Another great day of fellowship!

Pittman Visitor Center
Altoona, FL

There is no shortage of friends to visit in Florida!

Today we drove south 2 hours to visit Jim & Dee and Jim & Judy

where they've been parked at Adelaide Shores for a few months.

George and I really enjoyed their company at the Carolina Clan in October.

Jim showed George their new RAV4 that they just purchased.

We sat in Jim & Dee's rig and chatted awhile when we first got there.

George was looking up everything Jim will need to set up the Wilson Truckers booster antenna.

The four of us took a walk down to the shuffleboard courts where

Jim (Maddox) was playing in a tournament.

We got a quick tour of the clubhouse and pool area too.

Adelaide Shores is a great place to stay,

they have a lot of activities to join in.

The six of us went out for lunch too!

George got to ride with the men in the new RAV,

while Denise and I rode with Judy.

We went to a great Chinese buffet restaurant,

it was very good :-)

It was really great to see them again.

Jim & Judy are heading west towards Oregon at some point,

and Jim & Dee will be heading west too.

Hopefully we'll all hook up again!

Lunch with friends

Pittman Visitor Center
Altoona, FL

We're still amazed at this lifestyle,

and how you can become friends with

people who have the common bond of living in an RV.

Today was no exception to that.

It seems that a lot of RV dreamers are in Florida this winter.

When we knew that this couple was going to be here,

and found out that they weren't that far away,

what better time to get together!

Sherry & David spend their winter months

hopping from Florida state parks to some of the nice springs in the state.

Since they are currently in Blue Springs,

it's the closest park to our location,

we decided to meet them for lunch!

Sherry heard about a little place called

Essex Seafood Two.

We got there a few minutes before them,

and as soon as they walked in

we all gave big welcome hugs :-)

Food was ordered, pretty good seafood,

although it was all fried :-(

The conversation went on for several hours!

George and I really enjoyed spending some time with both of them.

We're really hoping to see them again soon!

Amazon, here we come!

Pittman Visitor Center
Altoona, FL

After a month of waiting, we finally got our phone interview with Amazon.

A very nice man named Kelly e-mailed us separately telling us

to call and schedule an interview.

He indicated that my application was incomplete!

George gave him a call, and I also talked to him. 

Seems there was some sort of mix-up,

but he did a bit of research, and everything is fine :-)

The interview process was very easy,

asking if we could stand several hours (10-12!),

climb stairs, and follow rules.

No problem! 

 

The job will be located at one of their distribution centers

in Campbellsville, KY

We don't know exactly which department we'll be in yet.

There are several, including receiving, picking, packing, and so on.

We did request day shift which is 6 am to 4:30 pm,

and want to start right after Labor Day if possible.

We are looking forward to working with quite a few of our RV friends there.

Not sure how much socializing we'll be doing.

We'll be working 4 days a week, and as it gets busy,

overtime kicks in, and another day will be added.

It will all be worth it as our bank account grows!

Future Plans

Pittman Visitor Center
Altoona, FL

Wow, it's finally nice and warm here in Florida!

It's gotten to the mid 80's the last few days.

George and I have been riding our bikes nearly every day,

trying to push ourselves beyond 2 miles around the work center's track.

I'm trying to make sure we're in a bit better shape when we start Amazon this fall.

When I was in California, I filed our tax return online.

We got a very nice refund, probably one of our last ones perhaps.

George has had his eye on a new Ipad,

so he ordered one on Ebay, and is enjoying it.

My laptop was starting to give me issues as well,

so I ordered a new Toshiba Satellite.

I love it! It's much lighter than my old Dell,

and it has a backlit keyboard, so typing in the dark is easier :-)

We also finally got a Wilson Trucker antenna, and cradle booster

to help pull in more signal for our wifi and phones.

It works great, pulling in 2 additional bars of signal!

We've made our plans for a bit of fun after we leave Florida April 21st.

First we're spending a week at Jekyll Island.

I'm really looking forward to that,

with all the biking areas, history, and nature!

Then we'll go and explore Savannah for 5 days,

staying at Red Gate Campground.

You betcha we'll be riding the trolley,

walking around,

and seeing all the history there too!

After relaxing in those two great areas,

we'll be refreshed for our new workamping job

at the day use gatehouse at Clarks Hill Park, J. Storm Thurmond COE lake!

