Christmas and a new year in Florida

December 21st Through Feb. 28th

I know, I know where the heck have I been? Well, spending more time with my daughter and living in one place for a little over 2 months kind of changed how I looked at things,well the blog at least. You see, we were in no hurry to rush about seeing everything all the time. Not that we were before, but after meeting Lenore and Rick back in October of 2013 our whole philosophy concerning our new life style, (Life part 2), changed. we stayed in places longer and took days off from running around seeing the sights. Now all of a sudden we had 2 months. It was an adjustment. So I did not feel compelled to write in the blog every couple of weeks. I do need to mention here that Lenore and Rick stay in places for a month at a time or longer and still manage to keep their blog updated. "I am not worthy"

Anyway, we left Ho Hum RV park on the 21st and drove to Bradenton Fl. I had not planned on spending Christmas with my daughter because she was going to be flying back to Wisconsin for the holidays. That however changed so we had to find a park for the last part of December. I found Arbor Terrace. How to describe it. Picture a used RV dealer lot with the trailers and Class A's packed in next to each other with just enough room to open your slideouts. Add to that that the majority of the people in the park were from Ontario and Quebec Canada. And since we don't speak French, they did not seem to be all that friendly. The high point of our stay there however, was meeting our neighbors Tess and Jerry from Oklahoma who were in the process of buying a house in Port Charlotte Fl. Two of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet.

Our friends from Port Charlotte 

Now that's a restaurant, The Beach House in Sarasota.

We spent Christmas with Tiffany and then took her to the airport so she could fly back to Wisconsin. On January 1st we moved to Linger Lodge RV Resort.

Santa in Florida? 

I think the pictures speak for themselves as to how much roomier Linger Lodge was compared to Arbor Terrace.

Arbor Terrace. Just a little tight.

Linger Lodge 

Our back yard. 

And the people around us were really nice. Especially Tom and Heidi. Two Canadians who will likely be our friends for life. And then there was our neighbor Neal. A Chicago boy who was also class of '69. We didn't have anything in common...lol, But I am sure that we will meet again somewhere down the road. (A side story. On our first night at Linger Lodge we went to Tiffany's for dinner. When we got home Lynn went in first and then called me saying there was a strange noise coming from inside the trailer in our bedroom. I went in and sure enough there was a constant high pitched hum coming from the area of the head of the bed. I went outside and in the basement to see if it was out there, but it wasn't. So back inside I go. It sounded like a motor was on. The slideout in the bedroom is electric so we thought that might of been it. But as I listened where the motors are, I heard nothing. It seemed to be coming from the ceiling but there is nothing electric up there to my knowledge. After about 20 minutes of searching I decided to go next door to a neighbor that I had met that afternoon, he is a long time snowbird. I asked if he could come over and see if he could figure it out. As he was getting his shoes on Lynn yelled out that she found it and then bursts out laughing. I asked "what is it?" Well it turns out that the Furby, that we had brought with us, had batteries that were dying. And when that happens it puts out a constant hum so you can change the batteries. It was on the bed under the deco pillows that we have. A side, side story. We brought the Furby along because every time we put it in a box to put in storage it woke up and started talking. We just couldn't put him in a box when he is doing that!  lol.)

As to our adventures.. Let me summarize the highlights of our stay. They are in no particular order but they are things that if you are in the area you should visit.

The River Walk Downtown Bradenton  This was a treat. A beautiful waterfront with a skate park, dog water fountains, an outdoor theatre, playground, marina, and some nice sitting areas.

Robinson Nature Preserve   Kayaking, Canoeing, Hiking, Biking, and Bird watching all in this wonderful preserve.  From Osprey nests and Bald Eagles, to Horseshoe Crabs and a few snakes. This preserve has it all. Although we didn't canoe or Kayak there some friends did and they went back several times. It was one of their favorite places to go.

Take this right out to the Manatee River

One of the walking trails

De Soto National Park  Right down the Road from Robinson preserve this has a nice nature walk, Some bird watching hikes, and re-enactments from De Soto's time. They also had nighttime concerts in the park while we were there. (A side story: At the concert our friends, Tom and Heidi, got up to do some dancing. It was on the grass so they were barefoot like everyone else. It seemed they were really getting into it with all sorts of gyrations and hopping around. We named it the Fire Ant Merengue   It seems that they were dancing on a fire ant hill. The bites would have been worse if Lynn didn't have some cortizone cream with her.I guess you had to be there.) A nice park and nice people.

