Lake Wales, FL -Oct 2021

My first month back at the home base is now in the record book.  It was a relatively quiet month made up of mostly getting settled, cleaning up the property, wrapping up a few projects, visiting with my cousins, and catching a few events around town.  Pictured above is from the Lake Wales Pioneer Days Festival – an over 40 year tradition that sadly was not held last year due to the pandemic.  But, it was back full force this year, and it was very enjoyable.  More on that below.  I also attended a couple of shows at the Little Theater – including a night with their Out of the Box improv comedy show, and also a cute kids production titled  “Witches, Britches, Rings, ‘n Things”.  Overall, its been a terrific first month here in FL, and I’m looking forward to the rest of the winter.

Visits & Events

My cousin Louise recently retired, sold her house in Stuart, and bought a water front condo in Palm Bay.  She was with her sister Denise who also lives in FL but is about to relocate to Colorado, and her other sister Lisa who was visiting and vacationing from upstate NY.  So in order to see her, and my other two cousins while they were in town, I made a quick trip up to see her new place, and to have lunch with them all.  Wow – what a great view from her new condo.  It is spectacular! Congratulations on the new place, and to Denise, safe travels and best wishes to you as you relocate out to Colorado.  It was great seeing all of you again!

Oct is also my granddaughter Savannah’s birthday month, so I got to virtually enjoy an afternoon of a 2 year old birthday party.  I’ve really enjoyed using the Portal video conference devices to attend these types of events, or just to chat and catch up while I’m on the road.  They have been a great investment.  Savannah really had a great time at her Minion-themed party, and Samantha went all out with her mad craft skills making lots of decorations and edibles along that theme.  It was a great time, and I thoroughly enjoyed participating.  Happy Birthday Savannah!

As noted above, Lake Wales held their Pioneer Day festival in October.  Held along the shores of beautiful Lake Wailes Park, this two-day festival showcases a number of historical reenactments (Blacksmith, Wood Turning, Weaving, Civil War Camp, etc.), games and entertainments for kids of all ages, and a host of vendors featuring lots of various foods and crafts.  The weather was perfect, and the attendance was strong.  A really nice afternoon wandering around to see all that was present.

Just the other night was Oktoberfest in downtown Lake Wales.  Bratwurst, sauerkraut and beer were the main offerings.  There was a bear garden with lots of different brews to taste, live music, and lots of food and drink.  This annual event was also not held last year due to Covid.  It’s really nice to see these come back this year!

Fun & Projects

It’s really nice to be back here at the home base.  I’m already starting to see folks arrive for the winter.  Now that the Canadian boarder is open, it is anticipated that the community will be close to full occupancy by all the snow birds.  I’m also starting to see an increase in events and gatherings as compared to last year.  In fact, I’ve already attended two weekly Thursday night card games of a game they call Nickel-Nickel.  There are four winners each night, and so far I’ve been one of the winners each of the past two weeks.  It’s been a lot of fun, but if I keep up that winning trend, I might get un-invited!

I’ve been busy with a few projects this month as well.  First up, for those of you regular readers, you may recall that last winter I traded in my dual reclining seats for a single chair and side table.  Well, after about 7 months of use, I came to the conclusion that the chair was not really that comfortable.  So, I went back to the consignment store where I originally bought it and purchased a replacement high-back, power, full reclining comfy chair.  Since my other chair was still in great shape, they took it back to the store when they delivered my new one, and will put it back on the floor to sell.  Hopefully, we’ll each get a few bucks back on the resale.  You may also notice in the picture that there is a keyboard in front of the couch.  I’ve always dabbled with the piano, and had a digital piano when I was in my apartment in VA.  It was sold as I was downsizing to move into the RV.  I really missed it, and decided that I had enough room in the RV for another one.  This is a full 88-key digital piano with weighted keys just like the real thing.  It plays well, and I look forward to many years of enjoyment with it.  It is small enough to put in a travel bag and safely store behind the chair for when I’m on the road.  Next, I’ve always been a big fan of Palm Trees – especially in the style of the Royal Palm.  So I’ve recently been on the hunt for a tree for my yard.  I came across a variety known as the Foxtail Palm, and it was right up there with the Royal.  These are among the most popular with their spectacular foliage display and their hardy durability to varying soil conditions.  They are native to Queensland, Australia and much of the world was unaware of their existence until 1978.  It is a fast grower, and can climb up to 20 to 30 feet when fully developed.  It’s gonna add a really nice element and a bit of shade to the property as it grows.  Lastly, it is common in the community to have signage on your tree stump trash can with your name and hometown.  For me, it was all about making it easier for the Amazon delivery person to find my place to deliver my goods.  But, I will likely add some NH reference to the sign to pay homage to my roots at some point in the future.

Lastly, in hopeful anticipation of heading back out west in the spring to resume my nomadic trek around the country, I’ve begun playing around with some travel and route plans.  I’d like to leave somewhere around May of next year, and return here to Florida sometime in November.  One of the things I quickly realized with this plan was how quickly you blow through six to seven months of travel time, with only staying a minimal amount of time at each location.  By having to make it back to FL by the winter, gone are the days of spending a month in one or more locations as I travel.  Two weeks is the longest, and even at that, I can’t stay in too many places for that long, and still make it back to FL by winter.  So, I’ll have to play around with this a lot more so that I can adjust to the new realization that things will be moving a bit faster while I’m on the road.  But in the end, I think that will be ok.  It will allow me to see lots of different places, while hopefully not feeling like I’m being rushed.  Guess I won’t know for sure until I’ve put one of these route plans to use.  Hopefully, that will be next year!

Final Thoughts

I’m really looking forward to this winter, and the return to some level of normalcy.  Things are already looking up here in the community with gatherings starting to be more frequent, talk of the return of pot-luck meals together, more events, and an overall larger community presence.  I’m also looking forward to visiting with family and friends in the area, and spending some time taking day/weekend trips to some of the notable places Florida has to offer.  I also look forward to working more on the 2022 nomad re-launch, and actually putting in reservations for all the places I ultimately plan to visit.  It will be really nice to get back on the road, but will be equally nice to return here to the home base each winter to enjoy this community lifestyle.  Till next month, I wish everyone continued good health 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!