Lake Wales, FL – Dec 2022

To all my trusted followers, from my little piece of ground here in Florida, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and have a fabulous New Year.  We sure did have a cold Christmas weekend here in central Florida with highs in the 40’s, and lows in the 30’s the entire weekend.  But as is often said, it’s all relative –  as our family and friends further north were certainly hit with temperatures much lower than that – many in the single digits or even below zero.  And, we’ll be back to the 70’s and 80’s before long, while those to the north will have to wait many more months before they see temps in that range.  So I guess I’ll take it.  Otherwise, it was a wonderful month of spending time with family and friends, doing lots of Amazon shopping, taking in a concert, and visiting an area that’s been on my list for some time.  So, let’s get to the details.

Family & Friends

Mid month saw all the local brothers (and Debbie) getting together at Don’s house for a gathering, and to catch a comedy show.  We had a nice dinner at a Fort Pierce restaurant/pub, then off to the Casey N Spaz Comedy venue to catch headliner Bobby Collins.  It would appear none of us had heard of him before, but he’s apparently been around for quite a while. He has opened for star performers including Frank Sinatra, Cher, Julio Iglesias, Tony Bennett and Dolly Parton.  He’s a born and raised native of Queens New York, and that certainly came through in his performance.  He put on a terrific show, with the only notable exception of a joke about Florida having gated RV Parks – which frankly hit a little too close to home.  Thanks Don for hosting a great weekend!

The following weekend I met up with my Cousin Louise and several of her community neighbors, for dinner and a concert in Orlando.  We had drinks and dinner at the venue’s local pub, then off to our seats in the Amway Center.  We were there to see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra as part of their Ghosts of Christmas Eve tour.  I had seen TSO a few years back, and was thrilled to get the invite from Louise to catch them again.  In addition to the amazing music they produce, their light and laser show coupled with movable stage pieces, articulating performer platforms, and a complete video wall behind them is absolutely amazing.  They certainly didn’t disappoint this time either, putting on a show that lasted just over three hours.  It was a terrific night out, and thank you Louise for the invite.  Here’s a bit of a video I shot at the event to get a small taste of their musical talents and showmanship.

Roadside America

My dear friend Theresa was spending some time out on the west coast in the area of Homosassa and Crystal River.  I’ve had that area of Florida on my visit list for some time now as there are several natural springs in that are frequented by manatees.  So I drove out there early one day, and picked up Theresa and took her on an all-day Roadside tour of the area.  First up was a visit to Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park.  In addition to grabbing a pic of the oversized Manatee statue at the entrance (which was a Roadside item), we also got to see several live manatees during a scheduled feeding.  These particular herbivorous marine sea cows are actually residents of park who are here for refuge and rehabilitation, having been brought here as infants who lost their mother, or others that were injured out in the wild. The park does a great job brining these manatees back to good health before reintroducing them back into the outside world.  Another resident of the park is Lu (short for Lucifer) the Hippo – reportedly the oldest hippo in America.  Born in San Diego in 1960 Lu, now in his 60’s, was soon thereafter relocated to Homosassa where he lived most of his life.  He was part of the Ivan tors Animal Actors group for the first couple of decades of his life and stared in several movies and television specials during that time.  In 1989, the Florida Park Service took over the park and planned to move all non-native animals out of the state.  Thus, Lu was facing eviction.  But he had an extensive following and support group who petitioned then Governor Chiles to help. The governor agreed and made Lu an honorary Florida citizen, which provided Lu with the necessary credentials that then allowed him to remain in the park.  He was pretty cool!

Our next couple of stops would take us out to some quirky Roadside attractions in the area, and one item rich in history.  First was a visit to a GMC car dealership where a circus strong man welcomes perspective buyers.  This statue is believed to be a remnant of a mini-golf course that occupied this spot back in the 80’s.  When that closed and the dealership moved in, they added the GMC letters atop the statue and he’s been a fixture ever since.  Next, we went to a tow truck operations center where they just happen to have a giant 12-foot gorilla standing out front.  Conveniently, this gorilla has his hand out which makes for an inviting sitting spot (which I convinced Theresa to test out).  Too cool for words!  Last up was a visit to Inglis Lock which is part of a never-completed, abandoned canal that was intended to link the Gulf of Mexico with the Atlantic Ocean.  This lock was built in the 1960s as part of the Florida Barge Canal which was dug from the mid 1930s to early 1970s when conservationists shut down the project.  The canal itself, which runs between the Gulf and Lake Rousseau, was used until the late 1990s, but has since been retired.  It was interesting that a shortcut to traverse the state of Florida from the Atlantic to the Gulf was a thing back in the day, but alas I guess there were too many spotted owls or other protected creatures that precluded this effort from reaching fruition.

