After a great stay with my brother Dan and his wife Patti and daughter Charity, it is now time to start the trek back home.  First stop is overnight in Savannah Georgia.  Going all out this night and staying in a hotel downtown.  Not the most expensive and not on the river like some are, but downtown and a few blocks from all the busy areas.  Lots and lots of shops, restaurants and bars.  Kind of a New Orleans feel to it (but I haven’t been there so not sure).

Tomorrow, off to Stephanie and Steven’s!

Yesterday and today were stay at home days basically at Dan and Patti’s.  Did some laundry and did a bike ride with Patti on Monday along with T-bone from the grill and some more Ticket to Ride in the evening.

Tuesday (2/23) I left early and took a hike at Lake Lizzie Nature Preserve, another hike along Lakefront Park in St. Cloud, lunch at Frankie’s Place in St.Cloud and finally a few hours at the Reptile Serpentorium.  A lot of good exercise and watched them extract venom from about 10 different snakes.

Of course it is about 80 degrees again which is much better than the snow storm being predicted now for Bay City.  I hope it melts before I get home.  Not too many good pictures to add, at least none that can out do the Merritt Island pictures.

Tomorrow hopefully I will get to Sebastian Island Inlet Park and visit with Al DeCatur and then Thursday morning start my journey back north again.

It seems Dan has some regular visitors.

Made it to Dan’s in Florida.  Beautiful weather going to be up to 80 degrees in February.  Made a side trip to Cedar Key on the way from Tallahassee to Holopaw.  That was a cool place with a Jimmy Buffet ambiance.  Also spread the Ticket to Ride mania to their household.

A few pictures of Emil’s property in Tuscaloosa.

Spent the day viewing Tuscaloosa, the Univ. of Alabama and spending time with Emil.  Had a great lunch at Cypress Inn with catfish and Hoppin John rice for a side.

Spent the evening over towards Birmingham meeting with Tom, Michelle, Disney and Nola.  It was great to see them and they are doing just fine.  Nola is such a sweet heart.  The picture at the left shows the results of saying cheeseburger when the picture is snapped.

And best of all, last night as Emil and I were doing our best to remember the year we got to know each other back in 1969/1970 (a harder task then you think at my age now), I was able to share the long version of my testimony of how the Lord drew me to Him and how I was saved.  I had been praying and thinking about that and now I need to pray more for their lives since they are not saved.  No response or questions last night but they listened through my whole story from college days through meeting Faye and then meeting the Lord.

Thank you Lord for that opportunity.

Travel to Alabama and warmer weather (65 degrees) finally.  Stopped and saw Michelle and made plans to see Tom and Michelle and kids.  Made it to Emil & Jacqueline’s place.  What a beautiful place they have that Dan would just love.  Lots of birds, plants, flowers and a gold fish pond!

Also taught them how to play Ticket to Ride.  Some more converts.

First retirement road trip has started. Left on Saturday 2/13/16 with first stop in Columbus at the Emma Rishiell Train Station and Inn. After a couple nights there with a great Sunday spent with Lia and Emma then on the road to Bowling Green, KY which is where I am now. Heading to see Emil & Mary Kunze, friends from Ann Arbor days back in 1969/1970, with a stop in Birmingham to see Tom & Michelle. Then off to Florida for a week with Dan.

Dinner last night at Double Dogs with flat screens and sport shows for wall paper.  The dogs were good and the s’more desert was very good.