Day 2 continued
McDill AFB
January 23, 2006

Well, as they say, the best laid plans...

I had a bad spin episode and had to lay down. Paul and Grandpa took the base tour in the famcamp area. There are over 500 electric/water sites here and about 50 dry campsites. The woman at the camping desk as we checked in said that there is a waiting list already for the 2006/2007 winter season. I can see why...a beautiful waterfont, marina, free wifi, 10 bucks a day, access to the BX, Commissay, library, restaurants and god knows what else. I'd be here all winter too. I always wondered why the Kerrs came to Tampa...my remembrances from my one and only trip here was traffic, old farts and more traffic. This base is like an oasis...you never have to leave, it is a little town all by itself. I get it now.

After my nap, we went to have dinner. Went to a local place called Cellenis and it was great. We had the rustico pizza and it was really the old type of pizza, thick crust, fresh ingredients and very very good. Then we all split the best canolli I've had since Mrs. DiBacco made them years ago. Good grief I can't remeber when that was either. Talk about fading memory. It really was good.

I am typing this at the marina, there is a revolving game of gin going on in the activities room and there must be 50 old farts here playing cards. There are several computer stations and I am on the Famcamp wifi system. Its free. Wow, maybe I shoulda married a lifer...what benefits they get. I think I have had one too many Killians with my pizza, my spelling is really bad.

Tomorrow is open for the morning hours, then Hank will be giving a peanut brittle making demonstration...he makes wonderful peanut brittle in the microwave. My peanut brittle is a version that makes your teeth stick together and cements to your fillings to each other then pulls them out. *Sigh*. Maybe I will learn how to make it right.

That's about all for today. I will post more tomorrow. Don't forget to check out the pictures on yahoo pictures...look for rocketmom1985's album

hugs

dennise

Tampa Day 2
McDill AFB

We have finally gotten settled at the FamCamp at McDill. There were long lines of folks waiting for day passes to get on. Hank was ever so helpful in getting us on the base. We are in a dry camping area, which means that we have no water or electric service. They have very nice clean shower facilities along with a private beach, wifi at the marina and a beautiful view of Tampa Bay.

It is a bit humid and hot today so we are going to run the generator for a while and then we are going off the generator, truly “boondocking” although we did have to pay…$9 a day to dry camp. That is pretty darn good since we have been paying upwards of $60 a night! We have paid for a week…wow, another week in another paradise. Life just can’t get any better than this.

Paul and I are going to take a little car trip down to the marina and check it out. Also, I will check out the wifi hotspot. Jeesh I hope it works. Don’t know what we are going to do for dinner…we have the grill to go so that is where most of our meals will be cooked. We need to go to the market and get some essentials. I can’t believe we the “Windex family of the year” have to buy Windex! We have three gallons at home but forgot to fill the sprayer in the rig before we left….oh yeah, we were immersed in the bathroom fixture fiasco. Ooops I digress. Well, I will post more later about our afternoon adventures.

dennise

Tampa Day 2
January 23, 2006

We will be pulling up the rig from the campground Bayu something or other, and heading over to McDill AFB. We will be dry camping there for a day or two. We wanted to visit LazyDaze but we have heard from several campers here that they are not the most desireable dealers to deal with. Just rumor. I don't know anything about them other than they sell a ton of RV's. I want to go to seminars and look at all the new coaches, not buy one for pete's sake. Hank Kerr who will be our host at McDill will be meeting us shortly. Hank also tells me there is a wifi access point at the marina on the base. Hopefully I can update more at that time. I didn't do anything last night but watch tv. It is warm but ugly humid...that's why I really don't like Florida. I am leaning towards AZ...

to be continued.

dennise