LOTS OF PICKLEBALL AT TT ORLANDO!!

The group of Pickleball players has been getting together every morning for a few good games!!  Here is some of the action!!

Phil and Frank

Paul and Ken

Paul and Barb

Phil and Mitch

Frank and Pat reaching for a high ball

John and Ken

Ken and Faye

Ken, Faye, Pat and Mitch after their game!

John was feeling artistic and created this sculpture!!!  I decided to use John's creation to separate the action that took place on a different day.

We had three new players today.  I will point them out as I come to them.

Diane and Ken

New player Alex and Pat

Barb and Rick and Alex and Pat

 Barb shows new player Terry some of her winning moves.

Eve is playing with Terry's wife Amy, also a new player.

Phil and John

Alex and Rick

Phil and John, Alex and Rick during match play

Frank and Pat

OKTOBERFEST CELEBRATION!!

Fri, Oct 11 - It has been so much fun being parked near our good friends Barb and Mitch and Pat and John.  We seem to always have something going on.  In the mornings we play Pickleball followed by Water Aerobics for us women!!  And then we often plan something together in the afternoon.  At Happy Hour one afternoon, I mentioned that I wanted us to have Oktoberfest while we were all together.  Mitch (who is a Chef) immediately spoke up:  "I'll fix some Sauerbraten and Red Cabbage with Apples and some Spaetzle."  I was overwhelmed!!  I was just going to fix some Brats!!!  So it was settled!

Barb and Chef Mitch enjoying some Sam Adams Oktoberfest beer before dinner.

Pat and John don't drink beer but they enjoyed their bottled water.

Ken and Faye having hard pretzel with mustard with their Oktoberfest beer!

Did I mention Ken had mustard!!!

Oktoberfest dinner is served!!!  Sauerbraten, Red Cabbage, Spaetzle and gravy!

UUUMMMMM!!!  Wonderful!!

The group after dinner, waiting for Cake!!!

German Chocolate Cake!!  It was a joint project.  I baked the cake and Barb frosted it with her special Coconut Pecan Frosting.  Served with Coffee Kahlua, it was the perfect ending to the perfect Oktoberfest dinner!!!

Thank you so much Mitch for doing all the cooking!!  And to everyone else who made this a most memorable Oktoberfest for Faye!!!

FAYE'S BROTHER, NELSON, COMES FOR A VISIT!

Wed, Oct. 09 - Today my brother, Nelson, came to visit us at TT Orlando.  He just recently bought a house  at The Villages, so it was about an hour and a half drive for him.

He did not get here in time to join the group for Pickleball, but we did enjoy doing our Water Aerobics together.  It was fun to have him with me.

After lunch, Ken and Nelson spent an hour or so playing at getting our Direct TV satellite dish to get a signal, but with no success.  We will have to call our satellite tech to come out and see what he can do.

We drove Nelson around the campground to show him all of the exciting amenities that we have!!  We ended up at the lake looking for alligators!!  There were none out there today!

For dinner, we decided to go The Oakwood Smokehouse and Grill in Clermont for their Full Rack of Ribs for $12.99 special!!  Besides, it was on the way back to The Villages for Nelson.

  UUUMMMMM!!  So good!!  I thought Ken's fork full of sweet potato added a special touch to the picture!!  HA HA

HOME OF KEN'S DAUGHTER TRACY AND ROYALTY PUPPIES

Tue Oct 8 - Today we went to have dinner with Ken's daughter, Tracy.  She has a suite in a most unique log cabin in Sanford, FL,  just east or Orlando.  The house actually belongs to her long-time friend, Chuck.  I will explain later how Tracy happens to be here.

Tracy welcomed us.  We were fascinated!

The living room has a really high cathedral ceiling and big stone fireplace.

Tracy took us upstairs to her suite.  This is her screened deck with a beautiful view overlooking the pool and out to the equestrian jumping pasture.  The stables are leased to one of Chuck's friends who has about 20 horses he raises and trains.  (We did not see them this trip.)

Tracy's wild and crazy bedroom with big overstuffed, comfortable furniture!

