FRIENDS COME FOR DINNER

December 27 – Eating Again??? HA HA We wanted to finish the ham I had cooked for Stacey’s visit on Christmas Eve. It made a good reason to have a little impromptu dinner with ham, string beans, Toni and Peter’s sherried sweet potatoes, etc. We invited Stan and Sally to share with us. And, some friends, Kathryn and Ron, from back home at TT Chesapeake Bay who are at Peace River for a couple of weeks, joined us, too. It was a good opportunity for them all to meet each other. As we were preparing dinner, we saw another friend, Travis, just arriving at Peace River. We met Travis years ago on a Pickleball court in Arizona, and have met up with him many times in many places. We gave him a quick call and invited him to join us, too. He did stop by for a glass of wine and a piece of Sally’s Dump Cake with ice cream. UMMMMM!! I think we all had a pretty good time and enough to eat! We grabbed a couple walking by to take this picture!

Around the table: Travis, Ron and Kat, Stan and Ken, Me, Sally.

FRIED FISH AT PIONEER RESTAURANT

December 26 - Like we haven’t had enough to eat already – a group of us got together and went to the Pioneer Restaurant for the Friday Fried Fish. Pioneer is a nice little family diner only about a mile down the road. The fried fish was great, I suppose, but a number of us chose the Prime Rib dinner instead, and that was good, for sure!!

Around the table: Mark and Chris, Jane, Jane’s Friend, Stan, Ken, Bob (with Jane's Friend), Jim (with Jane), Sally (with Stan), and Me (with Ken, of course). [A nice lady offered to take a picture of the whole group when she saw that Ken could not take the picture and be in it too!!]

MERRY CHRISTMAS

We wish you all a

Very Merry Christmas!!!

Here we are with Santa at the Peace River Christmas Dinner!! And, we were thinking about YOU!!

PICKLEBALLERS DO KARAOKE AT TT PEACE RIVER

December 25 - Our friend, Ron Walker, whom we met on the Pickleball court at TT Chesapeake Bay, led Karaoke at Peace River on Christmas day following our big Christmas dinner. Girl friends Sally and Catherine “sing” The Twelve Days of Christmas. Seems they play Pickleball better than they sing! Sorry Girls!!

STACEY COMES TO VISIT AT TT PEACE RIVER

December 24 – Ken’s daughter, Stacey, lives in Englewood, FL, about 75 miles from Peace River. She works as a Paralegal in Bradenton, only 50 miles away. So, since she got off work at noon on Christmas Eve, she drove over from Bradenton to visit us and have dinner. Our friends, Sally and Stan, joined us for dinner, too. It was great to see Stacey again.

Sally, Stan, Faye, Stacey (Ken's youngest) and Ken

PICKLEBALL SCRAMBLE AT TORREY OAKS

December 20 - A large group of Pickleball Players from several resorts in the area gathered at nearby Torrey Oaks RV Resort for the first Pickleball Scramble on Saturday Dec. 20. The event was organized by Jean Mulder who is heading up the Pickleball program at Torrey Oaks this year. There were players from Torrey Oaks, TT Peace River, Tanglewood, and Sun City Center (maybe even more). Although Ken and I did not play, we had fun watching the games and partaking of the great hors d’oeuvres!! Prizes were awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners for male and female participants. A great time was had by all. Good job, Jean!!

1st and 3rd Place for the women were won by friends Sally and Donna. Don't know the men, but here stand 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place winners. Congratulations to all!!!

Among the spectators at the Torrey Oaks Pickleball Scramble, Faye and Ken, join friend Stan who played a good game in the tournament, although he's not shown in the picture above.

OUR TWO WEEKS AT TT ORLANDO CONTINUED FOR ONE LAST NIGHT

December 17 – On our last night at TT Orlando, the four of us went out to the rib special at Oakwood Smokehouse and Grill in Clermont. We each had a full rack of ribs with all the trimmings with a pitcher of beer and lots of laughs!! Ummmmm!!

Ken, Faye, Sally, Stan

Diggin' In!!!

