January 21 - 27, 2024 - Floor Lamp & Handles; The Seabird; Luncheon; Guests; New Flag; Beach; New Outlet; Fender Repair

Sunday:

Three walls of our living room are off white. The accent wall is now a medium green rather than the raspberry color it was when we moved in. The living room has white rattan furniture, white lamps, and a white flowered couch and love seat. Too much white for us. We decided to paint the white floor lamp and the TV cabinet handles the same color green as the accent wall. It helps break up the room. It may still need more color but we will live with this for a while so we don't over do it.

Notice "Ron", our seabird, pecking at Kelly's shoes. He is named after my good friend, Ron, who died ten years ago. When Ron died we bought the contents of his condo here in Florida and took it back to Missouri. The seabird we named, "Ron", was one of the items he had in the condo. After ten years in Missouri "Ron" he is finally back in Florida where he belongs.

It has been cold here in Florida, 39 degrees when I got up Sunday morning. The rest of the day was spent watching the NFL playoffs.

Monday:

We had a winter luncheon for the Illinois-Missouri RV Club members who winter here in Florida. It was at "The Dutchmen", an Amish restaurant in Sarasota. We all ate the buffet and left fully stuffed.

Upon returning home guests, Belinda and Jim Wolfe, arrived for a couple of days. They are folks we met at Roberts RV Resort several years back and we have stayed in touch with them. They now live full-time in their motorhome on a lot they purchased in a luxury RV resort in Port St. Lucie, which is on the other side of the state. They used to live in St. Pete and their doctors are still here. They had doctor appointments to make and stayed until Wednesday morning.

Wednesday:

After Jim and Belinda left we went to Autozone to get a fiberglass repair kit and Bondo. I need these items to start repairing the golf cart fender, which was damaged when I bought it. Luckily, the cart is older and the body is fiberglass. On newer carts the bodies are plastic, which is much harder to repair. From Autozone we went to Harbor Freight to get sandpaper, a rasp, and disposable gloves. Here are some pictures of the damaged area as I started prepping it for repair.

Thursday:

Once the headlight was taken out the whole front corner started falling off because the connecting piece was missing. Part of the fender over the wheel is missing as well. I had to place fiberglass mesh on the inside to the front and side to hold everything in place. Here are some pictures of the first layer of fiberglass mesh.

It might have been easier to make this repair by remove the front clip from the cart. However, removing the clip involves removing some very old, rusty screws. I thought that could end up being quite a project. Since the area of the fender that needed repair was accessible going through the headlight opening, that is what I am doing. The resin sets up rather quickly and is extremely sticky, making it fun to apply vertically through a hole.  

These are pictures after the second and third layers of resin and fiberglass. It is hard to deal with this stuff vertically. It sticks to everything, brushes, sticks, plastic gloves, etc. This made it hard to smooth out.

I knew from removing the headlights last year that the other fender needed attention as well. These headlights were add-ons for newer model Club Cars. The fiberglass fender was cut rather poorly to make them fit. On the passenger side the slim piece of fiberglass holding the fender together was broken off on one side and barely attached on the other. I added two layers of fiberglass mesh to make a fix.

The new headlights were ordered and to arrive on Saturday. I wanted them on hand before I started using the Bondo on the fender so the curves match.

Another project I finished up on Thursday was installing an additional outside outlet. When  the Michigan boys were here last year we installed an outside outlet back by the shed. It is convenient to leave the golf cart parked by the driveway. 

As a result I have had to use a twenty-five foot long extension cord to charge the cart. 

For the new outside outlet I tapped into an outlet in the middle of the Florida room. This entailed pulling off a piece of trim wood, drilling through the 2 x 4 window ledge, running the line, and drilling out through the aluminum framework to the outside. I had to buy a twelve inch bit to accomplish this last step. I have three long bits at home and now I have one here. LOL This outlet will work great, not only for charging the cart, but for any other electric needs on the carport such as vacuuming the truck, etc.

Our place came with an American Flag and a flag pole bracket attached to the front porch. The flag was pretty ragged so we didn't put it up. Since Kelly now has dual citizenship - Canadian and U.S - we decided to purchase an American-Canadian Friendship Flag. It arrived Thursday so I hung it up. Pretty cool.

 

It is bigger and looks much nicer than the old flag, which I ceremoniously burned.

Friday:

A day at the beach. We haven't been to the beach since arriving in November because it has been too cold. Friday the weather turned nice so we took advantage of it. Not many people on the beach at 10:30 a.m. when we arrived.

