A Quick Recap of our Winter

Back by popular demand - well at least a pop of 1, but thanks to a friend who expressed an interest in my continuing, I was motivated to reinstate this blog after almost a year absence. The absence was in part because it had become labor intense to use this web site. So when I was unable to use it at all, I was forced to figure out the problem and it seems that google has made it necessary to use their browser if you want to use their web site. I can accommodate that since they are giving me this for free, but it seems that they might have given me a clue before I got frustrated and quit. But all is working now so I am back.

In looking back, the last post was on the cusp of my 65th birthday and here I am about to have another birthday in 2 months. But lets not rush that one. Medicare has been a godsend and I will not expound on that except to say that I am in good health.

There is so much catching up to do that I won't even go into the fact that the whole family was here for the week between Christmas and New Year's and what a great chaotic time it was. Our southern visitors were thrilled that we had so much snow. and the day they left it was coming down in droves. Unfortunately, that was the beginning of the polar vortex which ultimately chased us all the way down to Florida.

We arrived in Atlanta, covered with a layer of salt on everything, on a lovely 50 something degree day only to hear the weather forecast that two days later the temperature was going to drop to 4. Yes, that's right. I did NOT leave out a zero. We said hello to our kids, had dinner, went to church and breakfast the next morning and headed out of town not stopping until we were over the border into Florida. Unfortunately the first several nights down there were still well below the freezing mark and all we could do was thank our lucky stars that it wasn't worse. Eventually it did warm up and we had a great winter doing most of the usual things previously recorded here over the years. The year was a little different though as we had a few more visitors from home making the time fly by even faster than usual.

The highlights of our year included

• Venice - our stepping off point and always a favorite at Oscar Shearer State Park. We have been going there enough years now that we have made friends with the regulars in the park.



Yes there were four more that didn't fit in the pic.

• Lakeland: Most of the Silver Spokes were around for a good part of our time there. Who says you can't serve a full corned beef dinner to 12 adults in one RV during the pouring rain?
• We took a few day trips: we went over to Tarpin springs to ride the Pinellas bike trail, go sponge shopping, and have a nice Greek lunch.

  

  The Boardwalk at Disney World

• Of course, thanks to our friends Lynn and Becky, there were the annual trips to Disney.
• We have made a day at Fort DeSoto Park an annual tradition.
• The Strawberry Festival. Don and Nancy fell in love with Savannah Jack and returned for a second day.
• And, of course, finally, the usual amount of golf, bike riding, hiking, and bird watching.

The highlight of our winter, however was St. Augustine. This is one of the most beautiful cities in the world to me and it never fails to thrill us. This year we were honored by the presence of Elizabeth and the boys from Atlanta for their spring break. Words cannot express the shear joyfulness of these boys. Like all the Chilson kids they totally love the water, as long as they don't overhear the adults talking about jellyfish. Drew fell and scraped his leg on some shells and you will never convince him it was not a jellyfish bite. They spent their first night sleeping in the "bus" with the usual treatment of movies and snacks. And, of course, no trip to St. Augustine is complete without enjoying at least one sunrise on the beach.