Golf, Alligators and the Villages

Thursday morning we started heading inland.  We left the coastal bays and Gulf behind.  We were heading to the land of lakes in central Florida. The lakes and rivers we've seen in Florida are very different than those in the Pacific Northwest.  Other than the springs much of the water has been murky.  The shorelines especially seem to look like mosquito breeding grounds.  No wonder critters can hide in it.

Our destination was a little over 60 miles away.  Once more it didn’t take long to get settled in our new large grassy site.  Just like our previous park,  our welcoming group of no see’ums were waiting to greet us.  I’m thinking concrete pads and gravel driveways really might be best. 

The Hyder gang pulled in right behind us and as usual, they were in the better site as the afternoon sun shaded at their site.  With temperatures and humidity both in the 90’s, that afternoon sun can be quite uncomfortable.  Our awning needs to be repaired so we’re unable to use it right now and we're getting the full brunt of heat.   We’re hoping at our next park we’ll be able to get a mobile repair person to fix it. However, it is a good thing their site was the shaded one so we can occasionally intrude and share it with them.  Sitting outside at our site would be miserable.

We’re actually in a very nice park.  It has just about everything from three club houses and pools to an on-site golf course. 

It was nice and warm on Friday.  Matter of fact, it was very, very warm and with a 1:00 tee time, we sought out the shade whenever we could.

We lasted for nine holes but Jerry wanted to finish.  He did while we found it much more comfortable to spend the rest of the afternoon in the wonderful salt water swimming pool.

Being out on the course, we didn’t see one other human hitting a golf ball around but we did see a few other local residents. 

We saw birds, turtles and hawks on the course plus alligators in the waterways.  My golf balls always seem drawn to water.  However, with alligators lurking there was no way we went after them.

If you enjoy checking out flea markets, there are plenty of them in Central Florida.  We visited two on Saturday.  After that we went to The Villages.

The Villages is a very well-known “village”.  It’s made the news several times for several different reasons.  Some call it the Disney World for seniors as it is the largest gated community for seniors in the world.  

There are almost as many golf carts as there are cars because everything is in the community and golf carts are welcome.  Matter of fact, everything caters to the carts with lanes in the roads, bridges over major highways and even a cart tunnel.   Many RV communities have golf cart parades.  Well, this one had a golf cart parade too and over 3,300 carts participated.  That record made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

There’s another record this over-55 community boasts and that’s that they have the highest consumption of draft beer in the state of Florida.  It’s a community where the parties start early but shut down by 9:30 when the old folks head to bed but not necessarily alone. In 2009, the New York Post called it “ground zero for geriatrics who are seriously getting it on.”  A local police officer told the paper, “You see two 70-year-olds with canes fighting over a woman and you think, ‘Oh, jeez.’

Now I’m sure you understand why we had to check it out.

Our timing was perfect for a huge craft fair in the shopping area at the Villages.  Finding a place to park wasn’t easy as most of the spots were filled with golf carts but we did manage and other than the heat, enjoyed the visit.

‘Tis life on the road.