Winter TREK Rally at Lazydays

We departed Blue Spring State Park about 1:00PM after leisurely packing and long good byes to our friends. We would see our TREK friends again in a few hours, but would not see Wayne and Lynda again until April, when we will do a paddling trip with them in the Missouri Ozarks. We arrived at Lazydays RV Campground (formerly Rally Park) near Tampa a few hours later. We checked in and were quickly parked and settled. We took Matilda to the Mango Dog Park for a romp, then walked over to the Crown Club for happy hour. Life remains good.

This park is a familiar and comfortable home to us. It is clean, pet friendly, has full hookups, includes cable and wi-fi, and they bring you the local newspaper each morning. One can also eat breakfast and lunch at the Cafe (if one is not fortunate enough to belong to the Crown Club). It is close to a good dog park, the Hillsborough River and Busch Gardens. It is adjacent to Lazydays RV Center, the largest single-site RV dealership in the universe, where all the RVs are unlocked and you can browse all day long without ever seeing a salesman. It is here three years ago that we bought our Country Coach and were introduced to the Crown Club. When we bought our coach they gave us 20 coupons for free nights at this park. We still have eight coupons left, so we will certainly be back, at least for eight more nights.

On Thursday the winter rally of the South East TREK Fun Club kicked off. We learned that almost 50 coaches were in attendance. Most attendees still own their TREKs, but a few, like us have traded to SOBs (some other brand). The TREK club is pretty liberal in their policy to let former TREK owners stay in the club even when they now have another coach or even no coach at all. Some clubs will kick you out when you change brands. The Fleetwood MotorHome Association was also having a rally at the park. They had over 200 coaches attending their rally, and the TREK club got stepped on a bit regarding the use of the rally facilities. We were shoved into various corners and did not have full use of the facilities for which we had paid. Our folks were not happy with the situation, and if we come back to this venue next year, I hope we can get assurances that this problem will not occur again. There are just too many good rally venues to put up with this abuse. I was careful not to be too vocal with my criticism lest I be called upon to plan and host the next rally!

We saw many old friends and made a few new friends. It ended all too quickly. But now we are off to the Florida Keys!!!

A TREK Mini-rally at Blue Spring State Park

Blue Spring State Park is one of our favorite Florida state parks. It has a beautiful deep spring and a 1/2 mile spring run that empties into the St. Johns River. Manatees are numerous here in the winter. The spring run is closed to paddling, but you can paddle in the mouth of the run, just before it converges with the St. John's. We usually see more manatees in this area than we do on up towards the head of the spring.

So, we were excited and quickly accepted when Clair invited us to join her in Blue Spring State Park for a Safari TREK mini-pre-rally. Clair recently moved to Orange City, about 5 miles from Blue Spring State Park and invited us and a few other TREK club members to spend a few nights here before going on to Tampa to attend the Southeast TREK Fun Club Winter Rally. We were also excited to learn that Wayne and Lynda, paddling friends from home would also join us here at the park.

This area has many good paddling opportunities. The St. John's River has numerous cuts, canals and "dead" rivers in the vicinity. The river flow is negligible so you can paddle about anywhere you want and return directly to the park. On Monday I planned a trip to head north on the St. Johns River, west around Hontoon Island State Park and return to the St. Johns on the Hontoon Dead River. We did this ten-mile trip two years ago, and it was very enjoyable. TREKers Harry and John declined to paddle, because it was a little chilly, but Wayne and Lynda are always game. Today's paddle was also very nice. It is usually pretty windy here, but not today. It was sunny and clear and pleasantly warm. We saw lots of all the usual birds and many alligators. As we entered Hontoon Dead River, the river became narrow and winding. Eventually the river became clogged with water hyacinth, which made the paddling pretty difficult. These stretches would sometimes go on for several hundred yards and extend out of sight and around the bend, leading us to question our sanity. Why did we follow this crazy trip leader??? Eventually, however, we made it back out onto the St. Johns and back to Blue Spring. Everything was fine again, and everyone agreed it was a grand paddle.

