Thanks for all your good wishes — apparently, they were heard and I was very fortunate in my journeys!  I made it down to the quilt shop with NO wrong turns, NO speeding tickets, and NO problems!  Remember, I just don't ever drive anymore, and that truck, as you may recall, is BIG-BUTTED!  Sooooo, there at the shop, sat my sewing machine, just waiting for my to cough up $125!!!  I was glad to do so, too!  I really missed him!!!  I'd also brough along a bag of fabric scraps and a box of notions.  The idea was to learn a couple of quilting tricks by making a potholder with a binding and mitered corners, and so I did.  I only hope I can remember what I did and how I did it next week, when I try to recreate the process!  I hope Diana has been successful and sold lots of my goodies up at her Carriage rally in SC.  If not, oh well, maybe they'll sell here.  Tho I am a bit skeptical of the reception I'll find here — apparently there is a quilter's guild of VERY experienced quilters that have been sewing together for many many years.  Probably will be hard to break in, and highly unlikely that my work will even compare with theirs, but oh, well, it's fun for me.

So, what tastes like chicken??  Seems today was to be the last pretty day till next week, so hubby decided we'd go to the beach today.  OK, but you know how Sunny is...or can be.  So, this morning, we walked and walked and walked.  No tag-along for her today!!  Eventually we found our way over to the pond onsite here...and what's that splash over there?  And that one, too?  Ummmmm....I believe that first eddy is a 3-4 foot 'gator...just floating, swishing tail back & forth.  And the other?  Oh, that's just a baby, only about 2 feet long.  About 6 feet from us!!  And why's the big one coming this way?  Oh, gosh, I bet he/she smells/sees Sunny.  Time to mosey along, fer sure!!  Big signs say "don't feed the aligators" and I sure don't wanna be accused of violating park rules!!!

So, after returning Sunny to the camper, off to the beach we go!  We stopped at a garage sale along the way (have you EVER known us to pass one by???  Didn't think so!) but found nothing of interest to us, and STILL got there within 30 minutes of leaving camp.  Sure not anything like the beach-trips from Lake Manatee State Park, where we'd travel for an hour and just be getting there!!  At first, we just walked along the edge and let the waves break on our ankles, but it wasn't long before the sun warmed us up and we waded in, knee deep.  Then Jose braved the waves and "cold" water and walked out to the sand bar.  He never got more than neck deep, but I was still not willing to go in that far!!  Eventually, I got in to about chest high,and it was ok, but I am just not a big fan of water, especially deep and/or cold, so that was it for me!  We had a great time watching the fishies play in the waves and the crabs running away from the same waves.  I'd find "big" things in the sand and Dick'd pick them up his feet and "hand" 'em to me for scrutiny.  We found cool stuff like coral, shells, rocks, more coral, more shells.  That is, until he pulled up a spiny sea urchin!!!  Of course, when we realized he was still alive, we dropped him immediately!  Little bugger kept following us tho!  We pulled him (or his brothers) up about 3 more times, till we finally figured out what he looked like thru the water and we were able to just leave him be.  We collected a few nice shells, then sat in our chairs for a while to warm up & dry off.  Read:  cook. 

When we got back to the camper, we were in for a pleasant surprise!!  We had been gone just over 3 hours, and nooooooo wet spots!!!  Sunny's just inside the door, sound asleep.  WHEW!!  I was sweatin' it, and the sun had nuthin' to do with it!  Went for a nice walk and got her to do her business outside.  Short lived relief, tho, as I was frying the potatoes for dinner, apparently I didn't pay enough attention, and she just couldn't hold it anymore.  I just don't get it...she'd just been out, after holding everything for 3 hours!  I dunno, but you can bet we weren't such happy campers after that.  Well, speaking of the devil-dawg, it's almost 11 and it's her time to walk again.  Besides, tomorrow is a WORK day, so I'd better be getting off to la-la land pretty soon!  

With a little luck & planning, we'll be seeing a whole bunch of friends soon....Mike & Brandi, co-hosts at Lake Manatee; Carl & Denise, co-hosts from Branson; and Max, Margrete, Tessa & Charlie, guests from Lake Manatee.  Gonna be a popular site in the next couple of weeks.  Anyone from Carolina planning a trip to the sunny south??  Let us know!!  Y'all take care; travel safe.