A New Winter Nest

Yesterday Gary and I jumped into Mesa and drove over to the Orlando area to look for our winter nest. The first campground was not great, although the price was good. It was out in the middle of nowhere, and charged electric on top of the price - a pretty normal practice for long term residents. The next one was near a golf course (Gary smiled) and was green and lots of water. The Office Manager, Karen, gave us a map and said to drive around noting any sites that were empty that we liked. Some of them were probably reserved, but maybe not for six months (which is what we wanted). Off we went, marking the ones we considered appropriate. We tend to like a site that is not squished between two others, so the end sites were especially attractive. When we got back, we showed Karen which one we liked best and she said "I KNEW you'd like that one best. Unfortunately, that one is reserved, and has been reserved for the last 10 years, by a couple of snowbirds, but not until January. However, we just heard that he is very, very ill, and they may not come at all next year. Let me talk to the Manager." Ten minutes later, we got it! I guess they really thought these two wouldn't be down at all. We felt bad, but she said if they get down, they will save another good site for them. Yippee. It's a corner lot, we have about 25 feet of 'yard' under oaks and palms, look out onto the lagoon, a fire pit and all for a great price (including electric!). We took a ride out there on her golf cart, and the entertainment manager, Terry, met us at the site, so we introduced ourselves to him and his son who works in maintenance. His wife, Sheri works in the office. They seem very nice, so we will enjoy having them as neighbors. No kayaking in the many lagoons, however - crocs.

We headed out after thanking them for their time spent with us, and then drove a couple of miles to Disney's Fort Wilderness campground to check out their sites and the possibility of getting a discount if we - I mean WHEN we - get jobs there. A forty to sixty percent discount, but it's a really expensive campground, so would probably not be able to afford to stay there for six months. However, we shall see.

Today, we went grocery shopping at our local Walmart, but when we came out we noticed our tire cover that says "Life is Good" was missing. Could it have fallen off? We retraced our drive there, but we kinda knew that it had been taken. Bummer. After we put the groceries away, Gary went back to see the manager. She said that we would have to call the police to file a report, but it was worth about $45. and so the police would say forget it. Double bummer. I loved that cover - it said all that is true as far as we see it. Oh, well. We can't afford a new one now, so our ugly spare tire will just have show for a while.

Then Gary decided to try to catch something at our creek while I hit the pool for some more exercise. He caught three fish until he had an equipment malfunction - a major line backlash - whatever that is. He let the fish go, as we are having our Grandson, Lance, stay with us on Saturday night and plan to take him fishing at the creek and maybe the Sunshine Bridge pier. We may need an alternate plan as it might rain.

Well, we can't do a thing about that, but we will have fun for sure! That's the name of the game!

A parting shot of the sunset from our coach. Almost as good as the beach, no?