2012 Florida RV Super Show Rally

     A very busy time at the Super show. We arrived on Tuesday and left on Sunday. Busy, busy. Coffee and donuts from 8 to 9:30, show opens at 9:00, tour 100's of  RVs, and all the gadgets we can't  live without,  back for lunch, back to the show, back by 3:00 for "happy hour", get dinner, get to the evening show at 7:00. Wow I'm tired just thinking about all we did in a day. From where we were parked, the show was about a 1/4 mile walk thru the fairgrounds. There were a lot of shuttles to take you into the show. This was great for the people parked way in the far corners of the FL State Fairgrounds.  The 3 evening show we saw were great. But what was also great was being there with friends, and 788 other RV rigs park side by side. We caravaned to the show with 20 other Carriage RVs. It was a fun group of friends. We also met up with 6 couples we worked with at Disney. Fran and Larry, George and Linda, Nancy and Harve who were at the Rally and Pam and Larry, Bert and Rosie and Butch and Evelyn who were day visitors. This is one of the best things about RVing, reconnecting with friends. The show opened each day 9:00 to 6:00 for the general public. Each day there were 1000's and 1000's of show visitors.
     The three evening shows we saw were "The Malt Shoppe", Doo-Wop and oldies. The "Rick Arnold" one man show, oldies, country, rock n' roll. "Ron and Kay Rivoli", song written by them to popular tunes with lyrics for rv'ing. A super show.
      On Tuesday a large group from our club went to the Spaghetti Warehouse in Ybor City for a super dinner. It is a neat restaurant in an old cigar warehouse.
    Wednesday we took a trip to Largo to visit friends Dave and Liz  from our old camping club in PA. They now have a winter home in Largo.
      On Saturday we met our friends Tom and Paula halfway between Tampa and Wildwood. They were with us in Wildwood when we put Blazer to sleep. They picked up his ashes from the vet and brought them to us. We met at a Crackle Barrel and had breakfast and a nice visit.

 We met up in a road side rest.

 The caravan to the Tampa Super Show and Rally, see Linda's car refection in my rear window.

 At the Rally, a line of Carriage RV and a gathering of friends.

 Our spot in the group.

 Looking over the top of the roof of our RV. We had good sites, on the edge, not in the middle.

 

Wildwood FL 1-2012

     After a late start  we took a ride to Crystal City. Found a nice city park in Inverness, called Cooter Pond Park.  Here are a few photo's.
   A weed cutting boat. In every part of the country we find many different specially type equipment.

 The boardwalk and a water hyacinth blooming.

 This group of ducks had red beaks. We saw others just like these but they had white beaks(at least they looked alike). We are not good at bird and duck identification.

 The old city hall at Inverness.

     Saw our first gator this trip to FL, and the first of the year. Also saw a few big turtles and many ducks.
     Checked out Rock Crusher Canyon RV Park in Crystal River. A very nice large park with many rates. We have friends who stay here and they like it very much. See here www.rockcrushercanyon.com
Found a fruit stand and got some fresh Florida tangerines.
      Wow did it get cold. The low last night was 35 degrees. Whats that, isn't this sunny FL.? Tonight is expected to be colder.
      The above was written before Blazers passing. We will try to get back to blogging as we know it helps us take our mind of things. We are trying to look forward. We can do nothing about the passed. He will be missed but not forgotten. Thank you everyone for your kind emails.
        Our friends Tom and Paula came into the RV park we were staying at. It was good to get together with them. On Friday we left for Bushnell Fl about 20 miles away for a Carriage Rally. That is the company that made our RV. There were 24 rigs in attendance. We are at Blueberry Hill RV Park.  There were several dinners, breakfasts and happy hours planned. Much time was spent just sitting around talking about rv'ing, places to see and places we've been to.  We did join their chapter called the Florida Roadrunners. They are a nice group of people with a lot of information to share. This rally was especially good for us as it got us out of the RV and helped to get our minds off the passing of Blazer. It did help.
     On Monday we went to the Webster flea Market. It is a huge market. It is about 10 miles from where we are staying. We met our friends Tom and Paula there. The are staying at Three Flags in Wildwood about 30 miles from the market. We had lunch together and just walk around with them for a while. Then it was back to the RV for happy hour. Tomorrow we leave for the "Super RV Show" in Tampa. About 15 rigs from our group are going. We will caravan in groups of 3 to the show. Our club is allowed to get in a day early. We will camp at the fair grounds were we will have electric hook ups only.
     Pictures from the Rally at Blueberry Hill RV Resort.

