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Florida: Sun N Fun RV-Resort in Sarasota, Myakka River State Park and St Armands Circle Places Visited: Saturday January 8: Sun N Fun RV Resort 7125 Fruitville Road Sarasota, Florida 941-371-2505-- N27° 20.477' W82° 25.612' $41.00 per-night for the cheapest sites on a weekly rate. 30-amps, water & sewer with paved interior roads. We spent the day bumming around Sun N Fun taking advantage of the myriad amenities. We are not the normal Sun N Fun resident, we are transient. The majority of residents spent three to six months in the park. These folks are serious about escaping the bleak, frozen north lands. These residents become immersed in the myriad activities available in the park. Many have routines of playing golf in the mornings then returning to partake of other activities later in the day. Some just futz around in a woodworking shop or lapidary room while others learn line dancing, stained glass techniques, quilting, computers, or-------the list is endless. I have never seen so many people enjoy horseshoes, shuffle board and lawn bowling in my life. Snowbirds worship the sunning area around the giant pool and hot tubs while others support stools at the poolside bar. Volleyball courts are active places for the younger at heart. Some settle for organized races of model sailboats on one of the lakes where they have a "buoyed" course established. The place is a hoot. With 2,000 sites there are around 4,000 people meandering around the premises. No grouches are allowed, everyone goes the extra mile to be friendly. Life is good. Sunday January 9: Sun N Fun RV Resort 7125 Fruitville Road Sarasota, Florida 941-371-2505-- N27° 20.477' W82° 25.612' $41.00 per-night for the cheapest sites on a weekly rate. 30-amps, water & sewer with paved interior roads. We enjoyed church services at the Sun N Fun Community Church here in Sun N Fun. There were 280 park residents in attendance. This is a non-denominational service with a bend toward the protestant way of doing things. Music consisted of old standbys reminiscent of a 60's era congregation. After lunch we joined about 800 snowbirds at the pool. Some were there for the pool others to just lounge in the sun while others like Joyce and I were there to enjoy the music. Today's music was provided by two men with guitars and a music machine who performed a wide variety of 60's rock & roll songs for three or more hours. They were good, very good. The entertainment at Sun N Fun is always top notch. It should be we pay for top notch entertainment. Things don't get much better. Monday January 10: Sun
N Fun RV Resort 7125 Fruitville Road Sarasota,
Florida 941-371-2505-- N27° 20.477' W82° 25.612' $41.00
per-night for the cheapest sites on a weekly rate. 30-amps, water
& sewer with paved interior roads. After exhausting ourselves at Myakka River State Park we headed to Yoder's to formally celebrate our time together. There is nothing like good food, good friends and good times. We said our good bys as we exited Yoder's, Paul & Linda headed back to their motorhome in a park north of Arcadia and we headed to karaoke back at Sun N Fun. It is a tough life but someone has to do it. Within minutes of saying buy to Paul and Linda we connected up with some Sun N Fun friends to enjoy the night of Karaoke where we danced the night away, my how time flies when you are having fun.
