Tax Day Tea Party

We went to our first Tea Party. Yes, we are 100% supportive of the Tea Party Movement. It was very exciting.

Held at the Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie, we went to the Tea Party with friends from Grapevine, Mike and Alpha Smith.

There were a lot of speakers there, including talk show host, Mark Davis, founding father Thomas Paine, some doctors and political group leaders.

The crowd was large, extimated at between 10,000 and 18,000, according to which news report you listened to. Many people were taking a picture of the a black tea partier who was holding a sign that read, "Quit Calling Me a Racist!" We loved it! (See photo)

A great big post card was set up for anyone to sign. It was to be brought to Obama in Washington by a few volunteers. Joni and Mike signed the card (see photo).

We have gotten very political lately and feel very strongly that our country is in big trouble. Please support the conservative movement to "take back our country" and get rid of Obama, Palosi, Reid and all the progressives who are in the process of distroying our freedoms and liberties.

Visiting NY and NH

After returning to Texas, Joni took a quick trip to New York and New Hamphire. No, not in the motorhome..... Delton stayed in Texas.

Joni visited her son Jim and his wife, Barbara, for a weekend in New York City.
And then went to New Hampshire to visit her Mom. She was also able to visit with her brother, Rich and his wife, Adele, who live a few miles from Mom. See Joni with her Mom.

Jim recently bought a Harley. Barbara, Joni and Barbara's parents are all a little nervous about Jim riding a Harley in NEW YORK CITY!!! Jim , BE CAREFUL!!!!

When Jim asked Joni to go for a ride, she was not real excited about it, but, being a GOOD MOM, she said OK! Jim took her on a quick ride from his apartment to Times Square and back. One picture is taken in front of Jim and Barbara's apartment. The other is taken in Times Square. Jim was very careful, most of the time! He wanted to give Mom a thrill........ We made it back safe and sound! He is very excited about having a Harley.

It is always great to see Barbara's parents, June and Joe. We all went out to diner one evening and spent a day in Central Park also. Central Park is beautiful. NYC would not be the same without the Park. The temp was a little chilly, but it was a beautiful day for "a walk in the park." Pictures show us all enjoying our walk.

Passing Through Destin

We left Ocean Resorts right after Easter. It was hard leaving the Florida beaches, especially this year. It was such a cold winter that Joni didn't get her fill of the warm beaches.

So, we stopped in Destin for 3 nights, on our way back to Texas. We stayed at a park called Topsail, a beautiful park on the Destin beach. Again, the weather was a little chilly, but we were able to get some beach time in.

The panhandle of Florida has some of the best beaches on the U.S. coast.

Easter Sunrise

We stayed at Ocean Resorts until after Easter Sunday so that we could attend the Sunrise Service on the beach. A big cross is erected in the sand, sound equipment is set up, and everyone brings their own chairs.

Crowds started to gather early. It's very hard for Joni to get up before the sun comes up, but we could hear everyone walking to the beach because our motor home site is by the entrance to the park facing the ocean.

The sunrise was beautiful. Christ has truly risen!

Tennis Party

Our end of the year Tennis Party at Ocean Resorts is the highlight of the tennis season.

All the tennis players and their spouses attend the party - about 150 people.

This year's party had a 1950's theme. We all dressed the part. Some women wore poodle skirts, some wore peddle pushers, some came with a pregnant belly (they were pregnant in the 50's).

Joni wore peddle pushers, a "Grease" wig, a polka dot scarf around her neck and Delton's school ring around her neck. Delton wore rolled up jeans, a white tee shirt and pack of cigarettes in his t-shirt cuff.

Entertainment was centered around the 50's so Elvis showed up with the Oceaneers - Jack, Leslie and Joni. Five Elvis songs were performed. Check out the youtube video below for videos of our performance.

http://tinyurl.com/Tennis-Party-2010-1

http://tinyurl.com/Tennis-Party-2010-2

http://tinyurl.com/Tennis-Party-2010-3

http://tinyurl.com/Tennis-Party-2010-4

Part 1 is an overview of the party. Part 2 and 3 is the Elvis entertainment. Joni is in most of that. Part 4 is just tennis prizes and announcements. Click on Part 2 and 3 - you'll get a kick out of it.

A Cold Florida Winter

It's been a while since I have updated our website. Sorry! We're having a great time, but we're doing the same stuff we've been doing every winter - tennis, kayaking, beaching, biking, golfing, partying, etc., so we haven't been taking as many pictures as we usually do.

