Lake Wales, FL – Nov 2021

November was a relatively busy month with a couple of holidays to celebrate, a visit to a local attraction, and of course, the never  ending list of projects.  I celebrated Veterans Day by attending the town parade, and availing myself of some of the days benefits (e.g. a free haircut at Great Clips).  Legoland also had free admission from Nov 1-20 for all active duty and veterans, and I’ve always wanted to go visit that place, and at this price, the timing was right.  I also enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with family, and ate too much as is the norm.  Lastly, I made some progress on a couple of projects that I’ve had on my list, so that’s good too.  Read on for all the details.

Legoland Visit

I’m not a fan of amusement parks (I get motion sick on most rides), so that part of Legoland was not of interest to me.  Rather, I know that there are lots of displays of various people, creatures, and other items, all made up of Legos.  When I read that they were offering free admission for veterans during the first 20 days of November, I made it a point to set a day aside so that I could go and check it out.  So I parked out about a mile from the entrance (ok – maybe exaggerated just a bit but it was quite a hike) and went to the ticket window.  I passed them my FL Drivers License which includes a Veteran stamp, and easy peasy I had my admission ticket.  For grins, I asked them what the normal cost of that ticket would have been, and to my total shock, it would have set me back $108.  WOW!  That’s a lot of cash to look at a bunch of Lego builds, and ride a few rides.  I’m sure glad it was free!  Next, I approached the entrance and was quickly asked to empty pockets of all metal so that they could wand me.  Through my scouts training, I carry a small pen knife with me at all times.  Well, turns out it was not allowed in the park.  Damn!  My options were to surrender it to them never to see it again, or I could return to my vehicle a mile away and leave it there.  I got creative and came up with a third option – be discrete and hide it high in a tree next to the entrance where no one will see it.  That actually worked out well as it was still there for me to retrieve on my way out.  Win!  I’m a big fan of the Fox TV show Lego Masters and recently watched the second season where brothers Mark and Steven brought home the win.  One of the really cool things about the show was that all final builds of the three finalists were reported to be on display in the park.  It took a bit of searching as it would seem many of the employees are not fans of the show and were clueless, but I finally found them (pictured left, bottom center).  Really cool to see them in person after having watched them being built on the show.

There’s a section in the center of the park called Miniland USA.  It’s an extensive outdoor, under tent display of various notable places and landmarks all made from Legos.  This includes Daytona Speedway, Kennedy Space Center, Washington DC, streetscapes of New York and Las Vegas, the Golden Gate Bridge, and scenes of Florida including our very own Lake Wales landmark Bok Tower (pictures at right, top left).  This area was absolutely amazing!  Many of the displays included some form of electronics to affect movement and realism, and the level of detail in each of them was nothing short of spectacular.

The Grounds of Legoland was actually another local attraction before it became Legoland.  Opened in January 1936, Cypress Gardens was billed as Florida’s first commercial tourist theme park.  Over the years, it became one of the biggest attractions in Florida, known for its spectacular gardens and and amazing water ski shows.  The park thrived well through the 60s, but began to struggle with competition from Disney which opened in 1971.  The park went through many different ownerships over the next several decades, and even added amusement rides and live animals to expand its offerings, until its final demise in 2009 when the park closed permanently.  In early 2010, the second largest theme park operator purchased the property with intent to turn it into Legoland Florida.  That park opened in Oct of 2011.  They maintained a large section of the original garden in the back of the park, and also has some water ski shows (though not under the name of Cypress Garden, which operates separately as a non-profit skiing on another lake nearby in Winter Haven).  So overall, I really enjoyed my afternoon wandering around Legoland.  I’m not so sure I’d be as pleased about the day had I spent $108 to get in.  But for free, it was awesome!

Holiday Events

When I spent my winter here last year, there were no events, no gatherings, no parades, no nothing.  This year, things are are beginning to return to some sort of normalcy, including the running of the annual Lake Wales Veterans Parade.  It was a nice, small town event, lasting only about 20 minutes with a dozen or so participating groups.  They traveled from town hall on Central Street down to the lakefront park at Lake Wailes.  The viewership crowd was not terribly large, but again, for a small town of 18,000 inhabitants, it was enjoyable.  The community that I live in also got into the Veteran holiday spirit with a flag lined main street (pictured right, top).  Nicely done by the decorating committee!

