MORE OF LIFE IN FLORIDA, LOVING OUR NEW LOCATION !

This was made for us by Audrey's
oldest brother several years ago.
It did not weather well, so it has
taken all this time to sand and
repaint it.  I am so glad to be
hanging it out!!

It's already noon!!  I thought I would be through with this Blog by now. Haha!
I've had my walk though and downloaded pictures from our phones and chose pics for the Blogs. So not all time has been wasted!
I sure need to keep up with the Blog in good time as it will soon be 2020 and time to order my book for this year!!  Time sure flies when you are having fun!  And there sure seems to be enough to do here to keep us happy.  Our bodies are sure telling us that we can be doing too much!!  Or doing it wrong!!

We have been meeting many new people both here in the park and at church up the road.  The trick is just to remember names!!! We do wear name tags here in the park so that we remember who we are!! Everyone knows where we live now as we are the second site in off the highway.

Another unit has just arrived, a motorhome pulling an enclosed trailer.  Wonder if is it hauling a car or motorcycles?? Guess I'll have to take another walk so that I can find out.  We do see a lot here at the entrance to the park.

I spent a Saturday cleaning inside.  I don't do that thorough a job usually, but was having company that afternoon. A friend. June, interviewed us for the SKP Cracker Crumb newspaper (Our introduction as a new member). It was a wonderful visit!

She also leads the chair exercise group.  I have enjoyed doing that also, but hurt bad for two days after each time.  I think that I am going to get back to my walking more and see what that does for me.  We definitely need something to offset all of the eating out!!

On Monday, November 18th I began meeting with a new Welcoming Committee after our Monday breakfast and announcements.  I think that I will enjoy this, but need to get organized about it.  Glad they asked me to join the effort.

Gary also started his Colored Pencil Class and I my Scrapbooking workshop for the season.  He had a couple show up and will have more after the snowbirds all arrive by the first of the year.  I did not have anyone meet with me, so hope that will change later also.  It gave me a good three hours to get my stuff in order!!  Another forty pages in a binder!!

Tuesday we drove over to Punta Gorda to the Art Gallery at the Visual Art Center.

Signs told us not to take pictures. So I only took this
picture from the door of the one room.
They had workshop rooms also where we saw some
interesting new (to us) things!

They also had many seasonal things for sale.

After that we drove out to meet with our Salem friends, Bill and Esther.  We went with them to lunch and stopped at a bookstore after. We always enjoy those visits.

Over 6000 books made to build this archway!

Bill making a purchase?

Thursday Gary and I both went to our respective lunch time out with SKP's from the park.  The SKPettes went to the Island View Restaurant at the Sun 'n Lake Golf Course.  Great food and good prices as well.

Elsie and Elinor

Lee and Margery

Margery and Bev

The ROMEOS went to Market Place 27 for their lunch.

This hibiscus is covered with buds.  Yea!!

Need more pansies.

We have stopped at a few places to buy flowers and I have been planting them a little at a time.  The Palm Trees sure have fine roots that grow close to the surface of the ground so it has been hard work.  I see now why most people plant in large flower pots.  I figure next year I will change my plans and spend more money!  I am not sure which kind of flowers will have to be replaced and which will continue to grow all year here.  I have a lot to learn.

The highway is in the back ground. Our motorhome is on the left behind the park model trailer.
You can see our door, passenger window and
front windshield.
We also had our palms trimmed since we have five of them and they drop many, many nut-like things. This is done by men in the park.  It was money well spent as I do not think that these were done for a couple years, at least.  We were not at home when they did ours, so no close-up pictures.  They said they were glad that we were gone for the day as they were afraid of damage to the motorhome.

The park had it's annual Makers and Bakers Craft Fair. So we checked it out, but I was only enticed to buy banana bread and a small fabric bag to carry my keys to the motorhome and my phone in.  I had the friend, Lanette, who made them, sew a long strap on so I can carry them over my shoulder.  It was a problem before when I did not have a pocket in some Capris.  I was tickled and will sure get a lot of use out of it.  I also decided that I need to make a nice carry bag for our place settings for meals at the clubhouse.  I guess it will give me more to keep me busy!
I love the room in the storage shed to keep my sewing machine handy.  Gary even set himself up in there to do his pencil drawing part of the time.  The difficult thing will be deciding what we need to put back in the motorhome when we leave the first of May.   We sure will leave as much as we can here!!
I will cut this off now and do another Blog to cover Thanksgiving time.  So check back in with us.
Enjoy your weather, we enjoy ours here!

