Day 48 - February 15, 2016 Southern Aire RV Resort - Visit to Lazydays RV

Today we had a leisurely breakfast took Jewel for a walk and then after lunch took a ride down the road to Lazydays RV. The place is enormous with over 1400 RVs for sale. It is the largest RV dealer in the country.

We looked at many makes and models but didn't find any one RV that grabbed us enough to say "let's trade our MH in."

We don't know what we want to do when we grow up. We're not ready to settle into an RV resort, or an over 55 community but we're not sure if we want to keep traveling either. Decisions, decisions. I guess we will continue to take one day at a time and just enjoy what we are currently doing

RV Planter

The plan is to go to Busch Gardens tomorrow. We'll see how that all plays out.

Day 47 - February 14, 2016 - Happy Valentine's Day

I woke this morning feeling pretty lousy  - up most of the night. Couldn't bring myself to leave the house. I did send Ron to the pharmacy for a few items  and when he returned he brought me a beautiful bouquet of roses. We don't  buy gifts for Valentine's Day but he felt bad that I was feeling so lousy that he thought flowers would brighten my day. Great husband!

So Pretty and Smell Wonderful 

By late evening I was feeling better - thank goodness - and was looking forward to a good nights'  sleep to make up for not sleeping last night. 

Not sure what the plan is for tomorrow, we'll wait and see. 

Day 46 February 13, 2016 Florida State Fair Day 2

We were back at the fairgrounds this morning around 11 am. It was quite different then senior day on Friday. The place was mobbed and we had to wait in line for  20 minutes to buy tickets.

Long Lines /Long Wait

Flying Overhead

We grabbed a bite to eat and perused areas of the fair we had not been to on Friday. We were interested in Cracker Country so took a  peak. 

It was a cool place similiar to Sturbridge Village. We stopped to listen to the Southern Express Bluegrass Band. We then stopped at the model train display and steam engine displays. 

We saw some interesting wood carvings - 

and displays of recycled materials waiting to be judged for prizes. 

We also stopped to watch the Elvis Presley competition but didn't stay long because we really never liked Elvis. 

Ron found a very interesting looking robot and had to get a picture. Just like he had to have a picture taken with Smokey the Bear. 

All in all it was a fun day but the crowds were becoming unreal. We left around 4 pm and headed home to a less crowded venue. 

Day 45 - February 12, 2016 Florida State Fair

Ron and I were walking Jewel last evening when one of our neighbors stopped to chat. After  introductions Ron hit on the topic of the Florida State Fair. This guy was dead set against going to the fair because it is too dangerous. He advised us to stay away. Ron went on one of the forums and posed a question regarding safety at the fair. The general consensus was "don't miss the fair." 

We arrived at the fair around 11:15 am and it was already packed. It was also seniors day so we got in at a discounted rate of $9.00 pp instead of $ 13.00 pp. 

The fairgrounds are huge with multiple venues for acts and attractions.  

The first show we attended was the Pirate High Dive performance. It was a really good show and fun to watch. 

The map was a little confusing and only gave approximations of where some of the venues were being held so we missed the first  Hollywood Racing Pigs show. Yes, I did say racing pigs. Once Ron figured out the map we finally got to see the little guys race. 

Next we stopped to check out the Giraffes. 

Then it was on to the Circus! The circus was very good and some of the acts amazing. We were especially impressed with the balancing act. 

 Watching him was very nerve racking because the chairs were actually swaying.

The silk dancer was beautiful!Unfortunately the pictures of her wrapping herself in the silk and doing her acrobats did not come out. 

Then there was the ariel act. What was amazing about it was the fact that the female was also a singer ans sang during some of her performance. 

Yes, he is standing on her shoulders and she is not only balancing but singing. 

Then he walked down an incline rope with her on his shoulders and she continued to sing. Just amazing!

There were several clown acts which I chose not to watch because I DO NOT LIKE CLOWNS!!!  I don't know why but I really can't deal with them. 

It had been such a beautiful day. We saw the bear show, stopped at the White House exhibit, saw the prizes that were won by the local FFA kids and ate some lousy food. 

We managed to get a picture with a Clydesdale.

As the sun set it cooled down fairly rapidly. By the time we sat  down for the Gary Puckett and The Union Gap Show at the Coca -  Cola Headline Music Stage it was really getting cold. We hadn't thought through the cold evenings when we dressed for the sunshine and heat. We did stay for one hour of the show  and it was great. 

