Christmas Kickoff in Florida

Our park kicked off the Christmas season on 12/10/2010 with lighting up all the decorations in the park, a decorated golf cart parade and a potluck supper...and finally the arrival of.....SANTA!!  Santa had a great time entertaining everyone and taking pictures with them.  A great time was had by all.   We're now officially in the holiday mood!!  Lots of holiday events planned during the next 2 weeks, so we'll be busy with our "surrogate" family here at Thousand Palms RV Resort!  This eases the Blue Christmas blues of not being in Wisconsin with our family and friends during the holidays. 

A short video of some of the decorated golf carts in the parade...click the arrow to watch, but be sure to pause the music playing at the bottom of the web page first, or you'll be listening to a mixture of music!!

The Middleton's from Wisconsin - we met her at a sports bar in town while watching the Sunday Packer games.

Santa with Tom

Our holiday decorated home

Santa with Rick

Santa's Florida sleigh

Santa with Sharon

More photos from Thousand Palms in Inverness, FL

Some photos at Thousand Palms in Inverness.



The 3 of us in our golf cart



Tropical view next to our RV park

Our light-up palm tree and alligator

Thanksgiving Celebration 2011

Dennis with Rick....in their silly hats!

Although we weren't able to be with our family during the Thanksgiving holiday, we had a very festive celebration with our adopted family at Thousand Palms in Inverness, FL.  We had a feast of turkey, ham, stuffing, potatoes, gravy and soooo many side dishes that everyone brought to the banquet.  Our dessert table looked like something at a first class buffet, with 18 different pies, all baked by one person, Sharon, who loves to bake!  Naturally, we all overate and took home lots of leftovers!!  Sharon, who is our neighbor at the park, invited us to join their table, which was all decked out with the fine china, stemware, gold silverware, linens...the whole shebang!!   What a great end to what was somewhat of a melancholy day...missing the family!

Our dinner table for Thanksgiving

Sharon...the pie lady!!

Rick seating Gary & Carol

antics at the table

Family Time

We got to spend a little time seeing family before we left Wisconsin.  Went to Iowa to see Amy, Tim and the kids and up to Eagle River to see Eileen & John at their cottages.  Irene had a couple of days with Mom, Karen and Tina at Karen's cottage in Minocqua and had a great time.  Then we went to Marshfield to see Matt & Angie and Tammy, Mark and the kids.  Not nearly enough time, but we'll plan more time when we get back in the spring!

On the Road Again!

We left Wisconsin on Oct 19th to start our trip to Inverness, FL.  Our first stop will be in Illinois for the night.  We will have  almost 2 weeks to get to FL and we're planning to stop in Mexico Beach, FL again, hoping to meet up with my cousins Pam & Todd again there.  We'll keep you all posted as we travel. 

Our Next Workamper Position

We've wrapped up our management job at Tilleda Falls Campground and we're spending a very short time in Stevens Point...catching up with our family and friends, heading south about the 17th or 18th.  We just accepted a new Workamper job in Inverness, FL, at Thousand Palms RV Resort.  We'll be starting the first week in November.  This will be a piece of cake compared to our job in Tilleda..only about 15 hours a week each in exchange for an RV site, which will give us a lot of time to enjoy the area!  Stay tuned for further updates when we get there.

Counting Down the Days

Yes, it's been awhile since I've updated this blog.  We're counting down the days until we've completed our Workamping assignment here at Tilleda Falls Campgound.  We'll be hitching up our fifth wheel on October 5th and heading to River's Edge in Stevens Point for our last couple of weeks in Wisconsin.  We'll finally get a chance to catch up with all of our family and friends, since we've been tied to the campground here all summer!  It's been quite an experience here...lots of work, but we've met some great campers over the summer.  So, all-in-all, it's been a positive experience for us, but I'm quite certain we won't choose another full-time campground management job in the future.  We're just getting too old to work that hard!!! (afterall, we're supposed to be "retired")

We'll start our trek back to Florida around the third week of October, depending on how the weather holds out.  Not sure where we'll be yet, still working out the itinerary, but we'll keep you posted, and I'll try to be more diligent about keeping our blog updated with our travel adventures and pictures.

Summer Job - Tilleda Falls Campground, Tilleda, WI

I know it's been awhile since I've posted, but we've just been so busy.  We've taken a job for the summer managing a charming little campground in Tilleda, WI.  It has its own waterfall!!

The campground has about 45 sites and a small beer bar & store.  The building was once an old sawmill and has wooden floors - lots of history!  Tubing rentals during the summer and some good fishing (trout & pan fish).  The lake allows electric motors only...no gas powered motors. 

During our first winter as snowbirds in Florida, Dennis kept complaining how bored he was and needed something to do....well, be careful what you wish for!   We'll certainly be busy this summer!!  But we're looking forward to the new campers we'll meet.  We've already met some great people here.  It's a VERY SMALL TOWN, but everyone is so friendly and have welcomed us to the community.

Hope you can come to visit us this summer!

Check out the website for Tilleda Falls Campground:  http://www.tilledafalls.com/

January in Sebring, FL

Spent the months of December and January in Sebring, FL (south central part of the state).  Beautiful RV and manufactured home community, with lots of planned activities available.  We rented a golf cart for those 2 months because the park was so big.  

The months went very quickly and we had a 2 week period early in January that was very cold, with frost and hard freeze consistently at nights.  Didn't really feel like we were in Florida during that time!  Saw lots of citrus groves and picked a bucket of sweet, juicy tangerines. 

Christmas came and went...missed being with the family, so we spent Christmas Day at a casino!  (no...didn't win!)  Dennis went to the Sebring Race Track to see about working during the big race in March, but they had all the help they needed. 

Had some fun times with Pam & Todd and Jim & Verla, also Dick & Jackie.

We've moved to Arcadia, FL, for February, which is a little closer to the Punta Gorda and Port Charlotte area, which is near the Gulf.   Miss the water, so we're looking forward to spending more time doing day trips to the Gulf shores.

Loving this "endless summer!"