June 5, 2001
Well, we're still at Thousand Trails Orlando, with a departure date of Friday the 8th. Unless I pick up the mail early tomorrow, and then who knows when we'll hit the road.
The "rangers" (the name for staff at the Thousand Trails "preserves") are hoisting the flag for Memorial Day. Smaller gathering to watch than I'd anticipated. Most were vets like me. Makes me wonder a bit if we're missing something in our educating of the younger people. Like what kinds of sacrifices have been made for their pleasures. I wonder how many of them enjoying this lifestyle with their young kids would be willing to serve their country like so many have. How many "yuppies" would be willing to quit their plush positions, give up the fancy cars etc., to go risk their lives in combat so others could enjoy the freedoms we still have left in this great country of ours. Ah, well, the musings of a sentimental old man? Perhaps. On the right is one of a pair of Sandhill Cranes that live here. They have little fear of us, nor do they seem to expect handouts, which is a good thing. The "adult" swimming pool on the left there, and just out of range on the right is the "family" pool.
Across from us, and then I walked into that space and took a picture of us. Or at least of Moby Dick and the Road Abode.
One of the things that TT (Thousand Trails) does is have rental units for friends, family, or us if we're traveling without our "home." All those trailers on the left are rental units. On the right is an example of the park that isn't in the "natural" area. Several distinct areas here. With over 750 spaces, it's easy to do that.
If you squint, you can see Barby on her bike near the activity building. Cafeteria style dinners and breakfasts (weekends only this time of year), small snack bar, recreational equipment for the horseshoes, shuffleboard, pee-wee golf, tennis, lifejackets and either paddles or oars for whichever kind of boat you wanted for the lake. On the right is what the entrance looks like.
The welcome center on the left where guests can find out about how the TT system works, and on the right is the catch & release pond (some good sized fish I'm told) and behind that are the swimming pools and an indoor screened-in picnic area. Also, the horse shoe pits, but they're kind of hard to see in this picture.
We had some excitement the other evening. Seems we've stayed in Florida just a tad too long, and it's now their "rainy" season. And along with the rain comes thunder and lightning. Big thunder, and lots of lightning. Trailer shaking thunder, and weather radio warnings about the lightning. It's fun to a point, but when the power keeps going on and off it can be a nuisance, and then when it hits close to us, it's just plain scary. We got good and scared. And then the alarm for the battery charger/inverter went off and showed that way too much voltage was going into the batteries. After fussing with different stuff for a while, we finally shut off all power and went to bed. By then, most of the storm had passed anyway. In the morning, further poking around resulted in the conclusion that our battery charger had been damaged, so I took out the charger/inverter (carefully marking all the wires so I could re-install it correctly) and off we went to Tampa an hour and a half away. After dropping the unit off we found the post office and mailed some stuff, ate lunch, and went to check the progress of the repairs. It was done and being bench tested when we got there. Good things to say about Trace Engineering, their products and their service stations. Roy at Offshore Caribbean really knew what he was doing, and for $144 we were back in business. Fortunately we'd installed a major surge protector in line with the shore power cable, so we didn't get the chance to use our $500 deductible insurance to replace the little $2,000 charger/inverter. All's well that ends well, and we didn't even lose anything in the freezer or refer.
Plan is to leave here Friday (unless the mail comes in tomorrow, and then all bets are off) and head for St. Louis to harass the grandkids and their parents, stopping by to visit my friend Jack Daniels in Lynchburg, Tennessee, on the way. Many, many years ago my friend and business partner Terry Laxton recommended me to the distillery and they accepted me as a Country Squire. I have a 1" by 1" plot of land in Moore County as a result, and get letters from various people connected with the distillery inquiring if I'm available to go coon hunting, or some such activity. One time there was a letter from some fellow who claimed there was a chance there might be some civil war mementos hidden somewhere in the vicinity and he wanted to know if I'd mind if he searched on my "property," assuring me that he'd share the reward with me. Clever little advertising gimmicks, and I'll admit I look forward to the letters. Also, at year's end I either get a Farmers Almanac or beautiful calendar from them.
Anyway, we'll be with the kids from about the 18th through the week, and then strike out for the Pacific Northwest for the remainder of the summer/fall, and then head down through California to visit another son and his wife, and my mom who lives in Citrus Heights, near Sacramento. The current plan is to winter out in Arizona or New Mexico, or someplace else warm down that way. Tough being a fulltimer. Hard to make decisions, don't you know. :-)