Just on a bit of a Blogger Break, but enjoying our time in Frostproof!
Judy and I wish all our Family, Friends, and Blogger Friends a Happy New Year... we will celebrate here tonight with a T-Bone Steak Dinner, and a New Years Eve Party at our Club House!
Back to Blogging in January!
I always get a laugh when I am down in the U.S., at all the Grocery Store Games... I matters not if we are in California, Az. or Florida, they all play games it seems. You have to have one of their "loyalty cards" or in some cases you won't get their discounts they offer.
The last couple of years that we have been in Florida, we have been playing the Winn/Dixie Game it seems. Of course we have our "Winn/Dixie Card", as we won't leave home without it!
At Winn/Dixie in Lake Wales, where we normally end up, it is always fun to watch the computer screen re-adjust all the prices automatically after the clerk imputs your card into the computer. They have regular prices marked on the shelf, as well as the "Club Price" The Clerk always makes sure to tell you that "You have saved $XXX.XX today at Winn/Dixie!"
Next comes the fuel perks that Winn/Dixie offer. You accumulate fuel perks on your card in relation to the amount of grub you can eat in a week. Today for example, we had a $0.70 fuel perk on our card, so this allows us to pull up to a Sunoco Gas Station, and pump in up to 20 gallons of the finest gasoline, at 70 cents off per gallon! (This really works good when you have a Jeep)
Now, a Chevy Cruze is not a blood thirsty vehicle when it comes to gas, but you do have to buy some every now and then! We had just over 1/4 of a tank of gas left in the Cruze today, so I decided to fill it up, as we were near the Sunoco Station. As you can see above, after you swipe your card, the price of the gas dropped to $1.639, from $2.339, The Cruze took all of just under 10 gallons, so it ended up costing all of $16.30 to fill er up! (Somehow, this hardly seems right...way too low!) Net savings was $7.00 thanks to using the Winn/Dixie Card. Is it worth it????
Not finished yet! On your Winn/Dixie Card you also accumulate Appliance points. This is new this year. We have been here about 2 months now, and the clerk told us the other day, that we now qualified for an appliance as we had 60 points...whatever...
You pick your appliance from inside the store, and Judy chose this Oster 12 inch Electric Frying Pan. It was on sale in the Store for $29.95. Oh, ya, we also got some groceries at the Store today too.... yikes.
All these games... I guess they just want to keep you coming back! We ran into Tom and Cheryl today at the Store, and they had $1.10 in fuel perks, so when Tom goes to fill up his big 3500 Chevy Duramax with Diesel, he will save $21.00! Hey, we all have to eat sometimes!
Fantastic Florida day, with temps again in the mid 80's F. We are just soaking it up!
Till tomorrow...
Tom and I hit the walking track around our Park at 8:00 this morning, and put in 5 1/2 miles, or 5 laps.... whew, just a bit of a workout, and I was simply soaking wet when we finished up, as the temperatures began to sneak up on us... The past few days have been fantastic. 82 to 85 deg. F. today, which is a shade over 30 deg. C. up in Canada, makes for a nice day! Headed down for a nice swim and hot tub after walking.
Wanted to show you a project that Tom and I worked on yesterday. He bought these two ASB Pipes at the local Lowes Store to actually help support his RV Canopy. He has an electric canopy, that has no verticle supports for it, so when you attach a big custom made sun screen, it gets way too heavy for it. We custom cut these pipes to become verticle support, and it worked out real good... check it out below...
I took this picture from inside the enclosure looking out. You can see the post, that Cheryl has now wrapped in rope lights which look kind of neat at night time. We put one post at each end and it worked out great!
Last night Judy and I got to enjoy a nice Christmas Dinner, (OK, so a day late...) compliments of my Mom up in Orillia. We elected to go out to one of our favourite Restaurants, Chilis! It is a great spot, where we enjoyed a nice steak dinner. Tom and Cheryl joined us for a great night out on the Town. Of course, when you hit our age, and you want to go out and paint the Town red, you only do half in a night... we will go out another night to finish it off right! We enjoyed! Thanks Mom!
When Judy and I got home tonight after dark, we got in the RV, closed our door, and then I glanced out through the frosted window in the door, and saw what you see above! Yup, that would be a tree frog stuck to our window...thankfully on the outside! We have had of few of these inside, and they really freak Patra out when they start jumping around! These things can jump straight up, many feet!
Till tomorrow...
Hope everyone enjoyed a great Christmas Day, we sure did. Between time spent in the warm temperatures of Florida, to time spent with Family, it was a nice day. Started off with a nice gift from our Resort!
