Tomorrow's the Big Day!

Tomorrow we sign the papers and do the official closing on the house we are buying.  It has been a really odd journey back into the home without wheels world so far, so I hope that it is a bit more quiet once we move into the house.  We haven't even shared it with that many people personally and we laughed about that fact the other day when I wrote something on Facebook and our friend Dee saw it and asked about it.

The conversation between Nathan and I afterwards went like this.

Me: I accidentally outed us on Facebook.  (then went on to explain)
Nathan:   (sigh)  I can't believe you did that.  I can't believe everyone knows. 
Me: I know.  But we are moving Monday.  So I'm pretty sure everyone would have figured out something was up then anyway.
Nathan: I guess. (sigh) It's just....I don't know...It's just so embarrassing!  
Me: I know.  We gotta face up to it sometime though.
Me:  I suppose so. (huge sigh)

I am guessing our full time friends will get this completely.  And the rest of you can consider this further confirmation of just how odd we truly are.

Living the life in limbo land!

Visit to Lake Placid

Last night we drove over to Lake Placid to meet Rich and Donna for dinner.  I have missed Donna so much since they moved into their house.  I got used to seeing her so much this summer and enjoying her company, that it seems hard to believe it has been months since we have really spent time together.

After arriving at their house and seeing a few of the new changes/additions to it, we drove over to a Mexican restaurant near their house.  Here are Donna's pictures of the place:

We loved catching up with them!  Donna and I mostly talked about house stuff, which is still very strange to me.  I guess very soon it will seem very normal again, but we are still transitioning.  I am glad she is at the point she can answer a bunch of questions for me and did.  Thank you, Donna!

The food was fabulous!  I wish we had a place this good near where we were moving to!

The time we had together was wonderful and it flew by.  We are making plans to hopefully get together when Lake Placid has their next Farmer's Market.  Hopefully it warms up by then!

Happy New Year

    We rang in the New Year in a very quiet manner this year because we have both been fighting some bug.  So we stayed home and watched movies, and listened to the fireworks and cheering outside our window.

We also took the time to discuss what we though the New Year might bring for us and what our goals for this coming year were.  We had planned to "hit the road" again this spring.  Something we've waited two very, very long years for.  It seems that might not happen in exactly the same way we thought it might though.

  Because during those two long years of primarily being in one spot, something happened that has changed our lives in a pretty big way.  I fell in love.  It was not something anyone could have expected, and yet it isn't hard to believe that it did.  After all, the guy I fell for is handsome, rugged and really smart and fun.  Who could resist that combination?

 The truth is, I fell not only for him, but for a bunch more spectacular creatures at the sanctuary I enjoy spending time at.  The more I spent time there, the more all of them became a part of me and this love has changed me.  I was in denial over how much so until we went away to The Villages this past summer.  I discovered that while I loved our time there, I missed the horses so much so that I seemed to only be able to go a few weeks away from them without seriously missing them.

 This led to some talks about what to do about that, and long story short: we are now considering buying a house so I can foster some of the horses.  The long talks between Nathan and I were not so much whether to do that or not.  It was kind of a no-brainer to do it given my love for it.  The part we needed to figure out was how to blend that with being full timers.  Because we are full timers, no matter what else happens in our lives.  Just like we are parents, no matter what happens else happens in our lives.  We haven't just been traveling as in it was one thing on a long list of things we have done, but we are gypsies at heart as in that's who we are.

  I have found in sharing this past week, that there are those that get that and those that don't.  So I share and if they get it, we talk about it because they understand the fears and sadness that go along with the huge sacrifice of surrendering some parts of the full timing lifestyle that we have enjoyed for years now.  If I share and they don't, I quickly just move onto parts that they hopefully can relate to.  I understand that unless you have lived it, there isn't any real way to "get it".

 So why write all of this out here then, if I know that many who read it really won't "get all of it"?  Because it is a part of our show us the world journey, even if the way we are doing it might be altered due to new things in our life.

 So as strange as it will seem to most, this is not us settling down or a entering a new chapter in our lives.  It is us adding to the life we have and enjoy and figuring out how to add more to it without taking away from the parts that are most important to us.  And it has been no small task to figure out how exactly that will work in real ways.