OUR FALL/WINTER STAY IN FLORIDA BEGINS

November 2nd,  we were getting settled in at Florida SKP Resort, our new winter location!
And we are loving it, though haven't done too much new yet.

One of our first evening views from the door!

Mary, I did find the perfect place for your
Fall Blessings towel.  Thank you for the gift!
It was so good to visit everyone there in SC.

The Resort has daily activities and we just have to decide what ones we want to do.  I have found the chair exercise twice a week to be very beneficial to me.  I'm hoping to adjust much better to balance and the use of my new orthodics.
In the mean time, I went back to my TOPS club that I attended last year and we will go for the Veterans program this afternoon here in the resort for a program and a Root Beer Float. Now I remember why I go to TOPS. 
Just got back and I've got to say, the program was very good.  Made the Veterans proud to have served in the Military!! 

We also drove to Sarasota last Saturday to go to an Art Street Fair on Saturday.  A long drive!

This was an easy place for me to sit, watch people
and wait for Gary to see all that he wanted!!
I do look at a lot also, just don't check out
all of the detail that Gary does. 

I always love crossing the bays!

Two Chase Banks in one city?? We usually have difficulty
finding one branch!!

Liked this statue since it is so close to Veterans Day.

On the way back from Sarasota we stopped at a nursery and bought more flowers to plant on our lot. Gary'd like you to think that he is into flowers!  Ha-ha. I am slowly getting them planted.  I learned to not knock myself out all in one day!!  I paid for that, so I go out at 5 pm when it is beginning to get dark and cooler to plant a few each day.  I handle that better.  Maybe it is because of the 80 plus days.  But the days have been beautiful and breezy!!

Yes, Gary, get them unloaded!!

We are loving the storage!!  Lightening the load in the
motor home with some stuff that we do not need to be
carrying with us all of the time!!

We were so glad that we did not have neighbors on either side the day that we arrived and got set-up.  No one to watch us that day!!  One of the neighbors has not been able to come as he is on dialysis and their Canadian insurance will not cover it out of the country.  The couple on the other side of us were in the area in their motorhome and just moved into their park model here this past weekend. So we are getting acquainted.
Today I hemmed a curtain for in the storage shed and hung it.  I felt we needed to camouflage all of our stuff in there.  I wouldn't want neighboring kids to take too much interest since we are so close to the highway. Though not too many kids close as it is farm country.

We are back and the float was delish!  Got to greet more people coming in from parts North to get re-acquainted.  We also heard that Olive Garden is serving free to the Veterans this evening, but decided that we are too lazy to go.  Our neighbors just drove out to go though.
Take care now and I'll keep you up on what we are finding to do.  Enjoy your winter, we hear that it is arriving!

ARRIVING AT "OUR NEW" FLORIDA WINTER LOCATION - -

NOVEMBER 1ST, FRIDAY, Gary and I left Sumter Oaks RV Park in Bushnel, Florida, leaving the donkeys and the Cypress trees & knees behind to go south to our NEW winter location. Just two and a half hours to drive.

In March we were finally contacted by the FLORIDA SKP RESORT at Wauchula, Florida to accept the membership for our new lot.  This is an Escapee Co-op Resort.  

We had stayed in this park in January and February of 2019. We were #1 on the waiting list to get a permanent site and hoped that it would happen while we were here then.  But it did not happen until March when we were in Ocala.  The mail and phone worked just as well.

We did have a choice between two lots and because we had just left there in February, we were able to make that choice by phone. The lot that we did not choose, would have made us the first spectacle that you would see upon entering the park. Not knowing if there was a concrete pad available on that one, we made the choice of the smaller lot with more trees on both sides of us. The other lot only had one tree. And later we found out that the storage shed on that lot was not in good shape. 

After completing the paperwork and financial commitment, we knew where we would be going for our winter of 2018/2019.  Only a $125. per month association fee which maintains this beautiful park and provides water and sewer. Can't beat that!!

This resort has many activities and we can be as busy as we want to be!!  Gary will be teaching colored pencil classes every Monday and I will be doing scrapbooking at the same time in the Cllubhouse.  I am hoping to encourage a group to begin.

On the way south our weather was not looking too promising for our trip, but I guess that Florida often has these clouds that don't dump everywhere!  We had a shower on the way, but that was all and very brief and light.

