Wednesday, January 14, we awoke to gray skies and the gray cool weather lasted all day. We took off for Tampa to go to the Tampa Super RV Show. The traffic became heavier the closer we got to the fair grounds where the show was being held. The last 5 miles took us nearly an hour. When we did finally get on the grounds we again were held up from getting parked as a motorhome making a right hand turn cut too sharp causing the the back end to go into a ditch. What a sickening sight- 2 tow trucks had arrived to handle the problem. Finally we got into the show which was crowded. There were 2 buildings of vendors along with dealer displays outside. We looked but didn’t buy anything except for hot dogs for lunch.
Thursday was a rainy day. Just what this over saturated campground needed was more rain, right? In the evening we went to The Villages to friends, Bruce and Cricket McGinnis for dinner. Jeff and Anni Alberts were also there. These are friends we have known through our Traveling Americans camping club and through the McGinnis’ we have become interested in the lifestyle at The Villages and our desire to relocate here when we are able to get our house sold. Jeff and Anni have just moved down here as of September but they still have their Maryland house and hoping for a sale on that. We had a nice evening catching up with all and enjoying a wonderful meal.
Friday Tom and I drove about the area. It was a much nicer day with some sunshine but the temperature did not get much above 60 degrees. In the evening we drove into Brownwood Square, a town square in The Villages, where there is entertainment from 5 to 9pm. Rocky and the Rollers were the group performing and they do bring out a crowd. We met up with Jeff and Anni and then somewhat later Bruce and Cricket showed up. Another fun but chilly evening.
Today Saturday, Tom was up early and went to play nine holes of golf with Bruce, Jeff and David Snell, another relocated Marylander. After Tom returned to the motorhome, we drove into The Villages to have lunch at Cody’s, a barbeque type restaurant. We then walked about Sumter Landing town square where the stores were having sidewalk sales. We did purchase some clothing items. It was sunny much of the day with temperatures getting up to the low 70’s
