ST. AUGUSTINE AND A LONG VISIT WITH FAMILY

 We arrived in St., Augustine on Saturday, Memorial Day Weekend. This trip, we booked the entire 9-night stay at Sun Outdoors RV Resort in site 125. We have stayed here several times before and always enjoyed staying here. It is a big campground that used to be called Compass RV Resort, but Jess, the owner sold out to a corporation. It is still very nice, but Jess and his wife made it feel like you were staying with friends.

The site we chose to book was site 125, which is way back in the corner of the new Oasis section. It has a generous area with nice pavers and with a natural area of bushes and trees that block views of the neighbors. When we arrived there, the campground was totally full for the holiday, but at least half the campground left on Monday. The kitties really enjoyed this space and we did too.

Finnegan actually enjoyed sitting out in his bag and Bentley loved sitting out in his stroller and harness with the top up. He never even tried to jump out. He loved scanning the bushes for wildlife.

The weather was perfect. It was in the 70's, with NO RAIN. We couldn't ask for anything better. We had a late lunch on Saturday and so did Ryan and family, so we went over to their house for ice cream and cake instead of dinner.

On Sunday, we all went to the Fountain of Youth. We had been there about 40 years ago when Ryan was about 5, but we didn't remember much. It was a big tourist attraction, but a lot of good history also.

I just couldn't get over how tall Emma (10) and Trevor (9) were. 

The F o Y has peacocks everywhere. They squawk very loud back and forth, & climb the trees, even with their very long tail feathers.

And of course, we all had to get a drink from the F o Y, although none of us got any younger and the water taste a bit nasty. It's obviously not filtered water.

The grounds there were very nice, and they had lots of historical sites & educational info.

These clay pots (Tinajones) were used to catch rainwater. They would bury them halfway underground to keep the water cool and they weighed about half a ton.

This albino peacock was really proud to show us all his white feathers.

They had a really nice B B Que place at F o  Y and we had a late lunch there. The food was really good. I brought Emma a sunhat and Trevor a bucket hat. The inside of Trevor's had beetles, & bugs.

This was the mission church, even though it looked like an old barn.

RELAXING IN SANFORD, FL

 We are spending 3 nights in Sanford, Fl on the way to St Augustine. The campground we are staying in is Twelve Oaks RV Resort. It had very nice reviews, but it is not a resort by any means. It is a 55+ community in a very quiet area. I rarely see any of the people that live here either full time or 6 months  of the year. The ones I have seen are very friendly and the campground feels like home and is very shaded by beautiful oak trees.

The day we drove here was beautiful and sunny, at least until we pulled into the driveway of the campground. IT POURED BUCKETS!!!!!!! Since we had a back in site, David got out and unhooked the car in the pouring rain while I went into the office about 20 feet away to pay. By the time I got there, I was soaked to the bone. The lady that checked us in was very nice and said the maintenance man would show us where to park. They were all so nice. It was raining so hard I couldn't even see out of the car windshield to follow to the site and had to roll down the window to see where to drive. The 2 men helping us were soaked to the bone too. We parked in the site and waited for the rain to stop before we hooked up the electric, water and sewer. We thought we would never dry off. 

The stay was very pleasant. The next day we rode over to Mt Dora. We hadn't been there since we lived in Orlando in the 80s and the whole area has changed a lot. New housing developments were everywhere. Even downtown was updated and nothing looked like it used to. There used to be a great yarn shop with tons of yarn. Yarn was literally everywhere, piled high. The owner knew where everything was. All you had to do was tell her what you wanted and she would go right to it and pull it out of the pile. Well, that shop was gone and so was the one they had listed as being there. There were lots of good sounding restaurants there. The town was very picturesque and had tons of little boutiques that sold various items. Too bad I wasn't in the market to shop.

Not sure I understand the reason for THE UNDERPANTS sign.

We came back to Sanford and had a nice lunch at Bahama Breeze Restaurant. The food was very good. Back at the motorhome, we had bought Bentley a harness, so I put it on and took him for a walk in the RV park. He loved it. He head was like on a swivel. He couldn't stop looking all around. He had his harness on and the top down on the stroller when we were riding. But when we stopped and sat outside I let the top down. He was very good and didn't try to get out. He really loved this campground. 

This campground is so relaxing.

People basically live here full time and most have carports or sheds, gardens and personal patios outside.

There were several tiny houses and a couple of double decker tiny houses. Lots of people just lived in their RV.

Bentley would just sit and look out of the bedroom windows to see what he could see.

There is some kind of nature preserve right behind us and there were 3 huge birds (cranes, herons or something wandering around our site. Bentley was amazed.

