Sun 'n' Fun, One of Our Favorite Places!

It is so great to be back at Sun 'n' Fun! We stayed 8 months last time, until we were ready to buy a house in Sarasota. We loved it so much. It's a first class resort with tons of amenities. Beautiful humongous pool, first class workout facilities, all kinds of classes in the winter months, weekly live music, bar and restaurant poolside, etc., etc. It's a little heavy on the park models, and we keep saying, eventually, it will be mostly park models, we think.

We have a pull thru site...gravel parking lot, narrow paved curving road leading to our site, but we got in just fine in our big rig and truck. Sites are VERY close to each other. Passport America current rate is 43.00 a night...that changes according to the time of year, of course.We are in the middle of summer, almost August, and it's HOT. 90's every day...sigh...but--there's this....That structure in the upper left corner is a climbing wall. Sparky wants to climb it. Eldo says she's too old. Sounds like a challenge!

And here's a poolside bar.....(there's a restaurant on the same side and a walk up window where you can order food.) Social distancing says you can't sit at the bar, but you can carry your drink to one of the spaced out sets of tables and chairs.

There's a water slide...Sparky might do that....(Hmmmmm...says Eldo, maybe that one's ok....)

The park is for families, of course, and Sparky is so happy to see young children riding their bikes around, and squealing with laughter and having a great time with their families. She's missed that environment. 

Eldo keeps reminding her that we are here to clear out the storage shed, but we've already extended our stay, because 1.) it's too hot to rush moving boxes and unpacking, 2.) we have to take things a little more easy with our age . So....here we go....Time to relax in the evening! The pool is heavily chlorinated. (Gee, I wonder why?)  Bring your goggles! Sparky has to find hers!

This really is a jewel of an RV park and

a wonderful place to start our travels...We are going to the Dodge dealer this week to find out more information about our truck, and every day will be sorting, unpacking and moving....sigh.....good exercise! Keep your chin up, Sparky! You can do it! Minimalism is good! 

Bye for now....this is the life.....This is what we were hoping to be able to do once again, and here we are, "on the road again..."

It's the Holiday Season...

Sarasota, FL      High:  81    Low:  59

More than half of today was spent trying to find stuff in the rig. Can you believe it? We can lose stuff in the motorhome and never find it. Sparky had lost a whole collection of ornaments for the mini tree. She spent the ENTIRE morning taking things apart in all the cupboards, reorganizing all of them, emptying and re-emptying the contents, bound and determined to find them while Eldo wisely stayed out of the way. Not only were the ornament boxes missing, but a whole bunch of rope lights we had out last year when we were here in Florida. We can't find them anywhere and we KNOW we left the site clean last year and loaded them aboard. The ornaments were found just when Sparky was about to dissolve in tears. (She had handknit and handmade most of them, explains a sympathetic Eldo.)  They were in the CAR! Hm-m-m-m-m...maybe the rope lights are in the car. Tomorrow the car gets emptied out.

It's amazing the amount of stuff that can disappear into the nooks and crannies of a motorhome. Sparky found a bathing suit she didn't know she had! And some of Eldy's missing sweaters, not that we need them here in Sarasota. After finding the ornaments, Sparky got the little 3 foot tree up. This is our second one. The lights on the first tree we got while full timing quit working even with light and fuse changes. Sparky started trying to take them off to save buying another the tree, but after an hour and a half of trying to get twisty ties off, and little doodads holding the lights securely to the branches, she gave up. The heck with THAT!  Off to buy another one, only 18.00 and here it is...TADA!

