Lake Wales, FL – Dec 2024

Now THIS is the way to celebrate Thanksgiving!  Great weather, a terrific meal from the clubhouse, followed by wine, a campfire, and watching the NFL outside under the stars. Just doesn’t get much better than this. All the details and other happenings follow in this edition of the Luv2RV blog.

Thanksgiving

I was pleased to welcome back my brother Gerry who decided to join me for a Saddlebag Thanksgiving.  Since I’ve lived here for the past four years, there had never been a Thanksgiving dinner offering in the clubhouse.  Apparently, in the past, that had been something that several of the clubs used to offer.  But ever since Covid, this practice had apparently stopped.  This year, the Garden, Men’s and Woman’s clubs joined forces to put on a resurrected clubhouse Thanksgiving dinner.  And boy did they deliver!  As you can see from the photo at bottom left, this was a complete feast, and I can attest to how delicious it was.  Thank you Saddlebag for hosting such a wonderful meal.  As depicted in the feature photo above, after our Thanksgiving meal, I started a roaring wood-burning fire in the outdoor fire pit, brought out a screen and projector, and my brother and I enjoyed watching some Thursday night football outside while enjoying the crackling fire and some terrific wine.  It was a great end to a wonderful day.

The day before Thanksgiving, on the day my brother arrived, we decided to venture out to nearby Winter Haven to check out a Mexican restaurant named Azteca D’Oro (at left, top).  The food was great, and oh so plentiful with lots of leftovers for another meal.  Interestingly, it turns out the family owned and operated establishment also has a similar restaurant located in Bellevue Washington area, which Gerry knew about and had actually frequented back when he lived there.  Too funny!

Local Happenings

Many, many months ago I learned about a caterer and charcuterie creator extraordinaire named Kathy (at right, top right) who, on the side and in her spare time, holds charcuterie workshop events.  They are often held in historic downtown restaurants, and include a meal along with the class.  Best part is, you get to bring home and enjoy the charcuterie masterpiece you learn to construct.  I’ve been following her on Facebook for some time hopping to catch one of her classes while I was here for the winter.  As luck would have it, one was listed to be held in Dec at the Ranch Taproom restaurant in downtown Lake Wales.  This also just so happened to be one of my more favorite restaurants in the area.  So, I signed up!  As it worked out it was me, and a dozen woman who got a terrific breakfast meal complete with mimosas, along with learning some charcuterie construction tips.  For breakfast I had avocado toast with boiled egg and caramelized onions covered in goat cheese, with a serving of cheddar cheese grits on the side – yummy!  After breakfast, Kathy led the group to making a Christmas themed board filled with cheese, crackers, grapes, apples, olives, and various sweet treats.  We learned how to crumble a cheese block instead of slicing it, how to make little Christmas trees from Happy Cow cheese wedges, and how to turn slices of salami into flowering works of art.  Despite being the only guy there (which actually was not a bad thing), it really was a lot of fun.  I had a great breakfast meal, learned a few tips on constructing a board, and later that night, got to enjoy a hand made charcuterie dinner.  It was a win/win all around.  My daughter Ashley and I both enjoy these mixed ingredient concoctions, and have shared many of them for meals over the years.  In fact, when I told her I was going to a charcuterie class, she was notably jealous.  I hope to catch another class (and a great meal) in the coming months while I’m sill here for the winter.  Thanks Kathy for a wonderful experience.

No, I didn’t sell my place!  But, it didn’t take long for the vacant RV property that is across the street from me to get sold.  I reported the for sale opportunity in my last blog, and within a week of posting that blog, the property had been sold.  I think all in, it was listed for sale for less than three weeks before getting scarfed up.  And this was all done without the benefit of a realtor as this was a FSBO.  Other than the For Sale sign on the lot, and possible word of mouth advertising such as mine, this place sold with virtually little to no exposure.  I subscribe to several Florida RV Site for Sale and Nationwide RV Site for Sale groups on Facebook, and not once did I see this property appear there.  So kudos to the seller for doing a commendable job buying this site from a tax foreclosure auction, and flipping it quickly and maximizing their profit.  If the seller got their asking price, they made a quick $25K profit.  Well done!  I saw what I believe to be the new owners scouting around the lot a week or so ago, but did not get a chance to stop over to say hi.  I guess next time.

Christmas

Christmas here in Saddlebag is always festive and eventful.  The Garden Club does a terrific job decorating the common areas, while many home owners do their part ranging from the subtle (like my place) to the extreme (at left, top – having no less than a dozen varying Christmas trees in their car port).  On Christmas Eve, many folks line the roadways with bags filled with sand and a candle, to light up the evening in a most beautiful display.  Many folks host various events to celebrate the joyous holidays.  My friend Gordon has an afternoon Eggnog Social in his driveway offering both with and without spiked versions of this holiday treat to those passing by.  Many residents participate in a Golf Cart Parade complete with lighted up carts, and a pull behind sleigh featuring Santa himself.  A group of singers get together to do Christmas caroling, while husband and wife team Randy and Dorothy deliver an amazing Christmas show – which Gordon and I video recorded and I later assembled into a complete video which is now hosted on the community SLR Video Archive YouTube channel HERE.

