Coming to Camp

I'm going to step back in time a bit... back to this winter.

I tell people that living at RiverBend Motorcoach Resort is like being at camp... without the enforced rest hour! They are quick to add that we also have access to alcohol!

Here is part of an "end of season" poem that I wrote last year:

This year we had Bunco and Bingo and of course, pickleball too

Zumba, line dancing, and karate, which did you do?

We had Croquet, and Crafting and Chicks with sticks

And yoga, and water volley ball, how does one pick?

People went fishing and boating and floated in the pool

Some folks read books, while others helped at the school.

The days are filled with all kinds of activities, and often there are several things happening at one time. It's hard to choose!

This year I was president of the Creations Guild, so much of my time was spent organizing classes, revising schedules and doing other Guild stuff. I didn't play as much Pickleball as I'd like... maybe next year! I didn't get to bocce ball at all, and I didn't do corn hole. I stopped by a few times to watch on my way from one thing to another and the group seemed like they were having a great time. I played Mahjongg two or three times a week, and I did do morning yoga a few times, but I missed out on water aerobics. Everyone said that was great. I did get some sewing projects completed, but there are still a bunch to be done. I brought my hammered dulcimer with us from California and I attended a 3-day workshop in Mt. Dora. That was awesome. I try to practice a bit just about every day. 

My end of season poem for this year included:

If it’s Monday it’s pizza and some Fridays it’s fish,

Bar food on Wednesdays is always delish.

And on Tuesdays and Thursdays we can buy a great lunch, 

And on Saturdays we eat with the Breakfast bunch.

Some Fridays the food trucks are parked out in the yard
Philly cheesesteak, wings or seafood, the choice is so hard.

Cattlemen’s dinner was another special treat

Piling our plates with far more than one person could eat.

We’ve enjoyed some catered meals, and some pot lucks as well
I’ve gained a few pounds and my diet’s gone to Hell.

The amazing thing about RiverBend is how people volunteer to do just about everything. I think the "culture of volunteerism" is what makes this place special. I was lucky enough to be able to help out with the seafood lunches on Fridays. (More about that on the next post... maybe!)

As I write, "camp" has come to a close. In March and April more and more coaches went out the gates. Fewer activities were held each week, and by now almost nothing is going on. However, I am finding the slower pace is actually pretty darn nice... it is almost like having that enforced rest hour!

Here are a few pictures of us having fun this year!

I can't wait for everyone to come back in the fall!

It's Not the End at RiverBend!

I haven't posted in a while due to Internet issues we experience when we are on the road. Most campgrounds now have WiFi, but all of the campers collectively are trying to suck a swimming pool worth of connectivity through a garden hose. We get a trickle at best.

However, now we have Internet at the new house. We don't have much in the way of furniture... but we can get online!

So, I will go back in time to a few days following Irma's landfall in Florida on September 11. There were 13 residents of the RV resort who weathered the storm in the resort's clubhouse. They soon were without power and water, and cell phone connectivity was sketchy. However, we did get reports that all was well. There was little structural damage throughout the resort, no flooding and only the plant life was damaged by the storm. Within a few days staff from the resort took pictures of each of the 315 lots and set up a drop box online so that residents who were far away could see their property.

These are pictures from our lot:

 

The Royal Palm (on the left) lost most of its fronds. However, one of the onsite managers said that within a few days he could see new growth coming up on the Royals. Our Bismarck Palm (center) is very droopy and looks like it lost fronds. The fan-like palm on the right has some fronds broken in the middle. I wish I could have been there when the picture was taken. It would have been interesting to see if straightening the bent fronds and splinting them would have kept the fronds alive. 

The center part of the picture with all of the leaves (and a stray pot) was actually just sand. This area used to be grass and we had pavers installed in all but this one area, where we planned to put in some fake grass sod. We may have to add some more sand before we get around to adding our "grass". 