Back to trying to find stuff. You stash stuff in duffels, you stash stuff in bags that look like something else and not what the contents really are, so when you look at it, you think, "Hmph! That's not it." Sparky needs some organizational strategies, LABELS (now THERE'S a novel idea! E. chimes in) and more stackable tubs. (WAIT a second, NO, we DON'T! counters E. WE DON'T NEED NO STINKIN' TUBS!) Uh, ok, honey...I hear ya...And the next words out of his mouth WOULD be, "If you'd just clean out some tubs with yarn and crafts in them, we'd have more room and could find stuff!" We-e-l-l, maybe I'll put some stuff out at the neighborhood yard sale Saturday morning and we'll see what happens. Yep, Sun 'n' Fun is having a yard sale resort wide Saturday morning. With over 1100 sites and this place like a miniature suburb, maybe we'll get some traffic and sell some of this stuff! (Can I sell some yarn? asks E. Heh, heh, heh!)!  HA! Not if he knows what's good for him!

We really like Sun 'n' Fun. Eldo LOVES happy hour and actually, Sparky does, too...Two for one drafts, which makes this beer 1.75. House wines, two for one, too. Got that? Whoo-eeeee!....At this rate, Eldo is going to have to up his bike riding from 30 minutes a day to an hour a day!

The live music is terrific, something going on at poolside almost every day. Today from 4:00-6:00, it was a guy playing a ukelele and singing some really REALLY old songs. Anybody for "She'll be Comin' Around the Mountain"? Not for Sparky. Sparky is not in the old timer's group just yet, so she cut out early to head back to the rig. Eldo was finishing his supper, or he'd be moseying along, too. At 7:00 PM they had a duo of female singers by the name of Taylor and Taylor. Now, THAT'S more like it! Rock 'n' roll and awesome vocals!

Hey, hope we don't bore you with all the talk about Sun 'n' Fun. We'll be doing some kayaking, at least Sparky will. We'll be taking some side trips, visiting the Ringling Brothers Museum, checking out nightlife at Ocean Blues in downtown Sarasota, where there is some terrific blues goin' on....We'll be heading over to Myakka State Park to check that out, too. We've got ideas of things to check out, so maybe it won't be too boring after all! Sparky will do her best to keep it lively and interesting. See ya later!

It's Sunny in Sarasota at Sun 'n' Fun!

Sarasota, Fl      High:  82     Low:  57

And it's HOT! Time to turn on the air conditioning! We are settled in our site, 923, sandwiched in amongst three park models here at Sun 'n' Fun in Sarasota FL...We're a little disappointed in what the site looks like, but when we booked our reservation last April, we were trying to get several cottages and our RV site relatively close together for when all our kids come down at Christmas for a week. So they plunked us down in an area heavy with park models...That's ok..We can live with that...It's called a "premium site"...You get a concrete pad patio, a picnic table, but you park the rig on grass. A standard site is all grass, but they are roomier. There are a LOT of options for rigs at this park, with about 1500 residents full and part time at the park. At the time of the reservation, the monthly rate was 1120.00. Ouch! But--we've been conserving and saving for this park for some time, needing a place where all our children can come down, have fun, be fairly close to the beach (Siesta Key Beach)  and have plenty of things for young grandchildren and the adults to do without having to have a car and drive a ways to get to anything. So Sun 'n' Fun it is! The amenities are fabulous, and we'll be telling you all about them later. We'll have various site photo locations later so you can see what they have.

Our site is centrally located to all the fun stuff...close to the beautiful pools...Outdoor....

And the indoor one, just behind the outdoor pool.....Sparky plans on swimming a LOT of laps this month....

We've already been down to hear/see the live music which is offered often at poolside, they even have a place to dance if the moment strikes you. We've sat and had a couple of beers for Eldo and wine for Sparky at the newly remodeled bar with multiple TV's right there at the pool, too. Fun! The pool is absolutely beautiful at night....

It was our first full day here so time to do laundry...Decent prices to wash and dry, a really nice laundry facility--both under 2.00. Sparky needed to get caught up!

We ran errands, checked out Costco's in Sarasota for Christmas dinner supplies later down the road, and then took it easy this afternoon. A gentleman stopped by and just HAD to say, "GO NOTRE DAME!" when he saw Eldy's lawn flag. He and Eldy chatted football for a bit. He seemed almost as enthusiastic a Notre Dame fan as Eldy is!