 We have thought long and hard about how to blend all of the parts that are "us" together in a way that is truly do-able.  We hope to find a place that is a mix of as little of a house obligation as possible and as much horse friendly land as possible, along with the ever important kind to our budget so we can still move about and see the world that way some too.  We'll see how we do with that rather tall order.

  I'm fortunate that unlike most horse people, I have a place for the horses when we do want to physically move about.  I'm grateful that being in one spot much of the time will give me time with my children who will all be within driving distance except the one in Michigan that we are working on to get back down to Florida.  And I'm really thankful that everyone we have shared this with, is happy for us that we are moving towards something that brings us joy.  It's a great thing to celebrate on this New Year's Day!  




  

Day One of Carnival Liberty Seven Day Cruise

We have been so busy with other things, we haven't really spent much time focusing on our upcoming cruise that we booked months ago.  Nathan booked it for us thinking that after the wedding and due to my dad's death landing on the holidays, that I could probably use it.  He was so right with that!  Still, I did very little planning for this cruise compared to the others so I was a little concerned that it might not go as well as the others have.  I am happy to report that I had no reason to be concerned because the cruise was fabulous.

We headed down to Miami the night before and had family time.  We exchanged Christmas gifts, played games and then we spent the night at Amibr's gorgeous new apartment.  Here is a shot of Daniel and my mom chatting.  I wish I had thought to take more pictures that night, and of the apartment but I didn't think of until bedtime.

The next morning, we were up bright and early.  Ambir took us to the port, which was wonderful!  It saved a lot of time and hassle and we joked that would be our new means of port transportation from here on out if we could pick.  We checked in and sat down in the waiting area.  We had Faster To The Fun, so we only waited about fifteen minutes before we were on the ship.  We loved having FTTF! Best money we spent for the cruise and we will always try to do this in the future.  Not only did we get to board early, we were able to go to our room right away.  So we headed there first thing.  We loved our room this time.  It was huge compared to our two other cruises and it was very bright and cheery inside.

Now off to explore the Liberty.  This is the biggest ship we have cruised on so far and she is a beauty!

We were quickly distracted by the food.  This ship has The Blue Iguana and Guy's Burgers.  I read online that both could be busy once we were sailing, so we took advantage of an almost empty ship and tried both right away.  I tried the Mexican food and Nathan tried the burger.  We both thought they were very good!!

After our meal, we went to find our favorite place on the ship, the Serenity Deck.  We found it pretty quickly because it was right by the food.  It was also located right above/next to the Lido deck, so I'm not sure how much serenity there will be due to the noise down below, but we decided to plant ourselves there for the Sailaway Party to find out.

We stayed here through the party, and nope, not much serenity going on but it was still a kid free zone and had gorgeous views so we were happy.  We loved being close enough to the action for the party that we could hear/see it but not have to be in the congested area.  So it was a win-win for us.  Just a bit of the Sailaway Party fun:

After the party, we decided to head back to our rooms and get ready for dinner.  We had Anytime Dining, which we also love.  We have done that all three cruises and hope to continue to do it.  After getting a bit dressed up, we went up one short deck to our dining room and were seated immediately.  Dinner was great, the food was very good and we enjoyed the whole meal.

After dinner we walked around the ship some more.  I loved that there were Christmas decorations up on the ship.  It was so festive.  It was like getting a Christmas cruise without having to put up with the crowd that would be there for an actual Christmas cruise.  We heard Christmas carols being sung, and went to enjoy that and while there we had an extra surprise: snow!  Yes, they had snow coming down from the ceiling which added to the holiday spirit.

When we were done with the singing and exploring, we headed back to our room to chill for the rest of the night.  We knew we wanted to be up very early so we planned to go to bed early.  Our towel animal and bedtime mints were waiting for us.

We can tell already that there will be a lot of goodness packed into this cruise.  We can't wait to have tons of fun for the next six days!

