As I've spoken about many times this year, our goal for this journey was to seek warm weather, meet old friends, make new friends, and mosey around America. We wandered into Sarasota and the Sun and Fun RV Resort located a short distance from I-75 in Sarasota, Fl on March 17th. This was a new venture for us, but we were looking for a location with a nice pool for MAE, and an RV Resort not full of old people.
I can only say, that we think this resort fits almost all that we were looking for. MAE wanted to get out of the cold, and have a nice pool to lie around and work on her tan. She loves to complain that the beach is too sticky! The park has about 600 sites to include park models and RV sites. There's a nice outdoor pool for sunbathing, with food service and a walk up bar. The daily special always includes a Happy Hour from 1P-7P with BOGO well drinks! They have a $5 million exercise facility including an olympic size indoor pool. It seemed to include every kind of exercise machine imaginable, and a sauna or steam room when you're done.
We've been there just about 4 weeks, and our neighbors were all extremely friendly. States represented were NY, OH, Mich, as well as Ont, PQ, and Nova Scotia. Our neighbor Dave and Paulette, were from NS and she is a rabid Toronto Blue Jays fan. And for 2 days I had to endure their thorough thrashings of the NY Yankees, by the score of 10-2 & 4-2. They had their Toronto flag hanging from their RV, and were quite pleased to be spanking the Yankees. Dave is quite the character, and always had a story to tell at the drop of a hat. So you can imagine the he and I hit it off quite well.
And since we like barbecue and bluegrass so much, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to spend a day with Dave and Paulette at the Suncoast BBQ and Bluegrass Bash in Sarasota. I enjoyed some great BBQ and a few cold adult beverages as we sat and enjoyed some great bluegrass music. Admission and parking was free, so you couldn't beat it. Dave is an old truck driver, and just had to get his picture alongside this beauty. 
We found lots of boats which would look pretty good on us, and it's always fun to take a look at the new ones. It was a nice sunny day, and who wouldn't want to be down at the waterfront. 
I've become extremely tardy in keeping this blog current. Today is May 1st, and we've been back in NY a little over a week now. We delayed our departure nearly 2 weeks as nasty weather continued to plague upstate NY. Didn't seem to make much sense to travel north in bad weather, or get there and hunker down in some freak snowstorm. We certainly seemed to have settled in over here on the west coast of Florida, but it seemed like it was time to start heading for home, especially since our alarm system was occasionally firing off indicating a "motion" in some of the rooms. The Troopers had been over in the middle of the night but found nothing, and it soon became apparent that probably a bird had somehow gained entry, and needed to be let out.
On 4/18 we headed north, arriving home on 4/21. Traffic and road construction caused a few delays, but other than that, we had no trouble. We traveled north on I-95 to Richmond, VA and then crossed over to I-81 avoiding DC and other east coast cities. We spent Thursday night in Big Red and on Friday we got the heat and the water turned on. Still no sign of any intruder. Friday afternoon, while working upstairs, I encountered our guest, a nice sized racoon. And all she wanted was out! No food or water for over a week. Fortunately, the door on the front porch was open, and as I hollered to Debbie, our guest bolted past her, heading for the porch. One more door and she was gone. No damage anywhere, just a few things knocked over. Can't imagine what it would have been like if we had not arrived home when we did. She gained entry by coming down the chimney and out the cleanout door. Guess I'll be making some modifications before heading out next fall.
So our Journey to See America 2016 has come to an end. Incredibly, we traveled for 8 months and 8000 miles around the country seeking that magic temperature of 70. Some people think we're "different", but it is truly a marvelous way to live. We were able to experience the birth of our first grandson Liam in San Diego, which was truly the highlight of our journey. And by living this type of nomadic lifestyle, we don't believe we were too much of a bother to Ben and Joanne. We know Jamo was always glad to see us! We were all able to be together for Christmas 2015 in San Diego, and that was extra special, even though Liam didn't seem to be too excited.
Believe it or not, we've already started planning out our Journey to See America 2017! We've found lots of cool places to visit where the temperature tends to stay above 70, and that's still our goal. The Northern Border still has some huge holes in it. And we heard a lot about visiting Michigan. Randy and Retha will be visiting in September, and Debbie already has New York City all planned out! There may even be a trip up to Alaska in 2017.....you'll have to stay tuned.
We hope everyone has a great Summer 2016!
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