ON THE ROAD - FLORIDA

On vacation in sunny, warm Florida from Dec 27 to Feb 4th.

We arrived in Kissimmee at the KOA campground on Dec 27th, Friday evening about 6pm - in the rain. Saturday it cleared up, sunny. Visited Celebration and had a nice walk around two lagoons and by some very big houses. I don't think I ever saw so many & such large homes in one development. Their garages are about as big as our house in Sun City. One house had huge rocks in the back yard that encircled a swimming pool with a water slide. In the town square we had coffee (caramel mocchiata) and crumb cake. The town was very pleasant all lit up in holiday lighting. At 6pm it started to snow, looked real pretty with the christmas lights, snow ended at 6:10. It snows there at 6, 7, & 8 pm till Dec 31. Isn't nature spectacular!

We got some nice neighbors from Canada, Quebec, next to us. Three generations in a motorhome, grandparents, daughter & son-in-law, and a 15 yr old granddaughter. Almost half of the campers here are from Canada.

On Sunday, we celebrated New Years eve not in Celebration, but at Pleasure Island, Disneyworld. On New Years day we went to see Arabian Nights, which is a dinner theater and horse show; it was only 4 miles from our campsite. Can't believe we stood so fearless below those wild Arabian stallions.

During the first week of the new year we went to see DisneyWorld-got 4 day park hopper tickets. Jan 2, 3 & 4 we had dinner at Epcot; Morocco, China & France. On the 5th, we had a light dinner at the Magic Kingdom. In all, we were able to visit Epcot, Magic Kingdom, MGM Studios and the Animal Kingdom. On Saturday, we returned to Celebration and rode our bikes around the town and its environs.

Sunday the 7th we left for Ft. De Soto State Park just south of St. Petersburg at the entrance to Tampa Bay. The campground at the park is absolutely marvelous; sites are separated by lush tropical greenery, many have beautiful views of the Gulf of Mexico. According to a sign, the park has the best beach in the US. The fort got its start from the Spanish-American war, St. Petersburg was the disembarkation point for troops going to Cuba; among whom were Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders and their horses and support. At the park, we met some neighbors of ours, Tom & Melanie, who had just traded in their motorhome for a nice 06 model with a fireplace! Our stays overlapped by about four days.



It was stone crab season while we were at Ft DeSoto State Park. They are an interesting type of food; the claw is taken off the crab and the crab return to the sea where it re-grows another one. The ultimate recycleable food. We ate them at Billy's which is just outside the state park in Terra Verde; they were absolutely delicious.
We visited LazyDays just outside Tampa and looked at a number of motorhomes. We liked the Tiffen Allegro Bus and the Winnebago Vectra. They both drove and handled well with the Cummings 400 HP engine. We also visited the Tampa RV show which happened to be on the last weekend we were at Ft DeSoto. There, we fell in love with the Alfa Gold which had a 42 inch 29 Ft. long slider. It was loaded with everything you could imagine: 4 TVs, washer/dryer, tile flooring, etc. But most of the items included we already had: grill, navigation system, lounge chairs, patio mats. So, after fighting off the devils of temptation, we decided to keep our Journey.

On Jan 21 we left for the Keys, a 340 mile trip to Fiesta Key KOA located at mile marker 70 on Long Key. Gorgeous views of the water and sunset. The temperatures changed dramatically. 80 degrees, warm, no need for the coats we had to use at Ft DeSoto in the mornings and evenings. From here we visited Key West, Crane Museum of Natural history and rode our bikes.













One of the nicest places we visited was the Theater of the Sea on Islamorada. We saw the dolphin, sea lion, and parrot shows. We got kissed by a sea lion and dolphin. An unforgettable experience.
Below, Lill is petting the Sea Lion Classey.

Of course, one of the most spectacular shows here in the Keys is the fabulous sunsets.

Here is the the sunset from Fiesta Key KOA where we spent a week.
On Islamorada, near MM84 we had an absolutely delicious dinner at the Island Grille. Located on the Atlantic Ocean side, it is full of local atmosphere, beautiful views of the water: I had a stone crab appetizer and the best snapper I ever had.

