NEW VIDEOS FROM DALLAS, TEXAS

While I was out of touch and locked out of this Blog, I did manage to upload a few videos. So I thought I would make a quick blog with the YouTube Link a few of the Videos that wasn't posted here.

The First One is my Tombstone Tourist Video from Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park in Dallas Texas, Where I visit the final resting place of Yankee Great Mickey Mantle, and legendary coach Tom Landry.

The Next one I am still in the Dallas Area and Visit several cemeteries throughout the Metroplex. In this Video I visit the grave of Depression Era Criminal Bonnie and Clyde and Buck and Blanche Barrow

In this Video I loosely retrace the Footsteps of Accused Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald from the Texas School Book Depository to is Capture a few hours later at the Texas Theater. 

I'll catch up on more video later but for Now I hope everyone Had a Happy and Thankful Thanksgiving. 

LESSON LEARNED OVER 40 YEARS OF TRAVELING

Over the better part of 40 years I have traveled to a lot of different places and during that time I have made a lot of mistakes and learned a lot of lessons. So I thought I would share some of those lessons with you.

1.  DO I PLAN MY TRIPS:The answer to that is....it depends on what type of trip. For years I had to travel for my part time job. For those trips most of my travel plans, i.e. transportation, and lodging were made for me. I had very little say and couldn't really alter those plans.  If I am traveling for fun and on my on, then yes I have a plan. Some times it is a very loose plan while other times its a little more extensive.  Last years Kentucky trip was more of less a gas and go trip with very little planning. Two days before I left, I made a two night reservation in Lexington and picked out some distillery tours that I wanted to take in the Area. That was the extent of my advanced planning. The night before leaving Lexington I decided where I was going to go next and basically just took it day by day. On the other hand, my month long trip around Texas actually was a year or so in planning. For that trip I actually had a note book that I made and took on the trip highlighting many of the places that I wanted to go and things that I wanted to do. I also included a list of hotels all across Texas. So in Texas I had a very detailed but very loose itinerary, which afforded me great flexibility to deviate if I find something interested. In short I knew pretty close the order of my entire route before I left. So some of my trips have a lot of planning while others have very little. 

2. WHY DON'T YOU JUST GET AN RV AND HIT THE ROAD FULL TIME: I actually considered it but after doing some research and talking to several full time RV'ers I talked myself out of it.  The Main reason that I didn't do it was, everyone of the full timers that I talked too told me that "you are riding around in your house and while on the road the constant shaking is going to cause things to break. And unless you are handy at fixing all kind of things, from plumbing to gas and electric you are going to spend a small fortune getting a professional to come out and fix things." Another thing is that people who do RV repairs are quiet limited and you may have to wait several day or weeks for someone to come out and do the repairs.  Also when you have to have routine maintenance you have to schedule it anywhere  from several weeks to several months in advance.  If the maintenance extends several days you may not be able to stay in you rig and have to get a hotel room. As for me, if a repair entails more than changing a light bulb, then I am lost. So I decided to forgo the RV.

3.  FINDING CHEAP GAS:  Well, first of all there is no such thing as cheap but I have a few little things that allows me to save on gas. First thing is download a gas finder app to your cell phone and make sure it shows pretty close to real time gas prices. For me I use the GAS BUDDY APP which is an interactive app that allows users to update the gas prices in real time.  Another thing that I have found that some of the gas stations will update the app themselves when they change their prices. For the most part I have found that the information on the app is accurate about 90% of the time.  Second thing is don't buy gas at stations located right off of the interstate exit. While they are convenient and easy to hop off, hop on you are probably going to pay for that convenience. Over years and years of traveling I have found that if you drive just a short distance away from the Interstate you will save a significant amount of money per gallon.  Right here in my home area gas at stations located adjacent to Interstate 81 is $2.69 a gallon. Driving less than a mile the price per gallon is $2.27. That's a saving of 42 cents per gallon.  If you have a 15 gallon tank that translates to a savings of a little over $6. Over a long trip you can save a significant amount of money. Another way that I save is loyalty cards. I have loyalty card (NOT CREDIT CARDS) for Pilot, Sheetz, and Shell Fuel Rewards. Depending on the card and your loyalty points you can save any where from 3 to 10 cents per gallon. More often than not the savings is 3 to 5 cents but on a couple of my longer trips I racked up enough loyalty point to get 10 cents a gallon off. Plus you can use the card to rack up free coffee and fountain drinks, and get free or discounted food. So get that Gas Buddy App and do be afraid to drive a mile or two off the interstate to get some significant savings. One Final way to find Cheap Gas is to Stay out of California. Last Year during My Arizona Trip Gas in Yuma Arizona was averaging $2.59 at the first exit across the the border in California gas was $4.39. 

