SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 4, 2016…..DAY TWENTY-ONE!! MILES TODAY: 0.0 TOTAL MILES: 2819.2
Today I started the day almost exactly the way that I started the day yesterday. I got myself ready and went down to the lobby (without getting lost) to get my LARGE cup of black coffee. Shortly after I had my coffee in hand my brother, Bob, appeared with his LARGE
cup of coffee. Following closely behind him came Jean and Steve. Jean once again invited herself to the “All Guys” coffee time. Once again, even though we labeled it “All Guys” she was, as a Bova sibling, very welcome.
There was no roaming around the pool deck this morning. We found chairs, sat ourselves down, talked about yesterday, life, and what all was going on in our lives. Even though we are all getting “up there in years” we are blessed with the fact that we have all been active and are still active. Even though our sister Laurie couldn’t come because she was under the weather she still remains active in her hobbies and artistic skills. So we weren’t talking about sitting all day in the recliner watching Kelly Ripa and Dr. Oz. Actually, some of what we are doing in these, our “quiet” years, is pretty amazing. Bob is 57 and just bought a house, barn, tractor, and acreage and is taking his City Slicker life to “ranching” while both he and his wife, Laura, continue to work full time. Jean is 60 and has just completed getting her college degree and is pursuing a NEW career in the medical arena. I am 68 and you are now reading about my solo 3,200+ mile motorcycle trip to attend my 50th class reunion. Alice who is about to turn 70 has just purchased with her husband a cherry Chrysler Crossfire, just finished with their own business of assembling that they maintained for years, and is planning for her 70th birthday party in November. Stopping doesn’t seem to be in our vocabulary.
We again agreed to meet at the Sunrise Café for the breakfast buffet. I gave Lisa a call so that she would know to meet up with us. They seated us. We had asked for Melanie to be our waiter again but the hostess took us to another area. Nevertheless, Melanie came over to greet us and give several of us hugs. Yep, our group is remembered. Today’s breakfast was no different than yesterday. In fact, this one was better because we added Alice and Norm to it. The fun and laughter was so prolific that it almost hurt. Gee, it is great to be with this group.
Since Jean did such a great job securing our pool chairs yesterday we voted 7-1 in favor of her doing it again!! Again she did a superior job. Everyone has to have a talent and we have now found Jean’s. Following Jean’s lead we all made our way to the chairs plopping down and giving the little girls serving our area our orders.
After a couple of hours we saw a dark cloud forming over the Atlantic. A quick check of the radar showed that there was ONE cloud dropping rain in all the southeast of the U.S. and it was about to dump on the Omni Resort on Amelia Island……..and nowhere else!! As it neared we made sure that we told all around us that the rain could be blamed on the fact that Bob was in Florida. We made it a point to tell them all that wherever Bob located himself there was certainly going to rain and/or snow. And rain it did.
Due to the size of the cloud it was a pretty good bet that it would not rain very long but it really didn’t matter how long it was going to rain. The Bova siblings scattered out of the pool area and into the building. Some went to their rooms and some went back to the Sunrise Buffet where they were having the afternoon brunch. After mulling it over a bit Jean and I fell to the temptation of ALL YOU CAN EAT shrimp and oysters. We had 45 minutes left before the brunch was over and we were confident that we could easily offset the cost of the brunch in that amount of time. Don’t know if we did or didn’t but we gave it a good run.
We went to the hotel’s “gamer’s room”. It is a small room that has video games hooked up to TV sets. There were tables set up for playing cards or even putting together puzzles. For the most part we were the only people in there. Here and there someone would come in and punch on a video game for a couple minutes before getting bored and leaving. Bob had brought several envelopes of pictures and wanted to pick all of our brains (a task that doesn’t take that long) about the names of people in the pictures. Most of the pictures were from my parents and Bob wasn’t sure of all the people in them. That brought on a couple hours of reminiscing and reliving old times. It was so great. Of course we were boring the spouses to death but us siblings were having a ball.
We broke up with the plan to meet at 6:00 in the lobby. Tonight’s restaurant of choice was the Verandah which was more of a seafood establishment. I left the rest of them but it sounded like a perfect time to hit the bed for about an hour’s nap while Lisa sat in the room reading her Kindle. Everyone else made their way to Bob’s room and watched old home movies. EVERYONE was having a successful afternoon.
We met and jumped in the shuttle for the Verandah. Once again the meal was top notch and the service was excellent. We ate extremely well and did not stop having our fun. One thing that had us laughing the hardest was when Steve and Jean left the table to go to the restroom. For some reason Steve had just checked his phone and laid it on the table……and HE LEFT IT THERE!! Lisa pointed that out. Bob and I grabbed it and started taking every kind of picture that we could think of. Laughing so hard tears were forming we slid
the phone back and that’s when Bob’s wife, Laura, said “you know that you can get on his Facebook!” I grabbed the phone and opened his Facebook and Bob started posting “stuff”……..Holy Android Batman…….We laughed and laughed so hard. The following is a public service announcement….”Do NOT leave your smart phone unattended….EVER!” The next thing that happened was when the table next to us was having someone take their picture Jean photo bombed them. Nothing terrible but just made sure she was in the picture.
We got on the shuttle…..that was PACKED. There was standing room only but we squeezed in. The driver, Mr. T (seriously…that is what his name plate said), assured us that we would all fit in. He gave a string of Mardi Gras beads to Jean & Lisa……and they didn’t even have to show their boobs.
Back at the hotel we went to the pool deck for a few minutes and chit chatted. We didn’t last long and very, very shortly headed off to our rooms. More to come tomorrow starting with the “Guy’s” coffee time.
I hope that you enjoy my trip as you read along with my traveling. Don’t forget that anytime you might feel it appropriate you may “Like” or “Share” this or any of the posts on social media which would, of course, give me a warm and fuzzy feeling inside. You can also drop me a line or leave me a comment. You can write to me at donandlisabova@msn.com using “Your Blog” as the subject line. You can check me out on Facebook by going to www.facebook.com/don.bova also because I will generally have more pictures and comments over there. Also you can read the blog about my 2015 road trip from Florida to Michigan at www.donbovaroadtrips.wordpress.com. Lastly, you can look at pictures of my past yearly road trips to Michigan dating back to 2009 at www.gotyourpic.com/Vacation.
2016 DAYTONA TO MICHIGAN 