Living Our Dream

In Loving Memory

Milbert S. Fichter            June 17, 1915 - Feb. 17, 2009

We had just left the motor home on our way to Bahama Breeze near Tampa for a late lunch to celebrate Valentines Day when we got a phone call from our daughter back in the Pittsburgh area saying Margery's father had been admitted to the hospital and was critically ill.

We immediately turned around and headed back to the campground. We dragged some of our winter clothes out of storage, packed, secured some things around the motor home, and were on our way north in less than three hours from the time we got the initial call. We took turns driving all night and arrived at our daughter's house about 7:30 AM Sunday morning.

After a few minutes to freshen up after our 16-hour drive and a quick bite to eat, we all headed to the hospital. Margery's dad was not doing well, but he was awake, alert, and in fairly good spirits all things considered.

Margery's dad was always happy and jovial. He was always content and was the embodiment of Phillipians 4:12, which says, "I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well-fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want."

Everyone who met Margery's dad always commented on what a joy he was to be around. He had such a positive and pleasant attitude. At the assisted living facility where he resided, he participated in most of their activities and was known and loved by all the residents and staff alike.

One of the greatest gifts Margery's dad gave us was his blessing to pursue the full-time RV lifestyle. The day we left Pittsburgh, he stood at the door waving to us and wishing us "happy landings." And his encouragement had never wavered. Every time we saw him or talked to him on the phone, he said, "Go while you can. Enjoy."

The two days that Margery got to spend with her dad that Sunday and Monday were two of the best days of her life. Her dad was jovial right up to the end. In those last two days, they sang, held hands, reminisced, read scripture, prayed, and joked.

Margery's dad passed away peacefully in his sleep on February 17 just four months shy of his 94th birthday. Ironically, it was exactly three years ago, on February 18, when he moved into the senior living facility.

In keeping with his wishes, Margery's dad was cremated with no viewing. A memorial service was held at the assisted living facility where he lived.

Over the years, Margery's mom and dad enjoyed many what they and their friends called "an afterglow." It was a time for lots of fun and laughter, good food, and wine. Margery's dad was a vintner extraordinaire. A member from this group of friends shared a poem at the memorial service that captured his life.

I'd like the memory of me
To be a happy one,
I'd like to leave an after glow
Of smiles when life is done.

I'd like to leave an echo
Whispering softly down the ways
Of happy times and laughing times
And bright and sunny days.

I'd like the tears of those who grieve,
To dry before the sun
Of happy memories I leave
When my life is done.
                                               Author Unknown

He was loved and will be missed by many.

Tarpon Springs, FL

We were happy to finally see a ten-day weather forecast for temperatures in the 70s and low 80s, so we took off one morning for Tarpon Springs. Tarpon Springs is a little over an hour's drive to the southwest of Bushnell. Located a few miles up the Anclote River from where the river joins the Gulf of Mexico, Tarpon Springs is a picturesque town known for its sponge industry. The photo below is a waterfront view showing some of the fishing boats.

 

While Tarpon Springs used to be known as the sponge capitol of the world, today it is mostly a tourist area. Dodecanese Blvd. runs along the waterfront and has shops and restaurants mostly along one side. Across the street are the docks where sponges were unloaded. Today, there are still some sponge boats and commercial fishing boats, but there are also lots of tour boats at the docks. There are fishing tours, nature tours, and sightseeing tours - some that only take an hour or two and some that take all day.

There is some free parking in the tourist area of Tarpon Springs, but much of the parking is in pay lots. Parking is very reasonable at only $2 to $3 for all day, but we arrived early enough to find a free spot at the Sponge Exchange. The Sponge Exchange was originally started in 1907 as a place where the sponge divers could take their sponges to sell. The complex of buildings that used to be the Sponge Exchange has been modified and renovated into a shopping village. The photo below shows us sitting at the edge of the fountain with a statue of Neptune in the courtyard.

