Swinging Golfers Rally - Cochran Ga 6-14 Apr 12

The Swinging Golfers' banner is proudly displayed at "The Wood's" Golf Course.  Approximately 21 coaches participated in this rally.  

Here we are in spot 18.  Charlie Thompson Jr opened the course in August of 1989.  The RV park was added in 2003.  After we arrived, Charlie met us at our site.  He said this golf cart is yours to keep at your site and use during your stay. 

There are 37 RV sites located at the golf course.  Each site has its own water, sewer and 30/50 amp electric.  Free WIFI is also available in your coach.  

Here's a photo of the driving range.

The putting green is adjacent to the driving range. 

You can see here some of the cheapest prices for golf you will ever see. We paid the family rate of $35.00 for a month and paid $9.00 per day, per person, for a golf cart when we are on the course.  You can play all 27 holes for the daily cart fee.  An absolute great value!

Here's a photo of hole number 9, Par 3, Red Course taken from the Pro Shop.

Here's a photo of the same hole taken from the white tee box.  

Asheville Zip Line Canopy Adventures Apr 2012

Here we are all geared up for our initial training.  Training included tips on proper techniques for starting, stopping and manual modes in case you stop too soon.  Our group composed of 10 people with two rangers, Joe and Charlotte as guides.  We practiced on short zip lines to learn the proper techniques.  Once complete, we headed for some enhanced training.  

We started from a mid-level deck off this tower to ease us into higher and longer zip lines.  Everything was just fine.

Our first real test was going from the main tower to this watch tower - a zip of 320 feet in length.  

Here's Kathy getting ready to leave the watch tower to a tree deck.  Notice the two yellow nylon cords that are on the left of the photo.  Everyone had two cords which were only touched by the rangers.  These cords were used to hook up and secure a rider during every phase of the operation.  We felt extremely secure.

Yes Mom, that's your daughter!  Crazy as a cat and having a great time.  Kathy had excellent technique as she zipped this 570 foot line.  It's not the speed that gets you, it's the sudden stop.  Everyone in our group performed as though we had done this prior to our visit.  Both rangers praised the groups techniques.

Here's an aerial view of the last zip line.  1200 feet in length with riders reaching speeds of 30-40 mph.  I think Kathy might have exceeded that during her zip.  I left the platform and was 15 feet in front of her.  When I stopped at the bottom and turned around she was already there.  A masterful feat of illusion.  

This final zip was a tandem zip, racer against racer.  Since Kathy and I zipped together, I had to take a photo of other people in the group to show you what the ride looked like.  We had a great time during the entire process and would love to do this again.  How about a zip line over the Grand Canyon? 

Click on photo to enlarge.

Asheville Zipline Canopy Adventures includes 3 sky bridges and 10 zipline sections from several hundred feet to 1,200 feet in length.  Fully Guided and Kathy & Dave approved!  

Our Future Home Site

This winter we stayed at Deer Creek Golf and RV Resort in Davenport Florida.  We had been here a couple of years ago and really enjoyed our stay.  This visit we were considering purchasing a lot to build a small home with a covered RV port. Davenport Florida is a great location for us.  Its an easy drive to Orlando and Sanford International Airports and 20 minutes to most Disney attractions. 

During our stay we met many great and interesting people.  Deer Creek is a winter home to many Americans as well as Canadians.  They are referred to as "Snowbirds" but some residents live here during the entire year. The community has RV port homes, manufactured homes, park models and RV lots, many with storage sheds.  The Deer Creek Resort is made up of five distinct sections.  Each section is exclusive and has its own rules and regulations.  Amenities include an 18-hole executive golf course, swimming pools, tennis courts and numerous clubhouses including the main central clubhouse.   

During our stay we both joined and played in the Men and Women's golf leagues as well as Thursday and Sunday's couples leagues.   Kathy won the Ladies Club Championship.  It's true, I have a picture of her and her tiara.  During our stay, we narrowed our focus for purchasing a lot down to either Osprey Point or Regal Pointe because we felt those two sections offered the best possibility to be able to build what we ultimately want to have.

The people we met throughout the park treated us as though we were already owners and lifetime friends.  We were invited to many parties and events. We both agreed that this would be a great place for us.  A perfect place to live and have our RV right next to our house.  Our future plans are to stay in Davenport Florida 5-6 months of the year and travel during the others.   

In March  2012, we decided to purchase a lot in the Regal Pointe section of Deer Creek Golf and RV Resort.  Our lot is located at 1121 Deer Creek Blvd, Davenport Fl, below I-4 on Hwy 27.  This section is exclusively for Class A motor homes. 

