Cedar Key

We drove to Low Key Hideaway in Cedar Key, Florida last Thursday, December 20^th for a six-night stay. We got set up in our campsite and put up our Christmas decorations.

The next day, we left our motorhome and drove our pickup 120-miles down to Palm Harbor near Tampa to attend our niece’s wedding on Friday night. The wedding was lots of fun. We got to see my three sisters and many of our nieces and nephews.

We drove back to Cedar Key on Saturday where our cat Shasta was waiting our return. My sister Marcia and brother-in-law Mike met us with their motorhome in Cedar Key as well as my sister Janet and her wife Nancy in their camping van.   

On Christmas Eve day, my sister Cathy, her son Benjamin, daughter Mickey, new son-in-law Andy and their children came up from the Tampa area to celebrate the holiday with us. Mike and Marcia hosted Christmas this year and we all thoroughly enjoyed the day, including a late-afternoon stop by the Tiki bar.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Destin

We went to Destin, Florida to one of our favorite state parks, Henderson Beach State Park, on December 13^th where we stayed for six nights. It was a short walk from our campsite to the park’s pristine Gulf of Mexico beach, with white sand and emerald-colored water. 

My sister Janet and her wife Nancy joined us for our last two nights in the park. We especially enjoyed a boat trip from Destin Harbor to watch for dolphins.

We left Destin on December 19^th and drove to Eastpoint, Florida for an overnight stay. It was heartbreaking to drive through Panama City, past Tyndall Air Force Base, and through Mexico Beach and witness all the devastation from Hurricane Michael. The eye of the Category 4 hurricane hit Mexico Beach on October 10, 2018 with peak winds of 155 mph. The seaside town sustained major damage.

We arrived at Low Key Hideaway in Cedar Key, Florida last Thursday, December 20^th for a six-night stay through Christmas.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Sweet Home Alabama

We left the San Antonio area on Sunday, December 2^nd and drove east through Houston to Beaumont. After overnighting there, we headed to Biloxi for a 3-night stay. We enjoyed walking along the beach across the highway from our RV park, on a new boardwalk that Biloxi had built.

We especially enjoyed meeting old friends Paul and Darlene for dinner in nearby Ocean Springs.

We departed Biloxi on Thursday, December 6^th and drove through Mobile on our way to the gulf coast area of southern Alabama. We had never been to this part of Alabama before. It was a good time to visit the area because it was “low-season” and we missed all the summer crowds and traffic congestion.

We stayed at Bella Terra, a beautiful RV resort in Foley, Alabama, just north of Gulf Shores for a week.    

We went to Lambert’s in Foley one night for dinner. We had gone to Lambert’s several years ago in Ozark, Missouri (between Springfield and Branson, Missouri) and were surprised to learn there are only three locations.

We head out tomorrow to Destin, Florida to one of our favorite state parks, Henderson Beach State Park, where we’ll stay for 6-nights.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

SAT - TPE - SAT

We left Las Vegas on Monday, November 5^th, and spent a couple of nights at one of our favorite state parks, Buckskin State Park, Arizona. It is located right on the Colorado River between Lake Havasu City and Parker.

Then we drove to Tucson and spent a couple of nights at the Davis-Monthan AFB Family Campground.

After spending Friday night in Las Cruces, New Mexico, we drove to El Paso where we spent all-day Saturday at the Freightliner shop. They resolved a “check-engine” light we had on our motorhome. It turned out to be a faulty manifold pressure sensor on our Cummins diesel engine. We spent 8-hours at the Freightliner dealer…not fun waiting.  

We arrived in San Antonio on Monday, November 12^th, for a nearly three-week stay. We spent time with Julie’s mom the first week of our stay.

Early on Saturday morning, November 17^th, we flew out of San Antonio to San Francisco. There we connected with our long flight to Taipei to see our son Paul, his wife Ying, and our grandson Connor. We left San Francisco on Saturday around 1:30PM, but lost a day crossing the International Dateline and arrived on Sunday night around 7:30PM.  

We thoroughly enjoyed our week in Taipei visiting Paul, Ying and Connor and also Ying’s parents. We rode the MRT, Taipei’s subway system, every day as we explored the city.

We visited one of Taipei’s night markets, the Shilin Night Market, last Friday night, November 23^rd. Although it was crowded, it was fun to see all the food stands and various items for sale.

On Saturday we visited the Bitan Scenic Area on the edge of Taipei. It was a nice scenic spot with good mountain and lake views. "Bitan" literally means "green lake", referring to where the Xindian River widens to form the lake. There is a well-known suspension bridge that is used only by pedestrians. We walked across the bridge and I was surprised on how much it moved as you walked across.

We flew home on Monday, November 26^th. We departed Taipei at 10:30AM, but arrived in San Francisco at 6:00AM on Monday, the same day. We got back to San Antonio at 4PM, just in time for rush hour.

We’re finally starting to get over the jet lag, waking up in the middle of the night. We head out tomorrow, Sunday, the best day of the week to drive through Houston.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Leaving Las Vegas

We have enjoyed staying at Desert Eagle RV Park here at Nellis Air Force Base. We’ve got lots of space at our camp site, the weather has been good, and the sunsets are beautiful.

On October 14^th we received word that my step-mother Jan had passed away at age 78. I flew back to Omaha on Thursday to attend her funeral and met my sister Janet who had flown in from Sacramento. We drove to our hometown of Denison, Iowa for the funeral on Friday. It was nice seeing all of Jan’s children and grandchildren whom we had gotten to know over the years. They talked about how much they enjoyed summer vacations to Arkansas with Grandma Jan.  

While in Denison, Janet and I stopped by the nursing home to visit our 102-year-old great Aunt Evelyn. She’s doing well and enjoys reading. We also stopped to see my high school buddy Tedd and his wife Nancy on our way back to the Omaha airport.

I flew back to Las Vegas on Saturday. We had tickets to the Jimmy Buffett concert on Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena that we bought last March to celebrate my 70^th birthday. The concert included a set by Boz Skaggs before Jimmy Buffett and the Coral Reefer Band played. It was a great concert.

On Tuesday, October 23^rd, we celebrated our 37^th anniversary with dinner at the Top of the World restaurant at the Stratosphere Tower. It was our first visit to the Stratosphere Tower and the restaurant is on the 106^th floor. The restaurant rotates every 80-minutes so you can see the Las Vegas valley and the surrounding mountains and the view was amazing.

After dinner we went up one floor to the Top of the World bar to see even better views of the city lights. Then we took the elevator up another floor to see where people paid $120 jump to leap off the tower and plunge 829-feet to the ground. Last we went up to the observation deck to see the city lights and the thrill rides. 

We went down to the Strip on Monday night to get a souvenir T-shirt. We enjoyed going by Bellagio's to see the fountains and the Conservatory. The fresh flower displays in the Conservatory are changed for every season and are different every year.

    

We enjoyed our last Saturday night in Las Vegas by going to The Orleans and seeing The Temptations in concert. The Temptations have been around for 58-years but this was the first time we'd seen them in concert. They put on a great show.

We head south to Arizona tomorrow after spending six weeks here. 

Steve & Julie Cornelius