 

We browsed through some of the shops at the Sponge Exchange, and Margery bought some herbs at a little market. Then we went into a shop called Key West Connections. What a fun store! Of course, they had T-shirts and many of the usual tourist items, but they also had a great collection of silly hats. The gal behind the counter was great. Since it was early in the morning and there was no one else in the store, she encouraged us to try on whatever we wanted and to take all the pictures we wanted. In keeping with the Key West theme of the store, Margery is modeling a Parrot Head hat in honor of Jimmy Buffet.

Not to be outdone, Paul tried the flamingo hat. Now, there's a real fashion statement.

 

To go with the flamingo hat, they even had flamingo glasses.

 

After trying on some of the latest fashion accessories at Key West Connections, we headed on down Dodecanese Blvd. The photo below shows some of the quaint shops and restaurants along the boulevard.

As expected, there were numerous shops selling sponges. In addition to natural sea sponges, most of the sponge shops also sell luffa sponges, which are the dried, inner structure from the gourd-like fruit of a tropical plant. Margery is looking at one of the sea sponges in the photo below. The luffa sponges are the cylindrical-shaped ones hanging in front of her.

At least two of the larger sponge shops have movies that describe the history of sponging and the methods used to harvest and prepare sponges for market. After watching the movie at the Sponge Factory, Paul checked out some of the old photos they had on the wall detailing the history of the area. He is surrounded by many types and sizes of sea sponges they had on display.

The next photo is another view of the Sponge Factory.

A. W. Ormond and his daughter, Mary, were the first settlers in the area in 1876. Mary liked the big fish that inhabited the waters, and she named the settlement Tarpon Springs after the fish.

In the late 1880s, it was discovered that money could be made from harvesting sponges from the Gulf of Mexico. Although Tarpon Springs had grown into an exclusive resort for northerners, by 1890 the sponge industry had become the most important source of income for Tarpon Springs.

Within a few years, many divers were brought from Greece to Tarpon Springs. The divers with their rubberized canvas suits and pressurized helmets were able to dive deeper and increase the sponge harvest. By 1905 there were over 500 Greek sponge divers operating from more than 50 boats.

Eateries sprang up along the docks because of the many divers and their crews. As the sponge industry grew, people came to the docks to see the sponges. Soon, shops opened to sell sponges and souvenirs.

Sponges are marine organisms that consist of porous masses of cells and skeletal elements. Although sponges are biologically classified as animals, they do not have nervous, digestive, or circulatory systems and depend on water circulation to supply food, oxygen, and to remove waste.

Only sponges that are a minimum of 5 inches high or 5 inches in diameter are permitted to be harvested. Hand-held rakes are used to pull or knives are used to cut sponges from the rocks on which they grow. Small portions of the sponges that are deliberately left behind will grow into new sponges.

After harvesting, the sponges are squeezed to remove the gelatinous cells. It is only the flexible skeleton of the organism that is used. The sponges are kept moist on the decks of the boats by covering them with wet burlap sacks. During this time, any cells remaining in the sponges decompose. The sponges are then strung up on the ship to dry. After the ships return to shore, the sponges are trimmed, sorted according to size and quality, bleached, rinsed, and dried.

When a red tide algae bloom in 1947 caused a sharp decline in the sponge harvest, many of the boats switched to fishing and shrimping. The photo below shows one of the shrimp boats tied up along the Anclote River.

Although the discovery of new sponge beds in the 1980s has led to a rebound in the sponge industry, most of the dock area is now shops and restaurants catering to tourists. Synthetic sponges have largely replaced natural sponges, but many say no synthetic can equal the durability and absorbency of a natural sea sponge.

A strong Greek influence remains in Tarpon Springs today. Tarpon Springs has the highest percentage of Greek-Americans of any city in the United States. We had a difficult time deciding which of the many Greek restaurants we would try for lunch. Several of the ones along Dodecanese Blvd. are open-air and look like they could be located in a Greek village along the Mediterranean. By the time we decided it was time for lunch, most of the restaurants along the main street were very crowded, so we went down a side street (Athens St.) and stopped into Costas.