If you look in the centre of the top picture, you will see a nice new tower with Wifi equipment installed on it. The Resort turned on the FREE PARK WIFI on Christmas Eve for everyone in the Park, and will continue to be free into the new year. It is a real nice and fast LTE Service, so we will be able to reduce our reliance on Verizon! Thanks Rainbow! As you can also see in the last pic above, it is a big 500 unit Park, so the Wifi is done up in zones around the park to allow everyone on. Fred, our local alligator lives in the pond at lower left! He dosn't use any Wifi...
Of course we used the new Wifi to Facetime with all the kids over Christmas. The pictures and video were clear as a bell!
That is Jenn showing off some new cloths she received above, and yes, that is Dr. Shawn showing us the new ROCK that he received for Christmas! Not to worry, it is a set of stereo speakers disguised as a rock, for use out on the deck of the new pool facility.
We had a great time with the Tennessee crew, watching them open gifts and everything... the girls had a blast!
On Christmas Eve, we had a great Facetime call with the Woodstock Crew... wrapping paper was just a flying as the kids were just a ripping it off boxes and presents! The way it should be! Great to see them having such a good time. Gwenny really liked this personal stamp Judy had made up for the kids with their own names on them. She was stamping her name on everything in sight! (Sorry Kristina....)
Great to see all our Kids and Grands doing so well and enjoying the Season!
On Christmas morning, Judy and I found time to head down and enjoy the Pool and Spa Facilities in our Resort... No one else was there! The pool above is kept at about 86 deg. F. Just jump right in. You do not see the two nice hot tubs, right behind where I am standing, taking this picture. Great way to spent Christmas Morning!
Cheryl is holding a Dairy Queen Gift Card over Tom's stomach, as she says that is exactly where the gift card will end up! We gave it to them for a present. Tom LOVES the Dairy Queen!
We sure enjoyed our Christmas, hope you all did... New Years is next!
Till tomorrow...
Well, sure hope everyone has been nice!
Judy and I wish EVERYONE a very Merry Christmas!
After I pounded the last nail last September up in Woodstock at Chris and Kristina's place during the Mud Room Renovation, I thought that my building skills would be put to bed for a while, after all, we are heading to Florida for the winter to relax!
Well it was back to work today in Frostproof...
Here I am on the business end of the had saw at Tom and Cheryl's place today, working on a new office renovation! Tom and Cheryl took advantage of a Park incentive last year, that gave them a nice site with all new concrete poured, and a new 10 X 10 shed!
This was our end result today after we made a trip to the Lowes Store at Lake Wales. You might wonder what those two cans are on top of that new desk top.... well, it was very very warm here in Florida today, and that is all I am saying about that! Tom and Cheryl landed back in our Park last Saturday around noon, and are getting set up and enjoying the nice warm Florida temperatures we are having. New shelves I think are on the agenda for tomorrow.
Above is a real grainey type picture of Patra, who was enjoying the nice warm temperatures outside tonight, as I BBQ'd the chicken. It was real dark outside, but it is amazing how the iPhone 5 totally adjusted the picture and allowed what little light there was, to give you a picture you could see! Patra would have spent the night outside it was so nice, I had to drag her in!
Till tomorrow...
The word is out that Tom and Cheryl are heading south, and plan on making it into Frostproof sometime tomorrow... travel safe guys!
Judy and I were out and about doing some shopping this afternoon, and ended up as Sorensen Chevrolet Dealership in Lake Wales. We wanted to get the Cruze serviced.
I asked if they would honour the "free oil changes" that GM Canada gave us when we bought our car, and the Service Manager said "No problem..." and we will also wash and detail your car for free as a courtesy. Oh, and they also rotated our tires at no extra cost! We could not afford to deal with these folks today! Love it!
I have been following with interest the warming of relations between the U.S. and Cuba this week. Judy and I have visited Cuba many times on vacation over the years and loved going there... There were quite a few Cubans currently living in the Miami area who are upset that Obama is kissing and making up with the Castro Brothers. Certainly if Americans are eventually allowed to travel to Cuba the price of their cheap vacations is sure to go through the roof! It will be interesting to watch and see how things shape up over time.
Till tomorrow...
I was walking over to meet a friend this afternoon, came accross the following...
Yup, Santa was riding his motorcycle around the Park, checking out to see who has been naughty and who has been nice...( I have been nice...)
He had a beautiful day to ride his bike, in the nice warm temperatures and lots sun today. Judy and I spent quite a bit of time cleaning up, and doing some maintenance on the RV. I was up on the roof and cleaned the vents up a bit and took a couple pictures..
