goosifer

yeah, my stepfather had that deal.

Looks great. Nice job.

What kind of grout are you going to use? Epoxy or regular?

I will look into it when I'm back in town. Can you give me any contact info for Freedom Tire? Would you know if I can put the tractor on a car lift? If so, I can remove the tires myself, which should help.

No, just formed under the rules of Nevada. You don't have to be a resident.

I'm partial to the Nevada Asset Protection Trust.

We had a nice lunch today with @Stay at home Nomad and his wife at the Crow's Nest in Venice, FL, per @Lawdwaz 's suggestion. We skipped the group shot, but I did take a few pics:

You da man. Thank you for your guidance. Do I have to go to a John Deere dealer for this, or can any tractor service place get them/do this for me?

FYI 5-Tray Excalibur on sale today for $110, 45% off list https://home.woot.com/offers/excalibur-5-tray-electric-food-dehydrator-3500b-2

I know this is a bit of a tangent, but I couldn't help but think of this scene from Top Secret!

I'm willing to learn, if that helps. Is it like bridge where you need 4 people exactly?

Well, yeah, that is on my bucket list, actually. But what's that got to do with sheep?

I'm sure they do. I did 28 days in Europe when I was 18 with my best friend who was a military history buff. We hit several military museums. I think Sicily has some stuff related to when the Allies invaded. I'll have to take another look.

I found the ferry that goes from town to town, so we can take a lot of pics. No hiking for us

virgil, it's amazing how much in sych we are. Not sure if you read through my list of cities or not. One interesting difference, we loved Sorrento and will go back. It may be a tourist trap, but damn they do it well. We did Capri last time, and once was enough. We enjoyed Anacapri more than Capri, actually. Had lunch at a small restaurant, and the owner gave my wife his Limoncello recipe.

I'm with you there, brother. In that regard, I am especially looking forward to Turin and Bologna. Although, we did fall in love with Sorrento and are going back for a few days. We will also go back to Amalfi for a day and visit Amalfi, Ravello and Scala.

We did a two week trip to Italy and Paris with just carry on, and pulled it off. Was a miracle that Mrs. Goose did it, too. Although with all the crap we have with in on this Florida trip, I am looking into bringing a backpack, too, and a shoulder bag. The airline allows two carry on bags plus a personal bag. Her solution was to give out lots of stuff for dry cleaning. Mine was hand washing clothes in the bidets. My wife did a post on her blog about doing this, if you are interested Link

Yeah, I worry about that stuff, especially the cabbies. I try to keep a high level of awareness, vigilance and paranoia. Interesting idea on hiring someone; I hadn't thought of that. I will have to look into that.

Have the name, but don't speak Italian. I will learn the tourist basic words before I leave, and I do speak some French, fwiw. What camera and lens did you use in Italy? Your pics look great. I was looking at my wife's pics from when we went to the Amalfi coast a few years ago, and they look gray compared to yours. (don't tell her that, though). I wanted to go to Lake Como, but wife is so anti-Milan (doesn't want to even change trains in the station, sigh), and I needed to trim the list, so it got cut.

No need to share all of them. But if you have a particularly memorable story, or something that really made a lasting impression, would love to hear about that.

I'm more worried about getting shaken down from a cop in a small town than driving per se. I drove in Paris and Normandy a few years ago and did OK. (It was a nice 5 series BMW convertible. My wife says I'm lucky we don't have a three car garage.) I see your point about not trying to see too much in one trip. I am trying to stay 3-4 nights per city so we don't move around too much, and to move to cities close to each other. The only long haul is to and from Sicily. All the hotels and tours are refundable, so if it gets to be too much, we can cancel the outing and just chill. I'm also trying to plan for some down time in each city. I made the decision that beyond a couple of certain churches, plazas and museums, I am going to focus on scenery, craftsmanship, food, wine and culture. That really influenced how I allocated time and cities. I will be staying a week in Sicily, and will try to do some family research in San Guiseppe Jato near Palermo while there.

Last pic Lucca? My wife has an interest in photography and has a lot of different lens. Given we are going carry on baggage only, though, she will be stuck with just using her phone, unfortunately.

Italy has a concept called agriturismo where you rent a room in farmhouses, places that grow grapes, olives, etc. It's like airbnb out in the countryside before airbnb existed. The problem is you need to get to these places by car, and since we won't be renting a car, it can get logistically complicated and or pricy. So instead, I am trying to stick close to the train stations, but in smaller cities instead of the big cities. In fact, we are only doing Rome because my wife (and my SIL who will be joining us for a week) wanted to see Rome. Umbria didn't make the cut this trip, but we will see Siena/Tuscany next door.

Tell some of the story behind your pics. They are very scenic.

I'm hoping to do that as a day trip from Rapallo. Was just looking at that this evening, in fact. There is a ferry that runs a loop from Rapallo, Santa Margherita Ligure, Portofino and San Fruttuoso. I scoured the coast from Genoa to La Spezia looking for a nice, yet not crazy priced, hotel on the coast with a queen bed (we aren't, shall we say, tiny people). Settled on the Best Western Plus Tigullio Royal Hotel in Rapallo. Their lead pic suckered me in: