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Published: October 3rd 2022
Hooray! We are still here to tell you all about it! It was an adventure we didn’t plan to take nor do we want to take it again. Hurricane IAN came right up through where we live here in Florida: Kissimmee, Osceola County. It was UGLY!
But let’s talk about The Good stuff first.
Cory and I have been hitting some of our old haunts down here. First on our list was Bar Harbor. They had a special on lobsters so we took full advantage of that…..at least I did. I ate two lobsters there and brought two home with us. Oh, yummers! Cory was satisfied with with his fried shrimp dinner. Nothing tops lobster in my book! I’m first at the table when lobster is being served. I can be a little pushy sometimes…..at least when it comes to eating lobster.
It was a great day when we were able to meet up with our daughter, Kim, and granddaughter, Haley. Kim was down for a brief visit to see Haley in Tampa. We met at Fresco’s in Lakeland. They both looked wonderful. We were so happy to be with them again. The food was tasty, too.
A lunch date took us and friends to Miller’s Ale House. Theresa, Diane, Walt and us had a nice lunch at this favorite restaurant. Their menu has become so condensed after Covid. You almost had a book to read with all their offerings in the past. Now it’s just part of their placemat. Such is life. Suck it up buttercup!
Our dining with these friends did not stop here. We went to dinner at Theresa and Grant’s favorite restaurant: El Tapatio. It’s an authentic Mexican restaurant. Fortunately, Theresa and Grant can guide us through the menu so we end up with some very tasty delights that make our tastebuds do a Mexican Hat dance. We are sad to inform all of you that Theresa and Grant have just now moved away. No, it was nothing that we said!! They lived next door to us here at Tropical Palms. When you have a house with wheels, you can make these moves easily. Grant took a similar but another job in Brooksville, Florida. We are happy for them but sad to see them go. They were great neighbors and better friends. We shall stay in touch. Our best wishes go with
them.
For a day trip, Driver Cory and Miss Daisy (me) took a long drive to Sarasota, Florida. Cory took a back way with less traffic but OMG…..sooooo BORING! Nothing to look at. Not even a cloud! I got nauseous humming “🎶Found a Peanut🎶” to myself. Everything brightened up when we ate at the Der Dutchman, an Amish Buffet in Sarasota. We have been here before…..great place! On our journey home, Cory started back on the expressway…oh, Goody: traffic!! But eventually, he ended back on the boring back road…..YUCK & YAWN! And I gave up humming “🎶Found a Peanut🎶”.
Mt.Dora was having a craft festival. Okay…..that sounds good. Mt.Dora is a nice, quaint, old Florida town. On this day, it was soooo crowded. Unbelievable, Cory found a parking spot. Now we only had to find out where the festival was. Yikes….it was in a park WAaaaaay over there! I switched my sandals to my old, back up sneakers we keep for emergencies in the car. I think I had them in high school from the looks of them! Then the hike began. The park was along a pretty lake. By now, it was about 100’ and I was
exhausted. But I pushed onward through the maze of crafters tents until I found a bench to collapse on. Whew! It was a hottie! Cory volunteered to go get the car and I didn’t argue! Instead, I mopped my brow and chatted with a lady sharing my bench. Cory was glad to leave all the congested traffic behind us. What now? Let’s go to Winter Garden…..okay. What a lovely town this is. People were so happy while walking up and down the Main Street. We joined them. They had a big Farmer’s Market going on that we walked through. We found a cute restaurant to eat at: The Moon Cricket Grille. Good pick. Given a choice, I think we would go to Winter Garden over Mt.Dora anytime. Our opinion.
Who do you call when you have a problem with your RV? Ghostbusters?? Nooooo. We have found the most wonderful, excellent, competent, knowledgeable, friendly, funny, honest RV tech in the world. Yes, that right! He has all of those attributes plus more. No….his name is not “God”….it’s Quinn. He did some work for us last year. Our neighbor, Steve, wants to adopt him cause he’s so good. We needed him
to put sealant around the lights at the top front of our RV. We also had a ceiling vent that banged when it closed. Skillful Quinn got the jobs done with his diligent expertise. Before he left, Lulu wasted no time jumping into his arms. She knows a good guy when she sees him….but you already know that. She’s a people person but really likes men! She’s not shy! While, Quinn worked on our roof, Steve got up on his roof to remove his Starlink antenna before the storm. Hip-Hip-Hooray for Superman Steve…..and Quinn, too.
As the weather reports keep coming over the TV, it became obvious that Hurricane IAN was going to be a problem. First, we thought we could ride it out in our RV. When the path of the hurricane changed, so did our thought. Cory put away everything outside that he could and battened down everything else that needed it. We brought in our four slideouts and retracted our levelers to a stored position. We filled up all our tanks as full as we could. We ran the a/c on high just before we left to make it as cold inside as we could in
case our power went off. I put a frozen glass of water with a quarter on top inside the freezer. That would be our method of knowing when, if and how much our power had been off. We packed a suitcase, a snack bag AND Lulu and took off on Wednesday morning to Disney’s Swan Hotel. Lulu was excited to be going on “vacation .”