Does it get any better? Tuesday January 11: Sun
N Fun RV Resort 7125 Fruitville Road Sarasota,
Florida 941-371-2505-- N27° 20.477' W82° 25.612' $41.00
per-night for the cheapest sites on a weekly rate. 30-amps, water
& sewer with paved interior roads. Wednesday January 12: Sun N Fun RV Resort 7125 Fruitville Road Sarasota, Florida 941-371-2505-- N27° 20.477' W82° 25.612' $41.00 per-night for the cheapest sites on a weekly rate. 30-amps, water & sewer with paved interior roads. Around 9PM last night our Carbon Monoxide detector started chirping----that same irritating chirp made by fire alarms when the battery needs to be changed. The Carbon Monoxide detector does not run off a 9-volt replaceable battery. Unfortunately, it gets power from our house batteries which consist of two 6-volt golf cart batteries. I checked and the voltage was very low -------- that was NOT good since we were connected to the RV-Parks power. My motorhome is like most and has a good converter/inverter system. The converter portion of my system acts as a battery charger plus source of all 12-volt power needs for our motorhome when we are connected to campground electricity. The dilemma facing me was a "low" battery that was connected to a battery charger. That did not make sense. At least it did not make sense at first. I knew my inverter was working, that meant my converter should be working ------ but the system only had about 10-volts instead of 12-volts. That blasted Carbon Monoxide detector kept chirping. There was no way to go to sleep with that thing chirping. It finally occurred to me that if one of the batteries was shorting out that would reduce the voltage produced by the converter/charger. When I disconnected the house batteries my 12-volt circuit immediately went to 13-volts. What a relief. We can sleep without that Carbon Monoxide detector chirping all night. Since we are connected to campground electricity the converter provided the 12-volts needed to keep all the 12-volt systems working. This morning I removed both house batteries and loaded them into the Saturn and headed to Sam's. They quickly determined one of the batteries was shorted and started the paperwork to give me a replacement under warranty. As it turns out Sam's replaced the bad battery for no charge. That surprised me since my experience with batteries is a proration process with me on the short end. In any event, in short order I was back at the motorhome and had the batteries installed. There is nothing like owning a motorhome, you never know what challenge will present itself, the only certainty is that a challenge will present itself and generally it will be when you least expect it. Now what else could someone ask for? Joyce dropped our digital camera the other day rendering it inoperative. The focusing mechanism that operates the lens was jammed. When we contacted Cannon they told us the bad news----- it would have to be Fed Ex'ed to the Cannon Repair facility where they would inspect it and send us an estimate. Once I consented to the estimate they would repair our digital camera and return it to us. Or, ------- there is always an or,------- we could opt to settle for an identical refurbished camera for a mere $150 which just happens to be the median repair charge. The best part of this option was they would ship the refurbished camera via Fed Ex and we would receive it in two days. All we would have to do is put our broken camera in the same box and attach the Fed Ex shipping sticker they would provided. We decided to take this option. Our digital camera was visibly damaged and most certainly would cost more than the $150 median repair cost plus we would get the replacement in two days vice several weeks. Since we negotiated with Cannon on Monday we had to stay around the motorhome today to sign for the camera when Fed Ex delivered it. They arrived shortly after I returned from Sam's and got those batteries reinstalled. The Fed Ex delivery man was so nice and professional. He had several more deliveries in the park and said he would return back to our site on his way out of the park to get the package we were sending back to Cannon. True to his word he stopped by and took our package, he even used his tape to reseal the box. Things were going our way today, -------- at least more challenges weren't popping up. Thursday January 13: Sun N Fun RV Resort 7125 Fruitville Road Sarasota, Florida 941-371-2505-- N27° 20.477' W82° 25.612' $41.00 per-night for the cheapest sites on a weekly rate. 30-amps, water & sewer with paved interior roads. St. Armand's Circle shopping area on Lido Key, near Sarasota, Florida
Joyce announced that today was going to be her day and her day it was. Joyce's idea of fun involved the two of us leisurely strolling through the tony shoppes of St. Armand's Circle. When Joyce heads to one of these places is makes me as nervous as a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs. However, this experience turned out to be much cheaper than I anticipated. The St. Armand's Circle business community is to be commended for such avant-garde ideas as an abundance of free parking; spotless, landscaped, impeccably manicured promenades with clean benches for the totally disinterested to chill while their partner peruses the plethora of trendy shoppes. St. Armand's Circle dining on Lido Key, near Sarasota, Florida
At long last Joyce tired of her sport in time for lunch. She chose Cha Cha Coconuts a restaurant specializing in Columbian viands. Our Florida style alfresco table overlooked the absolutely beautiful St. Armand's Circle. Joyce chose black bean chili while I opted for Caribbean chicken with plantain, Spanish rice and black beans. It was a good choice. To my delight this was a good opportunity to reacquaint myself with Columbian cuisine. Plantain is a side dish we both savor when prepared in a Latin American establishment and this one was no exception. We were dining somewhere under the yellow and or pink canopy in the picture on the right. After lunch it was back to the benches for me while Joyce returned to her sport. I entertained myself by engaging in light palaver with other men relegated to riding benches. What better way to experience paradise than sharing a park bench with a total stranger. Monk parakeet in palm tree on St. Armand's Circle shopping area Lido Key, near Sarasota, Florida
Occasionally, our attention is drawn to a noisy flock of monk parakeets dining on ripe fruits in the date palms. Their raucous chatter is reminiscent of an out of control middle school cafeteria. It is always interesting to watch wild parakeets when in this part of Florida. Most individuals would identify monk parakeets as parrots because of their size. These bright green birds are relatives of escaped pets. I think they add to the islands ambience.