We've played A LOT of tennis, entering every tournament we can, both traveling team and home team competetions. We WON the Spouces Tournament this year!!!!! See the photo of us with the 2nd place winners - Andy and Betty!
It was a very cold weekend, so we appreciated all our friends who sat and watched in their winter clothes.

It has been an exceptionally cold winter this year. Most of the our winter has had highs in the low 60's and lows in the 40's-50's. Usually we wear shorts and tanks and tees, but this year we've had to wear a lot of sweats and jeans. It's also been very windy which adds to the chilly temps. BUT, it's better than being in the ice and snow which has covered a lot of the rest of the country.

The cool weather has also messed up our kayaking. We've planned 2 moonlight kayak paddles out to our "paradise island" and had to cancel both due to cold or rainy weather. We've got one more full moon chance. Hopefully March will be a warm month. Joni has only been able to take a handful of daytime kayak trips.

We have many friends here at Ocean Resorts. It's nice to find a "community" to belong to, no matter where we are. We are still enjoying our "fulltiming" experience and hope to see even more of the country before we are done.

There is more planned for March and hopefully the weather will cooperate.
OK! I know I shouldn't be complaining about the weather. After all, we are in Florida!

Freezing in Florida

It's been a cool, windy winter so far.

Christmas week was cool, windy, rainy and sometimes cold. But the first few weeks in January were downright FREEZING!

The whole country had a cold blast that swept across from west to east. It hit Florida big time.

It was so cold that lots and lots of fish died from the cold waters. I don't know what kind of fish they were, but they were definitely warm water fish.

People here started talking about how many of the fish had died some years ago due to cold weather. They talked about how smelly all those dead fish were.

Well, it happened again.

Gradually we started to see fish floating upside down in the inlet by the marina - dead! Then we saw more fish, and more fish and then we saw a lot of birds having a feast on all those fish.

Then the wind started pushing all those fish into the marina area and around the homes that border the intercoastal. The pictures say it all. It took about 1 1/2 weeks for the fish to finally float away or sink to the bottom. In the mean time - it SMELLED and SMELLED and SMELLED.

There were also a lot of dead fish being washed up on the beach along the ocean. We've never seen anything like it before and hope we never see anything like it again. We haven't even seen any manatee yet this year and only a handful of dolphin. They must be staying in warmer waters for a while.

I guess it was a good thing the weather was still cool after the fish died. It wouldn't be too good to go kayaking among the dead fish.

Christmas in Florida

We left Texas and headed for Florida arriving at Ocean Resorts on December 24.

We looked forward to a warm Christmas with Joni's kids, Jim and his wife Barbara, Ken and Chris. We were all disappointed when the weather was cool. Most of the time, light jackets were needed.

Jim, Barbara, Ken and Chris were all looking forward to lots of beach time and scuba diving, tennis and kayaking. The only thing we could do was play tennis. Even our walk on the beach was cut short because it was too chilly.

A highlight of the week was our gift exchange......... You won't believe what the kids gave Joni!!!!!!! Obama paraphernalia!!!! Obama calendars, and Obama and Michelle paper doll cutouts! They couldn't wait for us to open our gifts. Afterwards they said we could make a dart board out of the pictures. See the photo of us with Obama! Also see Ken checking out his new jacket and Barbara trying on her new hat.

Doesn't Jim look good in his hat!

The motor home is quite small when there are more than just us in it, so we were a little crowded for our visit, but it was cozy. We all had a good time! At least the weather was warm enough one afternoon for us to eat outside.

One of our favorite activities is tennis. We all went down to the courts and played round robin tennis. Jim forgot his sneakers so he played barefoot. The court surface is similar to artificial turf and has a few tons of sand on top. The court was pretty easy on Jim's feet, better than a hard surface would be. It was quite a competition because Joni challenged the boys that they couldn't even win a game. Well, they did well, although we (Joni and Delton) were trying to be easy on them.................

We all had a real good time playing tennis. Barbara was the cheering section and cheered us all on.

Last year we got to go kayaking, but this year it was too cold. We were hoping to paddle out and find some dolphin and manatee. We walked out to the marina where we usually find them but we didn't see any. I think it was too cold for them. Well, maybe next time.

Christmas went by way too fast. Being with your family is the best present anyone could get. We look forward to the next time we can all be together.