Then we headed to Chili's for their "two for twenty" deal for supper....It was great!  A free appetizer from a choice of several on the list along with a choice of about six entrees. We each picked a six ounce steak, loaded red skin mashed potatoes and broccoli. It was plenty to eat and a great value.... AND--Sparky and Eldo got their 30 minute bike ride in today after supper to try and stay current with Eldy's daughter's Christmas physical challenge...Yay!     See you tomorrow....

Now THIS is a RESORT!

We had heard about Sun 'n' Fun RV Resort from our friends Nick and Ritchie when they came to Bradenton last week...We decided to go ahead a book a week since Eldy's family was coming for a visit this week. It's a little above our budget, but that's why we stay in cheap campgrounds with our zone membership so once in awhile, we can splurge...This campground resort is 250.00 a week..depending on whether you get a standard, premium, or deluxe site. Sometimes these pricing schedules are a little confusing. We had inquired previously about a monthly rate in which they quoted a spring special four weeks for the price of three, and it came out to 785.00 a month, which INCLUDES electric and taxes...not bad for this part of Florida!

This is truly a resort....I don't know about you, but all the RV parks in Florida claim to be resorts and most of them should be fined for making that claim! So many parking lot style parks, with rigs all jammed in together, no shade and no amenities...THIS one is a wonderful exception, so here we go....Sun 'n' Fun RV Resort:
It's a HUGE park, 600 sites in four classes all with full hookup....a HUGE outdoor pool.....

There's a restaurant and bar at poolside with daily two for one happy hour specials...Last night we listened to a Cajun band at poolside called "Gumbo Boogie". They were terrific and we danced up a storm! It was really fun to have live entertainment beside the pool and to watch everyone having fun in the pool at the same time as some toe tapping Cajun music was being played. In a few days, they are having a steel drum band poolside...Sparky LOVES steel drums music!

They have a Fitness/Wellness Center with state of the art equipment and an indoor pool for adults only.....

Here's the fitness room...there are two levels to the fitness center and ANOTHER fitness center in another part of the park!

They have an exercise/dance studio in the fitness/wellness center.....offering all sorts of classes like Zumba. Unfortunately, most classes ended in March.

The park is really kid friendly, which is great for visiting grandchildren....

This is a jumping "pad" instead of a trampoline for the kiddies....

They have a computer classroom complete with computers!

A short disc golf course with mini golf.....

A butterfly garden complete with a little bistro table and umbrella....

There's a beautiful lawn bowling court.

They even have a pet bath and several dog parks!

The sites are roomy and spacious...Here's ours...You don't get to choose where you want to be or what orientation the sun is on your rig. It would be too complicated in this park to get everybody where they need to be if that were the case! We are not in a shaded part of the park but they are available elsewhere.

Some parts of the park are VERY shady....

Of course they have nice tennis courts and pickleball courts...Too bad Sparky pulled a back muscle doing a dumb thing like loading and lugging firewood into the car last week. Her back hasn't been the same since, but IS getting better.  (Another reason to throw out that wood! We've been carrying it around in the car waiting for a park to let us have a campfire, fusses E.)  We'll save it for when we get to Michigan, honey. And before anybody chides Sparky for carrying firewood across state lines, it's barkless. Ok, the courts....

And one of the nicest things about this park? They have a full service SPA with deep tissue massage, facials, microdermabrasion, and all kinds of stuff offered! Wow!

And that's the park....great wi-fi--fast and free, great cell phone signals...we're good to go, er, STAY...maybe longer than a week, who knows?  We'll have to find out what the monthly rate is...We'll keep you informed...see you at the pool, at the spa, at the fitness center, wherever! Or, at the beach with the grandkids...The beach is about 20 minutes from here, we think...More later....