2012 POA Election at Florida Grande

I feel honored to have been nominated as one of this year's candidates for the position of POA Director. Whoever prevails at next Thursday's meeting will have the responsibility of being your eyes, ears and voice in our dealings with the new developer and the outside world.
Since many of you have little or no idea of who I am, I have included a brief biography below.

"If you chat with me you might guess I was not born in the US, but in England. Marian and I met in the mid-fifties in a cycling club in England and we have been running around together ever since - the last 50+ years as a married couple.

In the seventies we had an opportunity to come to the US and promptly did just that. We emigrated with our three daughters and became US citizens in the early eighties. Our daughters have since rewarded us with six grandkids, two great-grandsons and another two "on the way".

After adjusting to our new way of life, we had the great good fortune to live the American dream, eventually retiring in 2006. We began motor-homing in a Pace Arrow in 1991 and have worked through a variety of vehicles over the last 20 years. At the present time we RV about 8 months each year - 5 or 6 in the US and 2 or 3 in Europe. 

We have lived in Indiana for the last 16 years and spend time there in between our travels. Early in 2010, while roaming around Florida in our RV, we stumbled across Florida Grande, bought a lot and the rest is history." 

Don't forget however, the POA Election is like any other election - if you want to be represented, you must choose your candidate and then vote!
Even if you are not on site you can still vote. Print the POA Proxy Ballot that was included with the Notice of Meeting letter that was emailed to you on March 15th. Fill this form out and mail it immediately to:

Florida Grande POA 

9675 SE 49th Terrace,

Webster, FL 33597 

We currently have a great opportunity to move the park forward and rekindle the original vision - let's not waste it!

Pete

Troyes, France - June 7, 2011

Located on the river Seine river about 93 miles southeast of Paris and sporting numerous 16th century half-timbered houses, Troyes has been around since the Roman times. Known then as Augustobona Tricassium, Troyes is today the capital of the Aube department in north-central France and stands at the hub of highways leading to Reims, Langres (and eventually Milan), Poitiers, Autun and Orléans.
Late in the Roman cycle the settlement atrophied and became known simply as Tricassae, the origin of French Troyes from the number three. Interesting illustrated history here.
Louis the Stammerer received the imperial crown from the hands of Pope John VIII in 878  at Troyes and at the end of the ninth century the Counts of Champagne chose Troyes as their capital which it remained until the Revolution. During the Middle Ages, it was an important trading town and the concept of troy weight used today in gold trading was born here. Click for more pictures.

Boiry Notre Dame, France - June 5, 2011

After picking up our little camper van, Penny Pilote, in Numansdorp, NL, we usually raid the local grocery store and then go hell for leather out of Holland, across Belgium to reach the tranquility and relative normalcy of northern France. This trip was no exception - provisioned up at Albert Heins and a few hours of forgettable freeway behind us, we arrived at La Paille Haute (The High Straw) in Boiry Notre Dame by mid-afternoon.
Boiry-Notre-Dame is a tiny town in the Pas-de Calais Department of the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. At an altitude of about 270 feet and occupying less than 2.5 square miles, it is home to a little over 400 souls. This quiet farming village is about 10 miles southeast of Arras, has a school, a Marie (Mayor's place), a church and a memorial to yet more glorious dead. The church of St.Vaast was rebuilt in the 1920's after being destroyed in WWI. Click here for more pictures.

Getting there, Part 9 - Canterbury, England - May 31, 2011

The next port that we stopped at was Dover and the plan had been to meet Michelle and Nick there, clump around town for a while and then have a life shortening Fish and Chip lunch. We had visited Dover fairly recently finding not much of interest and Nick, who had been stationed there at one time, couldn't come up with any fresh delights either. So, pleasant surprise, we were scooped up and taken to Canterbury, about fifteen miles inland.
Canterbury is an historic English cathedral city in the county of Kent and lies on the River Stour. After the Kingdom of Kent's conversion to Christianity in 597CE, St Augustine founded an episcopal see in the city and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury, a position that now heads the Church of England and the worldwide Anglican Communion.
Thomas Becket's murder at Canterbury Cathedral in 1170CE led to the cathedral becoming a place of pilgrimage for Christians worldwide. It was this pilgrimage that provided the theme for Geoffery Chaucer's 14th-century literary classic The Canterbury Tales.
For more pictures around this historic city, click here.

Getting there, Part 8 - Cherbourg, France - May 30, 2011

Next stop on the cruise was Cherbourg-Octeville in the Manche department of Normandy. With a population of a little over 40,000 the area is largely dependent on the port operations and a French Navy arsenal.
The Cotentin Peninsula, with current day Cherbourg at its head, was first conquered by the Vikings and later, during the Seven Years' War, briefly occupied by a British force in 1758. Napoleon had the harbour fortified to prevent further British incursions although the works that began in 1784 were not completed until long after Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. Cherbourg was also the first, and as it turned out, the only stop that the Titanic ever made after it left Southampton, England in April 1912.
In WWII, the Battle of Cherbourg was fought following the Normandy Invasion in June 1944 and ended with the capture of the city on 30 June. We had visited Cherbourg previously in our camper-van and limited this visit to a cursory stroll around the main features. More pictures here.

Getting there, Part 7 - Liverpool, England - May 28, 2011

Still wending our way eastward towards Rotterdam in Holland, we had now reached the shores of England or at least the seven miles of docks at Liverpool, birth place of the Beatles. From the time that we lived in England our memories of Liverpool were of dock strikes, industrial action in car plants hastening the demise of the British auto industry and a general 19th century aura of dreary and depressed neighborhoods housing folk who worked in Dickensian gloom. In short we had low expectations.
How wrong we were! Despite a cool, gray day with occasional rain we thoroughly enjoyed a lengthy trek around this exciting metropolis. Modernization and reclamation of the dock area along with an eclectic profusion of striking architecture have resulted in a vibrant and bustling city with few reminders of the drab times of yesteryear.

