Lake Wales, FL – Apr 2025

For this month, it’s all about family!  Here I am with my two daughters and their families enjoying a terrific lunch together.  I had the absolute pleasure of taking a week-long trip up north to visit with my daughters and their families, and had the best time ever!  It had been far too long since I’d last seen them, so it was definitely time.  So let’s dive in with those details, along with other happenings around as I just about wrap up my winter season here at the home base.

Local Happenings

Before I venture into my trip to the north, I wanted to tell you about a local festival I attended this month.  The town of Sebring, which is about 30 miles to my south, has an annual festival they call the Sebring Soda Festival.  This is the first time I have attended, and in fact, had just recently learned about the event.  It was season 3 of the HGTV hit show “Hometown Takeover” (HERE) that featured the renovation of the Sebring’s center circle area, and where they happened to mention the festival.  So, after watching the HGTV renovation show of the town that was just released this past month, I figured I’d check out the work that they did, and also partake of the festival at the same time.  Though I had been to various places within Sebring in the past, I had never visited the center circle.  As shown in the aerial photo at left, bottom left, it has a center park area, surrounded by buildings of various businesses.  Restaurants, shops, and other storefronts make up the circular outer band of the center.  From the HGTV show, I gathered this area had seen better times, and was in sad decline.  The season show updated several businesses on the circle, and set the stage for a major revitalization.  It turned out really well, and I certainly hope the town thrives from the improvements.  If the festival is any indication, which was attended by thousands of people, I think they are on a good course to recover.  Well done Sebring, and I’ll be a recurring visitor!

Family Visit

The last time I had visited with my daughters was a year ago, just after my newest granddaughter Emmarie was born.  Well, along with Easter, it was time for her first birthday.  Time sure does go by quickly.  It was also my grandson Henry’s birthday just a couple of weeks prior, so I got to celebrate a two-fer.

I looked into all transportation methods of how to get to the MD/PA area for the visit.  I’ve come to dislike flying, and taking several days to drive there was equally undesirable.  Some friends had recently mentioned the AutoTrain, which I remembered my brothers have taken before as well.  Having not really travelled by train before, and with the option of having my own car with me for the trip, the AutoTrain sounded like a great option.  This train runs from Sanford, FL (about 90 minutes north east of my FL home base) all the way to Lorton, VA (just over an hour south of my final destination).  So I looked at their schedule, and booked a round trip excursion.  It’s a pretty straightforward process.  You arrive at the train station no later than 2pm.  They take your car and drive it onto one of the car carrying rail cars, while you shortly thereafter board one of the passenger cars for a 4pm departure.  The train runs all night chugging along the just over 850 mile journey and arrives around 9am the next morning to its other end destination.  Pretty cool!

One of the benefits of AutoTrain travel is that there is no TSA, and no restrictions on what you can bring with you.  Load up your car with whatever you want or need, and it travels with you.  That was especially beneficial for me since my daughter Samantha, who once lived here in Florida, had cleared out a storage locker she had here, and with no means to get it back up north, left it in my shed.  So, what a great opportunity to regain the storage space from my shed, and bring back all her stuff.  So, I dug it out of the shed, loaded it up in the car, and delivered it back to her in PA.  Some of the items being delivered were old toys belonging to granddaughter Savannah, so for her, it was like an early Christmas regaining toys she had not seen for several years.  Clearly a win-win for both sides.  They got their stuff back, and I got my shed cleaned out.  Wahoo!

So the first step in traveling onboard the AutoTrain is to deliver your car.  They have these double-decker car carrying train cars – offering a total carrying capacity of 330 cars.  You check-in, they place a magnetic unique number on your door, take a full 360 degree video of the vehicle (undoubtedly to document any pre-existing damage), then one of several employees drives off to the loading area and puts your car to rest in one of the carriers.  The lower portion of the car carriers lines up with the dock area, while an inclined gantry ramp is used to gain access to the top portion of the train car.  They even have little trailers to securely carry motorcycles on the train.  It’s a quite well organized, well orchestrated, and well executed process to quickly and safely load hundreds of vehicles onto the train.  When you get to your destination, the unloading is equally well organized.  Lots of jockey drivers make several trips unloading the vehicles, while the unique numbers are announced in the station.  When your number is called, you simply walk out to your car, jump in, and drive away.  Easy Peasy!

