We Sold ERV

We sold ERV on October 3rd. I am sad and happy at the same time. I am sad because this chapter of our life has ended, but happy because a new chapter is beginning with our home in Spruce Creek Fly-in in FL. Dan is there right now, enjoying our home, even though it is almost empty of furniture. He bought a blow up bed and some other necessities, but the big shopping spree will happen when we both get there at the end of November. One of the 1st things we'll get in a golf cart so we can scoot around the property.

Traveling ERV was such an great experience. I hope that some day we can buy another camper and do more traveling. In the mean time I hope ERV's new owners have as much fun as we did when we owned him.

More news and photos will follow when we get to FL next month.
Randee, Dan and Doc' (who hasn't even been to the new house yet)

Spruce Creek Movie

Hello From Port Orange (Daytona Beach). Yes we are still in Florida. We have been waiting to close on our winter get-away place. We are ready, with finances, etc., But the current owners have had some hang ups getting their financing with the bank arranged. The house is near foreclosure status, so the bank and bevy of lawyers each are getting a little piece of the action from the current owners.

I attempted to download a short slide show of the property for anyone who wants to see it. It starts out with some Google Earth shots that show the proximity to the beach and our friend's condos in Daytona Beach Shores. The rest of the slides are photos of the exterior and interior of the house. It ends with the neighbor's pool (hope they like us) and a map of the air park and golf course. It'll be a great winter escape, and in an aviation community with a bunch of like minded people. Someday we might even have furniture !





Closing is scheduled for Tuesday, June 3. After that we are boogieing on home in the motor home. I have been hauling stuff from inside ERV and storing it in the garage. We off loaded all the airshow stuff last weekend when we had help from the Lehotsky clan and friends. It was awesome to have all the help. We got the job done in about 30 minutes. ERV is almost empty now, except for what we need to live with to get back to MN.

ERV is up for sale, so if you know anyone who wants a great motor home, have them give me a call.

There is a Space Shuttle Discovery launch scheduled for tomorrow at about 5:00 p.m. We'll be hoping to watch it from Crabby Joe's Bar on the Sunglow Pier. I hear it's a great view from there.

Wish us luck as we travel North. See you Minnesotan's soon.
Randee, Dan & Doc'

April, May 08

Here it is, May 7th. We are still in Florida. Time has gone by so quickly since our vacation in Cancun in February. We returned to Sebring FL to attempt a trip to the Bahama Island's with a gaggle of AirCam Ultralight Aircraft, but it got too windy for some of the participants to feel comfortable flying over there, so we postponed until sometime this fall. Here is a picture of 2 of the AirCam's that would have been part of the group. It would have been a fabulous trip, and Dan would have gotten a great story. Hopefully it will still happen this fall sometime.









While we were in Sebring I took the opportunity to visit a state park I had heard was quite nice, The park is called Highland's Hammock State Park. This 4,896-acre park opened to the public in 1931 and is one of the earliest examples of grass-roots public support for environmental preservation. Local citizens, concerned about plans to turn the hammock into farmland, acquired the property and pledged to protect it. (Copied from park brochure) Here are a few pictures from my afternoon tour. There was a 1000 year old oak tree,

a cypress swamp with a boardwalk, and all kinds of other flora and fauna. It is an example of what Florida looked like before development. There is still a lot of Florida that has been unspoiled and it is beautiful.




































These are wild oranges. The blossoms smell so sweet.


Here are a couple more airplane shots I took after a thunderstorm at the Sebring Regional Airport. Kind of pretty with the rainbow, I thought.

















We moved ERV from Sebring to Central Florida, the Tavares area, where our friends John and Pat Lehotsky live. We did a little house hunting there, but our hearts are really closer to the beach, so after a nice visit in Tavares and a great dinner in Mt. Dora at Pisces Rising Seafood Restaurant,

we headed back to the beach in Daytona. for some house hunting there. At the time, we were thinking CONDO on the beach, but found that with Doc', a condo wasn't the best choice. Many of the developments had no pet policies, or restrictions to 25 lbs. Those of you who have met Doc' know that we couldn't "fudge" him in at even 50 lbs. So, we abandoned the condo search in favor of looking at single family homes. We didn't have time to do much more looking before we had to leave Daytona to go back to central Florida for our big spring show, Sun n Fun, in Lakeland FL. Here are a few pictures of the campground at Sun N Fun. Nice tent camping area,

And here is the Volunteer camping area where we parked ERV during the show. It wasn't shaded like some of the areas, but it had full hook-ups and it was free to people like us who volunteered our time at the event. You can see ERV.