HOW DO I DECIDE WHERE TO STAY: This is probably my most ask question, so this may get a little lengthy. First of all when Traveling I do the most research and planning when it comes to lodging. If you travel a lot or just occasionally you should join the hotel reward programs. Most of the chains have them and they are free to join.  I am a member of Choice Privileges, Holiday Inn Rewards Club, Hilton Honors and Marriott/Bonvoy Rewards. Each have different levels of reward depending on the number of stays. You earn points for each stay and those points can be used to earn free nights. Plus each one has ways that you can earn points quicker. Each program is designed to put heads in beds during slack times of the year. For example most of the time in the early fall say, after Labor Day all the way up to just before Thanksgiving, if you book two separate stays using a dedicated 800 number or through the website you will be awarded enough points for a free night. They also may run this same offer in the late winter, from  Mid-February through the end of March. So in 2018 Choice Hotel ran the stay two nights and get a free night.during March while I was driving around Texas. So every two nights I stayed at a Comfort Inn/Suites, Sleep Inn or other Choice Hotel I got a free Night. So I ended up spending 28 night in Choice Hotels, and earned enough point for 14 free night. Choice and Holiday Inn offered a similar Program Last October and November while I was driving around Arizona and I ended up earning enough point for three free nights at Holiday Inn and an additional 6 nights at Choice Hotels.  The number of rewards points need for each hotel varies by individual hotel and/or season. For example if you want to spend your free night points for a hotel in New England in December (excluding the holidays) your free night may cost you 8,000 to 12,000 point but if you want to go to the same hotel during the leaf season a free night may cost you anywhere from 16,000 to 20,000 point. Just like spending money, you have to check when you can get the most out of your point alson. So check it out carefully as the number of points needed are different from hotel to hotel and city to city.  Last Year in Texas I wanted to stay Near Huntsville Texas. The Choice Hotels in Huntsville had a base rate of right at $100 plus tax and free night from 12,000 to 16,000 point. However a Choice Property just 15 miles from Huntsville had a base rate of $79 or 8,000 free night points. So shopping around can save you money and/or points. I also NEVER use one of those third party booking site. I have found that by being a member of each hotel's rewards program I am going to get the lowest rate offered and sometimes the rate on the hotel website for members is even a few dollars lower than the rate on the third party site.  Another reason I don't use them is the hotel employees are less likely to be able to solve issues especially billing problems.  All billing problems need to be handled through the third party site and the customer service at those sites can be a night mare. If I book directly through the Hotel they can most of the time solve the problem on the spot, plus you get to deal face to face with the hotel management on site. Another reason, Hotels take care of their members, with better room and often free upgrades. I can't tell you how many times that I have been upgraded at no additional charge from a standard room to a suite. And several times I have received a complimentary breakfast upgrade at hotel that have full service restaurants. If you book through third part booking site you are going to get the least preferred rooms. Like rooms near the ice machine or elevator and upgrades are not going to happen. Finally, I always check out the hotel reviews on sites like Trip Advisor and Yelp. Like most review sites you have to take them with a grain of salt. A review that sounds too good to be true or contains nothing but vague praise like "This hotel is simply outstanding," or "I really like this hotel and the employees" are usually written by friends of an employee or the employee themselves. I want to read reviews that give accurate and detailed information. For example, "The Lobby area was clean and welcoming and the employee made a point to greet guest by their names." After you read a few reviews you will be able to spot the fake ones. Also if a review is posted by a person with only one or two reviews and it is especially critical or glowing then it is written by someone who is just ticked off that they didn't get their way or just mad at the world. I ignore those reviews totally. Again, you can soon recognize the objective and real reviews.

