Travels with Snowbirds, Wednesday January 25 and Thursday January 26, 2017, Bushnell to Thousand Trails Clermont, FL.

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The writing juices are flowing tonight.

All this time I have pronounced Bushnell as Bush-NELL. I heard some locals saying BUSHnull. I had the accent on the wrong syllable and saying the wrong vowel. Never too old to learn something new.

The morning I left I went early to coffee, grabbed a yummy apple fritter and said a quick goodbye to my friends. One of the transient guests was my backup eyes so I would not run into the cars and trucks behind me as I departed. I was on my way 58 miles southeast to Clermont by 9:45. I do love traveling the Florida back roads. Since the rain, the landscape is much greener. The live oaks are covered with Resurrection Fern, a short fern that grows in the cracks of bark and turns dark brown like the bark during dry spells. Once it rains, it brightens up, making the tree and landscape bright green again. It is one of those things that is wondrous to see. I knew I was heading further south as my allergies have really started to act up, requiring Claritin AND eye drops to relieve my symptoms; I had to stop to do both.

During my travels, I have noticed quite a few signs for CEMEX, announcing a company down a long sandy road. I decided to do some research, and according to their website, CEMEX is a multinational building materials company headquartered in San Pedro Mexico and is the 3^rd largest cement producer in the world. It manufactures and distributes cement, ready-mix concrete and aggregates in more than 50 countries. Amazing. According to CBS news, Trump’s wall could benefit this Mexican company, as there are 6 plants within a 200-mile radius of the proposed wall. The company has 13 US plants and generated $63Bf of its 2016 $225B in sales from the US. Interesting. Build the wall with cement supplied by a Mexican country ((giving the Mexican’s enough money to pay for it??)). Fascinating. The facilities I have seen along the road are either sand mines or factories that mix ingredients.

My favorite Snowbird RV home is Thousand Trails-Clermont. I like the 1000 site campground, I like the people who work here and who stay here, and the facilities and the activities. I like spending time with my camping girlies. I have never liked the check in process they used. It was complicated and took a long time. I had read on their facebook page and heard from my friends that they totally revised the process this year. Maybe so; the day before my check in I received a phone call from Ranger Lucille from Staten Island, as we call her, who I know but she doesn’t know me by name, only by face. She told me the NEW check in process; go right to the gate and a ranger would direct me to a site in my chosen area…..I could line up after 12 noon. I met Kathy at the nearby Publix at 11:30, we decided to get on line at 11:56. BUT, there was no line. Kathy let me go first, she said I arrived first and that was very gracious. I was given number 8 in line…..7 other folks obviously got there before me and before 12, but no one was in line. Ranger Ken drove his golf cart up to me, asked me where I wanted to be; I said EASY STREET and he led me to 3 open sites on EASY STREET. I chose one, knowing Kathy would have #9 and be right behind me and get in the site to my rear. And, that’s exactly what happened. We have great locations, despite the fact that I have a dirt pile on my utility side, and Kathy is a little closer to the road than she would like, but we are near Ginnie and near the Laundromat. All is well. The dirt pile is a leftover from a utility upgrade. It looks like it filled up during the recent rain. I am lucky, I have my own campsite swimming pool.

Ginnie came down the street to visit, and she looked tired. She has been fighting a cold for a while and a recent leg wound from a dog leash wrapped around it attached to a Doberman chasing a squirrel. Nasty. We easily settled in and I just sighed. I am home for the next 2 weeks.

We were invited to happy hour in another park section. We met some new friends. I headed home early, I had hit my wall and I was exhausted.

