April 18th 2017
 We are now at Central Park Rv resort in Haines City. After initially trying to put us in a pretty crappy spot (115#) they changed us to #82 on the LAKE! It is an awesome site, esp since we are using Passport America ($21/night). This is actually a nice rv resort, a lot of park type models. Many for sale. Our parts for the camper have all been approved and we should be able to get repairs completed by april 25th. Now the living room slide is acting up. :(. the motor acts like it has to work really hard when first pulling in. GEEZ!

Central Park Rv Resort #82 $21/nightly

Tampa East C-4, $23/nightly

April 8th
We leave Belle Parc today. Heading to Camping world tomorrow for warrenty repairs. I have quite the list for them to work on. All company has come and gone. Brad and family left yesterday. They had great weather while they were here. Brett and I did a lot of biking around the campground and swimming in the pool. We finally went to the Freezer for shrimp. It was delicious! We also went to the Homosassa Wildlife park and went kayaking on the Weeki Wachee and got lucky enough to see a manatee. We said goodbye to John and Laurie yesterday. It has been a great winter spent with great friends. Word has it that winter still is hanging on tightly in Wi., so we will make the trip slowly back to Chippewa once the camper is finished. Hoping to stop in Nashville for a few days on the way back.

brett made a bird house to hang on their new deck. 

Hot game of Giant Jenga at John and Laurie's

Last campfire in Brooksville. Great winter!

Beth and Todd

Brooksville Camp site #23

April 17 2017
 Well, we should be back in Wi. by now, but when we took our camper into Camping World for 2 days, we were told after they took the slide apart that indeed we would need to now order parts which could take 3 weeks to get. Initially, we were going to go back to Wi. and get it all repaired there, but when we called Northpoint Rv in Chippewa they told us that due to the late spring they were soooo busy that they would not be able to fix the issues until late OCT.!!! We also called Keystone in Goshen Indiana to see if they would repair it on our way back home. We were told no...We initially left Tampa and headed north but when we got to Brooksville we stopped for the night at Hidden Valley campground (a PA campground) ($15)  (bad campground)and discussed the issue further and decided to head back to Tampa and have CW order the parts and just get it done. Whew! A decision made! The weather in Wi. took a nasty turn anyway and they have gotten up to 2 feet of snow over the weekend. Glad to not be driving or camping in that. Kevin said there is no way we could get in the driveway at this point with all the snow they got. We are now at Tampa East campground ($23) (good campground) close to CW but it is also a PA park and can only stay 6 nights. So tomorrow we head to Haines city for 7 nights. Kevin's inlaws Fred and Vera bought a condo there and will be there for a week getting the place cleaned up and set up. We volunteered to help with manual labor. Gives us something to do while we wait around FL. We have met some of the neighbors around us here at Tampa East and as always at campgrounds people are mostly friendly. Pine Harbor in Chippewa has advised us that they will not be opening until May 4th which also contributed to our decision to stay in Fl and wait for repairs.

Tampa East Campground. C4

Better that sitting in Wi. Blizzard there!

Hidden Valley campground Brooksville Fl. the view from our kitchen table. :(

Yuck! one night and we were gone!

New bike rack.

April 1 2018
 Happy Easter and April fools day! March flew by and was mostly cool and windy with a couple of nice days thrown in. Karri and Rob LaBarre were here for a week. They stayed in Weeki Wachee and had a very nice large home. We went kayaking from their home and they served us a lovely meal on their deck. They came to the campground a couple of times for dinner and met our friends. they week went fast. Brad and family come today for a week. Excited to see them. We have been busy saying goodbye to many folks we have come to say are friends. Beth and Todd left today. Todd and Beth, John and Laurie and tom and I went to Old World Resteraunt ( a german menu) for a goodbye meal on Friday night. It was delicious and John and Laurie treated all of us, which was super nice of them. We are so lucky to have such good friends. The campground is emptying out fast as most are heading back home already. They snow is still flying in Wi. and I don't want to go home to that. They have had a miserable winter.

