter tonight.  It was cold, again down in the low 20s.