Peace River RV Resort, Wauchula FL 1/12/2013 - 1/26/2013



We had heard good and bad about the Peace River RV Park.  Only about one half of the sites have sewer hookups, so they have what they call the "lottery" for sewer sites.  When you come in, you park in the overflow section, which is really rather nice.  It is very grassy and nice sites--but no sewer.  Your name goes on a list and then at 12:00 noon every day, the open sites are posted.  At 1:00, everyone gathers and names are read off in the order they came into the park.  When your name is called, you get your pick of the sites that are still open, until all of the sites are filled.  If you don't like any of the sites left when your name is called that day, you can pass three days in a row, and then your name goes on the bottom of the list.



We thought it was a pretty good system!  It only took us one day to get a sewer site--the first time we have ever won the lottery!

This sign has a drawing of the mascot of the park.  This alligator's name is "Stumpy" because it was born with only three legs and a stump.  It must be a congenital defect because it's mother only had three legs, also.  He hangs out in Peace River, which almost surrounds the whole park. 

A local fruit and veggie vendor sets up just outside the park twice a week.  They were there the day we arrived so we got to stock up on yummy fresh food.

There are a lot of trees in this park and all are covered with "Spanish Moss."  Yes, we found out what this stuff on all of the trees around here is called.  No one could tell us if it is detrimental to the trees or not, but some of the limbs looked pretty dead to us.  But, maybe they looked that way because it is winter!  We tend to forget that it is actually winter here, too.

 The site we got wasn't as grassy as the overflow, but we had a cement pad and no really close neighbors.  The road was behind us and got pretty noisy during commuter time, but it didn't bother us any other time.  We had a good spot to watch all of the coming and goings, especially at 1:00 when all of the "lottery" winners found their new homes.  We got several new neighbors during our 2-week stay.  Terry is just getting on his bike for a ride.  We did a lot of walking and bike riding.

 

  There were three families in the park--two with 5 kids each and one with 4.  Two of the families had fathers who work from "home," and one family was just on an 8-month hiatis with their kids.  All of the families home schooled their kids, and they were all very good kids.   It was fun to watch all of them. I think their "race track" was in front of our site--bicycles, scooters, and peddle cars.

There is a trail that circles the whole park, following the river during part of it.  It seemed almost like we were riding in a rain forest.

One day we decided we would go alligator hunting.  We had seen lots of signs along the river so we hoped we would see one.

Sure enough, we spotted one across the river.  When he saw us, he flipped around and swam across right to us.  We backed up a ways until we were sure he wasn't going to climb up the bank.  He was probably about 7' long.

He ended up being "Stumpy."  We could see his back "stump" clearly through the water, but not in this picture.  I got a really good video picture of him, but I can't figure out how to put it on the Blog!  I am sure after we see many more of these guys, we will get used to it, but it is still a real novelty to us!

We got to do two craft sales at this park.  We get things ready the night before, so the Journey gets pretty piled up with Scentsy for a while.  We didn't sell too much, but met lots of great people!  It is amazing at the people we meet that we have been with in other parks--even parks in the West.  At Church on Sunday, we met the daughter of Rhea Carver, a really nice lady who lived in Emmett.  We also met a man whose wife was born and grew up in Nampa.  They were so anxious to talk more about Idaho that they invited us to go out to lunch with them the next week.  We had a great time.

Everyone in our last park said to be sure and go to the u-pick strawberry farm in Wauchula.  Well, we did--of course I forgot my camera.  The strawberries are delicious.  We have eight packages in the freezer, and that was after eating all we could that day.  It was hard to stop picking because there were so many nice ones.

 

We stayed in this park for two weeks and now will put the Journey in storage at the same park for a week while we go on a Caribbean cruise.  We are really excited to go to Cozmel, Jamaca, and the Cayman Islands. 

Sherwood Forest RV Resort, Kissimmee FL 1/3/2013 - 1/14/2013

 During peak season, there are certain parks that we can only stay in two weeks instead of three.  Orlando is one of them.  This year, they allowed Thousand Trail members to stay in an "overflow" Encore park, and let us stay there for up to two weeks--just on our membership at no charge!