TWO WEEKS AT TT ORLANDO, FL

December 4 - 18 - We left Virginia on December 3rd and arrived in Florida on December 4th. Following is a synopsis (backwards) of our time at TT Orlando.

HAPPY HOUR AT STAN AND SALLY'S

December 16 – Leave it to Sally to get something going!! She had a group of us Pickleball players over for Happy Hour one afternoon at Orlando . Even though Ken and I are not exactly what you would call “Players” at this time (due to injury), we were invited, too!!

Jose, Jill and Ken

Going backwards: Catherine, Linda, Catherine's Husband

(You can tell because they are Twins!!)

For those who have not met her,

here is Faye without an "e"also from Virginia;

with Sally and Stan

PICKLE PINNING CEREMONY

There were a few Pickleball Players at the Happy Hour who had not been pinned; so we, of course, had a Ceremony for them!!

Jill, Jose, Catherine, Faye with an "e", Husband, and

Faye without an "e"

Wear your Pickle proudly!!

KEN'S BIRTHDAY!!

December 14 – Can you believe it!!! Ken is having another Birthday. It could not possibly be a whole year since all of the hullaballoo over his 75th!!

We invited several good friends over to help him celebrate his 76th!!

Ken, Barb and Mitch

Sally, John, Pat and Stan

NOW BLOW!!

May all of your birthday wishes come true!!

VISIT FROM VICKI AND NIKI

December 12-14 – Vickie, Ken’s daughter, and his granddaughter, Niki, drove up from Miami for a weekend visit. It was great to see them again. The Highway Runner is still made to only sleep two, but we made out OK with four!! We had some of Ken marvelous Chili Soup for dinner Friday night and his even more delicious fajitas on Saturday night. On Sunday morning, we took them to the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet at Ponderosa. Ummmm.

In between eating, Vickie and I hit a few Pickleballs. Vickie is pretty good for someone who does not get to play. She has that all-important eye-hand coordination. On Saturday afternoon, we took them to our secret orchards and picked buckets full of tangerines and pink grapefruit!! I forgot my camera so this picture will have to suffice as a reminder of the afternoon.




Here is Niki working on her laptop. She paid the $4.95 to use the “tengo” WIFI offered throughout the park at Orlando. After a couple of hours she was “kicked off” and never was able to connect again. She called the problem telephone number at the top corner of the Activities Sheet (took us forever to even find the number because it is not on the tengo WIFI flyer). They told her there were just too many people logged on at the same time. Also, her Apple computer did not have enough strength to get a good signal. However, she tried to log on using my Toshiba (now repaired and working fine). That did not work either. Tengo told her she could go to the lodge and log on to their website and complete a refund form. Well, that defeated the purpose of paying for service!! Funny, I had no trouble using tengo last season when it was FREE!! Just a "Word to the Wise"!!

FULL MOON OVER ORLANDO!!

December 12 - Here is our picture of that awesome Full Long Night Moon on December 12th. This is the biggest, brightest, fullest Moon seen in 15 years. That is because it is the closest the Full Moon has been to the earth since March 8, 1993, and will not repeat until 2016. There is no guarantee that we will be able to see it again then!!

I called our friend Mark and told him about the phenomena. He is an expert photographer, but he would have missed the whole thing if not for my call. He captured a fab picture of the historic Full Moon and posted it on his Blog, Have Bounder Will Travel (See link under Blogs I Follow on the side panel).

I also had to call my daughter, Stasia. She is kooky about such things, and I knew she would be watching. I pointed out to her that here we were, hundreds of miles apart and watching the same Full Moon at the same time!! Togetherness!!! Her husband and Ken just say “UGGH”!!

LINE DANCING INSTEAD OF PICKLEBALL

December 12 - For some reason, my right hip has been bothering me a great deal. Had it X-rayed in Richmond and was told I have a little arthritis and a little inflammation in that area. Take some pain pills. Anyway, it was still bothering me too much to try Pickleball while at Orlando. So – I decided to further my Line Dancing skills!!

I really did enjoy it. In fact, I taught the group to do the new Alan Jackson line dance, “Good Times”!!! Still have a lot to learn!!!