Our First Taste of Southern Florida

We left home at 4:15am on the 26th of October, hoping to get to Valdosta, GA to spend the night.  A mere 16 hours later, we made it.  The traffic from Chattanooga, TN to Macon, GA was crazy.  We'll be finding a new route home next week!  We made it to Riverside RV by 10:30 the next morning, welcomed by Pam, Dennis, Darla, and Penny.

Pam and Dennis' RV is on the left; ours is the Cedar Creek next to it.

The weather has been perfect.  The pool was a little chilly for a couple days until they turned on the heater, but the hot tub has been a toasty 104.

A couple times we loaded all four bikes in Dennis' truck and went for 10 mile rides.  Of course, each had a lunch at a restaurant in the middle.

 Decked out in our new helmets.

The only wildlife we saw on the bike rides.

We shared our last box of See's candy with Pam and Dennis on National Chocolate Day.

Last night we played BINGO in the clubhouse.  Dennis was the only one of us that won any money back.

Today Mark and I drove to Nokomis Beach to check out the beach.  The water was a chilly 69 degrees.  I got in to my chest; Mark made it to his ankles.

This beach is very different than the Gulf Shores beach we are used to.  This one has billions of shells.  Most people are walking around digging for shark's teeth.  We didn't find any, but one nice girl from New York gave me three of hers.  

A sampling of the shells I found.  The shark's teeth are the black ones.  

This evening the park hosted a Welcome Back dinner for the Fall people.  The food was delicious.

 Brisket, slaw, chips, and cupcakes.

In the short time we've been here, we've learned to play pickleball, rode over 50 miles on the bikes, played pool volleyball, played a round of golf, did water aerobics, discovered the frozen custard at Culvers, met lots of great people, and lounged in the pool and hot tub.  

We're going home next week, but will return in January to do it all over again!