Christmas
has come and gone and now so has New Years Eve! I have got to get caught up!
Christmas
Eve was pleasantly quiet at D&S’s home.
On Christmas Day H and I hoped to kayak further up the Rainbow again but
unfortunately the weather did not wish to cooperate so we just “explored” more
back roads. While in Ross Prairie, we
chatted with folks from our previous stays and this time we’ll add Bill &
Carol and Kevin’s names to our list of travel friends! Originally from Indiana, B&C are full
timers who travel in a truck camper pulling a Jeep with 2 orange kayaks on
top. Kevin and his wife travel and write
blogs and newspaper articles. K
interviewed both of us couples and wrote a VERY fine article in the Citrus
County Chronicle, dated Dec 27,12!
C&B look good but don’t look at me – I was trying to lean back, OUT
of the picture! On K’s blog, he posted
a picture of my patch-covered jacket, which has drawn a slew of good
remarks! IF you want to see it - go
to: Facebook and then to the page for VisitFlorida
and scroll down to Dec 25.
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| Golf cart store at The Villages |
One
day that week, the Market of Marion flea market drew us down for our yearly
visit to see what new treasures were hidden among all that “stuff” and this
year we also drove a bit further to see how much the small community of “The
Villages” has grown. Let’s just say
that the last time we visited, it probably had one zip code - - Now it has several! So much new construction and so many new
housing developments! One of H’s fun
places to check out is the downtown golf cart store. $20,000 plus for a golf cart but they are not
your plain cart with 4 little rubber tires and a steering wheel, either!
Fridays
are not our favorite days to change parks but it was time to pull up jacks and
move on! H had ordered a new trailer
tire from Wal-Mart but the wrong one got ordered – you MUST use the word
“RADIAL” when asking for trailer tires.
And know that Wal-Mart does NOT touch travel trailers when it comes to
changing tires - the customer must remove the old and must put the new mounted
one back on. Our next home was down
US441 in Mt Dora and H was confident we would find someplace else where we
could get the correct hunk of radial rubber to replace the one that was wearing
out! That place was PEPBOYS in Tavares! Good price, GREAT service AND they did all the
work! We were in and out within a half
hour.
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| 1957 DeHaviland Beaver |
See
several years past of Florida Blogs for Trimble Park in Mt Dora – its another
one of our favorite Orange County Campgrounds besides Moss Park and Kelly
Park. This park has the smallest
campground with only 15 sites which means it’s hard to get into. Most sites are right on the water! Our 1st site was #4, on the small
canal that was surrounded by Florida jungle - palmettos, palms and live oaks
draped with more Spanish moss! The park
is also home to a million small gray squirrels that use the canopy above as
their expressway. Small black coots hoot
and holler to each other. Egrets and
herons of both colors ply the reeds for dinner.
Jays and hawks and finches dart from bush to tree. Each night we are serenaded by questioning
owls (Get it? WHO??), bellowing frogs and chattering raccoons! One day, H unfolded our little bikes and we
rode them to town. We were either straining
to go uphill into the wind or riding the brakes to keep from going head over
heels down the opposite side of that hill!
While downtown we snooped in several small shops and visited the
beautiful 1887 Lakeside Inn that resides on the hillside of Lake Dora. A 1957 DeHaviland Beaver Seaplane calls the
dock it’s home. For $50 a person we
could have gone up in it! H was
tempted!
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| Christmas in Mt. Dora |
Mt
Dora decorates for Christmas to the NINES!
SPFB for several years ago to see the huge marina that covers all their
buildings with more lights than the Toledo Zoo uses. The palm trees are even wrapped
like big candy canes in red and white LEDs.
Downtown is draped with sparkling white icicles, and the lamplights were
alternating red ones and green ones. The
palm trees were wrapped in white also but the tops had the “dripping” ice blue
lights. And the huge tree in the square
- OH MY! Set to music, it changed
patterns and colors according to which Christmas Carol was played. On New Year’s Eve we walked the brightly lit,
peaceful little downtown and watched that tree! We are not “party people” – we arrived as
everyone was going to dinner and left before all the real “party people” came
out to party!
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| Sunset at Trimble Park |
New
Year’s Day 2013 arrived and looked just like the last day of 2012 but everyone
in the park knew it was time to pack up and go home! Except for us! But we still moved! From #4 to #8 which was/is THE best site in
the park! Right on the lake – right by
the fishing/boat docks, closer to the “facilities”(which are very good and very
clean!) - and THE best views of the sunrise and sunsets!
Travares
is one of the other towns on Lake Dora.
Leesburg is on the west, Mt Dora is on the east and Tavares is on the
north. The town’s lakefront is mostly
well groomed community park with picnic shelters, walkways, a seaplane for
public rides over the lakes, a great play area for the kids, a water park with
a large colorful seaplane mounted above and a train depot that is home to a
1907 steam train. When we arrived, the
train was just building up steam for it’s 2 hour run to Leesburg and back!
Ron
and Nancy have arrived and are parked right next to us in the next best site in
the park! They are here and so is the
rain! More adventures to
come, tho!