We have 3 cameras and a temperature monitor set up in the motorhome to make sure we can check up on the kitties while we are away. Once when we checked on them, Finny was in his bed in the bunk and we called him through the microphone. He freaked out looking for where our voice was coming from.

It's not nice to scare kitties. Saturday, we leave for St Augustine.

WAISTING AWAY IN THE HEAT AND HUMIDITY

 Well, we are in Camp Margaritaville, but it is hot and rains a lot. The weather predicts rain all afternoon and night, but they lie. It seems to rain when we get comfortable sitting outside. And did I mention it is HOT!!! We left lovely 73 degrees for 90 degrees. All the concrete also adds to the heat bouncing off the ground. It is very pretty here and very, very clean. This is a big campground, but very few people it. It's also a new campground. 

We are within 15 miles of Winter Haven and Lakeland. The first house I ever bought was built in 1972 here in Winter Haven in the Garden Grove neighborhood. I lived there for a couple of years before taking a job at the Cancer Center in Orlando. I also, had a Girl Scout troop here with 32 girls, ages 8 to 11, We had a great time.  The house I bought in 1972 and even though I moved, I rented it out until 2006 when I sold it. I couldn't manage the repairs and upkeep after moving to Tennessee. David and I decided to drive by the old house and see what condition it was in. Actually, it was in great shape, new paint, new roof. It looked like it was really being taken care of.

We also went to breakfast at a place called EGG HAVEN. The food and service there was excellent. David had corned beef hash and eggs with hashbrowns, and biscuit and I had eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and biscuit. Everything was very food and one of the best restaurant biscuits I have ever had.

The cafe was small, and on a corner and busy. But service was very fast. They were also supporters of the men in blue and first responders.  

The menu was huge, making it very hard to decide what to order.

The breakfast was so good, we even went back on Tuesday for another meal.

 You know it was a good place to eat when Sheriff Grady Judd, my favorite Polk County Sheriff ate there.

 About 6 blocks away was a yarn shop I wanted to visit, The Four Pearls. It is the home store of EMMA'S YARN. When we were in Maine last summer, I bought some Emma's yarn from a shop in Portland, Me. When researching it I found it was made and hand dyed right here in Winter Haven by a 15 yr. old girl. Here is her story.

Emma’s Yarn was started by Emma, a (then) 15 year-old homeschooled student who fell in love with dyeing yarn when learning ratios in her math lesson. Her eye for color is amazing! It wasn’t long before she started selling small batches in her parents’ yarn shop, and when that proved to be successful, moved production from her kitchen to a dye studio downtown. Her sister, Aspen, joined her after graduating college and together they built Emma's Yarn into what it is today; a wholesale company providing Local Yarn Shops with high quality, hand-dyed yarn from right here in sunny Florida. 

Today, 4 years later, we are a small team of 13 members made up of our family and close friends. With 16 different bases, over 100 crazy beautiful colorways, and new ideas pumping ALL . THE . TIME, there is no end to our fun in sight! 

Her yarn is sold all over the USA and in Japan. Her Mother has designed patterns and the people in the shop couldn't have been nicer. I ran in to another shopper from Memphis who was also overwhelmed at the amount of yarn and the number of samples in the shop.

There was so much to choose from and so many colors. I saw some fingering yarn I really liked, but they only had 5 hanks and I needed 6. So, the lady in charge of distributions & orders said, "Well let me run across the street where Emma has the dye pots and see if she has another one that matches. She ran right over and came back, and they didn't have them ready, so I chose something slightly different. It was a wonderful shop, and I came home with lots of yarn, and I know I can always order online and get what I need.

On Tuesday, after breakfast we went to buy a new Garmin for the car and a new hot spot for internet services. One of ours was very old and finally bit the dust so we are all set for the next campground on Wednesday. It won't be as nice as Margaritaville, but it will be fine.

Three nights at this campground is enough for 2 old folks, If we had kids with us there would be tons of stuff for them to do or if we were here on a weekend, it would be busier.

MARGARITAVILLE, HERE WE COME

 Saturday night in Cordele was so nice. A quiet campground, cool and comfortable. We opened the bedroom window and David had opened the living room overhead vent and turned on the exhaust fan so we had a wonderful breeze coming through the window. It was perfect sleeping weather. In the middle of the night it stated to rain, then it rained harder and harder. I went in the living room and grabbed my cell phone to check the weather and there was one little nasty storm cloud parked right over our heads, just pouring rain. I kept hearing water dripping, but figured it was the kitties water fountain running. Then I turned on the lamp on the table and there it was, rainwater pouring in through our over head vent. I had to wake David up to close it since it was beyond my reach. Luckily, only the floor was wet, so there I was at 5am, mopping the floor. At least we ended up with a clean floor.

