Ok the shock and surprise of yesterday has passed, what I was thinking would be a quiet week (then the Air Force fighters flew over shortly after seven o’clock), with full hookups and good cellular service, I now think it will be a very busy week. With lots of things going on. This Thursday is Thanksgiving Day here in the United States of American, this is the week. I’m hoping to purchase our lithium batteries, we would like to get in at least one round of golf, pickle ball is planned for ten o’clock this morning, see what I said busy, busy, busy…just saying.

Well we survived pickle ball, no injuries, not saying there won’t be some pain tomorrow, but nothing that will leave a mark. So it’s early in the snowbird season, lots of people don’t come to the resort till after Christmas so the courts were not too busy, one of the pickle ball Ambassadors said there are over 500 registered players and 16 courts, people that are here for more than a week pay dues to keep the courts up, purchase balls and such. The resort has well over 1000 sites and with that many players that is a pretty good percentage of players.

Our afternoon was spent touring the facilities here at the resort, pretty much anything you think of is available to do here, 18 hole golf course, pickle ball, tennis, lawn bowling, horse shoes, pool, hot tub, banquet hall, billiards room, card room, stained glass, sewing, wood working shop…you kind of get the idea, you can be a busy as you want or just take time to do your own thing. There are fruit trees through out the park, this month is lemons, next month oranges, followed by grapefruit, just pick all you want, some people have pick them and just put them out in boxes so you just take what you need. This was followed by a couple of cocktails and some more catch up time.

The decision was made for the six of us to out for Mexican, while there are lots of restaurants to choose from I always like to pick a locally owned business and I think we picked a winner, warm and friendly staff, Miss Laurie spoke highly of the $1.99 margaritas, the food was flavourful and good sized portions, I know I had a doggy bag. The restaurant was located just 8 minutes away and while busy the service was quick, and again the food was fresh and tasty.

The night went downhill we we got back to discover that we blow a water line and had partial flooded out the coach, the water line in the water closet had an elbow give away, dumping a 1/2” steam of water into the coach. It was not a difficult repair, I was able to find a repair elbow at the local Home Depot just a few miles away, and the repair was less than 5 minutes. We are thankful that some one passing by seen the water and shut off the water supply, just makes you wonder why a plastic elbow would just break with no outside influence, but that’s just what happens sometimes. Go figure.

Day 782

Well woke up this morning at the Pilot truck stop where we parked yesterday, so I’m thinking that’s a good thing…as with any truck stop it was not a quiet night but it was not as bad as I had expected. We have not stopped at a lot of truck stops this trip we have chosen quieter options like Cracker Barrel restaurants or Cabelas the outdoor store chain although the big trucks are finding their way to those spots as well. A lot of the Walmart’s are about the same as truck stops anymore, just not as well organized. With truck drivers being tracked on electronic trip logs, they do not have the ability to cheat an hour or so here and there. They are mandated to stop after so many hours on the road and must be shut down for by a set time and must be off the road for a set time period, add to that situation the fact a lot of States are closing their rest areas, truck stops are getting busier, and I hate to take a spot that a professional driver may need.

Yesterday for us was an odd day, I came down with a migraine shortly after getting on the road, I don’t get them as often as I used to, and while they do not cause me pain any more, they do effect my vision, as if I have a smudge on my glasses, I just get this blurry spot in my vision that while not severe, make driving a little difficult. A couple of Advil and twenty minutes later, and all is good, but it just put us behind enough yesterday that we decided not to get the coach washed till the next day or we would have most likely tucked into a Cracker Barrel just up the road, with most Cracker Barrels we have to unhook as the RV spots were designed more for busses than RVs so they are about 40 to 45’ in length, which keeps most of the big highway trucks out. The other advantage to a Cracker Barrel is a good feed of biscuits and gravy for breakfast the next morning…

Thunder’s spa day went well, got a good wash, got the rims cleaned, all hand dried, and some tire dressing…so looking almost new…lol. And although the truck wash was busy this morning we still made it to the resort just after check in time. Miss Laurie had went ahead and got us registered and when I pulled in a park guide led me into our site, it’s a big park with well over a thousand sites, so a big enough park that you don’t want people with forty foot coaches just driving around looking for a site on there own. Our site backs onto an open area that will be developed into more sites in the near future, we are tucked into a site with a park model on our left and a big fifth wheel out of Tennessee on our right, in fact the guy from Tennessee come over almost immediately to ask me to keep the noise down…that’s when I recognized him as we had spent some time in Florida with him last winter, yes it was Ray and Karen with Trapper their puppy.

This came as a surprise to me as I knew nothing about this little get together, no – no this was all Miss Laurie’s doing, apparently this was planned some time ago. So as I continue to get hooked up, I hear another motor home coming in, I didn’t get a chance to look up to see which site they we going into until as I’m at the back of the coach turning on the water supply I see it is backing in on the other side of Ray and Karen, and then I see it is Bob and Shari! Now we have not seen Bob and Shari since early April when we left Florida, so they were even a surprise to Ray as he didn’t know they we going to be here, apparently this whole little get together was planned by the ladies and it should make for a great week, Miss Karen prepared a great dinner for the whole crew and we had a great afternoon catching up…I think it’s going to be a busy week…just saying.

Day 781