 

 The "overflow" park this year was Sherwood Forest.  It is only about 15 miles from the Orlando park and was great.  It is only 4 miles from Disney World and just off the main road down through the city of Kissimmee.  The only bad thing was that we heard sirens around the clock.  But, after a while you get used to them and don't notice it.  We had a nice spot (no pics!) with an orange tree in our yard! We rode our bikes a lot in this park.  It is just one mile around the perimeter sites, with lots of roads in between because most of the sites were pull-throughs.  I set my bike odometer on 0 and by the time we left the park, we had ridden almost 30 miles!  That takes quite a while when you are only supposed to be riding 5 mph. 

 

 This park has a really nice miniature golf course.  We had fun playing, but Terry always won!  The farmers' market came to the park twice a week so we had lots of fresh veggies and fruits.  The bread lady came with really good bagels, too.  The warmer it gets, the more humid it is getting.  We stayed in the park a couple of extra days to participate in the "yard sale at your site" and put out our Scentsy.  Because of so much dew in the mornings, we put up the canopy the night before, with the tables under it, thinking it would keep them dry.  WRONG!  Everything was still really wet and the awning "rained" on us most of the morning!  Good day with Scentsy, though.  We sold four warmers, a Scentsy buddy, and some bars.  Time to order more stock!

 

 This is a real tourist area and there are gift shops on every block.  There must have been some in the same chain that had these really cool fronts on them.

 

 Here is one with a bunch of "jungle animals" on the front.

 

I didn't get a very good picture of this one because of the sign in the middle.  They all had a lot of Disney souveniers in them.  

 

 Our friends from the other park, Bob & Linda and Lance & Adrea, were leaving to go to another area so they invited us out to lunch with them before they all left.  Actually, Lance and Andrea invited us join the LEO Club and we were just having a meeting (that is the Let's Eat Out Club.)  I think I like this club!

 

 Yes, we did make it to Disney World!

 

 In Hershey PA we met Jim and Jo Ann at the craft fair while we were selling Scentsy.  They gave us a card and said when we were in the Orlando area to give them a call.  So, we did.   

 

 

 They both work at Disney World. They took us into Epcot on a guest pass and were our personal tour guides.  The World Showcase is in Epcot and is a mile-long tour around a lake where you walk through ten different countries:  Canada, where we saw a great movie about their land; United Kingdom, where we ate in a pub;  France, where we saw another great movie (I would love to got there); Morocco; Japan, where there were some Taiko drummers performing; America, where we listened to the a great a capella group sing some patriotic songs; Italy; Germany; China, where we went into a museum; and Mexico.  We had to hurry at the end to hit some other sites.

 

This is the Spirit of America Fife & Drum Corps in the American village.

 

 It was a little drizzly that day to some of us put on ponchos.  Jo Ann has bad feet so Jim got her a wheel chair half way around the "world."  It came in pretty handy--getting us into some of the events a little quicker!

 

 The Japanese Taiko drummers were playing.

 

These are the tomb warriors of the Qin Dynesty (221-210 BC).  The very first act of Qin Shi Huang (before he was emperor of China) was to make preparations for the afterlife by beginning construction of his tomb.  These tomb warriors were intended to be protectors of the emperor beyond the grave.  Over a period of 36 years, a vast underground city that included a massive palace and a life-size terra cotta army of over 7,000 troops, chariots, and horses were constructed.  This tomb has been dubbed "metropolis of the dead."  It was amazing!

 

 There were a few Disney characters running around.  We saw Chip 'n Dale several times.  We also saw Mary Poppins.

 

 You could get your picture taken with Minnie and Mickey, but the line was too long and I didn't think any of those little kids would let me crowd in!

