November 2008

Nov. 30th we went to church this morning, the church that we are attending has 4 services on the weekend and those are Saturday evening and on Sunday an 8:30, 10:00 and 11:30. We had chosen to attend the 8:30 service and as we did we also found out that this is the more traditional service and as we prefer the older hymns this is good for us. After church we stopped for breakfast (which we seldom do) and then went shopping at Wal-mart for food, to our surprise here was a weekend between Thanksgiving and Christmas and we got a front row parking spot. In the afternoon we went to visit Jon’s aunt that lives in Sebring, they are in the middle of a house restoration and it is coming along great and when finished will be just the way that they want it. What a great visit we had as Jon has not had a lot on contact with Minerva for years, we just learned so much about her. We did meet up with her in Washington back in June and she gave us a copy of her poems, we now found out she is on her second novel, and continues to write. She is not published but we still would like to read her work. She showed us a list of all of the books she read from 7th grade in school and at one time she had over 3000 books. Since Aug. she has read a dozen books, this along with her painting, which we saw some of her work, keeps her quite busy. We parted and she sent about 6 books with us to read and we know we will get together again soon.

Nov. 27th “HAPPY THANKSGIVING” what a wonderful day, as we arose this morning and took our walk around the resort we could smell all of the aromas of the day. As they were fixing many turkeys for the feast, they out sourced the cooking to a lot of homes and it was an aroma all around the park. We walked in the club house and they were fixing the stuffing there and that was great. As we got back Kathleen prepared a dish for the food line and that made a wonderful smell in the MH. When we did go to the dinner that fed over 200 people, we noticed that there was enough food for probably 350 people. We had invited Craig to sit with us and we supplied the wine (which seemed to be the choice of drink), Craig’s wife Ginny is still up north in Mass. With her sister who just had an operation and will be away for a few days yet. As most of you are aware we full-timers spend holidays on the road and we enjoy the road family we have and the people around us. It is always nice to spend time with your biological family but that is not always the case, so being around extended family is great. After the meal it was either one or two things; take a nap or go out and do some exercise to work off the meal, we took a nap.

Nov. 26th today was a very sad day, we lost a close family friend who was as close to the family as any can get. He was Jon’s brother’s best friend from high school. John (Tiny) Leffler played Santa for the family as our family was growing. He was always fun to be around and he made those around him laugh, that was if you were in the local police force and he was driving his El Camino and were chasing after him. Even if the local police had fits over him, they all came to be his friend. Tiny was much too young to pass on and will be sadly missed by all. He made his peace with the Lord and when our time comes we will see him again.

Nov. 22nd we went to our church to do some volunteer work, as we packed boxes of food for Angel Food Ministries. This is a great bargain as you can get enough food to feed a family of four for a week for $30.00. It was a lot of work as the church packed nearly 1500 boxes and we each did a part towards it. It the afternoon Jon’s aunt Minerva called and we set up a date to meet, she stays in Sebring in the winter which is much better then Washington. After that we just had a relaxing day.

Nov. 19th in the morning we went to the free golf clinic that is held every Wednesday at the resort. The clinic was held at River Green GC and it was so much more than we expected. It lasted for three hours and had a lot of group and personal instruction. As the one instructor put it you are here to work on your golf swing, not the results. As we know once the swing is better defined the results will get better. We had a 1 o’clock appointment to have an oil change; it turned out to be a good experience. As well as changing the oil and filter they also checked lights, wipers, tire tread depth and air pressure and all of this for $15.00. In the evening we went to card bingo again and even though we didn’t win we were close several times and we had a good time.

Nov. 17th in the morning we went to the club house, as on every Monday they have coffee and donuts with a weekly meeting. It is set up to pass on information and to get ideas to help make the resort more enjoyable. A lot of the residents are on different committees to help make the resort run better. Monday is our bowling day and it is just whoever wants to bowl goes to the local alley together and bowl. It is a good time and we get to meet a lot of new friends. Kathleen went to a nutrition class in the afternoon. The instructor, Jayne, gives nutrition tips and information. Each week the group will meet and prepare a meal together, to be divided and taken home to enjoy.

Nov. 15th this morning the resort had a sausage gravy & biscuit breakfast and we had an enjoyable time, not only with the meal but with our fellow residents. Kathleen than put a crock pot meal together that we will enjoy later. Jon’s sister and niece came down from Orlando and the four of us played 18 holes of golf, what a great time as the weather was great and the company was the best. This was the first time that we played on this course, it is a fairly long course and we could not believe the layout as there is sometimes up to a 1/4 mile between holes. After we were finished we came back and have a nice visit and a good meal from the crock pot. We plan on getting together a lot more while we are here. After the last two days we retired early for the night as our bodies are not what they used to be.