On Tuesday Harry and John joined us. We paddled south on the St. Johns and explored several bays and some old channels that cut across to the old St. Johns channel. We had none of the vegetation problems we had encountered the day before. Alligators were seen by all. That evening Clair invited us to her home and treated us to a wonderful dinner in the dining room at her retirement village.

On Wednesday we will head back to Tampa and Lazydays for the SETFC Winter Rally. Oh yeah, and to the Crown Club!

Give a Day. Get a Disney Day.

Last year we realized too late that Disney gave people free entry into their parks on their birthday. Since Myron's birthday is Jan 7, I wanted to see what we needed to do to benefit this year. I began my research in December and found the birthday program had been discontinued and replaced by a volunteer program. Beginning January 1, 2010 folks can sign up and complete a selected volunteer opportunity and receive a voucher for a one day one Disney Park ticket. The quest began. Everywhere we stayed I put in the zip code and reviewed the opportunities for that area. Many jobs have been filled and some seemed too hard. I finally found "my calling". It was entitled "Golden Girls Cut-Ups" and the description was "Adult volunteers will be cutting fabric and cardstock...for the children's book project...BYOSS - Bring Your Own Sharp Scissors..." The scheduled time was 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. I could do this.

Upon signing up I was given the option to sign up additional family members or friends. I told Myron about it and asked if he was "game". Why not? It's easy and only takes two hours. We're going to Disney!! On volunteer day, we set off for Travares, about 45 minutes away, with our OSS. Myron thought he might be the only guy there, but other fellows were there with their wives. We cut lots of fabric into book cover pieces, and then I switched to the ironing process. Myron later came over to help me with the folding and pressing which made the task go faster. It was a fun experience.

Lake County children will be creating their own books by writing a story, using our handiwork for the covers, then sharing their stories by reading them to other children. They are preparing for about 1200 books. A wonderful project for the children and the adults who get to go to Disney. Go on-line if you want a free ticket to Disney and check out the volunteer opportunities in your area. There will only be one million free tickets, so hurry while supplies last!

Busch Gardens

Dorcas and I really do enjoy Busch Gardens. We don't do the rides so much, but like to see the animals and the shows. In the past several years we have bought a 7-day pass and gone 3-4 times during the week. Today we got in on a rain check from last year. It's just not the same, however, since they stopped giving away complimentary beer and closed the Hospitality House. Folks may remember that InBev, a Belgium brewer, acquired Anheuser-Busch several years ago. InBev has a policy of not giving the product away and quit giving away free beer in Busch Gardens in February last year. We really miss grabbing a cool one every time we passed the SE corner of the park. They have also taken down many of the references and trademark art to Anheuser-Busch throughout the park and closed the A-B souvenir shop. I have also heard that InBev would like to sell all the entertainment holdings of Anheuser-Busch, including Busch Gardens and Sea World. Since we couldn't get free beer at Busch Gardens, we left the park about an hour before closing so we could catch the happy hour at the Crown Club.

Pups at Play at Thousand Trails Orlando

We're at Thousand Trails Orlando for about nine days and have been enjoying the familiar feel of the place. Here we see friends we've met who, like us, return to TTO every year. It's only an hour from Lazydays and the Crown Club, so we can pop down there once in a while for an omelet breakfast and happy hour. The biggest change for us this year is not seeing our friends Audrey and Dave who have returned to the world of working (what's up with that??) and Pat and John who are enjoying the warmth of Arizona. We are parked near Jim and Janice, TREK club friends from NC. Ironically, Jim and Janice now own an SOB (some other brand), as do we, but still are welcome at TREK events.

The weather continues to warm and is now much like we expect it to be in central Florida. Myron hooked up the satellite dish and the DIRECTV receiver. We can now receive over 500 channels, however, the majority of them are either junk or pay-per-view. Unfortunately, due to DIRECTV policy and silly FCC rules, we cannot receive any of the major networks, such as NBC, ABC, etc. This means we cannot receive Jeopardy or NCIS, our favorites, over the dish. Where we are now we have good over-the-air reception , so it's not a problem, but when we are parked in the boonies, we will be limited to syndicated reruns, old movies, news channels and a number of special interest channels. Better than nothing, but we sure will miss Alex, Jethro and Abby.

