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Florida....So Long, Winter

January - April 2016
A 89-day adventure by Betty Read more
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  • TravelerFlorida....So Long, Winter

    ... in Winnipeg

    January 8, 2016 in Canada ⋅ ☀️ -16 °C

    January 8, 2016

    It was time to hit the road and escape another Winnipeg winter, although admittedly it has been unusually mild so far. Our departure was delayed a day due to wintery road conditions throughout the midwest. It was a frosty -21 as Linda & I headed south in the Toyota Highlander.

    Our trip involved 2 overnight hotel stays, at Eau Claire, WI and Mount Vernon, IL. In Illinois we saw 4 vehicles in the ditch from the previous day's storm so we were relieved that we did not have to drive on icy roads. On Day 3 we arrived safely at our first destination.....Nashville, TN. Our home for the next few days would be a 2 bedroom unit at the Wyndham Nashville.    Read more

  • TravelerFlorida....So Long, Winter
    Day 14

    Nashville, TN

    January 22, 2016 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 0 °C

    January 11 - 15

    We only had 5 days in Nashville, so we kept busy and easily logged our 10,000+ steps. The Opryland Resort with its 2882 rooms, tropical indoor gardens, waterfalls, and other extravagant features, was still decked out for Christmas. It was a 15 minute walk from our resort as was the 200 store Opry Mills Mall. You will be shocked to hear that we never spent one dollar, or $1.46 Canadian!

    We used a l/2 price Groupon for a tour and wine tasting at Belle Meade Plantation, a world-renowned thoroughbred stud farm. Sea Biscuit and Secretariat can trace their bloodlines back to Belle Meade. Our next stop was at the unusual Parthenon which was built for the 1897 Centennial Exposition. The Parthenon and the 42 foot Athena statue are both full-scale replicas.

    Still dressed for warmth as the temperature has only been around 4 C.    Read more

  • TravelerFlorida....So Long, Winter
    Day 14

    ... in Nashville

    January 22, 2016 in the United States ⋅ 🌧 0 °C

    The main doors of the Bridgestone Arena were unlocked so we walked in. Our self-guided tour was cut short when we encountered an official-looking person. She directed us to an entryway to the arena so that we could see it and then kindly asked us to leave afterwards.

    The music scene in Nashville is amazing, even though I am not a huge country fan. We sat at one bar for over an hour, enjoying the two female and one male singers. A younger woman sitting beside Linda asked the inevitable question: "Are you two twins?". After some conversation we learned she was a photographer and we were asked if she could take our photo. She wanted to share it with her own sister.

    We also enjoyed the Grande Ole Opry. Rhonda Vincent, Michael Ray, Ashley Monroe and Chris Young were the big crowd pleasers, although we weren't familiar with any of them. Afterwards we went to the Wildhorse Saloon, a popular 3 storey, 66000 sq ft, live music dance hall. Linda was on the dance floor with about 75 other line dancers!

    Always a fun time in Nashville!    Read more

  • TravelerFlorida....So Long, Winter
    Day 15

    ... in Kissimmee

    January 23, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    January 17 - 23

    From Nashville we drove as far as Lake City, which is an hour south of the GA/FL border. I had not been looking forward to Atlanta but I white-knuckled it right through the city with very few delays. When we finally arrived in Orlando we were greeted with sunny skies and 22 C. Total distance was 3300 km and final tally for gas was $120 USD. Love the Toyota Hybrid and US gas prices, which are more in line with reality.

    Week One was spent at the Wyndham Cypress Palms in Kissimmee. We had a one bedroom/one bathroom condo that worked out well. After the long drive we chose to relax for most of the week. We went for lunch at the Golden Corral to meet with 17 members of my Timeshare Users Group (TUG), a forum for timeshare owners. The "lunch" lasted 6 hours! There were lots of interesting people and travel stories. Other activities were Disney Springs (a dining, shopping and entertainment district); the Morse Museum in Winter Park (the world's largest collection of Tiffany glass, jewellery & art which was amazing); and of course some limited shopping at our favourite US store, Ross (the dollar exchange rate is a strong deterrent).

    We were watching Jimmy Kimmel's interview with actor Jeff Daniels. Daniels was telling the story of life in Michigan where he grew up. We laughed heartily when he spoke of snowbirds....."In Michigan we call them pussies"!!    Read more

  • TravelerFlorida....So Long, Winter
    Day 21

    The Cocoa Beach Resort

    January 29, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    On a sunny but cool day we went on a long day trip, once again arriving home after dark. We had planned to leave early but of course that didn't happen! A GPS and navigator malfunction didn't help the situation either! Our first stop was the Kennedy Space Centre. We got as far as the parking lot - $10 for parking, $49 for senior admission. Not going to happen! Our next destination was the Ponce de Leon Lighthouse where we had a picnic but again didn't want to pay the required $6 to climb to the top of the lighthouse. We then drove north along the coast as far as Ormond Beach. Our little day trip ended up being a 300 km road trip.

