Friends and Food

 

It’s been great being back in Pensacola and meeting up with our old friends. Thursday night we met Gary and Terrie at Ozone, our old pizza haunt. Gary and Jim were roommates when we first met, and have been good friends for many years. Gary plays guitar in a Celtic band called Sweet Prospect.

Friday night we met Mike and Candy, Rick and Anne, and Jimmy and Paula for dinner at Carraba’s, then went downtown to Gallery Night. Gary’s band was playing at one of the galleries, so we looked in a few shops and listened to some nice music. Unfortunately Gallery Night has grown into a giant street party, with Palafox Street being closed off for the evening. It was about as crowded as Bourbon Street in New Orleans, which isn’t really a good thing.

Saturday our old recumbent bike friend Mark from Ft. Walton came over with his new wife Sheve. He brought Jim’s favorite bike, a Reynold’s Z-Bone, which Jim sold to Mark before we left. Jim was involved in a big crash in September ‘08, the last time we rode with our bike club, the Blackwater Cyclists. Luckily Jim wasn’t hurt but his bike was pretty broken up. Mark, being a machinist, bought it from Jim as is and repaired it so it was rideable again. He was nice enough to let Jim use it for a few weeks while we’re here.

Sunday Mike and Candy came out to the beach and we rode bikes, then that evening we went to dinner at Randy and Sunaree’s house for Randy’s birthday. They are excellent chefs and we had a wonderful Spanish meal of tapas, paella, and flan for desert, complete with candles.

Much to our surprise, two other Lazy Daze came into the campground this week, a couple from Wyoming and another from Germany, who just picked up their new LD from the factory in California the beginning of September. They are visiting friends and relatives around the country, plan to store the RV in Phoenix next month for the winter (their daughter lives in Flagstaff), and come back from Germany next May for 5 months of travel in the states.

Yesterday we met Jim’s brother, Travis, for lunch at the Florida Pizza Kitchen. When we got back and were getting out of the car, our neighbors across the street asked if we were Jim and Gayle. Turns out they read our blog and have recently been on a similar route as ours. Small world!

We’ve been trying to do long walks and bike rides in between all our going out to eat, and the weather has definitely cooperated. If you want to visit the Gulf Coast of Florida, Alabama, or Mississippi, October is definitely the month to come.

And the sunsets are spectacular.

 

 

 

The new camera is in but we didn’t pick up mail today. Jim’s been home prepping for his colonoscopy tomorrow. Glad it’s him and not me!