On Wednesday, January 4, we packed up the rig and got ready for our trip back
to the Thousand Trails campground in Clermont, not far from Orlando and Disney
World. The trip was only about 3 1/2 hours long, and we arrived in early
afternoon. When we checked in, we had to take a site that wasn't too close
to our friends, Arnie and Lois Strauss. And before we knew it, we got a
phone call from Arnie...they were at the pool and wanted us to come up there.
We quickly changed into our bathing suits, laughing at the thought of going
swimming on January 4. The pool was wonderful, the water temperature was a
balmy 82 degrees. We made plans to have dinner together and then to go
over to Disney World for a few hours. After eating at a Chinese buffet,
we drove the short distance over to the Disney complex. Arnie and Lois
have been doing Disney for 30 years and they know how to get around lots of
rules. They talked their way into parking at the Polynesian Hotel.
After walking around, we took the monorail over to the Magic Kingdom. We
had never been on a monorail before, so Arnie arranged for us to sit in the very
front with the engineer. HOW NEAT. But the euphoria wore off when we
got to the Magic Kingdom. The ticket machines did not accept our tickets,
and then we found out that today was a black out date for our tickets.
Arnie and Lois really wanted to see the Country Bear Jamboree so we agreed to
meet them back at the Polynesian Hotel while they went to that attraction.
We took a boat ride back to the hotel and wandered around until Arnie and Lois
returned. Their evening was also a disappointment as the Country Bear
Jamboree was temporarily closed. Oh well. [Clermont - Thousand
Trails - 28.23 N / 81.40 W]
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Turtle walking around Thousand Trails
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Sand Hill Crane walking around Thousand Trails
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Chinese gymnasts in from of the China pavilion at Epcot
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A typical sight on the roads around Orlando
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Norm spent Thursday morning arranging to move the motorhome to a site close
to Arnie and Lois. During the afternoon he went to Deer Creek to button up
some details concerning the purchase of the campsite there and then he stopped
at Publix for some shopping. After dinner, we went to see "My Big Fat
Greek Wedding" a really neat, feel-good movie. Friday was a big day
for us, as we closed on the campsite at Deer Creek. It was a strange
feeling, as we gave the attorney a big check, and we got the deed and ownership
of our campsite. But we had nothing tangible, as the campsite is still
just a pile of dirt. The check will be held in escrow until the site is
completed, so we're not worried about the money. In the evening, we went
to Epcot with Arnie and Lois. This time we had success in getting in, and
we got to go on "Soarin." This ride replicates the feeling you would have
if you went soaring over California on a hang glider or something similar.
It was really awesome. When we got to the ride, the wait line was 120
minutes, but a couple came up and gave us passes that basically took us to the
beginning of the line. We also went on another ride called "Fast Track"
and stayed for the fireworks show at 9 PM. Saturday was a quiet day.
We went to a local vineyard for a tour and some wine tasting and even bought a
bottle of Chablis wine to take with us tomorrow, when we visit Ralph and Sue
Marino, other CHAI members.
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2074 St. George Drive, Deer Creek
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Despite the fact that the football Giants got absolutely murdered, we had a
good time on Sunday with Ralph and Sue. He had knee replacement surgery
about a month ago and is doing amazingly well. Both their home and their
community (Lake Ashton in Lake Wales) are really beautiful. The rest of
the week was uneventful. We went to Epcot at Disney on Tuesday, did some
rides, and met Ralph and Sue for dinner at the Chinese Pavilion. We've
been learning from Arnie and Lois, and were able to get into Disney without
paying for parking. Its fun to beat the system. On Wednesday morning
we went to visit a rheumatologist in Lakeland to discuss Shelley's shoulder.
She prescribed some meds that hopefully will cut the pain. We also stopped
at Deer Creek to turn in our plans for the campsite...where the pad and the
hook-ups should be and where we wanted the three palm trees placed. The
rest will just be grass. On Thursday we went to another Orthopedic
surgeon at Celebrity Hospital and made an appointment for shoulder surgery for
Shelley on Monday, February 6.
