jacksonville continued...

Our friends, Erik and Stacey have a super-comfortable bed for us to sleep on!
A sleep number bed! Aaaahhh.... so, we had a wonderful night’s sleep & when we woke
in the morning, the girls, Julia & Kayla were drawing us picures, waiting for us to wake up!
A couple of real cuties, they gave us big hugs, then helped Erik make cinnamon rolls for us
to have for breakfast. Stacey was at her weekend job, teaching gymnastics & cheering at the YMCA,
and wouldn’t be home until 1:30. The girls busied themselves by making a "snowman"! Erik got in the picture, too.... it looks like he has bunny ears!
It was raining that morning, so we had to wait for the rain to stop before the girls could go outside to
PICK US BREAKFAST!  yup! Erik & Stacey have a pink grapefruit tree in their backyard! It’s loaded with hundreds of grapefruit!
The girls and Erik picked about 15 & we cut them up & ate them,  no sugar necessary!
Then Erik juiced a dozen & the juice was scrumptious! No preservatives here!

When Stacey got home we ventured out to see a bit of Jacksonville... (i think we were trying to be convinced to move here, as Erik even showed us an apartment that his friend is renting!)
The apartment is right near the beach, so we went down & walked around, even though it was pretty chilly and windy out.
Walking back to the car, the girls held our hands (collective awwwww...). In the car i sat in the middle in between the two girls & jay sat in the way back. While driving back to the house, Kayla said..."how's him doing back there? is him ok?"  too cute!!!

We got back to the house and got ready to go out to dinner... Stacey's mom was generous enough to watch the girls overnight so that we 4 could go out & enjoy our time without worry.
Erik and Stacey took us to a Brazilian steakhouse called  Tento Churrascaria:
  http://tentochurrascaria.com/about.htm

WOW! we ate a fabulous meal! and we ate, and ate, and ATE! a delicious bottle of Red Zinfandel wine, then followed by kahula mousse pie, a snifter of Glenlivet 12 year for jay and a snifter of Gran Marnier for Erik (which he shared with me!).... Stacey is 6 months pregnant, so she had diet coke! boo!
We finally rolled ourselves out & went home for a few hours of chatting.... we covered everything from recycling, jobs, children, dogs, aliens and several conspiracy theories! I do believe, we may have solved all the world's problems in that one night!

The next day, Sunday, it was beautiful out! Bright sunshine and a soft breeze, it felt amazing on sunshine-parched faces! Stacey and I went to get the girls from her mom's place, while Erik brought Jay to the parts store to fix the EGR valve.
Erik had a big day in store for him.... he works at CSX (the train company) and every year at the local zoo they have volunteer day to drive the zoo train.....Erik applied & got accepted to be the volunteer train conductor for the day! He and the girls were very excited!
Jay & i were hoping to join them, but since the van needed fixing & it was beautiful out, it was smart for us to stay & work on it.
As is the case with working on older vehicles, things can happen that cause delays.... and, of course, that's exactly what happened.  A bolt was stuck in the lower part of the intake manifold. While Jay was trying to drill it out, the bit broke inside the hole! Not a good thing.....

so, many hours later, after Erik and Stacey & the girls had returned, Jay & Erik finally got the thing back together. Jay was not able to replace the EGR valve (because he never could get the bolt out), but he was able to clean up the old one & get it back in working order.... so, in doing so, he saved us $175! ...... i have an amazing husband!!! <3
That night, we ordered pizza & enjoyed a few cold beers. Hanging with friends makes working on an old van way more fun!

keep on reading & sending your messages! i'll follow up with more later....
love,
coaly gallant*