Canary Island Date Palm in St. Armand's Circle shopping area on Lido Key, near Sarasota, Florida
This is a picture of one of the magnificent Canary Island Date Palms the monk parakeets were feeding in. If you look to the left of center you can see 6 or 8 of these parakeets. I could have zoomed in but that would have eliminated the beautiful palm. Another source of amusement/entertainment consisted of the procession of haute island females utilizing the sidewalk as their runway in a somewhat sophisticated fashion exhibit. Most were impeccably attired in the latest fashions but ---------- that old adage about putting lipstick on a pig doesn't change the fact that it is still a pig seemed to be appropriate. The way they present themselves makes them appear shallow enough to be among those that entertain themselves hiding their own Easter eggs. To each his own but many of them are no more presentable in public than the Queen's unshaven legs.
Osprey in dead snag on Lido Key across the bay from Sarasota, Florida
Mercifully, as the afternoon wore on Joyce tired of her sport and we got in the Saturn to check out other areas of the island. At one of the shoreline parks we watched an osprey dine on a large fish before taking a walk through a mangrove swamp and finally stopping to enjoy the view of Sarasota's impressive downtown area from across the bay.
Joyce posing against an Austrailian Pine on Lido Key with downtown Sarasota, Florida in the background
Friday January 14: Sun N Fun RV Resort 7125 Fruitville Road Sarasota, Florida 941-371-2505-- N27° 20.477' W82° 25.612' $41.00 per-night for the cheapest sites on a weekly rate. 30-amps, water & sewer with paved interior roads. Last night a cold front came through dropping temperatures while delivering rain. The rain kept us inside most of the day before we ventured out for lunch then to visit a family friend. This was Friday night and that meant karaoke at Sun N Fun. Because of the nasty weather karaoke was moved indoors. What a way to spend a Friday night-----with good entertainment and good friends. Saturday January 15: Sun N Fun RV Resort 7125 Fruitville Road Sarasota, Florida 941-371-2505-- N27° 20.477' W82° 25.612' $41.00 per-night for the cheapest sites on a weekly rate. 30-amps, water & sewer with paved interior roads. The cold front lingered in the area today discouraging pool activities. The high temperature barely made the lower 70s. Even so the Minnesota folks in the park were ecstatic since it was -34 back home. For supper we attended a covered dish supper for park newcomers.
The fun and fellowship was great but the entertainment was -------
lacking. We shared our table with two interesting Canadian couples.
Until next week just remember how good life is. Click here for more Florida travellogsUntil next time remember how good life is. Key West AdventuresAdventures by State ** 2005 Travel Adventures
Mike & Joyce Hendrix
Mike & Joyce Hendrix who we are We hope you liked this page. If you do you might be interested in some of our other Travel Adventures: Mike & Joyce Hendrix's home page Travel Adventures by Year ** Travel Adventures by State ** Plants ** Marine-Boats ** Geology ** Exciting Drives ** Cute Signs ** RV Subjects ** Miscellaneous Subjects
We would love to hear from you......just put "info" in the place of "FAKE" in this address: FAKE@travellogs.us Until next time remember how good life is.
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