This is a view from behind our motor home looking over the lots behind us.  Although our lot has 1050 square foot of pavers now, when complete it should look similar to the below photo.

Our home will be the reverse of this one.  Our motor home will be facing inward and the home will be on the right side.  The port will cover the motor home as well as a parking area in the front for the van and golf cart.  

This  is the gated entrance to the Regal Pointe section of the community. 

Here's a photo of the pool and hot tub area of the clubhouse.  The pool is heated which helps during those chilly winter days

The inside of the clubhouse is very relaxing with many couches and chairs as well as a big screen TV for Wii bowling. Something is going on almost every night of the week.

There are many dances, parties and Branson type shows that are open to residents.  Wednesday and Fridays are my favorite nights,  we play Texas Holdem Poker which attracts many victims including myself.  A very large kitchen area is perfect for hosting dinners and larger events. 

The fitness room includes treadmills, stationary bikes, an elliptical  machine, weight machine and TV for keeping you active during your stay. 

The clubhouse also has a small library and computer center as well as washer and dryers for doing laundry and complete men's and ladies restrooms with showers. 


Even though we are very happy with our new lot and our long term plans to build, we still intend to go west next winter season, so we do not expect to be back at Deer Creek until late in 2013.

Blog Catch Up Time

Just to update you on our travels since our last post in July 2011.   From July - November we spent most of the time at Kathy's Mom's farm in Indiana. Our goal this visit was to get Mom on a 15-year plan - By that time Mom will be 90 years old and we think she might consider moving by then.  We looked at things around the farm and asked "will that last another 15 years".  If the answer was no, then maybe it needed to be replaced, removed, etc.   Mom had the trees over the house trimmed, had the old chimney removed and a new roof put on the house. Also, the front porch roof was repaired after storm damage.

Mom also had new windows installed in the garage.  We painted the garage floor which looked great. 

We painted the outside of the first barn and Mom had a contractor enclose another with an entrance door and new metal garage door.  

  
The same storm that damage the porch roof split this tree.  The tree had to be removed so we contacted a local tree company to do the work.

Here you can see the crew in action.  


Kathy's brother Mike pitched in and removed all the scrap metal  from the farm.  I help mend the porch ceiling fan and painted the front porch railing.   In addition to everything else that was done, we also added a gravel site to the rear of the house which included a 50 AMP service for our RV.  

Kathy's Mom knee required surgery and healed very quickly this summer and all is well at the farm. In addition to all the work that was done on the farm, Kathy found time to catch the remaining farm cats and had them spayed and neutered.  You would not believe what a gigantic effort it took to get this accomplished.   


In early October our refrigerator cooling unit died.  We were contemplating installing a residential refrigerator.  After careful consideration, we decided to travel to Shipshewana IN, and have an Amish cooling unit installed.  We would highly recommend the Amish cooling unit to anyone that needs to replace their existing cooling unit. JC's refrigeration did an excellent job.     


We also found time to visit our great friends Ron and Jennifer Webb in Bracebridge ON.  Ron is the CPGA Pro at South Muskoka Golf and Curling Club.  During our visit, Ron invited us to play Bigwin Island.

To get to the course you have to take a shuttle boat.  You can see the clubhouse ahead in this photo.  Ron was an assistant Pro here early in his career. The island houses million dollar estates and is one of the premier golf courses to play in Canada.

Here we are at the first tee. Fore!

You can see how beautiful the condition of the course was during our round. Looks like a painting. 

The finishing hole is exceptional.  We had a great time visiting our Canadian friends in Bracebridge ON,  and look forward to our next visit. 

We also had a chance to visit Mike and Sharon Felter (Drifter) in Michigan to help change out his Norcold refrigerator to a residential unit.  Once the unit was removed from its location, we could not get it out the front door without removing the cooling unit.  It took another hour to get it loose and out it went!

We left Mom’s farm in Indiana on the 15^th of November.  We stayed Indiana a little later than normal to attend a wedding in Wisconsin.  Hello Boothy's, Milem's, Kathy and Keith  .  We visited lots of friends in November, both at the wedding and on our way to our current location in Davenport, FL near Orlando.  For some reason most of them were Canadians, don’t you know?    

We told Bill and Olga we would stop by Destin sometime for a visit.  It only took us a few years.  We had an opportunity to golf and enjoy a great seafood dinner right on the water.   Their hospitality was exceptional and the weather was excellent.

During our visit to Destin we stayed at the Destin Army Recreation Center located on the inter coastal canal.  A small but very nice place for a weeks stay.  We would highly recommend this facility for all our military friends.