On The Road: November 2008

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Returning to Canada

Thursday, November 20 we get on a plane at Tampa for a flight home to Comox. We are of course happy to be heading home to see Mom and all our friends but sad to leave our home ( and sunshine),
and friends we have made in Florida. Since October 28 we have been at Windward Isle RV Park and will leave the rig here till February 1-09. It has been a restful 3 weeks. I have been able to get out on the beach and bike ride every day. Gail get

s up early and goes to the exercise room in our Park. Our friends Don & Norma Bays arrived a week ago and stayed in their new home in Lakewood Ranch. It is a mansion in a large development about a mile from here. VERY NICE !!! It was great to see them again and had a wonderful meal at their house. Don’s brother-in-law , Rob was down from Ontario to help with the finishing touches of the house. Gail & I went to the Ringling Museum and Art Gallery which is a huge complex in Sarasota. Very Nice and impressive even for a couple of Comox. Most of our days are spent around the pool and off exploring in the truck. Thursday our plane will touch down in Comox at 5:30 PM and Graham is picking us up. Dinner at Mom’s who has been counting the days for the past month!! We will be staying at her house (339-6082) until December 23 when we go to Alan’s in New Westminster for Christmas. We look forward to seeing everyone prior to our return flight on December 27.

Florida Pictures

Ron & Gail

Saturday, November 1, 2008

We made it to Sarasota- Florida

We made it to Florida !!!!

It has been 6 months of traveling, 29564 km (18370 miles), $6900 in gas, countless bottles of wine and we made it to Sarasota Florida. As we pause to reflect on what we have done, it is by far the greatest adventure we have taken in our life and we are only half way there. We left Luray North Virginia and traveled to the south end of the Great Smoky Mountains and stayed at a KOA Campground in Cherokee. The Perry’s were still traveling with us and this is where we rendezvoused with the Whitman’s who were coming up from Atlanta. It was great to see Brad and Sheri again who live in Crestview Florida. They had come up to Atlanta for a band competition so we arranged a weeks camping with them and came to Charlotte and Charleston with us. Our next stop was one night at Camp Wilderness Resort in Charlotte NC before arriving at Charleston SC in the James Island Country Park. The Perry’s left us at Cherokee and will see them again in Florida. James Island is a huge Park like Stanley Park in Vancouver with a large RV park in the center. A city tour along with a boat ride out to Fort Sumter ( The shot that started the civil war) gave us a overview of the area. Great seafood dinner at the world famous Hymens along Meeting Street. Brad and Sheri left after 3 days but we stayed 5 before traveling south to the Hardeeville RV park just next to Savannah. Sherman’s army didn’t burn Savannah so the historical area is intact and best seen by their Trolley Bus Tour. We only spend two days there as we were anxious to get to our final destination. It was a long day driving to reach the Breezy Oaks Campground in Busnell just south of Ocala. This was a great spot to overnight as we only had a two hour drive to Sarasota. In February of this year we had been to the Windward Isle RV park and arranged for a 3-month site so it was like coming home. When we made a right turn off of I-75 into the RV resort I had a big sigh of relief !!!!! WE MADE IT. We traveled 30,000 km safely and in good health. A perfect adventure that is told on the many previous posts on this Blog. The picture you see is our RV permanently set up on out site. We have bought some patio and Christmas lights as we want to make this feel like our home. We are glad to be in one place for 3 months and look forward to returning to Comox on November 20 for Christmas.