Our 2013-2014 Winter in Florida

 As usual, I haven't taken the time to update our blog.  I'll try to recap our highlights from this last winter season in Wildwood, FL. 

We kept pretty busy last winter.  Dennis & I both worked at the Webster Flea Market on Mondays, which was fun.  We work the parking lot, directing the cars in for parking.  I also worked the ice cream wagon and Dennis was the "go-fer" and helped put things away for the other food wagons in our area.  We enjoy the people we work for and the money helps fund our fun activities down there!

I went on a Caribbean cruise with my friend, Sharon.  We had a great time and traveled well together.  We're looking forward to taking another cruise this next winter.  Cruises are very reasonable when you're living in Florida and are able to go without much prior notice. 

Mother spent a couple of weeks with us in January.  With the brutal winter up north, I'm glad she took a break to come down for some warmth! 

We spent a days with our friends at Ormond Beach on the east coast of FL. So great seeing Rick and Don.  Two very special people! Rick used to be the activities director at Thousand Palms RV Resort in Inverness. 

 

Also had a chance to visit with some of our Wisconsin friends who were down in FL during the winter.  Happy to show them the sights around our area.  We are really enjoying our winter months in Wildwood.  We certainly keep very busy with our friends and are involved in all kinds of activities there...from painting classes for Irene, card playing for Dennis, Wii bowling league, of course bingo, visiting Brownwood in the Villages for their entertainment, shopping and restaurants, going to plays in Leesburg, etc. etc.   The months go by so fast and soon it's time to head north again.  We are enjoying the best of both worlds!

 



At Home in Wildwood, FL

We're back in Wildwood, FL, for the winter.  We left Wisconsin on October 16th.  Our trip down took us through Iowa to see our daughter, then on to Memphis, New Orleans and Panama City Beach to see more family.  We saw Elvis's Graceland in Memphis. 

We had planned to spend some time in New Orleans to see the sights, but timing was bad...it was a weekend and there were several big events and conventions in New Orleans and the Saints football team was playing at home, so getting a reasonably priced hotel that accepts pets was impossible.  We'll have to try to stop there another time on a future trip down.  I was really bummed because I was so looking forward to seeing New Orleans again!

We did stay a couple nights in Panama City Beach and were able to spend some time visiting with stepkids Pam and Russ and Cindy, who was visiting her sister and brother-in-law in PC Beach.  We had a great time with them!!

We arrived in Wildwood on October 22nd.  It was great to get back and see our friends here again.  Our house was in great shape...no problems over the summer.  Gary and Carol, our wonderful Florida friends, had everything ready for us, with the fridge and other appliances plugged in and the A/C going to cool down the place.

We brought down our zebra rug and put it in our living room...gives it a new look!

It's Been Awhile....

It's been awhile since we've posted to this blog site....SO SORRY!!  I've made a resolution to get back to posting on a regular basis. 

We're just completing our 4th year managing the Tilleda Falls Campground in Tilleda, WI.  It's now time to move on, so this will be our last year doing this.  It's been a good run, but just getting to be too much work for us, and we've been missing out on too much family and friends time when we get back to Wisconsin in the summers.

We'll be spending a couple weeks in October in Stevens Point, WI, to catch up on doctors' appointments and some much needed time with family & friends.  We're planning to start our trek south back to Florida about mid October.  Now that we have a place in Florida, we don't haul our fifth wheel down there anymore.  We just pack the van and head out with our cat.  This year we're planning some stops in Iowa, Memphis and New Orleans on our way down, then a stop in Panama City to see our stepdaughter and son-in-law, before we get to our winter home in Wildwood, FL.

Purchased Winter Home in Wildwood, FL

We've been so busy the last month or so doing some house hunting in central Florida. With the prices as good as they are right now and the selection of mobile homes to purchase, we decided to make the investment down here. We bought a cute little 2-bedroom single wide in Wildwood, FL, which is very convenient to just about everywhere in the state!  We'll still be RVing when we're not in Florida, back in Wisconsin and wherever we decide to travel during the summer & early fall. 
We've met so many great people in the Inverness, Wildwood, FL, area, so we're happy to stay put for the winter months right here in Central Florida.   Now we can just focus on enjoying the rest of the winter here at Thousand Palms RV Resort.  We can't believe how fast these months flew by!   I'll try to be more diligent in posting our travels!!

Below are some pictures of our new home.

carport and entrances to the house & Florida room

Florida room right off the dining/kitchen area

Guest bedroom

This Pepto Bismol pink will have to go...that's our first project, to repaint our bedroom!

Back at Thousand Palms RV Resort-Inverness, FL

We arrived back at Thousand Palms in Inverness, FL, on October 31st.  It was great to see our friends back here that we had met last winter.  It felt just like coming home to our Florida family.  We had some tire issues again during our trip from Wisconsin, replacing a tire on the fifth wheel that had some excessive wear on the inside and then a nail in our front truck tire, which we also replaced.  Looks like we'll have to budget for 2 tire replacements for each trip between Wisconsin and Florida and vice versa!  Frustrating!!!  We look forward to the rest of our friends arriving within the next 2 months. 

We're workamping again here this year, which is a "piece of cake" compared to our stressful and hard work over the summer in Tilleda, WI.  Dennis had some health issues immediately after we finished up in Tilleda, which confirmed that we really have to start taking it slower and enjoying life, which is now our plan. 

We've booked a cruise for February, sailing out of Tampa for the western Caribbean, with some of Dennis's family.  So we're looking forward to our "vacation."  We're only an hour away from Tampa, so getting to our ship will be easy.  In the meantime, we're enjoying the wonderful Florida sunshine!

Getting Ready to Head Back to Florida

We've wrapped up our final year as managers of Tilleda Falls Campground in Tilleda, WI.  It was great to spend another summer with the new friends that we've met there, but the work is just getting too hard for just the two of us to manage. We'll plan to CAMP at Tilleda Falls CG next summer for a week or two and see our camping friends there.

We're back in Stevens Point now to catch up with our family and friends.  Dennis had some medical issues that required an overnight hospital stay and some new medication, which his doctor is monitoring now in order to get his dosages right.  We're hopeful to be leaving Stevens Point by (or before) the week of Oct. 24th and start our trek back to Inverness, FL, for the winter.  It's getting cold here in Wisconsin so we're really ready to head south.  We've been in touch with some of our friends from Thousand Palms Resort and we can't wait to see them all again.  We'll keep you all posted as we make the trip south.

Summer Finally Almost Over!

I know it's been many months since updating our blog, but we've been working way too hard this summer!  We're back in Tilleda, WI, again this summer, managing the campground here....but this will definitely be our last year doing this.  We're finding out we're missing out on too much.  We miss our family and friends and we plan to do nothing but fun things in Wisconsin next summer.  It was great to see all of the friends we met last summer while in Tilleda, though. 

We'll be here in Tilleda through the end of September and then October 1st we'll leave here and head back to Stevens Point for a couple weeks to catch up with everyone and to celebrate Irene's mom's 80th birthday.  We'll plan to head south back to Florida, leaving about the third week in October.  We'll be returning to Inverness, FL, again for the winter and workamping at Thousand Palms RV Resort again.  Can't wait to see all of the folks there again!  Also looking forward to visting some new places on our trip to Florida....stops in Memphis, TN, and New Orleans, LA. 


I'll try to do a better job of keeping our blog updated along the way...and posting more pics.