Considering all of the trees that are behind us, this pile of limbs is not all that impressive.  I had nightmares that the tree would fall in the storm. The tree was one of the reasons we picked this particular lot. We like the shade it provides!

This view of the back of the lot shows more damage with fallen limbs in the foreground and by the oak. That oak 3' or more in diameter and it seems to have lost a lot of smaller limbs. It isn't on our property, and may not even be on the resort's property. We had intended to clean up around it anyway, our cleanup just may be a bit more extensive!

In June we had pavers installed on our property wanted a paver walkway behind our "coach house" (storage building). The original shrubs were removed as they had grown tall and leggy, and were in the way of the pavers.  We replaced the shrubs with Podocarpus. This one is leaning. It looks like at least one of the shrubs was broken. 

Our coach house sustained no visible damage. But, it is strange to see the neighbor's coach house. We will have to give the podocarpus some time to recover, grow and bush out.

This is a shot of our neighbor's property and his storage cabinet. It is possible that the cabinet caused some of the damage to the shrubs we had planted in the spring. 

Our 

The Aftermath

We watched in horror as Hurricane Irma slammed into Marco Island on the gulf coast of Florida. This was expected but being a dreamer, I always hold out hope for a last minute change. In the week before the storm as I watched projections, I had finally begun to relax as I saw that Irma was going to skirt along the western edge of Florida, the projections inching ever so slowly westward. But as we watched, Irma took a turn to the east, bearing down on the RV resort that we call home. NO! This wasn’t the last minute change I wanted. She wasn’t supposed to go that way!  What was left of the eye of the storm, now Category 2,  passed right over the resort. 

The RV Resort is just west of Labelle, FL.
This is a screen shot of the storm on Sunday at 8:29 EDT

There were 11 (or was it 13?) residents of the resort who stayed and rode out the storm in the club house, which was built as a hurricane shelter. 

We received a few updates on FaceBook:

Sunday 6:28 PM “The eye will pass over Ft. Myers in the next 1-2 hrs. Wind about 70 mph here at 6:15PM. Big tree blew down in front of the clubhouse but because wind was from east fell away from clubhouse. Power went out 2 1/2 hours ago. The emergency gen started but did not transfer power to the clubhouse. Lots of debris. Lakes over flowing.”

Sunday 9:09 PM “We’re OK here but we got clobbered. Will let u know when we can see tomorrow.”

Monday 3:31 PM “… sometime after 6:30 the worse of the storm went by. We had gusts in excess of 100 mph, you could not see through the rain going sideways out the back windows of the clubhouse. These gusts I believed did the most damage. They tore at already weakened trees, bushes, awnings and anything round. We watched as leaves disappeared from tops of trees and branches continued to fall. When we went out this morning, it explains why there was so much more damage then they saw around 3:30. The Royals, bigger trees uprooted, some awnings completed torn from coach houses not just the canvas. It will be a massive clean up job.”

We have had a few more reports and some pictures. One property owner was able to share pictures on Facebook. 

Another property owner managed to upload some videos showing damage in Fort Myers and at our resort. How comforting for us to see so much that wasn't damaged, but how sad to see the trees.

We are all anxious to see our individual lots to reassure ourselves that everything is OK. All of this will come, in time, as power is restored. 

But, the good news is that we are safe and our friends are safe. Life is good!

Never say Never

We have only three days remaining of our month at RiverBend RV Resort. We have enjoyed a lovely winter respite here, near Fort Myers, FL. The resort is small enough that I am beginning to recognize people and remember some of their names! I play pickleball and Mr. Dreamy has played with RC cars at the race track. I sew with friends at "The Nature Center" (no one knows why it is called that) where I rented a storage space and can conveniently stash all of my sewing gear. Mr Dreamy and I have even become hooked on Bocce. We ride our bikes all over the place. The resort has pizza night, and burger night, and an incredible seafood lunch every other week. They have music events, and movies, and BUNCO and BINGO. What's not to like?
Early on, we Dreamers would comment about some of the pretty lots (all are privately owned. Many have beautiful landscaping). We would talk about about how nice it would be to own a lot.... but not for us. It would be too impractical to live in Colorado and drive so far for winter stays. The lots are expensive. The HOA fees add up. There are taxes to pay, costs while you stay (all of those pizza dinners add up!!) and it just wouldn't work. Would it???

