With a slight detour to Elvis' home first.
Ah, another check mark for the Bucket List.
It has been such a fantastic experience to be in a southern clime for the winter, or most of it.
Since my arrival in Port Charlotte I have had the best weather imaginable with only a few days of rain and that never slowed down any activities. What changed the agenda a few times was the heat and humidity. I know now I could never live in the tropics full time. I've only been dehydrated a couple of times down here but it can happen so easily. How can the body produce so much salty water? Yikes.
The beloved Equinox is now packed.
This is before.....
The space you see there is for my "hotel bag" and the Kool-a-tron on the floor behind my seat. You may notice a bungie cord holding up a Roots folding chair. This is to keep it from falling off the top of the pyramid. The bottom of the pyramid is the golf clubs hidden in a bed sheet. The club heads are wrapped in the end of the sheet as nothing drives me more nuts than a rattling in the back of the car that I can't stop. So, all jammed in and I even took it for a test drive to the gas station to fill up with my Winn Dixie discount points for a final time and take note of the sluggish handling now that the vehicle is so much heavier than usual.
My 'to do' list around the house is just about complete. Little things like deleting the search history on the computer will still need to be done. Even the two beach balls floating around in the pool for the last 3 months have been washed and scrubbed.
I've noticed a number of other Snowbirds have left. Laser Joe's place last night was in darkness, the first time I've noticed it like that in the evening. Two other sets of folks that have been here since I arrived I saw packing up a couple of days ago. Many are heading home to be back for Easter.
Wow, now that I think of it so much has happened since Easter of last year.
In 2011 I was celebrating Easter dinner at my cousin Tomas' cottage in South Bohemia, Czech Republic. What truly amazing things I have seen, heard, and done since that time.
Really, it has been a pilgrimage. I am amazed!
I guess I could call myself a "seasoned traveller" now.
Am I done travelling?
I'm not sure.
I have a lot to reflect on and what I might be able to do before this time is over but first I need to go home.
This Snowbird girl is starting her migration north.
I've been on "travelling rules" for beverages and food for the last week. If you've ever travelled as a Girl Guide or Scout you know travelling rules.
Never buy large containers of more than can be consumed before departure. I'm pretty good at it. After enough trips in Guiding it becomes part of your lifestyle and it comes naturally. So, I know I have enough orange juice, milk and cereal for tomorrow. I have enough bread for breakfast and to make a sandwich for a travelling lunch tomorrow. I have peeled all the fruit (easy snack on the road and no mess to clean up) and cut up all the celery and carrots left (hard to do in a hotel room).
My lunch is packed for tomorrow and dinner last night and tonight is "glop", a mixture of left overs (little bit of onion, hamburg patty, little bit of rice, a few pasta shells, tomato sauce, half of a green pepper and anything else I could find that might work).
Cans of pop and bottles of water are good to take because they are small and can be packaged up in smaller bags. The big containers are all gone. Woohoo!
One activity I didn't anticipate doing while I was down here was playing tennis.
Huh?
What?
Tennis? No way.
Yup, after a whole pile of years I was on the tennis court again. Not to play a real game I might say but to bash around some Penns on a court near the beach.
A friend of D's that had come down from Ohio was desparate for someone to go and hit against. Since there were no takers I sacrificed myself to the cause.
Actually it wasn't too bad. Despite the humidity being nuts (thank God for a dri-fit shirt) and being rather out of shape, I did okay.
I think it was all muscle memory.
See, I played tennis all through my pre-teen and teenage years and was kind of good for a while there.
Alas, life came into it all and between summer jobs then full time employment the tennis fanatic in me packed up and left.
(Really it was the life-long friends that I met at tennis lessons in Southampton that made me come back year after year...yes Nutty Buddies, you know who you are!!)
Being on the court again I began to remember how to hit and what it felt like to get my feet in the right place to make a pretty good shot. Right, so I couldn't serve worth a damn I did have some really good returns and even surprised myself.
But after being on the court for nearly an hour, in the sun and heat of Port Charlotte Florida I was done. Cooked, baked, over heated and parched (obviously 1 litre of water is not enough for 1 hour of working out) I headed home to pack the car.
Might as well mess up just one set of clothes in a day.
2 hours of working out in one day is good.
And it's good to be done too.
As I spend my last afternoon by the pool reading a book (why change from the norm on the last day) with a beverage I will remember all the great things that happened while I was here. What an experience it all has been.
Experience of a life time.
A Pilgrimage.
Awesome.....
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