Friends, Family & Fotos

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Forget the Hot Weather blast known as true Florida weather. We even had one day in Orlando when the record broke...hit 90’. Since then, a cold spell moved in: 40’s - 60’s. Sorry to our Northern family and friends who just snort at that. You all know what chilly temps truly mean.... Sam buries himself deeper into his warm and cozy nest inside his motor home. He prefers to hibernate like a bear in winter when the chilly breeze strikes. Even if we constructed a huge flea market outside the front his RV, I don’t think he’d poke his nose out their door. We can only wave at him through his window. Of course, he is also staying safe from the coronavirus. Smart Sam.

All alone, except for bestie Lulu, Cory and I headed south to Jupiter, Florida. It is here where our good friends, the Edgley’s, live. Joe used to work at Preheater with Cory. He took an early handshake in 1985 and moved to Jupiter. Lill (his wife) was my best friend. Sadly, she died in 2013. Their 4 children lived here so it all made sense for them to move. It was wonderful to see and be with all of them again. Our visits are too far apart so when we do reunite, we cherish each and every moment. John took us out to dinner at The Thirsty Turtle. A fun place with scrumptious food. Being together: that was the best. Lulu loved being there with Joe. If she could have done a happy dance, she would have been kicking herself high...BUT, we all know that couldn’t happen and why (no legs).

We drove home from Jupiter on the coastal Highway. Delightful. So many new sights to see. We went off course at Vero Beach to try to look up an old friend from Preheater, John McQuillen. Our GPS guided us into and through maze after maze. You’ve been there before...right? Finally, “You have reached your destination” was announced by our GPS. A nice, old gated community way out in nowhere. Cory had to check in at the gate. Nope! No John McQuillen here. He did live here but that was 10 years ago!!. We knew it had been awhile since we had been in contact....but 10 years? Yep. Oh, well. We tried. Hope you are well, John.

As we made ourselves towards Cocoa Beach, we found a cute eatery to check out. Called the Pineapple Point. Made me think of Spongebob Squarepants. Inside was bad. Yes, bad! Noisy, plain, drab with high stool tables. Not for us. Grabbed up Lulu and made our way out. Hey...look! Let’s dine outside on their porch. It was cute & enticing. Others were enjoying themselves here. Lulu loved it! She could rest in their hammock while we ate. Life is good.

Alas. Life may be good but not everything is always perfect in this perfect world...ha! The other day, Cory took his shower. Shortly into it, the hot water turned icy. Yoweee. Uh-Oh. What now? Our House on Wheels gets issues ... just like our stick & brick one did.....but we don’t have to be concerned about that latter one anymore, do we? We are wandering nomads...foot loose and fancy free. We still have to deal with situations that arise in our mobile residence. Once settled in at Tropical Palms, we aren’t alone. We are surrounded by amazing people. Our friendly repairmen are here! Thank God for Dave & Art. They have rescued us more times than not. They are the gurus of all “fix-it men” for everything! They both have brilliant brains. Put them together and you have a ginormous brilliant brain to solve just about anything that needs it. Once presented with a problem, they are all hands on deck. They figured out what part we needed to fix our water heater. Cory was sent on a retrieval mission. Once, part in hand, the dynamic duo went to work. Viola! Our heater was repaired and Cory was back in hot water! Thank you, thank you Dave and Art. You are the best!!

We had a pleasant surprise as we sat outside the RV the other day. Good friends Ray and Sarah came by with their lovely daughter, Marjorie. They sat a spell until they had to move on. Thanks for the visit, friends. Remember, we saw Ray, aka Paul, at the Celebration laboratory when Sam was there.

This past Friday, part of our family arrived here in Kissimmee, Florida. Yippee! Lory (our oldest daughter), hubby Jay and daughter, Sara, will be here for a week staying in our Marriott timeshare. We wish it could be for longer. Our timeshare is located near SeaWorld in an area called Cypress Harbor. We bought it pre-construction and they are now having their 35th anniversary celebration (the timeshare...not Lory & Jay). Amazing how much time has passed! We can vividly remember the day we first stayed there. Ooooo, we thought and knew we were staying in a magnificent resort. From Days Inn to this.....oh, wowee! We felt like royalty. Our family has certainly enjoyed the condo and all its amenities over all these years. Cory & I and our children used to stay in it but when we got our beloved dog, Chip, we couldn’t: not pet friendly. That’s why we bought an RV. An expensive mobile dog house but worth every penny. Even though Chip has gone to dog heaven’s rainbow bridge, we love our RV and prefer staying in it. Our families get to utilize our timeshare to its fullest. We are happy they can.

