Florida

  We entered Florida on January 3,2012. We had reservations a 3 Flags in Wildwood about 70 miles north of Tampa. We were crossing paths with Bob & Linda for a few days so soon as we set up we went over to say hello. We chatted & caught up with then for quite a while and made plans to play cards the next night. The next evening they called and told us their dog Blazer had passed away. What sad news. There are dogs and there are special dogs and Blazer was up at the top in the special dog category. He will  surely be missed.

  After a busy 4 months in Pa. we went into super slowdown in Wildwood. We went to the farmers market and bought some strawberries and tomatoes but not to much as we planned  on going to the Webster flea market and that's where we load up on fresh fruit & veggies and we did. We especially like Florida strawberries and we have gone through several flats. On a rainy day we went over to the Villages to see the movie War Horse which was excellent. The Villages is a huge retirement area with separate roads for golf carts, nice downtown common areas with restaurants, shops, movie theaters and nightly entertainment. After our 2 weeks were up in 3 Flags we decided to go to the Escapee park in Bushnell. It was a tough long 25 mile ride but we made it. We enjoy SKP parks as everyone is always so friendly but at Sumpter Oaks we always seem to have problems with our site and this time was no different. We had a 50amp site but the pedestal was over in the next door site so we had to use our extension which is only 30amp. Also the sewer was uphill even with us staying up on the air bags, the water pressure was low and we couldn’t get a signal with our roof top satellite dish. One big plus was our friends Cindy & Phil were there. We hadn’t seen them since we were broke down up in Dease Lake BC and is was good to catch up with them. We also sat down with a couple at the ice cream social and them or us couldn’t remember where we met until bingo up in Alaska at Denali NP at a small SKP happy hour. 2 couples at this small park who we had been with in Alaska. Wow small world. Since this was the 1st park we were in since leaving Pa. that allowed us to wash the rv and Emily was quite dirty so we made this a work week. Paula worked on the inside and I got the outside washed and waxed. Paula also went to the club house daily to chat with other ladies doing crafts and Phil taught her how to make spinners using soda cans. When our week was up we again hitched up the CRV and began our 60 mile trek over to the Orlando Thousand Trails. This is a nice spacious (for Florida) park. We enjoy this area  and will probably stop back on our way out of Florida. We went to a campground (Bee’s) up the road that has a great all you can eat fish fry. There’s also a winery (Lakeridge) that makes several wines that we love. We went there on Saturday to a festival and they were having a buy 1 case get a 2nd free and we took advantage.  There’s also a little Cuban restaurant ( El Cerro) that we love. We also drove over to a Disney Resort Port Orleans the French Quarter and then from there we took the boat down to Downtown Disney and spent the day there. Today we got our Golden Coral fix. We met up with about 50 other Escapee’s for Chapter 57’s monthly luncheon.

  It’s 6:25 PM  and 76 degrees and as I’m writing this I occasionally look out our front window and several people are out walking  and bike riding with coats & hooded sweatshirts on. Oh well they must know something we don’t know. Now for what it’s worth we’re all caught up and it’s time to get into the mind frame of those folks walking around with coats on and have a cup of green tea.