Friend's Week

    Following our trip to watch the Space shuttle launch last Monday, we headed back to the campground for a few days of rest and relaxation. We have been sitting by the pool most afternoons, enjoying the constant 80-85 degree days and the 60-65 degree nights.
      It's a tough life, but we are surviving.
     We have also been checking out a few of the campgrounds in the area for the possibility of wintering down here in the Sebring area next year.
      On Friday we took an 1-1/2 hour ride to the west coast, Palmetto, to visit our former neighbor Sandy and her rescued greyhound, Rudy. She has a beautiful home, twice the size of the one she had on Ambush Rock Road. She has started a new business, an Anytime Fitness gym in Parrish. She took us over there for a tour. It is a nice big facility and she has developed a large clientele. She is doing very well.
     We then went to Anna Marie Island and had lunch at the Beach House Restaurant, right on the beach on the Gulf of Mexico. Of course, we all had fresh fish for lunch. After lunch we took a ride along Bradenton and Sarasota beaches to see how the rich people spent their money.
    We went back to Sandy's for a little more visiting before we headed back to the campground.
    It was great to see Sandy and see that she is doing very well for herself, not that we had any doubt that she wouldn't be, she is a hard worker and if she sets her mind to doing something, she does it right with 100% of her energy, which seems endless.
     Saturday was another 80+ degree pool day so that is where we were.
     Sunday we headed about 1 hour 15 minutes north to Poinciana to visit Alex and Marie, friends of ours from Lake Forest Resort in East Wakefield, N.H., where we will be spending the summer. They invited us to stay for Sunday and Monday. They live in a lovely gated community in Poinciana. They have a beautiful home over looking the Grand Canal. We were able to sit in the lanai watching comorants and egrets fishing. We got the grand tour, by golf cart, of their Village area and some of the athletic fields, tennis courts, pools, golf course and you name it, they have it. The place is huge and has anything you could ever want.
    Alex and Marie took us out to eat at the Grill at Stone Gate Country Club, part of the Village area. We had Italian, Sharon had chicken parmigiana and I had lasagna. It was excellent. We went back to their house after dinner and played Mexican Train dominoes until we couldn't see straight. We all headed to bed.
     Sunday was a leisurely morning, visiting on the lanai, drinking coffee and eating some nice thick bacon Alex had cooked for us. Well come to find out, they do the same thing we have been doing. So we all jumped into our bathing suits and headed to the pool. Another tough afternoon swimming and sitting poolside.
     About 5 PM we left their house and headed south back to camp. We can't thank Alex and Marie enough for their hospitality. We had a great couple days with them. I guess Sharon will have to cook them breakfast some morning this summer.

     Most of the snow birds have left the campground and headed north in their annual migration, many left early enough to be home for Easter. This past week has seen another 3 or 4 more couples headed north. We will be leaving this Friday with the motorhome for our trip home. First stop is St. Augustine, Florida for a few days and then on to Savannah, Georgia for a few more days and then on to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. If we have internet access (limited in state parks and we are staying in state parks in Savannah and Myrtle Beach), I am hoping to update this weekly, be patient, I will do my best.