After several of our morning walks, we would talk and visit and laugh with George and Jean who were camped across from us. We actually have met George and Jean previously at the RV Dreams full-timing rally in September 2011 which was when we first met Ken and Bonnie too.
After playing pickleball for a couple of hours Saturday morning, we loaded up the bikes and drove to Fort Wilderness at Disney to ride bikes on their bike trails. Unfortunately, the parking lot for Fort Wilderness was full with some kind of event going on so we weren't able to ride our bikes on their trails. We were disappointed but quickly put smiles back on our faces with some Frosties from Wendy's. :)
After church on Sunday, we relaxed and took a break from walking and pickleball, which gave us all a day to get caught up on things like laundry, etc.
On Monday morning, we were at the pickleball courts by 11:00 and switched up playing pickleball with James, Brenda, Mike and Frank, who were also staying in the park.
They gave us (and me, in particular) some good tips on pickleball and the rules for playing pickleball.
On Monday afternoon, we rode with Ken and Bonnie a few miles north of the campground to Showcase of Citrus. This orange grove is a U-Pick orange grove on 2,500 acres that also has a big fruit stand with all kinds of jellies and sauces for sale. We also sampled their orange juice slushies and orange creamsicles made with orange juice and frozen yogurt. We walked around the fruit stand and then out to the groves to find us some oranges to pick!
The ladies in the farm stand told us the tangerines and navel oranges are in season now and gave Ken directions on the grove map how to get to those sections of the grove. Our first stop was at the playground behind the fruit stand store where we watched Bonnie pick up this big hula-hoop and show us what a good hula-hooper she is!
When we reached the navel orange grove, Ken picked and cut up one of the oranges for us to try. It was a little green but sweet and delicious.
We loaded up our bag over half full with naval oranges and then headed out to find the tangerine grove. We noticed a sign on our way to the tangerines that said "No eating fruit in the grove." Oops!
There were rows and rows and rows of groves full of all types of citrus fruit but only the naval oranges and tangerines were in season right now.
We walked by this stream carefully hoping that we might see some alligators,
but we didn't see any gators out today.
We had to walk a fairly good distance to the grove where the tangerines were located.
When we got to the grove, the trees were loaded with tangerines.
There was a lot of tangerines on the ground.
What a waste! We found out from the manager that some kids that were there for a birthday party had pulled off a lot of fruit this past weekend. She did say that the deer and other animals would come eat the fruit.
We stuffed as many tangerines into our bag and then headed back to the fruit stand to pay for our orange treasures.
After we returned to the campground, we went to the pool to enjoy it for a while. We enjoyed the jacuzzi even more because it helped soothe our pickleball aches.
On Tuesday, our last day, Bonnie found this poster-size greeting card on the road when we walked that morning. Ken said he had laid it there on purpose earlier that morning as an early anniversary card for Bonnie as their anniversary is coming up soon.
The only problem was the card said "Happy Valentine's Day!" on the inside. :)
Later that morning, we played pickleball for a couple of hours and then began cleaning up our RVs and getting ready for leaving on Wednesday. Chuck and I ran some errands that afternoon and on the way back to the camper, we came up behind this palm-covered vehicle that looked like "an accident waiting to happen."
On Wednesday morning, we went on our last walk at Orlando Thousand Trails. Lake Hancock was just as pretty as it had been every other morning...
...and Chuck is sure he could probably have caught a fish out of it.
But not in a Porta-Bote like the one tied up to the dock.
Boy, does that bring back memories! (See March 2013 of our blog.) We're STILL glad we no longer own a Porta-Bote...or any boat for that matter. :)
We posed for one last selfie at the dock at Lake Hancock,
touched the palm leaves on the same old palm tree like we had every other morning,
and finished up our walk around the campground.
After we got back to the camper, we said our good-byes to George and Jean...
...and then hooked up the cars and headed for Myakka River State Park...
...for more adventures with Ken and Bonnie!
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