December 22, 2003 - Ocklawaha, FL - 2
Jim and Elaine (you'll see them in a minute) had joined us on a trip to run some errands, and since Barb and I had heard so much about "The Villages" from Guy and Carol (Barb's sister and brother-in-law in NH), we stopped to see what it was all about. And talk about weird! Not only is the place overrun with golf carts, here's this driving range where they're hitting the balls into the water! And a tree full of cormorants just watching. The fellow by the overturned boat is retrieving some of the balls. They either have some sort of drag system to get the balls back, or they're different balls and float. I couldn't tell from where we were.
Just a little proof of where we were. Sure is nice to have another couple traveling with us to take pictures of the two of us together without the hassle of setting up the tripod. It's obvious it's Christmas time, and even the golf carts are decorated.
This place is the best example of a planned community we've ever seen. Over 38,000 residents in about 35 different villages. Anything you need is within golf cart range. The development got started in the late '60's, and at that time the Bison were few and far between. The development company is family owned, and the original fellow moved a few Bison onto the place, and since none of the 65 or so restaurants serve Buffalo Burgers, the herd is growing nicely. They must be used to being fed regardless of signs asking us not to, and Jim nearly got nibbled by that one. There is a full medical facility here including hospital with helipad and Dr. offices, they have their own utility companies for electricity, water, sewer and garbage. There are shops galore, and nightly live entertainment at the main square. Housing prices range from just over $100,000 to well into the $400,000 range. All the recreation facilities (some 19 executive golf courses, 11 swimming pools, horseshoe pits, tennis courts, pickle ball courts, shuffleboard, etc.) are available to any resident. They even have a polo field where they have spring and fall competitions with players from all over the country. Last year was their first national pickle ball tournament, and naturally the player from Washington State won (where the game originated). But The Villages team came in second, and they're looking to win this year. We really liked the place, and if we ever want to quit the RV lifestyle, this place will be high on our short list of places to consider. 80% of the residents stay all year round, which surprised us. We thought that most would be leaving during the hot and humid summers, but we were assured (on a tour we took later) that most are permanent residents.
John is different. Never did see him smile for a picture, and he has this thing about hammers. Good worker though, and always has something interesting to say about any subject you happen to mention. He was helping me (or was I helping him?) in the shop. We're at the Young Life Southwind camp in Ocklawaha, where we'll be working until the 18th. My job was to do maintenance/repairs on all the landscaping equipment. That kept me (us) busy for 8 days of 6 hours each. The last 4 days were spent doing a variety of things.
That fence behind the sandhill cranes was all rebuilt by the time we were done here. There were 6 couples on this project, and we're all parked in that cluster with full hookups. One travel trailer, one 5th wheel, two gas powered motorhomes and two diesel pushers.
Got lost (naturally) on our way back home from someplace, and saw this entrance to a private estate. Pretty patriotic horse, eh? Fancy digs, that's for sure. Lots of horses around here, and several ranches for breeding as well. Ocala has painted horses all over their public places, kinda like Norfolk VA which has painted mermaids all over the place, and San Antonio, TX, with it's painted cows.
We're decorated for Christmas as well, and Caboose the Goose has her holiday dress on. And since we're on a project, Bob the Builder and his lady are watching us carefully, along with their cat.
Barb gave me fits for taking the picture of our tree with our "junk" all over the place, but hey, that's the way we live, eh? And Gretchen had a birthday while we were there. She and her husband Don (from Michigan) were our group leaders for this project, and great folks. She could tell blonde jokes until our sides hurt and tears streamed down our faces.
Joyce played this beautiful dulcimer, and she and her husband John (the guy in the shop with me) have this puppet ministry where they tell stories and share the gospel with kids. They had "before" pictures of themselves of when they started to loose weight. Joyce has lost over 150 pounds, and John about 175 or so. The differences are great.
These puppets were singing "Happy Birthday" to the December birthday people in the group--was pretty funny. And there's Gretchen, Elaine, Margaret, Barb and Char. Looks like they'd been doing some cleaning someplace (we were cleaning the game room); Joyce is missing from this picture.
Yup, Christmas is coming. Those are afghans Barb crocheted for our oldest two granddaughters. Fun to have her doing projects like that while I'm driving the motorhome someplace. We could do that for the first couple of years before we got the Jeep and she was riding with me in the truck, but since then she's been driving the Jeep while I was driving the truck......and you know how much we liked that! Of course, since she's intent on driving the motorhome more than she drove the truck, after her driving school in late February, all that might change.
Rog (Char's husband), John and I were putting wheels on tables and appliances in the kitchen so they could be moved for cleaning. This swimming pool will be the landing pool for a water slide to be built this winter, and another pool built for swimming. The lake in the background has no 'gator at the moment. They had one removed recently, and usually have to haul one a year out of there. Canoes and other water sports are popular in the lake.
Some shots of some of the buildings here, John on his Rhodes Car, and Rog watching me kicking the mini-bike to get it started. For some reason I've not been able to figure out, every once in a while I have to kick the starter more than once to get it going. I think it's because I flood the engine by mistake, but I'm not sure.
Well, looks like I got it to run again. Then Barb (who was taking pictures, obviously) walked over to the house that was given to the camp last year and took some pictures of the camp from there. The house was owned by a lady sympathetic to the purpose of the camp, and willed it to the camp--a great contiguous addition. The contractor in charge of the water park will be living there during construction, and then it will be a staff house. The land that came with it included another lake as well. Altogether, this camp has about 120 acres. Young Life's mission is to gather up kids, give them a great camping experience, and subtly share the gospel with them during the week or so they're here. While spreading the word about Jesus is always the main purpose of these camps, I personally like the subtle way Young Life does it. Noisy activities that are interesting and challenging and fun come first. Building a relationship where you earn the right to share the gospel is important. Of course, as many of you may know, people like Billy Graham have led plenty of people to Jesus without ever coming into personal contact with them, so there are many different ways to "...go and make disciples of all nations..." aren't there.