At Thousand Trails Orlando

We continue our stay in TTO until Saturday when we journey on down to Peace River in Wauchula, FL. If you have never been to Wauchula, don't rush to visit the place. Not much there.

Our stay at TTO has been nearly perfect. We have not had a day of rain or cloudy weather since we arrived. Rain is needed.

The days since our last post have been busy. We continue to look for a recumbent trike for Audrey. On Saturday we decided to drive to Floral City and visit Hampton Edge Bikes and have Audrey demo a few trikes. The bike shop is only a few steps from the Withlacoochee Bike Trail making it easy to demo the bikes. If you are interested in viewing Audrey's adventure use this link. http://tinyurl.com/74r93e Myron and Dorcas Whitley and Bob and Donna Benner are staying at a campground near Floral City using the park as a base camp for their paddling adventures. We had hoped to meet with them after Adurey's trike testing, but they were about ready to launch their conoes when we called so we scratched the visit. We'll be catching them later this winter.

The search for a trike for Audrey continued the next day. After church we headed to the West Orange Bike Trail after a bagel at Panera Bread in Clermont. We rode our bikes from the Killarney Station to downtown Winter Garden and planned to eat lunch but delayed eating until we visited the Winter Garden Wheel Works bike shop. They sell the Catrike trike and have an assortment of models - none of which we were willing to buy - too expensive. As we were leaving the shop, the owner asked if we'd be interested in a pre-owned Catrike Speed - a bike that sells new for about $2400. We said sure and soon he showed us the bike. Before you could say Jackie Robinson, Audrey said she's like to test it. Off she went down the West Orange Trail with me in hot pursuit on my Bacchetta Corsa. See the pictures.

Now we are faced with the decision to purchase the Catrike or not. The issue is carrying 3 bikes during our travels. We'd like to sell Audrey's road bike before making the purchase. Anyone interested in a good buy?

Our friends Pat and John Lively leave TTO on Wednesday so we joined them for dinner last evening at Chilli's. The food was good but the service left a lot to be desired. While there I read an email from Dorcas Whitley that said she and Myron were at the Lazydays Crown Club. Needless to say, we had to call them and give them a hard time about getting free food for buying a high-end coach.

Today will be another fun day. We'll be having lunch with Claire Weston. Many of you know Claire who has a Safari Trek and lives in Mt. Dora. We are looking forward to the visit. Tomorrow's schedule is taking shape too. We'll be heading to the Killarney Station and the West Orange Trail to begin a 30 mile ride with fellow recumbent riders. Audrey will ride a portion of the ride on her road bike and may meet us on the Catrike Speed trike she demoed on Sunday. Remember, a purchase is possible.

Stay tuned for further updates after we arrive at Peace River. Remember, Internet access at PR is not the easiest.

Winter Travels Begin

It's been a long time since we've updated our blog. Once we arrived home after our summer travels, we pretty much stayed at home except for a few trips to Pinehurst and a trip to PA in early November - none in the coach. Now we're back on the road after beginning our winter travels with a stay in the coach at the Sycamore Lodge Campground Jackson Springs, NC (near Pinehurst) the week before Thanksgiving. We left for FL the Saturday after T-day and stayed 2 nights in Brunswick, GA - Golden Isle RV Park - $15/night. Our first stop was at Lake Griffin State Park near the Villages - a week in the park ( one of our favorites). The next stop was Lazydays and the Friends and Family Rally. Here we won a $500 drawing and later a $2500 prize only to have the $2500 taken away because we had won a previous draw.

After leaving Lazydays Rally Park, we moved to the Thousand Trails Orlando campground for 3 weeks - leaving here January 3. When we arrived we found our friends Bonnie & Rob Wall and Pat & John Lively here. Nice seeing them after many months. Since arriving we've been doing some bike riding - me on the recumbent and Audrey on her road bike. The West Orange Trail and the Villages have been our favorite riding areas. The attached picture shows some of the recumbent riders I've managed to meet. FYI, we are looking for a good buy on a trike for Audrey. She has demoed quite a few, but we have not found one that fits the budget.