This was taken before all the spaces got filled up. Dan and I were there for about a week ahead of the show, getting organized, buying supplies for our exhibit, laying indoor/outdoor carpet in our tent, getting signs and banners printed, organizing volunteers, etc. I mentioned laying carpet, which we did on Sunday April 6th, since the show started on Tuesday April 8th. That Sunday night Lakeland got 5 inches of rain. It turned the airfield into muck. There were rivers of water running all over the exhibit spaces. Many trucks got stuck in the muck. A few poor souls who were camping under their planes had this to contend with:

What a mess it was to begin with. I felt so bad for the Sun N Fun organizers, because the rain really screwed up all the last minute preparations for the show. Lucky for Dan and me, our area was one of the only high spots on the field, so we didn't have too much rain damage. Here are a few pictures of the area that was our exhibit. It's called the Light Sport Aircraft (LSA) Mall.

This banner welcomed the public to the Mall area where we had 18 airplanes on display for the week. The Mall was co-hosted by the Light Aircraft Manufacturer's Association (LAMA). Dan is chairman of the board for LAMA, it is not a paying position. We worked long and hard for the organization, but the efforts were very well received. We got a lot of compliments and kudos from the LSA industry leaders, and from the organizers of Sun n Fun.


We had 2 engine examples in the tent. They drew alot of attention. Motorhead aviatiors all wanted to look at the engines. Nice carpet, huh? We nailed it into place with some big honkin' nails. It stayed pretty well in place all week.







We couldn't have done all the work and talked to all the people without the help of many others, two of whom I took pictures of. Ray on the left and Bill on the right helped us hang all the banners, and talked to people when they came into the tent. They were awesome help.
Ray is a retired engineer, he stayed and helped all week. Bill, a pilot for UPS, helped out for a couple days mid-week.

Here is Gregg from BRS Parachutes, doing what he does best, harrassing someone. In this picture he is harassing Megan from AirFleet Capital, an aircraft financing company. BRS and AirFleet both volunteered time in the LAMA tent.









The LAMA tent is in the background and the motor glider in the foreground is called the Lambada. It is a Czech design. It's a beauty.










After Sun n Fun we headed back to Daytona in ERV and got set up in our favorite campground. April is a good time to be in Florida. After spring break and Easter, it is the quiet time here. As I write this, the campground is almost empty.

When we arrived here after our big airshow event at Sun n Fun, we put in an offer on a house that was in the banking system terminology of Short Sale, which means it wasn't in Forclosure, yet, but heading that way. We jumped through a lot of hoops, providing credit information to the bank that owns the house, made several visits to the real estate agent, got a high rating for our credit, ect. Our offer fell through once, so we started looking for another property, and today our real estate agent called to say the bank was re-considering our offer, so it is wait and see for the next few days. Here is a picture of the house:


ERV is up for sale in various newspapers, on the internet and by word of mouth. We have had a couple of offers, but not the right one, so far.

The other main reason why we are still here has to do with an old, old friend of Dan's who is dying of Multiple Myeloma cancer. Dan has known Bill since his days in the Army National Guard. He and his wife are some of our closest Chicago friends. We have gone on many vacations with them, and have spent many evenings at their home in Chicago. About 5 years ago they bought a condo on the beach here, and have enjoyed some great times. It was also about 5 years ago when Bill was first diagnosed with cancer. He has been doing pretty well, considering his illness, until just recently when he started to go downhill. Dan has stayed at the condo a few nights, just to help out if Bill gets up and wanders around. Their grown children are here from Chicago, this weekend, along with Bill's brother and his wife, who live about 2 hours away. I helped them set up a website at Caring Bridge.org, if you want to read more. Here is the link:
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/billlehotsky

So, that's the story of Dan, Ran and Doc'. Thanks for reading. I'll try to post more before we head home.

I am homesick for our house in St. Paul and I miss all of our MN friends. I hope everyone doesn't forget what we look like before we get home. We are still good looking ;>)

Here are some shots from Chalet Suzanne, founded in 1938, and still a Florida icon. Check out their website: http://chaletsuzanne.com/newSite/homesweethome.htm

The top picture, here is of the Tiny Swedish Bar, and the other picture I took is of one of the many cozy dining rooms. This place is expensive, but the food looked fabulous.

