Travels with Snowbirds 2012 Port Orange, FL

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Friday January 20 and Saturday January 21, 2012, Daytona Beach KOA

Friday was a pretty lazy day. The Space Coast LOWs are a laid back bunch, they like to eat and sit around and talk. So, I obliged, and probably gained weight, as there really isn’t anywhere to walk, just around the loop of the campground. Winston barked at the new situations. There are many dogs here, and the space between rigs is narrow. No matter whether I left him inside or harnessed outside, each time he saw a new dog he barked.

The people here are interesting; most live in the general area 50 miles north, west, and south of Daytona Beach. At 65 I am the youngest. The oldest is Mike at 82 who I love and adore. He uses oxygen all day as a result of his years smoking, and as a welder. He feels some of his difficulties come from pushing the asbestos out of the areas he had to weld. He truly is a southern gentleman with a great sense of humor and I like spending time with him, he has great stories of his youth, his wives and his memories in general. Mary, 77, a van camper, I have met before. She is the new president of the club and has travelled all over the world and is planning her 4^th trip to Alaska in the same van, either this summer or next summer. Gloria, around 70, lived in NJ for many years and started the LOW club that I was a member of. She is very active with the local Red Cross and is always running off for some emergency or another. Dotty, don’t know how old, also uses oxygen. She recently lost her companion, and is still very sad over that. She lives very close to this campground; she did not bring her camper and went home at night. Her son cooked 2 meals for us and delivered them. A very good looking ex Marine, his stuffed chicken breasts and gravy were so tender, I actually was able to cut it with the edge of my fork. Jack, 79, also spent time in NJ when he worked for AT&T in the 60s. He saw them break ground for both the Verrazano Bridge and the World Trade Centers.

I was thinking of unhooking and making my way to the Daytona Flea Market, and mentioned it at one of our get togethers, and Mike popped right up and said he would take me if I wanted to go, then others chimed in, so Saturday at 10 we took off on a goonie adventure with Mike at the wheel. (picture herein) We teased him, as he had 3 ladies, windows down and country music blaring. He really isn’t able to walk around a lot, so he stayed in his car and listened to his music and was very happy. I bought produce and a neon green Daytona Beach T shirt with rhinestoned sandals, cool, right? Laugh. No, tacky and tasteless, but I love it. This place was so big… many main aisles with small aisles off it. I had to stick to the main aisle off the entrance I came in or I would have gotten lost.

I managed to crochet for hours and hours, and almost have the baby blanket done and it will be in the mail to you, JD, sometime this week.

I heard from Ginnie and we are both anxious to meet up again tomorrow in Orlando for the next 2 weeks. We have lots more goonie adventures planned.

And back to my rig after Saturday’s dinner and downloaded the TV Guide Mobile app and saw that The Guardian is on TNT, an awful movie, but one of my favorites for the memorable dialogues. One of my favorites somewhat Englishized:

Hell, I've always been old. Ya' know what though, I don't mind. I mean if my muscles ache, it's because I've used them. It's hard for me to walk up the steps now; it’s because I walked up them every night to lay next to a man who loved me. I got a few wrinkles here and there, but I've lain under thousands of skies with sunny days. I look and feel this way, because I drank and I smoked. I lived and I loved, danced, sang, sweat and screwed my way through a pretty damn good life if you ask me. Getting old ain't bad. Getting old, that's earned.

Kat Out

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