It actually feels good getting on the road again. No one to say good by to from the Samboree. The drive to Winter Haven was easy and relaxing. The Cypress cg seems to have lots of long term'ers and a little of a trailer park look & feel. The woman at the check in was new and directed me to my site from the wrong side, the hook ups were on the other side. I joked with my site neighbor Al that the office must be providing free driving experience. No problem making a "U" turn and getting back in (well, maybe a little frustrating). The park has a very nice swimming pool, a local fruit and vegetable vendor, and a Walmart adjacent to the rear road.
My Alex doesn't want to even walk into a Walmart. Walmarts seem to be taking over the country. I walked to the store and around it without buying anything. I'll bet it was near a 2 mile stroll. I have a soft spot for Walmarts ever since they donated $500 to the Boy Scout troop. All I did was fill out a few online forms and the check showed up.
Some of the Gulf & Mid-LoW folks began showing up a day early. Wow, what a great chili dinner. For $1 they provided dinner and breakfast the next day. For another $5 we had dinner for three more nights and three more breakfasts.
Lots of trips. I didn't really want to go to Bok Tower and Gardens but they needed another driver. I took four people and am very glad I went. What a beautiful and tranquil place. I hung out a bit with Ron Henderson, the 91 year old full timer. He is a sharp, interesting guy. Bok Tower is about 200+ feet high, made of several colors of granite, mostly shades pink. It has 60 bells ranging in size from 16 lbs to 11 tons. A person plays them on a keyboard. This was a great time to stop by, listening to Christmas music played on those wonderful bells. We were encouraged to pick the many citrus fruits growing in the gardens. What a great day!
We drove to a street called "spook hill". If you put your car in neutral at a certain point in the road, you're supposed to roll uphill. It worked for the other cars. I guess my truck with five people in it was just too much for the spooks to push. Oh well! From Spook Hill we drove around Lake Wales and went to the Railroad Museum. Lake Wales seemed a little distressed but the museum was a great surprise. There was some railroad memorabilia but lots of other artifacts also. They had hundreds of hand sewn quilts, some 200 years old. Beautiful! They also had a Seminole dugout canoe dated as over 4,000 years old. There were hundreds of dolls in the image of famous people. Incredible!
Winter Haven and a sister city Aubendale join in a Christmas parade they bill as the largest outside of Disney. I had a full truck, six of us, and managed to find parking. I treated everyone to noise horns. You had to see us six "old foogies" blowing these horns and acting like little kids. We had a great time.
After the LoWs gtg ended and they left I took a class from Verizon on my new I-Phone. You'd have to be near my age to appreciate why I've been laughing about this. When I was a kid my parents had what was called a "party line". This was where several families shared the same telephone number. You had to listen to the ring to know if the call was for you or one of your neighbors. It was very common to pick up the phone to make a call and hear your neighbors already on a call. Sometimes you said sorry and hung up, sometimes you joined in the conversation. Now I needed a class to learn how to use a phone. Technology is going too fast for me.
have fun in winterhaven
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