January Is Nearly History!!!

Most of you know January has been a difficult time for all of us. 2010 and 2011 Ellie-Dot suffered respiratory failure and was in the ICU at LeBonheur Children's Hospital.

"It's infection, Mom. She needs to be infection-free, but infection is everywhere", the docs told us. "You just can't do it. RSV lives all over the planet, and all we can do is just try to treat her".

Not everywhere. Not on St. George. Not really.

Years ago, I found St. George island when a flight student of mine bought property down here. Most people don't know about it, and for that, we are thankful.

It's an hour and a half south of Tallahassee and an hour and a half east of Panama City. You'd never accidently run into it, but if you did you'd never vacation anywhere else.

It's like the 50's, in a way, thus the blog name, the Retro Adventure. St. George has no high-rise hotels, and probably never will. We ride bikes everywhere along the 20 or so miles of the island, on a concrete bike path and into the State Park where no one lives except a few RV'ers. There is one tiki bar, owned by a man named George, where they light the tiki torches most of the week and we can grab drinks out on the beach.

They fry up the best batch of fresh seafood you've ever had, fresh oysters out of the Apalachicola Bay, bay scallops, and shrimp. The grouper is still swimming on the plate.

There is one ice cream/pizza joint, and believe it or not, they make some of the best pizza we've ever eaten. The kids beg for ice cream, and they sit outside at the wooden tables while I retrieve the flavor of the day.

The fire chief, Jay Abbott, has pediatric equipment on the truck, and has his plan in place in the event Ellie-Dot suddenly isn't doing well. Sandy, my only other friend here and her mother, "Momma", can be called at a moments notice to hang with Nolan if there's trouble on the horizon. Nolan calls her "Momma" just like I do, though he doesn't know why. Sandy is a first-responder, and is notorious for running out on the beach in high heels to render CPR. That's my kind of woman.

Snowbirds are here, but we don't see them much. We have the entire beach to ourselves, sharing with only jellyfish. Those bad boys know to stay out of Ellie-Dot's way, or she'll dissect them.

Tomorrow, we are blowing balloons, making a cake, and celebrating a safe and healthy January. And we'll pray for a healthy February and March.

In March, we move into the Retromobile, our 1950's renovated airstream and into a fishing camp up the road from St. George. It's 150 square feet, and a million miles of adventure, we hope.

Happy January!