Florida- Jan. 2012

January 5 Bud and I started to Florida with Jim and Sue Dawson's car. Taking their car to Treasure Island and then we wanted to go on down to my brother's house for a few days. Originally then we were going to go on down to Ft. Meyer to see Ron and Donna, then back to Tenn to see his cousin, Jerry. But plans were changed and we had to be home earlier due to a procedure that Bud needed to have done on his kidneys, which was done today.

Bud was driving Jim and Sue's car and I was following him with our car.  Down thru Nashville, TN. no problems, I was enjoying driving the Sonic even tho I had not driven it far yet here around home.
Until we reached Atlanta....oh, boy....bumper to bumper at 75 mile any hour, trying to stay close to him so nobody would get between us.  I had no clue what the route looked like. This was my first time going to Florida.  South of Atlanta we stopped....and he said when I got out of the car....All I did was glare at him over the car hood and said "NEVER AGAIN".....later he ask how I liked downtown Atlanta.   I replied that I had not seen down town Atlanta.  He said, "You drove right thru it, how could you not see it?"   My reply....all I saw was the back of their red car and license # POP PO2  nothing that was beside me or around me.

How glad I was when we pulled up in front of:
1020 miles after we had left home we were delivering their car where they were going to be:
From there Bud was behind the wheel of our car.
Before we left there we walked out to the  beach... my first trip to Florida and to a beach for ages.

When we left there we went to Sarasota to my brothers house.

When we first got there Bud ask me what I had done to him, stated he felt like he was in Chesterville or Arthur, since this is a place where Amish from a lot of states come to for the winter.

At one point of our visit he called a lady, a regular citizen...refering that she was not Amish.

I thought Anna was going to fall out of her chair laughing at him.

Saturday night we went to hear John Schimd sing.

Sunday I went to church with Levi and Anna, then we went to the beach.

And yes, I did get my feet wet.  Also got a bit of a sunburn. 
.

 We also went to the park to see the birds and see the gators

 We walked out to the place where we could climb the tower and see above the tree tops.

 We saw the gators, and just on the other side of the bridge there were fishermen in the water fishing. You could not have paid me enough to be that close to this gator.

 Levi, Anna and I climbed the stairs, walked over this bridge.

 Stopped on the bridge for a photo. and then again at the top for another one. Anna and I had to stand on the rail to see over the side.

 Oh, look...Bud stayed down there and didn't climb to the top. :)

The view from above the tree line.

We rode the golf cart, Anna and I went shopping, and the fellows went to the coffee house for mid afternoon coffee.

We had a wonderful time and our hosts were the best!

We ended up leaving Florida on Wed and heading back home. This time he took the Birmingham route to show me new country side.

 I loved this route a lot....not much traffic at all! Much nicer then Atlanta!!!

We did have to wait, came to a stand still on I-65 north, because some trucker had laid his rig on the side early morning..... Then it started to rain/snow in Tenn, so we stopped at Clarksville and came on in on Friday.
We had a wonderful time, even tho I classified that it was shorter then I wanted it to be. By the time we got to Tenn. I really wanted to turn around and go back. Going from 77 degree weather to in the teens and crappy weather.  But guess that is what Illinois weather is....crappy in the winter time.
Perhaps someday I shall be able to go back and enjoy the warm weather again.

Today, Bud had a biopsy done on his right kidney.  Hopefully they will tell us soon what is going on with the growth that is attached.  The one that has changed colors and size in the past 6 months.

I do know God is in control, and whatever it is he will help us deal with things.