Friday, November 28, 2014

A day with Dolly!

We left Johnson City this morning, planning on a day at Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee.

Of course this is the Park that Dolly built, and we had a ball here today! We rode that train you see above...and a roller coaster!

Judy was riding a Mustang above...

This place was all decorated for Christmas...

At night time, they do up lights big time!

Too late to do anymore tonight...

Till tomorrow...

Thursday, November 27, 2014

American Thanksgiving at it finest!

Judy and I made the 12 hour drive from Frostproof, up to Johnson City, Tennessee yesterday in fine fashion. The weather was a bit wet to start, but turned out very nice. In the afternoon traffic picked up a bit, but we managed just fine. It was nice driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains as we headed through North Carolina into Tennessee.

We arrived just after 7:00 p.m. last evening, just in time to spend the evening. The surprise was, it actually snowed here overnight! We had mabe an inch and a half on the ground this morning. Not too often it snows here, so we kind of hit the lottery.

Now this morning, we were out the door by 7:45, in time to get downtown Johnson City, and take part in the 9th Annual Turkey Trot! This is a Family Fun Run, and the Hollingers were all registered to participate. It is just a nice 5 Klm. run. Emmie and Paige were all set for it above... Emmie ran the course, while Paige rode in comfort in a running stroller that Dad pushed.

Four thousand people turned out for the run! A lot of people just walked the course, and Judy and I joined them. We finished the course in just over 45 minutes.

People came from over 23 other States, and some from Hawaii if you can believe it! Temperatures were just above freezing, just right for a fun run.

The Turkey!

Above, Emmie is showing off her Participation Medal! She did great, running the entire 5 klms. We all had a great time!

Now here is a silly picture for you... yes, that is Spider Man coming through your TV above... this morning, Emmie and I sat down and too in the Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. It was pretty fun to watch, and the Spider Man Float was terrific. Heck, they even had the Rock Band "Kiss" performing! We watched the parade, right after we got out of the hot tub to get warmed up, after the fun run! Busy morning!

This afternoon Shawn had big plans for us all. He had to work at the Hospital this morning for a wee bit, to help out some babies, but made it home in the afternoon. He wanted to get the Christmas Tree up!

Some of these pics might be a little hard to see as they are backlit from the big living room windows. He wanted a tree that would "fit" in their great room. They got it!

Everything started out great, and looked like it was not going to be "toooooo" big...

It took a lot to fan out all the branches, and get it all looking good... it just got bigger and bigger! Shawn gave me some numbers regarding this tree... There are over 7,793 branches on this tree! It is 12 feet tall, and has 1,500 lights that, thankfully, were pre-installed on the tree!

This thing just kept growing...

Eventually we had to start climbing on things to be able to work on the tree...

The step ladder came out, but it was not quite tall enough....

This picture above is a view from the dining room, where Jenn prepared a fantastic Thanksgiving Dinner for us tonight!

Judy and Jenn put the finishing touches to the tree later this afternoon, and all that is left now is to decorate it! They were online this afternoon arranging for a bunch of new decorations for it! It is going to look great! Emmie and Paige said that Santa should have NO problem finding this tree on his run!

As I type, Jenn and Judy are preparing to head out just past 6:00 this evening, to take in some Black Friday Shopping Deals that are now starting this evening! Good luck to them! I am going to pass...

Tomorrow we are all off for Pidgeon Forge!

Till tomorrow...

 

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

After 3 years... Judy found it!

It might have been even longer than 3 years that Judy has been looking, not quite sure, but today she found it when doing the laundry!

Judy's Brother, Garry, and his Wife Shelly, have been collecting a series of U. S. Quarter Dollars. I am not quite sure what is special about them however Judy found quite a few of them. One quarter remained illusive to her. She found it yesterday, and it is a 2003 coin, but the important part of this particular coin is if you look real close under where it says, "In God We Trust," you will see a very small letter "P". Ya, I know, pretty exciting day right?

It was a very overcast day here, but very warm...too warm almost! We spent the day taking care of business around the RV and doing a bunch of walking this morning. Good thing we walked this morning, as it rained big time this afternoon...

The picture above shows some rain, but it seemed to be raining harder at the time, than what the picture shows... how is that?

Next thing I was thinking about this evening after taking the picture of the quarter above, is the power of the macro lens on my iPad. They do make a great camera lens that is real small!

Of course many of you are aware that this coming weekend is American Thanksgiving. To celebrate this year, Judy and I are leaving here tomorrow morning and are driving up to Johnson City in Tennessee. It is on the far right hand side of the map of Tennessee you see above. It is about a 12 hour drive from here. We will stay probably to Sunday, and then head back to Florida. We have a bit of a mini vacation planed with the Hollinger Crew, and hope to get over to the Pidgeon Forge Area for some good time fun. More to come.

Till tomorrow...

 

Monday, November 24, 2014

Sweltering Monday...

It was nice and warm today... over 30 deg. C. here with a mix of sun and clouds. Judy and I went for a 3 1/2 mile walk this morning around our Park, but had to stop after that, as it was simply too hot, and I was soaked! Today we finally saw the little beady eyes, of Fred, our local resident alligator in our Park Pond. He has live here for years, and continues to do so.