Gumbo Limbo Tree 

One of the walking trails

South Florida Museum  The museum is actually comprised of 3 museums. The museum which shows a lot about the history of the area going back to the original natives.  The Bishop Planetarium which has a nice sky show and several other movies shown in the domed theater. And the Parker Manatee Aquarium which has, they believe, the oldest living manatee at 65 years of age. His name is Snooty and he was born in captivity. This year he was made a member of AARP. It's not much of an aquarium but Snooty is worth the price of admission. They also use the large tank there to rehab other manatees who have been injured so that they can be returned to the wild.

Snooty eating his Romaine 

Apollo Beach  This is the place to see Manatee's. On this river is a power station which dumps warm water into it. When the weather is cold hundreds of Manatee gather there for the warm water. When I say cold I'm talking about Florida cold. In the 40's and 50's. Yes, it was that cold while we were there. Florida is not all 70's and sunny year round you know. So if you want to see Manatees, this is the place to go.

Myakka River State Park.   This place was amazing. 58 sq. miles with a river and 2 lakes. Boating, fishing, hiking, biking, some major bird watching, and a slew of gators make for a long fun visit. I have to admit that almost every park that we visited was really nice and very clean. Florida knows how to do state parks. A must see if you're into nature.

Tiff and Gaila joined us for a hike.

No caption needed

The Canopy walk

Yep, Lynn did it too. Whoop whoop!

Busch Gardens, Tampa  Yes we went. Twice actually. The first time with My daughter and her boyfriend and we hit all the roller coasters. Not Lynn's thing so it was nice to have someone to ride with. We also did the zoo part as well. ( Two side stories. While in the Australia part of the park we came across 2 Laughing Kookaburra's. Lynn has a bird app on her phone that not only lets you identify birds, but also has several different bird songs. The Kookaburra were just sitting there when we walked up to the cage. Lynn played the bird song and they went nuts answering back. It was great. The second time we went she tried it again and nothing. Oh well. The second story has to do with the tigers. You can observe the tigers from 3 sides. On one of the sides you can get up close and personal with an observation window and a double chain link fence. We were there and looked at them through both. Later in the afternoon we walked by again but on the other side. We could see the widows and fence across from us but there is a moat between us and the tigers. One tiger was pacing back and forth in front of the window and fence. as we watched I saw a woman with a stroller trying to get her child as close as possible. first by the window and then by the fence then back by the window. Finally she timed it right to see the big cat in front of the fence. As the cat turned at the end of the fence and started walking back he sprayed the whole open fence area. He must of shot 15 to 20 feet. A young girls next to me saw the whole thing and we both started going nuts with disbelief and, sorry, laughter. Her parents hadn't seen the episode and she was having a hard time explaining it for various reasons. A fun time was had by all. Well not the mother with the stroller. But everyone else).

That's the one. 

Wow, look at my gut. Oh course the fleece tied around my waist doesn't help.

Can't have Pictures of Florida without Flamingos. 

We're bird people.

On our second visit we took the safari trip into the middle of the park. It cost extra but it was worth it. Another adventure of Lynn feeding giraffes, and much better views of the animals in the open plain. The roller coasters were good and the animals were fun. All in all two good days.



















Tampa RV Supershow  Billed as the largest RV show in the country we spent 2 days looking at RV's, signing up for free camping, going to seminars, and looking at all of the odds and ends that they sell to make life on the road easier. If you've never been you should go.

Bunker Hill Vineyard & Winery  http://www.bunkerhillvineyard.com   Our favorite winery in Florida. For two reasons. One is they have unique wines. Two, Larry and Lenora Woodham. The owners are two of the nicest people you will ever meet. The winery is totally green. From making their own distilled water to using nothing but recycled bottles. The wines are all unfiltered and range from Muscadine grape wines to dandelion and cherry tomato wine. You heard right, Cherry tomatoes. Don't knock it till you try it.

Great friends and good wine

Another attraction to the winery is that once a month they have an Orb & Spirit walk. You know those white balls of energy that float in the air. Here are some of the pictures we took.

I'll let you decide. 

Well that's about it. Florida was great. We already have reservations at Linger Lodge for 2016 for Jan, thru March. If all goes as planned we will be there. But you know how it goes. In this life style you go where the spirit and the moment take you. Next post will be about our vacation that we took. Hey this is a hard life. You need to take a break every now and then.

See you down the road.