Entrance off Rt 64

Our motor home is ready to back in!!

Gary is backing in to our new lot, which is just three lots in from the sign and highway.  I will direct him. The lot looks much smaller than it feels.  We really like it. We need our outdoor furniture sitting around. All in due time!

Storage shed open and ready to use.
There will be plenty that we can stop
carrying everywhere with us!!

Gary connecting electric, water and sewer.

The lots look much narrower than they really are.  Just remember, low maintenance!!

View looking across the back of our lot!
Orange grove on the right.

Orange grove behind us.  No touch!!
They are very green now., and of course,
not ours to use!

Sandy, good spot for your mum.
Thank you!!

I took those back two branches off the bush
because they are brushing against the shed wall.
Hopefully it will send out a couple new shoots  real soon
and more to the front of the bush.
My first plant purchase was the red flower in the left
of the picture. 

I have more plans for plants but need to find out who maintains the area under the palm trees. If it is me, yipee!!  Then I can get started!! I think that I will use more pots than just the ground!  I think that I can keep them healthier that way.  And I can stay away from spiders, scorpions and snakes that way!!!!!

We attended the New Hope Baptist Church just a mile up the road from the park.  Thus we were able to say "Hello" to a couple people who live in the same park with us. Lillian and her husband, George, live in the back corner of the park and Sue mid-way in the park.  Sue has appointed herself greeter with cookies!!  She brought us four huge cookies that she baked for that purpose and delivered them just as we got home from church, dinner at Nicholas' and a trip to the hardware.  They were delicious!!!

Nicholas Greek Restaurant in Wauchula

We rested a lot on Sunday because we had plans to be busy first thing on Monday with laundry and washing down the outside of the motor home.  After Gary washed off the roof of the motor home I left to do the laundry. He went on and washed the outside walls also.  Needless to say we were beat!!  No air in the laundry room at the back of the Clubhouse!! 

Tuesday, Gary went to Sebring to check up on making appointments for replacements of awnings soon.  He could see their condition well while he was on the roof.  The motor home does seem to nickel and dime us. Did I say nickle and dime?  Ha, ha!!

While Gary was gone, the first thing that I did was take a short walk and also take a couple more pictures.  When back in the motor home, I got busy downloading pictures to prepare for these last two Blogs.  I hope to keep up with blogs regularly from now on through the winter!!

Enjoy your winter!!  We will.

VISITING WITH BUSHNELL FLORIDA FRIENDS

While at Sumter Oaks RV Park in Bushnell, we attended First Baptist Church at Center Hill to hear our friend, Lee, preach the sermon on Sunday, October 27th.  Lee was one of our Sunday School teachers at Bushnell First Baptist from 2008 when we first stayed in Florida.  He has since been ordained and moves from church to church as needed ministering to many Floridians. 
Since our last stay in Bushnell, he and his wife, Karen have retired and also moved farther out of town.

 
 When they found out that our stay was only going to last a week, they invited us out to see their "new" home.  They sure made it new with all of the upgrading and changes that they made!! Lee and Karen, you sure have a lovely home as well as lovely grounds with enough acres to keep you busy!!  Lee rents out some of the land to a local farmer for the hay and he mows the rest for lawn.

Awesome bush, though don't know what it is.

Unusual bush, with branches wrapped with little berry clusters.

Love the Spanish Moss draped  Live Oaks!

Lee then took us on to his buildings that house all of his automobile and restoration projects.  I don't think that he realized that I would be as interested as Gary.

An old Weber wagon, but I don't remember the year.
He said that he moved it on a U-haul when he bought it.

Another project in progress and Gary checked out an
old Falcon with parts lying all around. 

Main finished project that they kept and moved.
It is Karen's 1966 Cutlass convertible
that she would not part with.

The home and landscaping is absolutely lovely!!  It's the first time in the eleven years that we have been on the road that I have wished that we were in a home again!!  But there is no way that we will ever take on that kind of work again.
After our grand tour, we decided to go out to a local mom and pop restaurant for seafood.  Many times before we have gone to Moe's next door to this seafood place, but did not know that Catfish Johnny's was by far more popular.

Karen, Lee, Gary and Audrey
Thank you Lee and Karen, Great choice!!

It was great to have a lovely visit and to catch up on our activities.  Lee did share with us about his four year battle with cancer before 2008. He said that the chemo was by far the worst!!  God sure is not through with him yet!! 
Stay tuned for the next Blog for November 1st.