30 Stops And 3000 Miles… Not Including A Pit Stop In Connecticut.

We are Family…The past couple weeks we stayed in Sarasota and St. Petersburg where Brad's Mom, Sister, Brother-In-Law, Aunt and Uncle live. Our sightseeing slowed down a bit so we could spend time with our FloridIan family members. Currently we're making our way through the Panhandle. As a matter of fact yesterday we landed in Panama City, Fl. and for the first time we drove through a time zone change. Pretty cool! Oh, yeh, we also took a quick trip back to CT. to make a semi-surprise visit north. Home sweet home! It was beautiful, with one exception.

Brad’s folks moved from Cheltenham Pa. to Sarasota about 25 years ago. Brad’s Dad passed in April of 2019 while his Mom continued to reside there until January of 2021. To go back even further to the Sarasota ties, Brad, his parents, and his sister Marci, bought and sold a condo there back in the early 90’s. Uncle Mel and Aunt Judy moved there in 1981. It’s been a kind of home away from home for Brad for over thirty years and for Kathy the past seventeen.

For those of you that don't know, Uncle Mel was young Brad’s mentor into the business world and will always be near and dear in our hearts. Our Aunt Judy too (and 0ur Florida Tour Director)! Beginning when Brad was 16 he would travel from Pennsylvania to Connecticut for the summers to work for his Uncle at Axelrod’s San Francisco Emporium in Westport at the New Englander Hotel. To make a very long story short, Brad eventually bought the business from his Uncle in 1983 and created Connecticut’s first full time Comedy Club and restaurant. Hence The Treehouse Cafe and Comedy Club were created. Thanks to Uncle Mel and Aunt Judy.

The four days we spent in Sarasota we had some awesome quality time with them. We spent hours chatting it up and catching up on things. Then, on Thanksgiving we went to St. Pete and had a wonderful three hour visit with Brad's Mom (also called Gam. Mostly by the grandkids but both Brad & Kathy often call her that too). Then we headed over to Marci and J's house for Thanksgiving dinner. It was a delightful feast indeed. The best part of the meal was getting to spend time with Marci, J, and his family.

While in Sarasota we did take a bike ride in Myaka State Park and we got one day in on America's #1 beach (Siesta Key Beach). We stopped by our favourite watering hole, The Hub, for a Jalapeño Margarita. Since we were told by some close friends that it appears we drink a lot, we weren't gonna mention the Hub, but, we said F-It...For the record, we have a two-drink maximum and we stick by it.

We're off to St. Pete to spend ten days visiting with with Brad's Sister, Mother and Brother-In-law. Actually we stayed in Largo about twenty minutes outside of St. Petersburg. It was an okay Mobil Home Park but we had a pretty shitty site. Crossing guards blowing their early morning whistles. Dogs barking in the dog park. We had a view of the dumpsters and there were numerous red ant nests. The site was a combination of sand and gravel. Which makes for messy RV ground cover. The first night there a deputy Sheriff ran over and killed a pedestrian at 615 in the morning. So between the sirens and helicopters that first morning we were off to weird start.

We visited Gam everyday. Sometimes twice a day. On those twice a day visits we had some time to kill so we would cruise North Shore, Vinoy Park or hop ver to the Pier. The pictures below are all of those.

We hung out with Marci at the Northend Taphouse and The Chattaway to take in a couple of J's gigs. J's a very talented musician and it was awesome to sit down and be entertained by him. To share in his passion of music and hang out with Marci and some of their friends at the same time was a win-win situation. After The Chattaway Marci took us to a weird but wonderful house decorated with over 300,000 lights. Lotsa signs about God and Jesus but they didn't convert Brad or Marci. The next morning we shared a wonderful breakfast/lunch with Marci and J before heading over to visit Gam. Next stop was the Tampa International Airport. Kathy really wanted to be home for Deana's Baby Shower that Saturday so we were headed to Connecticut to surprise her.

We flew Avelo Airlines from Tampa to New Haven. It was affordable and super convenient. The staff was there to serve. From the gate to the flight attendants, baggage loaders and crew. They rocked! Larry picked us up and we slept at Kate's the first night. We slept in Aubrey's room and had an awesome stay there! There was one shitty exception...

Kathy got sick. Really sick! So sick that she couldn't go to Deana's shower. BIG Bummer! She had a cough, runny nose, stomach issues and didn't move from Kate's couch for twelve hours straight. The key was to get her well enough to celebrate her birthday the next day.

Mission accomplished! The whole family celebrated Kathy's birthday on December 5th at Brittney and Pat's house. It was the highlight of our visit. Getting to spend the day with the whole family was worth the price of admission in itself. Kathy wasn't 100% but she was well enough to feel the love and felt celebrated the entire day. The night before the birthday party we went back to Chel and Dan's place to hang out and spend the night there. Kathy was still knocked out and slept most of the time but just like Kate's it was nice to get some one-on-one time with the kids.

After the birthday party we stayed with JP and Debbie. It's always wonderful getting to hang with them and we got the bonus plan the next morning. Our niece Everly came over to hangout With Ga and Pop-Pop. What a wonderful child and what a wonderful weekend of family and fun. JP took us to the airport the next day. Kathy's feeling better. Not 100% but much-much better.

Thanks for reading down this far. We'll try and post our Cedar Key days shortly. The journey continues... Peace be with you! Thanks, Kathy & Brad