Aric Visits Sixteen Hands With Me

Aric took his day off to spend the day at Sixteen Hands with me.  He even drove us down there.  I love this season of life, where my kids are old enough to do things like that for me.  Although the one day he did warn Nathan and I if we didn't stop fighting he would turn the car around and go back home.

He seems to have a natural touch with the horses, so I love it when he comes with me and visits them.  It was great to see the horses too.  I am so used to being here, when I can't be here I miss the horses something awful.  I like to think that maybe they miss me a bit too.

But then again, maybe not!

More Family Time

Not only did I get time with my side of the family, but Nathan's side was visiting Florida too.  We managed to meet up with our old travel buddies although they stayed at the Disney Campground.  I drove over to spend a few days with them and had so much fun hanging out with them.  Diana is learning how to do digital scrapbooking so we really had a blast doing that.

Happy Birthday Aunt Shirley

I love it when we visit Clermont, because not only is Aric there, but my Aunt, Uncle and cousins live there too.  We managed to hit the right timing to catch my Aunt Shirley's birthday this trip.

 The guys made a wonderful meal and we enjoyed chatting and watching the game.  Then we watched my Aunt Shirley open her gifts.

 It was a great day!

Our First Happy Hour of the Season

Jack and Diane let us know when we arrived last night that there was a Happy Hour today.  We were thrilled that we got here in time for it, and this made it our first one of the this season.  Diane is known as the Happy Hour Queen and with good reason.  Nobody throws a better party than Diane!

There was great food and great company to chat with while eating.  I got to see the inside of their beautiful rig and to admire their newest four legged family members.  Rene brought his cornhole game and we either played or watched others play.

I planned to bring tortilla chips and spinach dip but saw a flavor of ice cream that my cousin recommended on Facebook, so we brought that instead.  It was very yummy!  We had a fun night and look forward to many more this season.

On the Road Again!

We have been sitting in Wauchula for what seems like a very long time now.  Nathan will tell you it's been way too long now.  We are tentatively planning to travel again this spring so we decided that a few trial runs this winter might be a good idea.  So we decided to make a trip up to TT Orlando because our former travel buddies are going to be in town.  We were afraid we might forget how to do this traveling with an RV thing, but I'm happy to say we did just fine.  We might need to unload a bunch of outdoor things if we do head out this spring though.

The funniest part was Ava's reaction.  We pulled in the slides and then she and I had to go back inside while Nathan ran out for something.  She went inside and went to get up on the couch and body slammed into it instead.  Here was her reaction after she finally found her way up:

She is so easy going, that ten seconds later she was like this:

We got to the park after dark, and got settled into our spot pretty easily.  We saw Jack walking the dogs, including their new puppies, while still parking and they are right across from us.  Diane came by a few minutes later.  Aric let me know that Rene and Mira and Bob and Vicki are right here by us also.  So we are moved, settled in and by pickleball friends.  Life is good!

Gypsy Gold Horse Tour

Some time ago, Nathan and I were watching a movie with a horse in it.  He was quite taken with the horse and wanted to know the breed.  Yes, I said HE was quite taken with it.  I thought it was sweet looking but wasn't as enamored as he was.  He looked it up online and then shared about the Gypsy Vanner with me.  I still wasn't that taken with the breed.  Then I went to the Parelli show in VA and one of the ladies who was demonstrating had a Gypsy Vanner.  Once I spent about two mintues with her horse, I fell head over heels in love.  Since then, we have decided that we'd both love to own a Gypsy Vanner someday.

I didn't really know much about the horses beyond that though.  I bought a Groupon to take a tour at a Gypsy Vanner horse farm when we first came to The Villages.  We kept saying we were going to go and ended up doing other things instead.  So we didn't actually end up doing the tour until the day before we headed out.  It was well worth making sure we did do it while up this way!

We learned so many interesting things about the people who owned this beautiful horse farm, and the story on how the Gypsy Vanner horse made its way to our country.  You can read about it at their website here: Gypsy Gold.  If you get a chance to go and visit, we highly recommend it.