We had clouds off and on which made it pretty cool to sit there at times. Here are a couple of pictures of the clouds overhead.

Kelly wanted a picture to send to her sisters of her drinking one of the beers they left at our house last summer. Obviously, we are not big beer drinkers.

I got back to the house and, upon looking at the golf cart, was not happy with the wheel well fiberglass patch. It wasn't curing so I tore it out and redid it. Apparently I didn't add enough hardner earlier. 

Saturday:

Sunrise Palms, the park next door, had a large garage and yard sale. We went over as soon as it opened to scout it out. I purchased a couple of small tools and a couple of shirts because they were cheap. 

Kelly found a framed picture of birds embroidered on silk that she loved. We talked to the owner about this original artwork. He said he used to travel a lot and bought the embroidered silk from a lady embroidering on a street corner in Hong Kong. He brought it home and had it framed. I talked the guy into accepting half what he was asking and we brought it home. It is Kelly's Valentine Day present. Here is a picture where it is temporarily hanging in the living room.

After gluing a picture Celena bought for a buck at the garage sale, I once again checked out the fiberglass repair on the golf cart. I removed all the clamps and support materials on the driver side and was quite happy with the result. It is ready for Bondo. The passenger side, however, was a different story. The fiberglass mat bonded well on one side but not the other so I added more layers of fiberglass mat.  Good old "Duck Tape" to the rescue to hold the pieces in position until the resin dried. Hopefully by tomorrow it will be ready for Bondo as well.

I then removed what was left of the plastic hood ornament. I will fill the hole with Bondo. I am also going to take off the original black plastic "Club Car" name plate and the silver name plate riveted over it which says "Cart Haven". Here is a picture of the front with the ornament removed.

Finally, the new headlights arrived and fit quite well. The prior headlights were screwed down with drywall screws. I will purchase stainless steel screws for the new headlights so they don't rust.

 

January 17, 2024 - I Forgot About Another Day When We Went to See the Manatees

In the last blog I failed to include a day we spent with Jim and Renee observing the Manatees at the Manatee Preserve in Apollo, Beach. The cold weather causes the Manatees to congregate around the warm water coming out of the electric generating plant. Here are some pictures. I am sure there were at least a hundred gathered there.

The place was really crowded. Obviously a lot of other people realized the cold weather would bring the Manatees into the area.

After our fill of watching the Manatees we went down below to a pool they had where you could pet the Stingrays as they swam by. Here is a picture of Renee touching one. They have a slimy feel to them.

We have been to the preserve several times over the years but this time was the best viewing ever. So cool.

From Apollo Beach we drove to Bradenton for lunch at "Linger Lodge". I didn't take any pictures. The place was owned by a taxidermist at one time and anything you can imagine is in there stuffed. Our lunch was great. I was shocked to see that the old, crappy RV Park that had been there was gone and replaced with an entirely new, upscale park. It had full hookups and concrete streets and pads. Unfortunately it was fenced and gated so we couldn't go in to take any pictures. It is a very nice RV Park now. 

January 14, 2024 - January 19, 2024 - Visit by my sister, Renee, and her husband, Jim

My sister, Renee, and her husband, Jim, arrived on Sunday from St. Louis for a visit. We showed them around several places while they were here. This blog contains places we went and what we did but it is not necessarily in the right chronological order. (I didn't keep very good records I'm afraid.) 

It was cold when they arrived. In fact it was pretty cold the entire week they were here. We went to the Kite Festival on the beach in Treasure Island. We found a place to park and walked the beach checking out the various kites. There were far fewer kites than last time we were there because it was cold and, while windy, we heard that the winds were not that great for kite flying. Here are some pictures.

We just had to get our picture taken with the huge tropical fish balloon and the with the spaceman balloon overhead.

From there we drove a short distance to have lunch at the original "Caddy's on the Beach". We couldn't sit outside because it was too cold but we were seated with a view of the water. The food was delicious.

Another day we went to the "Seaside Bird Sanctuary". Renee and Kelly took a great interest in the Bald Eagle with part of his right wing missing. They are majestic birds.

I like the Pelicans and took this video of the brown ones. I found it interesting watching them swallow the fish whole as they ate.

The bird sanctuary is on the beach so the ladies scouted out a few shells and dipped their toes in the water before we left.

From the sanctuary we headed to "Mahuffers" in Indian Shores. It is bar like no other. This is their signature Bloody Mary. Added on top is celery, olives, lemon, pickle, cheese, bacon, meat stick, hot pepper, mushroom, and probably a couple of other items I missed. It is like lunch in your drink.

