Life in the RV park

Friday and Saturday, January 20 and 21, 2012

DUNEDIN, FL – For a minute it felt like we were in boot camp this morning. As we lay in bed, quietly appreciating the gathering knowledge that day was about to break, the shrill sound of reveille came through the wall of the motorhome! Reveille – like on a Civil War battlefield or something! Plus an amplified voice bellowing “Pancake breakfast, from eight to nine-thirty! Bring your own plates and cutlery!”
I lifted the blind and caught sight of a man in a golf cart, with a megaphone, repeating the trumpet blast and announcement every 20 feet along the roadways of the RV park. They were going to get patrons for their breakfast or else.
We were getting up anyway, and we could see quite a few people ambling toward the recreation hall. I was able to squeeze in a quick shower, and Val managed to shave before Fawn and John dropped by to say they were heading over and would we like to join them? So we did. The meal was actually very nice, with thick flapjacks, scrambled eggs, sausages and orange juice, plus coffee and applesauce, for a mere three dollars each! And we got to meet some of John and Fawn’s neighbours and chat for a while.
The billboard inside the rec hall had a full calendar of activities laid out for the coming week, including an ice cream social, bingo, shuffleboard, an astronomy talk, a knitting circle, woodworking – all kinds of things to do if lazing in the warmth under your personal palm tree wasn’t appealing enough.
It’s not hard to see why so many people like to come south for the winter and do all these fun things, rather than sitting inside watching the snowdrifts pile up in northern climes. In a park like this, there are plenty of people at the same stage of life, with RVs and travel adventures to talk about, so it’s pretty unlikely that you will feel bored.
Yesterday and today we puttered about, doing some shopping, getting caught up with laundry and other ordinary things. We are trying to find a gas barbecue that will fit through the narrow opening of our motorhome’s storage compartment, so we drove to Clearwater and visited a number of stores today on a fruitless search. However, it gave us a look at the region, which offers tons of shopping possibilities, plus some beautiful coastline along the Gulf of Mexico and some attractive neighbourhoods.
In the meantime, we have other cooking options that will ensure that we don’t starve. So we can keep looking.