New Campground

On Wednesday, we moved from Wildwood to Clerbrook Golf and RV Resort near Clermont, Florida. This is an Encore park, so we can stay for no additional charge as Trails Collection members.

Since Encore parks are more residential / longterm resident parks, they tend to have more organized activities going on. We got a schedule of events when we arrived and saw that there was music and snacks on the schedule for Wednesday afternoon, so we went over there. 

There were quite a few folks there --

... the music was karaoke, which meant that the quality varied a lot!

We got to meet a couple from Ontario who winter in the US. They told us about some of the parks in South Texas... one of the things that they shared was that while other states call the folks who escape the northern cold "winter visitors" or "snowbirds", in South Texas they are called "Winter Texans" -- which they felt made them more welcome.

Surprising?

For blog readers, you may or may not know that Carl has not been an Apple fan... he was an early adopter with an Apple II computer back in 1980, but he did not like it when Apple changed from open-system to proprietary, and he has gone with other products since then... until now...

He decided that he would like to have an iPad and asked to get one for Christmas, so...

...he got an iPad Air to use as a tablet when using his laptop is not convenient.

He wanted to be able to sit comfortably on the couch to browse the internet, as well as explore the applications that come with the iPad...

... including the keyboard:

In case the embedded video doesn't work, you can view it here: https://youtu.be/Z48NrVD53II

Doctor's appointments

One of the challenging items of living in an RV fulltime and traveling is doctor appointments. We have tried to consolidate doctors in places that we visit regularly, but that doesn't always work out.

In addition, Miss Kitty's vet in the Dallas area has recently retired, so we needed to find a new vet. We decided to try using vets at Banfield, the pet hospitals that are found inside of some PetSmart stores. We had read information from other fulltime RVers that an advantage that they have is that the records are stored online and each Banfield can access history from previous vet visits.

So, we got Miss Kitty started with Banfield when we were in Illinois... it wasn't a perfect situation (I don't have as much confidence with them as I had with Dr Bill in Coppell), but the convenience of having her records available to different doctors as we travel made it feel like a good choice. They also have a one-year "wellness" plan that provides the ability for multiple visits to be covered under the one cost. When we were in Illinois, they indicated that she had a bacteria infection in her ears, and gave us drops to administer to correct that. We were amazed that she almost immediately stopped the scratching that she seems to do constantly (many times a day) -- the scratching is not always at her ears, but always around her head - ears, chin, neck, nose. However, a few days after finishing the regimen of drops, she was back to scratching.

We decided to see if we could get her re-checked and to see if the bacteria infection was still there, or if a maintenance dose of drops would be possible. We made an appointment for a PetSmart location near Wildwood, Florida for December 26.

We had a "drop off" appointment to drop her off at 8am (see her name at the end of the 4th line?)...

-- since it took us about 40 minutes to drive to the PetSmart, we asked if it was possible for us to find out about when she would be done as we would plan to stay in the area of the store. They said that they would check and the vet was able to see her and talk with us right away.

The good news was that she doesn't have the bad bacteria in her ears anymore... the vet thinks that she may have some allergies that are causing the itching, or just that she is a little prone to over-grooming. He suggested that an antihistamine might provide relief, so we're trying that. As sweet a kitty as she is, she is *very* difficult to give pills to... but we're trying! The pills seem to be very bitter, because when I tried to administer them in water via a syringe, she frothed at the mouth... so we are trying to just get the pills way to the back of her tongue and down the throat. We'll see how this works out!

The really nice thing is that her records are available to any Banfield that we visit... if only human doctors worked the same way across the country!

A few days before Christmas, Carl had a tooth that suddenly became very sensitive to heat (hot drinks, soup, hot foods -- all caused it to be very painful). He was able to see a local dentist within a day or two -- the doctor thought that he saw a hairline crack and thought that the nerve might just be inflamed and it may calm down in a day or two. Within a day or two after that, another tooth suddenly became very painful -- Carl was able to get back in to see the same dentist on the Thursday before Christmas - x-rays showed that there was a filling very near the nerve - the dentist recommended a root canal and they were able to schedule it for 12/27 (Tuesday after Christmas). Carl was a bit nervous (this was his first root canal)...

... but he survived (this is the after picture).

He still needs to get the tooth prepared for a crown and have a crown fitted -- since we are at the end of the calendar year, the dentist scheduled these appointments for after the first of the year, so the new dental plan will apply and more of the cost will be covered.

After the procedure was completed, we decided to celebrate with a visit to Culver's. The local Culver's had Turtle as the Flavor of the Day (one of our favorite Flavors of the Day!), and Carl's kids had given us a gift card to Culver's as part of our Christmas presents -- so we enjoyed ice cream to celebrate the end of tooth pain for Carl!

It is amazing how much pain in a tooth can affect your whole body! We're so thankful that Carl was able to find a dentist who could see him and who could address the issue, even during the holidays!