We swore up and down to every Greek, Roman, ancient and all Gods everywhere, we would never again listen to anymore of their (timeshare) sales pitches. NEVER, NEVER, NEVER. Did I say “never ?” Shame on me! Fickle me! .....‘cause here we were; plunked down in front of one of their relentless salesmen trying to get us to buy points in order to move from one timeshare resort to another, stay longer or do whatever. Who cares.....not us! Why did we cave you ask. Was a gun pointed at our heads? Was our family threatened? Was Lulu kidnapped and this was the ransom? Nope! A $250.00 Visa Card! That’s why. We figured we could suffer for 75 minutes for $250. Money talks. We met at Marriott’s newest Lakeshore Reserve located on the grounds of the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton. Gorgeous. Having been to this rodeo many times before, we knew what to expect. Happy greeting, free coffee and doughnuts and then the wait in a quiet space for the sales rep. A nice Latino man came for us. Tricky name so I can’t recall it, let alone say it. Come into my office said “the spider to the flies”. And the door closed tightly behind us. I had planned to do an out-of-body experience to allow the time to pass as quickly as possible. Cory could handle himself. Rats! My plan failed. This nice gentleman made straight-on, penetrating, direct eye contact with me and wouldn’t let it go. Why me? Cory is right next to me. Does he think I am the weaker one? I planted my pleasant, sweet, fake smile on my face and tried to let my mind wander. His piercing eyes prevented this! When my smiling mask melted, I tried gazing around his tiny office. A big TV with Marriott photos on the screen was right next to me. I stared interestingly (fake, fake, fake) at the TV. Occasionally, Mr. Piercing Eye looked at Cory. Whew! Now, I could look at my watch. Why aren’t the hands moving?! Were they glued? Did my battery die? Is my watch broken? Nah....time was just moving s-l-o-w-l-y.....very slowly. Yawn! He had to sense we weren’t interested in anything but the Visa Card.....but, yet, he pushed forward. Could I pull off a fake sickness? Should I act like I had the coronavirus? You have to be kidding!! Now it’s him who is sneezing and blowing into a Kleenex. We repelled back in our chairs. We should jump up in fear and run out. Go, legs, go!! We can’t. We had to sign a statement that we would stay the full 75 minutes in order to get the a Visa card. What some people won’t do for money! Eventually, after he realized he couldn’t shatter our thick glass wall, he said “Well, what do you want from Marriott?” Of course, we wanted to say “The Money.” Not wanting to appear greedy, instead I said “We want to sell our timeshare!” He was shocked. I knew he would be. Where did that come from? What kind of response is that? Now we were really heading in the wrong direction from what he wanted us to do so he just shut up. Thanked us and said one more person had to close out our meeting. Ho-Hum. An enthusiastic, pleasant fellow flew into the cage where we were confined. Straight out, he asked if we were going to buy points. NOPE! His head dropped down onto the desk. So be it. It was over. We were free....free at last and $250 richer. Hip-Hip-Hooray; we survived to see another day!

On to better times.....we quickly found our family at Cypress Harbor. Nothing special planned except a day of relaxation with them. After enduring the boring and irrelevant timeshare talk....we needed that. Lory and I prepared a ham dinner but that was the extent of our “duties”. Jay & Cory were affixed to the golf game on the TV. Sara is always entertained when in contact with her friends via her smartphone. More adventures are planned with them. Next blog....

Let’s cut this off for now. My times and days are all mixed up. It didn’t help with Daylight Light Savings Time when Cory put our clocks an hour back. I wondered why I was so alert and bright at at 6:15 AM. That is not me! Never! We are up to par now. I think.

We are including a few additional photos for your enjoyment. Some came from others on Facebook. Some I took. I found them intriguing and wanted to share them with of you. Enjoy your day! Total of 21 photos so don’t forget to scroll way down so you see them all. ?

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Photos

Joe & Cory
Lulu & Joe

Linda, Joe & John
Sandy, Joe & Cory

Fancy corvette with handicap tag
Lock your bike to keep it safe! Hah!!

Comments

[DeAnne McKay]

Family friends fotos
Those seminars are the worst!! Ours went over 2 hrs until I said we felt like captives!!! Blew the money on dinner anyway!!! Loved that!!!

[Sandy and Cory]

HaHa
You know it. We blew ours taking our daughter and granddaughter to Ron-Jon’s!