Reading the Connecticut obits from Florida....

Reading the obits:  So, here I am in Florida on a reasonably warm (59 deg in January!) morning sipping my first cup of coffee and reading the obits in the New London Day, my former CT hometown newspaper.  Up until our arrival here in Titusville in 2012 we’d spent our entire life in Southeastern CT (East Lyme and Preston) so our roots there are strong.  It occurs to me that I’ve been blessed in knowing so many people over the years, primarily due to my occupation prior to retirement.  I was an insurance agent (Allstate Senior Account Agent) for over thirty years, and that entailed daily contact with many people, a lot of them who became friends and customers. So (and I’m drifting a bit here) that’s how I remember folks not only from the towns in where we lived, but also towns like Groton, Mystic, North Stonington and a lot of other local towns and cities.  A name and photo shows up in the obits and I remember :”Yeah, collected cars and had that nice Cape with the fenced yard” or something. Amazing how much we DO remember with a little nudging from a paragraph or two and a photo, especially if they’ve chosen one that was “back in the day” so to speak. I like people and on reflection the job I had was probably a heck of a lot better for me than having to sit in an office or cubicle with a slide rule or computer.  I’m thankful for having known so many fine customers who turned into friends over the years.

An Adjunct Instructor’s Final Syllabus (A Fun article from the Opinion Section of the NYT....)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/18/opinion/sunday/adjunct-instructor-syllabus.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&fbclid=IwAR2mRQNBYyskydAaGWLb2G9OnTse0k2ni7ZbgtPfrfTX7Pdja71lOSjnZc0

Titusville from the air.....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fN5ZL1wzapo#fauxfullscreen

Best Towns In Florida

https://www.florida-backroads-travel.com/florida-towns.html

Camping reservations as of January 13, 2019 (edited on Jan 25th).

Reservations: 1-7 of 7▲ Previous | Next ▼
Reservation Number Status	Type	Location	Reservation Details	Total Fee: Balance Due
Reservations: 1-7 of 7▲ Previous | Next ▼
2-34808870 FL Confirmed See Detail	Site	Lake Kissimmee State Park	Site: 002Tue Feb 05 2019 - Fri Feb 08 2019 (3 nights)	$40.30 :$0.00
2-36019807 FL Confirmed See Detail	Site	Gilchrist Blue Springs State Park	Site: 18Sun Mar 03 2019 - Thu Mar 07 2019 (4 nights)	$45.94 :$0.00
2-35102421 FL Confirmed See Detail	Site	Faver-Dykes State Park	Site: 003Sun Mar 24 2019 - Thu Mar 28 2019 (4 nights)	$46.48 :$0.00
2-36403291 FL Confirmed See Detail	Site	Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park	Site: 043Mon Apr 15 2019 - Fri Apr 19 2019 (4 nights)	$46.84 :$0.00
2-36466743 FL Confirmed See Detail	Site	Jonathan Dickinson State Park	Site: 035Sun May 19 2019 - Thu May 23 2019 (4 nights)	$64.68 :$0.00
2-36404313 FL Confirmed See Detail	Site	John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park	Site: 019Sun Jul 07 2019 - Thu Jul 11 2019 (4 nights)	$97.70 :$0.00
2-36190803 FL Confirmed See Detail	Site	Fort Clinch State Park	Site: 020Wed Aug 14 2019 - Wed Aug 21 2019 (7 nights)	$108.62 :$0.00

Additionally, we've made reservations for Jetty Park in Port Canaveral from Sunday June 9th thru Thursday June 13th, Site #325.  This is a Port Authority campground.
Also, we've reserved at Oscar Scherer State Park from 12/8 to 12/13/2019. We'll be on site 50, Murray & Donna on site 73 and John and Loretta on site #48.

Friends

A very long time ago I was a member of (and eventually Commander) of The New London Power Squadron, an educational boating group in Southeastern CT.  After ten years sailing Alice and myself decided to get out of boating and get back into recreational motor-homing.  We sold the boat, bought an RV, and friends of mine from the Squadron (Ken and Ellen Barber) suggested we consider joining their camping group, Seaport Sams which was a Good Sam Club chapter.  We did that, and eventually became President of the Chapter and made many friends there.

A group of these Seaport Samers used to winter in Florida with their RVs.  Most went to Titusville on the East Coast of Florida, and some went to Mexico Beach on the Panhandle.  Alice was still working, and her mother was in a nursing home, and it wasn't the time for us to join them.  When Alice’s mom passed we decided to head down to Titusville with the group.  Our first reservation was for four weeks, and we extended by two weeks….and the following year we reserved for two months.  Absolutely loved the area and went to three months the following year and finally four months+ when we realized we had to make serious plans to move there and stop the winter commute.

So, we purchased a townhouse in Titusville and sold our CT home, and the first thing we did here was look up Good Sam Chapters and found the Space Coast Sams.  We joined them, became very active and made many new friends in a place where we had none, and that brings me to the point of this epistle.

Both Chapters are gone now.  Old age and illness/declining health forced many to get out of RVing and the Chapters were unsustainable.  We moved to Florida from CT in 2012, and it occurs to me that (like in It’s A Wonderful Life), the situation we now enjoy would not have happened if any number of things had thrown us a curve.  To start, if Ken and Ellen hadn’t got us into Seaport Sams we wouldn’t have made all those new friends that eventually led us to Titusville…..where we met many new people through Space Coast Sams….which are the nucleus of our social circle here.

We’re very thankful for the friends we’ve had, and have and for the lucky breaks we’ve had in making and keeping them.  Truly they are a blessing.

Anastasia State Park & Saint Augustine December 2018

Here is a link to a Google Photo's Album from our recent jaunt to Anastasia State Park: https://photos.app.goo.gl/D64NBkyUGSSu3SC29