This travel update is for part one of our 6-week stay on Longboat Key, Florida. It covers May 2 – 7.

May 2, 2023 – Friday: Traveling across Florida

We were up early and managed to cram all our stuff into the Prius again. The poor car was overloaded and down by the stern, but it performed admirably today. On the map below we started at point C, just north of Melbourne. We stopped at my brother’s house in Mulberry (point B), and at our UPS Mailbox in Pinellas Park (point A), and finally made it to Longboat Key on the west coast.

We left at about 8:30 AM and it was a fairly easy drive. In Mulberry we talked to my sister-in-law and got the mail that she’d kept for us. Then on the way out of town we stopped at a Cuban Sandwich shop in Lakeland that we’d eaten at before and got sandwiches to eat in the car. Our mailbox at the UPS store was quite full with 3 months of mail. We try to minimize the mail that we get there but I keep getting notifications from financial institutions and other junk mail.

We got to our new home around 3:30 PM and our landlord, Norma, and her son, Mike, were there. They’d spent some time yesterday and today cleaning and also discovered that the AC needed maintenance and the last tenants had broken one of the toilets. So, the AC work crew was there and the plumber was there with his son. So, the first couple of hours were exciting, but then after everyone had left we had time to unload the car and unpack enough to spend the night.

This is a two-bedroom two-bath mobile home in the Twin Shores Mobile Home Park on Longboat Key. We have 300 feet of private beach across the street and a private marina on Sarasota Bay. We’re paying $1,800 per month, which is the “out of season” price.

Here it is from the outside.

The living room has a lot of space, three sofas and two easy chairs.

I put my piano keyboard in the dining room.

And there’s a big screen TV over the bar.

The kitchen is pretty roomy.

Here’s the big bathroom.

Here’s the small bathroom.

Our bedroom is quite large and has a king-size bed.

The guest bedroom is medium size.

It’s a roomy place and we’ve even got space for overnight guests!

I forgot to mention that this morning we walked over to the beach on the east coast and watched the sunrise.

And this evening we walked over to the beach on the west coast to see the sunset.

Patti had been looking forward to that “east coast west coast” thing and it was pretty neat. I did notice though that sunrises and sunsets look pretty much the same.

May 3, 2023 – Wednesday: Blood Tests

Next week we have all four of our yearly medical appointments and one of them is our annual physical exams so this morning we went to the clinic so they could take blood for our blood tests. That wasn’t much fun, but the nurse gave me a green bandage and Patti a purple one which I noticed were our wedding colors. I got this selfie at the Publix liquor store to commemorate the colors.

See how my groomsmen had green ties…

…and Patti’s bridesmaids had purple ties?

Sometimes life’s little coincidences can be fun.

After the blood tests we drove out to Siesta Key and took our friend, Ron, out to brunch at Another Broken Egg restaurant, which was a lot more fun than giving blood. He’s selling his condo so we were able to catch up with what’s been going on with him. I also fixed a problem he was having with his computer keyboard. I’ve been providing him on-site tech support for years. On the way home we stopped at CVS and Publix for provisions for the next 6 weeks.

May 4, 2023 – Thursday: Settling In

Yesterday we had scoped out a private gym that’s only 2 miles away and today we drove down there to work out. I can’t say I like it because it’s 9 times more expensive than Planet Fitness. But, all the inexpensive gyms like Planet Fitness and Crunch Gym are on the mainland and take about 40 minutes to get to, one way, whereas this place we picked is a 4-minute drive or 10-minute bike ride. So, I’m having to deal with another extravagance which pricks at my cheapness. It is a nice gym though and has all the equipment we like. The manager, Petar, is from Yugoslavia (back when that’s what it was called) but he’s been in the US a long time.

May 5, 2023 – Friday: Extra Space Storage

We went by our storage unit today to get some things we want for the next 5 weeks like: snorkeling gear; some clothing; piano music; etc.

May 6, 2023 – Saturday: The Kentucky Derby Party

Our friend Joan has had Kentucky Derby parties before and we went over to her house for this one. We picked horses out of a hat and Patti’s came in first! Mine came in third. She won $18 and I won $6.

May 7, 2023 – Sunday: Back At Mote

Since 2018 I’ve been volunteering at Mote Marine Aquarium as a guide in the Fish & Invertebrates building on Sunday afternoons, when we’ve been in town. Now we’re just 5 miles away and I can ride my bike there again. I enjoyed my shift and these Flamboyant Cuttlefish were new residents since I was last there.

There is also a new batch of sardines in the big tank, forming a bait ball.

The sardines disappear over time and need to be replenished. Today I saw a Great Egret land at the edge of the tank and grab a sardine. He looked pleased with himself.

I was able to hear people much better today than I did at Mote before, thanks to my new Cochlear Implant. I even had a conversation with a British woman at the shark tank.

Google Timeline:

Google sent me my location timeline for April, not too interesting, we were mostly on the east coast of Florida.

Future Plans:

• May 2 – June 13: we’ve got this mobile home reserved at the Twin Shores Mobile Home Park on Longboat Key near Sarasota. We’ve stayed at this park before but in a different unit. We’re renting from Norma, a vivacious little Italian woman.
• Jun 13 – 29: We’ve got our first House Sit scheduled in St. Augustine, Florida. We’ll be taking care of a dog and 3 cats while their owners go on vacation to the British Isles. It’s a nice 3-bedroom house in a gated community about 5 miles from all the touristy stuff people do in St. Augustine, we think it will be a good time.
• June 29 – July 5: we’ve got an Airbnb reserved in Ellijay, in the north Georgia mountains. We’re planning on doing some hiking in the mountains there.
• July 5 – 11: We’ve got our second House Sit scheduled in Columbia, South Carolina. We’ll be taking care of two dogs while their owners go on vacation.
• July 11 – 12: We’ll be staying with friends of ours at their house in Bonneau, South Carolina
• July 13 to December 3: no firm plans yet, but we’ve been talking about flying Norse Atlantic, the new long-haul, low-cost airline, from JFK to Oslo then spending a couple of months in Norway. Then maybe a month in Denmark. Then maybe a month somewhere in the UK. Then flying back to the US.
• December 3 – 9: I’ll be participating in research in Durham, North Carolina at the Med-El facilities there. Med-El is the company that made my cochlear implant and they’re going to put us up in a hotel and I’ll spend 9AM to 4PM for 5 days being a lab rat. They say they will test various new programming options for my cochlear implant with the goal of improving their systems. It should be fun, I’m looking forward to it.