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Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2
  • 1 Planet 1 Bag
  • Marc Scheulin
  • 1 Planet 1 Bag
  • Marc Scheulin

Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

A solar eclipse. 50th state, the call of the “young-old”, friends and family, and a month driving across the U.S. Read more
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  • Trip start
    March 29, 2024
    Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    A Long Road East

    March 29, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 54 °F

    For our second month of traveling slow, we are driving across the U.S. from west to east, California to Florida. We are taking our time for the drive.
    A great example of our sower mindset was our first side-quest. After Marc got his National Park access card at Volcanoes on Hawaii, we kind of committed to stopping at other NP along our route. Today we happened upon Cesar Chavez NP in Keene, California. This tiny town was home to Chavez and his wife for many years and is the site of their burial. Unbeknownst to us this is also the time to celebrate Cesar Chavez birthday on March 31! A bonus event! Live music, colorful dancers and enthusiastic crowds capped off an impromptu visit. We learned a ton of new info and we were both happy for the time.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Vegas

    March 30, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 55 °F

    We used our status with American Express to get a suite at the Venetian Palazzo. The room is huge and overlooks the strip. It includes $65.00 a day for breakfast (good thing too as the pot of coffee I ordered from room service was 45) a 100.00 dinner and drink credit and early check in and late check out. We plan on using all of our time here. No gambling just walking around and looking is our game plan. Our view is great and our time at our “home” is off to a great start.Read more

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    Hells Kitchen

    March 30, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 50 °F

    I enjoy watching Gordon Ramsey’s reality cooking shows. I even enjoy playing his cooking video games. When I worked with him at the Long Beach Grand Prix he was the nicest guy and his tv personality is very different than his actual personality. Anyway, I just had to eat at the Vegas Hells Kitchen. No reservations at all, unless we wanted to eat at 11:15pm. So… we just turned up. I asked nicely if there was room for a walk-up, sure she said, “will a high top table be ok?” Oh, yes please!
    It was wonderful. I could’nt stop smiling. If you’ve seen the show the restaurant matches up. There was a blue side of the kitchen and a red. Bandanas and colored chefs coats. The pre-fix was scallops, Beef Wellington, and sticky toffee pudding. Marc had the crispy salmon, and roasted cauliflower. Heavenly all around. I’d do again if it weren’t for the price tag, but worth it at least once. Marc’s favorite part was the steak knife…..    Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2
    On oldie but a goodie....
    In the bathroom stall, you can conveniently hold your drink2I just love this saying

    Sin City- for Easter?

    March 31, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 52 °F

    We found more skin than Easter eggs, in the city that never sleeps and it was a blast! Easter takes on a new meaning or actually no meaning at all, that we could see, in Sin City. Oh, there were some drunk folks with bunny ears and a really odd looking guy in a complete bunny suit (with an overly large carrot) , but I’m not judging. Up and down the strip we went. South to the airport, north to Fremont street.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Goodbye Vegas

    April 1, 2024 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 52 °F

    Day 3 of 3. In case you didn’t hear, the strip is long. After three days we still hadn’t seen it all and this was our last time. All the way to Mandalay Bay today. Very busy there with a girls volleyball tournament. There must have been 400 teams (no kidding). There were 140 courts and games from morning to evening for three days. It was overwhelming so we didn’t stay long. Then a walk through New York, New York, Luxor and Excalibur. I liked NY the best then bus back to our hotel, lunch and a late checkout and we waved goodbye. On to the cross country part of our trip. Arkansas by Sunday with a few stops for friends in between.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Wupatki National Monument

    April 2, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 61 °F

    1100 is a long time ago when there were several groups of Indians who lived in the High desert around Flagstaff. Today, the area is part of the Wupatki National Monument. Their structures are made of stacked flagstone and a concrete’ish substance. They also incorporated existing rocks as walls. Interesting to look at the construction and the locations.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Drive, drive…

    April 3, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 46 °F

    Today was all car. I tried to take a photo and hour. Heading east from Flagstaff and ending in Clovis, New Mexico. Hills and mountains and even signs of volcanic activity. Then… New Mexico where it looked flat and dry.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2
    This typewriter has an extra row to make capital letters

