To The Great Outdoors - #51-03

January 11, 2005 (Tue) Lakeland, FL - The big activity of the day today was preliminary planning for our trip to Alaska. It looks like we'll all meet in Dawson Creek, British Columbia on June 20, go up the Alaska Highway, tour Alaska and get back to Prince George, BC via the Cassiar Highway by about September 1. It's going to be great fun! The other big activities were a trip to Walmart in the afternoon and a rousing game of dominoes in the evening. What a life!

January 13, 2005 (Thu) Lakeland, FL -The last couple of days have been devoted to relaxation, chores, dominoes and fun. We shopped, napped, puttered, read and nibbled. We talked about travel, hand crafts, model trains, and our Alaska trip. Each morning we took a three mile (more or less) walk with Bob and Pat. Our noon and evening meals were pot luck - except when we went out to eat at a Chinese buffet. Thanks Ed and Kathy for being such wonderful hosts. It will be hard to leave tomorrow.

Q009544 Ed and Kathy's yard (x4)

------------------

January 14, 2005 (Fri) Lakeland, FL to Titusville, FL (112 miles) - We woke in the night to the sound of our automatic skylight vent closing. It had begun to rain and it was soon coming down in buckets. The sound of rain on the roof was so soothing and comforting! "Is the vent in the bathroom closed?" "I think so." "Good." It wasn't! In the morning the rug was a swamp and the towels and bathing suit hung to dry in there were wetter then they started. The clean up after our showers was more involved this time. Every surface had to be wiped down and dried. Luckily the toilet paper stayed dry though. Breaking camp was a wet process in the pouring rain and we were all soaked by the time we were ready to go. Bob and Pat took off first and we followed an hour or so later at 10:00. Ed and Kathy were leaving for a camping weekend too, but they still had more packing to do.

Bob and Pat had heard on the news that I-4 was backed up with a bad traffic accident with a fuel spill. They hadn't heard where it was but we all assumed that it was West toward Tampa - we were going East. But the Polk Parkway leading to I-4 which we took, after a detour to a discount mall, was backed up for 6 miles. A half hour later and after going only a mile or so we were able make an illegal turn onto an exit ramp and get off the parkway. Joy and Henry collaborated to work out a way to I-4 further east where we found the traffic moving at full speed. But it didn't last long. We ran into another traffic jam approaching Orlando and yet another on the Bee Line Expressway by-passing Orlando. I-95 northbound was not a problem though. But then, we were only on it a short distance.

Dorcas (Mark's sister) and Mike met us at the visitor's center of The Great Outdoors RV-Nature & Golf Resort where they were staying and led us to our site - which they own (they are renting another site for themselves this winter). Before, during and after a shared meal of chili and salad in their fifth-wheel we did much visiting and catching up.

January 15, 2004 (Sat) Titusville, FL - We slept in this morning because Dorcas and Mike were going to take us on a walking tour of the resort and they did - about a 3 mile walk. After lunch we went out on our bicycles to see more of it - 8 miles.

The Great Outdoors RV-Nature & Gulf Resort is not really a campground although there are areas that look like one and in some ways it is operated like one - a traveler can obtain a campsite for a night or two (or a month or two) and move on. But the sites, and there are hundreds, are all individually owned. It is actually a planned community where the "homeowners" are RV owners. Each "lot" has facilities for an RV (mostly large motor homes) whether they be only a concrete pad with hookups or a half million dollar home with an over sized garage. Some areas have lots improved with a shed only - our site is one - or sheds and a sun room (gazebo). Others are improved with roofs to cover the RVs. Still others have an additional building containing a kitchen, bathroom, and sitting room. And some have real houses to satisfy any taste. There is an 18 hole golf course, two swimming pools, a rec hall, a church, a library, a restaurant, a nature center, and a welcome center. Golf carts are the transportation of choice. These range from the lowly electric model available at most public golf courses to gasoline models designed to look like little cars with price tags approaching $10,000.

Q009656 The Great Outdoors RV-Nature & Gulf Resort #440 Oak Cove Rd