Winter Wonderland

So we have been parked, for the most part, for more than 2 months here in sunny Florida. This is our first winter in Sun-N-Fun Resort. Last year we did stay here twice for two weeks each and in that time decided that we wanted a longer stay this year. So we returned on 12/13 and, except for two short for trips, one to Disney World, and one for an RV Rally, have been here ever since. The weather has been great. Last year, there were some very cold periods but the jet stream has been staying well to the north so we have enjoyed a lot of sun and many days with temperatures in the 70's and low 80's.

Our days have been filled with the many activities that SNF has to offer. Ellyn has been sewing, quilting, playing Mah Jongg, learning the mountain dulcimer, and doing crafts. Geoff bowls, plays guitar, and built two music stands for both of us. He did the wood work and Ellyn made the cloth parts of them. Both of us do the pool exercise once or twice a week and also have some activities outside the “bubble”. Ellyn goes to NCJW meetings and luncheons and we have also gone to some Spring Training baseball games and even seen a shuttle launch.

We have made lots of new friends here. The people next door, Gayle and Rick, have become particularly close, including their little doggy, Sarah. Ellyn usually gets picked up when Sarah needs to go out for a walk. Geoff helped Rick out with a water leak they had under their clothes washer. Turned out it was just a loose fitting. Rick and Gayle are from Kentucky but, surprisingly, our accents do not seem to get in the way very often.

We have also had some visits from some old friends as well. Ken and Martha from Chicago, who we visited in 2009, and did some camping with on Cape Cod in 2008, stopped by for a month. We went to see a play, 12 Angry Men, locally with them. They are more athletically inclined than we are and would spend a lot of their time playing Pickleball, golfing and biking, but we went to some of the shows with them here at SNF. Ken also helped Geoff get and install a new set of house batteries in our RV. The old ones were not holding a charge and the new ones should be a big improvement if we boondock camp somewhere. We made tentative plans to get together with them in the summer of 2012 to make a trip to Alaska by RV. I emphasis the word “tentative” since that would be a long trip and gas prices would not be a good incentive to do that.

In December we made a short trip north to The Villages to attend a rally of our FMCA Chapter, Chai – Chaverat Yehudim. This group of intrepid Jewish travelers have been getting together for many years and we stayed at a small RV park up there and took a tour of The Villages. This is a huge group of over-55 residential units. It was nice, but seemed a bit to stationery for our current tastes. We, of course, did a lot of eating with this bunch.

In January, we ventured north again to Orlando to see our friends Norm and Shelly at their winter retreat. Then we continued into Fort Wilderness at Disney World where we met up with Marie and Dave from NY, who are avid WDW goers, and some of their family to spend 4 days in the parks.

Since then, we have been enjoying the stay here in Sun-N-Fun. We are anticipating our journey back north to Boston and our son Brian’s wedding in April.