Matilda has been playing with old friends and has made new friends. Tipper, the Poodle/Border Collie (a poo-der?) and her family are parked on our "street" so they've been having a blast playing and running. We also have short plays with Sunshine who is a 9 year old male Australian Shepherd. Their play has to be brief since Sunshine gets really tired and sore after "Matilda time." Matilda's newest friend is Maija an 11 month old English Shepherd. She is taller and longer than Matilda with a big tail and about 11 pounds heavier. If you didn't know different, you would think Maija was as Aussie. Check out the video of them playing.

They run and tussle like Matilda and her NC Aussie friends. Oh, yeah, Maija is a digger too.

Matilda isn't the only one getting her exercise... Myron's playing pickleball again (Pat and John, we miss you!) and I've been joining a 3 mile walking fit class.

RV Supershow in Tampa

The Florida RV Supershow in Tampa is one of the largest such shows in the country, with about 1000 dealer coaches and hundreds of vendors selling all sorts of what-nots and and gizmos. We have attended the show for several years in a row. This year we decided to spend two nights on-site at the Florida State Fairgrounds, giving us two full days to shop and see what's new in RVing. One thing we are considering buying is a satellite dish; another is a sleep number bed or mattress topper. Also, many resorts have booths and give away vouchers for free camping; we're always looking to score free camping at luxury motor coach resorts.

The weather has warmed a bit, so it is nice walking around the fair grounds and enjoying the festive atmosphere. Near where we are parked is an open grassy area where we can play ball with Matilda. On the first afternoon, we met a couple with a senior blue merle Sheltie and a year old Sheltie who loved playing with Matilda. Any time Matilda finds a playmate it's a good camping spot. We are also parked near some full-timer TREK friends Pete and Jennie. These folks do very interesting volunteer work. They work with the Lipizzaner Stallions near Myakka City FL during the winter and with the elk in Cataloochee valley during the summer.

After comparing all the satellite dishes at the show we decided on portable Winegard model from Camping World that was on sale. We decided not to make the investment in a roof-top dome until we decide if we really enjoy DIRECTV and if we ever want to get HD. We didn't have any luck with mattresses or toppers. While visiting an RV with a huge TV in an outside bay, we saw the Hearthside Grove RV Resort's promotional video playing, featuring none other than the great adventurers Myron and Dorcas. As you may recall from an earlier post, the video was filmed while we were visiting that resort in Michigan last summer. This was our first opportunity to see the finished product. Unfortunately, there was no one near us at the moment to show it to and point out that we were celebrities. We were able to obtain our own copy of the DVD when we visited the Hearthside Grove booth later. Autographs anyone?

Next, we're off to Thousand Trails Orlando.

Photo of the Week

We saw this truck on a frosty morning while driving near Brooksville FL. I don't think it's a vanity plate, but a real, standard issue plate. Most states' DMVs delete certain profane, rude, fowl or otherwise inappropriate words from the word combinations used on their license plates. I guess this one made it through the DMV's censors. In any case it certainly describes our trip to Florida so far this year

Frosty on the Withlacoochee

It's been a cold week here along the Withlacoochee River near Brooksville, but still warmer than back home. We've joined our friends Bob and Donna from NC, who are January fixtures at this park. In past years we've spent about a week canoeing the streams and rivers in the area. This time it has been so cold, no one really wanted to paddle. The campground is also located on the Withlacoochee State Trail, an excellent biking venue, but it was difficult getting motivated to pedal either. We finally got a beautiful, "warm" day to paddle the Weeki Wachee river. Due to the cold weather, the manatees were in the springs, and we played a bit with them. That day also happened to be Myron's birthday, so we enjoyed a nice early dinner at Carrabba's after the paddle. Florida, paddling, Italian food, and birthday. Cool!

