Appreciate all the hospitality

     It shouldn't but it always does amaze me the amount of hospitality shown Beverly and I when we visit friends and family all across these United States each year on these journey's we embark on.  For the most part friends and family have their schedules, their jobs in many cases, and prearranged plans, but somehow always find the time to accommodate us and our visits.  We so much enjoy catching up with old friends and family we don't get to see all year (or in some cases many, many years) and renewing these relationships.  We take what we can get and make the most of all the places and folks we visit along the way, while at the same time having our time together doing what we love to do..........see new places, golf different course across the country, and just plain enjoy each other as much as we can.  This past week in the Tampa, Homosassa Florida area we were able to reconnect with some cousins and one of our favorite aunts and meet some of their children which we haven't seen since they were very small and some cases not at all.  The week we spent in this area and on this stop in our journey flew by and as mentioned we greatly appreciated all the hospitality and time shown us!
     This next leg of the trip we look forward to visiting an old friend and his wife for a few days and playing some golf in the Port Saint Lucie area of Florida on the Atlantic side of the state.  At this time we're also thinking about throwing in the Florida Keys on this journey, this was not even thought about in our planning but now that we're so close we're giving it some thought and thinking why not.
     Even though this is the wrong time of the year to visit Florida for the most part, there are some advantages if you can bear the couple of hours of rain everyday and the humidity.  First and foremost for us would be he ease of securing great RV parks and spaces available in these resorts, their not ghost towns, but seem to always have space available where I'm sure that wouldn't be the case in the winter months!  Another big item would be the cost of staying at these places, summer rates just like the golf in Phoenix are much lower this time of year and so is the golf here. You couple that with gas prices all along the south being from $185 - $2.05 and that makes for happy campers!
     I won't miss driving in the Tampa area none too soon, what a mess and what a joke.  It seems there is not a straight street to and from anywhere and the streets change names up to three times in a matter of a few miles.........what's with that?  Even our GPS and the GPS in our phones got confused many times, no like in most cases I get familiar with an area rather quickly and I have a great sense of direction, but not in and around Tampa.
     We're now at 4100 miles traveled and haven't got to the point of turning and heading back towards Arizona........looks like over 8000 miles could be reached on this trip.  Most of our previous journeys have amassed right at or near the 6000 mile range, all records will be shattered this year of 2016 as it looks!