October5-23, 2022 St Petersburg, FL/ Camden Pier Apartment

We took 2 days to drive from Ohio to St Pete, FL. We stopped @ Homewood Suites in McDonough, GA for the night. We used to drive straight through to Largo, Florida and make it to my Dad's in 18 hours but we are old now so we need to take 2 days, lol. Granted, it's not as easy or comfortable driving a Penske Truck full of our furniture and clothes. Doug had arranged for a city parking space on the street right behind our apartment complex on 2nd Street S. We arrived at dinner time and luckily a Food Truck was parked in the court yard. We met both concierges: Chota & Owen and one of the sales team, Michael. All welcomed us and let us into our 15th floor apartment. We moved a few essentials in for the night. We enjoyed the food from the Food Truck for dinner. Our view from the apartment balcony is of the city and we can see Tampa Bay and BOATS, looking between 2 buildings. We could hear music playing from a venue downtown. There is a stackable washer and dryer in the apartment. We walked to Publix, which is less than a quarter mile away. I feel like a fish out of water & miss the boat. On to a new adventure. 

The next day, we backed the Penske Truck into the loading zone and began to unload. The 2 of us worked from 9:00 AM to Noon and then again from 1:30 to 4:00 straight. We got everything in but not unpacked. I was too tired to feel excited or sad. Bentos Restaurant is even closer than Publix and became our "go to" for dinner. I think we had longer walks to the restrooms in some of the Marinas. We sat on our balcony for cocktails, using our dining room chairs. We explored the rooftop amenities and the fabulous view of Tampa Bay. Decided that the rooftop was a great place to enjoy cocktail hours. Camden Apartments are nonsmoking, which we love but it is pet friendly, which we don't like. Lots of dogs in the lobby, elevators and barking in the dog park which is under our balcony. 

For the first few nights, we slept on our Air Bed with topper. Once we unpacked everything, we put Jeri's Sleep Number bed together with help from our boating friends, Mike & Sue. Jeri was so sweet to give us the bed. She wasn't using it. It took a bit of tweaking the numbers for us to be comfortable. We had stored our Transit Van at a storage building in Pinellas Park, so we picked that up. We then did a marathon shopping trip.  

We didn't waste any time getting back to looking at houses. The house that Tyler, our realtor had told us about last year, finally went on the market. Tyler had contacted us prior to it going public to give us the option to buy but the price had increased way too much. There was an open house there, so we toured it and talked a minute to Tyler. Glad we didn't buy it, no front porch and too far from downtown. We decided to change realtors. New friends, Randy & Sally who also live in Camden are house hunting & really like their realtor with Smith Realty. 

St Pete has great consignment stores & we scored well between consignment & Camden's free stuff. Our neighbors, David & Karen who were in the apartment across the hall from us, sold us their IKEA couch. Shortest & easiest move on record. Living in a downtown high-rise was fun. Everyone, staff & residents were very friendly. Camden also had weekly & monthly events: wine tastings, martini parties, a rooftop concert & of course weekly Food Trucks. We swam in the rooftop pool and grilled & ate dinner there too. 

We made Mahaffey's FB

We didn't lack for things to do in Downtown. The Mahaffey Theater had an outdoor concert, Party in the Plaza with an 11 piece band which was excellent and the weather was perfect. There are lots of places to walk & bike. Every year in October, the city has the Shine Mural Event. New murals are painted by artists from all over the world. We rode around and found some old and new murals. There is a new Express Bus to the Beach called the Sun Runner. It's free to ride for the first 6 months. We rode it partway so we could walk Central Ave when it was closed to traffic for a big Halloween Party. There were people dressed up and tents set up on the street with vendors. We walked from 31st St. back to our apartment on 3rd St. S. We also enjoyed attending First Friday, where they close a block of Central Ave and have a live band and drinks. 

Mahaffey Theater

Party in the Plaza

Our friends, Glen & Jill who live in Deland, were showing one of their vintage cars in a British Vintage Car Show in a nearby town called Safety Harbor. We drove there to see them. Safety Harbor had their main street closed to traffic and filled with show cars. 

In August, we had signed a 7 month lease, starting October 1 @ Camden Pier Apartments.  On Oct 21st, only 3 weeks after moving into our apartment, we biked to Smith Realty on 4th Street N to meet our new realtor, Sharon Kantner. While meeting with her, I showed her a posting on Zillow of a house on 7th St N that we wanted to see. She called about it and it was empty so we were able to go right then and look at it. We liked it but Sharon told us it was overpriced. The location is great, close to Crescent Lake & less than 1 mile from Downtown. It has a big front porch & a side screened porch. Stay tuned. 

September 6-October 4, 2022 Sandusky & Elmore Ohio

 We settled into our routine for the next month: docked @ Son Rise marina, visiting with friends, getting the boat ready to store for the winter and packing to move to St Pete. Day Dreams left the dock twice this month: once to pump out and a day trip to Put-in-Bay. 