    Buffalo Gap History Center

    April 5, 2024 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 84 °F

    A park of Historical buildings from old Texas. Located in the small town of Buffalo Gap off the main highway. We had the entire park to ourselves. These historic villages are really fun to walk around and like many others obviously a passion of the volunteers who put it together and keep the doors open every day. Melissa and Pam couldn’t resist roll-playing teacher and settler student.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Texas - Hard Eight BBQ

    April 6, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    Smoked BBQ by the pound? How can we say no to that. Thanks to Marc’s niece Anita and her partner Chris we literally ate it up. We tried it all. Turkey, ham, brisket, beef ribs, sausage, and jalapeño sausage. All of the sides were just icing on the cake. It was fun to walk past the smoker and point to the meats and order by the volume you wanted to put in your tummy. Then they weigh it and charge accordingly.

    We ate and “talked story” for way too long. Thanks Anita and Chris for our new favorite Texas BBQ experience. We hope to see you soon somewhere else on the planet soon.    Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2
    1st stop in Arkansas to celebrate

    50 Nifty United States

    April 7, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F

    Oddly, Arkansas was the last state on my 50 state visited bucket list. I guess I will have to work on my Countries of the World list. On that list I’m up to 29….

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Rusty Tractor Winery -Arkansas Wine?

    April 8, 2024 in the United States ⋅ 🌩️ 77 °F

    Who knew they made wine in Arkansas. If we were still doing the wine tasting this would be our bottle just for the novelty. The local wine wasn’t that great, some of it was made with local Arkansas grapes and was way too sweet. The location couldn’t be beat for eclipse viewing.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Flash flood warning: 4 hours on road

    April 9, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☁️ 70 °F

    From one state Capitol city to another only a 4 hour drive. Heavy rain storm and flash flood warnings along the whole drive today between Little Rock Arkansas and Jackson Mississippi. All of the drive was flat bottom land along the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers. The farm land was flooded and ditches full of standing water next to the highway. So many sections of our two lane highways with oncoming big rigs throwing up water spray that blocked visibility for several moments. Very happy it was a short drive today!Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Tornado, flooding, winds and surf

    April 10, 2024 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 70 °F

    We got on the road early this morning to hit a sweet spot between storms. We left Jackson, Mississippi and drove south and east. We didn’t hit much rain and arrived at our beach front resort hotel in Pensacola, Florida by 11:00. As we sit here on the 6th floor overlooking the gulf our alerts again go off. High surf, wind, thunder and rain arriving in 30 minutes. Hotel staff are putting away chairs, dropping umbrellas and closing the lazy river at the resort. In general battening down the hatches. It’s not a cold wind or rain so I’ve found a corner of our balcony that is protected from the wind and I’m watching the storm pass. No lightening but the wind is howling. As always we are keeping it interesting. I’m so glad we didn’t plan this as the final destination on our cross-country trip as I’d be bummed not to explore the resort and the beach. Maybe tomorrow.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Relaxing on the gulf

    April 11, 2024 in the United States ⋅ 🌬 68 °F

    Sitting on an inner tube and floating in a lazy circle. I never knew how much I would smile. We also visited with Marc Niece Kelly and her husband Chase for dinner. No sightseeing or museums, just a lazy river, the windy beach and each other.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Farmers Market

    April 13, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 64 °F

    Every Saturday there is a wonderful farmer market at one of the town squares. In addition to the great produce, many vendors had prepared meals and gourmet foods. Lots of breads and pastries and pies as well.
    I purchased some stuffed olives, sun dried tomato salad dressing, local honey and some “rocky road peanut butter “.    Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    The Villages- Florida

    April 13, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    A completely designed, planned, programmed and made-up, fantasyland for people over 55. Over 150,000 residents live in 8 different “communities” in 3 different counties. They share 179 pickleball courts, 70 tennis courts, 12 sports pools, swim pools and family pools. 4 community squares with shopping and live music every night. Recreation facilities so vast that there is a weekly guide 30 pages long as big as an old tv guide, listing the clubs and events that are meeting every hour of every day from 6 am to 6 pm. Golf cars (not carts mind you) operate on their road system, and are the preferred mode of transport.

