Happy New Year!

Since Don and I are usually in Arizona for New Year’s Eve, we’re accustomed to celebrating with the ball drop in New York City, where it’s midnight there and 10 pm in AZ. We worried that we might have to miss the celebration in Florida because we are in Eastern time zone, the same time as NYC. It’s been many years since either of us stayed up till 12 midnight to celebrate anything, as we’re usually in bed sometime between 9:30 and 10:30 pm.

We went to the New Year’s Eve party in the activity center, arriving at the start time of 7 pm. We enjoyed sharing the champagne I got at the Christmas party with the Forbes’, the Jarvis’ and a few other folks at our table.

Larry J. spilled his wine…

…so Marilyn brought him an ‘adult sippy cup!’ (It’s a thermal plastic tumbler with a wine glass as the internal part.)

I didn’t spill my wine, but Larry caught me getting the last drop of champagne! He dared me to publish this picture, and I’m not one to walk away from a challenge. (He also got me to pose for the pic!)

Conversations were animated and we enjoyed getting to know some new friends as well as sharing with those we already know. There were lots of goodies to share, but I didn’t even take a look at the food, as Don and I had dined in tonight on some of our faves: pork chops with caramelized onions, applesauce, zucchini and red potatoes. I simply couldn’t eat another bite.

We needn’t have worried about staying up late to celebrate the New Year, however. We noticed that the clocks in the room were showing that time had passed more quickly than expected!

At the stroke of 12, lots of hugs and kisses were shared. Awww, isn’t this sweet?

It was such a fun party, and we were back home by 12:15…or 9:15, depending on which clock you used!

Happy New Year, Everyone! We look forward to seeing you in our travels during 2015.

New ‘Home’ for the Forbes

We were on site to witness the ‘big move’ from site 27 to site 69 in the Escapees Sumter Oaks RV Park this afternoon.

Larry & Marilyn Forbes have been on a waiting list for about 5 years for an ERPU (Escapees Rainbow Parks Unlimited) lot. This program offers a renewable lease for certain designated sites in three parks: Rainbow’s End in Livingston, TX; Sumter Oaks in Bushnell, FL; and Dream Catcher in Deming, NM. Today was the day their lot became available. It has a nice elevated deck and Florida screened room as well as a storage shed and yard with lots of trees, including orange and grapefruit trees.

And there’s a nice view of the cypress swamp where the Ibis and Sandhill Cranes hang out, as they are on a big corner lot.

After Larry got the coach on the lot, Marilyn did the fine-tuning of backing it in exactly where they wanted it.

We played with the leveling jacks a bit to get the coach level, and at one point we heard a loud Pop! Larry thought the 4th jack had broken, as have the other 3 in the past, and of course it happened when I was at the controls, making it my fault! They have the Atwood jacks that we had on our 36’ Phaeton, and 3 of ours had to be replaced too – one of them twice. Needless to say, none of us are fans of Atwood jacks. Fortunately, the jack was fine and did its job the next time the coach was re-leveled.

Later, we helped initiate the deck at happy hour with the Forbes and Larry & Carolyn Jarvis.

Congratulations, Larry & Marilyn! We’re glad we were here for this momentous occasion and look forward to enjoying more good times with you!