Warming Up in South Central Florida

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We appreciated the increasingly warmer weather as we traveled from Slidell to Fort Myers area. Our destination was Riverbend Resort and a visit with longtime friends Sandy and Bob Brenner who are owners in this lovely RV park. It is located 17 miles east of FM, out far enough to feel like being in the country, kind of like Gun Lake.
We also met up with Gay and Jerry Hoover from SW Michigan and Sue and Joe Geshel from Okemos who also have a winter place in Fort Myers. Otherwise in our week there we enjoyed partying and shopping with the Brenners and friends, exercising in the pool, (okay, laying bedside the pool) and regaining our energy. This is a slice of heaven for the Brenner's and will be on our list of places to revisit.

On to our next Habitat build in Sebring, FL, just 70 miles NE of Riverbend. We joined 28 others here for a two week experience that included all types of building activity. Did we ever see ourselves installing metal roofs (Terry), putting up insulation (Nancy), digging trenches to prepare for cement pads (Nancy and Terry), and installing vinyl floors (Nancy)?? We lucked out with another great couple who served as team leaders, Jay and Joyce Rush, and skilled, organized construction managers, Alan, Frank, Jim, and Bob.

We worked with several potential homeowners of these Habitat homes. One couple with 3 children has been here from Havana, Cuba for a year and a half. They both work at Walmart and likely could not qualify for a mortgage anywhere else. Habitat will work with them after they move in to ensure that they can care for and pay for their home mortgaged by Habitat. They are required to work 400 hours building Habitat homes, with 50 of those hours on the home they will buy.

We met up for a very nice evening with friends from home, Jeanie and Roger Ling and Carol and Omer Messer. We had a lovely camping spot on Lake Placid and enjoyed the area and the Care-A-Vanners with whom we worked and played. Very good people!

This area has several attractions which we enjoyed. We visited the Sebring International Raceway and watched trials running. One distinction of Lake Placid is the murals done by very talented artists depicting life in that city on area buildings. Check out the western photo (and the live cowboy.)

We were sore and tired after two weeks, and took away with us more new skills and definitely more friends.

We are now enjoying the warm weather in South Central Florida at Wauchula - lounging, taking water aerobics classes, riding bikes and enjoying the fresh fruit and vegies grown locally. Habitat Friends Marilyn and Joel Fenton have made our stay more fun.

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