On the 15th of January we left Thousand Trails and
headed to Riverview (a suburb of Tampa) and Rice Creek campground where we met
our friends, Judy and Jim Ploesser from Hopkinsville,KY. We arrived at the
campground, set up, spent about 30 hours, and then left to go to Lazy Days for
about 1 1/2 hours of minor repairs. Laura and Shelly also had a Tuesday
morning appointment so they came along. We both parked our coaches and
slept over in the Camping World parking lot on Monday evening so we could check
in early the next morning. Unfortunately that was the last thing that went
smoothly. Our service writer was new and not very good, and our 90 minute
repair wasn't completed until 5:30 PM on Wednesday evening. Shelly and
Laura also didn't have a good experience. Actually, we decided to leave
our coaches at Lazy Days and go to a huge RV show at the nearby Florida State
Fairgrounds. We met Arnie and Lois Strauss there as well as some other RV
acquaintances. We decided to sleep over again at the Camping World lot and went
back to Rice Creek early on Thursday morning. On Friday we went back to RV
show again and spent another day there. We bought a shade to keep the sun
out of the motorhome while allowing light in. One day we took a circular
trip through Ybor City, Treausre Island and down to St Petersburg. On the
way, we stopped for a walk along the beach, and Norm got to dunk his feet in the
Gulf. We also stopped and most of us wandered through a pier/shopping area
while Norm got his boat fix talking to some guy who owned a 23 foot sailboat.
On the way home we stopped at the Fish house in Ruskin for some delicious fried
fish (most had Grouper). We then stopped at a local ice cream shop that
had a special sale whre you got babana splits for half price if you brought the
banana. On another day, we went to a near by power plant in Apollo Beach.
The warm water outflow provides an attractive feeding ground for the manatees.
Unfortunately the water outside in the Gulf was also warm, so there weren't many
manatees when we were there.[Riverview, FL - Rice Creek
Campground - 28.00 N / 82.18 W]
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3 couples at Manatee Viewing Center
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Laura, Shelley & Judy
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Momma and baby Manatee
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We left Rice Creek early on Sunday, January 29 and
drove to Monaco's service facility in Wildwood, FL. We spent the night
there and, on Monday, had some minor work done o our motorhome.
Unfortunately, they didn't finish the entire list of issues, so we'll be back
there on May 14. One highlight of our stop in Wildwood was a visit to a
Russell Stover chocolate warehouse where we bought some chocolates at deep
discount paying as low as 10% of the regular retail price. [Wildwood, FL -
Monaco campground - 28.50 N / 82.02 W].
We left Monaco late on Monday afternoon and drove to
a Walmart parking lot in Brooksville where we met 13 other coaches of Chai
members. We greeted each other and then many went out for Cici's Pizza.
Believe it or not, this buffet costs only $3.99 per person, and though the food
wasn't gourmet, it was certainly quite edible. Then at about 8:45 we
caravaned the 30 minute trip to just outside the campground where the South East
Area FMCA rally was held. We spent the night parked there, and at 8 AM on
Tuesday morning we paraded onto the grounds of the Hermosa County airport and
the FMCA rally. It was really fun renewing old friendships and making new
ones. The 14 CHAI coaches were parked next to each other and that made for
easy visiting. We biked around the rally site on Monday, made plans as to
which seminars to attend and finally at 3:30 the first daily CHAI wine and
nibbles session began. We had about 40-45 attendees, including Judy and
Steve Czarsty and Jay and Donna Blumenthal, both CHAI members who held national
FMCA offices. Wednesday was more of the same, with visits to seminars and sales
booths as well as more visiting, Norm had to drive the 140 round trip to
Lakeland to meet with the attorney concerning the site purchase at Deer Creek. We
had another late afternoon schmooz, and then after dinner some of us went
to a large tent for the evening's enjoyable entertainment of Cajun music. Thurday
was more of the same, as we shot the bull with our CHAI friends, both old and
new and wandered around the vendor tent. We purchased a surge
protector, which protects the sophisticated electronics on the motorhome from
"bad" electricity. We also bought an exhaust fan that will open when the
temperature in the motorhome reaches a certain level and will close if it starts
to rain outside. On Thursday evening 30 of us went out for dinner together
at a local buffet place. Friday was a day of torrential rain (1.5 - 2.0
inches) and high winds. Fortunately the rain is forecast to stop before
everything turns into a mud bath. In nearby (maybe 50 miles away) they had
about 8.5 inches of rain, so we should consider ourselves lucky. We had
our traditional combination of CHAI business meeting, short Shabbat service
with wine and challah, and pot luck dinner. As usual, it was wonderful.
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CHAI gathering at Happy Hour time
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A few of us after dinner
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