A great day to visit a sinkhole :-)

Pittman Visitor Center
Altoona, FL

Our time in Florida is almost halfway through!

We still have places we want to see, and things we want to do,

so it was time to get off our butts :-)

Not too far from here, about 33 miles, is the Lake Eaton sinkhole.

There is a trail that goes to an observation platform to see it.

It was a pretty easy hike to get to the sinkhole itself.

There were 188 steps down to get to it!

I'm not sure what I was expecting. 

In my mind, a sinkhole looked like a huge hole with some vegetation :-)

Yup, that's what this was..

It was hard to tell how deep it was, as it was grown up with trees.

Still the hike was nice :-)

We also did the Lake Eaton Loop trail.

It looped around part of the lake, and it was nice.

There weren't a lot of birds to see,

no alligators,

not even a mosquito!

We could see the controlled burn across the lake.

There are fires in the forest almost every day,

done by the fire center.

We hiked a total of 2.57 miles, not a lot,

but we're trying to get conditioned for Amazon.

We treated ourselves to a Bruster's ice cream cone afterwards.

No Jamaica-me-Crazy, Sherry! :-(

Getting back on east coast time..

Pittman Visitor Center
Altoona, FL

I'm finally home!

American Airlines got me from Monterey, CA to

Orlando, FL with no issues on Wednesday.

George met me outside of baggage claim, all smiles :-)

We went out to dinner on the way home.

I was surprised by a couple things when I got home.

George switched our recliners and sofa around!

It's much more comfortable to watch TV from the recliners.

We will have to switch back when traveling, as the sofa won't clear the slide.

George figures we will only position them this way when we're sitting awhile.

George also had one of the workampers here at Ocala make us a sign!

They work in the sign shop, and did a nice job!

I'll need to stain it and apply some paint and varnish,

but I really like it.

Yesterday we did some grocery shopping, then relaxed for the rest of the day.

Last night I got about 3 hours sleep. Being in California for a month

caused my 'circadian rhythm' to be all messed up!

I'll be glad to be back to normal.

Today has been low key with the exception of it being

Valentine's Day..

George gave me some pretty flowers..

and made up a homemade card :-)

We rode our bikes around the Pittman work center,

which is a nice 1/4 mile oval.

We put in 2 miles for today.

I made some homemade soup for our dinner tonight.

The rest of the afternoon was spent soaking up 

some nice Florida sunshine!

We're making some plans while we still have 2 months left here.

We'll be taking a trip over to St. Augustine,

visit a former RVer who lives in southern Florida,

and get together with a few RV dreamers at some point.

This winter is going by pretty fast!

Another birthday celebration

Prunedale, CA

Boy, am I feeling old.

My son Adam's birthday is this Wednesday, 

so I took him and his girlfriend to lunch yesterday.

He's turning 29!

We had a great time talking, and shared some artichoke appetizer.

Earlier in the week, Mom & Dad took me to

a local restaurant called Sea Harvest for lunch.

They serve fresh local seafood,

and the salmon bisque soup in bread bowl was terrific!

The restaurant is right on the water,

so there is no lack of sea lions to entertain..

It's been a great time here in California,

but it's time to go home.

Wednesday I fly out of Monterey airport through LAX to Orlando.

My 6 am flight out is way too early!

Soon I'll be back in Florida, we only have a few more months there!

Helping out

Prunedale, CA

There's not been a lot to report about here in California.

I'm still helping out by doing things around the house.

Today I cleaned out an area of the garage that was 

becoming cluttered with boxes of 'stuff'.

Before

After

We boxed up a lot of old picture frames that were stacked in a box.
It was fun taking out the photographs from them and looking at them.
We all got lots of laughs at some of the older ones :-)
Goodwill will be getting a huge box of empty frames!

George called with good news that the FEMA buyout is now finally complete!
He signed the closing papers, got them notarized, and overnighted via UPS to Pennsylvania.
We should have the funds wired in to our account within a week.
Only took 2 1/2 years!

I booked my flight home, on Wednesday, 2/12.
My Mom bought the return ticket :-)
George will be happy to have me home, I'm sure.
I think my parents will be sorry to see me go.

A few more doctors appointments this week for them.
We see my Dad's oncologist again tomorrow,
and he has a few more questions about remission for her.

It has been a great month here!