Some views around the campground

We are staying at Three Flags RV Campground, a Thousand Trails property, in Wildwood, Florida.

Our site, #22

The two sites off our driver's side are "retail" sites - they must be kept available in case a retail (paying by the night) customer comes in. They both had occupants when we arrived 12/14, but both left over the weekend and no one else has moved in.

On a walk, I took a picture of this 5th wheel. It may not be obvious in the picture... or to non-RVers... but this is a unique configuration in a trailer/5th wheel that has storage all along the base of the rig. One of the disadvantages of 5th wheels is, although they have great living spaces (high ceilings, good overhead cabinet space), they are usually very deficient in "basement" storage space.

I took a picture to remind myself to go look at the floorplan -- Palomino River Ranch (https://palominorv.com/fifth-wheels/river-ranch). There are three different floor plans, I'm pretty sure this one is a 391MK https://palominorv.com/fifth-wheels/river-ranch/391MK/6146 - really interesting because it has its entry door way in the back, and a "mud room" for coming in and getting shoes/boots off, coats hung up, storage for hats and scarves and whatever, right when you come in, and then the living areas of the RV are all on a single level (5th wheel RVs usually have steps up to the room that is above the hitch - either the master bedroom or a living room).

In a few weeks, we plan to attend the Tampa RV Supershow -- and look at many of the "new" RVs. No, we're not interested in getting anything new - we really like Gracie and have her outfitted just right for us - but, we like looking and seeing what the industry is doing, and evaluating whether we would like it or not... in 8-10 years when we might want to get a new used rig!

Yum! Turkey Dinner!

After church on Sunday, Christmas Day, we returned to Gracie and started cooking our Christmas Dinner. We had done the prep work for a few of the dishes on Saturday (dressing, sweet potato casserole, and the turkey) so they were ready to go into the oven, but all the baking was yet to be done...

We got a 19+ pound Butterball turkey -- we like leftovers!

Miss Kitty chose to sit on my laptop keyboard, so if anyone got any strange emails, I'm pretty certain she sent them, not me!

The turkey was supposed to take a little over 3 hours (foil wrapped), but our oven doesn't heat up to as high a temperature as desired, so it ended up taking about 5 hours before the temperature probe indicated it was cooked.

For those who do not know, we have only a microwave / convection oven. Most of the time, it works fine as an oven... most of the time...

After the turkey finished, we had dressing, sweet potato casserole, and green bean casserole to bake in the oven -- they also took longer to cook than would be normal, we think because we had so many items in the oven at the same time.

While I made gravy and mashed potatoes on the induction cooktops (yes, we have two currently in Gracie)...

Carl continued carving the turkey...

Carving up the dark meat.

Carl's "sampler" plate!

It all turned out really good. The turkey is moist and tasty, and all other items were good when they finally got cooked! Total of 7 straight hours of oven time between the turkey and side dishes! It sure was nice when that oven finally cut off (since it is a convection oven, it has a fan that runs continuously). After we finished cleanup, we calculated that the meal prep and enjoyment was a total of 10 hours long! But, we have *lots* of leftovers for the coming days!

Christmas Day

On Christmas morning, we decided to visit the church in The Villages where the couple that we had met Wednesday at the Getty concert are members, Live Oaks Community Church (https://www.liveoakschurch.org/). The pastor welcomed us to a "55+ worship experience" with the "Encore Generation" who have one mission, one passion: to glorify God.

Carl was mightily impressed with the state-of-the-art, 42'x22.5' LED wall in the worship center...

It was interesting to be part of a service that was made up of almost all "older" folks!

The pastor shared a message about two members of the "Encore Generation" who were participants in the Christmas story in Luke.

• Simeon, who was described as "righteous and devout", and whose response was "Lord... you may now dismiss your servant in peace". The message from Simeon is, "Be sure you meet Jesus before you die."
• Anna who transformed from a praying prophetess to a passionate evangelist, "she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all...". The message from Anna is, "It's never too late to tell others about Jesus!"
  

After the service, up closer to the screen... We got to reconnect with Bob who was part of the worship team.

The verse from which the name of the church is derived.

I found this information in the bulletin interesting -- with my friend, Janell, we used to collect materials for Samaritan's Purse shoeboxes throughout the year... I think at the point when we stopped, we were doing 50-75 shoeboxes. The information on the screens before the service indicated that this church provided 29,009 shoeboxes for 2022! Wow! And they are starting up again on January 31 for the 2023 collection!

We appreciated getting to join together our Christian family on Christmas morning!

Christmas According to Kids

In case you have not seen it before, a few years ago a church posted their kids telling the story of Christmas with adults acting it out... it is cute and funny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suowe2czxcA

And... a couple of pictures from Christmas Eve here in the campground...

We joined the Christmas Eve Service at the Activity Center with the church that meets here at the campground...

... and afterwards we joined with others singing Christmas carols around the campfire.

