Time’s Flyin’-But Not Much Happenin’

I can’t believe it has been two weeks plus a couple days since our last post. Just like many of you with blogs, when you stay at one location for an extended time, we seem to write less frequently. Day-to-day regular happenings don’t seem worthy enough to write about and the days just pass on by. Isn’t retirement great-you do what you want, when you want to-or do nothing at all. I must admit, I’m getting anxious to make plans and get ready to head north again. It’s been a great winter here at Rock Crusher Canyon but it’s about time to head north. Our rough plans have us leaving here probably right after Easter weekend. We’ll make one or maybe more stays on the way up to our site in River Vista Mountain Village, in Dillard, GA.

River Vista Mountain Village is located between Clayton, Georgia and Highlands and Franklin, North Carolina. It is located about one mile south of the North Carolina state line and about one mile east off of HWY 441. River Vista sits in a beautiful valley surrounded by the Smoky Mountains to the east and Blue Ridge Mountains to the west. Picnic tables and meditation benches are located along the banks of Slick Rock Creek and Mud Creek, which border the Resort to the east and southeast. Our clubhouse/office offers a full kitchen, TV and reading area, card/game tables, computer stations, fitness room, and rocking chairs and checkers tables on the front porch facing Little Estatoah Falls in the Smoky Mountains. An outdoor heated pool and spa are located at the main pavilion which also features a large fireplace with wooden rocking chairs, community tv, picnic tables, and restroom facilities.

 

 

 

There is also an indoor heated pool and spa building adjacent to the pavilion area. In addition, there is a large Mountain Center Clubhouse  with double commercial kitchens, stage, two-sided fireplace and wall partition. This is the area that Big Daddy DJ has hosted dances, both in the street and inside the Mountain Center.

INSIDE MTN CENTER

OUTSIDE STREET DANCE

The campground is open all year, has 144 lots to choose from as well as five 1 and 2 bedroom rental cabins. The rv sites have gravel pads with full hookups (water, sewer, 30 and 50 amp electric service), cable television with premium channels and has free wireless internet throughout the resort. Kozmo reminded me to also mention the resort is pet friendly. Part of the resort is the original 99 site owners section, Falls View, where we bought our site in 2004.

That section is sold out, although occasionally an owner resells a site. Of these sites, about two-thirds of them have built park model cabins on them. The campground itself is now also selling sites and a few have been sold. Can you tell I love that area and am getting antsy to be there?

So what have we been up to the past two weeks? The weekend before this past one we drove over to Ocala Sun RV Resort in Ocala to visit with the Roamin’ Rigs, the FMCA rv club we were active members in from 1997 until we sold our motorhome in January of 2011. Although we were made honorary members, we no longer attend the rallies since we no longer have a motorhome. It was great seeing all of our friends and sharing a traditional happy hour with them.

After the happy hour we stopped at a Tijuana Flats Restaurant in Ocala for dinner before making the hour long drive back to Crystal River. We love Tijuana Flats but unfortunately the closest one to Crystal River is the one in Ocala.

Last week we drove down to the sticks-n-bricks home in Valrico for 4 nights. I had my 6 month doctor’s visit to review blood tests etc. All the blood work looked great, cholesterol good, blood pressure good. Bottomline, he said I’m good to go for another 6 months. He did reiterate that dropping some more weight would help take some strain off my back. Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don’t know. :-) I try believe me. We also bought some landscape bricks, some soil and plants and put a 6’ X 3’ planter in front of the house. We had a robellini palm out there in a planter for years but it died about a year and a half ago and we got rid of it.

    BEFORE

We needed to add something out there so the planter it was.

    AFTER

While in Valrico we also ate at China Palace, our all-time favorite Chinese buffet restaurant!

Finally, I’ve got to comment on the weather. Those of you in Florida certainly know this but the past week of weather around here has been crazy. We had temps in the 80’s for several days before that wicked front came through here that caused all the tornados and damage in the midwest. It was really quite windy here with gusts up to 50 mph but no tornados. It rained really hard here in Crystal River Saturday night/Sunday morn from 4:00-4:30am and then quit and started turning cool immediately. This morning the low here was 42 degrees and we had the heat pump on. Crazy weather, but give me this over the tragic stuff that other parts of our country has experienced.

Well. that’s the Cliff Notes version of our lives for the past two weeks. We hope each of you are happy, healthy and enjoying life! Thank you for following our adventures. We leave you with the Kozmo picture of the month…she bonded with Elmo in Valrico!

‘Til next time……..