Another record

This is not one of the those you put on the wall records, but a new length of time between blog posts.  We have remained reasonably busy including a trip to northern GA to visit our grandson's family.  This was a long weekend and nearly a thousand mile adventure.

We took Victoria to the local privately owned zoo, which hosted a very nice Christmas display supporting the U S Marine's Toys for Tots program on the night of our visit.

Our Winnebago club gathered at the  Topsail Resort State Park for their annual Christmas celebration campout.  This is a great place to spend some time, if you are in the Florida panhandle.

We have also been busy with annual physicals that resulted in some unexpected additional visits and admittedly some stress.  We hope to be finished with all of that early in the new year.

Finally, we have been decorating a house for Christmas for the first time in seven years!  Our daughter Katie and SIL Dain have been able to join us from Ohio for the holiday. On Dec 5th, we celebrated the Dutch tradition of St Nicholas arriving and leaving small presents in our wooden shoes.

We wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!           

Happy Thanksgiving

We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Interlopers

The last week has quickly come and gone.  Our youngest daughter, Katie flew down from Ohio to celebrate her birthday with us.  This called for the cake baking team to assemble and make their first ever gluten free cake.  The youngest member of the team was fully engaged in the process from beginning to end.  It was a great way to start the birthday bash!

Next on our list was to head west for a club rally.  We left a day early to spend a night at the Gulf State Park in Gulf Shores. AL.  We were there almost exactly one year ago, but did not get to enjoy the park or the area much, since we had both come down with serious colds that saw us spending most of our time resting around the motorhome.  This time we enjoyed the great park and looking over the area.

Then it was on to Foley, Al and the Bella Terra RV Resort for our Winnebago Club gathering.  The resort is fairly new and is one of those that sells lots to those who own class A  motorhomes over 32 feet and less than 15 years old.  It was very nicely done with spacious sites and great landscaping and amenities.  We did not have to worry about any hard sell as we only managed to meet one of the three entry criteria to own a lot, or to rent one for that matter.  We felt a bit like interlopers sneaking in as a poor relation.  Despite our lack of proper pedigree we managed to have a great time.

If you can meet the requirements, it is a great location as a base to explore the area.

The Rally

After leaving Mayport Naval Station, we made a stop at Anastasia State Park in St Augustine to have lunch with old friends and then on to the rally.  After leaving the Naval base, we entered an extended period of no internet.   Each time this happens, I am amazed  how much we rely on and miss this connection to the rest of the world.

This was our first Good Sam Rally and we found it to be very well  organized with a lot of fun.  It turned out afterwards  that there were a number of people there that we knew.  With over 3000 rigs and the large grounds of the Daytona Speedway, it would be difficult to just run across each other.

There was certainly plenty to do , from looking at the latest RV's to all the vendors and entertainment.  We did manage to get lots of walking in.

We really enjoyed looking at some of the classic rigs on display and talking with their owners.  They are a very special group of RVers.  

We were invited to the VIP reception, I think because we bought a new RV from Camping World.  It was a great time and we got to spend some time in the Speedway Museum .

One of the things that brought us to the rally is our enjoyment of Country Western music.  Kenny Rogers and Reba McIntyre were the main entertainment at the rally and they both put on terrific shows.  I developed my country music flare as a kid.  My mother would play all the big names of the day while she cooked an cleaned and it just stuck with me.

We thoroughly enjoyed the rally and would certainly like to attend another in the future!

The end!