WHEN DO I MAKE MY HOTEL RESERVATION TO GET THE BEST RATE: This is really at hit or miss proposition. Hotel rates are adjusted based on demand. I have seen rates adjusted by as much as $20 to $30 dollar in just a day or two. If demand is high for any reason then the rate is going to be high. This year the rates in Tulsa for the NCAA Tournament were originally high and stayed high. So I stayed about 10-miles out of town and got a really good rate. I usually get an Idea where I going to spend the night and start checking rates anywhere from a few weeks to a few days in advance. Last year in Arizona I knew I wanted to spend a couple of night in Flagstaff and started checking rates about 10 days before I was going to arrive. Originally, rates were running between $89 and $112. Those rates held steady until about 5 days before I knew I wanted to arrive and then rates began to fluctuate a little to $86 to $104.  The Night before I left Phoenix for the drive up to Flagstaff the rates had again dropped to $79 to $94.  I ended up staying two nights in Flagstaff and saved about $15 per night by waiting until the night before to make my reservation. But doing this is a gamble, as rates could have just as easily increased  had demand increased. So to answer this question, if I know for sure when I am going to be in area and I get a really good rate then I may go ahead and make my reservation several days in advance.  But if I am flexible then I may wait to the night before of even the day of my stay. Sometimes I win and some times I loose.

ROUTE PLANNING: Most of the time I have a general Ideal of the Route I want to travel during my adventure. I use Google Maps on both my compute and cell phone. Plus I have Android Auto and use Google Maps as my vehicle navigation. Quiet Handy.  I like to travel at a leisurely pace and have a very, very loose schedule. Usually the first day of an adventure is my longest travel day. I call this my get away day because anything within a days drive I can always go back too. Usually get away day is between 400 and 500 miles. After that first day, I slow down and usually average about 250 miles. This gives me the chance to see the attractions and explore the area along my route and it also allows me to visit attractions on the spur of the moment. When I first began planning my Texas Adventure I had a general route of travel for my trip and I for the most part stuck close too it but a number of times I deviated from the route to visits unplanned attractions.  My original route was estimated that I would need 24 days to make the entire journey. However, I did stick close to the route but the entire trip took me 32 days which I didn't really mind.  The Key to me having an enjoyable adventure is put a reasonable limit on the amount of ground you want to cover and take the time to stop and visit the small towns see what they have to offer.  Some of the most enjoyable time I have spent traveling have been in the small towns, talking to the locals. Most people are very proud of their community and are more than happy to talk to you about it. TAKE YOUR TIME, DON'T RUSH and enjoy the adventure.

Those are just a few of the travel hacks that I have developed over the years. I hope that some of your find them helpful.

BRICKTOWN AND A CAPITOL VISIT

Warren Spahn

I spent the night at what appeared to be a rather new Comfort Inn on East Reno Avenue. The hotel was clean and the employee were friendly and professional and it served my purpose. The only thing that I didn't like about it was it was located in an industrial area right next to a large intermodal facility and a large Petro Truck Stop and you have the usual issues that come with those types of areas. I'll leave it at that.

The hotel was only about a mile from the the upscale Bricktown area. Bricktown is a very trendy area with a bunch of shops, cafes and restaurants that is centered around the Bricktown Ballpark, which is home to Oklahoma City's Baseball Team, and the Chesapeake Energy Arena that the city's main sports and entertainment venue and home of the NBA's Oklahoma City Thunder.

It was early in the morning when I left the Hotel and made the short trip down to Bricktown. Nothing was open but I did make a quick stop and walked around the baseball park. Oklahoma has a rich baseball history and that history is highlighted here at the Ballpark.

Johnny Bench

Around the ballpark are statues and busts of a number of Major League Greats who were born in the Sooner State.  There are statues of Three Oklahoma natives who are in the National Baseball Hall of Fame. A statue of the great pitcher Warren Spahn stands near the right field gate and if you walk up the street to the home plate entrance you will find statues of Hall of Fame Catcher Johnny Bench. Just a short distance away stands the statue of The Commerce Comet, Mickey Mantle.

