Bubbles and Swinging

On our way back to Tennessee, we planned to stop in Atlanta to see the kids for a few days.  We drove a little over halfway on Wednesday stopping at a KOA in Forsyth, GA.  I had enough KOA rewards built up that the site only cost $6.18 for the night.  Sweet!

The people were nice, the site was level, and because we were at the back of the campground, we couldn't hear the nearby interstate noise.  The only problem was that their interior roads were extremely rough.  We felt like the camper was going to come apart just going to our campsite.  Not sure we will stop here again because the roads were just too rough.

On Thursday, our drive was just a little under 2 hours.  After getting set up, we went over to Tafanie's house.  We were greeted with a great big hug from Bell, our oldest granddaughter.  Those hugs are SOOO SWEET!!

The afternoon was so nice we sat on the front porch...

 and played with Bell in the front yard while Emmaline was taking a nap.

Bell loves bubbles.  

So she has a BIG bubble jar.

Pa blew bubbles with Bell...

...then MiMa blew bubbles with her.

After Emmaline woke up from her nap,

we blew more bubbles in the front yard.  I showed Bell how to play hopscotch and then we walk, ran, jumped and skipped around the cul-de-sac.  I discovered an easier way to get our 10,000 steps in every day.  Put the pedometer on Bell! :)

Bell wanted to play in the back yard so we went out back where she and Pa played hide-and-go-seek.

Pa taught Bell how to take pictures with our camera.  You know from previous blog posts what a great photographer Chuck is.  Hmmm....I wonder how that will turn out?  :)  The first picture looked like it was taken by Chuck.

But the second picture Bell took of Emmaline and me turned out very good.  Good job, Bell!

Emmaline and I did a little swingin'.  She loved it!  (So did I.)  :)

Crystal and Avery arrived a little later.  Chuck's has his arms full.  :)

Avery swung by herself for several minutes.

And then Avery and Bell swung together for awhile...

My turn with Avery!  :)

After Grant and Cory got there, we enjoyed dinner together and getting caught up on everything that has been going on.  We think our granddaughters are just precious!  And guess what, we will soon have two more granddaughters:  Crystal and Grant are expecting our 4th granddaughter in May and Tafanie and Cory are expecting our 5th granddaughter in August.  Five little girls!  Sugar and spice and everything nice.  :)

Goodbye Florida

Our last few days in Florida have been kind of lazy.  We have gotten our 10,000 steps in every day and have enjoyed kind of doing nothing and playing SkipBo and Sequence Dice in the evenings.

Today, we went to lunch with Marc and Rhea, our friends from Quebec, at China Lee Buffet in Silver Springs.  The food at China Lee is delicious and very reasonably priced.  We ate a little more healthy than we normally do at Chinese buffets by eating the vegetables, fish and chicken and avoiding the rice, lo mein and fried foods.  I think the food must have had some kind of sedative in it because we both took naps when we got back to the motorhome.  :)

Later that evening, I decided to sit outside for a little while to enjoy the last of the sunshine on this our last day in Florida...

...and Chuck came out and joined me.

The weather was a little breezy but a lot better than the snow they were having back home in Nashville.  Brrrr.  We're hoping to take the Florida sun back home with us.  :)

We talked to our neighbor next door for a few minutes.  She said they had spent last winter in Corpus Christi and were miserable because it was so cold.  You just can't beat Florida in the winter!  Good-bye Florida!  See ya next year????

Sunrise Surprise

After arriving back at Wilderness RV Park in Silver Springs on Thursday, we went to Wal-mart to pick up some groceries.  We spent most of the day Friday getting caught up on laundry and I worked on getting caught back up on the blog.  We enjoyed sitting outside in the nice sunshine too.

One of the reasons we came back to Wilderness was to get the motorhome washed and waxed by the same guy who had washed it last year.   We looked at the weather and scheduled for him to come Saturday to do the work. 

I got up Saturday morning around 7 am and noticed the sun was just starting to peak through the clouds.  I was just thinking that we see a lot of beautiful sunsets but we don't see many sunrises.  I raised the shade on the front windshield and was blessed with the gift of one of the most beautiful sunrises I think we have ever seen.

I woke Chuck up so he could see it too and then ran outside to get some pictures.

God sure does make some pretty sunrises and sunsets.  Don't you agree?

The men arrived to begin washing and waxing the motorhome around 9:30 and they were done by 1:30.  After lunch, we ran out for a couple of errands.  I finally got caught up on the blog Saturday afternoon and then sat outside for a little while and enjoying the sunshine.  After dinner, we walked our 10,000 steps.  We could tell from walking around the campground that snowbird season is beginning to wind down because a lot of the seasonal or owner sites are now empty.  We'll be heading north soon too.

Goodbyes at Eustis

We have so enjoyed our week with Ken and Bonnie at Southern Palms.  We have had so much fun talking, laughing, bike riding, walking, and playing games together.

We got up early Thursday morning to say our good-byes as they were leaving around 7:30 am to head back to Pennsylvania. There were hugs all around but we didn't spend a lot of time with our goodbyes because I think we all would have started tearing up had we said too much.

Ken and Bonnie, we certainly enjoyed celebrating life daily and to the fullest this past week and look forward to celebrating many, many more days with you!!

Chuck and I began walking our 10,000 steps by going back to check on Mrs. Owl.

She looked like she was hunkered down, sleeping,

and trying to keep her eggs warm.  Too bad the little owls didn't hatch before we left this year!

There is a pretty good size flea market and farmer's market every Thursday on the grounds next door.  We decided to walk part of our 10,000 steps through the market and see what they had.

