We decided to take a drive this morning, but first we stopped off at the clubhouse to swap out some books. Most of these places have libraries where you can exchange books, which is cool, the only trouble is the folks read a lot of cowboys and trashy love stories, sad. Well while I was getting some new books a guy who is parked opposite us came up to me and asked me if I’d been told about the jam. He must have thought I was a little slow as I didn’t know what to say to him for a minute as I thought he was talking about the fruity kind and why would I need to know about that? Turns out he was talking about the music kind; I guess it’s something they do here in between bingo and Texas hold em.
After we left the clubhouse we headed south to Moore Haven. We almost missed it as it’s literally just a wide spot in the road. We were going to have lunch there but there was nowhere to eat, so we headed a little further south to Clewiston. I wish we hadn’t bothered, what a sad place. It wasn’t run down exactly just kind of sad. The people, the buildings, everything looked like it had seen better days, and most places were closed up; I’m still not sure whether they were closed because it was Monday or indefinitely. We had to have lunch at a Subway that had ‘duh’ sort of people making the sandwiches. When I asked the kid behind the counter to put the mayo and mustard ON THE BREAD he looked at me like I was crazy – where the heck else are mayo and mustard supposed to go? And then they didn’t have any water in their fountain machine; I hate it when people try and get me to pay for water, just give me some out of the tap already. Anyway, not a very successful trip; neither Moore Haven nor Clewiston is anywhere I need to go back to, ever.
We got back and I took Tal-y for a walk around the park. She really wants to run through the reeds along the lake; maybe I should let her and see if she still wants to after she meets one of the resident gators.

Mike: I think we'll be staying at the campgrounds. Too many bubba's!

We packed up this morning and headed out; it didn’t take us too long considering we’ve been here two weeks now. Usually after that length of time there’s stuff everywhere that needs to be put away but we were quite tidy this past fortnight. I had checked last night that we had the address of where we were going today but as we got ready to leave this morning it turns out I really didn’t have it. The place I had the address for was not the place that Mike had reserved; why would they name two parks the same name? Anyway, after a little bit of a strop on my part we figured out where we were heading and hit the road. It was a good run, straight down the 27 and then a right turn, no problems. We got here about mid afternoon and got checked in and a nice little man in a golf cart showed us to our space. He, along with our new neighbours proceeded to “help” back the trailer into the space. Mike did manage to hold his tongue for which I am grateful, it wouldn’t be much fun if I had to avoid the neighbours cos Mike was mean to them as soon as we arrived. We had a little visitor as soon as we got here too, a lovely buzzing hornet. Mike had to come get him out of the trailer cos he was terrorizing me.
We got set up and boy was it hot. I think we get everything done much quicker when it’s either hot or cold, and definitely when it’s raining. I seem to have acquired a lot more jobs though recently. It used to be that Mike would take care of everything that needed doing outside and I would do the inside. Now I seem to be doing the outside stuff and the inside stuff; I refuse to touch the sewer stuff though, Mike can keep that job.
The park is not too bad, there are four ‘lakes’ here with gators and otters, and a nice clubhouse where we can go play bingo – or could if I knew how, they play weird bingo here. The sites are a little close together and we have some loud neighbours. Why do old people all talk so loud? I at least have someplace to walk Tal-y.
I’m not sure that there is a lot around this area but maybe we’ll take a drive tomorrow.

Mike: It took twice as long to set up because of all the little helpers!

Happy New Year. I guess it’s time for resolutions, mine is to keep up with this bloody blog so I don’t have to do days at a time; it’ll probably last till maybe tomorrow.
We are leaving here tomorrow so we spent some of today getting ready for the morning. We cleaned out some of the storage areas of the trailer and put away all the stuff that gets left lying around when we are in one place for a couple of weeks. It’ll be nice to be someplace else for a change of scenery but we’ll be back here for a few days in early February.

Mike: I'm ready to go now for a change of scenery!