Christmas day was special. We were able to video chat with the kids and grandkids in NC and PA using Audrey's MacBook. We chatted with our daughter Cindy in AZ via telephone. Santa did arrive here in sunny and warm FL and left a few gifts. The one toy that will get much use is a Flip Video Camera. Check out the below video of our friends John & Pat Lively. Remember, there is much to learn about using this camera.



All for now. Thanks to Myron and Dorcas Whitley for shaming us into updating our post. They are good about updating their travels.

Back to you with News

It's been quite awhile since news from Washington, NC has hit the Internet. In part that's because there has been little excitement in our lives that we feel a necessity to share. We opted, for a variety of reasons, to miss the SE Trek Fun Club rally in Flat Rock, NC and the Country Coach rally in TN. We heard the Trek rally was a winner. No news about the CC rally.

Most of the time since the last update has been spent doing the usual sort of things done while at home - housework, lawn care, exercising (walking, jogging, biking & golfing). Yes there are some exciting things done too - like going to Walmart and Lowes in Washington. An occasional visit to McDonald's or Bojangles spices up those visits. Noting exercising. Audrey now has a Polar F-11 heart rate monitor that she loves. It provides more information than she knows how to use beyond the usual heart rate, calories burned and target zone data. The F-11 was an e-Bay purchase.

The most exciting news to share is what our daughter Cindy accomplished a few weeks ago. For the second consecutive year she is an Arizona State Road Bike Time Trial Champion. Check out the pictures we asked her to send us. Please disregard the background sign. (-:

Now more biking news. A new activity adventure has creeped into our lives. We are now giving the recumbent biking world a try. The Benners, Bob & Donna, have been riding recumbents for years and have tried to get us to give them a whirl. About 3 weeks ago we each rode recumbents at a bike shop in New Bern, NC. Each of us came away excited about the experience. However, I must admit I had some difficulty mastering riding a recumbent while Audrey simple hopped on one and rode off. Since that initial experience, we have demoed others. Friends of ours have them and have allowed us to ride theirs. In fact, the gent has more than 10,000 miles in his. He has ridden much of the Lewis & Clark Trail.

Now for the rest of the story. On Thursday, October 2 we headed to Carrboro, NC to a bike shop that was getting out of recumbent bike sales and had a clearance sale going on. After demoing two different models, I came away with a Bacchetta Corsa. If interested, check out the specs on the bike here http://tinyurl.com/4pffka and see the picture on the left.

After the purchase, we headed to Pinehurst to visit with the kids for the weekend and to master riding the recumbent. Yesterday, Friday, I rode approximately 30 miles and I must say it is different from riding a mountain or road bike. It's a much more relaxing experience. You just sit there and pedal without the neck, back, shoulder, and bottom soreness associated with riding a road or mountain bike. It won't be long until Audrey is riding one too. She is looking for a recumbent that does not have the pedals extended as the Corsa does.

It's now Sunday morning and our Winter travel schedule has come to the point where it is almost finalized. This morning I made what could be our last reservation for Thousand Trails Orlando for this winter. We'll enter the park on February 1, 2009 for 2 weeks. After that we begin to wrap-up our stay in FL with reservations in Lake Griffin State Park and the Salt Springs Recreation Area before heading to a CC rally at Jekyll Island and the FMCA rally at Perry, GA

It's Monday morning and we are back in Washington trying to get the house in order. Audrey has been doing her banking while I am doing my best to fight a head cold. Picked the bugger up over the weekend in Pinehurst.

Tuesday is here and the head cold is nasty. Tried taking a short bike ride to open up the nasal passages - not much success. Audrey is doing her best to stay away from me and rightly so. Weather here in eastern NC is nearly perfect. Time to post this update.