In addition to not being as crowded, we decided on Costas because Margery found an online coupon for free baklava with any lunch special. Costas turned out to be a good choice. We both had a gyro (pronounced yee-roh) sandwich with a salad. Paul is about to dig into the "small" Greek salad that came with the special.

 

The gyros were piled high with meat (which is a combination of beef and lamb), tomato, onion, and tzatziki sauce, all wrapped in a pita. Tzatziki sauce is a yogurt-cucumber sauce traditionally served on gyros. The sandwiches were yummy. The baklava was delish, too. We were stuffed when we left.

We started our visit to Tarpon Springs with tourist photos of us wearing funny hats, so we also ended our visit with a another silly tourist photo.

We always enjoy visiting a picturesque town, especially one with a rich history, and Tarpon Springs was no exception. It was interesting to learn about the sponge industry and to learn a little about Greek culture. And we are definitely fans of Greek food.

Hangin' Around Bushnell, FL

We enjoyed watching the Steelers squeak out a last-minute victory in Super Bowl XLIII. This game was not for the faint of heart. Paul thinks a good game is when the opposing team is blown out of the water. Margery likes a close game when the Steelers pull it out of the hat. Paul just about gave up when the Cardinals pulled into the lead. Margery suggested he take a walk if he couldn't bear to watch because THIS time, we were leaving the game on until the end...and we weren't disappointed!

The commercials that the Super Bowl is so famous for are also a lot of fun. We usually stick around for them and take snack and bathroom breaks during the game. This year, since the Steelers were playing, it was a lot harder to take breaks.

During the game, we saw a commercial for Denny's restaurants that said they were giving away free Grand Slam breakfasts (a $5.99 value) to anyone who showed up on the Tuesday after the game between 6:00 AM and 2:00 PM. Since we didn't have anything planned during the cool weather and since there was a Denny's restaurant nearby, we thought we would stop by to see how crowded they were.

We intentionally scheduled our arrival for around 10:00 AM hoping the crowds would be a little smaller between breakfast and lunch. The number of people waiting outside didn't look too bad, so we pulled in and parked. The photo below shows Margery waiting for them to call our name. As you can see, everyone is wearing jackets. The air was cool; but thankfully, the sun was warm.

While we were waiting, they had a clown who was passing out small stuffed animals to the kids (and a few of the adults).

They also handed out Pancake Puppies to those who were waiting. Pancake Puppies are deep-fried balls of pancake batter that are similar to hush puppies.

We were amazed at how smoothly everything ran. It turned out we only had to wait about 35 minutes to get a table. The restaurant staff was hustling, but they were not frantic. Service was fairly quick and the food was good. The Grand Slam breakfast consists of two eggs, two slices of bacon, two sausage links, and two pancakes. We're both trying to watch our weight, fat, and cholesterol, so it's not something we could eat all the time; but hey, we can bend our rules a little for free food.

For the past two weeks or so we just couldn't seem to shake the cold weather. We had a few warmer days (with clouds and rain on a couple of them), then it was back to the 50s - still better than up north, but cold for Florida. We remember a few cold days and nights last year, but not this many. A lot of landscape plants around the campground and elsewhere have turned brown because of repeated freezing. Hopefully, it's just the leaves that were lost and the plants themselves will survive.

So far, we have had a total of four nights in the low 20s. Last year we only remember one or two nights that were in the mid-20s. We're glad we have our new Vornado electric heater. It's really working well.

We are in what used to be the heart of citrus country. Most big, commercial orange growers moved farther south after a freeze in the 1980s, but there are still quite a few smaller groves around where we are staying. If overnight temperatures drop below 28 degrees for more than about four hours, oranges can be damaged. If the crop can be sent to a processor right away, they can be used for juice; but when there is a wide-spread freeze, the processors can't squeeze all the oranges fast enough, and the oranges quickly turn to mush and are useless. The other problem is many groves in this area grow oranges and grapefruit for eating, not for juice. Many of the eating varieties don't produce much juice. Our favorite produce stand where we buy fresh-squeezed juice also grows a lot of specialty eating oranges. They have had a lot of loss, not just of their orange crop, but also the trees themselves.

