31 December 2017 Solomons - Ocala - Leesburg - Silver Springs - Rainbow Springs

     It seemed to take forever to move from the boat to our coach. Even though the move isn’t from house to house, it is from home to home with the coach having FAR less room than Kindred Spirit III. To take a break from the drudgery, in Ocala we attended an excellent lecture on the Florida Panhandle which was of particular interest to me since I was "born and raised" in Pensacola. 

     Boating/RV friends, Dinata and Andy have just moved to Arlington Ridge Retirement Community near Leesville. During construction, Dinata took photos every day and posted them so that everyone could watch the progress. It was very fascinating to us so we went down for a visit, to see their new home where boxes were still being unpacked. They gave us a tour of their new neighborhood and we ended the day at The Village Green, a little pub and grill, where Dinata surprised us by singing. She has a wonderful talent and voice. We’d never heard her sing before so this was a huge treat. 

     More boating/RV friends, Sue and Rich, met us at Silver Springs State Park. 

     We wandered around over the grounds reminiscing of when we were there 60+ years ago and my, how it’s changed! That was one of Florida’s main attractions so long ago. There’s so much algae in the water that there are only a few bare areas that are free of growth so that the clear water can be appreciated and with a view of the sand. 

     The air was perfect and we vicariously lived through their tales of their month long hike through Ireland. 

     I was torn between skinny dipping which would've cleared out the area or jumping in in my clothes. I wanted to swim in tht water SO bad!

     These kids have lived a most adventurous life and every time we’re with them, we’re awed by yet more stories of experiences and feats we’d not known about before. They’re an amazing couple. Our time together was culminated at the Mojo Grill where we had the patio all to ourselves. A good thing because the guffaws and howling laughter would’ve been disturbing to others. We love spending time with them and Rich is hilarious. 

     The reason we're spending 2 months in Ocala is because the retirement community that we’re considering when get older, grayer, and infirmed, is Ocala’s On Top of the World. www.ontopoftheworld.com.  From this point forward we’ll refer to it as OTOW. We want to get the flavor of the area and learn more about OTOW. I've always chanted that I'll never live in a retirement community with a bunch of old people but seems I'll be eating my words AND have become one of them. I sent a friend the link to the community and she said it looks really nice but there sure are a lot of 'old people' there. Uh-huh!

     We’ve taken advantage of quite a few of their offerings and one afternoon we listened to a couple recount their recent experience touring Cambodia and Thailand. They had 3000 photos from their trip and shared a mere 300 with us Fascinating!

     While we were still at Alliance Coach in Wildwood, FL, we had lunch at TooJay's, across the street in The Villages. 

     One of our fave lunch spots that we were first introduced to while in Vero years ago. I went back to the coach after lunch and Bill spent the afternoon at a Tractor Museum in Leesburg, devouring every second of it. How many more museums of old mechanical things could there possibly be that he's not yet seen??? Probably not too many.

     The day before Thanksgiving we were finally sprung from Alliance Coach where we had repairs and service taken care of. They are excellent and very fair in their charges. Josh, service manager, was outstanding in expediting our repairs. 

     We traveled 30 miles north on I-75 and thankful that we didn’t have to go farther. Traffic is atrocious and people seem to be driving like bats out of hell. We're now in Ocala RV Resort ('resort' is a loosly used word) and can see the interstate from our site making us relieved not to be numbered among them. 

     Thanksgiving Day was our first day in Ocala and also my birthday so we celebrated both at a wonderful French restaurant in Ocala. Bill Bender did himself quite proud that day earning him some "good boy" points. He really outdid himself!

     Bill's has a Facebook account but he doesn't post so I'll do it for him. He drove to the Daytona Speedway for an old car show just as a day trip. He left at 6 AM and got home at 8 PM and walked 9 1/2 miles while he was there. He wore his Garmin because he always wonders how far he walks at these events. There were 1000 cars for sale and 5000 for show. He came home dragging his tail behind him and he was done for the next day BUT he had a good time! And I had a good time staying home playing "happy homemaker".

     Friends we knew from Greenville, SC, Bill’s colleague at Michelin and his friend for 40+ years, Wolfgang and his wife, Pily, came down from their home in GA with their new travel trailer to see what we’ve been raving about at OTOW. 

Wolfgang and Bill

     We took another day trip to Rainbow Springs State Park.

and then to Cedar Key,  a quaint little fishing village reeking of Old Florida and had lunch overlooking the Gulf of Mexico.

     Every weekend, OTOW has live music in their Circle Square so we took Pily and Wolfgang there for unabashed dancing in the streets on a Saturday night. We’ve missed only one since we’ve been here.

                                Shaking a leg on a Saturday night

      We had the opportunity to meet Brigitta, Wolfgang and Pily's realtor. We had dinner in their home and they are such a delightful couple. She and I have become friends but not real estate related.She has so much to offer and I can't seem to get enough of learning new things.

