Orlando, Florida

January 8 - 21, 2010

Thousand Trails - Orlando

Clermont, Florida

Here we are back at Thousand Trails - Orlando
...need to make those membership dues work for us!! We purposefully chose the "sunny" side of the street (in the exact same spot as two years ago). After all the cold, if there is any warmth in that sunshine, we want it. In the 12 days we've been in Florida (as of this writing), we have had to unhook the water every night to avoid frozen pipes. I'm sure you've all heard about the record, long-lasting cold here...our "cosmic cousins" Greg and Marilyn are in the Keys and had iguanas falling out of the palm trees due to the cold!!




But, we're on the mend, so to speak. Forecasts are for warmer weather and we're planning on golf this Friday in 72 degree weather...yay!!!



We decided to go to a sports bar to watch the Patriots' playoff game Sunday rather than staying inside the motorcoach for yet another day. We should have had our beer and left after the first play of the game; but always the optimist, I justified our staying because we still had 57 minutes yet to play. Boy was I wrong! And, the problem with going to a sports bar when you're not on home ground, there were Raven fans in the building. We sat thru 45 more minutes of embarrassment and then decided we couldn't take anymore!




So along comes another day of sunshine but not so much warmth and we decided to spend it indoors at the theater watching Avatar in 3-D....awesome.!!! I'm not much for "fantasy" movies, but I agree with Ken that this was the most enjoyable movie experience we've ever had.




We've also spent our time doing all those mundane things like haircuts, pedicures, banking, etc. It's such a tough life!!





Saturday, we picked up Peter and Ben after their 7-day cruise on the Carnival Dream. They had a great time...next time you see them ask about the piano bar!!! We stopped for breakfast and heard all their stories which made us yearn for that 11th cruise...maybe we should start planning!



We got in some golf when the weather got a bit warmer. We spent one day at Legends Country Club where we played a round with Skip and Arzelle Heier from Canada. We had a great time and hope to meet up with them again when we return to the area in March. The course was brown except for the tee boxes, approaches and greens...gave my ball some distance which enabled me to break 100 for the first time in a long time. THAT felt good!




And then we had the golf day from hell...we played Kings Ridge Country Club, just across the street from Legends. We arrived at 8:00 a.m. in the dense fog and found the clubhouse mobbed with men. Thinking there might be a fog delay, we approached the check-in thinking we would be finding a place to have breakfast while we waited, only to find we were booked on Kings Ridge North. So, we packed the clubs back in the car and drove another mile to the "new clubhouse".

We were greeted by a very nice lady who was doing it all...taking money, cleaning off the carts, etc. We should have known things weren't going to improve when she ran the credit card and the paper jammed. After that was all taken care of, we found out the North course is an executive par three. Oh, well!

We then had to get another golf cart 'cause the first one had a flat tire. Finally we were on our way (in the fog) to the first tee to find two groups of elderly gentlemen (God Bless them) in front of us. So, we waited about 20 minutes before we were finally on the tee box...still in the fog. I hit a ball, lost it in the fog, thinking it was short only to find myself 25 feet from the pin (which was placed on the side of a rather severe slope). Ken's putt rolled up to the pin and, being short, rolled all the way back to his feet. So, I wholloped my ball and in the cup it went for a birdie...what a way to start. Little did we know this would be the only highlight of the morning.

Every hole was a wait...a long wait. But, we were patient with the old guys until we found out on the 5th hole that the first group was nowhere to be found...they had "out-holed" their fellow players. So, the waiting then became annoying. Why wouldn't they let us play through? After an eternity we reached the 9th hole hoping the gents would let us play through at the turn. After we landed on the green a woman came out and started "chipping" on to the green with 3 very beautiful, bright balls. As we approached the green, she was "chatting" with her friends near the clubhouse and then returned to putt her balls, ignoring us. I then took all my frustrations out on her saying, "Excuse me, we're trying to finish the hole!!!" She left, apologizing, saying she thought it was a practice green.

We thought we had seen the last of her until we rounded the clubhouse to not only find our three gentlemen just teeing off, but three more foursomes of ladies in front of us. I blew!!! Into the clubhouse I went, demanding and getting my money back!!! Not like me, but it turned out to be the second satisfying moment of the morning. (Sorry, didn't mean to be so long-winded, but it was a short blog...had to fill it up!!)


Thursday we're out of here...have to say it was a quick 2 weeks...I'm sure because we got to share most of it with our favorites, Susan and Bob. Next stop...Cross Creek Golf and RV Resort in Arcadia for a short stay before we head for the Keys...really getting excited here. See you soon.