Boxing Day - We trust everyone had a wonderful Christmas, that you are full of good spirit(s) and good food, and went to your rest last night happy with the events of the day. Gail and I can certainly check positive on all counts, as we had a fine time with Steve and Kathy and Casey yesterday. They have a terrific condo in a very exclusive golf community, and we were able to get a full sense of everything the place has to offer yesterday. We breakfasted at the golf club restaurant, wandered around the big resort hotel, the Omni (which is central to the entire complex), did some lounging around the pool that is part of this facility, and finished off with some games and a great turkey dinner. Quite a contrast to our usual nomadic experience, as it certainly beats what might have been our situation had we not been here.

All three of our hosts are looking fit and healthy. Their home away from home is everything they could ask for...great golf, gym facilities, the pool, and a very friendly club atmosphere. The grounds are beautifully maintained in this gated community, and their condo is spacious and has a lovely balcony overlooking a little lake. They are very happy here, which is great, as both have worked hard all of their lives, and deserve the fruits of their labors. Casey is here for two weeks, and is doing great as well, enjoying her life in Toronto, as well as the chance to escape the cold for awhile. She's even got a pretty good game of cribbage going, as she's up on me to this point. Today is my last hope for evening it up.

Some of you won't believe it, but we went to evening Mass at the church Kathy goes to on a regular basis. The church seats several hundred souls, and for Christmas Eve, was packed with locals and visitors. And I mean packed. This was the fourth service of the day, with one more to come, and another at midnight, and three more on Christmas Day. They have a 10 piece band, and several excellent soloists, as well as all of the trimmings of a Catholic service. The priest in charge of the service was very good, down to earth, deliverer of a good message (seize your opportunities to do good things for others, and it'll help you get through the gates of heaven). The good father looks like he's been around, as he apparently is barred from local casinos because he has a gambling problem. But he delivers a good service.

Following the service, we did a tour of some of the streets of Celebration, where the church is located. This is a model city, and some of the residents go all out with their house decorations. One street in particular has an amazing array of lights, lasers, movies projected onto house walls, Christmas figures projected in doors and windows, a profusion of flashing lights coordinated with music and loads of blow-up figures all along the block. People flock to the street to take it all in. Where else but in the land that Disney built!? It is really something to behold....for lo, a child was born....American style.

Going back a few days, as I am once again well behind in creating these missives, we enjoyed our last two days with Joyce, and left feeling that she has got things going well. She still has things to do to get her house sorted out, and once she feels she's reached that goal, she can then reach out to some activities in the area...yoga, the community center, and so on. There are still hard days to come, but she is a strong person, resourceful, organized, capable, so we are pleased she is doing so well. Better here than home in Wellington, where the snow is in abundance and the temps are sinking like a stone.

Our buddy Dave has been sending pictures of our cars submerged under piles of the white stuff in the driveway, so although we were missing our family and friends at home, we can't say we are missing the winter experience. We were happy to talk to family yesterday, and are glad that they had good Christmas celebrations. Maybe they missed us just a little, as we did them a lot.

I should also mention that we spent two days before coming here at a park along the coast, near Sebastian, just off the A1A, on the long narrow barrier land that separates the Atlantic from the Inland Waterway. The highway is lined with a lot of big uniquely designed homes facing the ocean, and is not too built up until you get to Melbourne Beach. So it's sort of another of the types of places we like to find in Florida...off the track and not too urbanized. We had a site at the Brevard County Long Point R.V. park right on the water, the park being located on a point of land that stretches out into the inland waterway.

Just after we'd set up, we spied some splashings right behind our unit, and found some manatees grunging around. They moved along the shore about 100 meters and settled into a little inlet, 4 or 5 of them, so we had a close up view. One of the campers said they sometimes poke right out of the water to eat the grass along the shore. Jeff and Sharon don't believe these creatures exist, as they weren't lucky enough to see them when in Florida. But we've seen them in several places, so can state without question that they do indeed exist. We also saw dolphins leaping right behind our place just as we were packing up to leave.

There was only one drawback with our park. Gail and 'noseeums' do not cohabitate well. These little brutes come out at dusk, and are almost invisible to the eye. But they do damage to those who react to their bites, as Gail proved to the extreme. I can feel the odd 'nip', and once in awhile squish a little black dot on my skin. But I don't react, so they aren't really a problem. Not so for my poor partner, as she has large red welts that itch like crazy. Trying to sleep is really tough, and the problem is still there, although we did get to a drugstore and got some cream that is helping quite a lot. But Gail had a couple of pretty bothersome days because of the little pests.

The other incident was a little more dramatic. There's a good bike path that stretches along the coast, so we did about 15 kilometers the first evening, and 40 the next day. It parallels the highway, so afforded lots of views of the big homes, access to the ocean, as well as an interesting Turtle Center, facing onto the beach where more turtles (greens, leatherbacks) nest than anywhere else in the world. On our way back, Gail spotted a gopher tortoise right on the edge of the path. I was trailing her, so she turned to tell me she'd spied this tortoise, moving to her left as she did so, and I ran into her. Both of us went down, me yelling at her "I told you not to stop so fast when I'm behind you...blah blah", until I looked down and saw blood all over the place. All over her foot, the sidewalk, her ankle. Changed my tune in a hurry, let me tell you.

No first aid kit, so kleenex pressed against the spot where the blood was gushing. Then off came one of my socks, which I wrapped tightly around the area, and we got the bleeding stopped. There were also a few chain marks up the back of her lower calf, but only surface scrapes. A couple in a jeep stopped to see if we were all right, and had the bikes been damaged, would have driven us back to our camp. But the bikes were okay, and Gail was bravely saying she was good to ride, once we got the bleeding stopped. We were still 15 kilometers from home base, but we soldiered on, the wounded one even insisting on stopping at a beach entrance to go down to the water to wash some of the blood away. All of this because of a gopher tortoise. Needless to say, our bike riding pattern will change, as I'll be giving Gail a lot more room is I'm trailing.

That's enough for now. We have one more day with the Wards, and then we move on to the Gulf side to one of our old favorite spots, Homosassa, where we'll stay over New Year's. Then we'll start to head west, if the weather looks reasonable. Hopefully we'll have wifi in our next place, so we'll be in touch before the end of the year to wish you all the best in 2018.

That's all for now. Happy Boxing Day to all. More later. Stay tuned.