We are approaching Christmas season-- a time with family and friends, where tensions and emotions are high. It is a season for --(for)giving or forgiving. In certain situations, forgiving is more important than for giving gifts. We have a choice. Let this Christmas be a time where family and friends are important. Jesus was born at Christmas and He is the reason for the season. It is the season where we celebrate His birthday. It is not about what we want or demand.
We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and let this Christmas be the one you all will remember.

We have enclosed pictures of our 5th wheel and the Heritage Hall,where we met for functions, all decked out in Season Splendor.

American Thanksgiving Day. November 23rd was American Thanksgiving and the park had a Thanksgiving dinner at the club house. The turkeys were supplied and everyone who attended the dinner had to bring a dish. Everyone had their fill of tasty food, fun and fellowship was enjoyed by all. Pictures were taken at the Thanksgiving dinner.

Today, December 11th , I did my first official golf game. My putting wasn't too bad but my driving needs more work. More practice will improve my game. I will blog my progress and hopefully I will be able to report improvement.

This is the view of the club house from our 5th wheel. We are 4 sites from the building , close to all functions. On the left side of the building is the office and post office and on the right side are the washrooms,showers and laundry. In the middle is the place where we play and have fun with our new friends The mangers in this RV park work hard at keeping this park clean. This morning the maintenance crew were replacing fresh flowers in the flower beds. They were planting annuals and poinsettias which just doesn't add up at this time of the year for me. More Canadians came in this weekend and 2 couples moved across the road from us. The park has huge trees called LIVE OAKS which have different leaves than the oak trees at home, the leaves do not fall off and they produce acorns. These treesb are protected and are not allowed to be cut down and permission has to be obtained to trim the branches. For more information on Southern Aire click here

We arrived to Southern Aire RV Resort November 1st. Our first impression was.."We are in the boonies" way out in the country. The people are nice and were willing to help out anyway they could. Most of them have been at this park from 10-20 ++years. Once we set up we had to get some groceries and asked for directions to the nearest grocery store, only to find out that we are surrounded by shopping centres which we are still trying to discover. Major shopping centre including a large mall is only 15 mins away and many in between. It took us the rest of the week to set up and get organized. Stew washed and waxed the trailer and truck. On Saturday Nov 4th he went golfing with some guys from the park. I even purchased golf clubs for myself, I am now in the retirement ranks officially. I have gone out once to hit a bucket of balls and much practice is required before I'll tackle the golf course. As for the organizing the inside of the trailer is a on going process and will be discussed at a later date. At Southern Aire we can be busy all day long and still not get to do everything,so we have to pick and choose. So far we go to Monday morning meeting to get weekly updates, Tuesday and Wednesday evenings we play cards, Thursday evening we go to a Bible study at a couples home from the church we attend,Friday evening we go to spaghetti supper at another church, then there is golfing, shopping , walking,biking and driving around discovering new areas. Oops!! forgot the laundry day. On Sunday's we attend Bay Life Church which we like very much. More about the church at a later blog.

Our next destination is to Suawannee Valley Campground in White Springs, Fl. We were anxious to see the staff at Suawannee Valley campground and see if any of the people we met last December were there this year. We arrived Sunday, October 29th at approx. 2:30 pm. Ada was working in the office again this year and it was great to see her. Nothing has changed , the campground looks the same. There was no one from last year around. Oh well!!. We stayed at Suawannee valley Campground until Wednesday, November 1st. While at White Springs we decided to get 2 new tires for the 5th wheel at Lake City. While driving through White Springs we noticed that plant or perhaps it was a tree that looks like a yucca plant was cut down. I was glad that I took a picture of it last December, so I am enclosing the photo in today's blog. It is the plant/tree on the fore front closest to the side walk. So off we go to Thonotosassa, our winter home from November 1st-March 31st.

