U-turns with Ginny & Ron

Winter FL 2009-2010

We got back to our RV lot and little house at TGO in Titusville mid-October.  It takes some time to get “moved” back in and settled.  In November, I/Ginny went for my routine colonoscopy which turned out to be a disaster.  The Dr perforated my colon and I had emergency surgery to repair the tear and remained in the hospital for 5 days.  It took 6 weeks of recuperation to get back to somewhat normal life.  Ron did an excellent job of taking care of me and all the household chores.  The New Year brought cold weather.  It was the coldest winter on record for FL and many of our trees and shrubs did not survive.

We took a few short trips over the winter.  In January we went to the Tampa RV show and met up with the Pollock’s.  Instead of taking the RV, we stayed at a Gulf front condo that our son, Jimmy, rented for the month of January for business.  Then, we went down to Naples to visit the Fischer’s and the Mansfield’s.  Ken & Deb Mansfield just retired from NJ and bought a home there.  It was great to catch up with them.  After visiting Naples we went up to Port Charlotte to get together with George & Marla Verity.  We had a great time eating good food, drinking wine and playing games.

Then in February we took a 4 day cruise to the Bahamas with the Pollock’s.  Bill was celebrating his 65^th birthday and we wanted help him celebrate (as if he needs help) and get away from the cold for a few days.  It was a good time, but unfortunately the weather did not cooperate.  It was windy and cold the whole time and we never even saw the beach.

In the beginning of March, my sisters Nancy & Judi came for a visit.  We had hoped that the weather would warm up so we could have some time at the beach.  It was warm in comparison to TX & NJ, but not the FL weather that we should have in March.  We had fun in spite of it all and found some new, good places to eat. 

A few days later, we packed up the RV and head to Louisiana to meet with Jil & Tom Mohr.  They returned from living in Venice Italy for 2 years, and we have not seen them in quite a long time.  We traveled with the Pollock’s and our first stop was near Apalachicola FL where we enjoyed the oysters.  Bill & I contacted food poisoning from a pasta dinner that was served at the RV Park where we stayed.  We were miserable for about a week!  Thankfully we got over it in time to get to Betty’s RV Park and enjoy the Cajun delights of Crawfish, oysters and gumbo.  One never gets bored at Betty’s.  There is always something going on that mostly involves FOOD!   We enjoyed spending time with Jil & Tom and also meeting a few others.

Finally, in April, our mild FL weather returned and we got back to enjoying the outdoors.  Our son Jim, Bev and their 2 boys came down for a few days before Easter.  We went to the beach and pool every day and taught them how to play Mexican Train.  Now, they are addicted.  We had a nice visit.

Then, we drove down to Miami to visit friends Pat & Scott Bowes.  They were there for a week’s vacation from Philadelphia.  We have not seen them in a long time and it was fun the catch up on old times.  We hope to celebrate our 30 yr friendship in 2012 and go on a vacation together.  And then, we went to Osprey to visit Ron’s brother, Dennis & Patricia at their condo and to play on his new boat. 

Whew!  Now we need to get back to reality and get ready for travel this summer.  We will be in NC in June and then up to Maine for July & August.