around Citrus County, Florida

We have now been here@ Lake Rousseau for 7 weeks!  Loving the daily sunshine and not even minding the cooler weather...we have been out geocaching a bit more now that my old (broken) GPS has been replaced. I am still trying hard to get to 1000 caches before we return home. Terry is working on his bird life listand golf swing and Michael is working on his homeschool and Magic the Gathering cards.  Terry Sr left here on Sunday and we just spoke with him, he made it home to Montreal in 2.5 days.  We have rented a car for our duration here, 3 more weeks.

Withlacoochee Gulf Preserve

30 ft high observation tower

an ancient  "Live Oak" beautiful tree with ferns growing 

on the branches and lots of Spanish moss

Breakfast at "Red's".  

Unbelievable food,  we all loved the biscuits and gravy!

3 generations of Munday boys

Rainbow Springs. 

 The springs are 70 degrees F all year round and crystal clear emerald colored water.

walkway in Rainbow springs park

huge pinecone!

Cedar Key and the Suwannee River

We drove out to Cedar Key, a little fishing village an hour from our campsite.  It is a funky little place with lots of restaurants, pubs and shops.  Reminds me of a little version of Prince Rupert.  We will try to get back to stay there for a few nights once we leave Lake Rousseau.  Drove out  to the Suwannee River.


 Stephen C. Foster wrote "The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home)" 




The Swanee River

Way down upon the Swanee River,
Far, far away,
There's where my heart is turning ever,
There's where the old folks stay.
All up and down the whole creation,
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for the old plantation,
And for the old folks at home.




They must have changed the spelling of the name along the way?


Grandpa Munday aka POPS to everyone here at Lake Rousseau is leaving in 3 days but has decided to become a winter snow bird next year and is towing his travel trailer back here in October for 6 months.  We will have a place to stay next winter if we want to come for a short visit!

Cedar Key restaurant

another Cedar Key restaurant

another Cedar Key restaurant

another Cedar Key restaurant!

The Suwannee River

boardwalk on the river trail

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2010 was one to remember....

.....a Christmas in the tropics?  Well, it can be called the so-so tropics, but it was cold here this year.....had a great view for the lunar eclipse....drove 20 minutes to the Gulf of Mexico on the 1st day of winter... lots of shopping and flea markets to keep Kelly busy....Terry Sr drove dow to join us.....the guys are enjoying golfing a few times a week.....missed my girl this year, was a hard one without her.....Michael was the "judge" for the decorating contest on Dec 22........Christmas Eve breakfast was put on by one of the other campers, $2 a person got us french toast and sausages........We all went to the Homossassa Springs wildlife park on Christmas Eve,  we took a boat tour hoping to see the manatees but didn't see any in the wild, just in the rehabilitation area.......Christmas Eve we enjoyed a feast of snacks and goodies and our RV was all decorated up festively......  Michael woke up at 3 am so excited to see his gifts and we sent him back to bed until 8 am....  Christmas day we had a potluck dinner at 1 pm with the park at the rec hall and later on Terry Sr went fishing......

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from Kelly, Terry and Michael.

We are in Florida enjoying the nice (and maybe not so nice) weather here!

We have been gone on our road trip for almost 7 months now.  We have traveled 17,000 km's!

The 4 of us, Kelly, Terry, Jennifer and Michael, left Terrace on May 31st.  We spent the first month in BC visiting family and friends along the way.  We started to head East on July 1st and took 12 days to get to PEI.

 Jennifer was with us in the RV until July 25th.  She now has her own apartment in Charlottetown and is attending the University of Prince Edward Island.

 We camped in PEI for 6 weeks where Terry's dad and brother Les met up with us to camp for 3 weeks.   We left PEI and toured New Brunswick and Nova Scotia until early September and we were in Lunenberg NS when Hurricane Earl arrived rocking the maritimes!   

We spent 3 weeks in September at our friends, Tom and Debbies, cabin in the Adirondacks in New York state and then went to Terry's dads place in Quebec for all of October.

 We left Canada on Nov 8th and drove straight to Orlando to go to Disney World for 12 days.  We are now at a RV park called Lake Rousseau, an hour north of Tampa.  It is a very friendly RV community here, mixed with some permanent residents and other snowbirds like us.  Most of the people here are retired and everyone is so welcoming to us!  Terry's dad is here to spend the holidays with us.

Michael is enjoying the road trip and he is doing well with his homeschooling.  He gets lonley at times without his sister and his friends from back home, but he is making some friends here with the retired community.  He is their adopted grandson!

Living in the RV together has been a learning experience for all of us.  We have learned how to manage in such a small space and it will feel very strange to be back in a house one day!

We have to be back in Canada no later than May 8th as we can only be in the USA for 6 months.  Not sure what our plan is for returning home as of yet...I do need to be back to work in August!

We hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season and look forward to seeing everyone when we return!

Cheers,  Kelly, Terry and Michael

xoxo

getting ready for Christmas @ Lake Rousseau

Mike and I decorated some gingersnap cookies

hot chocolate and cookies

Mike had a cookie in his stocking from his "secret santa" partner

these cookies are too early for Santa..they were gone the next day..

we will have to make more!

Sampson ready for the pet parade

Michael ready to take Sampson to the pet parade around the RV park

waiting for the other pets to arrive

Sampson came in 2nd place

ready for Christmas!

Brrr..it is COLD out here!

I am sure we won't get a lot of sympathy from anyone..but man it is cold here!  It is 2 C right now and will be dropping below freezing tonight.  No snow though!  It makes the Christmas season seem a little more real, having palm trees decorated in the heat just seems wrong.   The cold air now makes us want to be inside snuggled under blankies watching a movie with hot chocolate..ahh..

The Christmas carols are playing right now, the candles are going, the presents are all bought and sent and now we are just waiting for Grandpa Munday to arrive in one week, then the big man dressed in red arrives not long after that...

There was a potluck dinner that we went to tonight, took my broccoli cheese casserole and ate some fantastic food from the others!

Mike and I are participating in the "Secret Santa" stocking event.  We all went to shop for our our secret santa's yesterday, Mike is really enjoying it!

The people here are so nice, it will be very hard to pack up and leave when we do.