Touristing

Yesterday was sunny, but cold - high 40's and low 50's. I know that doesn't sound cold, but when you add humidity it feels like 30. We decided to explore the area starting out with credit cards, camera, and a tank full of gas we headed north to Lakeland. I spotted a craft store and then a Michaels, so my expenses went up as I added yarn to the back seat of the car. Moving east from Lakeland, we went to Polk where we discovered a residential motorhome community. Neither Gene nor I had seen one of these before. I've included some pictures for you. These are homes with a covered car port for RV's much like the fly-in communties built around a runway with a hanger instead of a garage attached to your home. I just tried to add the pictures of the coach homes but the camera disc doesn't seem to have them. Maybe they're in the twilght zone!

Moving to the Boondocks

We left Tampa area and headed for Thousand Trails campground in Wachula/Zolfo Springs. The campground is on the edge of both of these communities. Neither is a thriving metropolus, but the campground is nice and has about 300 sites. It is on the Peace River which has signs posted reading "Do not feed the alligators", "No swimming", and "Watch for snakes." Needless to say, I haven't gotten too close to the river.

Yesterday I attended a computer class on Blogging, and today I is a blogger! Today, I attended a Picassa class, so hopefully I will be adding pictures to our Blog site.

The campground has lots of activities including pickleball, aquatic exercises, computer classes, craft classes, movies, shuffleboard, and a nice pool. However, the temperature dropped the day we arrived to the 50's and it rained for 2 days. This was the first rain since we left home, so I guess I can survive it. Today is sunny, but it started out at a damp 47 degrees this morning which chills you to the bone!

Yesterday we drove to Sebring which has several lakes and shopping areas. It is about 20 miles from our campground. Friends of ours from Fairmont, Buddy and Sandy Merrifield are staying there, so we decided to drop in on them. They are staying with friends who have a home with a magnificent view of one of the lakes.

More later,
Debby

Tampa RV Show

We are staying in Lazy Days Rally Center for a few days. Kenny and Peggy Alltop, cousins of Gene from Michigan spent 4 nights with us. We stayed 2 nights at the Tampa fairgrounds dry camping to see the Tampa Super Show (RV's). The fairgrounds were packed with campers and the show was filled with new RV's, each one more fabulous than the last.

We returned to Lazy Days for the weekend and visited with friends from the Mac Pac chapter of American Coach Association. On the left is a picture of the Tampa Bay bridge.

Headin' West

Today we crossed the Tamiami Trail to the west coast. It's a fun, scenic drive across the everglades. I saw 30 alligators swimming and/or sunning themselves during our crossing. We passed through Naples and Fort Myers and spent the night in Punta Gorda.

We moved to a campground in Venice, Florida where we will stay a week. The weather is nice, we have been doing a lot of sightseeing around the area.

Movin' On Up

We left the Keys behind us until we return in March. We stopped in south Dade Metro to see the Coral Castle. This structure is well worth the visit. A 100 pound five foot gentleman from Latvia built and incredible castle from coral that he dug and shaped by himself then moved the entire structure when civilization was getting too close. See the attached pictures for a glimpse of his creation.

We Spent the night in Miami at the Jim and Penney Thompson RV park. This is a beautiful park owned and operated by Dade County. It has a new waterslide adjoining the park since we last visited and is next to the Miami zoo.

New Year's 2007

We have been fortunate to spend many New Years' Eve's in Key West. This year, Enes and Bill joined us for the weekend celebrations. We headed for Key West, 38 miles from our campground in the afternoon, anticipating the usual major crowd downtown. Parking is usually a major problem in Key West, especially on New Years' Eve.

We found a space and walked Duvall Street, wandering in and out of the shops on the way. My personal favorite stop was "Fast Buck Freddie's" which has furniture, clothing, gag gifts and lots of other things. I found a mate to the Christmas gift Enes and Bill bought Gene (Redneck Horn), this was a Redneck Nag Horn. The original has a series of loud, obnoxious comments such as "What the H... was that maneuver?", "Are you freakin'blind?", "Slow down dumbass, Wallmart's open all night", all in Larry the Cable Guy's voice. The Nag Horn has such goodies as "Stop the damn car moron, Walmart's havin' a sale!" and my personal favorite, "Put down that cell phone this ain't no phone booth!

The crowd at Mallory Square for sunset was much slimmer this year than ever before, but there were a number of entertainers including jugglers, wire walkers, mimes, the cat trainer, and Houdini wanna bees. The sunset from the southernmost point, however, was spectacular as usual. The Disney cruise was docked in the harbor.

After sunset we had dinner and wandered back up Duvall Street to watch the New Years' festivities. The street was blocked off from traffic completely to allow partiers to wander freely. We passed The Bull bar and others where the balconies were lined with people throwing strings of beads to people below.

Near the top of Duvall Street was the famous red shoe which was raised to the second floor balcony to await the midnight hour. CNN was standing by to film the dropping of the shoe which would be occupied by a stunning transvestite at the appointed moment. In preparation, a major crowd had gathered to witness the event. Male entertainers, (dressed minimally),were dancing on a stage set up in the street to keep the crowd interested. At the stroke of midnight, all sang Auld Lang Syne and the stiletto shoe gracefully dropped to the street with it's occupant.

Movin' on Down

We took Charlie to the airport today. She wanted to get home to attend the wedding of a fried she has known since pre-school. She will take care of the house and cats for us while we are gone. She is a junior at Fairmont State majoring in Sign Language and Psychology.

We left Fort Lauderdale today and headed for the Floriday Keys. The temperatures in the Keys are in the high 70's to mid 80 degree range with a nice prevailing breeze. The campground is on Ohio Key and is called "Sunshine Key RV Park". The entire key is a campground! It borders a bridge with a railroad bridge that has been converted for fishing, walking and biking.

We visited the weekend flea market on the next key south. This is one of my favorite locations because they have great jewelry buys, designer purse knock-offs, and tropical clothing.

Unfortunately, we learned that Aunt Kathaleen died this morning. In our visit with her she was very adamant that it was time for her to move on, she had endured enough pain and suffering. We were all very glad we had the opportunity to spend time with her on our way south.