It's a Beautiful Day in Paradise Paradise Island RV Resort, that is! Yep, there's a good reason that thousands of people come to south Florida for the winter. The weather really is spectacular. What a gorgeous day. Dick (aka Commander Kayuba) came by to collect Jim and his kayak and go kayak diving. Only one more day of lobster season ... gotta make the most of it! The kayak diving is something we will surely miss. You just can't do it anywhere else. We're in Paradise Island for a few more days. It is so convenient here. We're less than a mile from my Mom's house and only 2-3 miles from Jim's folks. And, the wireless Internet connection is great! I mean, we love our Datastorm that allows us to have Internet wherever we are, but the Coach Connect Wi-Fi connection IS faster. Just for browsing the web there's not much difference, but when you work remotely on client's networks, or you upload files to websites, there's a big difference in speed. Hmmm, I just might take a break from the computer and take a dip in the pool! Y'know, we've discovered that if you don't care about getting wealthy - you really can be rich!

Kayuba goes to the Beach Today was the day for a Kayuba kayak dive and picnic. Whatever the weather, we gather at John Lloyd State Park at 8am. If the weather permits, we go kayak diving. When the divers return, we have a picnic. This ritual is repeated several times/year. Today represented the last club dive of lobster season. It was also considered by some to be the first dive of the 2004 summer diving season. It was a beautiful, sunny day. The wind subsided enough to make the kayaking doable by 10 intrepid members. The rest of us served as judges of their surf entries and exits! Here's Jim (aka Kayuba Jim) and Dick (aka Commander Kayuba) getting suited up with Odie's help. Here's Nancy demonstrating why I wimped out and did not get wet. Kayuba Jim gets a '10' on his surfing re-entry!! And here are the Judges ... :-) And, here's Captain Kayuba's (Chuck) catch: Jim did OK too! Rick decides to take on a pet: Now it's time to eat. Here's the Commander making his famous chicken wings: Odie enjoys a picnic too!

Baseball We went to a baseball game last night! Fort Lauderdale stadium is the winter home of the Baltimore Orioles and they were scheduled to play the Florida Marlins last night. We have attended this game the last couple years at the invitation of our good friends, Chris and Richard. Richard is a true fan and Chris and I get to 'catch up'. It's always a great night. After they got the power back on, and it stopped raining, last night was great too! When we left at 11 pm Marlins were behind 5 to 2. We heard the shouts from the stadium as we walked back to the car ... I see in the news that the final score was 5 to 4. Now it's Sunday morning and we're off to the beach, hopefully to go Kayak diving with Kayuba dive club. It's been way to windy for quite a while, but it appears to be pretty calm right now. We always check the Webcam at Boca beach so see what the ocean looks like. Still a little choppy.

Back at Paradise Island So, here we are back in civilization! It is nice to have a sewer hookup ... you can leave the shower running instead of taking a 'navy' shower where you get wet then turn it off while you soap up, then rinse. But, the flip side is that we miss the quiet and privacy of Donna's back yard. You have neighbors on all sides here. But, that also means you can always find someone to 'happy hour' with too. Last night it was Cliff and Marie - you can read about them on their website: CJ and M And, here are Edie and Kurt. I know Edie from Women's Executive Club. She told me about their plans to retire and travel in an RV. I introduced her to Paradise Island and, here they are! They wanted to get a taste of what RV parks are like, so they signed on as Staff here in exchange for a place to park their RV. They're going back and forth right now between their house and their RV. Kurt says he's lost 20 pounds on the 'Workamper Weightloss Program!!" A new Awning! Yep, we got the new awning installed this week to replace the one that blew away in a windstorm. We had the work done at the same place that installed the tow package - American RV and Marine in Fort Lauderdale, 954-523-3677 (they don't have a website - horrors!) And, wouldn't ya know, it's been windy every day since so we're to scared to even put it out!! Here are a couple photos of the installation: Toastmasters Now that we're back in our old stomping grounds, we were able to make it to our 7am Toastmasters club. What a great group! We've really missed them. No matter how hard it is to get up and get there, we always have so much fun and share a lot of laughs with people who like to practice Public Speaking. The group is Earlybird Toastmasters and they've been around for 30 years! I gave a speech this week and won the prize for best speaker! So good to know I haven't forgotten how. And I had to take a photo of Jim - it's the only time he puts on a tie!! We hope to stop at Toastmasters clubs all around the country as we travel. We can find where they are on the Toastmasters International website. And a photo of Odie in his favorite place to be while we're on the road - the passenger seat. "Dog is our co-pilot"!

And we're Off! After nearly 2 months at Donna's Backyard RV Resort, it's time to move on again. We wanted to spend another week at Paradise Island RV Resort before we took off - say hi to folks and see how the Coach Connect Wi-Fi is going. So we hitched up the Honda to the Motorhome and drove away. Click on the link below to watch a tiny video: Leaving Donnas.MPG First Lesson in Towing I took some detailed photos when Jim hooked up the car so you could see exactly what's involved. It's really not bad at all. Here you see all the component parts. You see 1. the big black (then why do they call it 'Blue' Ox?) of the tow bar 2. the big metal pins sticking out of the front of the car where the towbar hooks into 3. the red electrical cable which connects the coach electrical system to the car so the brake lights and turn signals work on the car 4. the black safety cable that connects the RV to the car as a backup system First you hook the towbar to the pins in the front of the car. You fasten them by running a pin through the lined-up holes in the middle. Then you plug the electrical cable into both the RV and the Car. Now attach the safety cable to both the RV and the Car, and you're ready to go!