A Busy Week

Ray's back is getting better. He feels more like getting out and doing things. We went to Fort Myers for the Sand Sculpting exhibit last week. It was fun to watch the artists at work.

I celebrated my birthday, Vicki and Terry treated us to dinner. They even got a Red Velvet cake and ice cream. I had lots of phone calls and text messages to wish me a happy birthday, too.

Vicki and I learned and practiced line dances at the club house every morning and had three other ladies join us one morning. We made turkey favors to take to our Thanksgiving dinner at Dee & WD's in Sarasota.

We met new friends at Thanksgiving, ate the most delicious food, every bite, and taught a couple of the line dances we learned  to Dee, Judy, Nikki and Tori. What a sight, the six of us dancing in Dee's kitchen where there wasn't much space, but a huge bundle of laughter and fun. This was the first time I've been away from my kids for Thanksgiving, that was odd and I missed them, but dancing in the kitchen was fun. Someday when Nikki & Tori are professional tennis players, I'll watch them on TV and say I danced with them in the kitchen on Thanksgiving. I should have taken pictures, but didn't have the camera out until everyone was leaving. I didn't do a very good job being the photographer that day.

Terry played Petanque one afternoon with a group of Canadians. We went along to be the spectators and cheer him on. He was quite good at the game and Friday the four of us played. It was the guys against the girls. We managed to beat the guys 2 out of 3 games. Later in the evening we met at the club house to play Hearts. The girls won again.

I will miss all of this when we go home, but I will be so happy to see my kids and grandkids again.

Another Night in Port Richey

We were able to leave Panama City Beach while the Ironman contestants were swimming; avoiding a traffic jam during the biking or running events. The day was beautiful and the trip was good. We decided to stop for the night and found an available site in Port Richey that was very convenient. Then it happened, Ray was unhooking the Suburban from the motorhome when his back wrenched.

This morning we spent an hour working to get him out of bed. We called Judi to let her know we wouldn't be arriving today as scheduled. The rest of the day was spent icing, heating and massaging Ray's back. He says he'll be able to travel tomorrow. WD called and offered to come drive us to Sun 'N Fun. I knew he would, but Ray thinks he'll be able to drive. So hopefully my next post will be from Sarasota.

The Card

Over the years, we have gone from using travelers checks to a Visa travel card to our newest version from American Express, purchased at our local AAA office.

The AAA agent who handled the switch from our old travel card to the new one explained that AAA had changed providers and that the new one would work exactly as the old one had in the past. We questioned whether it would be accepted as readily everywhere as the Visa card had been and she enthusiastically assured us that it would.

Well....so far it has not been welcomed everywhere. As a matter of fact, the only place it has worked has been Walmart. The RV park could not accept it, the restaurants here will not take it. One even accepted a personal check, but not the card. Even the banks can't accept the card.

We've made numerous phone calls to AAA and American Express and spent a whole day trying to track down even one ATM that would accept the card. It seems we have a "global travel savings card". There is no way to get any cash from it or make a purchase, except at Walmart. We love Walmart as much as the rest of America, but we don't want to spend all our travel money there!

We've decided to use our regular credit card instead of becoming any more frustrated with the card. That defeats our goal of using cash instead of credit during this trip.

We will be looking for a new way to use cash while traveling.