For Thanksgiving this year, my brother Dave and sister-in-law Deb invited me to join them in their dinner celebration at Deb’s son and daughter-in-laws house.  Also present was their daughter, grandson, and parents and brother of their daughter-in-law.  It was a full house, and an enjoyable meal.  I made and brought my world famous sweet potato casserole, which nicely complimented the turkey, ham and many other side dishes that were prepared by the gracious hosts.  Thanks to Dave and Deb for the invite, and to Dan and Claudia for being amazing hosts!

I also got to attend another play at the Lake Wales Little Theater.  The name of the show was the “Last Round-up of the Quacamole Queen”.  It was a very funny show, with a terrific cast of characters.  Well done gang!

Within the Saddlebag community, it’s starting to look a lot like Christmas! Throughout the community, teams of volunteers have been decorating for Christmas.  The club house itself and surrounding grounds have lots of festive decorations throughout, the lakeside gazebo has a giant sized Santa present, and even the little community building next to me has a pair of pink flamingos attempting to decorate a tree.  Since moving to this community, I’ve been really impressed with the commitment by the board and the residents to keep the place looking nice and fresh.  They no doubt take the appearance of the community very seriously, and that is reflected in the ever present themed decorations.  Well done!

Projects

There were not any manual labor projects completed this month, but rather the types of projects that just involve spending money.  There was a garden art piece made by Florida Dancing Bird (HERE) that I had been wanting to get.  But, ordering online from the company and paying the excessive shipping charges was not ideal.  I found out that a garden shop in Lakeland (about 45 min away) was known to carry these items, so I ventured out there one day.  Not only did I avoid paying the crazy shipping charges, they also charged 20% less than the online store.  So, win-win!  While I was there, I also had been wanting to get a bird bath to add to my landscape, and the garden center had a nice selection to choose from.  So, I picked up one of those as well.  Funny thing, a few days after I put up the dancing bird, a couple of live versions came by for a visit.  Came to see the fake one? Who knows!

My other project this month involved making some improvements to my Honda scooter.  I love riding the scoot around town, and it sure beats driving the big boy truck.  But, I’ve never been able to ride it for more than 45-60 minutes at a time.  The seat is uncomfortable and is too far forward, and the lack of a windshield puts all the wind to my chest and wears out my arms.  So, I ordered an updated windshield from Amazon that goes all the way up to about the middle of my helmet.  No more wind exhaustion.  As for the seat, there are not a lot of local options for that.  But I did find a custom manufacturer in Thailand that came highly recommended.  So I gave in to the thought that I may never see the money or the seat by ordering from overseas, and went ahead and placed the order.  To my surprise, the company has been extremely communicative, sent me pictures of the completed build (pictured right, top), and tracking information for the shipping.  The seat just landed in the US the other day, so I’m feeling more confident that I will actually get it.  I’m hoping that with these upgrades, I’ll have the option to ride the scoot when I visit any of my brothers (assuming good weather).  So, we’ll see when all the updates are done.

Final Thoughts

As I sit here and author this month’s blog, I’m actually a bit sore.  Yesterday I got my flu shot in my right arm, and my Covid booster in my left.  So, a bit of soreness and a slightly laid back energy level make for a quiet day.  Perfect for blog writing!  I’m looking forward to enjoying Christmas with the girls and grands next month, but alas this year it will be another virtual event.  After having just spent the entire summer up there with them, and the ongoing mask mandate for all flights, I’ve decided to remain here in FL for the month.  But a virtual Christmas will be the next best thing to being there, so I’m definitely looking forward to it.  No new updates to report on next years trip planning.  I’ve still got some work to do on the overall route and duration of each stay.  Then, if all looks good, I’ll start putting in my reservations sometime after the first of the year.  Otherwise, not much else going on.  I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas holiday, and a fantastic New Year.  Till next time, 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!