Joni Wins 2nd Place / Delton's 1st Tennis Tournament

Ocean Resorts Mixed Tennis Tournament
January 27-28, 2007

The first tennis tournament of the season was held at Ocean Resorts in January. We were looking forward to this tournament because it was Delton’s first. We wanted to be partners, but the teams were picked at random, as well as the order of play.

Joni’s partner was Mike and Delton’s partner was Lois. The format was an 8 game pro set. That meant that the first team to win 8 games was the winner. Also, you had to win by 2 games. Sadly, Delton and Lois lost their match and were immediately eliminated. Joni and Mike made it to the finals. Our friends, Mary Jane and Dave Mulaski had finally arrived at Ocean Resorts and they were also entered in the tournament, but they also lost in the first round.

The final match was played on Sunday afternoon with a large crowd of spectators. Joni and Mike were playing against Tom and JoAnne. Tom was the reigning champ, so Joni started out very nervous.

Joni and Mike were down 4 to 0, and it looked like they were going to be blown away. (See the sad look on Joni's face). But then they rallied. Slowing making their comeback, they steadily climbed up, until the score became 7-7. But then Tom and JoAnne went on to win 9-7. It was a very exciting match and the crowd was entertained. Joni won a tennis tote bag with the Ocean Resorts logo on it.

Joni's Black Eye

A Kayak Accident

As your know, Joni loves to kayak and uses the boat ramp at Ocean Resorts often to get in and out of her kayak. Many of her friends have told her to use the ladder to get into her kayak and warned her that the boat ramp was slippery and dangerous. Pictured is the scene of the accident - the boat ramp.

On January 6, 2007, after a wonderful kayak ride on the Indian River, Joni paddled to the boat ramp to remove her kayak from the river. Her fellow kayakers, Nancy, Fran, and Mary had proceeded to their private docks along the river, so Joni was by herself.

Paddling to the edge of the water onto the ramp, Joni started to get out of her kayak. The tide was low, the water’s edge was dirty, murky, muddy, and full of algae and pebbles. Joni slipped in the slippery muck as she tried to exit the kayak. Her face took the entire brunt of the fall, landing on the concrete ramp. As she stood up, she noticed the blood dripping from her face and realized she was hurt.

Joni went to Fran and Bob Baxter’s house, right next to the ramp, for help. As she knocked on the door, she noticed the reflection of her face in the glass. She had two golf ball size swellings, one on her cheek and one above her right eyebrow. A mixture of mud and blood covered her face and right side of her body. Fan and Bob welcomed her into their clean home anyway. They helped her wash the wound and gave her ice to keep the swelling down. Bob located her husband, Delton, and within 45 minutes they were at the Fort Pierce Emergency Room.

Joni received 9 stitches above her right eyebrow and a big black eye. Her visit to the emergency room lasted six and one half hours. What a fun way to spend a Saturday night!

Delton was often teased about socking Joni to keep her in line. It was a fun filled week as her black eye got bigger and darker. Everyone at Ocean Resorts seemed to be aware of the accident.

Then it was time to have the stitches removed. The doctor at the emergency room said there was no need to return to the hospital for the removal of the stitches. Even Delton could remove them. Joni wasn’t so sure about that!!!! Joni discovered there were some retired nurses living in the park. Betty Bonita volunteered to help her out. When the time came (10 days later), it had turned into a surgical procedure involving 3 nurses.

On Monday, January 15, Joni went to the “clinic” at Claudia’s house on Beachblanket Circle. There she was joined by Nurse Betty and Nurse Lou Ann, and stitches were removed. Betty even brought some smelling salts because Joni said she almost passed out as the doctor in the hospital was cleaning her wound.

Is it Gillgan's Island??

January 3, 2007

Kayaking is very popular in Ocean Resorts. Many people have kayaks and there are many kayak outings.

One afternoon a group of us decided to go across the river to one of the islands and have lunch. There were 6 of us kayaking, 1 pontoon boat and 1 little blow up boat with an engine. Joni kayaked and Delton rode in the pontoon boat.

The river is very shallow in many parts, so they had to be drudged so the boats could get through. The islands were created by the drudging. Looks like Gilligan's Island, doesn't it? It's actually called Jaudon's Island. See the sign erected in the sand. The island is pictured behind Joni and 2 of her friends kayaking back to Ocean Resorts.

On the way back there were a couple of dolphin playing in the water. Delton was able to catch a few pictures which are hard to do. They are up and back down so quickly.

Sometimes they very close to the kayaks. Joni has seen them playing, feeding and even mating in the river.

A Funny Kind of New Year's Eve

December 31, 2007

We spent New Year’s Eve at Ocean Resorts this year…. On the beach……

A group of people went down to the beach in the afternoon and dug a great big hole. Wood was gathered and the pit was ready for the fire.

People started to gather at about 8:00pm. The fire glowed in the dark although there was a full moon. What a neat sight! There were about 70 people coming and going all evening. Many didn’t stay till midnight so the crowd to welcome in the new year was small. Some brought snacks and some cooked hot dogs. Fireworks was shot off also.