TABLES USED FOR STORAGE






















THE DAM
On Tuesday morning October 24th ,our destination was to Radcliff, Kentucky. We stayed at Homestead RV Campground. The speed bumps were so high that it was difficult for the 5th to go over. The next morning, we were back on I65 heading south to Nashville, Tennesse, which we arrived to at around 2:30pm. We didn't spend any time there; that will be for another time. Instead,we headed on Hwy 40E to meet our friends,Chuck and Jane. They were staying at Long Branch Campground. This campground is a US Army Corps of Engineers campground. It's situated in the hills of Tennesse,near a dam,with only 60 sites. This campground had one unusal feature-at every campsite was a structure that looked like a table with a roof . It's used to store your food and items which comes in handy if you are tenting (see the 2 top pictures). We stayed here for two days with Chuck and Jane and we had lots of fun. We even went to play Friday afternoon, called "Sanders Family Christmas." The setting was December 24,1941 at the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church in Mount Pleasant, North Carolina. The play was at Cumberland County Playhouse which may have seated 100 people and we felt we were part of the play,since the setting was in the church and we were the congregation. The play was funny and it had some sad scenes. It rained Thursday and Friday so we were not able to hike on one the many trails that were in that area. Regardless, we had fun and had a chance to visit with Chuck and Jane,our friends.

While at Long Branch we did some sight seeing . These are some of the pictures of the area. The countryside is hilly and the leaves were changing. It was a beautiful sight.

Saturday morning on October 28th we were on the road again at around 10 am. Our destination today is to Troy, Alabama. we went through Birmingham and Montgomery. In Montgomery, we expiernced God's protection and His favour.On I65 ,we had a blow-out on one of the second tires of the 5th wheel. We were able to get off the next exit and hold and behold there were a number of Alabama's finest-the policemen and we asked them where we were able to get our tire changed (we had a spare with us). we were directed to a tire shop around the corner,two blocks away. In matter of 20 minutes we were back on I65 on our way. We were the minority and we were treated with respect and friendly attitudes. That was God's favour. Praise the Lord for good,helpful people in Montgomery. We arrived to Troy around 5:30pm and stayed at Deer Run Campground. The campground was near Hwy 231 and needless to say we didn't get a good nights sleep because of the truck traffic. We were spoiled living at Wildwood golf and RV Resort in McGregor,Ont. where it was very quiet and the only noise we heard were the geese would fly over occasionally. Sunday morning, Oct.29th, we were back on the road-destination Suwannee Valley campground, White Springs, Fl. Each day on our travel southward we experienced warmer and sunner weather.

We arrived to Fort Wayne,Indiana at approximately 4pm and we stayed at Johnny Appleseed Campground situated right in Fort Wayne. It was a good feeling to arrive with no insident.


We went for a walk and seen Johnny Appleseed's gravesite.


Here is Stew at the site of the gravesite.



This is picture of me at Johnny Appleseed's gravesite. We were able to walk to the site and to shopping area. the colesium was right beside the campground. The campsite was peaceful and quiet, surrounded by large trees.


This place we will stop by again if we are in the area.
this is another picture we took at Johnny Appleseed's gravesite.



Tuesday morning we were heading toward Nashville, Tennesse where we will join with friends we met when we went to Flordia December 2005 at Suwanne Valley Campground. We will spend a couple of days with them and we have planned on going to see a play on Friday, October 27,2006.

Our adventure as retired couple on- the -go started with our believe in our Heavenly Father guiding us , protecting us , that our steps are ordered by Him. Our journey onward to Flordia started October 23rd,2006 via I96 to I65. Our first stop was to be Fort Wayne,Indiana. Good thing. As we were leaving Wildwood Golf and RV Resort Stew noticed that one of the tires of the 5th wheel was low. We stopped at Bridgestone tire dealer in Windsor, where we were informed that the tire was no good; so we replaced two of the tires. Now,we were ready to go and it was nearly noon by the time we left Windsor. We praised God for protecting us from blow-out.

This is our home away from home. We currently are situated at Wildwood RV and Golf Resort. If you would like to see the resort, click here

We will be starting our adventure on October 23rd. when we will leaving for Flordia via 69 to Nashville, Tennesse where we will connect with some friends we met in Flordia in December 2005 at Suwannee Valley Campground. If you would like to see the resort. click here