Having A Great First Experience at Royal Coachman CG!

  Well, it's been a week since we arrived here in Laurel, Florida, and we're having a blast!!  The weather has been fantastic, averaging 85 degrees and minimal humidity and rain.  We've talked with Bonnie and Ken several times and they are seeing and doing amazing things!  Mom is feeling better although the nasty cough still persists. Dad is doing great!  The kids are all good except, on Friday, while outside Chipolte, Bennett cracked the back of his head open while playing on a bicycle rack.  He required 2 staples.   Here's how our week went...
   We left the Georgia CG at 9:30 am on Sunday, Oct 9th after sad good-byes.  I called Arlena to check on Bennett.   I told him to make sure he keeps the staples when the doc takes them out, so he can put them under his pillow for the "staple fairy".  Our grandson is ALL boy.  This is the 3rd or 4th time he has had stitches or staples!!  His birthday was on the 4th, but his party is today, so we wished him another happy birthday.  After a quick stop at a Flying J for gas and Subway subs we crossed the Florida state line at 11:45.  We arrived at the CG at 4:00, but missed the entrance.  So John turned into a side road to make a "U" back onto the highway.  A fairly low tree limb clipped the top of Harvey as we made our way out.  Our site here is wonderful, across a corner, so it is fairly large.

We can really spread out on this site...and we don't
get any afternoon sun on the patio side.  How nice!!

   Set up went great until we hooked up the cable..no reception.  We had trouble at the last CG, too, so John looked up at the antenna and it was GONE!  Guess that tree limb was lower than we thought.  So we got into the Jeep and drove back on the route we took to see if we could find the antenna.  No luck :(  Being Sunday, we'll have to deal with this tomorrow.  After setting up and the frustration of the antenna we decided to go out to eat.  We picked BrewBurgers just up I-75.  When we got there we realized we had eaten there before.  We had stayed at the Holiday Inn Express across the street when we used to come visit Bonnie and Ken before we had Harvey.  We had walked over here for a bite to eat.  WOW!!  It was a good burger!!  When we got back we LISTENED to the presidential debate since we had no TV.  No comment on the debate!!  John went to bed and I worked on the blog.
   When we got up on Monday John said he would like to take a trip to Lazy Days to get an antenna.  But after going up on the roof he decided a professional should do the work.  He also found that one of the vent covers was smashed.  He called an RV repairman that was listed on a sheet the CG gave to us, and as chance had it...he was going to be in the CG at 11:00.  All we had to do was purchase an antenna.  So off to RV World just down the road.  They had the antenna, but only in white (ours was black).  We bought it anyway, but we had to order the vent cover which John was going to put on himself.  The repair guy came, but even after replacing the antenna and booster inside we still didn't seem to be getting a signal.  We had the CG maintenance come to check the cable signal and found out that we had it attached to the wrong box!  ANYBODY could have made the same mistake and according to the maintenance guy...a lot of people do!!  So...finally, we have TV.  Yay!!!  We put up the screen house and then rode our bikes around the CG.  We would have played shuffleboard, but the pucks and poles were in the office which was closed.  BUMMER!!  I watched The Voice while John watched TV outside.

   Tuesday was beach day.  At 10:30 we left for Casperson Beach about 20 minutes from the CG.  The great thing about this CG is how close it is to everything!  We have a handful of beaches to pick from that are less than 30 minutes away.  When we walked onto Casperson it was stinky!  No wonder...there were dead fish laying all along the high tide line.  It was gross!  We figured it must have been from the red tide problem they have been having here.  It got better as we walked farther down the beach, so we stayed.  The sand had really been washed away with 4 ft drops to the water at some places.  I went shark tooth hunting while John walked.  It was a gorgeous day until about 3:00 when the clouds started to roll in, so we left.

A beautiful blue heron posed for a picture.

 

The water was gorgeous!

 

 

 

But the beach was very ugly and smelly, and...

 

...covered with dead fish!

 

 

We found a lot of teeth, shells and some sea glass.

  The sun came out again, so we stopped at the pool when we got back to the CG.  But it didn't last long, so we only spent about 45 minutes there.  We picked up shuffleboard equipment before the office closed and after supper we played.  It got dark before we could finish.  I watched The Voice while John waxed the shuffleboard pucks.  They were pretty slow compared to other courts we have played on.  Hopefully, it will help. 
   On Wednesday while John was walking he got a call that the vent cover was here.  So he picked it up and up on the roof he went.  He was up there for about an hour in the heat, but he got 'er done!!  Thanks, honey!!  I went thrift shopping.  There is an amazing Goodwill 10 minutes away.  I found lots of good stuff!!  We went to Casey Keys Fish House for supper and then drove Casey Key Road to witness "how the other half lives."  The houses were immense and beautiful, but we both decided that we are very happy "with our half!!!!