For you Elvis fans, Roadside pointed to a nearby spot where an Elvis Presley movie was filmed.  His ninth movie titled “Follow That Dream” was filmed here inInglis in 1961.  A sandy island was constructed near a bridge where most of the movie was filmed.  Today, the sandy island is gone, replaced by weeds, scrubs, and palm trees (at left, top).   There was an Elvis statue at the local Chamber of Commerce, along with other signage telling the story of the local claim to fame movie. As we were driving down the road returning from the film location, we noticed a tall slender stack with billowing white smoke.  As we rounded the corner a bit further, two additional and very familiar stacks appeared.  It was quickly apparent that we were looking at a nuclear facility.  Licensed to start power production in Dec 1976, the plant was operated by Duke Energy safely for 33 years until shutdown in Sep 2009.  The shutdown was a planned event for refueling with a scheduled restart in 2011.  However, that process led to the discovery of issues with the plant that turned out to be too costly to address, and in 2013 the decision was made to permanently shutdown the facility.  Then in Oct of 2020, Duke Energy engaged a decommissioning company to begin the decontamination and dismantlement of this plant, which was originally scheduled to be started in 2067 – thus nearly 50 years sooner than originally planned.  That project is currently underway and scheduled to be completed by 2027.  Now that was an interesting find!

Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays

December always brings wonderful decorations and wonderful holiday events here in Saddlebag Lake Resort.  One such event was the communitie’s annual boat parade.  It’s a cool event where 20+ boat owners add lights and other holiday spirited decorations to their vessels, then gather out on the lake where they cruise around the waterways and up and down the community canals.  It was fun to watch these decorated boats cruise along the waters.`

Also, the community is very festive when it comes to decorations.  The garden club wonderfully decorates the common areas including the beach house area (at left, top), while many of the residents add their own holiday flare to their lots.  Another tradition in the community is to line the streets with luminaries (bags containing sand then a candle or other light source) to light up the community on Christmas Eve.  Once again it brightened up the place with a glorious jolly appearance. (Note: these photos courtesy of community residents).

For me, it was once again a wonderful virtual Christmas with the girls and grands.  I spent the better part of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrating with Samantha, Ashley, and the grandkids.  While I would have certainly enjoyed being there physically, a video conference using our Portal devices is the next best thing.  We all took turns opening up gifts, and even taking a break to make and enjoy fresh and warm cinnamon rolls – a long standing family tradition.  From the comfort, cozy, and warm recliner in the RV, I got to watch as gifts were opened and enjoyed.  I watched Henry enjoying his talking cactus (as well as playing with the wrapping paper and empty boxes), seeing Raelyn conjure up a fluffy creature while Savannah watched in amazement, and AJ scoring lots of gaming gear.

After all the mayhem was over, I enjoyed watching everyone enjoying some playtime with their newly received Santa gifts.  An intense game of matching blocks proved challenging for all, though Samantha clearly demonstrated her spacial and pattern matching talents.  The girls also tried their hands with a punching ball game designed to help with hand/eye coordination.  Sadly, there was a lot less punching and a lot more getting hit in the head by the ball that was going on.  Lastly, Samantha enjoyed having lunch with Savannah in her new camping tent.  Overall, it was a most splendid couple of days enjoying the holidays with the family.  Lastly, here is a little cheer ditty that the family put together for your enjoyment (well, maybe a bit of computer magic was involved here too).

Final Thoughts

As I wrap up another successful Christmas, I look ahead to the new year and the eventual 2023 travel that I’ll be making.  I’ve begun the process of laying out the route for next year’s journey, which will take me further west than this year, covering states to include Utah, Montana, and Idaho.  I’m hoping to visit several national parks during next year’s trip, as well as reconnect with former workmates I’ve not seen in many, many years.  Once the route is nailed down, I’ll spend the months of Jan and Feb finalizing my campground choices, and locking in the reservations.  It will be another epic travel adventure that I’m already looking forward to.  But in the meantime, I’ll enjoy the break here in central Florida and catch up on some needed maintenance.  I want to thank all of my readers and followers for taking this journey with me, and I wish you all a very healthy and wonderful new year.  If nothing else, I hope these travel blogs encourage you to travel as well, and take in some of the wonders that are out there.  Till next time, 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!