Living Our Dream

Pittsburgh for the Holidays Part I: Holiday Prep and a Visit to Phipps Conservatory

Pittsburgh, PA - Events of Tuesday, December 17 to Monday, December 23, 2019

We headed out for Pittsburgh bright and early on Tuesday morning (December 17) to spend Christmas with family. We stopped for the night at the Hampton Inn in Rock Hill, South Carolina, where we usually stop.

We met our RVing friends who live in the area, Dick and Barbara, for dinner at the nearby Texas Roadhouse. We had a good time chatting and catching up.

We were on the road shortly after 7 a.m. on Wednesday for the second leg of the journey. Later in the afternoon as we were traveling through West Virginia, our conversation somehow turned to food with Dairy Queen being the main topic of discussion. Pretty soon, we found ourselves on a 26º day in the middle of snow flurries stopping at a Dairy Queen.

It's never too cold for Dairy Queen

Traffic, for the most part, was light for both days of our journey. The one exception was the second day when we were within about 10 miles of Lora and J. Michael's house when we were hit by a heavy snow squall. Within minutes the road iced up and traffic on I-79 came to a stop.

Fortunately, were right by an exit. Even though that exit was a couple of exits before the GPS wanted us to get off the interstate, we inched our way over into the right lane and took the off ramp.

The back roads were also icy, but traffic was moving. We're really glad we ordered our Equinox with AWD, which is an option that is almost never purchased by Floridians. This one experience alone with icy roads made it worth the extra cost...and the anti-lock brakes helped a lot, too.

We pulled into Lora and J. Michael's driveway, which was covered in snow, shortly after 3:30. Paul shoveled so we wouldn't pack down the snow with our many trips into the house to get the car emptied out.

Paul shoveling snow - we moved to Florida to get away from this

On Thursday, we took Paul's step mom to lunch at Empire Palace. Lora and Lydia joined us. Empire Palace has excellent Chinese food, something that we haven't found much of in Florida.

We all piled into J. Michael's Suburban on Thursday evening and drove to nearby Clinton, Pennsylvania, where we toured the Christmas Light-Up as we have done in past years. For a $10 per car donation that goes to local charities, visitors can drive through an extensive light display in Clinton Park as many times as they want. We always drive through twice.

Some of the many Christmas lights at Clinton Light-Up

On Friday morning, we attended Lydia's pre-school Christmas program. This year she played the part of an angel, and she did it very well. The kids were all very cute.

Lydia (center) as an angel in the pre-school Christmas play

We spent the rest of Friday, as well as parts of Saturday and Sunday doing baking, wrapping, and other holiday prep. In between, we played with Lydia. There was also a visit by friends of the family on Saturday afternoon and church on Sunday morning.

Late on Sunday afternoon, we went to Phipps Conservatory in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh to attend the Winter Flower Show and Light Garden. Because of the large crowds the lights draw, this year Phipps instituted a new policy of selling advance tickets for specific times to see the lights. Lora got tickets for 4 p.m. so we could arrive in the daylight to see the flowers inside, then move outside to see the lights as it got dark. We stopped for a photo of the girls on the way in.

Lora, Lydia, and Margery outside Phipps Conservatory

Poinsettias always play a big role in the display of winter flowers at Phipps. This year was no exception.

Poinsettias stacked like Christmas trees

There are always many different varieties of poinsettias used in the displays. This year, we saw a color we didn't even know existed - yellow. When combined with pink cyclamen and orchids, the yellow poinsettias made for a very exotic display.

Yellow poinsettias

We enjoyed seeing the displays in the various rooms of the conservatory in the daylight.

East Room

Broderie Room

Victoria Room

Garden railroad in the South Conservatory

We took our time with the indoor tour and got to the exit for the outdoor light show shortly after the sun went down. This year, the weather was cool, but not freezing cold, so we could take our time and enjoy the many different areas of light displays.

After seeing the lights, we headed back inside to finish one or two more areas of the indoor tour. It turned out 4:00 was an excellent time to go to Phipps. We got to see most of the indoor flowers in the daylight, and we got to see the lights outside before it got too crowded.

On the way back to the car, we stopped to check out the colored lights inside the conservatory itself. The photo at the top of this post is a little wider view of Phipps at night.

View of the entrance to Phipps at night

We continued with holiday prep on Monday afternoon and into Christmas Eve. We'll tell you more about Christmas and afterward in Part II.

Merry Christmas!

It's Been Quite a While

Wauchula, FL - Events of Thursday, September 5 to Monday, December 9, 2019

A recent email from a blog reader asking us if we were okay made us realize it's been quite a while since our last blog post. Our last two posts were over three months ago in early September right before and right after Hurricane Dorian threatened our area.

Except for both of us being under the weather with bronchitis for all of October, we have been doing fine. The activities we have been involved in since out last post have been rather mundane, so there hasn't been much to report. Going out to eat was restricted during our illness, and all the restaurants we have gone to recently were ones we have already written about. Therefore, there hasn't been anything new to report in the subject of food either.