You have a few options when choosing which passenger car you will ride in.  There are coach cars which have rows of seats similar to an airplane where you ride out the trip in a sitting or somewhat reclined position along with many of your fellow travelers.  Alternatively, there are sleeper cars that offer a more private experience, along with a bed that provides the opportunity to comfortably sleep through the night of travel.  For this being my first trip, I opted for the sleeper version to be more comfortable.  Despite having not really sleeping all that much, I did appreciate the private nature of this travel option, in addition to the complimentary dinner and breakfast that was included.  The sleeper I chose was known as a Roomette.  It features a large picture window to view the outside, along with two facing mostly comfy chairs during the day, which by night come together with an add-on mattress to form the sleeping arrangement.  There is a second sleeping bunk above for when there is a companion traveler.  During daytime travel, I was able to stretch out and kick up my feet while enjoying the scenery as it passed by.  At night, I could lay down and attempt to sleep through the nighttime travel.  However, attempt was the key word here.  While I may have dozed off now and again, it was hardly a good nights sleep.  The bed is narrower than a twin, and barely long enough to accommodate my 6 foot frame.  Not the pillow-top queen size bed I’m used to.  But I do think this option, despite being significantly more expensive compared to coach, is a worthwhile upgrade.  This option also gives you access to dining and club cars not available to those riding coach.  Yet another perc.

There was lots of nice scenery to take in as we meandered our way along our route.  Large picture windows in the Roomette offered a nice view of the countryside as we travelled.  I saw everything from the skylines of big cities, to babbling brooks and rivers, to the quaint colonial communities in rural small town America.  I even caught a glimpse of a nuclear plant as we passed by the Seminole Power Facility just north of Palatka, FL.  It certainly was nice that I could enjoy the views while someone else was doing the driving.

Being the geek that I am, I also brought along my own Internet.  You can see my antenna stuck to the window pictured at left, top left.  While the train did offer WiFi Internet, as is the case with most shared services, it was under capacity and over used, resulting in a pretty bad experience.  I on the other hand, had plenty of capacity for all my Internet needs, including streaming movies, with my private AT&T hotspot.  Good thinking on my part!

The day after my arrival would be the 1st birthday of my granddaughter Emmarie.  So, I travelled to PA to spend the day with them to do a bit of celebrating.  It was an absolutely beautiful warm sunny day, so we spent the day mostly enjoying the outside.  They live out in the boonies of PA, with a dairy farm in their backyard.  Curious cows enjoy coming up to the fence line to see what the little ones are up to.  Daughter Samantha is a up and coming professional digital creator and had one of several picture shoot setups ready to document Emma’s first birthday.  Not to be left out, Savannah also got in on much of the picture fun.  Justin grilled up some yummy burgers for dinner, and we wrapped up the evening enjoying each other’s company.  It was a wonderful day spent with family, and insightful as I got to see Samantha doing her camera magic in realtime.  She definitely got some mad skills there!

The following day would see us all together to officially celebrate Emma’s first birthday, and Henry’s third.  We started the day with an early visit to an Amish/Menonite farm that has an animal petting and cuddling venue.  Cats, dogs, bunnies, sheep, goats, chicks, and various other animals were there for the kids (and adults) enjoyment.  Needless to say, all the animal lovers had a terrific time.

After the animal visit, and after we all thoroughly disinfected our hands, we went to a local family style restaurant for lunch (pictured at the top of the blog).  It’s  a good thing it was a Family restaurant, as we were a large, noisy group of nine.  The food was great and the camaraderie of a family meal together was the best.

Next, it was back to Justin & Sam’s place and time to celebrate birthdays.  Henry celebrating his third, and Emmarie enjoying her first – it was like Christmas with all the presents and fanfare.  Henry has a fabulous imagination, and often plays the role of many super hero’s and even sometimes the villains.  The Boba Fett mask and pool noodle style light sabers were a huge hit!  Emma on the other hand is still figuring out her likes and dislikes, and was equally happy playing with a wonderful new toy, as she was playing with the empty box in which it came.  Oh well – at least she is easy to please!  A wonderful celebration of birthdays was had by all.  We also got to enjoy some amazing BBQ that Justin had been slow cooking out on his smoker for the past day.  It was outstanding – well done!

Last up for the day was picture taking time.  Samantha has been really honing her photography and post editing skills, and has developed quite the portfolio of amazing work.  She setup an Easter themed shooting area outside – despite the ever present wind trying to disrupt things.  Then, all the kids (even one of the big ones) got a turn in front of the camera for some great shots.  The pictures here were not taken by Samantha, but rather from me taking pictures of her taking pictures.  She definitely has a great eye for photos, and her editing talents are superb.  All in, it was an absolute wonderful day with family!

