This past week we found a nice little stretch of beach with parallel paved sidewalk where Ben is welcome. Ben was pleased, and so were we. We visited it twice this week and took long walks along the shore. Across the bay are some lovely large homes, almost mansions. I took some pics with the telephoto, but they were really far away so the pics aren't that good. You be the judge.
On Saturday it was blustery and cool, so we decided to just go walk along the beach and enjoy the pounding of the rough surf. We saw people clustering along the sidewalks, and realized that a parade was slowly approaching down the main road. We stood and admired the passing floats, from which people were tossing beads and candies to the spectators. Marlene caught quite a haul, including about a dozen bead necklaces and a bag full of candy. Now we have beads strung everywhere in the motorhome for Christmas decorations. After Santa Claus passed, we continued our walk.
I'm glad we only paid $280 for the month in this park. This same spot goes up to $927 on January 1. This week the laundry has been closed, and the water in the park was off without notice for several hours. Luckily we had a full water tank, so we were OK, but others weren't so lucky.
We had to do laundry, so we went in search of a laundromat. We found one several blocks away in a largely Black and Hispanic neighbourhood. This was a very busy little place, and we faced a confusing array of machines. A large African American lady saw our bewilderment, and offered assistance, explaining which machines were which, and which ones weren't so good. At one point, the door flew open and a mother with 4 daughters in tow, and several other young women, dragged in dozens of bags of laundry and started feverishly loading machines while yelling at each other, as well as on their cell phones.
I was the only guy in the place, except for a later arriving gang-banger wannabe, hauling laundry for his pregnant white girlfriend. He went and got a Popyeyes lunch and they were feasting steadily on it. There was a surly Hispanic lady standing guard over her laundry which occupied 6 dryers! She had her lunch spread out on the folding table.
There was an old Chinese lady running the place, about four feet tall and 75 pounds. Marlene asked her if there is washroom, because the only one in sight had "Out of Order" on the door, along with a giant padlock. The lady yelled something in Chinese, handed Marlene a key, and waved in the general direction of Beijing. A befuddled Marlene summoned up her courage, and approached the lady using all those dryers, and asked her which restroom the key fits. The lady snarled, then muttering in Spanish took the key, and opened the padlock on the out of order restroom. Guess the sign is there to discourage non-customers from asking to use the bathroom.
We did our laundry in quick time, mainly due to the size and speed of these commercial machines. It was an interesting couple of hours. I wish I'd been able to take pictures, but I didn't think it would be well regarded.
We have mentioned prices here. Well, cigarettes are almost as expensive here as in Alberta. And no handy Indian reservations where we could buy tax free, like in Arizona. So, my Canadian smokes running low I decided to try a "make your own" cigarette place here in Bradenton. This place is like one of those "brew your own beer/ wine" places where you buy your supplies from them, and get to use their equipment and storage facilities to make your own beer or wine.
In this case, you choose your blend of tobacco, or have them custom blend one for you, then you choose a type of tube/ filter. You pay for these, then you load your tubes and tobacco into the next available of the three machines, and watch as it makes those 200 cigarettes in just 8 minutes. The machines are like the ones in a factory, except the cigarettes don't fall on a conveyor, and get packed in boxes. Here, the finished smokes fall in a bucket, and you scoop them out and pack them into the empty box from the filter tubes. Some people bring their own plastic boxes and cases. One fellow just scooped 200 cigarettes into a bag, and left. The place is busy, and when I was finishing up there were 6 people waiting to use machines. I commented to the little Mexican fellow who blended my tobacco that they could use another machine, and he told me that he can't afford it. Each machine cost $12,000. He also told me that people will wait a half hour for a machine, but after that they get tired of waiting. He's thinking of adding a custom service, where he would do the whole process for the customer, and have it waiting when they come in, like a laundromat offers dry and fold service.
This week Marlene outdid herself with a new dish. We had this bag of extra large shrimps that we had actually bought in Edmonton (they'd cost more here than in Edmonton). Marlene thawed them out, shelled them, then butterflied the whole works. She stuffed each shrimp with an herb and garlic brie cheese filling, then wrapped them in bacon and fried them in a very hot pan. Ready in 4 minutes, they were delicious. I've insisted that Marlene make them again.
We've also been to the beach this week. It really is lovely white sand, and so far it's uncrowded. Don't expect that to last.
We are finding ourselves uncomfortable here in Florida. We think it's because the whole state is so commercially focused on the incoming rush of annual snowbirds, that it is hard to find anyone who isn't either a snowbird, or working at a snowbird business. Our first contacts with people not directly in the snowbird business was at the laundromat, and later the smoke place. Here we were able to meet regular people, and they are not very friendly. We're looking for a place in the south east part of the state for a couple of weeks, so we can explore that area. Having a hard time finding anywhere for less than $800 a month. They just don't exist during "the season".
We'd like to explore some other areas, perhaps South Carolina, or maybe further west around the Gulf coast. Time to do some more research. Stay tuned...
