2012 Jan 22
We arrived in Fort Myer's Beach RV Resort on Friday. Since we were coming from a site only 25 miles away, it was supposed to be an easy, uneventful transition. Huh!
We left Pioneer Village, and headed to the local CVS to pick up my prescription refills. No problem there. Then we headed to Lawhon's Grocer, where we bought some tuna salad and muffins. This was the little local store we had walked to previously and their tuna salad was scrumptious, as were the orange cranberry muffins! I intended to stock up, just in case.
Off we went onto 75 south. It was shortly after we entered the interstate that Raymond asked, "Where do we get off?" OOPS! In my fervor to do our errands, I had forgotten to consult the map for this minor detail. And telling Raymond to "check the map" would've been useless, as "the map" is the map app on our phone and for all the techno progress he's made in the past year, R still has issues with almost anything related to the cell phone, especially, but not limited to the map application.
So, the plan was to exit at the first rest area so that we could consult the map. Only, I forgot that in Florida, the rest area is not on the highway, but rather, at a regular exit, off the highway. So, I missed the rest area.
Also, my Florida geography is not top shelf. Another little shortcoming of mine. So, when we saw signs for Naples, we knew we were well beyond our desired location. Any idea how hard it is for a directionally challenged person, driving a 30 foot long RV to reboot the map in her brain when she has already gone 30 miles beyond where she should've stopped? It takes much longer than you'd think. Much longer.
It was supposed to be a short simple trip.
Well, while we were trying to rediscover our route, we decided to go ahead and stop at the local Publix, since it 1) had a large parking lot, 2) had shade and 3) gave us time to readjust and decompress. That may have been the one good decision we made.
With the shopping accomplished and a brief tutorial on the map app, we were on our way, once again.
There were other small glitches, of course. Like, when the map said to follow a certain street, but the huge sign indicated that it was 'not a thru street'. But, we did finally make it here to the Encore Resort at Fort Myer's Beach.
Not quite sure what to make of the check in procedure. They actually wanted ID from both of us, along with our credit card and then they wanted both our license plate number and our VIN number. There is a code for accessing the shower/bath rooms. Perhaps the area is unsafe? Not really sure what to make of all that.
The Park itself is a bit cramped. Or maybe it simply seems cramped after the spaciousness of Pioneer Village. In any case, we are very close to our neighbors, both those to our left and right, as well as those across the 'street' from us. Again, after spacious streets in all the Parks we've been to so far, with the exception of LazyDays, it seems a bit ghetto to be so crowded together.
We are fortunate that our neighbors to our left are kindhearted and very friendly. They were out when we arrived, but returned while Raymond was fussing with the cable hook up. He was fretting because he was sure he had somehow miss connected, or needed a better cable wire, or something. We were getting some channels, but they were not clear. And one of the reasons we came here was that cable was included, and Raymond was jonesing for ESPN and ESPN2 . Turned out the actual hook up was bad. But our kindly neighbors had a splitter on their hook up and offered to let Raymond share. That made his day! To get the full effect of how much this meant to him, you need to understand that he spent over an hour playing around with the connection and trying to program the TVs and as I was headed off to the shower, he was planning to take a walk to find somewhere to buy a new cable wire. Thank goodness for the lovely folks from Missouri!
I am impressed by the friendliness of the majority of the folks in this park. Everyone smiles and says hello, or asks about our dog. This level of friendliness is new for us. While we have met friendly folk in each RV Park we've stayed, we've not encountered this level of overall friendliness prior to this. And our Missouri neighbors even asked if I wanted to ride along when they were headed to Target yesterday. That really impressed me. First of all because they knew and considered that we don't have a tow vehicle. But also because Target is only 0.4 of a mile away, so it would be easily walkable, but they offered anyway. At our last stop, the laundry was closed for nearly a week and many of our neighbors drove off in search of a local laundromat, but no one asked if we'd like to tag along.
In any case, we're here. We're not as close to the beach as Raymond would like, since it's over 4 miles away, but tomorrow he plans to walk the 1 mile to Winn Dixie and catch the trolley to the beach.
Today, because we had cable, I got to watch the Penguins beat the Capitols! Raymond was planning to watch the football game, but decided at half time that he would visit the local pub for the second half of the game. There is a strip mall just across the highway from the Park and apparently it has a Thai Restaurant, a Chinese Restaurant, a Pizza joint, a church called New Hope and a bar, among other things. Raymond did reconnaissance on our first day here.
I just closed the door because our neighbor to the right is spray painting his coach and the fumes were getting heady.
Last night I took Greyla out to pee at 4am and heard the strains of someone listening to Crosby Stills Nash and Young at way too much volume.
Our neighbor behind us has several large birds that whistle, a lot! Thank goodness, not a night!
Early Saturday morning, around 5:30, I swore I heard a rooster.
There are lots of dogs here. I've been most impressed by the harlequin Great Dane, named Zeus and by the Irish Wolfhound, to whom I've not been introduced.
This may be a cramped RV park, but it sure isn't dull!
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