 

It was so fun going to Disney World, especially having "special guides" who knew where to go and knew so many facts about Disney World.  We also went on Spaceship Earth, Ellen's Energy Adventure, had a Turtle Talk with Crush, went on a boat voyage through amazing greenhouses and a fish farm, and then went "Soarin" over California on a free-flying hang gliding adventure (one of our favorites."   We rode the monorail before we went home and got to see some really fancy hotels that are part of the Disney Travel Club--the Polynesian and the Grand Floridian. 

 

Later on in the week we went to lunch with Jim and Jo Ann and they drove us around the town of Celebration.  It is a town that was built by Walt Disney and then turned over as an incorporated city later on.  It has beautiful homes, townhouses, and apartments, besides a really nice downtown and square.   Another evening we went with them to Disney Town where there are a lot of theme restaurants and shops--legoland, dinosaurs, rain forest, etc.--and then went to the Riverside Hotel and watched a piano-comedian show.  It was really good.  He even got Jo Ann and I up front to do the can-can!  Thanks so much to Jim and Jo Ann and all of the fun.  We hope to see them again some time.

Orlando RV Park, Clermont GA 12/20/2012 - 1/3/2013

Yeah!! We are in Florida. After being on the road for two days and spending the night in a Walmart parking lot in Lake City FL, we are in our first Florida park and the temperature was 82 degrees at 11:30 in the morning--finally! I don't know why we are so excited to get to Florida, but we are. Now, for our first alligator sighting!

 We got the little Journey all re-decorated for Christmas and decided we would go out and buy us a Christmas  tree.  But, Terry said we had to donate it to the park after Christmas because we have no room to store it!

 

 I had been busy making beaded ornaments.  We met up with the people, Lance & Andrea and Dave & Pat, who we got to know in North Carolina, and with another couple, Bob & Linda.  At one of our domino playing evenings, I gave each of them a Christmas card with a beaded ornament attached.  These were left over to put on our tree. 

 

We got a little 18" tree (that I am sure I can find room to store after Christmas.)  It just fit on our dash and was handy for Santa to sneak gifts under. 

 

 We spent Christmas Eve with Bob & Linda and Lance & Andrea.  It was actually a little cool--as you can tell by Lance and his "blankie."  We had a nice time and lots of good food.  Thanks to them for having us--it helped to not miss our family so much.

 

 Well, it looks like we made a haul!  We had put each of the kids' family picture on a blanket for them as a gift.  I sneaked and put the pic of Terry and Mel Tillis on one for Terry.  It ended up being a picture "bigger than life," but he seemed tickled with it.  Thanks to everyone for their cards and gifts.

 

 We had to show off the beautiful Christmas weather we had as we ate Christmas dinner outside in Florida!

 

Later, on Christmas day, we saw a plane writing a message in the sky.  We couldn't figure out why he was writing it backwards.  We thought he was writing a message as a proposal or something.

 

 When he finished, the message said "I LOVE U BABY JESUS."  Then we understood why it was upside down--so it could be read from Heaven!

 

 The Orlando RV Park is on a large lake, but it is at the far side of the park.  There are over 850 sites in this park--the largest one we have stayed in.  We rode our bikes to the lake several times, looking for alligators!  At night, you can see the Disney World fireworks from here.  They start going off at different times on different nights, from about 8:00 to 10:00.  We never came down to see them, but we could sure hear them each night.

 

 This sign made us hopeful that we would see an alligator, but we never did.  They had row boats that were for members use, but I couldn't talk Terry into taking one out to hunt for alligators.  I think he was afraid I would get excited if we saw one and tip the boat over!

 

 It looks like alligator country, don't you think?  We hadn't been in Florida too long and we saw this "mossy stuff" hanging on a lot of the trees.

 

 When you get up close, it is sort of a vine that grows on the trees.  It seems to grow on all of them, no matter what kind.  We are going to have to ask someone about it. 

 

 The Orlando Temple is only about 40 miles from our park, so we went there one day.  It is a beautiful temple. 

 

 We drove through a community with this unique water tower. 

 

 One morning we heard the "whoosh--whoosh" noise of hot air balloons.  Sure enough, we saw five go over the park.  I definitely want to go on a ride on one someday.  I doubt that I can get Terry to go with me, but I will just have to go without him.

