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Published: February 15th 2017
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It is always painful for me to leave my Clermont TTO peeps. This time was no exception. Good news is I will see them all in April for our trip. Breaking camp was easy as I did most of it the day before. I just had to unhook utilities and retract my awning.
I showered, ate breakfast, walked Winston, unhooked utilities, retracted slide and levelers, said goodbyes and took off. 20 camp sites away a camper I call Santa (for the obvious reasons) was frantically waving at me. I knew immediately I had not retracted the awning. What a site I must have been. Good thing there were no trees or campers in my way……..I quickly pressed the button, heard it click into the lock and went on my way and hoped nobody but Santa noticed. I hate getting old. Don’t tell my kids, they will really know it’s time for me to hang up my keys.
I heard about a vegetable oil spill on I4 Eastbound, but traffic news reports said it had been cleaned up, so I chose that
route to Ormond Beach, and traffic really wasn’t bad. The large accident site (by the way, how does a vegetable oil spill happen??) was covered with what looked like flour.
I don’t think I have ever said this before on any Snowbird trip. Gas prices are cheaper in Florida than any other state I travel thru. I filled up for under $100 at $2.17/gallon. I just might have enough in my tank now to make it home, but I will fill up again before I leave SC.
The trip to Ormond Beach was easy. I was excited for my 2-day visit with HS classmate, Judy Adams Thek. I opted to stay in a nearby campground rather than park in her condo lot, due to a deep discount I received, and it just made sense…..Easier to contain Winston in Moya than Judy’s condo. It worked out well. It’s a nice campground, Encore Sunshine Holiday Daytona, but really it’s in Ormond Beach. Encore is a sister property to Thousand Trails, and a step up in niceness. The sites are small, I will say that, but all have a patio and picnic table and the interior roadways are paved. I am
in a standard site, the next level up has concrete pads to park on and are somewhat larger. There is a gorgeous pool, playground, miniature golf, pickleball, etc., etc. All very nicely landscaped and new looking. The unfortunate thing, my site is right next to the propane tank used by campers to replenish their portable tanks and rigs. It’s just downright ugly. It was not terribly busy that I noticed, just big blue tank surrounded by yellow concrete poles and freakin ugly. There are other sites available. I asked to be relocated, no luck. I guess I just don’t understand why they would put a first time visitor who is only staying for 2 days in a site like this when others are available. Don’t they know I am going to give a bad review just because of that? During the course of my 2 night stay, I talked to many campers. They all love it. Without exception. Some have been wintering here for years. Many are Canadians. All have dogs.
Judy came and picked me up and we went to her house where we spent the entire afternoon and evening catching up. We took a nice walk on
the beach, shortened by my knee pain, and she made a very yummy gluten free pasta dinner with brownies for desert. Her condo is located on the top/5
th floor of a two-building complex across A1A from the ocean with an unobstructed sunrise view. Happy Hour on the porch until one of those brief intense late in the day Florida storms passed thru. Out her back door beautiful sunsets can be seen. She has it decorated in a style if I call it Margaritaville, you should get the idea it is bright colors, lot of ocean and flowery artwork and lovely wood plank floors. She just got new appliances, and I must say she had difficulty making the ice dispenser behave. It always ejected one cube well after the glass was taken away. No matter how long she held the glass there…….We giggled like kids. That reminds me……I could have killed her in my rig, and I never would have gotten to see her house. I sat her on the chair right underneath an overhead compartment that I needed to get my backpack out of. I opened it and my 5 lb hand weight fell out of it and just barely
missed her head. We giggled at that, too.
Judy had been thinking about joining Facebook for a long time; I think I pushed her over the edge, showing her all our classmate who are active on it. She knew she was missing grandchildren pictures because she was not a member, us seniors know how that is. She’s there now and has 3 friends, me and her 2 daughters. I really think it was her kids who don’t want her spying on them…….laugh…….
Thursday we went to Daytona International Speedway for a tour. She had done it before with her husband before he passed and was very gracious in going again with me. We made the 1:00 tour, cost $18, no good looking senior discount….Our tour guides were seniors themselves and very funny. I even told one a dirty joke, go figure. We drove around the entire upper roadway track, drove along the 31 degree turn, saw the infield campsites, got our picture taken at the finish line and other tourist stuff. I loved it. The 500 is the end of this month. There was some activity – food and vendor tent erection, tractor trailers delivering equipment, etc., but
no cars or drivers. The stands are massive and seat 100,000. I can’t imagine what it’s like parking cars for 100,000 people.
We went to the River Grill for lunch after our tour, and I had a wonderful Oyster PoBoy. Judy had grilled Mahi and we left stuffed. After fooling around with Facebook and iPhone stuff, we said our goodbyes. I will again point north tomorrow and be home on Saturday. After a beautiful week of weather (except for the awful storms) it will go down into the 40s tonight. God must want me to get ready for the cooler weather of home.
Take care, Judy. Really good seeing you again. Come visit me in NC – you will love it and it’s only 600 miles….I will pester you to do it.
Kat out
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