We threw off our lines and enjoyed a short cruise across Sandusky Bay and over to South Bass Island. We met our friends, Jill and Glen who were staying on the island with one of their MG's, to participate in the Antique Car show & Parade. They are from Florida, we call them our Staples friends because we met in the Palm Coast Staples store, years ago. This was their first time visiting PIB. They stayed at the Anchor Inn. We only stayed for the day, not much was open September 20th. We did see some of the MBI Gang: Carrie, Johnnie, Katie, Bobby, Linda & Martin. On our way home, a big old storm cloud chased us in. We got in 5 minutes before the skies opened up. 

Jeri came to visit for a day & we shopped. Our friends Roman & Sue who have a beautiful log cabin on Middle Bass have bought a building in Sandusky. While in Sandusky, they came by and picked us up to go out to dinner @ The Club. After dinner, they took us back to their building which is part living space, part studio and workshop.

I rented a car for a week so I could drive into Toledo to see friends. Met Dianne for lunch, my WCHD group for dinner and spent the night @ Doris and Jerry's. Another day, we drove to Jim & Elaine's to watch the Formula One Grand Prix in his Ferrari room in his fancy barn. We then stopped @ Barb & Joe's house for a bit. 

We celebrated Doug's Birthday with C&C, J&J, P&J and Hudson @ Gideon Winery (the former Mon Ami) in Catawba. We had a nice big table outside and then moved to the FirePit. Hudson loves to make faces & Chewbacca noises-he's so fun! Our kind of day.

Another afternoon, my friend Joni who was the Genoa School Nurse invited Doug and I to her & John's home in Oak Harbor for dinner. On a weekend, we biked from Son Rise Marina to Sharon & Jimmer's for dinner, they live in Sylvania and have a cottage in Sandusky that they mainly use on weekends in the summer. Later in the month, Garry & Jacque drove from Howell, Michigan where they live now, to see us in Sandusky. They stayed @ The Holiday Inn in Sandusky. We lunched downtown overlooking Sandusky Bay then walked the pier. For dinner, Jeri & Jerry drove from Elmore, we all six had cocktails on Day Dreams, then we drove over to Bay Harbor for dinner. We dined on the patio and then enjoyed their Firepit. 

While in Ohio, we also got Doug's medical issues assessed.  He saw a new Dermatologist, Dr Meerky @ Dr Anders office for his itchy head. He also saw Dr Pappas, the GI guy for a colonoscopy. Craig & Cheryl were sweet enough to let us stay the night of Doug's prep @ their house. When Doug woke up after the procedure, he asked the nurse "what are you doing on my boat?" The procedure and tests came back fairly normal. Doug does need some follow up scans when we get to St Pete. Towards the end of the month, Doug had problems with his jaw with pain and teeth not touching after it cracked while eating steak. 

We liked this flag flying in downtown Sandusky

Starting in October, we rented an apartment for 7 months @ Camden Pier in St Pete. The option came up to get a balcony with a partial view of the bay so we signed a contract for a 15th floor apartment, Unit #1503. Meanwhile, the house we had looked at last December is finally going on the market but the sellers have not decided on the price yet. We don't know if we still want it. 

By the third week in September, the weather started getting cold, rainy and crappy. Also Hurricane Ian, Cat 4 hit the Gulf Coast, affecting all cities south of Clearwater. The eye passed over Ft Myers & Cape Coral. My brother Tom & his wife Rita live on a canal in Cape Coral. They did not evacuate and he fell into the canal while attempting to cut the lines on his boat. Luckily, his step daughter Carol was there & got him out. Our Apartment complex was not damaged. 

FT Myers, FL

We packed bins & boxes and stored them at Jeri's until we rented a Penske Truck to use for moving to St Pete. This is a big step for us-leaving the boat in heated inside storage and moving to Florida. We couldn't find a house last winter when we stayed @ The Harborage on Day Dreams in St Pete for 3 months. We are hoping for better luck this season. Our friend Rhonda & Aggie were in the process of moving from Michigan to Columbus and she had boxes of kitchen items. I bought everything she had to offer for $250, a very good deal because we are starting out with very little. The furniture we saved is our oak dining room table & chairs, oak desk, book cases and TV cabinet. This is a stressful time for us. 

Day Dreams was gently lifted from the water into the slings of a big lift. Frank, the Dock Master and his gang are very competent, efficient and respectful. Day Dreams is clean inside & out. They power washed her bottom and put her in the West building, well stabilized. 

Once Day Dreams was settled safely on the hard, we stayed a few nights with C&C then at Jeri's. We needed to stay until after Hudson's first Birthday party. Jessie had the party at her parents house outside of Fremont. It was a cold windy day. Jess had organized and decorated the yard nicely. Everything was very nice except the vulgar flag that her Dad had flying on the Flagpole. What a loser! Luckily he was working & was not there. Hudson was overwhelmed, cold and adorable.

 

We had one last Birthday to celebrate before we left and it was Robin's. We met Robin, Melinda, Kathy, Dan, Craig, Cheryl, Jeri & Jerry @ Twin Oast Brewery in Catawba. We sat outside in one of their stone silo's with fire pit. It's such a cool place. The food is not great but the ambiance is. 

We rented a 16 foot Penske Truck and filled it. We pulled everything down from Craig's Loft with his help and his tractor with fork. Jeri made dinner for our last night in Ohio and invited C&C, P&J and Hudson. Hudson is great entertainment; he's walking, running, climbing and laughs a lot. We said our sweet good-byes and gave our hugs then headed south.