At about 2.30 this morning both Mike and I were out of bed and Tal-y was feeling like the Queen of the trailer as she had the whole bed to herself.
We didn’t do anything exciting today, just a bit of shopping, a bit of cooking and a lot of eating. I made split pea soup as I’m trying to use up all the food we have here before we leave so I don’t have to throw too much away. Now I just have to figure out something exciting to do with black eyed peas.
Tal-y actually went in her new house today and lay down for a while without me having to throw treats in it first, and the armadillo came by to wish us happy New Year this afternoon while we were sitting outside the trailer (he has nails to rival Tal-y's). Tal-y said Happy New Year back in a very loud voice.
Tal-y wasn’t very impressed with the fireworks tonight. I tried to take her out about half past midnight to go to the bathroom and she was scared to death, she tried to hide under the truck. I guess she’s going to have to hold it till the morning, which will be good practice for her long flight in a few weeks.

Mike: Happy New Year! I'm in my shorts and t-shirt.

We went out for a little drive today just to get lunch and stopped off at Walmart and ended up buying a crate for Tal-y. It has to be long enough for her to lie down in and high enough that there are two inches above her head when she’d standing; Walmart had the perfect size crate. We got it home and put it together and put a blanket in it; now we just have to get her used to going in it.
We took a walk around the other end of the park this evening as I talked to some people this morning that said there are sand cranes and turtles here. We saw both while we were walking around. There was a herd (??) of cranes with bright red heads walking among the trailers and a little teeny tiny turtle just hanging out under a palm tree. While we were wandering we discovered that there was a trailer sale going on today so I got to look inside a few fifth wheel trailers. Wow. A couple of them were bigger than our last apartment; the kitchens were definitely bigger, and they even had log fires in them. I’d be afraid to let Tal-y and Mike in it, they’d have to wipe their feet extra hard.

Mike: No way Jose! If I want a house, I'll buy one that isn't on wheels!

We got up this morning fairly early and decided to take a drive to Orlando International airport; well to the Virgin cargo desk at the airport anyway. We decided to go talk to them face to face to get some info on sending Tal-y to Britain. The lady was very nice and very helpful and put my mind at ease about sending Tal-y across the pond. We had considered sending her from Orlando and as she would have to be accompanied then I would go with her, but it’s going to be too expensive so she’ll be flying by herself. But at least after talking to the cargo people we have some more information about the process and the things we have to do to make the journey go easily.
After leaving the cargo place we dropped Tal-y off at Petco so she could get a haircut. Even though it’s supposed to be cold tonight and tomorrow it’s supposed to be warming up here to around 75 degrees so it was time for her to get rid of her thick coat. While she was getting groomed Mike and I ate and did a little shopping. We picked Tal-y up after about three hours and she looked so cute, the groomer did a really nice job of cutting her hair. I considered asking her to cut Mikes hair as he hasn’t been to a hairdresser since before he finished work. He’s the only one left to get tidied up for the new year now but I’m not going to hold my breath as he’s not very inclined to get his hair cut anytime soon.

Mike: With everyone else getting haircuts I can't afford to!

Wow it was windy last night. It started raining late yesterday evening and then the wind really picked up. It kept me awake for a lot of the night, or maybe I just woke up everytime Tal-y jumped due to the wind howling. As usual Mike slept right through it all and just added to my lack of sleep with his snoring (which of course he’s going to deny doing).
Since today wasn’t really a very nice day for hanging out or doing anything outside we decided to go to the cinema and see Harry Potter. After dumping the toilet (which everyone should do on Boxing Day!) and showering we headed for Winter Garden. The cinema was about 40 minutes away and was the closest one to us that had afternoon shows. When we got there, there was only one other person in the theatre besides us but before the movie started the theatre was completely full. I was quite surprised as the movie has been out a while now. The cinema was nice with comfy stadium seating, and the movie was pretty good. I think it was definitely one of the better ones and it followed the book a lot closer than some of the others; Mike stayed awake for almost all of it so it must have been decent. It was sad though and I shed a tear at then end. Now I’m looking forward to the last one.
When we got out of the cinema the skies had cleared even though it was still a little windy. Since it was really dark by the time we got home Mike was very chivalrous and came for a walk with Tal-y and me. It’s a lot colder tonight than it has been and is supposed to get to record lows tonight and tomorrow night so I’m off to fill my hot water bottle and cwtch up in bed, nite.

Mike: I don’t snore any louder than you! Happy Boxing Day!