We keep postponing our sightseeing waiting for the weather to warm up. Other than going out to Denny's for free breakfast and running a few errands, we didn't do much except hang around the motor home.

Margery took advantage of the fact we had her sewing machine out of the storage bay to sew the Velcro onto the sunscreens we reported on in our last post. She completed a few alterations to a couple of pieces of clothing.

Hanging around the motor home was also a good excuse to bake some gingerbread cookies. Lora and J. Michael gave us some gingerbread mix they got during a visit to Williamsburg last summer. The gingerbread cookies sold at the Raleigh Tavern Bakery are a "must have" whenever we visit there. Baking in the motor home without much counter space is a challenge. The dough was quite sticky; and without a cookie cutter, some of the cookies were somewhat misshapen.

But the final results looked good and tasted even better.

 

It finally warmed up toward the weekend. We are anxious to get to some of our sightseeing plans, but we seldom go sightseeing on weekends if we don't have to. Therefore, we decided to stick around the motor home some more. After we finished our weekly cleaning inside, Paul decided take advantage of the warmer, sunny weather to get some outside chores done. He decided to polish the aluminum wheels on the motor home.

While adding air to our bike tires for a ride over to WalMart, Paul noticed the sidewalls of all the tires were brittle and starting to crack. We needed to replace them before one of us took a header because of a blowout.

We love having internet access with with our satellite dish. Margery researched bicycle tires online and found Bike Tires Direct that carries everything for cycling including the tires at a good price. However, a call up to Santos Trailhead Bike Shop in the Villages confirmed they had tires to fit our bikes at a surprisingly good price, too, so we  picked them up there. Cost was a wash figuring in shipping. The photo below shows Paul installing the new bike tires.

The ten-day forecast is looking more favorable and is calling for temperatures in the 70s and lower 80s all the way through. Sounds like we will finally get a chance to see some new sights.

Motor Home Project: New Inside Sun Shades

The cold spell finally ended and temperatures returned to the 70s and low 80s. We had planned some sightseeing when the weather finally warmed, but we got sidetracked by a motor home project that got its start during the cold spell.

One of the things we did during the cold weather was run errands, and one of the stops we made while running errands was at Beasley Manufacturing in the nearby town of Center Hill.

Beasley Manufacturing makes sun shades that mount to your RV awning. That's all they make (no windshield shades, no custom sewing), but the biggest part of their business is that they sell shade cloth by the foot for do-it-yourself shade projects of all types - for your RV or for your patio or Florida room in your stick house. The shade cloth they sell are remnants and short ends they buy from various sources. Beasley also sells suction cups, snaps, turn buttons, bungees, and other accessories needed to install the sunscreens.

We originally went to Beasley looking for a small piece of shade cloth to use for making a shade for the skylight in the shower. There is a surprising amount of heat that comes in from the skylight, especially in the desert where the sky is very clear. However, when we saw how inexpensive Beasley's fabric was, we started to think about other projects. Prices for shade cloth at Beasley range from $1 to $2 per linear foot, depending on whether the cloth is first or second quality and depending on fabric width. Widths run from 3 to 8 feet. They also have small pieces of left-overs for as little as fifty cents. The photo below shows Paul checking out their fabric.

When we first bought the motor home, we bought sunscreens for the windshield and front side windows from Prompt RV Sunscreen. The sunscreens not only block a lot of heat from the sun coming through the immense windshield, they provide privacy during the day. With the screens in place, you can see out, but those on the outside can't see in.

The advantage to the screens from Prompt is they mount with rubber straps and suction cups and don't require drilling holes in the motor home for mounting. They can also be put up without a ladder, although we do use a one-step stool since neither one of us is very tall. Most other brands of sunscreens use snaps or turn buttons for mounting, which require drilling holes in the fiberglass skin of the RV, and they require a ladder to put up.

