Retirement……LOVE IT!

[NOTE: I am so sorry I have been negligent in my blogging. We just haven’t done much of anything very interesting. Now that Jack and I (along with MANY Americans!) have gotten our covid vaccines, we hope to get back to many more “sight-seeing” adventures as we travel.]

THIS PAST WINTER:

We arrived in Florida January 5th. Our plans were to stay until April 1st, but I’ll tell you about that in a later post.

We had reservations at Orange City RV Park, Orange City, FL. We chose this park for a couple of reasons: 1) It’s not too far south from where our oldest son lives; 2) It was near some friends of ours from Dexter, MO who moved to DeLand, FL, about the same time we started RVing.

The park itself was just ok. It’s an old park with very narrow roads. They are gradually upgrading the sites by pouring new, larger concrete pads.

We did the appropriate “stay away from people for several days” to make sure we hadn’t picked up any illnesses as we traveled. After we cleaned the coach, restocked our cabinets, did laundry, and relaxed for a few days, we were READY to visit our son and friends!

We visited with friends, ate meals together (we found a Mexican restaurant we loved called Mi Tierra), and enjoyed playing a new game called Sequence. When Jeff came down to visit, we taught him how to play that game, and he really loved it. We really didn’t do much more than visit, play games and eat out the whole winter.

However, Jeff has started giving “experience” gifts. He told us when we came to Florida this year he wanted to take each one of us separately to do something with just him. We loved that idea! We were to pick something we thought we might like to do.

I chose to go to a mystery dinner theater in Orlando called Sleuths Mystery Dinner Shows. They perform a variety of hilarious mystery plays where the audience participates in figuring out “who dun it.”

During the play, the actors took breaks while one of the courses of the meal was served (the meal was delicious). At the end, each table had to decide who they thought committed the murder and then report their findings to the cast. The improvisation and ad lib during this part of the show was OUTSTANDING!

The whole experience was very nice and a memory I will cherish forever. On the way home, Jeff and I both admitted that we couldn’t remember the last time we laughed so much or so hard. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves!

Jack decided he would like Jeff to take him on a tour of the Daytona International Speedway and Museum. Nowadays you have to have an appointment to tour the speedway, so they got an appointment and planned their visit.

The tour started out on an open air tour shuttle with a guide. They drove all the way around on the speedway. They were allowed off the shuttle on one of the turns to experience just how steep the 31 degree pitch is. They also stopped at the winner’s circle where flags outlined the area. Others stops were the infield and pit row. Their tour guide was very knowledgeable and shared a lot of interesting information about the track and racing.

After the shuttle tour, their guide dropped them off at the museum. Jack and Jeff toured the museum at their leisure where they saw this year’s winning car signed by the driver. They also saw race cars from different eras all signed by the drivers, photos, and all kinds of racing memorabilia accompanied with historical information.

After seeing the museum, Jack and Jeff left the speedway and headed to Daytona Beach. They had lunch at a beachside cafe and watched the waves roll in before heading back home to the RV.

A couple of nights before we were to leave Florida, Connie and I had tickets to a local theater (The Athens Theater) that was performing “Momma Mia.” The performance was very good as well as entertaining (no taking of photos was allowed during the performance).

The Athens Theater is in historic downtown DeLand. The theater was designed in 1921 with an Italian Renaissance style and opened its doors in January 1922. Originally a vaudeville house and silent movie palace, the Athens Theatre featured live stage shows by touring performers, as well as films of the day that were often accompanied by the theatre’s Wurlitzer Pipe Organ. Its history is quite detailed and a simple internet search will give you more information.

Here are a couple photos of the theater.

Just for fun – Here are our “kids,” Ricky and Lucy!

We had a wonderful time this past winter in Florida. We headed back north to Missouri April 1st to visit with family in the St. Louis and Springfield areas.

So, for now ….. “On the Road Again!”

Betty