Well, certainly not. 

Not if we only came here one or two months of the year. It would be far cheaper to rent.

Well, certainly not. 

Not only would we pay taxes in Colorado, but we'd have to pay taxes here.

Well, certainly not.

We surely could find something like this closer to home.

Well, certainly not.

We'd be too far from our kids.

But....

We like it here!

But....

What if THIS became our "home"?

• There is no State income tax in Florida. 
• The difference in the personal property tax on our motorhome alone would pay most of the HOA fees at the resort.
• The Fort Myers airport is 38 minutes away. The Miami airport is one hour and 16 minutes away. 
• We were preparing to move out of Colorado anyway, as Mr. Dreamy has been having difficulties breathing at high altitudes. Now we can live in Florida and explore our beautiful country to determine where we want to establish a home base. 

Today we are putting in a bid on one of the lots. If that one doesn't work, there are others we like. We have reservations at another RV resort until March 10, and we are going to an RV Rally at Lake Okeechobee beginning on April 2. We were wondering what we should do between those dates. Perhaps we will be enjoying time on our own little piece of Florida swampland as we do all of the things we need to do to establish Florida residency.

Interesting times ahead!

Planting Time

It is spring in southern Arizona. 

That means it is time to plant.

First, prepare the soil.

Put in the plant.

Arrange the roots.

back fill with dirt. 

Planted!

The resort we stayed at has "planted" at least 35 

of these homes in the past year...

including 10 while we were visiting! 

It was amazing to watch the progress.

Camp KitchiKoomee

I refer to our current 'camp' ground as Camp KitchiKoomee. It is all that... and more!
OK, so it isn't a campground... it is a resort. That is the first difference. The last time I knew, there were 1900 sites - some of which have 'park models' on them. However, they are madly burying new 'village homes'. In my day, as a youngster, I would have called them a double-wide trailer! Here, they dig a pit and plant the modular pieces so it looks more like a home. (Since the satellite view was posted on Google they have probably planted about 2 dozen homes in the sandy area along the golf course and near the softball field.)

The resort is a 55+ community... but half the people act like little kids, so I don't miss seeing little ones. There is nothing lacking. If someone comes, and doesn't see something they want to do, well, they can volunteer to lead a club or class or activity period.

Here are just a few of the options gleaned from the website and my own experiences:

Crafts 

Pottery Sewing Quilting Stained glass Craft fairs Card making/Scrapbooking

Watercolors Woodshop Photography Wood carving Lapidary Silversmith

Dancing

Square dancing Line dancing Saturday night dances

Couples dancing Variety Western

Games

Bridge Pinochle Cribbage Pegs & Jokers Bingo Canasta Mah Jong

Dominoes Hand and Foot Texas Hold'em Euchre Poker

Classes

Stained Glass Pottery Computer Silversmith Lapidary Woodcarving

Oil Painting Tennis Yoga/Pilates Line Dancing Square Dancing Aerobics (water )

Sports

Golf Tennis Billiards Shuffleboard Water Volleyball Lawn Bowling

Pickleball Soft Ball Horse shoes Putting green Biking RC Control cars/planes

As you would expect, I have been playing some pickleball. I have also tried my hand at water volley ball (which I love) and lawn bowing - a real challenge at a slow pace!

Oh, I forgot to mention that the dogs are having fun, too. They have numerous small dog parks around the grounds, as well as an agility park near the ball field. Their favorite friend is Bella, a two-year old Sheltie. She loves to run and have my guys chase her! Tucker and Gypsy will have their own class this morning... in fact, I need to get going to get them to their activity!