There is also busts of a number of other Oklahoma Natives who played in the Major Leagues, including Bobby Murcer, Allie Reynolds, Pepper Martin, Carl Hubbell, Paul and Lloyd Waner and Joe Rogan.

After my quick stop at the Bricktown Ballpark, I made my way up Lincoln Avenue to the Oklahoma State Capitol. Arriving at the Capitol, it was surprisingly easy to find parking. During my visit the capitol building was undergoing a massive renovation and there were construction platforms around most of the building and all visitors had to pass through a temporary entrance on the west side of the building.

I had been here before back in 2006 but wanted to go through the building again as some of the art work and sculptures were covered as there were some work being done on the rotunda and the interior of the building. After passing through security, I made my way up the steps to the beautiful statue of "The Guardian." A 17-foot tall, 6,000 pound statue of The Guardian was placed atop the Capitol Dome in 2002. A smaller version of "The Guardian" stands at the top the stairs and is the first things that visitors seen when entering through the west entrance.

The Guardian

There are some wonderful murals around the interior of the dome depicting great moments in Oklahoma History, including a scene of the Oklahoma Land Rush. Just like the last time, many of the things that I wanted to see including the Governors Office, and the House and Senate Chamber were
not available because of the ongoing renovations.

After wrapping up my tour of the Capitol I decided to make my way on toward Tulsa which would be my home for the weekend as I was going to attend the NCAA Basketball Tournament at the BOK Center.

How ever shortly after leaving the Capitol I was involved in an accident which end up totaling my car. The rest of the Morning and most of the afternoon was spend getting my claim started with my insurance company and finding a rental car.

The accident happened about 10:30 a.m.  and thank to my insurance company, who arranged for towing and a rental I was able to leave Oklahoma City and Head toward Tulsa by about 3 p.m. I arrived at the Comfort Inn in Tulsa about 5:30 and was able have a nice supper and then spent the rest of the night reading through the information that my Insurance had sent me.

Needless to say it was not my best day, but thanks to my insurance company I was able to continue my journey.

CATCHING UP IN OKLAHOMA

So far 2019 has not gone like I had planned at all. From getting locked out of my blog for several months to wrecking my car in Oklahoma City, I have really had to take a step back an regroup.  But more about that later, but for now I want to catch up on my March Trip to Oklahama, both before and after the wreck.

Before arriving in Oklahoma City I made a stop in Fort Smith Arkansas to check out the Fort Smith National Historic Site. I had visited the Historical Site last March, at the tale end of my Texas Vacation but it was a cold rainy day and that visit was cut short.

I really wanted to tour the grounds of the Old Historic Site but once again is was drizzling rain. So I made a quick visit to the museum and old jail before visiting the old courtroom where Judge Isaac Parker once held court.

Leaving the Fort Smith National Historical Park, I traveled about a half mile to the Fort Smith National Cemetery which is where Judge Parker is buried. Judge Parker was known as the "Hanging Judge," in actuality of the 13,490 cases that he tried  he sentenced 160 people to hang and of those 160 only 79 of them were actually executed.  

Judge Parker was nominated to the the federal bench by President Ulysses Grant and was approved by the Senate in 1875 and served until his death on November 17, 1895. His funeral was and still is one of the largest funeral in Fort Smith History. 

After leaving Fort Smith, I crossed the Arkansas River and entered Oklahoma.  On the way to Oklahoma City I made my way to a couple of cemeteries that I wanted to visit. The first one was a small rural cemetery in the Community of Akin.  

The small community of Akin, Oklahoma was the home of the Floyd Family whose best known member was Charles Arthur Floyd who was better known as "Pretty Boy" Floyd. 

It's a little bit of a hike to the Akin Cemetery which is about 15 miles northeast of Sallisaw, Oklahoma.  It took me a few minutes to find the Floyd family plot which are located just about in the center of the Cemetery.