Liverpool was granted borough status in 1207, and the original seven streets of the settlement can still be identified within the "commercial district". In 2006 Liverpool was visited by 625,000 international visitors alone, making it the fourth most visited city in the United Kingdom and the ninety-first most visited on earth.
Hope Street connects Liverpool's two cathedrals; Liverpool Cathedral and Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral as well as being home to a large part of the University of Liverpool's main campus.
Liverpool is one of the few cities in the world where ocean going liners can berth in the city center, providing a spectacular addition to the waterfront skyline.

For more pictures of this vibrant city, click here.

Getting there, Part 6 - Dublin, Ireland - May 27, 2011

In 2010, eighty-six cruise ships visited Dublin, smaller vessels coming up the river Liffey to dock close to the city, larger vessels like the Rotterdam berthing at Alexandra Quay, a mile or so down river. Alexandra Quay is now Ireland's largest port and handles approximately two-thirds of the country's imports and exports. The original medieval port, close to Christ Church Cathedral in the city center slowly lost impetus with the transition to containerization and larger ships in the late 20th century.
Roll-on/roll-off ferries run regularly across the Irish Sea to Holyhead in Wales and Liverpool in England, with the largest car ferry in the world, the MV Ulysses, carrying up to 2000 passengers each trip on the Holyhead route.
Famous as the birthplace both of Guinness Stout and Irish Whiskey, Dublin, with its population of over half a million is both the capital and the largest city of Ireland although it did little to impress us. The regional unemployment rate is almost 15% and Dublin itself is set to break 14%. Combined with the country's recent bankruptcy and bail-out by the EU, the economy is at a low ebb with many vacant retail spaces and few signs of prosperity anywhere around the city center.
Some views about town are here.

Getting there, Part 5 - Cobh, Ireland - May 26, 2011

Cobh, pronounced Cove, actually sits on Great Island in Cork Harbor, one of the largest natural harbors in the world. The largest island in the harbor, Great Island has a population of about 10,000 which includes the town of Cobh with its man made harbor large enough for smaller cruise ships. Available excursions, organized with the cruise lines, include Cork, Blarney Castle, Waterford, Killarney and other local attractions. We chose to stay in town which itself has been witness to much history.
For a start, Cobh was the Titanic's last port of call on its fatal maiden voyage in 1912 and, just a few years later during WWI, the Germans sunk the Lusitania off of its shore. Downtown, just a few block from where the Rotterdam was moored, are memorials marking these events.
Cobh was also the embarkation point for 2-1/2 million Irish citizens emigrating to the United States or Australia. Irish immigration to the US in both the 17th and 18th centuries was around 100,000 and then, as first canal building and then railroad construction produced huge demands for labor in the 19th century, the numbers soared into the millions. The first immigrants processed at Ellis Island started their journey to a new life from Cobh.
Our day was cool, blustery and sometimes wet but interesting nonetheless. See here for pictures.

Family Pictures, Thanksgiving 2011

Click here to see Sunday's pictures. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving 2011

Yesterday, the family descended on Martine and Dave's house, armed with healthy appetites and serious intent to wreak bodily harm on two unpardoned turkeys.

What a Cutie!

 All three of our girls were there with their husbands - not all of their husbands, just one each - and, exceptionally, all grandchildren and great grandchildren were in town for the day. Awesome! First time this group has been complete for quite some time.
With a traditional oven roasted turkey competing with a second, deep fried, turkey one would have thought the occasion well suited to an orderly and regulated evaluation of which method produces the best flavor. No such luck. By zero hour, 2:00 PM, both Meleagris ocellata, as these cute little birdies are known, were carved and by 2:15 PM the rabble were snarling at each other over the remains. So much for science.
See some Festivities here.

WARNING: This presentation contains disturbing images and may upset some viewers.

Getting there, Part 4, The Sugar Rush - May 28, 2011

On the last night of our divinely leisurely trip to Rotterdam on the Rotterdam, a special event was staged - Dessert Extravaganza! Dozens and dozens of creative cakes, pastries, canapes, sundaes, pies, fruits, custards, puddings all augmented by chocolate fountains, whipped cream, ice cream - you name it and it was probably there.
Believe it or not, we actually passed this event up although we did stop by earlier in the evening to witness the set up. Having been spoiled for more than two weeks in the restaurants of Holland America we knew we were going to have our work cut out over the next couple of weeks trying to get ourselves back up to speed for our walkabouts, and a visit to this orgy of confection would have made matters just that much worse! Here are some peeks at the pleasures we forwent.

Getting there, Part 3 - May 18, 2011

In 1972, Ted Arison, an Israeli-American entrepreneur bought the retired Canadian Ocean Liner, Empress of Canada, renamed it Mardi Gras and thus was born Carnival Cruise Lines. After a money-losing start the operation found its mark, added a couple more ships, went public in 1987 and never looked back.

Carnival is now the largest cruise operator in the world comprising eleven major brands, about 100 ships and more than 160,000 berths. Subsidiaries include Costa Cruises, Cunard Line, Holland America Line, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises and Seabourn Cruise Line. The combined brands of Carnival Corporation control more than half of the total worldwide cruise market.
Check out these pictures to see where the 2,000 gallons of milk, 15,000 pounds of beef and 26 tons of vegetables actually go.