Destin, FL - Camp Gulf - Aug. 6, 2013 until Sept. 1, 2014

Hard to know where to begin so let me start at the beginning...

We arrived 8/6/13 to Camp Gulf in Destin, FL. We were greeted at the gate by a man on a golf cart "just sit down young lady and we'll get you to your site...Hmmm, you aren't on my arrival sheet...oh, you are new workcampers...pull through the gate and someone will be with you" Later, we found out this was Herb Owen.

Then another man, Patrick, pulled up on a segway. "let's get your tow unhooked and get you into your site"
We were given site 508 but only temporarily until some of the other camp workers moved out. 

Site 508

Site 508

After a couple of weeks, we were moved to site 208, which has the cabin row behind it. Not too thrilled with that but it turned out ok.

site 208

Site 208

Working at Camp Gulf was quite an experience! Very, very busy but the management was great about doing extra things for the work campers. Several dinners that they cooked and cleaned up afterwards. Gift certificates for things to do in the area. They were very appreciative of our hard work!

Bruce's Office

Kathy working at Leona's Gift Shop

Bruce had at work power washing the wall.

More of Bruce's handy work!

One of Bruce's favorite jobs...pump-out wagon

Headed to a beach grill

A few of the things were enjoyed on our days off...

Bubba the alligator!

A day at the beach. Water is usually a beautiful blue but it was a bit stirred up this day.

Rocky Bayou State Park on a week-end off.

Kayaking with Harvey and Carmen at Rocky Bayou State Park.

Klein family reunion at St. George Island

Friends stopping by to visit

An evening dinner cruise on the Solaris

Camping at Twin Lakes Campground

Enjoying time together at Twin Lakes Campground

The flood of April, 2014 - this was our site and the water had receded some!

Owen working with his Papa

To summarize our year in Destin - a great time, family and friends came by for a visit and vacation, met a lot of new friends, all in all a great year!

Navarre, FL Jan. 2013 then to Tampa FL area Feb - Apr. 2013

Nvarre Campground, Navarre, FL

I'm not finding a picture of our site but here's one of the "beach" and an odd bug that was on our picnic table. I was told it is an Asian Multicolored Lady Beetle. Looked scary to me!

Navarre Campground's beach. Nothing great but it was sand and water!

For you bug lovers out there!

We spent a lot of time driving to Destin for things to do. Navarre isn't really much of a destination kind of place. It was nice that it was between Destin and Pensacola to drive to those cities for things to do.

Poppy's in Destin, FL for Valentine's Day. Shrimp and Grits - yum!

Naval Museum at the Pensacola NAS. Highly recommend a visit!

On the Tampa! We LOVE Tampa! So much to do, so pretty and the temperature is wonderful (we'll except maybe the summer :-)  I've only hit on some of the highlights of things to do around the -Tampa-St. Peterbury area. If you get bored while in this area, it's your own fault! 

Honeymoon Island

Honeymoon Island State Park is gorgeous! We were here in March so the water was too cold for us but the view and the walk along the beach were great!

Biff Burgers, always a car show going on!

Bruce had heard about Biff Burgers, and being the car guy that he is, we had to go check it out. It is a fun place with good food and a free car show on Friday nights. Something special goes on most nights. Check out their webpage for events.

Seafood Festival at Safety Harbor

 We loved Safety Harbor! A quaint little town that hosts this Seafood Festival.

The Pier at St. Pete. To be demolished in May, 2013 :-(

St. Petersburg

Festival of Speed at St. Pete with our friends Maryann and Tom

Loved the yellow blooming tree with the blue and white background, in St. Pete

"The Baranoff Oak" in Safety Harbor, FL

The Strawberry Festival in Kissimmee, FL is a must do if you are in the area! Loads of things to do and eat! We went to 2 of the concerts - Chubby Checkers, who put on a great show and Foreigner that evening. It was a lot of fun!

Strawberry Festival

Allergy no more! I'm Loving Galveston!!

Overnight stop near Ennis, Tx at High View Park.

Galveston bound!! Stopped at High View Park near Ennis, a COE park that is only $16 for the night (1/2 price for seniors with the COE pass, we're not there yet but FYI for you that are) We wanted to stay at the Waxahachie Creek park but it was already closed for the season.

I've always loved Galveston but I now have reason to love it more! I have been plagued with horrible allergies since January in Las Vegas, then Canon City was no better and Lawton was even worse! To cough and cough and cough with no relief is miserable! Benedryl helped but made me "foggy" as the commercials say. Galveston must not have the trees, which seems to be Cedar and Cottonwood, that has caused my coughing! Yea!!
Bruce found a beautiful RV Park here - Sandpiper RV Resort - and boy is it nice! View of the Gulf, concrete sites with grass between them, pool, hot tub, I'm thinking it will be very hard to leave this place! And did I mention I wasn't coughing anymore? :-)  We haven't taken pictures of our site yet but will post some in the next day or so.
Took about an hour walk along the beach, I think I was a mermaid in my previous life. I'm so at peace here.





