Pretty Boy Floyd was depression era outlaw who was identified as Public Enemy #1 following the death of John Dillinger.  He got the nickname "Pretty Boy" when a witness described him as "a pretty boy with apple cheeks."  The name Pretty Boy was a name he and his family hated, but it stuck with him for the rest of his life.  

After becoming public enemy #1, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover assigned his best agent, Melvin Purvis to track down Floyd.  On October 22, 1934, Purvis and his agents caught up with Floyd who fled into a corn field behind his hideout near East Liverpool, Ohio.  It was in this cornfield that Pretty Boy Floyd was shot and killed.  

His body was taken to a funeral home in East Liverpool where it was embalmed and put on public display before returned to Oklahoma where he was once again view by the public. His funeral in Sallisaw drew more than 20,000 people which remains as one of the largest funerals every held in the state of Oklahoma. 

Resting along side of Pretty Boy is his parents, Walter and Mamie and his younger brother E. W. Floyd, who ironically served at the sheriff of Sequoya County, Oklahoma from 1949 thru 1970. 

From Akin I made my way back through Sallisaw and traveled about 120 miles west to the New Hope Cemetery near the town of Meeker where I stopped to visit the grave of Baseball Hall of Famer, Carl Hubbell.

Carl Hubbell played his entire Major League Career with the New York Giants and was known as "The Meal Ticket," who had a career record of 253-154 and was a 9-time All Star and a two time National League MVP.  It was during the 1934 All-Star game he struck out five future Hall of Famers, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Fox, Al Simmons and Joe Cronin in succession. After he retired he remained on the Giant Payroll for the rest of his life. 

Carl Hubbell died on November 21, 1988 from Injuries he received in a car crash in Mesa Arizona. 

It was getting on toward late afternoon when I left Meeker and mad my way to Oklahoma City.  I found that Oklahoma City Traffic wasn't too bad and decided to make one more cemetery stop before calling it a day.

Memorial Park Cemetery in Oklahoma City is a very large cemetery and the grave that I wanted to visit is easy to find and I have visited it before back in 2006. So I knew where I was going. 

I wanted to visit the grave of Wiley Post in order to get some Video for my YouTube Channel. Wiley's grave is located just down from the Large Bell Tower and very close to the large historical monument that stands in the middle of the road. 

It didn't take as long as I though to get the video I needed and I figured out that I was only a few steps from the grave of Bennie Owen who was the legendary Football, Baseball and Basketball Coach of the University of Oklahoma. It remains one of the very few people to coach three major sports at the same time for a Major University.  Owen Field at Memorial Stadium on the Campus of the University of Oklahoma is name in his honor. 

From Memorial Park Cemetery I made my way to my hotel.  The hotel that I had stayed before out near Tinker Air Force Base had changed franchises and was not longer a Choice Property and was not getting very good reviews at all. So I decided on another Choice Property that is located near Bricktown and I will visit in my next blog.

If you want to see the Video relating to this blog then checkout My YouTube Video 

A REAL ADVENTURE IN OKC

After being locked out of my blog for several months, It's time for me to try and catch up and what has been happening in 2019. So here is the first 2019 update.

After spending a week in January at Anna Maria Island on the Florida Gulf Coast I came back home an started  planning my annual March Adventure. For the past twenty years I have attended the First and Second Rounds of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

I usually have the Opportunity to early buy my tickets before they go on sale to the general public. The early buy opportunity comes via E-Mail from the NCAA Ticket Provider, usually something like Ticketmaster.

Well, The email came in October 2018 when I was running around Arizona. The link is usually good for at least two days and the last years link came while I was in the Monument Valley/Four Corners area of Arizona.  This area is on the Navajo Nation and just finding usable cell service or Internet is a challenge.  I tried several times to order my tickets without success and on the third day I headed back to Flagstaff where I finally was able to get reliable Internet only to find that the link had expired and only public sale tickets were available.  After looking a a few of the opening round venues I found only nose bleed seat were available.

So for the fist time in 20 years it looked like I would not be attending the Tournament and began making plan for a March trip that would not include basketball. I explored several options but for one reason or the other, nothing panned out. So I began my March adventure with no real plan. I spent a few days at my moms home and decided to head west on Interstate 40, just taking it day by day.

