Oh, our busy life!

My daughter getting ready to take the big leap!















Yes, she was crying down the *aisle*!














Now, the fun can begin!















Mike and his bestest friend in the whole, wide world, John












This is what you look like when you have had one too many and actually think it's neat that you are now way broke! :p




OK, so we have had probably one of the busiest summers that I can remember in a long time. Our daughter Kira got married last weekend and we had to be the proud parents of the bride. It's been very quiet the past week since she became a married woman with just Joshua left in our home. With all the stress and aggravation of the past few weeks, Mike and I decided to book the weekend junket to Nassau on Norwegian Cruise Line. We leave next weekend....I am sure it will be just enough to whet our appetite for a week long one. We looked at a few last night, but we have a number of things to do before we are thinking about any cruises other than quickie ones. This is just decompress from the wedding which was really hard on Mike and I. We are going to go and try to have a really good time! I leave you with some highlights of the wedding.

We're back home!

This morning finds the vacation over and both of us heading back to work. My father still can't believe that we took a car with *now* 275,000 miles on a vacation. We don't really understand why he would not believe it. The funny thing is when we got home, our Honda was acting stupid and Mike spent much of the weekend getting it back in order. Luckily, it just required a main relay fuse. The stupid thing controls the *entire* fuel delivery system!! We had a great time and are looking forward to going back down to the Gap in July to drive with the other Miatae at the Miata event. Here are just a few more highlights of our trip.

More Deals Gap!

These are just a few of the vistas and views from our ride. The pictures speak for themselves!

Deals Gap!

After spending the night in Murphy, North Carolina, we are off for our final destination, Deals Gap. It has been a long ride from Florida so I decided to make reservations at Fontana Village so that Mike can get the bags off the car and enjoy driving!


Because this is a remote area of the country, I tell Mike that he should stop to buy gas. Neither one of us have seen a pump like this in years! We had just seen a segment on Sunday Morning talking about the owners of stations that couldn't afford an upgrade to a new pump because of the money they cost...pumps go for tens of thousands and these places could never afford the costs. Yes, we bought our gas there and had no problem doing it.






We stayed at Fontana Village Resort which was surrounded by mountains and very nice. We got there around 11 AM and the staff was unbelievably nice, even going as far as checking us in WAY before the 2 PM check in time! Looking forward to going there again in July!

This is the North Carolina side of the Gap and a pit stop for the many bikes that come across it.









Here is my Dragon Slayer. We are at the top for a little photo opp with LILred!

HOTLANTA!

Yes, well I didn't check Elton's schedule to see if he was in town, but I really didn't care to get off the interstate either! These people drive crazy! It's the only city we drove in the south that I thought was positively nuts and actually a little more nutty than Baltimore!


Just a little of the city.

Alligator Alley

After our long drive through the Keys, Mike has it decided that we are going travel through the other side of Florida through Alligator Alley. A key point to this road because we certainly didn't see any signs....buy gas before you go in. (we had a full tank!) Breaking down in here must totally suck! You see nothing for miles and miles and miles.


For a while, the weather is sunny. It's just hot and muggy and we are thanking Joe at Accurate Automotive for fixing our A/C. We would have DIED without it!
















Things begin to change rapidly and it is not looking real nice outside.













This a picture of us before the pounding of rain and wind. Mike slowed up a lot and we got through it fine.
















If you look in my mirror, you can see the storm that we just left. I was very disappointed...certainly didn't see any alligators behind the fences, but then they certainly have and probably require all the real estate they are on!

Leaving Key West :(

Another lovely day when we leave Key West. This is a view from the top of the La Concha which as it turns out is the highest spot in Key West.






We have breakfast at the hotel restaurant which was totally yummy. At breakfast, we take time for the this photo opportunity.
















We are off on the Overseas Highway to a destination unknown. It's a long drive, so were not quite sure where we will make it to.
















The other bridge in this picture I read was the Overseas highway and railroad they had started to build before a hurricane that hit the Keys destroyed it. It is in various states of decay and sort of sad because it represents another time, but it makes for a neat picture.
















All in all, it was a very nice trip to the Keys....we hope to do it again sometime :)