Ocala, Florida 72 Degrees – Partly Cloudy
It’s Thanksgiving Day, a time when many of us take time to recognize the good things in our life. Something most of us can really use these days. Champ and I are thankful for many things today.
At the top of the list, we have kids and siblings who may not be thrilled with us being gone all winter but, none the less support us. That’s huge. We are thankful that we are both healthy and able to roam about in the winter and escape the frozen tundra of the upper Midwest.
We arrived here in Ocala and immediately went to the clubhouse to sign up for the Thanksgiving potluck, only to find out it had filled. So, we are flying solo today. Another thing to be thankful for. We have been pretty much alone with very little social engagement with others for the past month. Our big event was meeting Lon and Teresa for dinner the other night. What a treat that was. We are both thankful that we are the kind of couple who relishes time together. Even after 16 years of marriage and a month of social isolation we are doing pretty good looking at each other all day every day.
There is so much to be thankful for. One thing that I think of a lot is that we can move about wherever we want with no restrictions. There are many countries in the world that our mode of life would be unthinkable, given the political climate and legislated restrictions on travel. As divisive and toxic as our society has become, at least we can drive where we want without boarder agents harassing us every 250 miles or so when we cross a state line.
We are even thankful for our experience in Plains. I have always been a big believer in tough situations being times of learning and growth. Character builders are what I call them. My kids heard it all their lives and rolled their eyes every time I ‘went there’. As bad as our living situation was in Plains, we learned through the process, extra steps we will take if we are presented with a volunteer opportunity that involves an off-site privately-owned park. We will definitely check it out much further rather than assume the park is making sure their volunteers are being accommodated suitably. Despite our sub-standard accommodations, we had some good experience in Plains. We met several nice people. Two of them just happened to be a former President and First Lady of the United States.
We are thankful, that we have an income stream from Champ’s retirement benefits and resources to allowed us to walk away from a bad situation and find our way to Florida where we are within an hour of three other couples we know. Two of them from our new lifestyle and one couple that I have known for over 25 years now.
Ribs are ready to go into my Power Cooker and a down homesouthern BBQ meal is on the horizon this Thanksgiving Day for these two RV gypsies. We have managed to track down 2 of the 3 kids on the phone and will hopefully talk to our daughter later today.
Until next time…
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