We were heading to Auburndale to Camp Margaritaville which was less than a 300 mile drive. After we had our English muffins with Carroll's Peach Bellini jam, we hit the road. It really wasn't a long distance, but it seemed like a long drive for some reason. The kitties all found a good place to nap on the way. 

Margaritaville is in a rather hidden area, & not on a main road. But finally, we arrived at the gate.

We were able to check in at the gate and get all the needed paperwork. There were a ton of activities and a scavenger hunt for kids. They even gave of wrist bands so that they knew we were registered here.

Then, the Ranger on the golf cart showed us to our site. We could have rented a golf cart, but I didn't think we would really need one since we weren't going to be at the pool or doing the kids activities. But, I have to say, this is a BIG campground and very spread out. Too far to walk the whole thing.

The sites were very spacious and very, very clean and well kept. We had a concrete pad to park on, pavers and coral type gravel AND instead of grass, there is astroturf, so no mowing. A nice picnic table and a grill.

Other than Ft. Wilderness at Disney World. it is the nicest campground we have stayed at.

All around the perimeter there are cabins just in case you don't have an RV.

After we got settled in and everything set up, Bentley and I took a walk a little way down from our site There were sites with TIKI huts with outdoor refrigerators and TVs, hammocks and even a Big Green Egg type smoker grill on the lake.

We also passed one of the places to eat. The License to Grill Bar and Cafe. We were having our leftover Marcos pizza for dinner, so we would have to try this place later.

Afterwards, Bentley sat outside with us to watch the people and doggies walking by.

Bentey is all worn out from the day's adventures. Monday, we plan to go out for breakfast and then to the local yarn shop.

FLORIDA BOUND---FINALLY

It has been a long time since I have posted anything----because it has been a long time since we have been able to travel anywhere. July 2022 was our last trip, which was to Maine. As we were driving home then, our transmission was giving us problems. When we finally got home after limping along at 50MPH down I-81 and I-75 we called a local transmission company that works on RVs. After waiting a long time, with no calls to tell us to bring it in, we called Lee-Smith and major trucking/RV repair company that we have used in the past. They told us to bring it in, but there were 42 people ahead of us. We were planning to go to Florida for Christmas, but in mid-December we realized that wasn't going to happen, so we cancelled all our reservations. They eventually called us to say we needed a new transmission, and it could be $10,000. UGGGGHHH. So in January we got a new transmission, but it was too late and too cold to go anywhere. And there was no way we could get reservations in Florida during snowbird season. So, there we sat waiting for warm weather.

In March, Cleveland, the town next door had their quilt show and we decided to take the RV over just to check it out and go to the show. The campground was only 10 miles from our house, but it would give us a chance to make sure everything was working OK, before we scheduled another trip.

David had entered a quilt in the show. It was 90" x 90" quilt with 400 3" blocks that were all different. When we got to the show we finally found his quilt hanging and it had a big blue ribbon. FIRST PLACE for bed quilts. It looked great hanging there. His second 1st place ribbon. 

That was pretty exciting, since her had spent about 1.5 years working on it off and on. It really is a great looking quilt. Everyone kept coming over and looking at all the detail in the piecing. Some of the pieces were a quarter inch in size.

After Cleveland, we decide to replace all 6 of our tires (more $$$$), but at least we wouldn't have to worry about our tire safety for a very long time.

SO, here we are now on our first day out, headed to Florida. We packed most things on Thursday and Friday and left Saturday morning. The boys all found their favorite places to ride. Nickie was at my feet, laying on the little bed there, Finny was under my chair and Bentley spent some time in the little bed on the dashboard. They were all very comfortable as we make our way to our first stop in Cordele, 

GA.

Bentley trying to decide his favorite way to ride,

He is so funny.  The campground we stayed in was pretty nice. Bob, the manager that checked us in was very friendly and showed us to our site, The campground was nice and quite. After we were settled in we unhooked the car and took a ride down the road to Carroll's Sausage and Country Store. I had recently seen a video on it by a couple of RVers and thought we should go check it out. We had been there many years ago and noticed they had expanded, so away we went. This isn't my video and yes, they have a very reasonably priced campground, but I had already made reservations at another one before we decided to go to Carrolls. I think our campground was much quieter, being farther from I-75.

I'm not a big smoked sausage fan, but this place is like the country version of Bucc ees. We bought jelly, some meat and snack stuff. It's worth visiting just to see the amount and variety of foods.

Carroll's Sausage and Country Store - YouTube

Next stop is MARGARITAVILLE in Auburndale, Fl.