Silver Springs Nature Theme Park

Today we visited Silver Springs.  This is one place we planned to visit since we arrived in this area.  We were going to buy a season pass, along with Rich and Donna, and at the last minute Donna saw something on their website.  They were in the process of changing ownership, and along with that they were reducing their attractions down to their glass boat rides.  So we decided not to buy the season pass and just to make a trip here sometime.  We were going to visit yesterday and went to Ocala NF instead.  We did make it today, which was the final day at the park before it did change hands.

The employees that were working today were understandably emotional over it being the last day.  One employee told us that over 300 people lost their job due to its closing.  I wish we had visited this interesting place while it was in full operation, because it looked like a great place.  There appeared to be animals, a water park, shows and some rides.  As the website said, there is not much there at this point except the glass boat rides.  The trip was worth it even with that being the only attraction.  The really neat part about a glass boat is that everyone can have a front row seat.

The other neat thing is you can see just how clear the water is and just how deep the water is.  It makes for a really beautiful ride.

The springs pump out 550 million gallons of water a day.  It is enough to support New York City.

We saw two alligators while on the boat ride, and lots of turtles.

After our boat ride, we ate lunch there and then walked around to see the rest of the park.  The rest of the park was beautiful also.

I'm so glad we did make it before it became a state park.  It was nice to feel like we were a part of its history.  I'm excited to see what they will do with it once it becomes a state park.

Dinner With Friends at Oakwood Smokehouse

This past week has been quieter than normal as far as doing activities here in The Villages.  Rich and Donna have been house hunting and are now the owners of a beautiful house in Lake Placid!  That means I have had more quiet time at home.  I have been able to do tons of scrapbooking, so I have been quite content.

We have managed to get out and play pickleball, deciding after a day at Mulberry to return to Churchill.  They are very friendly at Mulberry, but nothing beats the fun level at Churchill.  

We also managed to fit in another dinner with Buddy and Diane who are still in the area.  This time we chose Oakwood and took advantage of their rib special.  They offer a full rack of ribs, two side dishes and garlic bread for $10.99. All of us did not have the ribs, but we all agreed the food was delicious.

We are winding down here for our time in The Villages.  We are enjoying every minute we can in the next few weeks, being sure to not waste any time before we do have to leave!  We have not had rain every single night for this past week also, so knocking on wood that it stays that way until we leave.  When it doesn't rain, we can sneak in pickleball at night and play twice a day!

Living the life in wonderful Florida!

Don Garlits Classic Car Museum

I am late in sharing these pictures from our Labor Day trip, but better late than never!  This is the second part to the Don Garlits museums.  There are two separate museums, the first being the drag racing and this is the second one: the Classic Car Museum.  Both were fabulous.  A fellow classic car lover told me that he'd been there five years ago and that the collection had really grown since then.

I was very impressed with what was there.  I could have spent much longer in this museum than we did!

I was amused at some point to overhear a couple discussing a particular car.  The guy was sharing what kind of a car it was.  The lady said she knew, her dad had one.  He asked her if she really knew about it?  She told him again that her dad had one.  He nodded and dropped it.  I'm guessing he might have thought that meant she did know about it in the way a guy would want to know about it.  I would suspect it is more likely that she was simply saying she knew as much as she ever wanted to and more just by having a dad that owned one.  Which means she probably hardly knew a thing about it in guy world.

We demonstrated this same man/woman dynamic with me trying to take hundreds of pictures of the pretty cars while Nathan gave me in depth lessons on engines and exhaust systems.  I can now tell you which kind of engine our truck has and how exactly it operates.  That will come in handy because the last time some guy asked me about it I told him the only thing I knew about the engine of our truck was that it was really big and loud.  He couldn't tell if I was an idiot or joking so he politely just walked away.  I hope I run into him again so I can let him know that a trip to the car museum fixed all of that!

Living the life in interesting Florida!

Dinner's at Cody's Original Roadhouse

Tonight we got together to take advantage of Fajita night at Cody's Original Roadhouse.  We planned to go last week with Tim and Marlene and cancelled when we learned there was a big event there.  It worked out well for us because this week Buddy and Diane were back in our area, so they got to come join us!

The food was just as good as last time and we enjoyed the company too!  We don't have a whole lot more weeks to do dinner here so we are enjoying the last few times we have.