    We have just scratched the surface. More to come!    Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2
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    Family in the Villages

    April 14, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 81 °F

    Today we skeedadled in the golf car (not golf cart) and took the scenic route to visit with Marc’s father-in-law. Don and Maggie have lived in the Villages for several years. We went to their neighborhood resort area. Beyond the golf course there are at least two pools and several restaurants. This pool is really cool.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Go With Less Meet up

    April 15, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    Since deciding on this lifestyle I’ve followed and joined many groups, both on Facebook and other platforms. I really enjoy Go With Less or GWL for short. This groups of world travelers shares their knowledge of obvious world cities but also their secret knowledge of less known, less expensive, world finds. Today, we sat down with a group of “real people” from the Facebook group at the Villages. Tom and Susan have been everywhere as Tom worked in a Department of Defense School. Fred and Lisa travel the world in long stretches from their base in the villages, and their kids live all over the world so they also use their homes as their base. And… they prefer to get to Europe on a cruise ship instead of flying. Since using a cruise to get back from South America last December, I’ve thought of trying this. So we will be chatting with them more. We loved our 4 hours of chat and the time flew by.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2
    1962 oldest vet at showHow to fill the front trunk!Chrome & more Chome2My favorite Vet of the showZoom in on pinstripes: amazing!

    Corvette Club Show

    April 15, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 84 °F

    Every day, all three town squares have a special event. Today, the Landings, had a car show. Vets circled all 4 sides of the square. Every one was cherry! Most clubs have “works in progress “ not here.
    Last 2 pics are my favorite. I like the front engine, the pinstripes are just amazing.    Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Around The Villages

    April 16, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 86 °F

    Touring and sightseeing. Spent our day with old friends Mike and Janine. They have lived here for two years and they know their way around. We visited the “highlights” and we could have gone for many, many, more hours. Every area has a regional rec center with meeting rooms. Each room is booked for some club or gathering almost every hour of every day. One of them, called Eisenhower, looks very Presidential and is practically a museum. Another is National Park themed. We also walked the Fenney nature trail. All of this is within the Villages and the $195 a month residents fees includes the use of any of these.Read more

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    Boating Around

    April 18, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 88 °F

    Cousin Dave took us out for a boating adventure on Lake Dora. We sped across the water to the Dora Channel into Lake Eustis. Not only was it great fun (thanks to Captain Dave) but I would swear that the folks at Disney Imagineering must have been through this area as inspiration for several rides. Especially the Jungle Boat ride. At one point I also observed to Captain Dave that parts reminded me of the Pirates of the Caribbean, to which he sarcastically replied “especially if that house was on fire!” The afternoon was lovely and one we would repeat any day.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2

    Golf Car

    April 19, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 90 °F

    We spent the day driving around in the golf car. We went as far as Hogeye walking trail, 13 miles from home, 30 miles round trip. Then back stopping at The Blueberry Festival at Brownwood Square where there was live music and performances by some of the Villages different dance and song groups as well as street vendors. We stopped at the Wood Shop ($300.00 to join and $200 a year) for the use of the woodshop as often as you want. There was also an 18 hole pitch and play where we enjoyed live outdoor music. All accomplished between 11 and 6.Read more

  • Cal-Florida Yr 1, Home 2
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    World Equestrian Center

    April 20, 2024 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    I’m not a horse person and really, I’ve only been on a horse a half-dozen times. But, when the World Equestrian Center is less than a quarter mile away, it’s easy to visit. The facility is new and is actually still under construction. Stables, arenas, and veterinary services are expected. Unexpected was 2 full service hotels, 5 expo centers, a laundromat, many restaurants, general store and an RV campground. The facility caters to the Hunter/Jumper crowd but the facility also hosts an annual ComicCon, Breyer toys and many other events that need inside and air conditioned spaces. It was fun to walk around and see horses prance and dance around.Read more

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