A Street We Can’t Get Off Of! Plus, Meat Bingo.

Just before Christmas, I made two different things for Kevin. I made his mom’s chocolate peanut butter balls and also no bake chocolate oatmeal cookies. Both delicious.

Giant-Sized Checkers, Thousand Trails Orlando, Clermont, FL 12/23

My brother said we have a package coming from Amazon so we walked to the campground clubhouse here at Thousand Trails Orlando to see if it had arrived. It wasn’t there yet. Outside, Kevin led me over to the large checker set and we played a game. It is the type that is huge and you push the pieces with your feet. It was really fun. 

Can’t Turn Right + Can’t Turn Into A Gate + One Way Loop = Big Problem! HA Clermont, FL 12/23/23

Walking around the campground and we see the blow up that is the shape of an old trailer with Christmas lights on. It just melts my heart. Also saw a blow up cactus with Christmas lights. Oh, I like it so much. So one day Kevin said let’s go to Lowes and see if they have either of those left. As we headed there I saw that the Lowes road is the same as Walmart and knew it would be extra crowded so we thought we would turn off early and then go on the road behind. It worked out good until… we came to a road that said one way. So we had to turn left. That road looped around in a small horseshoe shape and then there was a stop sign. Under the stop sign was a sign: no right turn. Okay, we will turn left. But at the left was a road with gates closed and locked. We see it is in front of an academy. We just sat there and laughed our heads off! Can’t turn right and can’t turn left into a gate. I jumped out (no cars around anywhere) and took a picture. I could hardly hold the camera still because I was laughing so hard. And remember, I am a rule follower! So this was a quandary!

Picture 2 – One Way Loop! Clermont, FL 12/23/23

With no cars in sight, we broke the rule and turned right and then, we turned left on the small, 20 ft probably, one way going the wrong direction. What we think happens is this is used for that school drop off/pick up. You go this way, go in front of the school (if the gates open) and then back behind the buildings and out. What a funny thing.

Back at home (footnote 1) we decided to go to the campground’s Meat Bingo. What is that? HA We had no idea but saw signs and postings about it. 6:00pm get your cards and game started at 7:00pm. The huge ballroom filled up and at least eight more long tables and chairs had to be set up. Later I counted at least 120 people. Anyway, stand in line and pay $10 per set of cards. We paid for one. Grab two peppermint hard candies, get a blue ticket (for random drawings) and then go to the table with lots of cards on it. These are playing cards and 3 cards are laminated together. Pick which one you want and sit down. We visited with a lovely older couple who have lived in this park full-time for four years. He could retired but loves driving a bus for Disney and has done it for 16 years. He said the pay is great, the benefits are great, and it is a lot of fun. The game is played 10 games with 4 sets. The announcer has 4 decks of cards shuffled together. (They have other people shuffle so as not to be accused of stacking the cards. HAHA) She would turn one over and call it. You have to match the suit and card. If you got a match, you put the peppermint candy on it. When you get all three, yell bingo. What a fun game and we both had a blast! It took several hours. When you get bingo, and it is verified, then you draw from a bucket to see what your prize is. Prizes are everything meat: sausage, ribeye, T-bone, sirloin, burger, etc.

We Won A Game Of Meat Bingo! Thousand Trails Orlando, Clermont, FL 12/23/23

The second to last game…we won! And Kevin drew T-bone steak. Later he laughed that we paid $10.00 for one $8.00 T-bone steak. HAHA Really fun. Back home we packed for our overnight trip. Part of the packing is taking food with us because I don’t know what will be open on Christmas Day. I am so thankful for our mini fridge!

Castillo de San Marcos National Monument; Watching Them Fire A Canon, St Augustine, FL 12/24/23

Christmas Eve. We laughed that it seemed to take more work to get packed up for an overnight trip than it does pack up HOWE (footnote 2) to move campgrounds! LOL Kevin said it is definitely true on my end. We went to St Augustine, Florida. “St Augustine is the first permanent and oldest, continuously occupied European settlement in the continental United States. The city was founded 42 years before Jamestown and 55 years before the pilgrims landed on Plymouth Rock.” 1565!! WOW We didn’t learn that in school! We went right to Castillo de Marcos National Monument. This is the oldest masonry fort in the continental United States and was built 1672-1695.

We we walked to the historical downtown St Augustine. The weather was perfect. Saw lots of shops, restaurants, historic buildings and Cathedral Basilica Of St Augustine. We walked to Bridge of Lions and watched as a section of the bridge opened up so that boats could go under.

We went to our hotel, got checked in and Kevin took a nap while I read. For dinner we decided to go to Ford Garage. It is right on the Ford’s sales lot. We had seen one the other day at Kissimmee. Lots of fun Ford stuff including an old car with wheels spinning, over the bar. The napkins are shop cloths and the napkin rings are hose clamps. HAHA I had pulled pork Mac and cheese. Rated: Once A Year. Kevin had patty melt Rated: Once Every 6 Months. Back to the hotel I filled the tub up, added bubble bath, set up my iPad with a book and soaked for 2 hours! At 1/2 way I had to drain a bit and add more hot water. LOL You know how much I like my bubble baths! 

St Augustine Lighthouse, St Augustine, FL 12/25/23

Happy Christmas. Kevin dreamed of forts, cannons and helicopters. HAHA I slept excellent! This day we drove Hwy A1A from St Augustine to the end, in Daytona Beach Shore. Over Bridge of Lions we saw the St Augustine Lighthouse. It was built in 1874. It is beautiful with a red top and then the circular column is large black and white stripes. It was a drizzly day and we had to run the wipers occasionally.

Daytona Beach Shores, FL 12/25/23

We were looking for a place to pull off and park facing the ocean and have our picnic lunch. We found a great spot at Frank Redon Park in Daytona Beach Shores. This beach you can drive on and we saw quite a few vehicles. We decided to drive down there and have our lunch. The way to it was just a few truck lengths down the road but as we turned we saw a sign that said the sand was soft and you needed 4 wheel drive. We don’t have that so we turned around and went right back to the park. We parked facing the ocean. We ate meat and cheese sandwiches, potato salad, chips and cookies. Nice lunch. Funny – last Christmas we ate our Christmas lunch at the beach at Malibu, CA, Pacific Ocean and this year we ate our lunch at the beach on the Atlantic Ocean. HAHA We walked out to water. The air wasn’t cold but it was drizzling so it wouldn’t be fun to sit out and have a picnic. Suddenly it started pouring rain and we laughed and went back to the truck. Then the rain stopped just as suddenly.

Back home that evening we played the game my parents gave us called Trekking the National Parks. It is a blast!

1. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue, 36 ft, 5th wheel.

2. “HOWE” is what we named our Alliance Avenue 36-ft 5th wheel. See: Home On WhEels and we pronounce it Howie. We live and travel in it full-time around the country.