Once I got to Nashville, I thought about heading south and making my way along the Gulf Coast but soon found that all of the Hotel were either booked or had sky high rates because of spring break. So I continued west on 40 and made my way toward Fort Smith, Arkansas.

Spending the night In Fort Smith I looked the NCAA Tournament Brackets and saw that one of the Venues that I hadn't considered was the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  So I looked at the BOK Ticket site and found that some pretty good seat in the lower rows of the upper deck were available. I then looked at Stubhub and found some good front row upper level tickets  were available, below face value.

After thinking about it I decided to make my way toward Oklahoma City wile continuing to watch several pretty good tickets on Stubhub.

The NCAA Games in Tulsa would be played on Friday and Sunday. So when I arrived in Oklahoma City I made the decision to purchase the Stubhub Tickets. I then made my hotel reservations for Thursday thru Sunday.

My plan was to tour around Oklahoma City for a couple of Days before heading toward Tulsa Thursday afternoon.  But as they say plans can change suddenly and mind did.  Thursday morning while driving though downtown Oklahoma City a guy ran a stop light and I T-Boned him. No one was hurt by my car was disable and had to be towed.

I can't say enough good things about Nationwide Insurance.  I called them from the scene and in no time they had a wrecker dispatched and an adjuster assigned.  Before my car was towed from the scene the adjuster had arranged for a rental car and for them to pick me up from the towing company.

The accident happened about 10 a.m. and by 1:30 p.m. I was at the rental agency picking up my rental. I had taken photos at the scene and texted them to the adjusted and before leaving the rental agency, she indicated to me that she thought my car would be totaled and she would be having it moved to a savage yard in the next day or two.

Anyway, I made it to Tulsa arriving early Thursday Evening and was able to Attend the Tournament.  My Nationwide adjuster handled everything with the other guys insurance and kept me posted every step of the way.

After spending Sunday Night in Tulsa, I returned to Oklahoma City and found that My car had already been towed to a salvage yard.  My adjuster had already made arrangements for me to retrieve my personal belonging from the car before continuing on my way.

The initial rental period established through Nationwide was for 7-days but they extended it to a total of 14-days. After retrieving my stuff from my car, I decided to head home and start making plans to get me a new car while I still had the use of a rental vehicle.

So I left Oklahoma City in the early afternoon and head back east on Interstate 40.  I arrived in Little Rock about 6 p.m. and opted to spend the night before continuing my journey home.  I got up a little earlier than normal and crossed the Mississippi River at Memphis about 10 a.m. Putting miles behind me I hit Nashville by early afternoon and managed to zip through downtown with no delays.

I hit Knoxville about 4:30 and made my way directly through downtown with only one slight slow down.  Two and a half hours later I crossed the Virginia-Tennessee Line on Interstate 81 at Bristol and decided to have supper at the Cracker Barrel in Abingdon before making the final push home.

I arrived home at 10 p.m. having traveled more than 750 miles in a single day. The next morning I got a call from the Nationwide Adjuster informing me that they had indeed totaled my car and would be issuing me a check for the difference. I was free to start shopping for a new car.

A few days later, my settlement check arrived and I was off to Duncan Honda to shop for a new car. There was little doubt that I would be buying from Duncan. They are easy to deal with and their service department does not try to up sale you additional service and I trust them On April 2, 2019,  I picked up my brand new 2019 Honda Accord.

Even though having an accident when you are traveling far from home is never a pleasant experience, I must say the way that my claim was handled by Nationwide certainly made the entire experience bearable.

Hopefully I don't have to go through this again as I continue my Retirement Adventures.

WHERE HAVE I BEEN - PART 2

I don't know what to say. I haven't posted anything here since February and I don't really know where to start, but Here goes.

Later last year (2018) I started having trouble logging into my Blog Account and was eventually unable to log in at all.  After Several weeks of trial and error and some outside help, I was finally able to log in and post WHERE HAVE I BEEN and thought I had everything straightened out. But a couple of days later, I was locked out again and have been locked out ever since. 