Here are a couple of pictures of us there.

As the sign indicates they take great pride in being a grubby place to eat and drink. Everyone writes their name on a dollar bill and staples it up somewhere. Here is the one Renee and Jim did.

One day the ladies headed up to the heated pool and the hot tub. While they did that Jim and I worked on a small project I had in mind. Most of our downspouts have had the elbows knocked off by the fellows who mow and weed eat. I wanted to reconfigure them by shortening the six downspouts and adding a new elbow and a short extension on each. I wanted to mount each elbow and extension a little off the ground so they could weed eat under them. A trip to Home Depot got us the elbows and screws we needed. I had a piece of downspout on hand to cut for extensions. The extensions are to help get he water away from the house.  Here are a couple of pictures of our completed work. Time will tell how long they will last with the landscapers. (I should have cleaned the downspout pieces or painted them before putting them up.)

Renee and Jim's last full day here we went to Ybor City for dinner at the original "Columbia Restaurant". It was Renee and Jim's treat. We arrived in Ybor City early to have time to tour the local history museum. We are so glad we did. The museum had great displays explaining the growth of the cigar industry in the area, which was the whole reason Ybor City was established. The cigar making business moved up from Key West, Florida. Throughout the years there were immigrants from Cuba, Italy, Spain, Germany, African-Americans, and Jews. Many worked in the cigar factories and many worked in businesses supplying the needs of the workers and companies.  

Because the immigrants did not speak English, each nationality established a "club", which was the place the workers' entire social life revolved around. The clubs provided all social activities, provided health care, helped with getting jobs, and had classes to learn English. With the help of the employers this area developed a health care system for all that was much like our HMOs now. It was so successful that the government sent representatives down to study it when they were developing Medicare in the 1960s. 

Each club built a large building for activities, sports, meeting rooms, teaching rooms, and a large hall for dances. At least two such clubs are still standing, the Italian Club and the Spanish Club. 

Our docent at the museum took us on a tour of one of the thousands of Casitas built for the workers back in the day. They were basically all the same, ordered from Sears-Roebuck, and shipped by train for assembly. Workers could rent them or buy them. If they bought one the company held the mortgage and if they moved to a different job the mortgage was taken over by the new company. Payments were taken out of the paycheck. Here are some pictures of the inside of a Casita. The only inside walls that were painted were the parents' bedroom. They were built off the ground for air circulation and had ten to twelve foot ceilings so the heat could rise. Here is a bedroom and the kitchen. Most cooking was done outside due to the heat.

The back yard of the Casitas provided a view of one of the cigar factories which had been falling down and was rescued and turned into apartments. The outside is completely original.

Here is a picture in front of three of the Casitas sitting on the history museum property. You can see that they were "shotgun" houses on narrow lots.

The docent told us that just two blocks away was the original "Italian Club" building and that it was usually open for people to see. We went there and were able to walk through it even though an event was taking place on the third floor in the ballroom. (We kinda crashed the event to get pictures.)  Here are pictures.

Here is an outside picture of "The Italian Club" as it is today, about 130 years after it was built. It is a magnificent, three-story building.

This picture is the first floor lobby.

A few stairs down was the lower level with a huge bar and lots of area for hanging out with friends. The bar is the original.

A great staircase takes you up to the second and third floors.

This is the second floor lobby.

Th entire third floor is a ballroom. You can see the event we crashed to get a few pictures. The ballroom was beautiful, large, and ornate. We were told all the nationalities were proud of their clubs and paid dues to belong but if one became unemployed the dues were suspended.

After touring "The Italian Club" we checked out a cigar shop where Renee and Jim bought some hand-rolled cigars for their son and son-in-law. After they made a purchase we headed to the "Columbia Restaurant" for dinner. It is the oldest restaurant in Florida. It opened as a sandwich shop for the workers in the cigar business in 1905 and quickly grew as the city flourished. It now covers an entire city block with seven dinning rooms which can serve up to 16,000 people at a time. 

After a great dinner we walked down the old commercial street district past many bars and cigar shops now. One of the buildings in the area is the original building of "The Spanish Club". Here is a picture of it as it sits today. Quite impressive.

Here is a video of a gentleman rolling cigars in the window as we passed by.

We had a great time visiting and showing Renee and Jim around the area. Friday morning their flight was delayed so they got to stay about an hour longer than expected. We used the time to teach them how to play Mexican Train dominoes. 

Before they left they stripped the bed, washed the sheets, and made the bed. They will get a discount on their next visit. LOL