We went to Miller's Seawall Grill to see if it was still as good as it was when we were here in 2008 - and it was! Our server, Leah, was very friendly and we questioned her about living on the island. Seems she came here after Katrina and just before Ike. She said that Miller's got about 3 feet of water inside the building but the owner was thrilled that the ceiling was not damaged. It has some beautiful woodwork on it.
We spent our 1st couple of days just chilling by the pool/hot tub and getting the rig cleaned up to rid the inside of the pollen. Did I mention my allergies are better? :-)

Everyone is doing better! Yea! - November, 2012

Sept 19 - Nov. 1 has been a very emotional time for us! First Ryan's accident, then Bruce's mom has surgery on both of her legs.
Ryan continues to slowly but surely improve with each passing day. He is still at OU Medical Center but is in stable condition. They did not have to amputate his leg, they have put in external fixators and did a skin graft, so far, so good! They have also fixed his cheek bone and removed all 3 chest tubes. Mentally he is slowly coming back too. Able to shake his head to respond to questions, and told his brother David that his leg hurt. Such little things can mean so much!!

Ryan on 11-5-12 posted by his momma on FB

 Bruce's mom - she has had vascular problems with both legs for a while now. She had decided that the pain was more than she could bear and was going to go through with an amputation. Again, Thank God, that Jeannette and Blake convinced her to go see Dr. Milton in OKC!! We met with them for his evaluation - he believed he could save her legs with bypasses! On her 1st bypass he were able to use her own vein and though a painful recovery, within a couple of weeks that legw as so much better! The color was back to normal and pain was much better, now for the other leg. That one he was unable to use her own vein so had to use an artificial one, recovery seemed to be more painful for her but at her followup appointment he gave her a rave review!!
My allergies have been so bad that we've decided to head down to Galveston to see if I can get better now. Continued praise to God and continued prayers for healing for all.

My Nephew is involved in a serious motorcycle collision - Sept. 19, 2012

I got a little behind on my blog, I'm sure you've been wondering what has happened to us! LOL So a little catch up is in order today...
Aug-Sept 18 we continued pretty much as before, working and playing in Colorado. We had a great time at Mountain View RV Resort and touring southeast Colorado in our off time.

Sept 19 - called to wish my brother a happy birthday then the day went downhill from there. His son, Ryan, was riding his motorcycle (without a helmet, darn him!) when a school bus ran a yield sign and hit him! He was even ran over by the front wheel of the bus! The events as I understand them....
- Our daughter, Stacy, called me crying uncontrollably, I couldn't even understand her. Did get that Ryan was hit and in serious condition. Asked me to call the rest of the family, they had not been able to get a hold of James (my brother) or Dad yet. I tried to call my sister, Linda but started crying and handed the phone to Bruce who finished telling her what we knew so far, which wasn't much. Ryan had been hit by a bus, he was at Memorial and may not make it. Bruce also called my sister, Sandy, to pass on the information.
- Pray chain started immediately on Facebook.
- Stacy works at Memorial in the pharmacy. She had heard the code called and it was her turn to respond. Thank God, a co-worker offered to take her place. She saw that Ryan was in the ER and went to see what he was there for...as she entered the ER a large group of employees was around the trauma door...turned to look at her...she saw in their faces that is was serious and it was Ryan! (This is hard to bring back...bringing back all the emotions of that day)
- One girl told her that she had never seen so much blood in the trauma room.
- Ryan's phone was locked so the ER was having trouble contacting next of kin. Another miracle that Stacy arrived to give them that information. PLEASE EVERYONE - behind your driver's license put a list of emergency contacts!!
- Told that if Ryan made the flight to OUMC in OKC he would most likely loose his leg. It was crushed between his motorcycle and the wheel of the bus.
- James arrived just before Ryan was sent to OKC. He told me it was bad seeing him like that and was having a hard time keeping it together. Not knowing if when he saw him next in OKC ...
- Our daughter, Michele, works in OKC. She and Ryan's sister-in-law, Kristen met the helicopter when it arrived at OUMC.
- I'm not sure I even know all of Ryan's injuries - brain trauma, lungs bruised severely, fractures include: ribs, 2 vertebra, both orbits, right cheek, arm and leg, ruptured bladder, crushed pelvis. Each moment he was with us was a miracle.
It was too late in the day for us to be able to pack up and leave that day so we left the next morning not knowing...and I asked no one to call me while we were traveling. I could not handle driving and getting any bad news.

Pictures from Lawton Constitution

Ryan on Sept 21 posted by his momma on FB

Hummingbird Rescue

Needing nutrition

Feeling a little better but still weak.

Fellow Camp Host, Jim, found a little hummingbird on the ground near his camper and brought it over to see if it would drink from our feeder. Sure enough, it drank a little, rested a little then flew off. After much comparison in our birding book, I think it is a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird. Bruce is holding her in the bottom picture, what a great experience!

Cave of the Winds

Owen and Kathy

Due to all the fires and fire dangers the usual 4th of July fireworks were cancelled in Canon City so we had to figure out something else to do. We gave Owen the choice of riding the Royal Gorge Train or going to Cave of the Winds. As you can tell from the pictures, which he chose. It was so beautiful at the Cave of the Winds, even with all the smoky haze in the air. 

Bruce and Owen

The canyon below the caves

The cave tour was good but a bit too rushed. We even got separated from our group at one point because the guide was is such a rush. It has an interesting history, according the their website it was "Discovered in 1869 and opened to public tours in 1881, Cave of the Winds has been a place for visitors to explore the underground world for 130 years. But the history of the caves goes back even further – it’s millions of years old!"

The ladder is a remnant of the one used to climb into the cavern before the walkways were put into place.

 Sadly, back in it's earlier days, guests were encouraged to break of the stalactites and stalagmites and keep as souvenirs. If you look closely at the picture below you can see where they are broken.

Getting strapped in, putting on a brave front.

One last check of the safety equipment...

And off we go!

  

The return trip - backwards!

Owen and his Papa continue to work on his motor model.

Owen's bucket list included a zip line ride so here we go!