Dateline Florida

It's been very hard getting to the blog this past month. First my computer crashed. It is amazing how this can complicate your life, but more on that at another time Also, since we arrived in Florida we have been busier than usual. We've been doing this snowbird thing for long enough now that we have figured out a routine of returning to the places we most enjoy. By doing so we meet many of the same people from year to year and we actually have a social life.



Brunch in the Lunde motorhome

This year we spent a few days in Claremont which is near Orlando to be near our dear old friends Lynn and Becky. Don's friendship with Lynn goes back to school days. They live full time in their motorhome and since they winter in Florida, it is a great opportunity to keep that important relationship alive.

On the Legacy Trail

There is a whole community of campers who do the same thing we do and our paths cross every so often especially at Oscar Shearer State Park. Here we attend  exercise class three times a week, music jams on Thursdays, and pancake breakfast on Thursday mornings. Thus we have made a few new friends with whom to share a campfire, bike ride, or dinner.

We can always count on finding good entertainment in Venice. This year it was a Neil Diamond  tribute band at the Community Center. We enjoyed our first games of golf since December 1st  in Venice and of course we always love the Legacy bike trail.

11 mile all trail hike

One of the major attractions this park holds for me is the many hiking trails and again we were there to participate in the all trails hiking event. 11 miles of trails on a Saturday morning and as a reward you receive a hot dog and bag of chips.

We never made it to the beach due to an influx of the red tide. I never realized the impact of this phenomenon. Not only does it kill the fish, (there were hundreds lying belly up in the canal along the bike trail), but also it gets in the air and plays havoc on your lungs. We coughed the whole time we were there.

This is a Liger (not misspelled) and the lion

We have been visiting Sarasota for thirty years - ever since my parents moved there in the eighties -  and we still manage to find some new adventure. This year we found the Bigcat Habitat in Sarasota. This is a refuge for unwanted exotic animals, mainly lions, and tigers and bears. Oh my. These animals are housed in much the same way as our own Brookfield Zoo. While kept in cages, they are given time to roam free and run in the yard as frequently as they need to. They give a demonstration of how they train them and it is unbelievable how close we actually get to them. Fortunately there are no less than two barriers between them and us. As always, our travelling buddies Nancy and Phil have been with us since we arrived in OS.

 The day after we arrived at Sanlan, our base campground in Lakeland, we were joined by many of our Woodridge friends . We had a wonderful 2 days just hanging together. It is the presence of our fellow Woodridge wanderers, occasional visits from friends and family, and familiar faces welcoming us back to Sanlan that keep me from getting terribly homesick and make this place start to feel more like our winter home than merely our winter refuge from the cold.

Nancy and Sue

Phil, Don, Ed, and Larry



Me and Judy