We had made plans to meet Joanne on Thursday at Disney Springs (the rebranded Downtown Disney). When we were there in 2016 there was construction everywhere. I was prepared with my handicap hangtag, but another surprise, we didn’t need it. We got out of the car right near the escalator that took us within 100 yards of where we were to meet Joanne. Only she wasn’t there. I had texted her that we were in the lime garage, and she was at the exit from that garage looking for us. Comic relief. Joanne has enjoyed her stay at Fort Wilderness and days at Epcot and Magic Kingdom. She walked 29K steps at Epcot. Wow. We took a launch across the lake and had a wonderful lunch at House of Blues. I had one each chicken, beef, and fish taco with yummy sauce. Others had ribs, salad, shrimp and grits, and turkey burger and all liked their food, amazing for a bunch of old ladies. Our server laughed with us when we refused dessert, saying we had other plans, and she knew we meant Ghirardelli. We took the launch part way back to a shopping area and visited Pandora and Alex and Ani with gorgeous and very expensive Mickey items. $28 for the cheapest Alex and Ani…..it was not cute…..and Mickey Pandora beads starting at $70. On to The World of Disney store, the largest Disney gear store you would ever want to see. Redesigned this year, the cash registers have been relocated and the Bibbity Bobbity Boo salon now has its own building. I lusted after the Mickey Vera Bradley bags and bought a new $19 Vera lanyard for my RV keys, and a new Mickey Tshirt. I have wanted a character denim shirt for a while now, and for the second year in a row, they don’t have any. I think it was the same cast member I asked this year that I asked last year. I also bought a quarter sized hidden Mickey token I will put on my car key ring. Check out was a disaster. Of course, I chose the wrong line and it took forever. Finally, it was time for our ice cream dessert. I chose Espresso Chip ice cream with dark chocolate hot fudge topping. $4.75 and absolutely amazingly wonderfully excellent. So far so good and no lactose intolerant belly ache We said our goodbyes to Joanne who is on to a bunch of state parks and a music festival before she heads home. She and Kathy cross paths again before winter’s end.

I saw an older couple waiting for a table, and they looked so cute, I had to talk to them to get their story. What a delight these folks were. Married 58 years, dated for a year. He’s 80, she’s 78. They lived in California for 30 years and now live in Hendersonville, NC. He’s had both knees’s replaced, she’s had both hips replaced. He was pushing her in a wheelchair; I think he was using it as support as much as she was using it for the ride. She wanted to make sure I knew they had a wonderful life despite a few very major arguments. 2 children, 5 grandchildren, 3 great grands. They had to confirm those numbers with each other. He wore a Donald Duck hat, autographed by Donald. They had matching teal golf shirts and she had 1950 era matching earrings, necklace, and bracelet just like my Aunt Alice used to wear. So cute.

Happy hour at Ginnie's found a bunch of tired not hungry ladies. Winston enjoyed playing in Ginnie’s fenced yard with Linus and Alfie the Dobermans, and Watson, Kathy’s new mini long hair dachshund. Well, enjoy is not exactly the right word, he tolerates them all.

Ginnie has a gopher tortoise burrow on her campsite. More google research. Gopher tortoises are long lived reptiles that occupy upland habitat throughout Florida including forests and pastures (we are next to a large cattle farm). They dig deep burrows for shelter and eat plants. They are listed as threatened. I can tell you they are not threatened here at Thousand Trails Orlando, they are everywhere. I think they are ugly looking, about the size of a medium sized throw pillow with nasty looking teeth. They look like they weigh about 30 pounds. Both the animal and its burrow are protected under state law. Here at TTO they put fences around active burrows. Last year Ginnie’s burrow was empty. It’s not now. She has named the female Tammy. Alfie and Linus just stare at the tortoise and the burrow thru the fence. Ginnie related the events of Thomas and Tammy doing the nasty. She described something like Tammy going head first down into the burrow a little and Thomas mounting her in an almost standing position. I asked if she saw the male appendage, and Kim just blurted out, “It was green.” Well, that set us off into a cackling laughing event, a mental image we will not soon forget. We made plans for things we wanted to do over the next 2 weeks, including a visit to the Lipizzaner winter headquarters and an Airboat Ride, and maybe back to Disney for a ride on as many free transportation things as we can get on.

And, to end the day, a little excitement. How many vehicles do you think respond to a medical emergency call at our campground? The answer is 2 ambulances and one hook and ladder. We know that as they were right next to Kathy and me. There is a large Class A next to her/behind me. We were told yesterday that the owner was released from the hospital just as we arrived. We observed the park manager knocking on his door, but no answer, and we knew he was in there. His hang tag says his last day was 1/10. Kim saw him snarl when Kathy’ chairs encroached on his very large yard. Well, the ambulances arrived for him tonight, but Kathy thinks he is still in his rig with the TV going. Strange.

How many watched Scandal. Wowie!!! Great episode.

Unable to upload pics from my phone……cellular pretty weak tonight, and no wifi here……my hotspot failed me.



Kat out

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