There were already several people here.  I picked up a few "dollar" items that would have been several dollars more if I had paid full price.  We also picked up some fresh strawberries from Plant City.  We took our purchases back to the camper and finished our walk.

We started packing up around 11 am and left the campground around 12 pm for our one hour drive back to Wilderness RV Park in Silver Springs.

Let the Games Begin

Our last day with Ken and Bonnie started like most of our other days with them, 10,000 steps.  What a great way to start the day!  And Bonnie Waltman joined us again this morning making our walk even more special.  It's amazing how quickly you walk off the steps when you are walking and talking and laughing with friends!  :)

Ken and Bonnie had to do a few things around their camper Wednesday morning to get ready for the long ride back to Pennsylvania tomorrow.  :(  We piddled around our camper too doing some laundry and putting away a few things.  By 1 pm, it was time to "let the games begin."

Ken had 4 gallon jugs full of sand they had used to anchor down the canopy they use at craft sales.  He didn't want to carry the extra weight back to Pennsylvania.  Chuck suggested they spread some of it along the edges of the road where sand was needed to help with the traction of the vehicles and RVs in the wet grass.  About this same time, the motorhome next to Ken and Bonnie's began playing this almost calliope-sounding music over its loud speaker.

It was one of the funniest things I think I had ever seen.  Ken and Bonnie and Chuck were trying to dump the sand out of the gallon jugs...

...and then started jumping up and down trying to get the sand out of the jugs...

...making it look like they were hopping up and down to the music.  Oh how I wish I could have gotten a full video but this very short clip will at least give you an idea of what the music sounded like.

Because the daily campground shuffleboard games were already in progress, we began "The Games" with a round of Bocce.  Look at my partner's form.  Doesn't she look like a professional?

Here is Chuck attempting to pitch/roll his Bocce ball closest to the pallino ball.

Below is a video that shows how serious we take the game of Bocce!

Many times we would have to get a tape measure out to see whose Bocce ball got closest to the pallino ball.

After a very close game (in the beginning anyways), the boys won Bocce with a score of 16 to 11.  Below is a picture of the winners.

Oh, I'm sorry about that.  I forgot to zoom the picture up.  (Hee! Hee!)  :)

Bonnie and Richard Waltman came over and we enjoyed talking and visiting with them for a few minutes.  Bonnie and Richard, we're looking forward to seeing you again down the road!

Next up:  Shuffleboard.  The shuffleboard courts at Southern Palms are great.

After a rather long match with the boys' score going backwards more than forwards, Bonnie and I emerged victorious with a score of 81-4!!!!  Chuck took our picture and you already know what happens most of the time you give Chuck a camera:

I think he was a little more intentional with his bad photography this time though.  :)

Finally, he got it right!

After going back to our campers for dinner, we reconvened the games at our camper with a night of playing 5 Crowns, Pinochle, and LCR with the women winning most of the games tonight.

Bike Ride at The Villages

After the rains on Monday, we woke up to cooler weather on Tuesday morning.  Bonnie Waltman joined us for our walk this morning.  Here are the lovely ladies, Bonnie, Bonnie & Melissa:

And the good-looking guys...

aka Dim and Dimmer or Dimmer and Dim.   Their names change to suit the moment.  :)

We could see the female owl this morning.  Looked like she was burrowed down in the nest trying to keep her eggs warm.  :)

After our walk, the guys loaded up the bikes on Ken & Bonnie's CRV, and we drove to Sumter Landing at The Villages.  After parking the car off the square, we got on our bikes and began riding toward our lunch destination, Crispers.

We were riding along the Buena Vista Recreation Trail which is for golf carts, bicyclers and pedestrians.  The golf cart traffic seemed exceptionally heavy along this part of the trail.

We detoured off the trail and explored a section of The Villages with bigger and more expensive homes.

These homes backed up to Lake Sumter.

As we rode our bikes back on the Buena Vista Recreational Trail, we rode past one of the 43 golf courses in The Villages.

Not only are there plenty of recreational opportunities at The Villages, they also have a Lifelong Learning College where residents can take classes in just about anything from cooking to scuba diving.

Fortunately, most of the time the trail crosses busy roads like CR 466 via tunnels.  We crossed under CR 466 and parked our bikes at Crispers for a delicious lunch.  Chuck had the Signature Summer Salad...

...and I had the Southwest Salad.

They were as delicious as they looked.  Now, for a group picture before we eat:

Unfortunately, one of us (me) had her eyes closed.  Rule #1 for taking selfies:  always take two pictures.  After we finished our lunch, we laughed and talked and laughed and talked for almost another hour.

We rode our bikes on a different trail back to Sumter Landing so we could see a different part of The Villages.

Taking pictures while you are riding a bike can produce some unusual results:

We passed by another of the many golf courses.

The landscaping throughout The Villages is beautiful and always well-maintained.

We stopped at this lagoon...

...where we saw a heron standing in the marshes.

I rode on ahead a few hundred yards...

so I could take this video of my fellow bicyclers (and the busy golf cart traffic).

We rode across Lake Sumter...

...and paused for one last picture on the sidewalk of the bridge.

After 10.5 miles of bike riding, we arrived back at Ken & Bonnie's CRV and the guys loaded the bikes back up for the ride home.

Another beautiful day of bike riding.  Time to do a little pickin'...

...and grinnin'.

We arrived back at the campground in time to get in a game of Bocce and a game of shuffleboard.  We won't discuss who won these games.  :(  After dinner, Ken and Bonnie came back over for what ended up being a late night of card playing that didn't stop until after midnight.  There are just not enough hours in the day!