Monday is flea market day in Webster, so off we went to find bargains galore with Donna and Bob as our expert guides. Bob does trail maintenance while staying here so we enjoy walking the trails with him. Matilda loves running un-tethered through the woods and hiking with us. I think she really enjoys the cold. We're really glad we brought our down comforter with us, it's keeping us warm and cozy at night. The temperatures are predicted to rise when we depart for Tampa and the RV show tomorrow.

Waking at Wally World

Definition of an RVer: One who owns a $300,000 motor coach, towing a $50,000 car, looking for a free place to camp.

When we are trying to make some serious miles, we will sometimes spend the night in the parking lot at a local Walmart. We prefer Walmarts over truck stops and rest areas, because they are generally quieter and are usually fairly safe and secure. We can also score some necessary supplies. Apparently we are not alone in our inclination for this practice. Click here to view an entertaining video relating to Wally World camping.

Fleeing to Frigid Florida

In years past we have departed for Florida sometime before Christmas. This year it just didn't work out that way. We spent the week between Christmas and New Year's in Morganton working on affairs related to Mom's estate and starting to get some things cleared out at her house. We finally buttoned up the house on Thursday, New Years Eve, and returned to Winston-Salem. Dorcas' family had a family reunion scheduled for Sunday. In the past several years we have missed the reunion because we were in Florida. This year we decided to stay and attend. We would depart for Florida on Sunday afternoon after the reunion.

We spent Friday and Saturday packing the motor home, or at least we tried to. The southeast is experiencing a record cold spell. It was very difficult to tear ourselves away from the comfort of the wood stove in the living room and spend any time in the motor home when the daily high temperatures never got out of the 20s. There were also several outside projects on my list, but that was out of the question.

We finally finished packing and pulled out about 5:00 PM and headed south. We enjoyed watching the coach's outside thermometer. We were going south so it should be warming, but it was getting later in the day and hence colder. In the end, it held steady at about 28 degrees. We spent our first night in a rest area on I-26 near Orangeburg, SC. The temperature dropped to about 20 degrees, but we slept warmly. Thankfully Dorcas decided to pack the down comforter just before we left home. That's a first for our annual Florida trip.

We would be spending our second night at my cousin's house near Middleburg Florida, which was only 5 hours away. Cousin Laura works, so we didn't want to get there too early. We needed a diversion to kill some time! We had passed the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum near Savannah many times, clearly visible from I-95, but had never stopped. Today we had time, so we made the stop. We spent almost three hours there, but we could have spent much more time. The Mighty 8th Air Force is best known for its B-17 fleet and its daytime bombing raids in Europe during WWII. At its peak it could scramble more than 2000 B-17s and 1000 support fighters on a single mission. The airmen on the B-17s were tough. The planes were unheated and uninsulated and temperatures sometimes got down to -30 degrees. Suddenly I didn't feel so cold any more. The centerpiece of the museum is the ongoing restoration of the B-17 "City of Savannah". We departed the museum and continued south on I-95. Suddenly a car pulled up next to us blowing the horn, and the people inside were frantically waving their hands. I assumed the worst and figured the canoe or a bike had flown off the top of the car, and we were dragging it down the highway. Or perhaps we had lost the car altogether, and it was fixing to pass us on the shoulder. I was about to slam on the brakes when the phone rang and our hiking buddies Bob and Laura from NC said they had just passed us on their way to Florida. (For those that don't already know better, never, ever, ever, never pull up beside a motor home towing a car with various toys on top, blowing the horn and waving frantically.) We stopped and talked to Bob and Laura for a bit at the Florida Welcome Center, where we enjoyed some fresh orange and grapefruit juice, and picked up a few brochures. We finally arrived at Cousin Laura's house, where we parked overnight in their yard. We had a nice visit and enjoyed a dinner of pizza and beer. Overnight temperatures were again near 20 degrees. Welcome to Florida! We departed Middleburg early and headed to a campground near Brooksville FL, where we would meet friends from NC.