This travel update is for the last five weeks of our 6-week stay on Longboat Key, Florida. It covers May 8 – June 12. I’m not going to make an entry for every day since we’re not really doing much of interest. I’ll just put in a few highlights and talk about our future travel plans.

The Big Four: Dentist, Optometrist, Dermatologist, PCP

The week of May 8 we had our annual his & hers medical appointments. I think I’ve mentioned before that if you’re nomadic you have to make a point of planning these appointments. We’re “established” with doctors in Sarasota so it’s a lot easier to do this here than elsewhere in the country or the world.

Monday we were at the Dentist and got our picture with the sign.

There were no issues for either of us, which was good news. Usually they get me for a cavity or Patti for a tooth that needs a crown. We were both wearing shirts that we bought in Mexico today so we went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch.

Tuesday we went to the Optometrist.

Again, no issues for either of us. Patti went back in a couple of weeks later for a Field Of View test due to having a large optic nerve.

Wednesday we went to Orchid Dermatology.

They froze off a couple of pre-cancerous places on the side of my face and took one sample from Patti for a biopsy. Patti went back in for a “scrape and burn” on that sample site.

Thursday we went to our Primary Care Physician for our annual physical exams.

We like our doctor here and usually enjoy our visits. He told us our bloodwork numbers were all good and poked and prodded us a bit and didn’t find any issues.

So, medically, we’re good for another year of travel!

Ron and Joan:

We’ve enjoyed our friendship with these two people since we stayed with Ron. He was our Airbnb host in 2018. Ron is now in his early nineties, Joan in her late eighties, and they’re both fun to hang out with. They met online after their respective spouses passed away. Here they are on Ron’s couch, we were watching Jeopardy! with them.

They inspire us to think about living long and healthy lives.

Saint Armand’s Key Lutheran Church (SAKLC):

I played piano at this church a couple of times in years past and we met up with Michael, the music director there. He said we can stop by and play the pianos there whenever we like. Here’s Patti playing / practicing some of her favorite songs (Smile, Hello Dolly, The Sound of Music) on the piano in the choir room. I love the sign that says “DO NOT PUT ANYTHING ON THE PIANO”. And of course the piano is covered with stuff.

Michael asked me if I would play piano for one of his services and we settled on the June 11^th service at 10AM.

Here I am playing George Gershwin for the prelude in church. You can see the round coil of my sound processor stuck to the side of my head. I can hear the high notes on the piano now all the way to the end of the keyboard.

I actually got a fair amount of applause when I was done, which made me feel good.

We like this church and appreciate how Michael is so welcoming to us whenever we are in the area.

Scarpino’s:

One of our previous landlords, John, plays vibraphone in the Island Swing Band at Scarpino’s Family Restaurant on Monday nights so we took our current landlord, Norma (on the left) and her friend Diane (on the right) there for pizza and music one Monday.

These women are fun to hang out with.

Allegro Bistro:

This is another Italian restaurant with live music. We went down there (it’s in Venice, Florida) one Thursday to hear the band and we sat with the “wives of the band”. From left to right they are: Ellen; Cindy; Patti; Bev.

We like hanging out with this crowd, and they let me sit in with the band on one number, you can see me in the back in this picture, behind the keyboard.

Jetti Happy Hour:

One evening we hosted a happy hour at our place for some neighbors. I played 1940’s tunes on my keyboard while Patti socialized. On the right in this picture is our 91-year-old neighbor, Rita, and her son Mark. Norma and Diane were there too. Rita sang along with most of the tunes that I played. A good time was had by all.

Another Lunch:

We ate at Linger Lodge where they have a lot of taxidermized animals on the walls. Here we are posing with the big alligator. From left to right: Jeff, Cindy, Patti, Chris, Bev, Gordon.

Bob’s Train:

We had lunch at this quirky restaurant that’s in some old train cars with our friend Michael. It’s also billed as a Circus Museum because of all the old circus-related posters and photographs on the walls.

Gamble Mansion:

We had lunch with four friends then had a tour of this old sugar plantation house. From left to right we are: Phil; Nadine; Marion; Jim; Patti; Jeff.

“The Judah P. Benjamin Confederate Memorial at Gamble Plantation Historic State Park, also known as the Gamble Mansion or Gamble Plantation, is a Florida State Park, located in Ellenton, Florida, on 37th Avenue East and US 301. It is home to the Florida Division United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC).

The park consists of the antebellum mansion developed by its first owner, Major Robert Gamble; a 40,000-gallon cistern to provide the household with fresh water; and 16 acres (65,000 m2) of the former sugarcane plantation. At its peak, the forced-labor farm included 3,500 acres, and Gamble likely enslaved more than 200 people to work the property and process the sugarcane.

