How the Other Half Lives

I last left you at Clark Family Campground and we were just not feeling the whole full-time RV thing yet.  Well I am happy to report that we did leave town and have been a few places now.  I’ll catch you up, but it will likely take a few posts.

The Other Half

I signed up for a scrapbooking weekend back in August of 2016, and it was for January in Titusville, FL.  My pitch for paying for 3 days of crafting fun with friends included the big hotel savings.  “Hey, we can just take the RV to Titusville and I won’t need a hotel room”, I tell the money man.  Sounded like a plan so we scouted out some places.  The choice was easy since all close places were sold out for that timeframe except the Great Outdoors RV & Golf Resort.  Emphasis on RESORT.

I did indeed save on the hotel room for 2 nights, but we are pretty sure this is our hands down most expensive week in the RV so far.  Lots of amenities, but lots of rules and high dollar, too.  This place has a golf course as the name implies, along with its own church, library, restaurant, RV sales center, and oodles of stocked lakes.  One was even named Lake Judy.

It also had an enforced 15 mph speed limit, deadline for putting out your garbage, rules for RV leveling jacks, absolutely no motorcycles, and not a lot of places for dogs to do their thing.  The postage stamp fenced dog park was a car drive away.  Oh, and we had to have our pass scanned by the security guard every time we entered.  Of course I paint a bad picture.  It was absolutely immaculate and we had the best grass of anyplace we’ve been.  The people were super friendly and the view was gorgeous.

As to the other half comment, this place really had a lot of high end coaches and more motorhomes than we normally see.  They have a size limit of course – can’t be smaller than a certain length and absolutely no tents or pop-ups.  Meh.  The sites range from just a cement pad (our site) all the way up to a full house complete with RV and car garages.  Here’s the visual….

Us – just the pad, nuthin’ but the pad

Port sites

And the Big House

Not only are these pricey spots, but apparently you also must have a swanky golf cart to go with them.  These were a hoot – everything including a model T, old-fashioned truck and the ’57 Chevy.

This baby is for sale!  You can own it for a mere $6,000!

We did enjoy the view from our site.  Right on the 15th tee.  I don’t know much about golf, but pretty sure the guys rooting around for their balls in the pond by us were not having the best day.  Plus there really was an alligator in there and he came cruising by after I scooped up a bucket of pond water.  I’ll explain the pond water later.

Our golf course gator giving me the eye

And here is our view from our humble cement pad….

The 15th fairway

Jackson’s not really dead

Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area

Since we were feeling a little out of place at the resort and Jackson was missing his trails, we ventured down the road just a few miles to do some hiking.  The Tosohatchee Wildlife Management Area doesn’t even have a manned gate, but it does have lots of wildlife and peaceful trails.  We paid our money at the little kiosk and set off for unpaved places.  It was the last day of Hog Dog – we assume hog hunting with dogs, so I was a little apprehensive hiking with hunters nearby.  We steered clear of their parking spots and found the perfect place.  Not another soul to be seen.

Jackson waiting for Mom

Burned palm

We walked through an area with a recent controlled burn and I thought the burned palm trunks were interesting.  Jackson got his trail dogging time and we did not find any ticks.  Success on all fronts.  We liked this place so much that we went back again before leaving the area.

Couldn’t resist this the photo op at the totally tacky tourist shop on the way to the wildlife management area.  Pretty big gator, I must say!

Getting Crafty

The whole reason for this particular stop was my need for craftiness.  I went with friends Patti and Mary so I could stock up on cards.  I hadn’t had much time for that lately with all the house-selling work.  We had a grand time and I made 52 cards!  Yes, I’m stocked for quite a while and finally getting those Christmas thank-yous in the mail.

We had a great dinner out at Fat Kahuna’s in Cocoa Beach.  I highly recommend if you are ever in the area.  That location also afforded a great view of the Atlas V rocket launch that was scrubbed from the previous night.  We ducked out of the restaurant to see the launch, then ducked back in for dessert.  Fab.

Here we are, taking a break to recharge the creative batteries…

Patti, Mary & Judy with our well-dressed silent type.

Now don’t let this next picture shock you too much…..

 

Pat says he is most definitely NOT scrapbooking.  He is “decorating”.  Yeah, right.  Anyhoo, he is a total fan of Calvin and Hobbs, but realized that we couldn’t schlep around the whole set of comics in book form.  He’s been re-reading, laughing out loud, and tearing his favorites out of the books.  Now he’s “decorating” the maintenance & travel planning notebook with then.  He’s using my crafting trimmer, so I say he’s scrapbooking!

 

 

My New Hobby

I read somewhere that you need a new hobby for 2017.  Like a hole in the head, but ok, I’ll find one.  I actually snorted when I read that, but then this magazine comes that I didn’t order and it hooks me with a new hobby.  They have an article in there about epiphytes and how air plants are fun to grow and don’t require soil.  Genius!  A non-messy plant for the RV!

I tell the money man that I’m ordering me up some air plants.  He’s used to such crazy pronouncements by now.  I don’t just get one. Oh no, I need five.  Well one is a set of three, so really only three….  They come in cool sea urchin shells that I just cannot resist.  I order and we promply drop into 30 and 40 degree temps.  They specifically say these plants need to be in 50-90 degree temps so I worry about them during the whole shipping time.

My new babies arrive and Pat says I cannot call them babies.  He says I call everything that – him, Jackson, Ethan, and he never knows who/what I’m referring to.  So eensies then.  My new eensies arrive and this is how I get back to that bucket of water from the golf course pond.  (and you thought I forgot)  The care card says they prefer pond water and both Clark Family campground and this spot have a pond.  So I water from the pond, and thus the reason for grabbing a bucketful from the alligator infested spot on the golf course.

Here they are – my fleet of eensies that require no soil.  The one on the far right is actually from the wildlife management area.  I discovered them free in the woods on trees and rotten stumps.  They even have pretty blooms!  Of course this is when Pat says, “yeah, those things fell out of our trees at home and I mowed over them”.  Now when we see one on the ground he says “look there’s $20 on the ground!”.  Moon-faced assassin of joy.  (Babylon 5 lovers will know this reference)  So yes, I paid for these things that I can apparently find for free in the woods.  Not the same at all I say.  Those do not come with sea urchin shells.  And any new ones I adopt will help me make use of the china napkin ring holders that I just could not part with and had no use for.  The newbie gets one as you can see in the picture.

The Happy Place

Our next stop is back to Orange City and to my mother-in-law’s happy place – Blue Spring State Park.  It is again too close to home, but back to nature and with plenty of peace and quiet.  Or so we thought.  Stay tuned for that post and house update.

See you on the way!