Needless to say, it was a very different New Year’s Eve.

Back to Texas for Christmas

December 19-28, 2006

After some Christmas festivities in Florida, it was back to Texas for the holidays. BUT, we didn’t drive the motorhome, we flew. Since we were only going to be in Texas for a week or so, driving would have taken too long AND we brought Joni’s Mom, Lee, with us.

We traveled to DFW, where Delton’s brother, Ron, had left our car. We went to see Ken and Shawna’s new house. They were completely renovating it and hadn’t moved in yet. It’s going to be beautiful. Then we went to Kathy and Skip McKie’s house for some visiting and diner. Since Kathy is Italian, Mom enjoyed talking about Italian food and visits to Italy. Chris joined us for diner also. Kathy and Skip’s son, Tom, is a very close friend of Chris’. We’ve all been friends for a long time.

Then we continued on to Lake Kiowa. Ron, Delton’s brother, and his wife Trude, graciously allowed us to stay at their house while they were on a vacation in Cancun. Ron has allowed us to use his address as our permanant home address while we travel the country in our motorhome, so we were really "home"! We have lots of family in Lake Kiowa – Delton’s brothers, Ron, Larry, and Steve, and Larry’s daughter, Lisa and all their families.


After a lot of visits in Lake Kiowa, we headed to Stamford for Christmas with Delton’s Mom and brothers and their families. Joni’s Mom, Lee, was with us and was sometimes alittle overwhelmed by all the people. It’s a big, fun loving family and there are always a lot of activities going on.

Delton started our Christmas present opening with a reading of the Christmas story from the Bible.




After Christmas, it was back to Lake Kiowa and Larry and Linda’s house. Larry celebrated his birthday while we were there, so we had a birthday celebration at IHOP! It is one of Larry’s favorites. Shown is the party at IHOP.

We also got to see many of our Texas friends. Shown are Kathy and Larry Lehrmann having diner with us at the Outback Steakhouse. We visited so long we almost shut the place down.

After a very busy, active time in Texas, we headed back to Florida. Mom was glad to be back home, although she had a real good time. She said that it’s always good to go back home. We were glad we were able to take her with us.

Christmas at Ocean Resorts, Florida

December, 2006

An outdoor Christmas celebration was held at Ocean Resorts.


Santa arrived in his “summer” outfit to join in on all the fun. This consisted of his regular Santa uniform, but instead of pants, he wore his shorts. I guess his reindeer thought the weather was too warm for them. Santa arrived in his motorized wheelchair……

We had a “live band”, caroling, and refreshments.


Santa's elves enjoyed the festivities also.

Shuttle Launch

December 11, 2006


Cape Canaveral is about 100 miles north of Ocean Resorts.

A space shuttle, carrying astronauts to the space station circling the earth, was launched in December. The residents of Ocean Resorts have seen many shuttle launches over the years. We were fortunate to be able to witness this one.

We walked to the beach and looked north along the shore. We are pictured here waiting for the shuttle to launch.


Pictured is the rocket as it ascends. You must look closely as the rocket is hard to see in the picture. It's just a streak in the sky.


A night time launch allowed us to see a spectacular view of the night sky as the rocket went up. We could see the initial explosion of light as we looked north along the coast, then a streak of light as the rocket rose in the sky. We could see the separation of the booster rockets as the shuttle got higher and higher. Then it appeared to start coming down. What was actually happening was that it was disappearing over the horizon. It was amazing to be able to see this so clearly being that it was 100 miles away.

Thanksgiving at Ocean Resorts

November 23, 2007

Our Thanksgiving was a little different this year. We weren’t in Texas, we weren’t at Mom’s (Delton’s or Joni’s). We were totally away from family.

Joni’s Mom went to see her brother, Rich, and his family in New Hamphire for one and one half weeks during the Thanksgiving holiday, so even though we were in Florida and close to Mom, we were alone (not with family).

Ocean Resorts has become our family this winter. A big Thanksgiving diner was held in the recreation hall, so we signed up to go. It was very nice. There were about 30 people there. We all contributed to buy 2 huge turkeys and we all brought a dish to share. Delton was asked to say the blessing before we ate. We got to meet a lot of new people, we may have been without family around but we were not alone by any means.


Of coarse, Delton also got to watch football. See Delton by the window.

Mom enjoyed her visit to New Hampshire. She got to spend time with Rich, his wife Adele, and their kids, Justin and Ryan. Then they all went to New York and Mom got to stay with her sister, Connie and Connie’s family. Joni’s son, Jim and his fiancé Barbara, drove out to Aunt Connie’s from NYC and got to visit with Grandma and Rich. Mom also spent time with Adele’s family. She had a very full and busy trip.

We were able to drive Mom to and from the airport, which made things a lot easier for her and we stayed with her for 3 days after she came back.

