We are at our winter spot

Yes, I know you have been wondering if we got away or where we are and I had promised to blog from underway. Things don’t always turn out the way you thought they would. First of all, we are here in the south. Here is the Wandering Oaks RV Park in Ocala, Florida. We’ve been at this park before a couple of times and liked the area, tranquility (except for the occasional revved engine at a traffic light close by) and the friendly people here.

We are parked and set up

Why is everyone driving on the left lane?

just a scenery along the way

This time it took us three full days to get here. No breakdowns, the trailer and truck worked fine, but traffic jams and lots of construction along the way. Add to that coffee breaks and short days because it gets dark at 6 PM we had some rain on Wednesday and on top of that we dislike driving in the dark. In the end it doesn’t even matter because we sleep in the same bed every night, just in different locations. The first night we stayed at a Lowes parking lot, the second night we choose to stay at Home Depot parking lot and the third night it was the parking lot at a Camping World in Georgia close to the border of Florida.

 

I thought this was a beautiful tow truck 

He got a customer a little bit further ahead

So to back up we left Canada last Wednesday. The previous Saturday the boat got shrink-wrapped. The guys that did it called and asked if they could come a day ahead of schedule and we were glad they did, because a couple of hours after they were done we had snow flurries and frost overnight. Our local bird population I treated to my last three suet cakes but I only had two wire-mesh holders so I resorted to an onion net to improvise. 

 

The birds are going to miss us

Hope this net worked as a substitute

Albatross was wrapped up nicely

The guys put a door with a zipper in the shrink-wrap 

Monday and Tuesday we spent packing the travel trailer. There are so many things we don’t bring along but just the essentials alone seem to be turning into many trips back and forth. Finally after all the chores we left on Wednesday morning thinking we did good time wise. After 5 minutes on the road I remembered that I hadn’t opened the doors of the fridge and freezer and didn’t empty the full icemaker reservoir of the ice cubes. The power was off for the fridge, so just imagine the mess it would create on the floor with the ice melting but the water not evaporating. Yep, we turned around to take care of the matter.

 

At the Ambassador Bridge Border Crossing in Detroit there was only one car in front of us. Our papers were in order but after being asked if we brought any fruits and vegetables I admitted to have two already peeled Clementine’s in a small container in the fridge for a snack later on. BTW they were grown in the USA, but apparently not allowed back in, so they were taken from us and disposed of. After that we were free to leave and bonus, the toll bridge collection booths had a sign saying: “FREE - Welcome back Canadians.” That was nice!

Very friendly neighbours 

We are parked just behind the flagpole

Now in real time, after setting up here at the RV Park we are acclimatizing to the enjoyable weather here. We already met two of our really nice immediate neighbors. This is Ralph, who retired from the United States Marine Corps with a Purple Heart.

 

Our neighbour Ralph

I hope everyone back home is happy and healthy and I thank everyone for dropping in again. I’ll post some more photos of this park and area next time.