The "Daytripper"

The new Motorhome has arrived! We have spent the past couple of weeks dragging our belongings out of the house and stuffing them inside. It has so many cabinets and nooks and crannies....much more than the previous bus had. We are actually doing a spread sheet to help keep track of things stored below in the cargo holds...I am trying to keep household items in the same general spots as the last coach. If I didn't, we would never find anything!

Back on Blogger

Hooray..Our new beautiful, big Motorhome is here and in our driveway. As soon I can find my camera, I will post pictures. It is a 43' Tiffin Allegro Bus and it is BIG! Years ago the girls used to all laugh and dance around to the "Trogolodytes" silly little tune, "Big Bertha Butt" and that is all I can think of when I see this monster sitting in the driveway! We brought her home last Thursday from the dealer in Shreveport, La. We have slowly started to carry our "stuff"into what will become our new home and begin the next phase of our senior life. Can't wait!
I am so tired of Dr's checkups and we both are just counting the days until we leave for Mexico and the Yucatan again. Plan on departing Nov 5th from home, meeting up with Doc and Pat in the RGV and crossing the border about the 7th heading south! Should arrive in PaaMul by the 15th! Yippee!! Paradise awaits.
We have a new Toad that we call " Sapo"...a new Explorer to pull behind the Bus. Papa has already put in his contribution to the show...the Rubber Duck and her new trailer! He crammed all of that in the storage bays underneath along with the 15 hp motor and a gas tank. I don't know where he is going to try and put his tackle?? Not inside my Bus!!
I have had a bout with age related symptoms but feelin' fine now!! Watch our dust!!

Summertime in the Florida Keys

We are currently staying in a lovely home on the water in Summerland Key, Florida. We have the boat with us and are having fun with our families and grandkids this summer. Pop is through with his treatments and we are both enjoying the fishing and beautiful snorkeling. We have not ordered that new motorhome as yet but we have done lots of homework. We toured the Tiffin factory on the way down from Texas to see the new Allegro Bus..beautiful coach. We have not been able to see the 09 DutchAires as yet but hope that they will have them at some of the dealers here in Florida . Perhaps we can see one before we get home. We will be leaving here the last of July. Hope the hurricanes hold off until we leave. So far the weather has been very cool with afternoon showers quite often.

April Showers

We are still at home in Texas waiting for Pop to finish his prescribed weeks of treatments to get rid of any lingering prostate cancer cells. He never complains and is doing well in spite of a sore bottom. He is determined to get on with it and kill that disease once and for all. Only about 3 weeks left to go. Yea. He is heavy into researching a new motorhome for '09 and deciding to put our beautiful Dutch Star on the market. I have mixed feelings. I have loved that motorhome and it is still beautiful, I think. but he wants that bigger engine and I want tile floors...so the only thing we can consider is to trade up and get the new Dutch Air. What a beautiful coach that is! We have the new brochures and he has spent hours researching and reading links and talking to our salesman at Lee's RV in Okla. City. They should begin to hit the showrooms the last of April.

It has rained and rained here. The trees and flowers are beautiful around town and in our own back yard. We are marking time until we can leave the last week of May for the Florida Keys and our summer home in Summerland Key. The children are all excited and have their dates on our calendar. We are taking the boat out of storage next month and getting it seaworthy again. We didn't get a chance to use it last summer as we were gone until September. Meanwhile Pop is at the business every day! He never slows down. Keeps him out of mischief, I guess. Will be glad when we can be on the road again. I miss it!

Leaving the Yucatan

With a certain amount of sadness we had to leave Paradise and return home to Texas to have some medical problems tended to. But we want to mention one particularly lovely spot that we stayed overnight at on the way back from Quintana Roo. Right vefore reaching Escarcega, there is a little town called El Centenario. It is right on a new portion of the road(186) and on the left side, well marked, named "Las Papapas". The entrance is through a gated little road that goes back about a block to a beautiful manicured lawn and a little restaurant surrounded by huge trees and sitting on the shores of a lovely lake. We enjoyed a wonderful afternoon watching the many beautiful birds and water fowl. Across the lake were the boats being poled by the fishermen using nets. Lots of peacocks, turkeys, etc. wondering thru. They fed us dinner down by the lake. We camped free of charge in their front yard along with another couple in a small van. There was lots of room. The food was delicious and we ate breakfast the next morning hoping to compensate for spending the night there. The hosts were most gracious.

Xel-Ha

We finally made it to Xel-ha today! Such a beautiful water park. It is actually an underground river that emerges from the limestone and flows out into an incoming salt water lagoon and flows out to sea. There were hundreds of people but it is meant for crowds and there were excellent facilities. 5 restaurants and 3 bars and lockers and bathrooms and snorkel gear all over the park. We tanked up first with a delicious buffet breakfast, got our gear and then entered the water at the beginning of the river. We began with their double innertube floats but quickly decided that it was too cumbersome and you couldn't snorkel on that big thing! We quickly disposed of it and enjoyed the gentle current in the lagoon to explore the underwater world. After about an hour and ahalf, we were ready for a break so we warmed up a bit in the sun and went to lunch later. Once again, delicious food, then we found the hammocks and snoozed out for about an hour. Ice cream helped get us going and we went down to the entrance from the sea to check out the floating bridge. They were doing the snuba walks down by the bridge and the fish there were just incredible. Pop and I walked over the floating, heaving water bridge to snorkel from the other side. There was a "cave" on the other side that was nothing compared to the ones at Excaret so we snorkled back across and saw all the huge fish under the bridge. Saw one huge grouper, lots of tuna looking fish, big Jack Crevalles, and a world of snappers. We crawled out on the other side and decided it was time to head out.

It has been another wonderful day with a new experience under our belt. We should sleep well tonight.

Sunday

Here it is another Sunday in beautiful PaaMul. No matter how many mornings we have had here, I love to get up early and drink my Mexican coffee that our sweet neighbor brought to us. with real cream and raw sugar...yum. The orioles are constantly flitting among the trees and the birds are all singing early in the day. I hate to think of leaving but we must be on our way in only 2 more weeks. One of our neighbors just bought one of the beautiful palapas that was for sale here. They are so thrilled and invited us over to see it this morning. I'm envious as it is so lovely. May they enjoy it for many years to come. We had dinner at Gringo Dave's again this evening with Pat and Doc. Always a fun place.

Had planned to go to Xel-Ha but Doc has an ear infection so will wait until it is healed before we snorkel again. The water has been turbid lately but yesterday it was quite clear on our beach here. The trip to Cozumel is on hold also. I took pics of the sea lions and manatees over at Puerto Adventuras this afternoon. Hope to have dinner in the underground cave restaurant over at Playa maybe one day this week. Sounds interesting! We continue to have beautiful weather and no rain here in Paradise.