  

     I just finished a 5 week acrylic painting class and my initial undertaking was our little TR6. Not a good choice for a green-horn but I finished it and it sort of looks like what it is supposed to be. 

I completed it one week early so, at the instructors’s suggestion, I chose a simple one and finished it in a couple of hours at our last class. At the close of  class #3, she said for my very first painting I should never have chosen the car with so much detail and perspective NOR should I have used such a small canvas AND that when I'm through with it, I won't be happy with it AND I'm paralyzed with fear for doing something wrong. She waits d3 weeks to tell me!!!????  At the first class there were 5 of us. At the last, only 2. Wonder why.

Can't get much more simple than this!

Our RV 'Resort'  

     We’ve found a church here that teaches similarly to our Seacoast Church in Mt. Pleasant and we felt right at home the first Sunday that we visited.The pastor's fantastic and his teachings are Biblically solid.

     Six months ago we were here for several days and met JoAnn and Lee with whom we’ve stayed in touch. We reconnected when we arrived and they had us to their home for brunch. Bruce and Patty were also guests and we’d met Patty 6 months ago when we were looking at the model homes. Patty’s in a Bible study with a large group of women and she invited me to join. We had a Christmas luncheon that was fun to be able to chat with each of the women and, of course, my primary questions were, “how long have you lived in OTOW and how do you like it?”  Bill and I have walked extensively in the development and everyone we meet or even pass on the street or sidewalk will wave. The ones who are walking, we stop and interrogate them. Everybody LOVES it but you know “there’s always one in every crowd.” One evening we were walking and a man was driving by, stopped beside us, lowered his window (to vent, I suppose) and spoke to us. We asked him the same 2 questions. He hates it here; he didn’t want to move here but his wife did—she wanted a tile roof and a palm tree. That’s why everybody moves to Florida, he said.

     Sholom Park, just outside OTOW's gate, was donated by the owner/developer of the community, and is a 44 acre botanical garden that has over 2 miles of paved trails and more than 250 species of plants and trees. It is a place of natural beauty and a place designed to find inner peace to relax, unwind, and think on things.

     It's such a beautiful and restful park. Hurricane Irma took out about 25 trees so can't imagine how much more gorgeous that would've been. The park requires little or no supplemental watering. Native plants are combined with cultivated ornaments, perennials, and annuals. This creates a beautiful and resilient landscape. If you ever drive through Ocala, stop and wander through these meadows and woodland areas, with added flowers and trees, as well as native wildlife for our enjoyment.

     On a Sunday afternoon a Lutheran Church hosted the OTOW Concert Choir one Sunday afternoon and we were on the front row. The blending of voices was magnificent and the accompanist's talent, extraordinary.

     One of the groups at OTOW are the Storytellers. We attended their Christmas presentation and all were good but the last story teller related his best Christmas ever when he was 13. My tears leaked out. He was such a great sharer.

     Last Sunday afternoon we attended the Ocala Jazz Musicians monthly jam and it was foot-tapping knee-slapping music for sure. A couple there were ball room dancing and they were such a treat to watch. She seemed to be levitating and gliding on air. 

     While I was at art one day, Bill attended a presentation of the Quirky Influences that Florida’s had on the U.S.  

     We’ve both attended several classes by an attorney on documents needed as a Florida resident of which we’ve been since 2007. We had our durable power of attorney and will executed in SC but FL has a few twists and turns, as I imagine do most states, so we’re going to have them reviewed by an attorney before leaving Ocala. The information was great and we learned several new things.

     Have you ever heard of a Cracker Cowboy Poet? Ocala is the horse capital of the world and cowboys here call themselves Cow Hunters. Hank Mattson provided an afternoon of entertainment. He brought many props—gator hide, snake skin, skunk skin, cow skull and more things than I can name but maybe in the photo you can pick out some things. He’s put 400 years of cow hunting facts into poetry that he recites in the Cow Hunter dialect. We laughed and I had tears. This was all from his heart and we could sit through his presentation again!

     There is so much to do in OTOW that no one could ever be bored. There are several pools; foreign language classes; art; sign language; ballet (which I can't wait to do) and more than I can rattle off. There's a fabulous wood working shop that Bill's drooling over already. Remote control cars and planes are huge here and we've been out to the field to watch Lee fly one of his fleet of planes. Bill lapped it up.

     Our great cycling guru friend, Charmaine, came down from DC to visit and brought her bike for a little stroll through our potential new home.

  

    Moving to OTOW is going to mean swallowing the anchor and I can tell you, that'll be Cryin' Time in Lauraville. I LOVE that boat and being on and in the water. Can't bear the though of no more anchoring out and the gentle rocking of our home. Always said we'd stay aboard till the Grim Reaper came but guess we need to become Land Dwellers before we get too much longer in the tooth. We're looking at about a year out. When you buy a lot, you can't sit on it and construction must begin. The lot we have our eye on isn't even developed enough for us to purchase but should be within a month or two. The build time will be 8-12 months so the longer it drags out the better for us.

     Till the end of next month--
Bill and Laura
Ocala, FL