12-08 Dade City, Florida

In early December, we moved north to Dade City, Florida about 35 miles NE of Tampa. We went to the Many Mansions RV Park which is really closer to Zephyrhills but has a Dade City Address. We went to this park because it is the winter home for our friends Dale and Cindy Sumner. It was their coach that we saw redecorated and inspired us to come to Florida to have ours done. We enjoyed being able to spend several months in the same park with them. Plus Dale is a Master RV Tech, and he did the annual maintenance on our appliances.

From 12-08 Dade City

This is a nice area with gently rolling hills. The surrounding areas are very rural. At one time this was a major orange growing region, but a bad winter in the 80's destroyed many trees. So many orange growers moved further south. We had enjoyed visiting an orange grove in Avon Park. They had wonderful Navel Oranges and, even better, a great orange ice cream made with their own orange juice. What a way to get your vitamin C. Yum!

We had expected to find lots of orange groves in Dade City. While there were some around, we only found one small grove where we could go and the folks would pick us a 5 gallon bucket of oranges for $5. The oranges were good, but not as good as those in Avon Park. We did find some good fresh fruit and vegetable stands in the area. Local strawberries were especially tasty and at a good price - about $2 to $2.50 a pint.

This was another tough winter on local crops around the Tampa area. One sad scene was a small orchard full of ornamental palm shrubs/trees. One day they were beautifully green, Two days later after two nights of freezing temperatures, the leaves on the majority had turned brown. I do not think the plants died, but years of growth were lost. I saw where the leaves had all been cut back a week later. I'm sure that was a tough financial loss. I also read in the local paper about tropical fish farms that were likely to lose their aquarium tropical fish. I had no idea tropical fish were raised in ponds around Tampa or for that matter anywhere in the US.

Some people had told us we would not like Florida. They said it was crowded and full of angry or rude "old people". We did not experience any of this. The majority of the people we met were very friendly. We would not hesitate to go back to the areas we visited in Florida for winter.

Florida has some wonderful biking trails. I(James) enjoyed riding with a group of other men three or four times during our stay. The chief organizer was Bob Brown,a semi-retired Lobster Fisherman from Maine. We hope to stop by and visit the Browns if we make it to Maine this summer or fall. Here is Bob and the other fellows riding one of the trails ahead of me.

From 2008 Dade City

Monique and I also went riding on one of the trails and wished we had gone more often.

From 2008 Dade City

The Zephyrhills airport is one of the most popular skydiving
locations in the country. Hundreds of people come from all over the US and Europe during the Christmas to New Years period to skydive. We frequently heard the planes overhead. We went down several times to watch. Sadly the first time Ward and I went down, we saw ambulances and emergency personnel rush to the airport. We did not realize it, but two people had crashed together while a large group was joining hands to make a circular formation before opening their chutes. One of those, a local woman, was killed by the collision.

From 2008 Dade City

We had a mix of good and bad experiences in the RV park. Most people were very nice, but there were a few "bad apples"- especially one couple who liked to play their music very loud right beside our RV. They did not understand appropriate RV park etiquette. We ended up moving to another location in the park. We were one of four couples to move or leave early due to this couple's noise.

The other negative was the fact the park was right next to a very busy train track. Trains came by regularly throughout the day and loudly blew their horns as they approached the road crossing to enter the park and other nearby roads. We became used to this, but we would prefer not to have this noise again.

Overall we enjoyed our stay in Florida and will likely go back again for the winter, although we are also interested in joining some friends who winter in south Texas. Time will tell.