The Park is starting to fill up, but will empty next week, as many will go home for Christmas.
These two Park Models are being installed right behind our site, and are just waiting for their Florida rooms, and the finishing touches. They are listed for sale around $70,000.00 U.S. each!
This afternoon we got an surprise Facetime Call from Gwenny and Charlie, along with iPad operater Kristina. The kids are all doing well...
There is certainly no shortage of energy with these two, and you can almost see it in Gwenny's eyes! It was sure good to see them.
Judy and I were down at the Rec Hall tonight for a fantastic Chrismas Performance. We have weekly entertainment here to keep us all from getting bored! It was a nice show, we enjoyed!
Till tomorrow...
I had some comments on the Disney Blog recently about how to go about planning for a trip down to the Parks. Disney World can certainly be overwhelming to anyone visiting here, it is that big!
We were lucky in that Shelley was our personal tour guide, and she arranged and planned everything for us for the past 3 years now that we have visited Disney! She could sell her services!
Here are a couple tricks that she uses when planning trips to Disney.
If you plan on staying right on the Disney Grounds, as we did, you can take advantage of bundling. When you buy your Admission Tickets, make your Hotel Arrangements at the same time. They will send you all kinds of coupons that are worth a lot of money. For example, we all got coupons for a free round of Mini Golf that we did on Tuesday. This Golf cost $14.00 each to play, so instantly you save $28.00 a couple. We also had coupons to get into Disney Quest, which is a huge arcade. It cost $45.00 each to get in here, but we got in free with our coupons. There are many other coupons available.
Next when you plan to come, have a good idea of what you want to do, where you want to go, and what you want to see. With all this in mind, you can now plan for your day. You get 3 Fast Passes each for the Park. They allow you to move right to the front of the line for any of the big rides or attractions. You get a 1 hour window to use your fast pass. Shelley had ours all planned in advance, and they are loaded onto your Disney Magic Band.
We got to the Park right at the 8:00 a.m. opening, and were able to get on a number of the big attractions easily with only a few people in the Park at that time. It usually gets real busy later in the day. We were able to have a real good flow to the whole day, properly using our 3 fast passes, even with a large crowd in the Park. It is all in the planning!
Another beautiful day here in Florida... took live easy today enjoying the nice weather. We went out for our local Family Dinner tonight at a nice local restaurant... 28 people showed up from our neighbourhood! Just keeping the local economy going!
Had a great time!
Till tomorrow...
Judy and I are back in Frostproof tonight, after leaving Disney World just after lunch this afternoon. What a fantastic trip with had visiting Mickey, and Garry and Shelley! We had a blast!
We spent all of yesterday, from 8:00 a.m. until about 10:30 p.m. at the Magic Kingdom, only coming back to our Resort for Dinner and refreshments in the later part of the afternoon.
Of course we started the day off at the Magic Kingdom by having our own personal audience with non other than Mickey Mouse. Mickey was in fine form, and if your are not aware, as I was not aware...Mickey now talks! This is a recent event, and we had a great time conversing with him.
We enjoyed a terrific day at the Park, under the most ideal weather conditions you could dream up! Perfect!
Of course we rode the "It's a Small World, Afterall..." ride, and ended up with that crazy song stuck in our heads for the day! Above is our "selfie"...
It is an iconic ride that never seems to get old...
We took in the show at "The Hall of Presidents!" This was very well done, with each U.S. President introduced to you...
We stay in Polk County, Florida, and it was nice to meet James Polk!
We rode the Walt Disney World Railway, The Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, went in The Haunted Mountain, cruised The Jungle Cruise, took the Peter Pan Flight, road the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, got wet on Splash Mountain, were amazed at Stitch's Great Escape, laughed at Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, and rode the People Mover! Whew... now you know why I am tired tonight!
I took a whole bunch of pictures, and some neat videos, and I am sure most readers have been there, and done all that, but what the heck, I am just going to post them all radomly here, and you can pick and choose, or just plain ignore them and carry on!
We went back to the Park after dinner, and I really enjoyed the evening light parade, which I will post pictures of, and the fireworks display was simply amazing. They also now do an unbelievable laser light projection right on the Magic Castle as a backdrop that I simply cannot explain to you how it works, but you just have to go and see it.
Anyways, enjoy the pics and videos....make up any titles or comments yourself.
Whew... there you go, if you are still with me after that....
Till tomorrow...
(oh, just want to thank Garry and Shelley once more for all the hospitality they showed us over the past couple day...you go above and beyond, and just like Walt Disney, you do nothing small! Have a safe trip back up to Ontario!)
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