The mansion was listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Robert Gamble House on August 12, 1970. Its columns and two-foot-thick walls are constructed of tabby, a regional material developed as a substitute for brick.”

It was an interesting tour and Patti learned the story of how Hushpuppies got their name.

Also, these four friends are fun to hang out with.

Sunrises and Sunsets:

One of the reasons we enjoy this location is for the sunrises over Sarasota Bay and the sunsets over the Gulf of Mexico.

Here’s a sunrise.

Here’s a sunset.

Mote Marine Aquarium:

I enjoyed my Sunday afternoon shifts at the aquarium. Here are a few of my favorite animals.

This is a Siren, a freshwater salamander species that is native to Florida. His gills almost look like flowers.

Here’s a Clownfish in an Anemone.

The Flamboyant Cuttlefish are new here and are fun to watch. I think they look like alien spaceships.

The Green Moray Eel usually looks kind of scary.

My last Sunday I took this picture looking down into the big shark tank. I like the colors and the distortion from the ripples on the surface. There’s a big school of sardines just under the surface and a big tarpon is swimming under them.

Planning for the Mid and Long Term:

We’ve been talking a lot about what we want to do in the future and how we want to do it. I’ll list a few things here, let me know if you have any suggestions.

• How long will we travel internationally?
  • We’re thinking until May 2027 we’ll be mostly out of the US, we made a bucket list of countries we want to visit
• What will we do after International Travel?
  • We’re thinking about buying an RV and traveling around the US until 2032.
• What will we do after the RV life?
  • Maybe settle down, buy a place?
• A Car in the US for the next 4 years
  • Do we really need a car in the US if we’re mostly not in the US?
  • Should we sell my 2012 Prius and just rent cars for a month or two at a time when we’re back in the US?
  • If we rent cars, would we rent from commercial companies like Hertz and Avis or peer-to-peer sites like Turo?
  • How would car insurance work if we don’t own a car?
    • Our Chase Sapphire Preferred Visa provides rental car insurance for commercial companies in the US and Puerto Rico
      • not sure if it would cover us on Turo
• Can we stay out of the US for 10 months per year, and just come back to the Sarasota area in May and June every year for medical appointments and to visit with family and friends?
• New Luggage
  • We did buy the Dakine 365 Roller 120L rolling luggage. I’m happy about that, because I didn’t really like saddling up with my 70-liter backpack. We’re hoping these bags will last for at least the next four years.

Point To Ponder:

When I tell people about our future plans, and how we have reservations at various places up to a year in advance, sometimes they seem impressed and say something like “I don’t even know what I’m doing tomorrow”. But, I respectfully disagree. These people are settled down, tomorrow they’ll be living at the same place, doing the same kinds of things. Even a year from now their lives probably won’t be that much different. So, they actually have a much better idea of what the future holds for them than we do.

Future Plans, Short Term:

• 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 – 14: We’re stopping by Sarasota to put our domestic travel gear back in the storage unit and get our international travel gear. We’ll be spending two nights in a Quality Inn Motel.
• July 15 – 16: We’re driving over to my brother’s place in Mulberry, Florida to see him and his wife and drop off my car which they will keep for me for a few months while we’re out of the country. We’ll pick up a rental car at the Avis place in Lakeland.
• July 17: We’re driving the rental car to FLL (Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport) and taking a Norse Atlantic flight to Oslo, Norway. Ticket cost is $1,022 for both of us one way.
• July 18 – 27: We’ve got Airbnb reservations at an Airbnb in Oslo.
• July 27: We’re flying Norwegian Airlines from Oslo to Longyearbyen (Norway).
• July 27 – August 2: We’ve got an Airbnb reservation for a place in Longyearbyen.
• August 2: We have flight reservations on SAS to go from Longyearbyen to Tromso (Norway).
• August 2 to October 17: We’re thinking we’ll stay for a few days in Tromso then head south down the coast of Norway. We’ll make reservations as we go, probably staying in Norway unless we get tempted to visit Sweden or Denmark.
• October 17 – December 3: We have to leave the Schengen area but we don’t have any firm plans yet about where we will go.
• 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 that week 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.
• December 9: We’ll drive to Bradenton, Florida.
• December 9 – 31: We’ve reserved a cabin at Horseshoe Cove RV Park in Bradenton, Florida, where we stayed last year around this time. We’re looking forward to singing in the Christmas Choir again.

2024

• January through April: We plan to travel through Belize, Costa Rica, and Panama
• May and June: We’ve reserved a cabin at Horseshoe Cove RV Park in Bradenton, Florida again and we’ll spend these two months getting our yearly medical stuff done and visiting with family and friends. May and June are “off-season” here, and the rate is $56 per night for these 61 days, which is pretty good for a place like this in this location. In season, January through March, the price doubles.