We left the Keys on Sunday, Jan 28 for Titusville to visit Cape Kennedy and the Space Center. On Monday and Tuesday we visited the Kennedy Space Center. We got the "Up Close & Personal" tour package which was $21 more than the $38 normal tour package. Tickets are good for a two day visit, provided the second one is within a week. The second day, however, one can only go on the normal tour. After taking both tours, I would recommend buying the normal tour package. While the premium tour takes you closer to the launch pad, the difference is marginal, you are not really that close. In addition, the premium tour let you out by the parking lot near the Vehicle Assembly Building. You do get a good look at the building from the outside, but you don't see anything on the inside. On the premium tour you got a separate guide, whereas with the normal tour you got a guide/bus driver; both were very knowledgeable. Both tours include the other sites at the visitors center, the best of which is the IMAX theater; the films there alone are worth the price of admission.

On Wed Jan 31 we left Titusville for Ft. Clinch State Park on Amelia Island, just north of Jacksonville. Early on Friday morning a series of tornados ravished central Florida, including The Villages and Lady Lake. Fortunately, they passed south of us, be we got blasted with wind and rain and managed to stay dry. Ft. Clinch State Park has two camping areas. One is on the Amelia river side, on the western side of the island. It's sites are among live oaks and present problems for tall RVs. Cycling under the live oaks was a real treat. Our campsite was on the ocean side where there are several palm trees but no overhanging limbs. While there, the weather turned cold, lows in the upper 30s, so we decided to leave a day earlier than planned, arriving in Sun City on Feb 3d at about 5:30 PM. Enjoyed the Colts victory Sunday over the Bears in the Superbowl.


Keep in touch.

GARDEN RAILROAD

As noted before, one of my hobbies is model railroading. I've been interested in this since childhood and still have some of my Lionel trains that are now at least 60 years old. It's only been recent since I started garden railroading (G-scale); being retired gave me the opportunity to actually set up a garden railroad outdoors. It began this past June when I got permission from our covenants committee to do some landscaping, including laying out tracks. In my retirement community, which consists of only adults 55 years or better, one needs permission for any external changes or additions. I laid out the track in a tri-oval pattern with a section cutting across the oval to provide an opportunity for a station and a town. Although I'm not modeling any particular place or era, my equipment and buildings are predominately from the early to mid-1900s. I have in mind Skagway, Alaska, but am not actually modeling it. Call it a notional Skagway RR model. So far, I've had the RR up about five months and aside from mole hills, leaves and grass clippings, I've had no real problems in keeping it operational. I'm using LGB track and it is working out well in terms of conductivity despite the very moist SE climate here. Todate, I've put together three buildings and have about four more to go.

Right now, it being Christmas, I've got one of those holographic lighted trains on the RR bed. I can see it from inside my house and at night with the reflection of the indoor Christmas tree on the slider, it looks particularly pretty and very seasonal.

I don't plan to expand my layout; traveling and other interests limit the time I want to devote to this activity. I mainly enjoy watching the train circle the layout and appreciate the beauty and artistry of the individual locomotives and cars. Model trains are really a thing of beauty and give me a tangible connection to my youth as much as do pictures.

I have my o-gauge Lionel trains setup inside, but that will be a subject for a later blog.

Notes from retirement

This is my first blog on notes from retirement. My inspiration came from the recent issue of Time Magazine's Person of the Year issue, the one with my picture on the cover.

With all the attention given to "successful" retirement my the many financial institutions, the various government and corporate sponsored reitrement plans, and articles in newspapers and magazines, I thought it would be of interest to those still working and saving for retirement to get a glimpse of what retirement is really like from one who has been retired for several years, i.e., a professional retiree. I hope my experiences and observations will both interest and benefit those whose path through life will eventually find its way to a rewarding retirement. I look on retirement not as an end point but as a time of immense opportunity to do things that seemed out of the question while we were working and raising a family. I like to think of it as a period of fresh air, open vistas, new experiences, but, unfortunately, depression, illness, loss of friends and family are also integral to retirement.

One obvious aspect of retirement is the opportunity for travel. Most of my life I poo-pooed the idea of getting a motorhome. They were for fat old men who took too long to get to where they were going. Well, guess what, a year ago I got one, 36 foot long, a challenge to drive. It is a plethera of systems and gadgets to learn, maintain and operate. But, it provides lots of material to write about as well as opportunities to see new places and meet new and interesting people. I don't intend this to be a blog about rving, but to tell about rving as part of retirement.