Groundhog Day report, six more weeks of winter!
Enough of that let’s get back to reporting about Edgar’s winter adventures.
Just before leaving Pioneer Creek we visited Solomon Castle in Ona, Florida. This was the private home of a rather eccentric artist and story has it that he bought a large tract of land sight unseen and then found out most of it was swamp but he managed to clear out enough land to build a unique home on. The front of the castle shaped home is covered in recycled Tin Type from the local news paper. Evidently the metal used to produce Tin Type does not rust or corrode. The face of the home is as shiny and bright as the day it was built. If you tour the home be prepared to laugh and groan at the many puns that are used by the tour guides. Also on the ground is a tour of his pre 1930 antique cars and a ship shaped restaurant that has fantastic food.
We left Pioneer Creek and went to the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa to attend the RV Super Show and it was fantastic. We were parked right outside one of a main entrances and even Edgar was allowed to attend anything he wanted to. He even attended a seminar on touring Alaska and western Canada, you know the one we have been signed up to do since March of 2019. I hoping that we get to do it this summer but I am not holding my breath. A lot of it depends on what Canada is going to do, right now the border is still closed. Besides Seminars there was food galore, vendors selling all kinds of goods and just about any style of RV one could imagine. We have to admit that they have finally made one that could possibly replace our current RV. However, we agree that it will be better to wait until we get back from the Alaska Tour.
After the RV Super Show we moved 5 miles down the road to Lazy Days RV Resort and attended the Fleetwood Motorhome Association (FMA) national rally. It was attended by over 100 RV’s all of which were in the Fleetwood Family Bounder, Holiday Rambler, Discovery and American Coach were the ones I remember being there. It was good to be around so many owners of similar coaches. One great feature that was available was free labor on repairs by the REV group from Indiana. They had a team of mechanics that would do repairs and all one had to do was pay for the parts! We had a part break a while back that didn’t stop us from using the RV but eventually needed to be repaired so free labor and discounted parts convinced us that now was the time to do it. Later on in the week we got some items looked at that helped us learn a little more about our rig. While at the FMA rally I also got the Satellite antenna hooked up and added to our home account . A few days before the rally ended we headed into Tampa to eat dinner at Whiskey Joe’s and the food was fantastic! Besides the great food they had a beautiful beach to swim from but I got a pretty good sunset.
On January 24 we arrived at The Glades RV resort and settled in for a 4 week visit. Although this is a new to us park we are very familiar with the area and have started touring. We have been in Florida since early November and we had not seen any alligators any where! Some of this has been attributed to the amount of rain they had this fall providing more water for them to live in and we believe that since it is a year later the greenery growing along the water ways is just enough higher providing better hiding spots. Well we ended our alligator drought when we went to Everglade City for lunch and then a great ride into the Everglades took us to the visitor center of the Big Cypress Swamp. The guy below was one of many that we got to see while visiting there. We also looked at a campground that had all of their sites circling a large pond or small lake. It amazed me that the people camped there didn’t seem to be concerned that there were alligators living in the water just feet away from the door of their camper. One of the hosts at the Visitor Center told us she was camping there and there was only 3 alligators living in the pond but for us that is 3 too many. We were telling someone here is the RV park and they informed us that there were several gators living on the fringe areas of the park. Needless to say when Edgar goes for a walk after dark we stay near the well lit areas and away from the water.