Laurie's early birthday. Great evening with the whole darn gang!

val and ken kayaking

The birthday gal starts her birthday month celebration

March 16 2018
 After a very warm Feb., we have had a pretty  chilly March. Kind of disappointing. This past week, friends Val and Ken Benton came for a week. Val was supposed to come towards the end of march but she broke her foot and had to be off of work for at least 6 weeks so they decided to take advantage of the unexpected vacation time. We had a great visit and managed to get in some fun things like kayaking and craft fairs. Tom. Todd and Ken went fishing in the gulf and had a great day. Today, I went with Beth, Todd, Laurie and John to Cedar River Seafood restaurant in Inverness for a great seafood meal.

Our buddy John entertaining everyone at Margarita Monday. He loves his drums!

I needed a new purse, so I MADE one! Turned out nice.

Val and Ken out manatee sightseeing

Tom also enjoying the great float downriver

Feb 27 2018
 The month is almost over and we have just over a month left of our stay in florida. Time sure has gone fast! We are still having trouble with Camping World of Tampa returning our phone calls. Seems they want to sell but not service their product. Very disappointed with them. Again, yesterday tom had to call Indiana and talk with the main plant in order for us to get a return phone call. Surprise, we got two phone calls within an hour! We will see if they can get anything set up today. Their big commitment to service notice they have hanging in the store is a lie. One would think that by now they would realize we are a squeaky wheel and would get us taken care of. Still have the big slide that is buckled that needs to be taken care of and a few other things. Good thing we have the appointment already set up for april 9th.
 The weather has been awesome this month. Almost everyday over 80. Setting records every week and I am loving the heat. I have spent a lot of time in the pool, walking and a little bike riding. This week I scrubbed the roof and applied UV protectant and tom and I washed the outside of the camper and then I did the windows inside and out. We went to the Webster flea market yesterday and to say it was big would be an understatement. That will need a return trip. Hopefully, we will be going to visit Rod and Marilyn in port richey this weekend. They bought a park model and plan on selling their 5th wheel. I will miss them at Pine Harbor, but we would love their camping spot.  We went up to gulf shores to visit ed and pat, we had a lovely weekend but it is a long trip.

feb. 4 2017
WOW, what a whirlwind the last 3 weeks have been! on Jan 14th we went camper shopping with friends Beth and Todd and found a camper that had eve'rything we had on our 'wishlist'. we picked it up on the 17th with friends beth/todd/john and laurie helping us move everthing from old camper to new camper. I had a lot of stuff packed up in boxes but it still was a big process. todd said we have way too much stuff! The "technicans" at camping word of dover said we had a soft spot from water damage on one of our slides and also delamination on the back wall of our old camper and limited furniture so they talked us down to $10000 on the trade and we had to pay $27000 also. A lot of money but we loved the layout and length of the new one. Since we have been home at Belle Parc we have had a lot of trouble with various things starting with the TV's in the living room and basement not receiving any cable input. bedroom tv worked great so we have a cabele and splitter running to the tvs to get cable. hummm. we tried calling camping world of dover so many times that we lost track and left messages but It was rare to get a return call from them with the normal response being we will get back to you by xxx time. It NEVER  happened. Tom finally called Corporate headquarters in Indiana and golly next day we had a phone call stating that in the first 30 days we can show up anytime with no appointment and they have to take care of us right then and there. Again, hummm. where was that information when we bought the camper. since then we have many more issues. the sink is moving around in its base and now we have a large gap on the front of the sink. the toilet drips a  bit. there is a bulge with the strip coming off on one of the slides. the wall of the camper on the back wall moves just like the one on the old camper did. again hummm, just a ploy to talk us down on the old camper trade????? the floor overall seems weak, esp around the furnace vents on the floor. again we love the layout of the camper. but all these issues in less than 3 weeks??? What will be wrong after a year. We are very disappointed in the follow up service and responses from Camping World Of Dover Fl. very disappointed. I would not suggest anyone getting a camper there.
 Otherwise, we have not been doing a lot around the campground. Kayaking once, no bike rides, Zumba classes, and line dancing along with some walking. Gotta get these camper issues settled and then I have to enjoy the park. We have booked a site in San Benito Tx at Palmdale rv resort for next year. friends beth/todd/laurie and john are coming there too. we have been lucky to have them as friends. we do a lot together.

camper pictures

friends Fred and Sharon Maxwell. Her first time Kayaking!

campground rainbow

I learned how to knit on a loom. Hats went to the hospital ob unit for feb. babies

Happy hour fun!