Past Due: Lo, the Winter Has Passed - 12/23 - 4/14

It has been a long time (four months) since the last post. There are reasons. The greatest reason was that we “never got a round to it.” That being said, some things were a repeat of last winter with one exception. This past winter Martha worked full-time at the Chick-fil-A in Celebration and that took some time and energy. In fact, more energy than time. Byron returned to his seasonal assignment in the Magic Kingdom. A change for him was taking on the task of teaching a Sunday School class in addition to conducting a Bible study at First United Methodist Church in Kissimmee.

Since Ashley and her family moved from Gulf Breeze to Weston, Florida, we were able to visit with the grandchildren more than last winter. Weston is about a four-hour drive from Kissimmee making Okeechobee a meeting point where we’d meet to either get a child or return it (one of the advantages of being a grandparent). While Candice was with us after Christmas, we all made the trip to Weston for a few days with Ashley, Michael, Jada, Chapel, Ben, and Luc (which is short for Luciano).

What follows are a series of photos showing some of the highlights of the previous four months. After we get to Newburgh, New York, where we’ll spend the summer, we’ll post another blog of our time in transit.

Ashley, Candice, and Martha pose in their Minnie Mouse shirts,

which were a Christmas gift.

Roger and Cheryl Basham, their son (Chris) and Chery’s sister (Lori)

came to the Tampa area for a Christmas visit. We met at Texas Roadhouse

near Kissimmee for lunch one day.

The leaders of our full-timers group within Newmar Kountry Klub

were in the area on the day we met other Newmar owners

we met in 2014 in Escanaba, MI.

We don’t always eat, but, it does provide a time to get together.

We drove to a restaurant south of Lake City for a luncheon

with other snowbirds that are members of

Tri-State Traveliers, our regional FMCA club

in the Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana area.

Last year we went to Plant City to enjoy the fresh and delicious

strawberries at Parkesdale Farms. This year we decided to make

it “annual trek number two.” Since it seems like a good

tradition to keep, we’ll shoot for another visit in 2017.

Martha got to play house and baby sitter. As a result

she got to enjoy time with Luc, the youngest grandchild.

We took Ben and Chapel for ice cream on a visit with them.

Not leaving anyone out, we had Jada for a few days

and enjoyed time with her at Epcot. This photo

was taken just prior to the evening’s sound,

light and fireworks extravaganza.

For our 12th anniversary we had a “character dining experience”

in the Ohana restaurant at the Polynesian Resort.

On Friday morning, April 1, we pulled out of our site, hooked up

the Honda Element, and headed northward.

After leaving Florida we spent nearly a week with

GMC Motorhome friends at a convention

in Dothan, AL where we enjoyed a 50’s night.