Even though Margery wasn't feeling very well in October, she still got an early start on the layout of the November issue of the Co-op newsletter knowing there would be a lot of new information coming in at the last minute as members started arriving for the season. Margery got the newsletter out November 1 right on schedule.

The layout of the December issue of the newsletter went without a hitch; but when she was ready to start printing the newsletter, the Co-op's old color laser printer started to malfunction. The part required to fix the old printer, if it was even available anymore, would have cost almost as much as a new printer, so Margery also spent time researching and purchasing a new color laser printer for the Co-op. The new printer does a fantastic job.

Every fall, a group of volunteers goes around the Co-op and trims the palm trees to cut off all the dead palm fronds and seed pods to give the trees a neat appearance. It's a big job because the Co-op has about 170 palms along the streets and on public areas that we are directly responsible for, and an additional 50 to 60 trees that are located on members' lots that we also trim for a nominal fee.

The man who used head up the pruning and do all the cutting could no longer do the job because of arthritis. As chairman of the Landscape Committee, Paul took over organizing the work.

Doing the actual cutting is the hard part, so rather than have only one person up in the bucket of the cherry picker manning the saw, Paul and several other guys take turns doing the cutting. That results in a lot less stress on arms and shoulders than if one person has to do all the work.

Paul up in the cherry picker pruning trees

While one person is up in the tree doing the pruning, others on the ground gather up the cuttings and haul them off to our burn pile.

Workers gathering cuttings

So, in addition to our bronchitis and attending a few meetings after we started feeling better, those are the kinds of things that we have been doing since our last post. Now that we have stopped traveling, we don't have much to blog about anymore. We've been in the park model for going on two years, so we don't even have many park model projects to write about either. For those reasons our blog posts will continue to be infrequent, and at some point in the future, they may stop altogether. But for now, we feel we do have a few more posts in us, so stay tuned.

Hurricane Dorian

Wauchula, FL - Events of Tuesday, September 3 to Wednesday, September 4, 2019

We're happy to report Hurricane Dorian was pretty much a non-event as far as the area where we are located in west-central Florida is concerned. After a week of following projected paths that changed several times a day (some of those early paths could have potentially been catastrophic for us), we escaped unscathed.

What was previously a Category 5 storm had weakened to Category 2 by the time it passed by us, and it helped immensely that the eye was 80 to 100 miles offshore. The storm brought 10 to 15 mph wind with gusts to 20 and surprisingly little rain to our area on Tuesday. Wednesday was about the same with maybe a few more clouds coming around the backside of the storm. The wind is supposed to start to gradually decrease today (Thursday), and the forecast is for 94º and wall-to-wall sunshine.

There is some damage from wind and storm surge in coastal areas of Florida, but it was relatively minor compared to the Bahamas where Hurricane Dorian took two days to meander a relatively short distance across the northern islands of the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm. The storm has strengthened again to Category 3 as it heads for the Carolinas. Our prayers go out to the storm victims, especially in the Bahamas, and we also pray for safety for those farther north.

So there you have it. We experienced our first hurricane as Floridians. As we said, it was a non-event, and we're very thankful for that.

'Til next time...

Hurricane Prep and a Day Trip to Fort Pierce

Wauchula, Florida - Events of Friday, July 26 to Monday, September 2, 2019

We have completed most of our preparations and are currently in a holding pattern waiting for Hurricane Dorian to arrive. The storm is predicted to stay offshore, so we aren't expecting anything too severe. However, hurricanes are notably unpredictable, so we are hanging loose with a couple of backup plans should we need them.

In the meantime we thought we would post an update on a few things we have been doing over the last month. Back at the end of July, we tried a newly-opened Mexican restaurant in Sebring called Azul Tequila. 

Azul Tequila

The decor at Azul Tequila is very attractive with upholstered chairs that have carvings in the wood backs and with taller, barrel-type seats in the bar area. There are interesting silhouettes of rustic wagons and figures in sombreros in the upper windows, wagon wheels embedded in the walls, and attractive murals.

Azul Tequila has a menu that is typical of most Mexican restaurants with prices that are $1 to $3 higher than our favorite, Pancho's Villa in San Antonio, Florida. We both had chimichangas with queso sauce. Margery had ground beef, and Paul had shredded chicken.

Margery with her chimichanga

Azul Tequila is almost as good as Pancho's Villa, and it's about a 1½-hour shorter drive, so we'll definitely be going back. In fact, we liked Azul Tequila so much, we did go back less than two weeks later.

With Hurricane Dorian still a long way off, we took a day trip on Tuesday, August 27, to Fort Pierce to visit the Navy SEAL Museum located there. Admission is $15 for adults ($12 for seniors 65+, veterans, and first responders).

Entrance to the Navy SEAL Museum

The Navy SEALs originated in the early days of WWII when the U.S. Navy recognized the need for covert reconnaissance of beaches and enemy coastal defenses. The Amphibious Scouts and Raiders were formed just 9 months after Pearl Harbor, and a training center opened in Fort Pierce. Other names for the Navy SEAL predecessors include Naval Combat Demolition Unit (NCDU), Underwater Demolition Teams (UDT), and Frogmen. The special operations program was expanded in 1960-1961 during Vietnam and that is when the Navy SEAL name was adopted. The name comes from where the teams operate - in the SEa, in the Air, and on the Land.