 

These sand cranes are all over the park.  Sometimes they will even come eat out of your hand.  I couldn't coax one too close.  He probably knew I didn't have anything for him to eat.

  

 We saw this vulture sitting in a dead tree, looking for food.  Another day when we were at Bob & Linda's (they backed up to the trees and lake), we saw a little bobcat stalking a squirrel.  Of course, I didn't have my camera that day.

 

 There are lots of these little "cages" all over the park.  They protect turtle nests.

 

We saw several of these turtles.  We were told that there was one in the park that was about three times as big as this one.  They live right in the middle of all of the RV sites and just roam around when there is a warm day.

 

 The Kennedy Space Center is on the coastal side of Orlando, on Merritt Island, and about 60 miles from our park.  We decided to spend the $100 ($50) each to go see it.  On line, because the Center is 50 years old this year, they were offering a family pass of 4 tickets for $100.  So, I bought the four tickets and took the two extra ones up to the people standing in line to buy tickets at the Center.  They were very glad to buy my two $25 tickets--a savings for all of us!

 The John F. Kennedy Space Center is the United States launch site that has been used for every NASA human space flight since 1968. Although such flights are currently on hiatus, it continues to manage and operate unmanned rocket launch facilities for the US government's civilian space program from three pads at the adjoining Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.  We went on a bus tour and then came back and went through some of the exhibits and watched some programs.  We watched a 3-D movie of real-time astronauts in flight.  It was awesome!  I rode on a flight simulation ride that was really cool--Terry pooped out on that one.  It was great!

On the tour we saw the Vehicle Assembly Building. It is the fourth-largest structure in the world by volume.  It is where all of the rockets, missiles and shuttles are built.  We went around it and got to see through an open door, where they were working on a transporter that carries the shuttles and missiles out to the towers.

 

 This is one of the three launcher platforms.  We drove up close to it--it is huge!

 

 This is just a "picture of a picture" of a shuttle with its missiles, being transported out to one of the launch platforms.  The transporter goes 1 mph, so it takes 9 hours for it to reach the one 9 miles away. 

 

This is the road the transporters travel.  It is as wide as an 8-lane highway.  You can see the open door in the Vehicle Assembly Building in the background, where they are working on one of the transporters.

 

In one of the buildings there was a small model of one of the shuttles all set up on the launching platform.

 

 There is a special exhibit on the tour that is dedicated to the moon landings, starting in 1968.

 

 President John F. Kennedy was a strong advocate of putting man on the moon.

 

  The picture is kind of dark--they wouldn't let us use flash photography.  This control center is the actual one used when man landed on the moon.  They showed a movie of the live coverage of the blast-off, the moon landing, splashdown and recovery.

 This is the actual  Apollo 13 module that didn't make it to the moon, but made it back safely to earth.  They call it the "successful failure."

 

 There was a life-size model of a rocket displayed.  It was huge!  The whole thing is filled with fuel, except just the tip where the astronauts sit, which breaks away from the big part when the fuel is all burnt.

 

 There were displays of several space suits--including the ones they had used in walking on the moon.

 

 I think this is the lunar landing machine.

 

 I am actually touching a rock from the moon!  What a day!

 

 Before we left the Orlando RV Park, I told Terry I wanted to go u-pick some oranges.  So, one of the last days, we did.  The orchard had a little pond and had this sign for a joke!

 

 RIGHT!  We got to see our first alligator in the wild!  He looks pretty ferocious.  But, I guess alligators are usually more afraid of you than you are of them.  What you don't want to get too close to is a crocodile!

 

 We did find some oranges--a little high in the tree.  They had been pretty picked over.

 

 But, we did get our sack full--with the help of the trusty orange-picker!  They didn't taste as good as I thought they would.  Arizona oranges are much tastier than Florida oranges.  We were told that most Florida oranges are juice oranges.

 

 Well, another great year has passed.  We stayed up until midnight, had our "toast," and then called each of the kids and wished them a happy new year--Florida time!  Happy New Year to everyone!!!