Nicky enjoying Venice's dog beach

We took Nicky to a dog beach that was gorgeous! Lee and I sat in our beach chairs and just watched all the dogs have the time of their lives. We have found Florida to be very dog friendly.

Beaches of Venice

The beaches here are lovely and you don't have to fight traffic to get to them. In addition there are no parking fees. The beaches are natural with sand dunes and sea grass. The water is very blue and there are tons of birds.

It's been cooler this week but still sunny and warm enough to sit on the beach.

Arrived in Venice January 12,2009

January 12-19th we spent in Venice, FL at RAmbler's Rest Campground, an Encore Park. We really like this park it is well kept and the people in the park are very friendly. We fell in love with Venice when we visited here last year.

Venice is a beautiful, historic town on the Gulf. Main street is lined with lovely little shops, restaurants, and coffee houses.

On the Road Again!!!

Left Pennsylvania on a very cold December 26th and arrived in Palm Coast, Florida Dec. 28th. We spent the evening visiting with our friends Nita and Ray Derois. By the way, we are back to shorts and short sleeve shirts.

Dec 29th we arrived at Peace River campground in Wauchula, FL. This is one of our favorite places. A small town with lots of community spirit, nestled among orange groves and cattle ranches. Main street Wauchula takes you back in time to small towns of time past.

The First Christian Church here has become our second church home. Every year we return the church has grown. They have very active focus groups and a lot going on. We witness many changed lives changed through the mininstry of this church.

Each year we return we are amazed to see the improvements this small town has made. Last year they added a lot of landscaping to the down town area. It is really pretty. There are some new restaurants downtown.

We have been here for 2 weeks and our time has been spent catching up with friends and acquaintances that we've made over the last 5 winters. We have played pickle ball, attended several pot luck dinners, gone out to eat with friends and made new friends.

Nicky met up with his friend of 4 years, Jet, a black standard poodle. We had a lovely dinner with his owners , Rob and Bonnie. Nicky made a new friend this year. Her name is Q-Tip and she is a white standard poodle. Jennifer and Bill are the proud owners and we really enjoyed getting to know them.

We really treasured the time we've had to spend with Jim and Jane Rankin. Over the last winters they have become very special friends of ours. Jane and I are, what can you say, kind of cut out of the same mold. We often think a like and can always pick right up where we left off the year before.

We're off to Venice, Fllorida on the Jan 12th.

..April 11 – 18, 2008

Our day started badly Lee scraped the right front fender on the VW while backing off the car dolly. And while we saying goodbye to friends we neglected to remove the water pressure gauge and restrictor valve for our fresh water line, too far to retrieve it, oh well! We arrived at Sherwood Forest Saturday April 11,Sherwood Forest is located on route 192 in Kissime, very close to Orlando and Disney World. It’s a lovely park with three swimming pools, saunas, and well maintained grounds.

Jim and Tracy came by and the four of us went to Disney City. Below is a picture of the town of Celebration. It’s a lovely town. It makes you feel like you are in a movie setting. There are rocking chairs along the lake where people can just sit and watch the water and relax.

Florida 2007 and 2008

Judy and Lee Riley with Nicky

We left PA on Dec. 26,2007 and arrived in Florida Dec. 31th. Our first week was spent in Venice using a Thousand Trails ELS pass. We fell in love with the area there is a beautiful beach there and you don't have to go through traffic to get there. Historic Venice is lovely with lots of nice shops and cafes. The park was called Rambler's Rest . Our next stop was Pioneer Village in North Fort Myers. The main attraction during that week was watching the Manatees. Jim and Tracy Tull were with us and we really enjoyed their company. We were off next to Fort Myers beach and met Carol and Lou Hands there. We spent a lot of time just visiting with one another since we hadn't seen each other since last winter. Next we were off to Peace River in Wauchula. We love this town. It sits in the middle of ranches and orange groves and is a small town that makes you feel like you've taken a step back in time. We were reunited here with the many friends we've made over our 4 years wintering in Florida. We left Wauchula and went to Largo. Here we were able to spent a couple of days with friends of ours from Canada (Wayne and Candice) We had a lovely day bike riding with them and shared a dinner with them. While in this area we were also able to visit with Janie and Lou Keller a couple from our church at home who just recently moved to Clearwater.

From this point on we alternated between the Venice campground and Peace River. We were in Wauchula for Easter and were able to go to the church we love here call First Christian. On good Friday we attended a Passion Play in Wauchula which was fantastic. It was an incredible experience. We also had a lovely Easter dinner with two of our favorite couples-----Keith and Marie and Harry and Karen. While in Wauchula we were able to visit with Jan and Rick, Rich and Donna, Jane and Jim, Bob and Julie, Dennis and Barb and met a lot of new people this year also.

This is really a very brief summary of what we've been up to so we're basically planning to start from here. This past week has been great because we've been able to spent a lot of time with Jim and Jane whom we just adore and Jim and Tracy who we've been ELS ing with. We're very excited for Jim and Jane and their upcoming cruise and their visit home.

Tomorrow we will begin heading north slowly. Our first stop will be Kissimmee, Florida.