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.

6 months

6 months has gone by since we left Terrace, hard to believe!

We have seen and done lots, more than we can remember at times.

We have traveled from Vancouver Island to Prince Edward Island, through the Rockies and Prairies, through the Great Canadian Shield and The Continental Divide.  We have eaten seafood in the Maritimes and watched the leaves change colour in the Adirondacks and also Quebec. We have survived a hurricane and heat waves.

We have gone through 9 Provinces and 12 States.  We have passed through the capital city of Canada and nearby the capital of the USA.  We have said hello to the Bluenose, Mickey Mouse, Terry Fox’s memorial and some dear old friends.  We have missed many friends as well and some family members too, it is hard to get everything done that we set out to do. 

We have seen the Pacific Ocean, the Atlantic Ocean, Lake Superior, the Bay of Fundy, the Gulf of Mexico, the St Lawrence and the Thousand Islands.

We have been homesick at times and at other times cannot imagine ever going back.

We have missed our family & friends tremendously and also have made new friends on the way.

…..Kelly’s sinuses are still not better, they are actually worse that they have ever been….. Terry’s leg is still the same as it has always been; it is good for one day of walking and then out of commission the next…… Jen has now been settled in to her own place in PEI for over 4 months, it is hard to believe…..  Michael is a reading and writing machine.  He has read over 15 large books and has written  2 ½ of his own.….. Sampson is still barking at every squirrel he sees and jumps up on our bed at every scary sound he hears at night time….

It will be interesting to see what the next 6 months brings….

around Lake Rousseau

We moved to site #1 which is water front and lovely!  There are Egrets and Herons that are fairly tame that come right up on the dock.  We rented a canoe for the duration of our stay so we can get out on the water etc.  There are alligators here but at this time of the year it is too cold for them to come ashore ( 20-25 C).

Terry joined the golf club and for $25 he gets his green fees and a golf cart, pretty nice!  I went to bingo for the 1st time in many years and bingo'd twice.  Good thing I didn't bingo three times as apparently they throw you in the pool!

Mike is enjoying the space that we have and his homeschooling is going well.  He is almost 1/2 way done his school year.  He has read about 1/3 of the books that we brought with us (15 books) and has written 3 books as well.  His big dream is to be an author one day...

The people here are extremely friendly.  We have had offers for other campers to drive us into town to get out groceries etc as we don't have a vehicle other than the RV.

Shopping here is so cheap...we took advantage of the Black Friday sales online and ordered up several items that are being sent to us at the campsite.  The best deal we have seen so far is the price of beer, a 24 pack of beer for only $14.00.  A 12 pack at home is over $20!

We have decorated our site with Christmas lights and even have a tree up (a poinsetta) decorated with oranges from the tree next door around it.

here are some pictures around our campsite...

our Christmas tree 

site #1 

lots of space beside us

looking across the cove to our RV

relaxing inside 

a banana tree growing at the boat ramp

looking out to Lake Rousseau

the boat ramp

an orange tree beside us

The Spanish moss grows everywhere, it is kind of creepy neat!

looking down the cove at the Cypress trees

the tame Egret

Mike loves his pool time

a  nice November day!

Lake Rousseau, Florida

We left Fort Wilderness in Orlando on Nov 24th and drove a few hours away to our new home for the next 7 weeks, Lake Rousseau.  It is a smaller RV park, only 130 sites here.  We are in site 19 for the first 4 nights then we move to site #1 for the rest of our stay.  We went to the potluck Thanksgiving dinner this afternoon and had our 1st deep-fried turkey, it was extremely good!  Everyone here is very friendly, we have been given food by our neighbours, been invited for drinks and welcomed into this little community!  Some of the people live here full time in their RV's and some are snowbirds coming down from the northern US states or Canada for 6 months or so.

There is a heated swimming pool so Michael is very happy,  he has been practicing diving to the bottom without his mask and snorkel...so far so good!  His swimming abilities have tripled since we left home 6 months ago as he has spent a lot of time in the water at the various campsites etc....

Check out where we are