I did some maintenance on my bicycle this morning trying to get it back in shape. It needed some oil and tender loving care, but should be good for a bunch of miles down here this year.

Judy was off at 2:00 p.m. this afternoon to the Club House to attend the weekly Zumba Class!

Nobody noticed when I stuck my head in the door and took this picture above.... got to stay in shape you know!

Next we were off to the Lake Wales Library...

We maintained our library card from last year, so were able to get some movies and a book for me to read...

Had a great cyber happy hour with Tom and Cheryl back up in Richmond Hill, Ontario on the iPad this afternoon. They are getting ready to haul down the 5th wheel to Frostproof very soon, as fast as they can wrap up the sale of their home. Our thoughts are with all our friends and relatives up in southern Ontario, as tonight they have to endure a big time wind storm, with winds up to 100 kph. As if all the recent snow was not enough! Hang on everyone!

Check out the 3rd member of our Florida Family. Patra is just in kitty heaven here in Florida, as she enjoys the warm weather... she had to endure a lot of cold weather for the past month or so... and is now just loving it! She gets outside daily now and does a lap around our site for exercise. She is over 15 years old now, but still in great shape and loves to travel. Good thing!

Till tomorrow...

 

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Bring it on!

Temperatures just about hit the 90 Deg. F. range today, which is right up there with the best of them. Certainly the hottest day we have seen anywhere for a while now, kind of nice actually.

This morning Judy and I made our way up to Winter Haven to take in the Church Service at Holy Cross Church. It was good to meet up with a bunch of Friends we have made over the 3 years we have now attended.

This afternoon we decided to get out and about. One thing that we did find different here this year, (take note Tom and Cheryl...) is a new store I have never heard of. It is called Rural King. Now if you are from Canada, just think Canadian Tire, only on a bigger scale.

This store is located in the Wynn Dixie Plaza up in Lake Wales. Last year the location was empty. It was packed with shoppers today, and we found a lot of real neat stuff!

We managed to stay away from bringing home one of the live Chicks above... They had 4 bins of these things! $2.50 each and we saw people buying them. We will be back to this store again...

Next we were off to Lake Wailes Park.

Lake Wailes is right in Lake Wales, but don't ask me why they spell the name of the Lake different than the name of the Town... one of those things I guess. We brought our bicycles with us to tear up the walking/cycling path.

We really like our new bike rack on the back of the Cruze, as you can mount and dismount your bike is seconds... and they don't move one inch while you motor down the highway.

Just a great afternoon for a bike ride...

Yes, there are gators out there in that lake somewhere... we stayed away.

and then someone threw up the "Bat Signal..." (Actually he is just drying his wings, there is a proper name for him, it just escapes me, but they are all over Florida)

This guy above is shopping for dinner...

We decided to go up the Bob Evans Restaurant in Lake Wales for their festive dinner tonight...

They had a real yummy turkey dinner real cheap! Now, I am stuffed.... (ooohhhhhhh, sorry...)

Till tomorrow....

Saturday, November 22, 2014

Day off for a movie...

Yesterday was a major clean up day around here... I had washed up the Motorhome the day before, and did some sundry further cleaning on it, and managed to put a coat of Mothers Paste Wax on the Cruze to get it just a shinning! Judy spent the day yesterday cleaning up the interior of the Motorhome in a big way. We had so much condensation this fall while up in Woodstock, it actually started to turn to mould in a few areas, which we all know is no good at all. It is really dry down here, and all that condensation is now gone, so Judy cleaned and washed down all the interior walls, and crevises to get it back to spic and span again.

Today was supposed to be the Street Sale for all residents, as you put your junk good stuff you have out on the corner of your lot for sale. Problem was, Mother Nature had different ideas though... it was misting rain all morning, so it all got cut real short. We had the bicycles out to tour around, but we gave up, as it was simply too much rain.

We thought we would try some of the local stores to see if their roofs were leaking, but they were all OK and full of shoppers... We made our way to the Eagle Ridge Mall, and enjoyed lunch and then headed over to the Theatre. We wanted to catch the 3rd film to be released in the Hunger Games saga... Mockingjay!

 

Even though there were only 3 books written in the series, they have decided to make 4 movies out of it, dividing the last book into 2 movies....

The movie was good, and has the star power of Jennifer Lawrence as Catniss Everdeen. However I did not quite find the movie as good as the first two... probably for a few reasons, one being they only put a movie out every year, so it has been 3 years now since I read the books, so some of the shine has worn off. Also, the 3rd book had a big change in plot, which reflects in the movie as well. Overall though, very good, and yes, I will probably pay my money to catch the last movie this time next year. The Movie was released yesterday of course, just in time for American Thanksgiving next week. The Theatre we attended today, had 25 showings of the movie TODAY alone! $15.00 was the Sr. price for Judy and I to see it today. (oh, ya, I bought a box of Milk Duds as well...)

When we got home we had a nice surprise Facetime Call from Chris, Kristina, and the kids... they are doing well, and report it was raining today on top of all that snow that came down the past few days.

I grabbed a couple screen shots at the end of the call... Charlie's turned out a little funny... not sure what is going on with his hair there... Gwenny was blowing us a kiss.

Nice and warm here in Florida today, even if it was overcast... about 75 deg. F, which is very comfortable.

Till tomorrow...