We are blessed to not have falling weather, and our temperatures were only down in the 40Fs at the time we were outside... so though it felt plenty cold to us who have thin blood from living in warm weather, we know that so many others are dealing with much worse. We are praying that everyone is safe and enjoying a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Potluck in the Campground

When we checked in, there was a notice in the office that the campground would have a Christmas Dinner Potluck on December 23rd -

... the campground was providing a lot of the main dishes and everyone else brought dishes to share.

We signed up and showed up on Friday afternoon at the Activity Center - lots of food, lots of desserts!

After the blessing, we were given directions on how we should proceed to go through the line...

There were quite a few folks there!

Our table was very close to the buffet table, but the last to get in line for the food...

... no worries, it looks like there is plenty!

The line went to the back of the Activity Center, out the door...

... and around to the front of the building and to the serving line!

Somehow after we got our food, Carl forgot to take anymore pictures! Suffice it to say that there was plenty for everyone and we enjoyed talking with some of our fellow campers while enjoying good eating!

Sing! An Irish Christmas

On Wednesday evening, we drove back into Ocala (3rd time in 3 days!) to attend "Sing! An Irish Christmas", at First Baptist Church, Ocala. 

On our drive south from Virginia, Carl mentioned that he had seen several Christian concerts through the years (including Steven Curtis Chapman, Sara Groves, Casting Crowns), but that the only one he would still like to see would be Keith and Kristyn Getty. I got on my phone and looked up their concert schedule, and found that they would be performing in Ocala, Florida, while we were going to be in Wildwood - a 30-45 minute drive. We decided to get tickets and go to the concert!

The concert was scheduled for 7pm, doors were to open at 6pm, we got to the church at about 5:45pm and joined the line of folks waiting. We got into conversation with the couple in line in front of us, recently retired missionaries who live in The Villages now. We ended up sitting with them in the church and were able to hear about places they had served, what they had done on the field, and things that they are involved with at The Villages.

The concert booklet (quite a nice booklet!)

Picture of the stage before the concert started

First song...

... we had general admission tickets, so we picked seats when we got into the sanctuary. We had good seats, just a couple of rows back from the "preferred" rows - the only negative was that the violin / fiddle players were located in the area hidden behind the speakers, so we could not see them except for times when they came out to the front center of the stage (you can barely see one of them to the right of the speaker in front of the red-lit area on the far right).

"My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose" (a poem by Robert Burns, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Red,_Red_Rose; a video with the words (performed by other artists): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QK9WK0QhejA)

Two of Keith and Kristyn's girls, and 3 of the Klemme's children participated for a couple of songs (the smallest, Ingrid Klemme, is just 4 years old!).

"Mild He lays His glory by, Born that man no more may die..."

"O come let us adore Him!"

 We are grateful that we were able to be in the right place to attend and participate in this concert!

Meeting up with *more* friends!

Friends Dave and Jeaninne live in On Top of the World, a 55+ community in far southwest Ocala. We had contacted them and they invited us to come see their new home - they were in Bible Study with Carl and Sue at Riverside Church, and moved here from the far western suburbs of Chicago about two years ago. 

Their home is beautiful (unfortunately, we did not take any pictures!) and the community seems to be very nice too! One thing they mentioned was that they specifically wanted to buy in an area of the community where the homes were just being built so everyone would be "new" and it would be easier to build community with your neighbors -- which we thought was a smart idea!

We went out to a Mexican restaurant -- the chairs, booths, and tables were all very decorated! Jeaninne and Dave...

... Carl and me.

After supper, we drove into Ocala to see their lights display. We first drove around the Ocala Downtown Square, but, unfortunately, did not find anywhere to park. So, we went over to the "Citizen's Circle" (City Hall) where the "dripping lights" were found...

A picture of the dripping lights... but..

you really need to see them in motion (hopefully this embedded video will work):

(I don't think the embedded video will work, so here it is on YouTube, only 5 seconds long: https://youtu.be/C9hYYXQK__E)
 

Some of the other decorations at Citizen's Circle...

 

Patti, Jeaninne, and Dave at "Metallic Fluttering" (the butterfly sculpture)

Jeaninne was impressed with how well Carl's camera took a nighttime picture, so she decided to try taking one with her phone's camera...

... but it gave a funny message...

... even though we could see Carl and Dave in the picture... but her phone said "No person detected."

Jeaninne went up and poked both of them to make sure that they weren't just holograms. Note that Dave is suavely modeling Jeaninne's purse too!

That got us all tickled... so when we went over to the green and red lit trees to do a selfie...

... we couldn't stop laughing and we all had a "glow" (from the lights) about us...

... which made us laugh more...

... we finally got a relatively normal picture of all four of us!

As we left Ocala, we went back past the downtown square - we still did not see any parking, but I took a picture out of the car window. They had a very interesting "wrap" on the trees in the square that made them look almost like they were large balloons floating above the square.

It is so nice to visit (and laugh!) with friends!