As you may know,
we sold our villa in Village Walk in four days.
Our villa was a great maintenance-free home for eight years! We packed everything up that we wanted to
keep and rented a storage unit at Big Jim’s for when we return someday! We
were fortunate that Décor Direct purchased all of furniture and took it away in
one day! Thanks to our friend Lisa, who
sold all of our garage sale items! We couldn’t have done it without them!
One of Mike’s assistant
chiefs, Bill, suggested we stay in a Park Model at Sun N Fun RV Resort. We have
been there since March 15 and the resort is also home to our new RV
conveniently located near our Park Model.
Deirdre` and Tim, the managers at Sun N Fun, and all of the staff have
been very gracious and accommodating during our stay! What a great way to begin our RV experience! We’ll
be back!
Mike is a celebrity wherever he
goes since retiring as Sarasota County’s Fire Chief. It started with his 35 year recognition by
the Board of County Commissioners, then a ceremony recognizing his retirement,
followed by a cake reception that brought everyone and his brother out to stand
in line for more than three hours to congratulate him! The grand finale was the ceremony attended by
several dignitaries, fire fighters, county employees, friends and family. The Honor Guard was a highlight of the
ceremony, presenting Mike with the American flag that had flown at all of the
fire stations, and then the final walk along the sidewalk with firefighters
saluting their Chief while he boarded the Fire Truck that would take him home.
And all along Fruitville Road there were more fire trucks parked with more
firefighters saluting him. It was an
overwhelming and spectacular ceremony that showed how respected Mike was and
that he would be missed!
Sharon retired a
week later from the law firm of Dunlap & Moran, P.A. where she spent the
past eight years working for the greatest boss ever, Scott Dunlap! She too had a wonderful send off, beginning
with a surprise luncheon at Made Restaurant with attorneys, co-workers and friends. And the finale was a get together after work
on her last day also at Made Restaurant where she was presented with a framed funny
poem written by the talented and recently retired Barb Deminico with quips from
Scott. Sharon was also showered with RV gifts and gift cards, and cash for RV
gas!! And if that weren’t enough, we
decided to stay for dinner and come to find out it too was already paid
for! Couldn’t have asked for more!!
Our early
retirement days have been filled with checking off items from numerous to do
lists, taking delivery of our new Tiffin Phaeton 40’ motorhome and our new Jeep
Grand Cherokee. Unfortunately we ended
up putting them both back in the shop for minor repairs. We installed roof
racks for our new kayaks and a bike rack for our trail bikes. Soon we can fill up the RV and hope
everything fits! Then we will need to
get it weighed so we know the weight is evenly distributed so we don’t have a
blow out!!
The days fly by
and now July is upon us and the countdown begins. We leave Sarasota on August 3 to begin our
adventure on the road, at which time, we will begin posting on our blog as we
travel, stopping at various RV parks along the way to arrive at Santa Fe, NM on
September 1 where we will stay for 42 days to explore the area.
We will attend the Hot Air Balloon Fiesta in
Albuquerque in October which will be a great photo opportunity. We need to arrive at 4:30 a.m. for the "mass ascension" and again at 4:30 p.m. for the "after glow" evening session, and we will return another day for the "special shapes" balloons!
We will then head to Texas for the rest of the winter. That's all the planning we have done so far.
Stay tuned for our next post! Don't forget to submit your e-mail address so you can receive future posts to follow our extraordinary RV Adventure!
Hasta la vista!