The museum begins with the modern-day story of the SEALs starting with a display on the global war on terror that began with the 9/11 attacks. One of the things in the display is a section of a steel beam from the World Trade Center.

Section of a steel beam from the World Trade Center

This part of the museum also features a scale model of bin Laden's compound in Pakistan. The SEALS trained on a full-size replica of the compound built in Nevada before the actual mission took place.

Scale model of bin Laden's compound

Also in the modern era display is the Maersk Alabama lifeboat. SEALs rescued Captain Richard Phillips, who had been held for 5 days on the lifeboat, after the cargo ship of which he was captain was overrun by Somali pirates back in 2009.

Maersk Alabama lifeboat

Along with a Black Hawk helicopter, the modern day exhibit features examples of several types of land transportation used by the SEALs including a dirt bike, a 4WD truck, and the sand rail and specially-modified side-by-side shown below that were used in Desert Storm.

Sand rail and side-by-side used by the SEALs

Included in the display was an MCU/2-P gas mask. Paul worked on the development of the lens for this military gas mask, and its experimental predecessors the XM-29 and the XM-30, when he worked as a plastics engineer at MSA.

The masks feature a flexible lens that allows the user's eye to be pressed close to the scope of a rifle while maintaining protection against poison gas. It was extremely difficult to mold the lens with good optics because of the nature of the material that was specified, and Paul came up with a way for the molding operators to inspect the lenses for optics right at the press using polarized light. With defects being discovered at the press, adjustments to the process could be made right away to minimize scrap.

MCU/2-P gas mask

The museum has separate areas for displays on Korea/Vietnam and for WWII. There are also several excellent short videos throughout the museum that describe different operations conducted by the SEALs as well as the very rigorous SEAL training.

From the WWII area, visitors exit to the outdoor displays that include a number of boats and submersibles from WWII to the present day. The photo below shows several of these vessels. Also on display are two training modules for the Gemini and Apollo space programs (the white, conically-shaped objects in the far distance). Navy frogmen participated in the recovery of the space capsules after splashdown.

Boats, submersibles, and space capsule training modules in the outside display

Shown below is a MK-V Special Operations Craft. At 82' long, it's a lot bigger than it looks in the photo. It has two 2252 HP diesel engines and costs $4500 an hour to operate.

MK-V Special Operations Craft

Also outside is a memorial dedicated to SEALs and their predecessors who gave their lives for our country.

SEAL Memorial

From the outdoor displays, we went back inside to watch a longer video on the history of the SEALs. With that video, with the numerous shorter videos, and with all the exhibits, we spent about three hours at the museum. We highly recommend the museum for all patriotic Americans.

The museum is located adjacent to a beach, so we took a short walk before heading home.

View of the beach adjacent to the Navy SEAL Museum

We made tentative plans to have lupper at a nearby seafood restaurant. However, the restaurant closed at 2:00, and we spent so much time in the museum it was about 2:10 when we were done. Because we had a two-hour drive to get home, we decided it was also too late to go our second-choice restaurant because it was about a 25-minute drive in the wrong direction. Not only that, but they closed at 3:00. Therefore, we made a quick stop at Chick-Fil-A on the outskirts of Fort Pierce for some chicken nuggets, then made another stop on the way home about 30 minutes later in Okeechobee for dessert at Dairy Queen.

Shortly after visiting the Navy SEAL Museum, Hurricane Dorian intensified, and the predicted track had moved inland. We were doing a lot of running around gathering emergency supplies in preparation for the arrival of the hurricane. On the way home from Walmart last Friday, we stopped at the Pioneer Restaurant located two miles down the road from the Co-op in Zolfo Springs. We have visited most of the other restaurants in Wauchula and Zolfo Springs, but somehow we never made it to the Pioneer.

Pioneer Restaurant

Pioneer has mostly diner-type food. We heard they had good burgers, so we both had Texas cheeseburgers (about $6.50). The Texas burgers are probably close to half a pound. We split an order of fries (about $3). The food is all pretty reasonably priced, but the soft drinks - not so much. We paid $2.79 each for Cokes. The glass wasn't that big, and for that price they don't even give free refills.

The burgers were okay, but we think the ones at Dee's in Sebring are better. Dee's burgers are thicker, juicer, and are hand-pattied whereas the ones at Pioneer are pre-formed.

Margery with what's left of her Texas burger

When we got home following our lupper at Pioneer, we were happy to find the predicted track of Dorian had moved back offshore where it remains at the time of this posting. We're about 100 miles inland from the Atlantic, so we're supposed to get some rain and 20 to 30+ MPH winds, which isn't that bad because we can get gusts that high during some of our afternoon thunderstorms. We'll try to post a quick update after the storm passes, the timing of which will depend on power and internet outages.