    The rest of the week we went on long beach walks, did some shopping, and relaxed with a glass of wine or two. Today we walked 7 km and then enjoyed a late lunch on our balcony. Notice the glass of wine in Linda's hand....a picture is worth a thousand words!    Read more

  • TravelerFlorida....So Long, Winter
    Day 22

    ... in Cocoa Beach

    January 30, 2016 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 9 °C

    January 23 - 30

    Our drive from Orlando to Cocoa Beach was supposed to be a quick l l/2 hours, but I made a spontaneous decision to avoid I-4 because traffic was inching along. Big mistake because the GPS and navigator took me on a route that was way off track so we didn't arrive until several hours later, partially due to stops for gas and food.

    Our home this week is The Resort on Cocoa Beach which is located on the Space Coast. We had two nice surprises on arrival: our assigned unit was one of the ocean-front penthouse condos (2 bedroom/2 bathroom) on the 8th floor; and we had an amazing view of a full moon rising! The resort is very nice and had many daily activities. The only one we attended was the weekly BBQ - hotdog, cheeseburger, beans, coleslaw, and coke - all for a remarkably low $4! We passed on the hotdogs! There was entertainment and I won one of the door prizes, a large coffee mug.

    Florida has been experiencing abnormal weather patterns due to it being an El Nino winter. Day time temperatures have averaged around 18 C and at night it's been as low as a chilly 2 C. We've also had record rainfall this month. C'est la vie!    Read more

  • TravelerFlorida....So Long, Winter
    Day 22

    ... in Fort Myers

    January 30, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    Since we weren't able to check in to our next resort until tomorrow, we decided to drive cross country to Fort Myers so that we could visit Kathy & Blaine at their RV park. We enjoyed the 4 hour drive past cattle ranches, orange groves, and state parks. The RV park was very muddy from the record-setting rainfall the area has received in the past couple of weeks. We had a really good visit and a fresh seafood dinner at Coconut Jack's Waterfront Grill in Bonita Springs.

    After spending the night at the Best Western in Fort Myers we drove to Sanibel Island, one of our favourite places in Florida. Sadly, fish killed by red tide littered the beach. We strolled the beach for an hour and then cruised around the very crowded island, stopping for a picnic along the causeway.

    Our next destination was Orlando, a 3 hour drive through central Florida. We stopped at one of the roadside stands to buy some freshly picked oranges from a friendly Mexican farmer. We wanted to avoid the busy interstate, so our alternate route meant there were several small towns along the way delaying our arrival in Orlando until after nightfall.    Read more

  • TravelerFlorida....So Long, Winter
    Day 25

    ... in Kissimmee

    February 2, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    January 31 - February 7

    Our new home for the week is Vacation Village at Parkway.....a 23 building mega resort with 2,516 condos. It was far too huge to be a comfy home-away-from-home. We were assigned a 1 bedroom mustard coloured unit on the top floor of building 14, the farthest building from the main road. The condo was not the nicest and our neighbours were the noisiest we've experienced. One afternoon there was a domestic dispute amongst the extended family that occupied the 3 condos surrounding ours. We eventually contacted security and were happy to hear them leave 2 days later at 5 in the morning!

    The weather was variable as we finally had 4 days where the temperature hit 28 C but then it plummeted to 15, with overnight temperatures of 7. One day it rained from morning until night. This didn't stop us from going somewhere each day.

    On one of the hottest days we walked to the community of Celebration. This village was designed by the Walt Disney Company and is reminiscent of The Stepford Wives. It was very clean, very white (buildings and population), and a pretty but long walk in 28 degree weather.....7 km round trip.    Read more

  • TravelerFlorida....So Long, Winter
    Day 26

    ... in Winter Park

    February 3, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    We spent a nice afternoon at the Leu Gardens in Winter Park, north of Orlando. Because I was determined to avoid driving on the nerve-wracking I-4, the slow route took us nearly 2 hours to get there. The camelia garden was one of the largest in the US and was supposed to be in bloom but in fact was past it's prime unfortunately. So we didn't see many flowers but we walked the grounds and followed a trail of big bugs wood sculptures. We also took a 30 minute tour of the founder's 19th century home.

    On our way home we stopped at the Florida Mall, Central Florida's largest mall. We only went to 2 stores, Macy's and JC Penney. The next day there were 2 young men shot and killed in the parking lot outside of JC Penney where we had parked our car. Shopping has become a high-risk activity. There is almost a murder a day in Orlando. Lots of car accidents as well.....saw 3 crashes on our way to the Gardens.    Read more

  • TravelerFlorida....So Long, Winter
    Day 28

    ... in Orlando

    February 5, 2016 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    We discovered that the Tupperware International Headquarters were in Orlando and they offered a small museum on the history of Tupperware. It was a bit of an oddity but it was free. We also managed to spend an afternoon at the pool before the weather changed for the worse. Shopping at almost every Ross (Cross) Dress for Less occupied several hours. Sometimes it appeared that we were the only non-hispanics in the store. Got some good deals despite the horrible US/CAN exchange rate of $1.40.Read more

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