A  couple of days later, I spent the afternoon with Ashley, Henry, and later after school AJ joined us for dinner.  It was a beautiful warm sunny day, so Henry, Ashley, and I spent a couple hours at a park called Angel Park.  It was an amazing place with lots of structures to climb and swings to swing on.  Henry had a great time playing hide and seek, and later entertained us with his rock disappearing magic act in their amphitheater.  After all that fun we picked AJ up from after school, and headed out to dinner.  This place was amazing!  They had outdoor Middle River water-side beach sand seating which Henry thoroughly enjoyed.  The restaurant was also just up the river and along the landing flight path for Martin State Airport.  So lots of small planes and baby jets frequently flew by as they approached their final destination.  There is also an Air National Guard unit at this airport so we were further entertained by the regular passing of Air Force A-10 Thunderbolts as they came in for a landing.  So, besides the terrific food, fun water play, and ever present fly-bys of both commercial and military aircraft, there could not have been a better choice for a dinner spot.  Thanks Ashley and gang for a terrific day!

I did get to visit with a few other folks while up in my old stomping grounds.  First and foremost, I want to thank my ex in-laws Helen and Mike for their gracious hospitality in letting me stay with them during my visit. They also hosted a terrific Easter Sunday party where I got to see many of my other nieces and nephews and friends that I’d not seen in a long time. Speaking of which, one of the attendees was Jordon (at left, bottom right) who I had not seen since she was like 9 years old. She and her brother Christopher were frequent camping guests of Mike and Helen so I had the pleasure of spending time with them in their youth.  Today she is now married with a newborn of her own.  It was great seeing you again Jordon!  And thank you Helen and Mike for hosting my visit!

I also reached out to former coworker Judi and had a terrific lunch with her. I’ve known her and her family for years, and in fact look forward to catching up with your son Peter this summer as I travel through the Milwaukee area. When I picked her up for lunch, I also got to see her youngest son Luke, who I’d not seen since he was a little tike.  Well, he’s grown!  In fact, he’s something like 6’5” tall now – towering over his mother and even me for that matter. Judi and I had a great lunch and caught up on all things work and family related. Thanks for taking the time away from work to grab lunch.

Well, I reversed my travels and drove to Lorton, VA to take the AutoTrain back to Florida. I had an equally good experience going back as I did going up. I will very likely have the train on the top of the choice list the next time I have the opportunity to travel in that direction.  Two thumbs up from me!

As I wrap up the month now back at the home base, I had the opportunity to catch up with a couple of friends.  I met up with my dear elementary school friend Theresa and her friend Sam, for a lunch and a visit to McKee Garden.  Besides the natural beauty of the gardens and various water features, McKee often has special additions to showcase. This time it was the works of artist Sean Kenney –  a creator of LEGO art for over 20 years.  So throughout the gardens were these LEGO art pieces – something like 30 of them.  They are quite extravagant and challenging to make.  For example, the lion featured here is made up of over 45,000 LEGO bricks, and took 167 hours to build. Wow!  It was a fun day with Theresa, and very nice to have met her friend Sam.  Thanks for lunch and the get together!

Lastly, I caught up with an old childhood friend who I’ve not seen in somewhere between 45 and 50 years.  He was here in Florida vacationing from his home in NH. Back in the day, he was my immediate neighbor in the house I mostly grew up in, and we were friends all through elementary and  high school years.  Shortly after high school graduation, my parents and I moved out of that house, and soon thereafter I left the area to start my Air Force journey.  That was roughly the last time I had seen Jim (Jimmy back in the day).  So needless to say, there was a lot of catching up to do.  My brother Don and I had lunch with Jim and his wife Kim.  We reminisced about the old days – even including a mention of when Jim saved my life by pulling me out of a frozen pond after I had fallen through the ice.  He mentioned I had given him a 50 cent reward for his heroic actions. I frankly don’t recall that tidbit of history, but to make up for it, I bought him lunch!  Certainly was great seeing you again after all these years!

Final Thoughts

Well, I’m just under two weeks from my 2025 summer tour launch. Just enough time to wrap up my RV maintenance, give it a bath, and put away all my outdoor furniture and decorations securely in the shed.  I’m certainly looking forward to another epic RV travel season, having lots of new places to explore and folks to visit. I had a wonderful time visiting with family and friends this month, and thoroughly enjoyed the Easter season with them. I hope and trust all of you also had a wonderful Easter. My next blog will likely be from the road, so until then, be well and safe travels.

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!