March, 2005

We spent the last couple of days of February at 3 Flags doing some grocery shopping and a few short day trips around the area making sure that we hadn't missed seeing anything.

We emptied the holding tanks on March 2nd and put everything away, so that we could leave right after breakfast tomorrow.  We only left the electricity plugged in.  This is our usual procedure.  It seems to make moving day go a lot faster and easier.  It is a good thing we followed our usual routine because we woke up to rain.  It was a very simple thing to unplug shore power, and put the cord away.  We had hooked the car up and prepared it to be towed yesterday also, so we were all set to go and no one got soaked.

We left as planned and arrived at Elite Resorts a bit early.  We hadn't read that we couldn't check in until after 3:30 p.m.   We were booked to stay here with our Resorts of Distinction Plus membership-cost $0/night (no typo mistake here, it really is $0/night).  We decided to have lunch in one of their two restaurants, then we went to our coach and waited until it was time to check in.  We found our site, but couldn't park there because a large branch had broke from a tree and was laying right where we should have been parking.  We had already unhooked the car, so I just hopped in the car and went back up to the office.  They switched us over to another site.  It worked out for the best, because they had WIFI at the clubhouse and the new site was so close to the clubhouse that I had a good signal right from the coach.  Bonus!  I had free WIFI for the week.  I made good use of the WIFI after only having limited dial-up all winter.  What a treat.

Elite is a very petty park in the Ocala Forest.  The park is right on the edge of a nice lake.  The sales people were very busy driving prospective buyers around, in golf carts, looking at lots that were for sale.  The lot that we were parked on was also for sale, and our literature said that we might have to move, if someone bought the lot.  They never sold the lot while we were there, so we were undisturbed.  Elite has numerous planned activities to keep everyone as busy as they want to be.  There is also a mini-mall with  two restaurants, and a couple of other stores.  There is also a fresh fruit and vegetable stand.  On Saturdays there is a large flea-market in the mini-mall parking lot.

Soon it was time to move on.  Our next stop was Spirit of the Suwannee for the next week.  This is another Resorts of Distinction Park.  It was a beautiful, scenic drive to Spirit of the Suwannee.  We drove through miles of forest, and the roads were good.  It was a nice scenic route.

Soon we were at Spirit of the Suwannee, settled back into a site.  Their sites are not real satellite friendly, but I like the trees.  We did manage to get a signal which made Doug happy.   Sometimes finding a TV satellite can take awhile.  If I can't get the signal, I take the compass and go out and look where the dish is pointing.  Then I look for large trees blocking the signal.  Sometimes we just have to move the coach a few feet forward or backward to get the signal.  Sometimes it is a case of having to move the coach to another site.  Usually, if it is just for one night, we will just put up the bat-wing aerial and he lives for one night without  satellite.  This was for a week though, and he had to have his satellite.  I was able to find it for him and all was well.  

We rode our bikes around the park every day.  This park covers around 600 acres, so there are a lot of trails and roads to ride our bikes on.  We can also rent canoes for a paddle down the river.  The sand in this park is so white and fine.  It looks like it is silica sand.  It has the consistency of dry icing sugar.  Main things is, even though it is as white as snow, it isn't snow! yaaaaaa!

A week really flies by when you are having fun.  A Park Host came by and gave everyone complementary tickets to a one woman concert at the campground lounge.  We went up and had our dinner there, and stayed around for the music.  I can't remember her name, but she was a good singer/entertainer, who will improve with experience.  We enjoyed listening to her.  We will know her, if she makes it to the bright lights.

On March 17th we were on our way again.  We jumped on Interstate 10 heading west.  We booked in for the night at Northwest Florida campground in Chipley, FL.  It was a nice little park with pull-thru.  Just what we needed for the night.  The next day we were away in good time, next stop was at Styx River, Robertsdale, AL.  We were at this park for two weeks with our ROD Plus membership (Resorts of Distinction).  The park is on top of a hill.  Before we left, we were very happy that it was on top of the hill.  Otherwise we would have been floating up the Styxs  River, without a paddle.

This park was still recovering from Hurricane Ivan.  The trail down to the river was still closed due to all the downed trees. 

It will take some time to clear all the limbs to allow river access again.  

We enjoyed several drives around the area and drove down to the gulf a couple of times.  Doug kept feeling like we should leave on Thursday, but I said "Why? we are booked to leave on Friday"

Well, it rained all day Thursday and all Thursday night, and was still raining Friday when we were ready to leave.  Is this an April Fool trick by Mother Nature?