Bill and Helen's Fulltime Travels Here we go again and again

Beaches, Chile and Cars Nov 18, 2008

As promised to ourselves, when the weather started out hot and sunny we headed for the beach last week. We flipped a coin that said tails we go east and heads we go west. It was tails and we went to one of our favorite spots of Ormond Beach. Ormond is just a bit north of Daytona but usually has a lot less tourists except for race times. After picking up Starbucks on A-1-A we headed a short distance farther north and found our spot. It was perfect. We walked up and down the beach until we got hungry and then went to a neat little lunch spot just across the highway. We found a seat outside in the sun and had our lunch while listening to a young man entertaining us with some calypso music. Sort’a. Well it was suppose to be calypso but it sounded more like rock and roll to us. .

After our late lunch we went back to our spot and walked some more before driving south to the main beach area to watch the action. That also turned out to be a lot of fun. The wind was up and the surfers were coming in droves. We also say a lot of people fringing in their big boy kites. It was a great day and one that we intend to repeat often.

We spent Friday getting ready for our 1st Annual Chile Cook-Off at our clubhouse. I am on the committee and of course I volunteered Bill to help also so we went early to set everything up. By 5:15 we had seven big pots of Chile all ready for people to taste. They got to sample each one and then for $5.00 they purchased their favorite. We had onions, sour cream & cheese as well as additional hot sauce for the chile and also had bread, butter and crackers along with four different kinds of cake. Everything was donated and our clubhouse made some more money to put toward a big screen TV. We are hoping to have enough before the Super Bowl so we will have as many fund raisers as possible before then. A few of them are a toga party around the pool, a pancake breakfast, a bar-b-que and whatever someone else suggests. If any of you have been to some fun party’s that you think we could try, be sure to pass it on to me. I’m looking for suggestions.

Well after we got everything cleaned up and sat around chatting for awhile, we started to walk back to our place (all of about 100 yds or so). There was a beautiful full moon and as we looked to the east, the sky started to light up. Yup, we stood right there and watched the Space Shuttle take off. We could see it lift and continue all the way up for quite some time. I can’t say it was quite as exciting as the time we went to the space station a couple of years ago because nothing could beat being there and the adrenaline rush we had when it finally was able to launch, but it sure was beautiful. How lucky can we be?

Saturday morning we left early for the Marion Market and I was able to get some of the best fruit and veggies again. Because we got there early, we had time to go around to a lot of the places and look at things. We did find the Direct TV guy there and are having him come out and install our new HD dish this week. We will have it permanently installed on a pole behind our shed here and just use our old one when we are on the road. We have been with Direct TV for many years and are real happy with the way we can still get it when we travel in the US and lower Canada. We left there about 1:30 and drove a little further to our favorite place in The Villages. After a super food chicken salad at Ruby Tuesdays we walked around the Spanish Village to see if there were any changes. We were just in time for a classic Car Show. I just have to show you some of the pictures of these cars. One that really caught my eye was a Triumph TR6. Now It’s not the car that I was so fascinated with but the fact that my very first motorcycle I had when I was still in my teens was a 500cc Triumph TR6. Can you imagine them naming a car after my motorcycle?

Today was a work day for us. Our friends Shirley and Hector went on a cruise and let us borrow their carpet cleaning machine while they are gone. The humidity is finally down so we decided that today was a good day to clean ours. Wow, we never would have guessed there was so much dirt in there. What a difference that made. Course it was Bill that did all the muscle work but I supervised and that takes talent too.

I have been working on a committee for the past month to find a Licensed Management Company to take over our Condo Association the first of the year. Tonight we will present our findings and recommendations at the Board Meeting and my job will be done. I sure hope they like what we did cuz we sure worked hard at it and feel that we have learned a ton of things about Condo Associations and Florida Statutes.

Tomorrow we plan on going to Orlando for a fun time with a bunch of friends. I’ll tell you all about it next time.