Although we have been very pleased with our Prompt RV Sunscreens, newer Tiffin motor homes have powered shades mounted inside the motor home. While it's not practical for us to retrofit our motor home with the power shades because there's not enough room between the windshield and the bulkhead behind the windshield and because of cost, we do like the idea of inside-mounted sunscreens. The disadvantages to outside screens are we sometimes have to wait until the rain stops to put them up, we need a step stool, we frequently have to take time to clean a bug-splattered windshield before we put the screens up, and the side screens that are held up by suction cups sometimes fall down.

RV Quick Shades sells sunscreens that mount to the inside of the windshield by means of suction cups. These shades provide the conveniences of inside-mounted screens without the expense and space requirements of the power shades. Even though our existing sunscreens are in good condition, we started thinking of making our own inside screens similar to the ones sold by RV Quick Shades because of the very reasonable price of fabric at Beasley.

One thing that makes the shades easy to make is the fabric doesn't need to be hemmed. The fabric is woven, then it is vinyl coated which prevents it from fraying.

We left Beasley and went back to the motor home to do some measuring.

From Paul's calculations, we figured we could make inside sunscreens for the windshield, both side windows in the front, plus the big side windows behind the couch and by the dinette for under $75 (including all the hardware), which is about one third the cost of new shades for the windshield and front windows alone from RV Quick Shades.

With measurements in hand, we went back to Beasley and picked up enough fabric to do the job, plus a little extra. Since the fabrics they sell are remnants, the material you want may not be there when you go back if you didn't get enough. However, black and white are very popular and they have those colors pretty much all the time. We chose black for the window sun screens because black scatters less light and makes it easier to see out. We also picked up a small piece of light tan (to match the ceiling) for the shower skylight.

We decided to do the windshield in two panels (one for each half) to make it easier to handle and put up. The photo below shows Paul laying out fabric for one of the windshield panels.

In the next photo, Paul is trimming one of the windshield panels to size.

 

Most of the time that Paul is doing something on his knees, he crosses his legs at the ankles.

Maregey never knew anyone who did this until she met Paul. However, it must be a Zeller gene since Lora did it, too!

The windshield sunscreens are held in place by suction cups. Snaps would have been more secure, but there is no place around the windshield for the screws needed to hold the snaps in place. Paul started by putting two or three suction cups across the top of the first panel, then added a few more suction cups at the top and some at the bottom to get the screen to hang relatively straight. He ended up with five along the top and three along the bottom. The suction cups need to be a little closer together toward the outside edges of the windshield where it has a little more curve.

Paul used snaps for the screens on the side windows because the snaps are lower profile than the suction cups and because the snaps are more secure and allow the shades to be more taut. The snaps are held to the aluminum window frame by short screws. The photo below shows the final fitting of the passenger-side screen.

 

From the material left over from the windshield panels plus a little additional fabric, we were able to make sunscreens for the two, large side windows - the one behind the couch and the one by the dinette. Paul would have preferred to use snaps to secure these shades, but we ended up with a combination of Velcro along the top and snaps on the bottom because there isn't enough room at the top to get your hand between the existing day/night shade and the window frame to grab the snaps to unfasten them.

Margery got out her Singer Featherweight sewing machine to sew the Velcro to the shades. She was very creative in maneuvering the shades in the small workspace on the dinette table.

The next photo shows Paul fitting the shade behind the couch. You can see how much brighter it is in the upper corner of the window where the shade hasn't been attached yet.

The next project was the cover for the skylight in the shower. Laying out the cover was a little easier since it is a lot smaller than the window screens.

 

The next photo shows the shower without the screen on the left and with the screen in place on the right.

Since Paul had to use a flash, the photos don't really show how much darker the skylight cover makes the shower, but you can see there is a lot more glare without the cover. More importantly, since we have a walk-through bathroom, the cover also makes the bedroom much darker and cooler.

We're pleased with the way the shade screen project turned out. The driver's side windshield screen is a little tricky to put up because it's hard to reach way up behind the bulkhead to fasten the suction cups since the steering wheel is in the way; but overall, we think the inside screens will be more convenient than our old ones.

We can hardly believe our time here in Florida is almost half over. We have been pretty busy, so time has flown by. We still have a lot we want to do, so stay tuned.