June 2021

June has been super stressful as now I have plans in place, I have a lot to do to get ready.  Things I want to get done at Gils house.  Things I want to get done for myself before I leave.  Final packing lists.  Crate up things to get back to my parents house.  I’ve also been slacking on the walking since the middle of April, it got hot and its so hard to stay motivated.  But I have a bunch of 5k’s that need to get done, but probably not this month, lol.

 

I signed Gil and I up for some specials at the zoo this month.  We haven’t really been going recently and there are some animal interactions I wanted to experience before I go.  So we did two of them this month.  The first was photos with a Sloth.  This was fun, I got to ask questions and the sloth was adorable.  The second was an interaction with a white rhino.  We got to give him back scratches, which was pretty cool.  I also go to ask lots of questions and got some decent pics.  We stuck around and watched the parrot fly’in.  I had planned to do Lorikeet Landing and Feed the Rays too, but it got hot in the afternoon and we decided to head home.

 

We also attended an RV show in June.  I’d been looking forward to attending one last year when I came came back for a few months, but since everything was canceled, I wasn’t able to.  So we did the RV show at the Florida Fairgrounds this year instead.  There were a lot of different models and we got to ask a lot of questions.  I think I’m off the Mercedes Sprinters…I’m still torn because they have 4 wheel drive and can handle difficult terrain, but the cost difference is insane.  I can get a massive 5^th wheel trailer with 4 rooms for half the cost of a modified Sprinter.  Have a full kitchen, a fireplace, living room, full bathroom (possibly two) and a giant bed.  They are literally houses on wheels.  And if Gil sells his house and we live full time in the camper, we will probably go big(ger).  But its unlikely Gil will actually sell his house, so we also looked at things like a teardrop camper.  We saw 3 different sizes and for short term traveling, the middle was would be perfect.  They are light and I could just tow it with my current vehicle.  There isn’t any storage space, so we’d have to pack the back of my truck, but that wouldn’t  be an issue.  We’d never be able to live in it, as Gil has a real love of his big screen and his Playstation and the teardrops would be pretty limiting in this area.  If we go this route, I’ll just travel in my own in my truck and with the teardrop when Gil wants to travel.

 

I got my backpack situation figured out.  I’ll be starting off with two backpacks – one for the Camino and one for everything else.  After the Camino, I expect my backpack will be in pretty bad shape and I can discard it without guilt.  I can combine everything I need to into the main pack and I’ll be set.  There is a guy that will storage bags/luggage for pilgrims in Santiago for a small fee.  I’ll have to mail it to him from St. Jean Pied de Port but I think its my best option.

 

We spent a good part of June trying to catch a Cypress Monitor that was hanging out in the back yard.  We connected to the Department of Fish and Wildlife and they loaned us a trap.  We set it everyday trying to entice the critter into it, but the most we caught was a baby opossum (twice).  We also found a juvenile brown basilisk in the back yard.  DFW says they won’t hurt anything or damage the environment, so we’ll just let him hang out.  This was a big month for wildlife as George called us at one point because he was fishing in the canals down the street and a pod of manatees was there.  I got some photos, although they were mostly submerged, so not great shots.

 

Gil had found a taco/food truck festival that was taking place over by the airport this month and twisted my arm to go.  We were able to park for free which was a huge relief, as I hate paying event parking.  There were lots of food trucks and we found one that had deep fried Reese’s PB cups and lobster corn dogs.  We found our truck.  After waiting in line for half an hour, turns out they weren’t selling the lobster corn dogs and they were sold out of Reese’s.  I was pissed.  If you don’t have it, don’t advertise that you do.  And after waiting half an hour, no one wants to go wait another half hour at another food truck.  We got the deep fried Snickers, which we hadn’t tried before.  It was ok, but not as good as the Reese’s.