THE VILLAGES, PART II

In February last year, Laurie visited her sister Irene in "The Villages", a Florida retirement city.  She was wowed by the way the area was designed and maintained, and wrote about it in our blog.  She told me (Dean) that I had to see it to appreciate it.  And that was the reason we trekked 3300 miles from Bremerton this fall.

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She was right!  This place (patterned somewhat on the Sun Cities in Arizona) was conceived and built by a single person and his family.  The differences from the Sun Cities are that the plan was to be as friendly and convenient for the residents as possible.  I think profit was a secondary objective.  Why else would there be community swimming pools every eight blocks?  

Currently there are two town centers where every night there is free live entertainment in the square.  The one closest to Irene is Sumter Landing patterned after the Florida Keys.  Boats on anchor.  A lighthouse.  And even a lock to nowhere.

There are 20 regional (Village) sports/activities centers with several meeting rooms (free), more pools, basketball, tennis, pickleball, bocce ball and shuffleboard courts, every couple of miles.  And shopping centers every five miles.  80 restaurants within golf-cart range.  64 bowling lanes.  And always a free golf course within a mile or so.

So, there are 33 "villages" now......  with about 85,000 residents, and 45,000 residences.  Real homes; not mobiles or factory-built homes.  33 executive (free) golf courses, and 10 "championship" courses available for a nominal fee.  

90+ miles of paved trails for golf carts and bikes, plus many miles of designated golf cart lanes on the regular vehicle roads. 

Over 30 tunnels to allow golf carts to cross busy "regular" roads without having to cross on the surface.  There's even a golf cart bridge over a 5 lane US highway.

Several times we visited the sales center – on the reader board were the names of new owners for the past 3 days.  These numbers on our 3 visits were 63, 60, and 60.  That's 20 homes a day being sold.  Wow!

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The community buildings and public areas are immaculately maintained. 

Each village is themed differently, and the theme décor is perfectly carried out in the community buildings. 

Lake Miona Recreation Center
all nautical

Sea Breeze Recreation Center
Bathrooms keep with the motif - typical at The Villages

Odell Rec Center has an African safari motif

One morning I saw two crews raking and bagging pine needles along the fence fifty feet from the roadway so they didn't deter the view of the bright green grass ---- and a fellow on a baseball field blowing leaves from the entire field with a trailer mounted blower about the size of a small jet engine.

Oh --- the golf carts. Just about everybody has one; most couples have two.  Most geared-up a bit in order to cruise 25-30 mph along the cart roads. And many spiffed up to look like model A's, vintage pickups, '57 Chevys, limousines, MG's or ??? Fun!

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So, are we going to move there?  Nope.  We still enjoy traveling to interesting spots across the country, and there are things about Florida that we both don't enjoy; so we don't see The Villages in our future.  But one never says never, does one?

From there to here, and here to there, funny things are everywhere. (Dr Seuss)

   

WHO-VILLE IN ALABAMA

Some readers may remember that we sometimes find odd names for roads, cities and businesses.  Here's a few towns we found within 20 miles of our route as we crossed the state of Alabama:

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Rogersville, Maysville, Mooresville, Falkville, Littleville, Haleyville, Landersville, Blountsville, Hanceville, Greysville, Adamsville, Springville, Odenville, Branchville, Fayetteville, Wilsonville, Centreville, Eliotttsville, Trussville, Plantersville, Deatsville, Statesville, Orrville, Burnsville, Autaugaville, Hackneyville, Mapleville, Ridersville, Greensville, Libertyville, Johnsonville, Freemanville, Belleville, Robinsonville, Phillipsville, Hodgesville, Daleville, Chalkville, and Moundville.

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That caused me to look at the listing by cities on the map, and I found I had seen only about a third of the "villes".  Yikes!  I guess if you didn't have a town named after you, you just didn't count.

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And I found I had completely missed Bear Creek, Dog Town, Duck Springs, Hawk, Horn Hill, Pea Ridge, Pigeon Creek, Wing, and the ever-popular Flat Rock and Level Road.  And Smut Eye.

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Ah, me --- for someone whose home state boasts Pysht and Humptulips, I guess I ought not cast the first stone.

Sad loss

Eric Otto Gunnerson
July 23, 1954 to November 4, 2011
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Today my brother Eric succumbed to pancreatic cancer.
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Eric was such a wonderful dad and grandfather

and was so animated bragging about his grandbabies.
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He and his wife Laurie were married for 36 years. 
36 years where he lived with Laurie's tender love.

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Prayers and kind thoughts are needed right now

to help his family cope with the loss of
their father, grandfather, husband, son and brother.

Show Me Missouri

Without really trying to, we spent over a week in Missouri.  These are some of the things we'll remember about the Show Me state.

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>  Missouri doesn't seem to publicize its famous spots.  We found little or nothing in state literature which might lead the casual visitor to historic or unique stops.  Nor signs pointing out state parks, national forests, or old battlefields, etc. as we went down the road.  Several times we circled areas knowing what we were looking for was right "there"....somewhere!

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>  Being here at Halloween, we thought it was real neat that all the churches had "Trunk or Treat" nights.  We assumed that instead of parents having to come up with new costumes each year that the churches had trunks of costumes.  Not so, I was informed.  Trunk or Treat nights are when cars come and park in the church lot, decorate their car trunks, and give candy to the kids.  Apparently in this area, Ozarks of Missouri, there are so many meth lab homes in the area and that the chemicals used permeate almost anything and can contaminate the candy through the wrappers that is given to the kids on Halloween.  Oh!

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>  Missouri roads (we like US highways, but usually don't travel US Interstates) were for the most part pretty comfortable to travel.  We found only one "bad" bit of road on US 7 southeast of Kansas City.   Not necessarily rough or in bad repair; just 9 1/2 or 10 foot lanes, with no shoulder. Gotta pay a lot more attention, so not very relaxing. Only about 20 miles of that, though, and the only sphincter-grabbing spot was when we came over a crest at about 50 mph and down a short grade into a medium-sharp curve.  2/3 of the way through the curve, two state patrolmen were standing in the middle of our lane with a tape measure. The retarder (exhaust brake) had been on all the way down the hill – they shoulda heard us coming.  Fortunately, the other lane was empty and we could swerve around them as they moseyed off toward the non-shoulder. Lucky guys; they came within a fraction of a second of getting "blapped" with the air horn, Dean's usual automatic reaction to a dog or crow or ??? in the road ahead.

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>  Harry Truman must be the only President to come from Missouri.  There were Truman Roads in a multitude of towns and cities we passed.

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>  Car dealers with 100's of cars on their lots.  Way more than at home.  Perhaps they've got a ready market after tornados touch down in nearby towns?

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>  Missourians want to burn everything.  Give them a few fallen leaves and there is a fire.  Many times people pushed the leaves into a ditch and lit it on fire.  One of the rules at a Rest Area was: do not start a fire in the trash can !!!

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>  Many people have huge green lawns.  Small flower beds.  Big areas to mow.  Must be bragging rights if you have the fastest mower in the neighborhood.

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>  Too many drivers are on their cell phones.  Saw nothing stating it was against the law to use them while driving.

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>  Limestone rock,  lending itself to caves and springs all over the state.

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>  Big long spindly man-made lakes caused by damming rivers for flood control or electric producing.  Some of these lakes arms are 90 miles long.

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And the best part: Lambert's Café – home of the Throwed Rolls

where you have to catch or get beaned by the flying dinner rolls. 

We got to eat here twice!