The balcony outside her suite is known as "The Cowboy Room", decorated with all kinds of western stuff.

The Cowboy balcony overlooks the enormous kitchen below, known as "The Cock" room and is decorated with all things Rooster!!

And the big beautiful living room.  I don't have a picture of the adjoining dining room, known as "The Elephant Room" with elephant decor!  How did I miss that??!!

We walked around the property and checked out the area where Chuck said we could hook up our RV if we come to stay for a few days.  Wonderful!!

How did Tracy happen to get here??:  Tracy and Chuck have been close, close friends for over 20 years.  Soul Mates, they say.  Chuck raises and sells Corgi and Australian Shepherd puppies on his ranch.

A few years ago Tracy started working for Chuck, helping to advertise and sell the puppies on a website she created called Royalty Puppies:  Http://www.facebook.com/RoyaltyPuppies.  (Check it out.)  The collaboration was a success.  About a year ago, Tracy suggested that since Chuck was living alone in the big house, and she was living alone in an apartment and paying rent, why didn't he just give her room and board rather than paying her for the work she was doing for him.   So she moved into the suite, and gets to play with the puppies as much as she wants!!  Which is a lot, because they have about 50 puppies on the property!!!!

Thanks for a wonderful visit, Tracy and Chuck!!!

UPDATED SCHEDULE

We have updated our 2013 Schedule to January 2014.  We will spend most of our time between TT Peace River and TT Orlando.  Check it out in the right hand column!!

FRIENDS AT TT ORLANDO, FLORIDA

Sat, Oct 5 - We arrived at TT Orlando on Saturday about 1 PM.  We were riding around, looking for our site when Ken said, "I think we just passed Barb and Mitch's rig!"  I glanced up and there they were, waving at us -- Barb and Mitch, Pat and John!!!  Friends for years!!  This is amazing!!!

Now we have been playing around together!!  Pickleball, water aerobics, and of course, Happy Hour!!

BRIEF STAY AT ROD LAKE GASTON RESORT, VA

Wed, Oct 2 - We left Richmond this morning and went to ROD Lake Gaston Resort on the Virginia-North Carolina State Line.  I wanted to be near my kids who live in North Carolina so we could visit with them over the weekend.

This is a beautiful resort on the shores of Lake Gaston.  View from the marina.

The resort has unbelievable amenities!!  They have a large indoor recreation building with pool, shuffleboard, game machines, handball and even a bowling alley.  They have outdoor tennis courts that could be marked for Pickleball but they are not in very good shape.

Also on the premises is a clubhouse, including a restaurant.  When we checked in, Cindy told us that the restaurant served prime rib on Wednesday and Friday evening!  Since it was my birthday, we decided to try the prime rib.  It was amazing!!!

Queen Cut Prime Rib with Sweet Potato and Texas Toast!

Here we are enjoying dinner with new friends Mike, Ann, and their son Michael.

Unfortunately, our stay at Lake Gaston was cut short due to impending Tropical Storm Karen predicted to head north up I-95 when we were planning to head south.  A friend in Orlando recommended that we leave early and get to Florida before the storm hit.  So we made the very difficult decision to cancel our plans for the weekend and headed south early Friday morning.

RIDE AROUND RICHMOND DURING OUR WEEK OUT!

Sept - One day during our week out of TT Chesapeake Bay, we took a ride around Richmond just for the heck of it.

This is the historic Tredegar Iron Works, dates back to the Civil War.

Some of our cobblestone streets.

One of the locks on the Kanawha Canal off the James River.

The James River.

This is the old Benedictine High School.  Ken graduated from this Catholic military high school years ago.  We were surprised to learn that the school has moved from this location to a new site west of the city.

Sightseeing done, we looked for a place for lunch.  We had discovered a Pho Vietnamese restaurant when we were in LaQuinta, CA (near Palm Springs) and always enjoyed their soups and other dishes.  I had noticed on line that there was a Pho Vietnamese restaurant in our neighborhood, and our GPS was able to find it -- Pho So 1!!

Eye of Round Soup (Pho Tai).  UUMMMM!!  As good as the Pho in LaQuinta!!

Great place!!