2023 recap – We reduced our travelling quite a bit last year since we are building a house! We visited only 5 states, driving Acey 3,254.5 miles, 13,703 miles in Thor and rode 431.33 on our bicycles.
We started off the New Year parked in Wildwood, FL at Thousand Trails Three Flags RV Campground where we arrived on December 30. We are so glad we left Tennessee and the cold wintry weather with temperatures and conditions not conducive to working in the house! And 7” of snow fell on January 15! Chris sent us this photo taken out his back door!
On January 3rd we finally took the opportunity to get back on our bikes! We drove to Inverness to ride on the Withlacoochee State Trail. We rode 10 miles on a beautiful day; 67° and sunny.
On the 5th, we rode another 10 miles on the same trail. As we were ending our ride, Linda fell off her bike just a few feet from the car! The brakes on her bike have not been right for quite some time and the bike stopped so fast, she fell! She landed smack on her rear end and scraped her left arm a bit. She got up and walked around – nothing seemed to be hurt too bad, so after washing the arm in the bathroom, she returned to the car. When she went to sit, it felt like she was sitting on a sharp stone! By the time we got back to Acey, the whole left cheek was turning purple! After using ice, as recommended at the ER, and x-rays showing nothing broken, an area about the size of a hockey puck was still hard, bruised and quite painful 2 weeks later.
We finally saw an orthopedist on Friday the 26th (3 weeks since the fall) By then, most of the bruising had cleared up, but the painful hard lump remained. The doctor said it’s a hematoma and the blood needs to be reabsorbed into the body. She recommended using heat and massaging the area with a tennis ball or golf ball. We had a dryer ball that worked pretty good, but we found we had a massage “truck” that worked even better.)
That helped quite a bit! The area began softening up and no more pain running down the leg in the mornings! In the meantime, Jim replaced the disc brakes and cables on Linda’s bike.
At 11:00 on Saturday, Jan 13, we left Wildwood with 99,821.2 miles on Acey, 125,464 on Thor and arrived at Southern Palms in Eustis about noon. The spot we parked in had a bit of a sand pit where our rear axles were. It will take a bit of work to get out when we move in two weeks…
Sunday morning, we worshipped with Stephens Valley Church via You Tube, watching last week’s service. Our Sunday School class is no longer using zoom, but we had a very well attended Family Zoom on Sunday evening!
We visited Dan’s Fan City to look at ceiling fans for the house. We found out that many of the larger fans are now DC and use a remote control. Jim already has wired the house for AC fans, so the light can be turned on with a wall switch. We found what we need and will pick up the fans when we head back to Tennessee!
The campground had a few events each week; a free “Happy Hour”, plus a lunch and a dinner and Bingo – many opportunities to meet other campers. It was at one of these events that we met Betty & Greg who told us about an FMA (Fleetwood Motorhome Association) Rally that would be coming to the park the following week. We were able to sign up for a Day Pass.
They had seminars about all sorts of topics – and Jim was finally able to get help on a leveling system issue that has not working properly. American Coach is part of the Fleetwood “family” of products, so we met several other AC owners as well as Fleetwood, Monaco, Holiday Rambler, Bounder…Not only were the seminars informative, they had a “Happy Hour” each evening to meet other motorhome owners, a buffet dinner 3 nights with outstanding food (Prime rib and shrimp scampi the last night) and live entertainment those 3 nights plus a movie night, It was a lot of fun and we will probably attend again next year! Bill D Williams (Black Country) was fabulous.
We got dug out of our spot and left Southern Palms on Saturday January 27 with 99,851 miles on Acey and 125,662 miles on Thor. After an hour’s drive, we arrived at Thousand Trails Orlando. We drove Thor back to Eustis to attend the last night of the rally – the buffet dinner followed by entertainment with Sunday Drive.
“Orlando” is probably the largest Thousand Trails park in the country and we enjoy walking around the area. These dogs seem quite comfy laying in the front window of their motorhomes!
And we saw a sandhill crane
On January 30, we went for a bike ride again – on the Van Fleet State Trail – this rail trail is flat and straight and has no road crossings in the area where we rode. Linda’s injury is located in a spot that doesn’t hurt when sitting on the bike seat, so we tried it out. We rode 10 miles; it was clear and sunny when we started, but it got a bit smoky and cool as we finished. Apparently there were some controlled fires nearby.
We are enjoying the break from building the house – we’ll get back to Tennessee in a few weeks!
What a wonderful time you are having in the Sunshine State. Great that Rob could come by to visit. Hope you get the brakes squared away soon, if not already. Hematomas do not sound like something to wish for!