Over the past several months some friends who work with computers for a living have been trying to first of all figure out what happened, and how to fix it. Well it was a very long process but through the combined effort of four of my friend we found out that it appeared that my original account had been hacked and the hacker had changed the password preventing me from logging in.

 Long story short, after several more weeks they were able to recover the original account and start cleaning it.  Once that was complete the clean old account was made more secure. Don't ask me how or what they did because I really don't understand any of it but I do know that now I have three security codes to enter in order to get into my blog. Hopefully I am back safe and secure and will be able to update this blog with my future adventures. 

WHERE HAVE I BEEN

Here it is almost two months into 2019 and I haven't posted the first word in the new year. I tried to post a couple of times right after the first of the year but for some strange reason I found that I was locked out of my account. While I could access all of my other Google accounts I could not log in to my blog.

After several weeks of emails and trouble shooting, I am back.  I make it a habit to change my passwords every two or three months.  At the beginning of the new year I changed the password for my Google account along with my email accounts.  It seems that all of the google account accepted the new password but for some reason my blog account did not and for some still unknown reason it no longer accepted my old password.After a lot of emailing back and forth my account was reset and I was able to reset my password and access my accounts.

So, what have I been up too since my last post.  Well, not a whole lot. With the new year come a new round of appointments, including doctors, dentist and yes the dreaded tax appointments.

My Beach Front Accommodation

I did manage to escape the cold weather of Virginia for a brief two week vacation in Florida. Two friends of mine who are also retired spend several weeks each year on Anna Maria Island and they year they talked me into joining them for a couple of weeks.

Anna Maria Island Sunset

The company he worked for has a large building that they have turned into 14-individual apartments that they rent out to their employees and retirees.  It is one large room that features a king bed, full kitchen, living area with recliner and sofa and a full bath with walk in shower.The room I had looks out on the Gulf and I am just a few steps from the beach.  And the Sunsets were simply magnificent.


During my stay the folks back in Virginia suffered some of the coldest weather of the year with temperatures in the single digits. The coldest it got was 48 a couple of nights and 57 during the day.  The rest of the time we enjoyed day time temperatures in the 60's and 70's.

The Beach View from my Apartment.

It was a wonderful way to get a way from the cold and even though I only spent a week on Anna Maria Island and another week traveling around Florida, I enjoyed the time immensely. So much so that I intend to spend about a month on Anna Maria Island next year.

Outside of my Florida Trip the rest of my time has been consumed with routine chores and appointments.

2018 was an extraordinary year, which saw me take a 32 day trip across Texas in March, Followed by a two week tour of Kentucky and a year end Amtrak Trip from Roanoke to Arizona where I spent three weeks traveling about the Grand Canyon State. It was a jam packed year filled with adventures and great times.

What do I have planned for 2019? Well, first off, this will be the first year since 2001 that I will NOT be attending the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.  In the past my march trip has centered around the first and second rounds of the tournament. Because I have purchased Tournament Tickets in the past I was allowed to sign up for early purchase option.  In the past I would receive an e-mail with a unique code that would allow me the option to purchase tickets before they go on sale to the public. This option allowed me to get good seats in the lower bowl of most arenas.

However this year, I didn't receive the e-mail with the early buy purchase code and when I attempted to buy when they went on sale to the public, all that was left was nose bleed seats in the upper deck. So I opted to by pass the tournament this year an take about a little two-week trip. Where?  I am not sure yet. I may look at the NIT Basketball Bracket and see if I can't squeeze in a few game at the NIT Campus Sites.

I have also explored the option of taking an extended summer trip by driving across country, but that is looking more and more like a 2020 Trip.  More Realistic trips may include a traveling around the Presidential Sites in Ohio, and a late summer or early fall trip through New York and New England. Those are still in the planning stages. We will see what happens.

I did enjoy the three day bus trip to Pennsylvania and New York Last year and I am looking at a couple of Sunshine Tours, to occupy my time between my trips.

Well, that should catch us up and I hope to get back on some kind of schedule now that I have all of the technical problem worked out.  Until then, I'll catch you later.