We arrived in Bushnell, Florida on December 10th. We were pleased to find out that they are offering the Escapee’s discount of Stay and Play. This means that we pay for 15 days and get to stay for 20. So, we paid up front and got our electric meter reading and settled into site 84. We were right next door to our friends, Tom and Jean Fornay. We had a good time visiting with them, sharing 4:00 PM socials, and many evenings playing cards at the clubhouse. We worked together to organize the Christmas Eve gathering and Yankee Swap. I think a fun time was had by all. We had about fifty fun people there.
Early in December we visited the Florida National Cemetery and saw all of the wreaths that had been placed on the graves. Here is a condensed history of the wreath laying at our National Cemeteries:
The Arlington Story
Worcester Wreath and its involvement with the Arlington project was inspired at the early age of 12 years old when, as a Bangor Daily News paper boy, Morrill Worcester won a trip to the Nation’s Capital. It was a trip he would never forget, and Arlington National Cemetery made an indelible impression. In later life, he recognized that his success as a businessman was in large part, due to the values of this Nation and the Veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.
In 1992, the Wreath Company found themselves with an excess of wreaths nearing the end of the holiday season. Seeing an opportunity to make a boyhood dream a reality, efforts to do something special with those wreaths began in earnest. With the help of Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, arrangements were made for the wreaths to be placed at Arlington in one of the older sections of the cemetery, a section which received fewer visitors with each passing year.
The Bushnell Story
The summer of 2006 a group of U.S. Military Veterans came across the Wreaths Across America website and found out that the Florida National Cemetery had not been enrolled to receive wreaths. The U.S. Military Vets M/C decided to host the Wreath laying ceremony. With 7 Ceremonial Wreaths, 40 people in attendance and pouring rain, we held our first ceremony.
Wreath Company in Harrington, Maine decided to open up the individual wreath laying to Cemeteries across the Nation. With the help of the Civil Air Patrol and few other sponsoring groups we were able to place 88 holiday wreaths on veterans graves. In 2008 we placed 1,200 wreaths with 1,000 attending. In 2009 we placed 2,300 with over 1500 in attendance. This past year 2010 was over best year to date. We were able to place 3,800 wreaths covering four different sections. We also estimated that over 3000 people were in attendance. Our goal for 2011 is 10,000 wreaths...
Tom and Jean Fornay were present for the wreath laying ceremony and they each placed a wreath on a grave . If we make it to Bushnell next year in time, we will attend this service.
The weekend before Christmas we drove uptown to a local church that was running a live Nativity story. Well, it was not only a live Nativity, but had scenes from Christ’s whole life. It was a very moving evening. The production was very well done and the church’s gift to the community.
These were REAL PEOPLE hanging from those crosses, and it was NOT a warm Florida evening. Sorry, but you cannot get the best effect from night pictures. You will just have to take my word for it, the production of this was exceptional. There was a LONG line of vehicles waiting to drive through.
Christmas Day we joined lots of our friends at the clubhouse for dinner. Everyone at our table contributed to the decorations and food at the table. We had a good time and a great meal.
Tom and Jean
In late December our friends Dave and Karen Long arrived on site as well. It was great to have them nearby to join in all the fun. Dave and Phil went to Webster Flea Market most Mondays and came home with some great produce. They also found a vendor selling Egyptian Cotton sheets. Phil bought one set for the RV. We decided that we would like more, so the next week Phil and Dave each bought more, Dave talked the vendor into a discount, so they got three sets for $36. Pretty cool!
Karen and Dave
Phil is back to walking several miles each morning. He has also crossed a lot of jobs off of his list of things to be done to the RV. He spent a lot of time up on the roof, cleaning it and caulking any spots that were potential leaks. He buffed out a troublesome stripe on the side of the RV that was a result of a close encounter last fall. He also installed a new kitchen faucet, found and fixed a troublesome leak in the bathroom, refinished and upgraded the headlights, retightened an outside mirror, added trim to the steps, removed the old in motion satellite dish and repaired the roof, put a new thermostat in the water heater, and repaired the AC covers on the roof. Our RV has reached the age of ten years old and has about 97,000 miles on it, so continued maintenance is needed at this time. While we are here he hopes to get the outside of the RV washed and waxed and cross off a few more items on his list. He will also be working with our friend Jon LaPointe on rebuilding the engine to his 8N tractor. Restful winter, huh?
I have been busy just doing everyday things, like laundry, housecleaning, managing our busy social schedule, and fiddling with my new laptop. Add to that, I needed to reset up a new phone, because I lost mine at Wal Mart.
I borrowed a lot of this narrative about New Year’s Eve from the blog of Larry and Marilyn Forbes. Larry presented it so well, I was hard pressed to do better:
We celebrated the end of 2011 at the Sumter Oaks RV Park clubhouse. Everyone in the park was invited to the wedding reception put on by the Pearlite’s and the Colbert’s for the marriage of Pearline Pearlite to Lance Van Colbert. The invitation stated that in lieu of gifts, guests were “Politely asked to bring and share some horses’ ovaries”.
Here are the grandfather (Pappy) of the Bride along with Pappy’s current wife, Henrietta VIII). 
The parents of the Bride (Minnie Pearlite and Duke Twayne of Booger Holler) came in first: 
The bride and groom arrived, and were escorted to their reception table by their parents. They sat with the best man and matron of honor. 
After the wedding party had the opportunity to fill their plates, all of the guests lined up to partake of the “horses’ ovaries”. 
The bride and groom made a lovely couple as they danced the night away. 
We also had another memorable cake cutting ceremony (like so many weddings). The matron of honor even chastised the bride and groom before they cut the cake. 
Tom led the Conga Line carrying ‘The Wiz’
We were visited by Father Time 2011 and Baby New Year 2012. 
So, on February 1st we packed up and headed out toward our next destination, Rainbow Plantation in Summerdale Alabama. We arrived on the 3rd and got a great site, facing south, which means we get a a lot of sunshine through our front window. We have lots of friends here as well, and there are lots of activities going on all the time. Next week will start the Mardi Gras celebration that lasts for several days. The goings on are hilarious and hard to describe. It is amazing what grown up children can get into! I will post pictures in the next blog.