Ocean Resorts, Vero Beach, FL

November 6, 2006 – March, 2007

It was very hard to leave Nettles Island. In the 2 weeks we were there, we made a lot of friends. Sometimes, you just “click” when you meet someone new and that’s what happened when we met Bill and Louise, and Gene and Marge (at Nettles). We promised to stay in touch with them.


Ocean Resorts is similar to Nettles Island, but on a much smaller scale. After spending 3 weeks at Ocean Resorts last season, we knew we wanted to come back again. Mary Jane and Dave Mulaski will join us here in January, 2007 and we are looking forward to our tennis games, kayak rides, bridge games and bike rides with them.

We continued to visit Joni’s Mom on a regular basis, every week or week and a half. She seems to be doing well and is starting to get used to life without Dad. We brought her to Nettles for a day and want to bring her to Ocean Resorts also. It was good for her to see our new “life style”, although she still thinks we are crazy to be doing this fulltiming thing.

Since we will be here all winter – almost 6 months, I will break our stories into separate posts about our life here at Ocean Resorts and introduce you to many of our new friends.

Nettles Island, Florida

October 23 – November 6, 2006


 
Before heading to our winter spot in Ocean Resorts at Vero Beach, we decided to check out a place which was recommended to us by our friends, Mary Jane and Dave Mulaski. We traveled around Florida with them last winter. They have spent time at Nettles Island and thought we would like it as much as they do.

They were right. Nettles Island is great! It’s a very large RV park where all the sites are privately owned. Pictured is one of the canals in the park. Homeowners on the canal have private boat docks behind their homes.  
Many have homes built on them and some remain as RV sites.   


Nettles Island has 2 tennis courts, a putt putt, a marina, 2 large pools (one which is located right on the beach), shuffle board, horseshoes, bingo, bridge, poker and much more.  
All activities are open to all owners and renters.

 
We made instant friends when we played in the open tennis round robin held daily from 7am to 9am. We were welcomed very warmly into the group. Tennis abilities varied greatly as did ages. It is very exciting to see people in the 80’s playing tennis and riding their bicycles. We will be just as active when we get “old”.


We were fortunate to have picked an RV site right across from Bill and Louise VanTongeren, long time residents of Nettles Island and loved by everyone.  
They welcomed us into their “family” of friends. Bill is an avid golfer, so Delton and Bill got along great right away. Pictures are Bill and Louise, Marge and Gene (tennis friends), and us.

  

Nettles Island residents hold church services every Sunday. Pictured is the Nettles Island Church Choir – which we decided to join for our short 2 week stay. We attended and met even more people. Notice Delton and I singing in the choir. The empty seats are for the choir - church was actually full.

Marge and Gene invited us to their home for a prayer meeting, to pray for the coming elections. We were happy to attend and meet even more Christians. Although the elections did not go as we had prayed, we know God is in control of everything.

It was hard to leave Nettles Island, but we had already made plans to stay in Ocean Resorts for the winter. Ocean resorts is only 20 miles away from Nettles Island, so we plan on keeping in touch with our new found friends.

Back at Mom's

October 19 – 23, 2006


Here we are! Back at Joni’s Mom’s. We decided to spend the winter in Florida again this year to help Joni’s Mom get back on her feet, after the death of her Dad this summer. The picture posted was taken in December, 2005.

Mom seems to be doing OK. She has her ups and downs. We hope our love and support will help cheer her up and give her some direction. After 3 days here, we will be staying in Vero Beach, about a 2 hour drive from Mom’s, and will be making regular visits to see her.

We ask you all to please pray for her as she makes some decisions for her future.

Siesta Bay in Fort Myers, Florida

October 15 – 23, 2006

We decided we would head to Mom’s via the west coast of Florida. We enjoyed our stay in Fort Myers Beach last February, so we thought we would go there again.


Our friends, Mary Jane and Dave Mulaski stayed at the Siesta Bay RV Resort a few times and we visited them while they were there. We wanted to give the place a try. It was GREAT! (It seems we think everyplace is great!!!!) The park is a combination of homes and RV spots. Pictured is our site.


It was a very very friendly place and we met people very quickly, especially tennis players, many who even knew Mary Jane and Dave. They had a round robin tennis match for anyone who showed up every morning, so when we showed up every morning, we had instant friends. Pictured are some of the people we met. Since it was still early in the season, many “snowbirds” had not yet arrived, so the group is smaller than during the winter season.


Joni decided to join the pool volleyball games held everyday in the larger of the 2 pools. Again, new friends were made. See Joni in the middle of the back row on the left.The games were good because a small section of the pool was used which made each person’s coverage small and there were 10 people on each team. It made it a lot easier to play. AND THE MEN DIDN’T HOG THE BALL!


During her daily bike ride, Joni noticed a strange object “floating” along in one of the lakes in the park. It was an alligator. Joni did not want to kayak with the alligator this time. She may never do that again! The lake is right next to the tennis courts.

We enjoyed our stay and again, didn’t want to leave, but on the Mom’s……….(just 2 hours away).