Our full and fantastic four-month tour around Florida is complete and we’re now officially on our slow road to Alaska.😊 Per our usual, we packed a lot into our last two weeks on the farm in St Augustine near our daughter and grands. We made a too-brief trip to Ft Lauderdale for another memorial of a childhood friend.☹ Bittersweetly, these events become special reunions where good memories are revived, and friendships renewed. We celebrated our loved one’s life, and we appreciated together our lives that go on, as she would want.
We also made quick visits to 2 state parks—Washington Oaks Gardens State Park in Palm Coast and Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park. Homosassa was our wonderful home for 14 years when Tom was Park Manager. This day trip, though, was for a Park Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon where Tom (among many others) was honored with a statewide Volunteer of the Year award in the Green Initiative category. The award recognized his efforts to convert Fort Clinch State Park printed brochures and maps to digital versions available via QR codes. Note to our Citrus County peeps: we were in town for just a few hours and had to get right back to St Augustine to pick up young Thomas for a sleepover with us!
That sleepover was fast and fun with a campfire, roasted “meshmellows” per Thomas, and extra love for Thomas from the sweet dogs and cats on the farm. Our BFFs Donald & Rosie came with their RV to join us and they helped Papa Tom construct Phase 2 on the T-Tower, with T-rrific results! Meredith fed us a super smorgasbord lunch and then we went home for a joint homecooked meal in both of our ovens and a fabulous campfire on the chilly night! This was a foretaste of many future evenings on our trek to Alaska together!
Lastly, and greatly, we had a dinner date night with Kendall! Meredith suggested a popular local restaurant, Gas Full Service, and, as usual, her call was spot on. Fabulous food with creative twists, craft beer, and fun décor and staff. But the highlight was recounting our shared memories from Kendall’s time with us in Alaska, in 2017, and looking ahead to her next visit with us somewhere, sometime soon we hope!