It was open air dining here and the food was good.
Bonnie and Ken recommended this restaurant.
It's one of their favorites.

This pretty moth was waiting for us on the side
of the Jeep when we came out to the car.

The houses are beautiful and HUGE!

I could only get a third of this house on the camera lens.

Unbelievable!!

Lions greet you at this one.

Here are some of the views these houses have.  No
wonder they enjoy living on this road!

I talked with friend, Joyce, from home and she shared with me that our former church just hired the former organist and Praise Team director as the new Worship Leader.  Now I am definitely struggling with the decision of going back to the church.  He always added so much!!  When we got back we did laundry...the facility has 15 washers and dryers!! 

Wow...never experienced this size laundry!!
And it is immaculate, too!

   Thursday was another beach day.  We decided on Manasota in the Venice/Englewood area.  We left at about 10:00 and got to the beach at 10:30, set up our chairs and I started my shark tooth search.  John went walking but didn't get very far until his back started hurting.  He thinks the sand is too soft.  So he helped me with the "Florida snow shovel."  It was a profitable day.

Another good shark tooth day!

  We left about 2:00 because we wanted to attend the Happy Hour at the clubhouse at 4:00.  I talked with Paul and Vicki on the way home and they said they left for home just after we did, but the rest of the group headed back to Jekyll the following day.  Jekyll was still full of debris, but all the hook ups were working.  I took bean dip and corn chips to Happy Hour.  No one else brought snacks because they said hardly anybody ever shows up this time of year.  There were about 12 of us.  We played ping pong and cornhole and chatted.  It was fun and we met some nice people.  We stayed until about 6:00 then had Brunswick stew that Lyn had given us before we left Georgia.  It was good!  We watched some TV and then went to bed.
   Would you believe that on Friday I slept in until 9:45.  Maybe playing slots on my phone until 1:30 had something to do with it, huh?  John was busy doing chores outside while I cleaned up inside.  I went to the pool at 1:00 and John joined  me after his walk at about 2:30.  It was hot!!  The pool was lovely. 

Nice pool, huh?!?

We chatted quite a while with a couple from Erie, PA named Stephanie and Tom who are planning to move permanently to Arizona in the near future.  We left the pool at 4:30 showered, had supper and then went to see "The Accountant" with Ben Affleck.  It was as bit strange and even puzzling at times, but we both enjoyed it.  On the way to the movie I called to check on Bennett.  they were headed to the sprint car races.  I asked Bennett which car was his favorite and he responded, " the one with Grandpa's medicine on it...the Miller Lite car."  Oh my gosh, it was so funny!!  While we were at the movies Alex had sent me a text that she had found an apartment in Virginia.  She and her mom took the weekend to go shopping for one.  She sent videos of it and it is really cute.  She's just waiting for credit approval.  Alex and her husband, Todd will be stationed at Langley AFB, VA after he graduates from tech school at the end of this month.  We played 5 Crowns when we got home.  John slaughtered me!
   On Saturday we went out for breakfast at Anita's Restaurant just outside of Venice.  It was a bit pricey, but absolutely delicious.  And our waitress was phenomenal!  I was going to work on my pins outside while watching football, but it got real humid and showered off and on, so I stayed inside and played slots.  John got his walk in and then I went to TJ Maxx/HomeGoods and Big Lots to try to find something to put inside John's bathroom cabinets to provide more storage.  SUCCESS!!  I also found more of those plastic storage bins with handles that I have been looking for.  Yay!!  John grilled for supper and then we watched the Ohio State/Wisconsin game.  We weren't happy with the outcome, but it WAS a good game! 
   Today (Sunday)  I slept in again until 9:45.  My, but I love being retired!!  I worked on the blog while John went walking.  He went to Publix to pick up a few groceries. 

Look what my wonderful hubby had for me
when he got back!!  He must love me.

Then we went to the pool at 2:30.  Stephanie and Tom were there, too.  We spent most of the next 3 hours in the pool talking with them.  It looked like it was going to storm and we were hungry, so we left about 5:45.  We had quesadillas using all our leftover grilled meats and then watched football and the movie "Killing Reagan" on the Nat'l Geographic channel about the attempted assassination of President Reagan.  Emma and Ellie called to talk with Grandpa. 
   It's been a wonderful week here at Royal Coachman CG!  I have decided to do a blog post once a week from now on, unless we do something very special.  So...look for another post next Sunday with highlights of our upcoming week.