Nov 14th after breakfast we wanted to find out more about our departed mouse, and now for the rest of the story. Since catching and disposing of the critter we were concerned that when we got him, a whole wedge of Decon poison was gone, but no further evidence of his family so we went to the basement and removed all of our storage containers and naturally in last container we found his nest. All of the poison was there along with some Cheerios and spaghetti were there, we knew that he was into these food products and we had thrown them out last week. We now feel better knowing he was alone. In the afternoon we picked up Craig & Ginny and went over to Titusville to view the Shuttle launch and it was a two hour drive, we found a spot at a city park that was on the water edge and from a distance we could see the launch pad. It fired right on time and was a beautiful sight, it was near full moon and as the shuttle rose it went past the moon what a great show. Upon leaving it was a four hour journey back and it took three hours just to get to Orlando (50 miles) as the traffic was stop and go all the way.

Nov 12th in the morning we did a few small jobs around the camper, also Kathleen went to her daily aquacise workout in the pool. We then went across the street to River Greens to play a round of golf. We had called and it was a shotgun start and we were paired up with another couple, what a great way to meet new friends. We found out that this couple also camped at Adelaide Shores in the site next to ours a few years ago, they asked us to say “Hello” to some of our neighbors. After diner Kathleen suggested that we go to bingo and Jon sort of drug his feet on it. Well wouldn’t you know the big winner on the night was Jon as he won 1 game and then split another bingo and on the last bingo of the night, which cost double to play split the coverall. At a quarter a game and about sixty people not to bad.

Nov.9th we found a church that we will be attending while here in FL. We had a nice time there and met some new friends. After that we came back to the resort and took it easy, later we had Craig & Ginny over for dinner which was some of the chili. We had a good visit and then the four of us went to the club house for the Sunday night movie which this week was “The Bucket List” . We had seen it before but we just had to see it again as we really enjoyed it.

Nov. 8th was another great day as we awoke and Jon started to fix a large pot of Chili in the crock pot. We than did some more cleaning and went to the club house to check on upcoming activities. Jon finished up his online class for a part time job. After that we biked over to Craig & Ginny’s (we worked with them last winter and they were as dissatisfied there as we were, plus we were looking for different places this winter and they found this place first and informed us and we are glad that it worked out) for a short visit. We had other guests in the afternoon that we first met online at workamper.com, and then at the Gypsy Journal Rally in Ohio. Larry & Sharon are going to be camp hosts in the Everglades this winter; we did take a walk to the lake and sat down to eat some good chili. After a great visit we then went to the Dance at the club house and had a great time, as well the entertainment was great.

Nov. 5th we got the mouse and it does make us feel better, it was only one but we still have the poison and traps set for any more that might be aboard. This is our first full day here and the park is great. Still haven’t seen the sun but we know that it will show up sooner or later. We did go out to Wal-mart which is only 2 miles away, which after this summer is an adjustment that we have to get used to. As a matter of fact being in the middle of all of the commerce here is an adjustment from the summer in Montana.

Nov. 4th we finished our trip to Avon Park and got in the afternoon and set up. Still didn’t get the mouse but we know he is here. Craig and Ginny came over to our site and we visited for a while, we worked with them last winter and they found this park as we were both looking to go to a new park for the winter. We are glad that we will be together again, and hope to have a great time here. The drive was a good drive all of the way even though we have yet to see sunshine, the last we saw the sun was on Saturday.

Nov. 3rd a long day of travel and we don’t like to travel this far but because Jon made an error in setting up our cable connection we have to be on site in Florida by Wednesday morning. We traveled about 600 miles and spotted at a Wal-mart that is right aside of the interstate. We shopped in the store to get supplies to fight the mouse. We set out poison and several traps.

Nov. 2nd it was just a great day as we enjoyed the friendship at Camp Fox, as Linda’s mother and brother were there. Also their neighbor was at the fire which we had going all day. We will have to make a good load of wash as the smoke from the fire is in our clothing; it does smell good but will probably turn to wood when we have a load of wash. We bid farewell to Fox & Linda in the evening as they had to go to work early and we were leaving early as well. We did find out when we got back to the motor home that we had an extra passenger, the trail of a mouse was spotted and we knew we had a job on our hands.

Nov. 1st after a great breakfast we went to the “Punkin Chunkin” and just had a great day. The event was saying that there would be about 70,000 people and because of the great weather we think there was more than that. The air cannons were great and while watching them Kathleen got a phone call from her brother saying that he was there and we found him about 50 ft. away, it was a surprise that he was there and it was not planned on his part but he had to come to the area to fix a leak in his Delaware home. As we were watching the catapults’ a few of them literally fell apart as they were getting ready to make their launch. We did see a world record with one of them. We came back and started a fire. After dinner we stayed at the fire as some of Fox and Linda’s friends came and we had, as always a great time.