The neat courthouse in Bushnell.

 Not sure of this big guys purpose, but Linda had to get a picture.

 Mostly Carriage RVs part of our club.

Tribute to Blazer 3/3/2001-1/4/2012

His favorite spot was hiding between the pillows,after he rearranged them.

Super alert, looking for someone to play with.

Happy 2012, Wildwood FL, Htchitch.com

       Hi everybody and HAPPY NEW YEAR. After 2 great months at Anastasia State Park as volunteers, in ST Augustine Fl we hit the road for Three Flags RV Resort in Wildwood Fl. It was a easy trip of 120 miles. See our review of this park in our archives under RV Parks Fl. Here is a little update. The park is about 3/4 full. Activities planned for the week. We have a back in site in the rear of the park. Its is a little more private. Its is about 150 feet long and backs up to some woods. Now we have a nice view out our big back windows. In the front is a small intersection, so no RVs in front of us. Side to side it is a little close. We are on Site 97.

 
        But first let me diverse a bit. Checked our blog this morning and saw we had 98 hits (I know its not like Twitter where a million hits make the news), from www.hitchitch.com  . So went to their sight and saw we are listed as a new listing to their web site. Hitch Itch is a website for Rvers. Their sites states "We connect people sharing their RV lifestyle". There are many blogs on this site that we follow. Thank you Hitch Itch. We had their web site in our favorites for years. It is a great site for rver's and great information. We go to their site almost ever day.
     We spent the last week at Anastasia winding down. The park was full. Started to say our good- byes to the friends we made there, Rodger and Sue, Jim and Joyce, Phil, Bob and Diana and Vern and Pat. We had a couple of great campfires, and all told tales of their passed adventures, and talked about future planes. What a hot colorful fire. Jim places a small copper pipe with a hose inside of it for a super colorful fire. The picture doesn't do it justice.

      New years eve we parked in the large parking lot at the beach and took the shuttle to ST Augustine Beach. St Augustine Beach is a small town bodering Anastasia St Pk., and just south of St Augustine.  They were having "Beach Blast". A big carnival type event for New Years eve, with little parking, hence the shuttles from  4 or 5 places around the area. We went with two other couples, Sue and Rodger who we volunteered with this year and Paul and Sandy who we volunteered with last year. They are taking our spot starting Jan 1st. We had a "blast", a day that ended about 1AM for us. Much, much later then we are use to. AND...... we had to get up early to leave and make room for Paul and Sandy who were moving into our spot. We were up by 7AM, but didn't get on the road to 9:45. We didn't see Paul and Sandy before we left. They were in a park about 10 miles away. I guess they slept in to give us time to vacate their spot. But Rodger and Sue were there to see us off.
          New Years eve we had dinner at the Sunset Grill. We had dinner up on the roof over looking the event and the beach. They had a special menu for New Years eve. The food was super.  After dinner we walked back  along the beach to our park. At 8:30 they had a great fire works show. We sat at the beach and watched the fire works then headed to a pub to finish out the night. It was a fun time that lasted much later then we are use to. Even Blazer got into the act.

        We are looking forward to a year of travel and fun seeing new places and making new friends. Haven't made plans passed the 22nd of this month, but we are planning on going to the Everglades. We are going to a Carriage rally  in Bushnell, then the Tampa RV show to the 15th. Then to the FT Myers area to visit with friends along the gulf coast. If anyone is in the area, let us know so we can get together.

    Blazer is Bob's constant companion. When Bob sits at the desk, he is at his side. We believe comforting him helps him cope with his cancer, which he doesn't understand but must sense something is going on.