Cory had first called The Gaylord Palms but they were full. He got in the car and went to several hotels around us….all full. Using trivago, he was able to get us a room at The Swan. That will do…hah! Pure luxury all the way! It was raining and the wind was starting to blow a little when we arrived. We took valet parking. The valet helped unload our stuff. When the back end of the car was opened, Cory had our grill and propane tanks in there. The valet asked if they were to come in!!! Yeah…..right….we are going to grill in our room!?? Because of the storm, the valets only helped with the luggage…..Cory had to go park our car himself!! He was drenched when he finally made his way back to
the registration desk. The lobby was busy with lots of people, many with dogs. Cory got us registered but we had to wait for our room. We waited hours in their lobby before we could finally go to our room. Lulu slept in her carry bag most of the time. Lots of good people watching. Some I’m still trying to unsee!
Our room was very nice but the “piece de resistance” were the beds. OMG! You know how much I have carried on about our own dream mattress that we bought from the Princess Cruise Lines….the most comfy mattress in the world. Well…..maybe. These hotel mattresses are in close competition with our RV one. I can’t believe it! They were so fluffy and comfy. It was like dropping back into a cloud and being snuggled from all sides by giant, soothing cotton balls. Kind of like you died and went to heaven. So we had our sleeping bed and our nesting bed. I really hated leaving them. Lulu took full advantage of the nest. Fortunately, she doesn’t take up much room cause she’s so small….not much to her…..you know why. When the storm picked up, she did take a
position on the windowsill to watch the beating rain and blowing trees. We were on the 6th floor…above the treetops. She pretended to be a meteorologist. Our room was soundproof so we never heard the gusting wind. We slept through the horrific hurricane.
Thursday morning, the winds had died down significantly in our area. It was still raining somewhat. We could see where the debris from the trees had blown onto the entrance roof to the hotel. We walked around the hotel. A couple doors had sandbags against them. Lulu slipped on the floor. I had told her to ride in her carry bag but, oh no…..she insisted on rolling along. She can be so stubborn at times. She was okay….not hurt. We went to one of the Swan’s restaurants for lunch. It was a modified “hurricane” menu. I guess we were just lucky it was even open. Who comes to work in a hurricane? As typical Disney style, the food prices were outlandish. My skimpy wedge salad was $15.00. Cory’s BLT & fries was $19.98. Anything in a storm, I guess! Fortunately, Lulu wasn’t hungry. She had snacked on some of the food we brought with us.
The rain finally stopped so we walked across the archway to the Dolphin Hotel. What a beautiful place! Lulu found a couple areas to pose in.
Our friends, Steve and Mary (near us at TP), had made reservations at The Swan Reserve to stay in during the storm. We met Steve in the lobby of that separate hotel for a short visit. This hotel is gorgeous. It was built as a more upscale and personal style hotel.
Once back at The Swan hotel, Lulu found she could get a job answering questions from Passer-Byers. No one passed by her, however, so she quit. She rested for a moment at one of their fountains. A man, wiping down the seating edge, kept wiping in the same area next to Miss Lulu. Over and over, he wiped. He wouldn’t leave. He kept looking at her out of the corner of his eye….still wiping the area the entire time. Lulu removed herself once we realized that this guy had illicit intentions towards her. You have to be so careful nowadays. There are so many deviants out there. Poor, frightened Lulu!
Friday morning arrived with blue skies and bright sunshine. You
never would guess that a major hurricane had just moved through this area. We drove back to Tropical Palms feeling good about our RV. A friend, who stayed at TP through the storm, had told Cory everything looked fine around our house. Whew! Some folks had taken pictures around the park just after the storm had gone through. There was flooding and lots of tree debris all over the place. Fortunately, everyone who stayed was safe and there was no major damage done at the park. Some fencing was down, some canopy tents were ripped to shreds. We were all very lucky. The folks in the Ft.Meyers area and along that coast really have it bad with serious damage and destruction. There is still flooding happening on the northern Atlantic Ocean coast. So sad for all of them.
When we first bought our RV in 2008, one of the first campgrounds we stayed at was The Red Coconut on Ft. Meyers Beach. We had a fun time there. Look at it now! It’s completely gone!! So hard to believe. So sad.
We want to thank each one of you for your many well wishes for our safety during
this catastrophic hurricane. We truly appreciated you thinking of us. We are so blessed to have each one of you in our lives. You are so special to us. Thank you again.
There are 26 photos. Remember to keep scrolling and scrolling way, way down until you have seen them all.
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Dave&Linda
non-member comment
Big. IAN.
Great to hear that you’re doing well, better safe than sorry.watching news from Florida sure makes you sad for so many people. We hope to be there by the first of next month looking forward to seeing you!!