Party Hearty!

This place really knows how to entertain their guests while they stay! Last night and every Friday night is Happy Hour from 5:00-8:00 and usually some kind of entertainment in the clubhouse. Free food, free drinks. I set up my table for Tastefully Simple, and had quite a few people stop by to taste, but only one sale all evening. There was a HUGE hors d'oevres table set up right around the corner from me, so I had LOTS of competition as far as food goes. If I had known that, I would have prepared less food. But that's ok, getting the word out as to what the company is all about is good and I really enjoy talking to people...hopefully, some people will go back and check it out on the internet, which was my goal...having a taste testing event both last night and tonight got us two free nights stay here, so we were happy!

This goofy guy above is Billy Bridger...he had quite the repertoire of songs, costumes, and even a couple of ventriloquist dummies that he did songs with..they were more for show, he didn't actually do the ventriloquist thing.....he is also a balloon artist and after a young family with impressionable children left, he livened up the show a bit. Look very carefully at the balloon this guy has on his head....that's all Sparky is gonna say....

And that's all Sparky is gonna say this evening...I'm pooped! Rode my bike a lot today, ran around and got updates on my computer, and did another round of Tastefully Simple at the clubhouse...people love to sample, but football took the center stage today, so time to turn our attention to that...at least for Eldy...now if it was the Colts, or Notre Dame,  I might watch for a bit, but sports are not too interesting to me.....it's a good thing there's an outside TV on the Phaeton, so I can send Eldy outside in nice weather to watch while I do stuff inside....works for me!  See you tomorrow...no plans yet... thanks for reading!

Living in Luxury--Temporarily

The Clubhouse

main pool at night

This is quite the place---Naples Motorcoach Resort....it has 184 Class A sites, 26 of them are on canal frontage, the clubhouse has an owner's bar and lounge, theater and game room, there's concierge pool services for towels and food, there's a fitness center and sauna, 3 outdoor pools with hot tubs at each one, (one of the pools is a lap pool!) there are 32 boat storage sites, tennis courts, and a small lake with its own beach! The canal accesses the Gulf of Mexico. Wish I had a kayak on board! I'd be a paddlin'!

The largest of the pools is called an infinity pool. As you look at the other end of it, it appears to drop off the horizon,
there's no top edge at the end of it. It spills over the bottom into a recirculating filter and back into the pool again. Besides the hot tub at each pool, there's a cabana tent so you don't have to fry yourself in the hot sun. At this pool on the right, you can see the small beach right below where the water drops off the pool edge.

Here are some more photos of the amenities...

Movie theater on the premises

The 18 seat movie theater...The bar and lounge area in the clubhouse.....

There's a LOT of room to ride around the premises. The streets are wide and spacious, so today I rode my bike around to just see everything in the park. Did I mention it's a gated park? You have to either get in from the guard at the gate or after hours, a key code gets you in whether you are in a vehicle, or walking through.

It seems as though they are working on getting some more activities going...they have some kind of live entertainment Friday night, and a country western recording star is coming in Saturday night. There was a zumba exercise class this morning, but I missed it. I hope to catch it Friday morning.....are there any downers? There are no picnic tables anywhere...we eat on our laps outside sitting in our chairs, or in the RV or we eat out (my personal favorite!) You can't have any kind of campfires...no fire pit, not even a fake gas fire...(Yes, we actually have seen propane gas fire pits in parks where they don't allow regular campfires.) Florida has fire hazard warnings all the time down here, so it's understandable why no fires are allowed. One of my FAVORITE things about full time RVing, is the wonderful campfires you can have night after night after night, if you so desire, provided you are in a park that allows them. For all the wonderful extras they have here, I certainly can do without my campfires for a while! The other downer is you can't use the pools at night...well, phooey, I was thinking about skinny dipping, lol!  Actually, the pools are so lit up at night, I wouldn't even entertain the thought! (Darn, says E.)

Here's a typical street view of the park....there's a fabulous very large fountain in the center of the resort, not visible from this angle...It's a beautiful place AND I get to do a show, maybe even a second Tastefully Simple event Saturday night, so we are staying till Sunday.  

Eldy and Mike

Had a great visit with Eldy's friend Mike, and his wife, Barb, today...they live in Hallendale Beach, Florida, a lovely community. This is the first residential section of Florida that we've seen that didn't have parched grass and tons of dead palm foliage laying around (besides Naples). I know, we haven't seen much of Florida, so have patience with us. It was just a very beautiful area, with Hollywood, Fl right next door, and a fantastically long boardwalk filled with shops and restaurants, parks, and bandshells right along the Atlantic Ocean front in Hollywood. We ate lunch at one of the local restaurants along the boardwalk. Mike has a tremendously positive attitude about his illness and is doing very well. We really enjoyed their company today. It's always wonderful to reminisce about growing up together, and Eldy and Mike had lots of laughs remembering all kinds of things together that Eldy had forgotten. I was hoping to get some good ammunition about Eldy's early years, but nothing surfaced. I'll have to probe Mike for more stories next time! Laughter is good for the soul and good for what ails you....we hope we brought some joy to Mike and Barb today...take care guys and stay in touch.  Speaking of staying in touch, of course we will be back tomorrow... The knit shop is calling me, the sanctuary with the boardwalk, the alligators and anhingas are calling me, and so is Ron's Pizza place in downtown Naples!   See you tomorrow!