mkadventures: Winter in Florida

Little blue heron

Who knew that COVID-19 would change our world so quickly and completely. I hope all our friends and family around our world are safe and healthy at home. We are an interconnected planet and hopefully because of this pandemic the world will begin to see our similarities more than our differences, and begin to make decisions for the good of all of us on this planet.

This winter brought us and our camper home back to Thousand Palms RV Resort. We came down in mid December with the goal of finding a job before we flew home for Christmas with family.
In a few days time, we got the camper set up. found jobs where we could work together at a grocery store, and even enjoyed kayaking on the Withlacoochee River.

We had a great Christmas in Ohio with family before driving back to Florida with our car that had been in storage.

It was a busy winter!! Back in December, we thought 'Hey, we could get jobs in a grocery store. Sounds like a good job for a couple of snowbirds. How hard could that be for a few months?' Who knew?? Well, working at a grocery store is harder than I had imagined, especially after everyone started stocking up for staying at home due to the virus. I worked as a cahier, and Mark's job description was cashier/everything. Everything included stocking, tagging, bagging, retrieving carts, detailing and working in the liquor store (thankfully, not all in the same day). The people we worked with were great, I especially enjoyed the teenagers. One more 'adventure' to add to our list. We can say that we were 'essential workers' on the front lines of the food supply chain during the biggest health crisis any of us has ever seen.

We had a great spot at the campground, with a big backyard that borders the woods (or the swamp depending on how rainy the season is).

We enjoyed line dancing and even performed in the campground talent show.

We tried learning tai chi, and Kathy led some yoga classes. We visited with friends and family in January and February.

Sue and Jim Hanna on the Withlacoochee River with us!

We even did some house and dog sitting!

Fabio

Our scheduled day off from work was Friday, but unfortunately many Fridays were rainy or windy, so we didn't do as much kayaking as we would have liked, until March, when the weather was better. Our favorite place this year was Silver Springs!!

We saw so many alligators, turtles, manatees, and even monkeys. The monkeys were brought in many years ago as part of a movie production. They managed to escape and become a thriving population on the property which is now a state park. They were so fun to watch!

Manatees and monkeys all in one day on one river!

The campground pool was warm and wonderful this year. We had a fun Valentines Day dance,

and they even set up an ourdoor movie theatre one night to allow more 'social distancing" before all activities were cancelled.

We enjoyed the walking trails at the campground, and seeing the gopher tortoises walking on the trails some afternoons. We loved all the wildlife and enjoyed listening to the sandhill cranes fly overhead, watching the pileated woodpeckers fly around the campground, hearing the hawks and sometimes even a barred owl.

It was another good winter in sunny Florida.