Since my last post, we have had a little rain (and I say 'little' as we had less than 1/4 inch, unlike the Miami and South Florida area that racked up 3-4 inches in 24 hours), but our cloudy, damp weather lasted about a day-and-a-half, and other than that, it has been mostly sunny with nice warm (not humid either - thank goodness) temps. Around here, when it gets to be a day with a 68F high like Saturday, and the 62F on Sunday, they act like it is 'cold'!


{Downtown Clearwater}

{St. Pete Beach}

We took a little drive over to St. Petersburg, St. Pete Beach (no, not 'St. Petersburg Beach', but rather 'St. Pete Beach), Clearwater, Largo, Dunedin, Palm Harbor, and Tarpon Springs to check out the beach towns and areas along the Gulf side. Some very nice, older, beautiful homes, and the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (yep, a continuation of the same one).

{Clearwater Beach from the Intracoastal Waterway}



{A B&B on the beach}

Going over to the St. Pete peninsula, we took a different causeway/bridge going over and a different one on the return. Gotta check them all out.

{The "Buccaneer" (with tourists)}


{...Going over ....}

{...and coming back...}

The Christmas crowds are out, and by all appearances, it is definitely in force too. Whether they are all actually buying or not, I guess is to be seen in the final retail sales numbers after the holidays, but if number of cars and people out is any indication, then it should surely be a merry time for all concerned.

One thing of note that I have observed across the country and here in Florida as well, is the number of automobile dealers that have gone out of business (obvious with the large vacant car stores and lots). Also of notice has been the huge amount of cars (new and used) sitting on most car dealer lots. I did manage to get our toad (err, our 'towed-car' or in the RV vernacular - "toad") serviced at the local Saturn dealer here (yep, still in business ...until October 2010 anyhow). We do put a lot of leisure miles on our Vue as we cover a lot of roads, streets, and byways when we go off exploring an area. Now, I have to start seriously thinking about new tires for the buggy, as we are nearing 40,000 miles (and the tires are starting to show it now). And, all those miles on the Vue in just a little over 2-1/2 years.

Geez, between the coach and the toad, we do about 28,000 miles a year in total. Now, that is a lot of 'happy trails'!

{Residential streets in the local area}


And then there is the number of vacant and boarded stores in strip malls and in the larger city/regional malls, all across the nation that we have seen anyhow, shows some significant 'shrinkage' in the retail sector. I guess it would be fair to say that all of this is just another 'sign of the times'.

Marilyn and I have decided that we will spend our Christmas Day here in the Tampa Bay area. We have our "little-castle" decorated and all four of us are in the Christmas spirit (all four of course is Marilyn, Jim, along with our "kids", Kalua and Bailey).

We will depart for Fort Myers on Monday, the 28th, and most likely spend our New Year's Eve and Day in the Fort Myers/Sanibel Island area.