We started out Nov 10th driving to Bradenton, FL for the world's first HHO Expo...(an expo all about hydrogen as energy and demonstrations on how to convert your car to burn gas more efficiently, reduce emissions, and raise miles per gallon by about 30%). Tom has been VERY interested in this for quite some time and he really wanted to go to see how others were converting their cars.
On the way down we had renewable energy on the brain. Normally we pass by this wind farm near Paw Paw, IL at night. We were surprised to see they had added a lot of wind turbines since the last night we had seen it in the daylight.
For the most part the kids slept, which was a relief to the drivers! They used to be fairly easy to travel with long distance, but this trip they were non-stop chatter boxes. Kyle gets especially animated and they both want to be sound effects experts...using their own voices for all the effects. When Tom and I are trying to tag team driving one of us sleeps and the other drives, well when the kids were up sleeping was impossible.
We were exhausted when we arrived at the HHO expo. We all walked around with Tom and saw a lot of demos that looked like this:
And technical stuff like this:
I tried to get into it, but most all of it went way over my head and I spent most of the time sleeping in the mini-van or at our campsite.
We really lucked out and had beautiful camping weather and an awesome campsite right on the water in Ft. Desoto Park near Tampa, FL. My brother Ken reccomended it, and we're oh so glad he did.
We picked out a site and had the tent set up just in time to see the sunset. There was a full moon out and we slept in the tent on the sand...it really was comfy.
In the morning we all had breakfast and then said goodbye to Tom as he went to Day2 of the HHO Expo.
Meanwhile the kids and I took a 3 mile walk to the beach.
I was hoping it was going to be on the Gulf of Mexico, but to get to that beach was an additional 5 mile hike...NO WAY was I doing that.
It was hot and Reeve was so hot he said he had to put his shirt on his head to cool off. I tried to explain to him that it was a dark shirt, and probably wasn't helping to cool him off, but he didn't care.
We didn't go into the water for several reasons. The water was a little chilly, there were sting ray warnings (which totally freaked Reeve out), it was on the Tampa Bay side and Reeve knows there are a lot of sharks in Tampa Bay, and the water didn't look too terribly inviting.
When we got back to camp Kyle accidently got his foot stuck in the picnic table...
He was very upset at me for taking a picture of him while he was in agony. He made me promise to take a better picture of him...
While Tom was at the HHO expo he had a neighbor call him asking for a bid on a new furnace because his 50year furnace gave out and he was without heat. We decided to visit my brother Ken and his wife Erin and then head on back to Wisconsin.
Ken and Erin made us some home made pizza which we all scarfed down. We hadn't really eaten a whole lot on the trip. I had made sandwhiches for the ride down and then we forgot the coleman fuel for the campstove. The first day we got there we ate fruit and then had cereal for breakfast the next morning. For lunch we had leftover beans & rice with chips...that was it until we got to Ken's!
Ken and Erin have two lively little dogs...the picture is blurry, but Sam can really jump!
Kyle is shaking hands with Toto.
After dinner Ken introduced us to the wonderful world of Wii! We had never seen this before.
Reeve had a try at hitting virtual soccer balls with his head and dodging shoes and other flying objects.
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Kyle had fun doing the hula.
And Reeve really got into the virtual jogging...however, he had a really hard time jogging in place. Ken kept having to pull him back so he wouldn't run into the TV.
We spent 3 hours at Ken & Erin's and then drove non-stop back to Wisconsin. We were gone a total of 4 days...just about the shortest trip we've ever taken to Florida.
2 comments:
Fort Desoto County Park is the bomb diggity dog. We have had a many fun trips to this park. One was for 5 days after hurricane Wilma. We had no electricity on the east coast and all was fine on the west. Highly recomend fleeing a storm after it hits than before.
Also the colder it gets the better the snook fishing is in the black water cove you camp around. The snook hate cold water and they flee and feed over the black bottom. Man I think we will take a vacation over there very soon.
Happy holidays to all.
Tim
No offense, but that sounds like the most miserable vacation - other than the camping and the visiting family! I hope you guys had a good time away nonetheless!
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