This travel update is for six days: two in Bonneau, South Carolina; two in Sarasota, Florida; two in Mulberry, Florida. It covers July 11 – 16.

July 11, 2023 – Tuesday: Driving To Bonneau, South Carolina

We didn’t need to leave early this morning from our house sit in Columbia, SC so we took our time and left around 10:30 and took the alternate route that is in grey on the map below. We like taking the back roads if we have the time. It was an interesting trip.

Near Shaw Air Force Base we stopped for lunch at a local place called Jeffrey Lampkin’s Country Boy Kitchen. It’s a local place and had really good southern food. There are pictures on the wall of Jeffrey with famous people like Michael Strahan and Jessie Jackson.

I had the smothered pork chops with rice & gravy, green beans, and collard greens. Patti got the honey fried chicken breasts with mac & cheese and corn. We loved the food and enjoyed talking to the waitress about the restaurant and the menu. This was a nice, unexpected, treat.

My buddy, Glen, who I knew when he lived in Tunkhannock, PA and Cincinnati, OH, recently moved to Bonneau, SC. We got to his place around 2PM and had a nice time catching up with him and his wife, Jackie. For dinner we went to Gilligan’s Restaurant which is on the Tail Race Canal for the local lake.

Patti and I ate relatively lightly because we’d had a big lunch and we’d both like to lose a few pounds.

July 12, 2023 – Wednesday: On The Lake

Glen wanted to take his boat out on Lake Moultrie this morning so we got up early and were on the water by 7AM. We put it in at a boat ramp that is on an access waterway. You can see the sun coming up through the trees to the left in this picture as we headed out to the lake.

We stopped at Hardee’s for breakfast and Glen was holding his coffee and driving the boat.

We’d brought fishing poles and lures and we spent an hour and a half out in the middle of the lake trolling for stripped bass. It was a pretty morning and I always enjoy being out on the water, but, we didn’t catch any fish.

After that Glen took me on a tour of the swampy area at the edge of the lake which was really pretty. I don’t know what kind of flowers these are but we saw them in several places and they were nice.

The water was almost perfectly still and reflected the trees well.

There were a lot of Cypress Trees along the water’s edge.

It was a nice morning. When we got home we went out to lunch at another local place which was good, then we hung out at Glen’s place for the rest of the day. We went out to the chicken coop with him and watched the roosters and hens for a while, they were fun to watch.

At some point during the day I got into a mess of chiggers, which was unfortunate. Their bites were all over my ankles and legs.

If you’ve never experienced chiggers before I don’t recommend it. Their bites itch a lot.

“Trombiculidae, commonly referred to in North America as chiggers and in Britain as harvest mites, but also known as berry bugs, bush-mites, red bugs or scrub-itch mites, are a family of mites. Several species of Trombiculidae in their larva stage bite their animal or human host and by embedding their mouthparts into the skin causing “intense irritation” or “a weal, usually with severe itching and dermatitis”.”

Luckily Patti has some ChiggerX ointment which attenuated the itching.

July 13, 2023 – Thursday: Driving To Sarasota

We were up early this morning because we had a long drive to Sarasota. It ended up taking us about 10 hours with stops for food, gas, and other necessities.

We had two nights reserved at a Quality Inn Motel very close to our storage unit in Sarasota. We checked in around 5PM and unpacked then went for jogs around the local area to get some exercise.

July 14, 2023 – Friday: Lots Of Chores and Errands

This was our last day in Sarasota until December 9. We had quite a lot of things to accomplish today. First we went by the storage unit and unloaded most of our stuff from the car into it. The only stuff we kept was what is going to Norway with us. Here’s Patti at the storage unit.

Then I had a doctor appointment. My blood pressure has been a bit elevated this year and the first medication he prescribed wasn’t doing much so we had a brief visit and he prescribed something else. We’ll have a virtual visit by phone call in a month and another office visit in December.

Next, we had lunch at Skyline Chili, a Cincinnati restaurant that we’ve missed since we’ve been gone from the Queen City.

After that, we drove to Pinellas Park to our UPS Store Mailbox and emptied it and picked up some packages.

Later in the day, Patti had an appointment with the dermatologist.

Then we went by Fleet Feet so I could get a new pair of running shoes. My current pair has 300 miles on them, and I wanted to have a new pair for the next five months.

Finally, we went by CVS to pick up my new prescription, then to Publix for a few things, then back to the hotel.

It was a long day but we got everything done that we needed to.

A word on getting prescription medication for six months. When we got to CVS they gave me 30 days supply with five refills, even though the doctor had told me he was prescribing 180 pills, six months supply, for me to pick up all at the same time. At CVS they applied to my insurance company for another 60 days and that was approved, so I had 90 days total, but they said they would never fill 180 days supply because insurance companies never approve that. Back at the motel, Patti called the insurance company, and they authorized a “vacation override” and another 90 pills. We went back to CVS (luckily very close by) and they submitted the request for another 90 pills and it was accepted, and they filled it within five minutes! So, I do now have a six month supply of the new pills, hopefully they’ll work better than the previous ones.

July 15, 2023 – Saturday: Driving To Mulberry

We checked out of the hotel around 8:15 AM this morning and went by the storage unit one last time. I wanted to put my older running shoes in there and Patti also had a couple of final things to store.

Then we drove to the Costco in Brandon. Long story short, the audiologist there had said she could change my right hearing aid into a left hearing aid. Since my right ear is completely deaf now, I figured I could travel with two left hearing-aids, and one will be a backup. I was there six weeks ago for an appointment, and she ordered another custom ear mold and at the appointment today she completed the process for me. I like the idea of having a backup hearing aid since occasionally they fail and it might be a while before we get back into the country to get one fixed.

Then we drove over to my brother’s place in Mulberry, FL and got there around noon. We spent some time catching up then I went for a jog and my sister-in-law served a roast for dinner which was excellent. After dinner Richard and I watched Jeopardy! which is a Spaulding thing to do.

July 16, 2023 – Sunday: Taking Care Of A Few More Things

I spent some time today catching up on laptop work, including this travelogue. Patti went for a run and did some laundry. I went through some paperwork including the new dollar amount for my Social Security payments since they’re going to be taking out the $164/month now for Medicare Part B. My P&G retiree health insurance is changing to a Medicare Advantage plan and will cost less, so, net, my monthly health insurance premium will be about $50 lower.

In the afternoon we took Richard and Laura out for lunch at a BBQ place.

After lunch we drove up to the Avis rental car place and picked up our Ford Edge rental which we will drive to the Fort Lauderdale Airport tomorrow. I drove the rental back to my brother’s house and Patti drove the Prius.

I think this is a good way to get to an airport if you’re leaving for months. Rent a car for one day at your local location and drop it off at the airport. The cost was $59 and its very convenient.

Future Plans:

• July 17: We’re driving 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 – 26: We’ve got Airbnb reservations at an Airbnb in Oslo
• July 27: We’re flying Norwegian Airlines from Oslo to Longyearbyen.
• 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 Tromsø.
• August 2 – 10: We have an Airbnb reservation for a place in Tomsø.
• We’re thinking that after Tromsø we’ll head south down the coast of Norway. We’ll make reservations as we go.
• October 17 – December 3: No plans yet.
• 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. We don’t have any reservations yet.
• 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.