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Published: February 6th 2018
And they’re off! That was the echoing call heard as the trumpets blared here at Tropical Palms last week. This annual event was organized by our friend, Joe, and his helpers. It is the 6th year for this faux horse race betting occasion. A gamblers delight. The boisterous betting crowd gathered together to cast their hefty wagers on their favorite horse. Each of us had named and highly decorated a picture of a horse to be used. Cory named his horse “Hard Six” and mine was named “Lucky Lulu”(of course). Not living up to her name, Lucky Lulu, was NOT lucky...not a winner, not a winner, not a winner. Oh, well, there’s always next year. Last year she won big. She can’t be perfect every time. Everyone had a fun time; either celebrating their play money wins or counting their losses.
But wait....more was going on behind the scene. Cory and Sam had a important side bet going on . Every year, they have to figure out what team they will each back for the Super Bowl. Much depends upon this. In times past, they have tossed coins, picked straws, drew cards.....this year, the answer would come from these televised
horse races. It was decided that whomever had the first winning horse in a race would be the one to select his team of choice to back. Can you guess who had the winning horse and won this major wager?? aka: Mr.Lucky: Cory! Yippee. Without hesitancy, he selected the New England Patriots football team. Sam was designated the Philadelphia Eagles. The betting duo was created.
On Super Bowl Sunday, the two gamblers and their cheerleaders met here at our RV. A major concern hit us immediately. For the past few days, the TV reception here at the park has been hit or miss. One minute, you are watching your favorite show, the next minute you are watching a screen of snow! Geez! We used to be able to switch to our rooftop satellite to provide us with a great back-up but its software has become outdated and we have not decided to have it updated.....mega bucks to do it! We depend upon the parks’ cable TV or our RV’s rooftop antenna (which is limited....lots of Spanish shows - ¡qué emocionante!) to keep us entertained. Several times, Cory had visited the desk staff here to remind them that perfect TV
reception was going to be needed for this important television show. Many and much depended upon it. Just a couple hours before kick-off, we nervously sat as the TV flipped back and forth from a great picture to a full snow screen....over and over again. Nooooooo. Sweat beads were building. Cory made another desperate run to the front desk. They reassured him they were working on it. In disbelief, he prowled the park until he actually found the TV repairman, sitting on the ground in front of a box of hundreds of wire connections and breakers. He was working frantically all while another worker held a swimming pool umbrella over him to protect him from the falling rain. Yes, it was raining on our parade. Hey, it’s Florida! It rains here. Hooray....the TV repairman was successful. The TV worked great...no problems. No snow. Thank you, Cable Guy!
Just like the millions of other Super Bowl watchers, we enjoyed pizza from Dominos. Tasty. Part way into the game, it was time for more snacks and goodies. We will never become weak and waste away with these habits. The guys said it was a good football game. Sandy and I were
less than impressed by most of the commercials. The half-time show did nothing to excite us. Guess we are just too far from this present generation and it’s genre. And then the final touchdown came....the winners were the Eagles. They weren’t the only ones. Sam was a winner, too. Winner! Winner! Winner! So the bet was won. Sam was gleeful and smug. Sandy encouraged him to flaunt his flagrant joy. We, as the losers, licked our wounds. And the final result reads: Cory and I now get to escort and treat Sam & Sandy to their hearts desire and all they can eat at Cherry Pocket. We are now filling out applications for various part time jobs. Be ready to accompany us so we can all observe them while they gorge themselves at this charming but rustic Seafood eatery. I’ll give you the date once it is determined. Sam said he wants to fast a couple days prior to their reservations. Sam is one of those people we all envy. He has a hollow leg...and an endless pit. He can eat and eat and eat and NEVER will he know the word stocky! I’m so jealous. So we are prepared
for this massive feed that will be coming up. He is even planning on take out orders to boot. I just hope we don’t have to sell our first born to pay the bill. Yikes!
A craving for one of my very favorite Florida treats took us back to Disney Springs and The Earl of Sandwich. Here I got their Tuna Melt sandwich. It did not disappoint....just as scrumptious as as I remembered. Cory ordered the Turkey Holiday sandwich: turkey and stuffing but hold the cranberry. He was happy. We strolled around this constantly evolving and growing park. They have a Lego store here. Just for fun and to listen to squealing kids, we wandered through it. OMG! Good luck parents! Here they were selling some Lego sets requiring a second home mortgage to be able to purchase them. One Star Wars set was $500 and another one on display was $800. You have to be kidding! Folks, we are talking about a pile of plastic bricks....not gold bullions. We were glad to escape this place empty handed. We moaned for those parents carrying huge bags of these pricey bricks. Before we left, we had to sample “poutine” at
Poutine
French fries, cheese curds and gravyanother luncheonette. It was good but not as good as served at the 716 Bar/Restaurant in Buffalo, NY. Taking a break from all the walking, we hopped one of the Disney transportation boats and rode it from one port to another and back again. Sailing, sailing....Back on land, we found dessert at Ghirardelli’s. A free sample of one of their chocolate squares is handed out as you enter their gift shop. A few cycles here and ones’ chocolate craving gets satisfied. A perfect ending to a perfect day.
All this constant eating is at a price. Forget the money...I’m talking pounds of flesh! Yikes and Rats! Recent photos tell it all....not pretty! Time to put on the hiking boots again. When trolling through our park, we saw the neighborhood alligator that resides in the pond on the grounds. Hi ‘gator! See you later, Alligator! Another day, Cory and I marched to the local grocery store, Publix. Sandy said her Flexbit says it’s a total of 3 miles up and back. My feet and leg muscles can confirm that. The path takes us up onto route 192 where all the tourist traffic is at its max. A far cry from
Pretty flowers
At Disney Springs our stroll at home up through our back field to our critter feeding station. The only thing we see there are flitting birds in the trees. Here, we usually see the homeless sprawled all over the sidewalk or behinds the bushes....but today they had moved on. One time, they had a hammock hung where they swung back and forth. The day of having all their belongings heaped in one old grocery cart is long gone. Now they have chairs, tarps, wagons, bikes, hammocks plus a ton of other items surrounding them.....you name it. It’s really something. You can hardly see the person amongst their stuff.
Well, let’s call it day for this blog. Looks like another storm is crossing over our northern neighborhood again. Rats. As my mother always said “This, too, will pass”..... just not fast enough though!
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