Wednesday, February 7th
This trip is passing all too fast - we are seeing so much and not reporting on it fast enough. Then I try to remember the high points and can’t recall all of them. Yep, it’s a terrific journey!
We spent nine wonderful days at the Orlando Thousand Trails resort. During that time, we experienced a Florida tornado. We were located about 40 miles south of Lady Lake where the most severe damage occurred. We felt a lot of rain, gusty winds, and cool temperatures (not cold, just cool). The night the tornado touched down it was a wild night for weather. I didn’t sleep that well and was up at 5AM watching the local TV stations getting initial reports of the damage. The weather reporters around here were right on top of the damage area in minimal time. They were getting a steady stream of reports and finally were able to launch helicopters to get an aerial overview of the damage. As most of you saw, it was catastrophic. We had several friends that live in The Villages and some of our traveling friends were at Wildwood, just west of Lady Lake. They all reported the same wild weather with winds that sounded like freight trains. At Orlando, the runoff was fast and there was little sign of the heavy rain cells that passed through our area.
After corresponding with all the West Coast Contingent of the Monaco owners - our group of travelers - we decided to leave the Orlando TTN and drive to the Brooksville Elks Lodge for Sunday night. Andy and Linda Clarkson were at the TTN with us, so we drove together over to Brooksville on Sunday morning. On the previous Thursday, Dottie and I had driven over to Brooksville on a scouting trip. We checked out the Lodge and the Brooksville airport where the rally would be held. When we arrived on Sunday we parked our coaches and awaited the arrival of the remainder of the group. By noon everybody had arrived. We rested, took a quick trip down the street to the Sam’s store, and prepared for the Super Bowl game.
At about 4PM, we went inside the Lodge to watch the game and enjoy the finger foods that had been prepared. We all had a great time eating, drinking, and enjoying the company and warm fellowship of the local Lodge members.
The next morning we were prepared to enter the Rally grounds at the airport. We had eight coaches to go in and we all caravanned to the airport entry point. I explained to the Parking Committee that we had eight of us and we wanted to park together. They took us to one of the areas of the airport that nobody else was parked in - yet! We were all alone for almost a full day. We are now embedded among the other 1500 motor homes that surrou
nd us. Actually, we have one of the best locations on the airport in that we have nothing in front of us but grass, taxiways, and t-hangars. We’re relatively close to all the activities - seminars, new coach displays, vendor areas, and nightly entertainment. We have managed to find a few things that we just can’t live without and also found some vendors that will update or repair some of the products we have in the coach. This Rally doesn’t have meals, but we get coffee and donuts in the morning and nightly entertainment, including the New Odyssey, a hilariously entertaining group that we’ve seen before.
Our shenanigans continue here. We had a stack of signs saying “Tram Stop” placed near our coaches. We took those signs and put one behind each of our coaches. In front of the stand of signs we had our “Sobriety Checkpoint Ahead” sign. You might be able to see the photo of the signs - they were removed this morning and placed around the runway areas. I also have my dummy hook-up post out and it is creating quite a stir among some of the attendees. Wow! This stuff is fun!!
We will be here until Sunday when we move to Dade City for two weeks to participate in a Habit for Humanity build. We will have Japanese students assisting on the second week of the build. It should be a challenging, rewarding build.
This trip is passing all too fast - we are seeing so much and not reporting on it fast enough. Then I try to remember the high points and can’t recall all of them. Yep, it’s a terrific journey!
We spent nine wonderful days at the Orlando Thousand Trails resort. During that time, we experienced a Florida tornado. We were located about 40 miles south of Lady Lake where the most severe damage occurred. We felt a lot of rain, gusty winds, and cool temperatures (not cold, just cool). The night the tornado touched down it was a wild night for weather. I didn’t sleep that well and was up at 5AM watching the local TV stations getting initial reports of the damage. The weather reporters around here were right on top of the damage area in minimal time. They were getting a steady stream of reports and finally were able to launch helicopters to get an aerial overview of the damage. As most of you saw, it was catastrophic. We had several friends that live in The Villages and some of our traveling friends were at Wildwood, just west of Lady Lake. They all reported the same wild weather with winds that sounded like freight trains. At Orlando, the runoff was fast and there was little sign of the heavy rain cells that passed through our area.
After corresponding with all the West Coast Contingent of the Monaco owners - our group of travelers - we decided to leave the Orlando TTN and drive to the Brooksville Elks Lodge for Sunday night. Andy and Linda Clarkson were at the TTN with us, so we drove together over to Brooksville on Sunday morning. On the previous Thursday, Dottie and I had driven over to Brooksville on a scouting trip. We checked out the Lodge and the Brooksville airport where the rally would be held. When we arrived on Sunday we parked our coaches and awaited the arrival of the remainder of the group. By noon everybody had arrived. We rested, took a quick trip down the street to the Sam’s store, and prepared for the Super Bowl game.
At about 4PM, we went inside the Lodge to watch the game and enjoy the finger foods that had been prepared. We all had a great time eating, drinking, and enjoying the company and warm fellowship of the local Lodge members.
The next morning we were prepared to enter the Rally grounds at the airport. We had eight coaches to go in and we all caravanned to the airport entry point. I explained to the Parking Committee that we had eight of us and we wanted to park together. They took us to one of the areas of the airport that nobody else was parked in - yet! We were all alone for almost a full day. We are now embedded among the other 1500 motor homes that surrou
nd us. Actually, we have one of the best locations on the airport in that we have nothing in front of us but grass, taxiways, and t-hangars. We’re relatively close to all the activities - seminars, new coach displays, vendor areas, and nightly entertainment. We have managed to find a few things that we just can’t live without and also found some vendors that will update or repair some of the products we have in the coach. This Rally doesn’t have meals, but we get coffee and donuts in the morning and nightly entertainment, including the New Odyssey, a hilariously entertaining group that we’ve seen before.
Our shenanigans continue here. We had a stack of signs saying “Tram Stop” placed near our coaches. We took those signs and put one behind each of our coaches. In front of the stand of signs we had our “Sobriety Checkpoint Ahead” sign. You might be able to see the photo of the signs - they were removed this morning and placed around the runway areas. I also have my dummy hook-up post out and it is creating quite a stir among some of the attendees. Wow! This stuff is fun!!
We will be here until Sunday when we move to Dade City for two weeks to participate in a Habit for Humanity build. We will have Japanese students assisting on the second week of the build. It should be a challenging, rewarding build.
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