So many miles

In the absence of mountains that we could hike to get out for some exercise and change of scenery, why not hop in the truck and drive somewhere for hours at a time. No, I am just kidding, but in earnest, this month we drove from our RV Park all the way to Ft. Lauderdale and return in a day. You see Benno wanted to visit a business in Ft. Lauderdale regarding parts for the autopilot of our boat and nearby there were a couple of marine stores that were of interest to us as well, those where the famous “Sailorman” and the biggest West Marine Store in the USA. The excursion was a semi success of what we were looking for and each one-way took four hours via the Florida Turnpike. How much did the toll road cost, I don’t know, as the charges will be in the mail, I guess.

Well, we weren’t done with driving as the next day our truck took us to Daytona Beach to a Home Depot that carried Starboard (an excellent plastic material we use on the boat) and another West Marine that had a lot more to us merchandise than their flagship store in Ft. Lauderdale. At least this trip was more scenic as part of it went through the Ocala National Forest and overall the roads were more enjoyable.

 

Here in central Florida we had some rollercoaster weather in January. The cooler days we used for more visits to shopping malls browsing merchandise, while the nicer days were spent here in the park.  As I had mentioned before, there is some activity everyday of the week in the community hall. One of the residents owns a food truck that they tow out onto the lawn beside the community hall every two weeks or so. It is called “Spanglish Skillet” and features mostly Mexican food. It was out yesterday while a local band played pretty nice tunes on the patio that their amplifiers carried throughout the park. 

 

Our neighbors two RVs down had planned a hotdog get-together with some of their friends that coincided with the bands performance and food truck appearance. It was too late to cancel either event and so we spent some time listening to the tunes and then sat around in groups at our friends’ gazebo waiting for the performance to end and the food truck to pack up before a huge pan with 60 barbecued and smoked bratwurst sausages were brought out and the potluck dishes were opened. What a fun day that was, although it had been on the cool side!

 

Speaking of food, at one of my store browsing trips I spotted this egg ring set at “Bed & Bath” in the town The Villages, that I have been looking for. Now the fried eggs fit perfectly onto the English muffins and I like that.

 

And today we turned the key in the truck again for a visit to the IKEA store in Orlando. The store is located in a large shopping district where you can shop until you drop! Yes, I found a few things that were on my list and I didn’t go overboard with purchases. Benno and I took turns to go into the store as we had the dogs with us in the truck and today we are back to 27C/80F.

 

Thanks for dropping by again.

Our days at the RV Park

Ok, I admit its time for another update. Life is good at the RV Park and we have settled right in. Before yearend we were allowed to relocate to another spot here in the Snowbird RV Park. The owner, who loves to play with his new big Kubota tractor, had added gravel and sand to the now vacant site to make it look equal or better to the other recently updated pull-through sites. There are still many old-timer snowbird residents here in the park that have come down here for many years. However, if they decide to sell their RV unit and if it’s older than 10 years, it has to leave the park even if the new owner is willing or would like to stay at the site. It seems to be the trend now that RV Parks do not want to take in any older then 10 year RVs. Such was the case with our new spot. We are happy here with four very tall palm trees at a good distance.

 

After a while we got to know many people here and there is no shortage of communication if you want it. The clubhouse is busy every day with activities of all kinds, but we prefer the one-on-one kind of socializing that is more personal. On the outskirts of the park there are paths through the bush, i.e. woodland along a canal or runoff from the wetland where we sometimes take our dogs for a walk. I heard there are alligators around, so you have to keep your dog leashed, your eyes open and of course in case you see a gator don’t try to pet the beast. Some gators can grow as big or over 20ft here in Florida.

 

The refrigerator in our RV is much smaller than the one we have in our house and because of its size it produces a good excuse to make a grocery run into town much more often than we would back home and that gets us out of the travel trailer. Leesburg is ok for most things, but it doesn’t have as many fashion stores as Ocala has. Last week we drove that way because we needed a small part from Camping World Ocala. We combined that with a stop at Northern Tools and the large Aldi supermarket in Ocala, as well a quick (maybe not so quick) stops at Ross and T.J. Max that netted me a new top and pair of pants, as well a new t-shirt for our birthday girl Elsa. Well done, Marlene!

 

Yes, our doggies are now both 7 years old. Of course Elsa got her Birthday Wiener Sausage as usual and Reggy got one too. 

 

A while back I said I would post photos of the other four dachshunds here in the park. Finally I got around to go over and snap a few photos of them. They are a lively little bunch and there was quite some yapping involved until we all got acquainted and then it was tail wagging and kissing. 

 

We sure enjoy our time here. There were a couple of freezing nights at Christmas time that destroyed a few delicate flowers, but otherwise everyone survived. The funny thing was that the Par-Gas, a local propane supply store, closed down for the holidays from Friday night until Tuesday morning and the TSC store that also sells propane had a problem with their equipment and could not sell any. So many people ran out of propane because it was so cold. We too needed a bottle filled on Tuesday morning and when we got there, there was a huge lineup all the way out to the highway and at the fill station cars and trucks were triple parked. They filled that day 280 bottles of propane, most of them the large 30 lbs. ones. Btw it costs $18 for a refill. 

 

Not only did this fella fill all those 280 bottles,
he also carried the heavy bottles to the trunks of the cars
for all the women 

Tonight we are grilling some marinated pork loin for dinner and the rest of the food is prepared on the stove. 

Wishing everyone a healthy and happy New Year and thanks for dropping in again.

 

There are some very old and majestic looking trees here in the park
and I just had to show you a photo of it