Date:                           November 9, 2009

Location:                    Daytona Beach, FL

0830

            Connie and I have been at this campground in Florida for more than 4 months and it was not until yesterday that we had a real life picnic outside at our site.  It took us over 4 months to live like a camper at our campground.  It was not an elaborate picnic, but we had our Weber cranked up and the smell of cooking beef wafted through the campground and especially through our site.  This was not the first time we have used our Weber, for it has been a work horse this summer.  The part of this charcoal smelling, meat cooking, fresh air enjoying afternoon that made this a special picnic atmosphere was that we actually ate our creations outside at our picnic table. 

            This may not seem to be too exotic, unless you are living in Florida, especially in the summer.  We have learned that 90 plus degrees in the sweaty tropical climate of living on a sand bar is not the most conducive to enjoying the pleasures of outdoor living.  I must sadly admit that we have spoiled ourselves all to much by using our air-conditioning 7 days a week and 24 hours a day for entirely too much.  It is, however, how one manages to exist in the southeast if one is normal and a wimp.  We try to be the former and I am always the later.

            The last few days have been overly delightful in Florida.  The temperature has been in the high 70s to very low 80s with just the hint of a cool breeze.  Our air-conditioning has actually been off a lot more than it has been on and our windows have been open.  We even had our heat on once last week, just to cut the chill of early morning.  With this new climate environment we decided that we should move our bodies outside and enjoy the rest of our site.  We purchased some new lawn chairs, changed our table cloth to one that fit the season and spent all day enjoying the comfort of autumn in Daytona.  It would have been nearly perfect except that the Giants lost by 1 point, but that is another sad story for another sad meandering.

            Someday I should explain how we purchased our lawn chairs from an outlet store near Camping world.  Camping world was our first choice.  Where else would a camper go for camping equipment?  After some very disappointed realization that what Camping World had was made extremely cheaply and terribly over priced, we decided that our 60  mile drive was for naught when Connie noticed an expensive specialty sporting equipment store.  A few moments later we had purchased 2 very nice lawn chairs that were better made and cheaper than anything we could find at CW.  We mentioned this to our sales person and he looked as befuddled as we were.  How could they, a specialty shop, sell a product of higher quality for a lower price?  A price that was a good 20 per cent lower on a product that was made of quality metal and wood and no plastic.  Of course it was made in China, but than nothing is perfect.

            The hamburgers we great, reading as you recline in soft cool tropical breezes is nearly heaven and with our outside entertainment center we really do have the best of many worlds.  We may begin to enjoy the rather large lawn we have at our site and escapee from the confines of our bus.  We have even taken up riding our bikes again.  I guess it is true that as the heat and humidity regress the appearance of snowbirds does elevate.

            Time to go and enjoy another beautiful, pleasant day in Florida.

21 DAYS to EMBARKATION

Wfdo2@wfdo2.com