NASA Apollo 15 Mission Patch

Wedding in Sunken Autograph Garden

Purusing the tiles

The Chalet Suzanne family prepares for your arrival

Fly in to our fantasy land.

Thanks from the Angels

Carl and Vita Hinshaw, c.1990

Carl Hinshaw, Jr. drives the coach to our guests delight

Try Chalet Suzanne's special Chicken Salad for lunch!

The original Chalet Suzanne Chicken dinner

The Chalet Suzanne Village and Inn c.1985

Eric and Denise Hinshaw

Desserts at the Chalet Suzanne... the perfect finish!

The Dhow at Chalet Suzanne

The lily pond

A gift from Jim Irwin, astronaut/friend, and his family.

Come, explore the decades of memories in our autograph garden. Maybe even create a memory of your own.

Joseph Farewell and Betty Levy work in the Chalet's kitchen.

More than 40 years later, the Chalet Suzanne Airstrip continues to serve our many flying friends.

Just some of our aviation friends!

Shortly before going to war Carl spent much of his time entertaining the guests at Chalet Suzanne. c.1942

Prepared like no place else, this is a salad for the ages.

Basted in it's own juices for many hours, this incredibly tender and moist chicken has been served here since the beginning.

In the vineyard. c.1998

After a trip to India and the Middle East Bertha and her son Carl returned to build this replica of an Indian Dhow. c.1960

This lily pond is the only remaining from the 1920's. Now a home to a fountain and a central focus of the Chalet Suzanne Village, it is a constant reminder of our heritage.

We went to Chalet Suzanne in Lake Wales, too. It was a unique place. Old Florida in the midst of housing developments all around it. Quite an oasis, much like the Bok Tower only pricier. We had coffee and dessert which cost over $40.00 for the 3 of us.

Bok Tower Sanctuary Trip

While Dan took a ride in a motor glider at Wallaby Ranch, Darlene, Elly and I went to visit two historic "old Florida" landmarks on Sunday March 2. The first stop was the Historic Bok Sanctuary-Gardens-Bellower-Estate . I have wanted to go there for a long time, and it was worth the trip. The tower was dedicated in 1929, and was a gift from Edward Bok, an immigrant from the Netherlands. His Grandmother inspired him with the words: "Make you the world a bit better or more beautiful because you have lived in it." Mr. Bok certainly tried to abide by his Grandmother's philosophy; the Tower and surrounding gardens are beautiful. The "singing Tower" has a 60 Bell Carillon, on which music is performed daily. We were lucky enough to get there for one of the 1/2 hour concerts. The smallest bell is 16 pounds. The largest bell weighs in at over 11 Tons !! It was very moving to wander around the gardens, and listen to the music play.

The Tower's structure is a steel frame with brick walls; the outer facing is pink and gray Georgia marble and Florida coquina, a limestone of shell and coral fragments. It sits 205 feet high, located on the highest point of peninsular Florida, 298 feet a.s.l. The geological history of the Florida ridge is worth reading about. It is a unique habitat, that is in danger of being lost (due to man's encroachment, changing the ecosystem). The sanctuary is a small preserve of the original savannah highland. There are several ponds, including a reflection pond near the Tower.

Epcot with the Sisters.

Dan's 2 sisters. Alice and Darlene, along with our "honorary-sister" Elly, were here in Florida last week. Although Dan and I should have been catching up from our vacation in Cancun, we managed to take a day off and go to Epcot Center with the gals. The Florida weather wasn't cooperating that day, as it was WINDY and COLD.

Cancun vacation

On the beach, ahh, what luxury

Feb 16-23.

Dan and I had a lovely week in Cancun at the Omni Hotel and Villas. We have owned a timeshare there for about 10 years, and enjoy the beautiful Hotel and Beach. This year we stayed in the newly rennovated Presidential Suite. Here are a couple of pictures of the suite and the view from the balcony on the top floor of the hotel. We feel pretty special as we stay there in luxury.














We were joined in Cancun by my (Dan's too) dear friend Cheryl and Dan's friend (mine too) Mike. While we were in Mexico, the Lunar eclipse occurred. Here is a photo of the 4 of us, and of the moon coming up over the Caribbean, prior to the eclipse. We were able to see the eclipse, but none of us had our cameras with us at the time.