So to continue with our saga, let’s rejoin our heroes as they continue their retirement journey. When we last left of gay retirees, they were at Thousand Trails Orlando, soaking in the sun and sacrificing small animals at the AC god Dan Bailey thankful that there RV was at a comfortable 72 (22 C) while all around them it was 88(31 C) and muggy. But how did they get there you ask? Let’s jump into the wayback machine and try to discover that.
As we mentioned in the last post, Frank was not doing well with his heart and so Vicki flew back to be with him. To fly back to Seattle meant a trip to the Tampa Bay International Airport. Not a bad experience, However, we did run on our first east coast toll road. They photographed our license plate however it will be interesting to see if it was captured as it is obscured by our bike rack. No one’s fault, just a fact of life. The airport was easy enough to maneuver in so not too big an issue. I was then on my own for the next five days. Not too bad, other than the fact that I had to move from Hudson to Orlando all by my lonesome. (Que sad and dramatic music) Barrington HIlls RV Resort is not really a resort so much as it is a 55+/section 8 housing park model park. There are very few short time RVers and lots of MAGA old farts. The only excitement I witnessed was a Jerry Springer incident at the pool while I rode by on my bicycle on my afternoon ride. A lot of racial slurs and f-bombs flung by some folks, but nothing worth stopping my ride and gawking at. LOL
Thursday came and went with just prepacking the rig and the car. It’s amazing how much I missed Vicki. Not only because she is the love of my life, but because she is in charge of squaring away the inside of the rig when we move to a new location. So Friday arrives and it is time to think about getting ready to go to Orlando. One thing I forgot to mention on Thursday I got an unusual phone call from Thousand Trails Orlando. The ranger wanted to insure that I understood that one of the hard and fast rules of TTO is no check in of RV’s before 12 pm, no exceptions. So that gave me plenty of time to stow all the inside stuff, load the bicycles on the back of the Escape and fill the basement with all the remaining gear. It was a bit of a challenge getting out of the campsite. But once out, got the Escape hooked up and I was off to Orlando.
Used the Google machine to supplement RV Trip Wizard to route me to Thousand Trails. Did have a bit of an issue as the Google Machine noticed that the Highway I was going to take was closed. It then routed me through every county 2 lane road I could possibly take enroute to my destination. I got to see parts of Florida I will probably never ever see again. The banjo music was a bit unnerving, but I arrived unscathed. The Thousand Trails Orlando truly is a resort. Upon checking in, was escorted to our site which I got to choose, which was really nice.
The nice thing about Orlando is that my old high school wingman and his wife live here. Randy and Linda Bray have retired down here so will be spending the next two weeks catching up on old times, present experiences, and future plans. I did pay off a steak dinner to them since the Packers lost to the 49ers this past season in the playoffs. When will I learn to never bet of the Packers?
Vicki got back to Florida after a delay riddled flight from Seattle on Tuesday. Frank had an 80% occlusion of the artery just above his previous stint which the cardiologist added a new stint to relieve the blockage. He is doing much better and both Vicki and Elisabeth are working on a plan to include more water and a slightly altered diet. He’s still doing pretty good for a 90 year old man.
My apologies for the lapse in posting to the blog. I had a major computer issue after dropping my laptop while scanning some documents for Vicki. I had a guy come to the rig and discover that my hard drive was dead. Replaced it with a new one, however all of my old passwords and websites were gone. Have been spending the last week trying to recover them all to include word press which publishes this site. Most of my stuff was saved in the cloud, however since no one understands the cloud, it takes an enormous amount of time for luddites like myself to recover one’s data. But now that I’ve recovered this site, I will be back on schedule with new posts.
Again, need to rant about experiences we’ve had. Vicki flew back to Seattle and it was far from pleasant. Airline travel is no longer fun. Vicki experienced, delays, packed aircraft, and nickel and dime expenses. With the airlines receiving so many subsidies, you’d expect the service to be much better. Airlines just don’t care. But in the airlines defense, neither do the passengers. I used to remember when air travel was a reason to dress and look your best. Now it’s who can be the biggest slob. It’s reminiscent of taking the bus. C’mon man!
Day 44
Orlando is a nice place to visit but we are both agreed that we don’t want to live here. We have discovered that it is more of a family version of Las Vegas. Lots of amusement and theme parks without a lot of depth. Tons of places to eat, but they are primarily comfort and fast food. That being said, from a visitor’s point of view, it’s pretty cool. Did join my wingman and his wife for a bit of exploring in Orlando. We did a flea market outside the gates of Disney World. Sadly many of the stalls were closed as it was the end of Ramadan so many of the merchants were observing this holy day. I ended up buying a new vented Sombrero to cover my bald noggin. Vicki found a unique ankle bracelet, so the trip was not an entire waste of time. Thankfully it was all indoors and AC’d. After an hour of shopping, we discovered a strip mall Mexican restaurant with marvelous poblano chiles as their primary ingredient. We then went to Sam’s and picked up some fruit for juicing and some sushi for supper. Got back to the rig and took about an hour nap after walking the dogs. Met up with our neighbors across the street and chatted until the sun set and darkness enveloped us. We ended the evening with sushi, potstickers, and Outlander until bed. So still, after all this time, we are still loving retirement! (Editors note: I’ll have pictures in the next post as our upload speed is too slow until the 23rd of the month.)
