Wildwood and Melbourne Beach, FL - Jan. 9 - 17, 2010

Wildwood

We left Davenport and returned to the Alliance Service Center in Wildwood, Florida.  Bill had noticed an issue with our living room slide and wanted to get it checked before it developed into a big problem.  Additionally, it was raining inside our refrigerator.  The condensation was so bad that water was flowing out of the unit and onto our carpet. 

Fortunately, we caught the problems in their early stages and the repairs were not as extensive or expensive as our earlier visit.  However, we had to wait for parts and approvals from our insurance so we stayed in Wildwood a bit longer than we would have liked.

Did we mention how cold it was in Florida this year?  The temperatures were at all time lows - fish were dying, manatees were stressing and iguanas were falling out of trees.  We drove over to Crystal River on the Gulf of Mexico, which is known for wintering manatees.  Unfortunately, the manatees were so stressed from the cold that the authorities would not let anybody near them.

Melbourne Beach

On the 14th we headed to Lucky Clover RV Park in Melbourne Beach to catch up with our friends Joe and Fran.  Lucky Clover is a rather tired RV park with a great location just a couple of blocks from Canova Beach.

We had met Joe and Fran at Turning Stone RV Resort in Verona, NY in July 2007.  We really enjoyed their company at that time and were looking forward to seeing them again.  We spent the afternoon and evening with them on Friday lunching at one of their favorite haunts at the beach, then dinner at their place. 

On Saturday Joe and Fran had a family engagement so we entertained ourselves at the annual Shell Festival.  We were amazed at the number and variety of shells on display, not to mention the cost of some of the shells.   Bill sighted one rather small and unremarkable shell priced at $1,500 - and it didn't even have a pearl.

On Sunday we joined Joe and Fran, and Fran's cousin for breakfast and then beach combing.   We found a lot of tiny colorful tropical fish that had washed up on the beach, probably killed by the extraordinarily cold water, but not many shells.  Susan and Fran then went shopping and later joined Joe and Bill for cards followed by a yummy dinner at Squid Lips overlooking Indian River.

Once again we really enjoyed their company and hope they will visit us in Arizona.
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