Jacksonville Nov 19

On the beach

We’ve been in Jacksonville a week now, the longest time we have spent in one place on the GTTT to date.  We have been pretty busy with social engagements: football games, golf, dinners out with friends, pedicures, quilting fests and just hanging out.

I have played golf three times now and have come to the sad conclusion that after 25 years of participating in this activity I still don’t have a game.  At best I have an occasional good shot.  This can be quite frustrating.  After hitting a spectacular drive,(or pitch or putt) I begin to think I might have some talent for this game after all, only to proceed to miss hit the next three shots and putts, ending up with an average  score of 8 or 9 strokes per hole.  My biggest mistake here is that I actually bothered to keep score for a while.  My only consolation is that I am getting out on the course, hanging out with friends, getting some exercise in very pleasant surroundings, and that I get to drink a lot of beer when it is over. 

Bright berries in our front yard

We are both thinking that this time here in Jacksonville is a prelude as to what it is going to be like in Key Largo.  It has been very pleasant here with temps in the mid 70s, mostly sunny, with only heavy rain during one afternoon.  We were interested to see where the leaks might come from should it rain on Patty O’Room really hard.  There were only a couple of places where the water got in a bit, pretty good really considering this is essentially just a tent.  So far no leaks at all in the trailer which is great as they would be much harder to live with and harder to fix.

The other good news is that we have had great TV reception using the roof antenna on the trailer.  We had never used it before, and the reception seems better than cable.  Now that the TV stations are digital, the picture fills our entire screen, and it looks like high def TV although I’m not sure if that is the case.  When we are connected to cable the picture is significantly smaller leaving about a 2 inch margin around the screen.  We borrowed some DVDs from Kurt and use the computer to play them on the TV via an HDMI cable, and that works great too and is easy to set up.

All in all, the mobile infrastructure we have set up is so far working pretty good.  I am still concerned about the axles separating from the trailer frame, but I check for cracks now every time we get ready to move.  The Tundra has performed admirably  over the last 11,000 miles.  Still getting about 11 mph towing the trailer.  I did have a rear fender bender in Washington DC with a bollard that I backed into.  Put a big dent in the rear bumper.  I went to Toyota and bought a new one and installed it myself, so now it looks as good as new. 

Day to day living has been good.  We have had some leisurely mornings, when we are not off at the crack of 8:30 to make a tee time or a breakfast date with friends.  Days have been filled with social events, walks on the beach, bicycle rides in the park  and forays into town to the supermarket etc.  Today we are going through all our winter cloths that we won't have to wear anymore and will send back home for storage.  Pats is rearranging the patio furniture.  She has rented a car for these two weeks so we are each free to come and go given our divergent social calendars.   I think the GTTT is going to work out after all.