We both had to throw in the towel because we were freezing in our shorts and sandals. DUH!  All in all it was a great day and we will be returning to the fair tomorrow because we missed a few areas of interest to us. 

Day 43 & 44 - February 10 & 11 , 2016 - Southern Aire RV Resort - Thonotosassa, Florida

It was a fairly short distance (49 miles ) to our next stop but took  almost two hours because of the traffic and lights. We seemed to hit every red light along the way. 

Ar first glance the "resort" looked pretty nice but wasn't as nice as was shown in the pictures on their web site. We weren't too surprised because most places use the term "resort " loosely.

We were brought to our site by the staff and immediately our neighbor came out and she didn't know we were coming in and asked how long were we staying. At first, we   thought she was being friendly but then she informed us her husband had a loud truck and her dog barked a lot. GREAT! As Ron & I always say - we aren't going to live here.

As you can see looking at the picture and to the right is their camper. Pretty close especially when Dan parks his truck by our MH. So I guess we took up some of their space.

The day turned out to be nice and sunny so we sat out in the sun. This is getting to be routine for us. 

Not sure what we will do tomorrow but I do feel a shopping day in the wind. LOL

Day 44 - February 11, 2016

As mentioned yesterday we did our weekly grocery shopping at both Wal Mart and Publix. The Wal Mart we went to was not full service so we were unable to get eggs and milk there.  


Not much happening today but we are planning to take in the Florida State Fair tomorrow.

We took Jewel for several walks around the park. She is very happy here because she is not limited to a few feet of walking like she was at Ja Mar. 

Looking forward to tomorrow and the Florida State Fair. 

Day 42 - February 9, 2016 Ja Mar RV Resort - Day at Tarpon Springs , Florida & Fred Howard County Park

Today is our last day here at Ja Mar RV Resort. Our neighbor told us about Tarpon Springs stating it is a quaint fishing village. Only they fish for sponges not fish. 

We learned that Tarpon Spring  learned has the highest percentage of Greek Americans in the country - hence a Greek restaurant every 100 feet. 

The parking lot that we used had a very elderly man collecting the $3.00 fee. He was extremely slow and not very steady on his feet. Once parked we were approached by a young man giving out flyers and coupons to Yianna's Greek Restaurant.  He was keeping the flyers in a Dorito bag. Interesting!

It is a picturesque little town and definitely  fits the fishing village profile.

Sponge Dock 

We stopped at Yianni's for lunch and were very pleased with the food. We ordered a saganaki flaming cheese appetizer that was amazing and shared a chicken shish kabob - also amazing and  tasty. 

There was woman outside the restaurant trying to get people inside to eat. I read about her on Yelp. Many people were complaining because she was very aggressive. When we were on our way out I heard the owner threatening to send her home if she wasn't pushing to get people  in to eat. Hence the aggressive sales pitch. 

She talked us into stopping in at the Spongeorama behind the restaurant (same owners). Yes , I said spongeorama. We watched a an ancient video on sponge fishing. It was quite amusing because it was so old and hard to actually watch. The museum inside had seen better days but it was free so OK. 

Interesting Bike

We walked around the town and on the docks. We stopped at a couple of gift shops but as usual in a tourist town they were selling all the same stuff. 

After leaving Tarpon Springs we took a ride to Fred Howard County Park. The county parks here are quite beautiful and on the ocean.

We had to drive over a causeway into the park. It has been quite cool today and really windy but it didn't stop us from taking a walk on the beach. 

Beautiful

A Little Windy

We took the back roads to the CG. It was a nice scenic drive and we saw some really beautiful homes. 

Back at the resort several of our neighbors came over to talk. It's been a very pleasant stay at Ja Mar for us but tomorrow we will be off to our next adventure. We have a site reserved at the  Southern Aire RV Resort in Thonotosassa. Not sure what we will find there but should be interesting.

Day 41 - February 8, 2016 - Ja Mar RV resort, Port Richey, Florida RV washing Day!!!!

Not much happening today. It is bright and sunny so we opted to wash our MH. We had just finished and were preparing to wash the windows when we had three different couples stop to talk to us. 

We had very interesting conversations with all of the people and enjoyed chatting. After 2 1/2 hours of chatting we were on our own again. Unfortunately, we ran out of steam so the windows never got washed. Oh well! It was more fun socializing and tomorrow is another day. 

Later in the afternoon we went out to dinner at Perkins. Ron had a 20% off coupon so of course we had to use it. LOL

Despite not doing anything special we had a very nice day.