Another one.....

You know what I mean.  It comes around once every single, solitary year.......ready or not....it's your birthday.  You're another year older and maybe a teeny bit wiser, but probably not.

The weekend started on Friday with lunch at mama's for my brother's birthday....you may recall he was my eighth birthday present.  Michael's looking very happy in this picture isn't he? 

I want to say thank you to my mama for giving birth to me and not selling me to the gypsies during my teen years!  No one could have a better mama than we do.  We are truly blessed!

A few weeks before my birthday, my sweet husband called and said he had reserved a place at one of our favorite RV parks for the weekend.  Since it was such a short trip and so blazing hot, we decided no cooking.....code for no cooking for Russell.....because, as we all know I do NOT cook on vacation.   If you're not very careful, cooking can become a really bad habit! 

Instead we went to lunch at a nice Chinese restaurant near the park.  Then.... because it was much too hot to sit on the beach.....and we forgot our umbrellas, we decided to go shopping.

Like real authors sometimes do, I'm going to flash back to the morning of said birthday.  We started with a long bike ride along 30A.  Did I mention it was HOT? We stopped at a public access to the beach and got someone to take our picture with the beach in the background.

Russell got ahead of me quickly because it was hot  and I was pedaling as fast as I could. 

Even though school was not in session, I tried not to exceed the 20 mph speed limit. 

We were happy to see the pet hospital....one of our dogs usually needs emergency treatment as soon as they realize we are away from home.  Thankfully, we didn't have to call on the vet.  But isn't that a nice name?

After riding about 3 miles with only one bottle of water, Russell says oh, I didn't bring any money!  We turned around and started back as I was feeling like an ice cream and we had no money!

On the ride back, we saw this guy and I thought maybe he was having bike trouble, but when I asked he said no, he had stopped to look at this snake....which I hadn't noticed.  Obviously being from another planet and thinking I was some kind of snake oil saleswoman handler, he asked if I would pick up the snake so he could look at it's head.  I'm thinking about this time about going back and seeing if the vet would give the guy a shot of something because he was delusional if he thought I was picking up a snake (it was dead) when big, strong guy that he was.....he was afraid to even touch it with his bike tire.

I called to Russell to come back and look at the snake.  The man who obviously had had a heat stroke, asked what kind of snake it was.....you will notice I didn't say he asked Russell to pick the snake up......so I guess I looked like the dummy who could possibly be persuaded to do such a bizarre thing!

Russell pronounced it to probably be a moccasin and I bid the stranger good day and we left him there trying to decide if he should touch it or not.

Finally, we rode back into the park, which incidentally is a birding trail.  I don't recall seeing a lot of birds, but then maybe they all opted for staying in the shade since it was so HOT.

They did not want our dogs on the beach....which was o.k. with the dogs since it was so HOT.

We believe this sign, we think this is the best park too!

I was honestly pedaling as hard as my poor, tired legs would go and taking pictures at the same time.

Not too bad for a moving, amateur photographer huh?
Just one of the pretty little lakes in the park.

I was so thankful when we got here and saw our home away from home waiting.

Saturday night after a day of biking, eating and shopping, we were just relaxing when a bad thunderstorm started.  The power in the RV park went out and it was as dark as a cave!  We had power in the motorhome, but I was so sorry for the tent campers!  Not only were they already hot, now they were most likely wet and hovering in those tents hoping not to be hit by lightning.

Another year has gone.   Looking forward to the next!

Oh, and just an added note.....I officially love facebook.  I got over 50 birthday wishes....I feel so honored!  Thanks to all!