Jan 9th to 12th - Thonotosassa FL

Jan 9th - Fri - Thonotosassa
After water exercises and lunch, we all went to Zephyrhills in search of a bathing suit for me. I haven’t wanted to swim in the afternoon or evening as my suit will still be wet which is no fun to put on in the morning. Checked out a few stores and finally found one at Bealls Outlet at a reasonable price.
When we got back, it was time for a drink and some more cards before dinner.

Jan 10th - Sat - Thonotosassa
The weather is forecast to get cooler next week so Billy & lauri thought it would be a good day to check out the beaches. We packed lunches and took off about 10. It is quite a long drive (an hour?) to the coast and then you can drive along a coastal highway with access to multiple beaches. We checked out St. Pete’s beach which was lovely with very fine sand. It was early so we decided to continue driving north. We stopped at Sand Key beach, fed the parking meter for 2 hours and discovered that the beach was not as pretty and clean as St. Pete’s beach. We had lunch, gathered a few shells, caught some rays, headed back to the car and continued driving north to Clearwater Beach. Good thing we did not go there initially as the parking lots were full as were the meters on the streets. So we turned back east and took a slightly different route back to the RV park.
A few games of 31 again before dinner.

Jan 11th - Sun - Thonotosassa
We got tired watching Billy washing the black streaks off his rig so we headed to Zephyrhills looking for a couple of flea markets that we had found on the internet. It appears as it the internet information is not updated regularly as neither one is still in operation. Vicki called just before 12 while we were still in Zephyrhills so we went to see them at their RV park. It was a lovely day so after chatting a bit we went to watch skydivers a few miles away at one of the most popular skydiving locations in the US. We watched from 21 to 29 people load into a plane, waited while it gained altitude and then watched them come down and land. It was a fun thing to do on a sunny day.
From there Paul & Vicki went with us to a Super WalMart for some groceries. We dropped them off and headed home. Gary& Carie were due in today but weren’t here when we returned so we took a bike ride around the park to see if they were in a different site. Nope - they showed up as we were riding so we confused the heck out of Gary trying to help him squeeze between the concrete pad and the sewer connection and still get far enough back to reach the electric connection. While they were setting up we cooked dinner (a wonderful steak!) early as we hadn’t had lunch. Gary & Carie joined us for a drink and when they went to fix dinner we went to discuss tomorrow’s plans with Billy& Lauri.
Later, we and Gary & Carie enjoyed the hot tub and the pool.

Jan 12th - Mon - Thonotosassa
We all skipped exercise class today so we could leave at 9 to go to a flea market in Webster, about an hour north of here. Billy & Lauri rode with us and Gary & Carie followed. No one can fit 6 people.
I have to revise a previous comment in this blog - this is probably the largest market that we have attended. One side is mostly used/antique/collectible items and the other is a lot of new items with most of the stalls under cover. We were there for 4 hours with a short lunch break and were not able to see the whole thing even though we did not linger long at any one spot.
On the way back, we stopped at a state park to check out a spot to launch kayaks in the Hillsborough River.
Terry & I went for a bike ride around the park while the others were starting dinner. Then we all got together for a drink and more 31 before going our separate ways for dinner. Another visit by us and Gary& Carie to the hot tub & pool to end a very nice day.