Friends Visit and Travel Plans

February 15, 2013   

It will be real hard to leave here next month.  It's also hard to believe that we have been here 2 months already! We now have just one month left here in the Seminole Health Club.  We are now full members of the society here, well sort of.  We have not been here in the summer when the place has only about 25 people.  Next winter we thought we would go to south Texas, but now, maybe we'll come back here.  There are many things we will need to think about before we make that decision. 

We are also rethinking our plans to stay at Sunny Rest in the Poconos for the month of July.  Sunny Rest is very expensive at $1700 for the month!  That’s $800 more than here in South Florida and $1,000 more than where we are going to stay April and May in Tampa.  There is also the issue of the amount of summer time there is in the North.  We want to visit with our family and friends in New Jersey and go to Sandy Hook at the shore.  We also want to spend time in Indiana and in Buffalo NY with family.  With all of that we want to travel west again and spend some time there.  Last year we just did a whirl wind tour of the country and this time we want to target places we wish to visit.

Our tentative plan right now is to be in Indiana the week of the 17^th of June and then go to Sunny Rest for the first 2 weeks of July.  Then we will go to NJ for the next 2-3 weeks and then head up to Buffalo NY.  From Buffalo we will head back down to Indiana and then go to Yellowstone for 2-3 weeks.  Then we will head back south through Colorado and Arizona.  From there it is a matter of, do we continue south into Texas or east and south to Florida.

Anyway, if we are coming back here next year, we need to make a reservation so we get the space we want.  We just sort of lucked out this time with our space but there are better spaces we think we would like.  There you have it, the stress of living full time in a mobile house.

Last week we cleaned up the RV in anticipation of our friends Debbie and Ian coming in for a visit before their cruise on Saturday.  We picked them up at the airport around 11pm last Thursday. We got back to the RV Park and then went to the hot tub to catch up on stuff.  It was a long but good day.They are on the Carnival Freedom and not the Triumph that had all of the problems.  It will be interesting to hear if they saw or were one of the ships to assist with the Triumph.  

Friday we went to Hollywood to look for some tourist stuff and have lunch.  We went to the ever popular Le Tub for lunch.  It’s an old gas station that has been converted into a burger joint.  There are a lot of birds it the trees and bushes that are all around and over the seating area.  I managed to get bird poop on my back, arms, and hands.  Seemed I was a popular guest to the birds.

Debbie sliced up a star fruit that is growing on a tree a few sites away from us.

The restaurant has lots of bath room fixtures as decor. 

One of our bird "friends".

Another friend above me.

Bird waiting to take my burger.

After the excursion to Hollywood we went up to North Palm Beach for dinner with Debbie’s parents, Al and Marty.  We had a great dinner with them telling great stories.  We got back to the RV Park just in time for more hot tub before bed.

We took Debbie and Ian to the cruise terminal in Fort Lauderdale for their cruise around 12:30.  The cruise terminal is about 20 miles from the RV Park straight east.  This was the first time we have been to a cruise terminal where we were not leaving on the cruise too.  It was a little sad to leave the big ships and all of the excitement of boarding.

This week we had some great events.  A bunch of us went to a booze tasting event at a local liquor store.  They really know how to do this right.  There was no charge and there must have been 25-30 tasting areas set up.  I was tipsy after just 30 minutes in the place.  Outside they had a reggae band that sounded OK.  After the liquor tasting we had dinner at an Asian fusion restaurant next door.

Reggae band at the liquor tasting event

A sake bomb

Our new friend Janelle pounding the table to drop the sake bomb

One of our new friends here, Bruce, had a birthday so we had a small party one night.  A couple of Canadians came and played guitars with Bruce on percussion and Patty playing the ugly stick, one of Bruce's gifts.  It was a lot of fun.

Bruce's birthday party

Patty and the ugly stick

Good picture of the ugly stick

Tuesday the park opened the restaurant and bar the first time this season with taco Tuesday.   Patty and Ricky tended the bar and Ryan is the chef.  After closing the bar we all came back to our site and quickly forgot what a day it was, literally.  

Ricky, Patty, and Ryan at the opening of the bar restaurant

Very cool way to put out the taco fixings

The next big event here at the park will be the Valentine’s Day party this Sunday evening.  Patty has been in charge of getting the ticket sold and we are both involved with setting it up.  She now has 87 people attending the party which is a whole lot of people for a party here.

Tomorrow morning we will pick Debbie and Ian up at the cruise terminal.  They are also attending the party with us.  Then we say are good byes as they leave back to the cold north at 8 am on Monday.

Stay tuned!