Another of my friends David and Denise celebrate Christmas Eve with what they call a traditional Bethlehem Dinner.  They invited me to participate, and while chatting about how I could help or contribute, Denise mentioned she was wanting to have a charcuterie board featuring many of the foods that would have been featured back in those days.  Seeing this as an opportunity to put my recently learned charcuterie skills to practice, I volunteered to help setup the board.  And when I say board, I’m talking about two 8 foot live edge oak boards worth of goodies.  It’s amazing just how quickly you can fill that much space.  It turned out pretty good!  Many of the 20 or so dinner participants came dressed in period clothes.  Even several of the grandkids who were here visiting during their winter breaks got into the spirit and were dressed accordingly.  I didn’t have a spare sheet, so I opted for regular street clothes this time.  Anyway, the food was fantastic, and the company of many residents was very enjoyable.  Thanks David and Denise for the invite and for hosting such a wonderful evening!

Christmas morning came early, and I once again hopped on a Facebook Portal video call with both Ashley and Samantha.  It’s the way I’ve been spending Christmas with them while I’m remote, and has in fact been the next best thing to being there.  We do a three-way video call, and watch each other as presents are opened.  I have the TV version of the Portal which attaches to my main TV, while Ashley and Samantha each used the more portable picture frame version (at left, lower left).  We pretty much start the connections around 7:45  just before the kids wake up and come down (or up) the stairs to see what Santa has delivered, and keep them running throughout the day – even sharing breaks to bake and enjoy our traditional cinnamon roll breakfast.  Samantha and family had to head out to Justin’s parents place to celebrate their Christmas around noon or so, but I stayed on the video call with Ashley until just after 2pm – wracking up a more than 6 hour video call.  It was wonderful and I enjoyed every minute of it.  I got to see and listen as each one read the letters left by Santa, to the opening of all the presents, through the inevitable playing and horsing around with the empty boxes.  I would of course rather be there in person, though I don’t know how I would split myself to be at two locations at the same time, but having the video calls is without a doubt the best option otherwise.

For me, it was a terrific Christmas!  Besides getting home made hugs from Savannah, Raelynn, and Emmarie, I also received updated fridge pictures and  Christmas ornaments featuring their cute little faces.  So wonderful!  In addition, Santa was very nice this year and brought me a few really nice presents.  First up, a camping themed throw blanket (at left, top right) will nicely adorn the back of the recliner when not in use, and will certainly take out the chill during cool winter nights.  Second, he brought me an insulated carrier (at left, bottom right) that holds two bottles of wine along with the two included wine tumblers – perfect for when I go out to a dinner at the Clubhouse, or attend a music jam session at the Beach House.  Now I have a nice and secure way to fulfill my BYOB obligation.  Lastly, Santa brought me the perfect addition to my outdoor fire pit social area (at left, left).  While a fire does provide some light while sitting outside in the evening, it often feels like I’m sitting in the dark when I’m out there enjoying some nighttime outdoor fun.  This made-for-outdoor floor lamp is solar/battery powered, so no electric cord required.  And, it even has built in Bluetooth speakers that I can pair with my phone so I can enjoy some great music while sitting around the campfire.  What an absolutely great gift – thanks Santa!

2025 Trip Planning

I’m making some progress with my travel plans for the 2025 season.  I’ve pretty much nailed down the desired stops along the three focus area states of Washington, Oregon, and California.  I don’t yet have timeframes for when I’ll be at these locations, nor the amount of time I will be staying at each.  Thus, no reservations can be made quite yet until those details are finalized.  I also still need to plan out the route and stops to get me there to the west coast, and back here to Florida in the fall.  For those routes, I’m going to try and fill in some of the areas I’ve missed during my past seven years of travel, and also maybe to swing by to visit with some friends along the way.  I do know that I planning on NOT coming back from the west along I-10 for this travel year.  I’ve followed that route almost exclusively during the past many years, and frankly, I’m ready for some new scenery.  I’ll probably come back to the east using I-40 or maybe even I-70/64, then once I’ve reached the east coast, head down south from there back into Florida.  So, I’ll continue to work out the details, and will keep you all posted with the plans as they evolve and get finalized.

Final Thoughts

Well, I had a terrific Thanksgiving and a most wonderful Christmas.  Spending holiday time with family – either in person or via video conference, is the best.  As I look ahead to next year, I’m excited to continue into my 8th year as a full time RVer – thoroughly enjoying this nomadic lifestyle. Next summer’s RV trip will wrap up my initial RV goal made back in 2017 by completing my first full pass through the entire country from east to west.  I’ve still got a few states to visit yet that I’ve missed along the way, and there remains pockets of unvisited regions that I still need to explore.  I look forward to continuing to fill in those areas starting in 2027, after I’ve completed the Rt-66 run in 2026.

Anyway, I hope each and every one of you had a wonderful Christmas, and I wish each of you a joyous, prosperous, and healthy New Year for 2025.

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!