Fall Fun - Part 1

**faline** · 10-08-2016, 07:19 PM

September 21, 2016 (Wednesday)

We are heading for Florida but our first several days will not be at Disney. On this trip, we will be staying at five different locations.

Today is day one and it finds us at a Logan Airport Hotel. This is an overnighter before we fly out in the morning. Room okay. Weather still summer like even here in New England.

September 22, 2016 (Thursday)

The alarm was set for 4:30 am but we were up before that. We were in the lobby around 5 am just as a shuttle pulled up. We were quickly at the JetBlue terminal and had no wait to check our bags. Over the summer, we received our known traveler numbers so had the TSA precheck status. My tote bag was hand screened. The weekend before, we had gone to Vermont for the weekend. While there, I had purchased a corkscrew ($4) and had put it into my carry on bag. The corkscrew included a very small blade for cutting foil. I was told that knife was a problem and I could put it into my checked luggage - already gone - or toss it. I told them to toss it. I was also told the corkscrew would have been fine had it not had the small blade included. We went to a breakfast place where we had dined before but they weren't open yet. It was now around 5:30 in the morning and the web site indicated it would open at 6. We went in search of another option and found a place that makes breakfast sandwiches so we each had one along with a coffee (Actually, we could have shared one sandwich - oh well). We didn't wait very long at the gate before we boarded. We got lucky. We had booked a middle and an aisle but no-one showed up for the window seat so we had the row to ourselves. Our flight was smooth and we landed in Orlando by 10:30. After gathering our luggage, we walked across the street and picked up our rental which Thrifty had ready for us - we headed directly to the car and headed out. Our destination is about an hour north of the airport where we will be checking out some real estate over the next few days. We check into our room at a Holiday Inn, lunch at the nearby Cracker Barrel, take a ride around the area which is far more rural than we expected, pick up sandwiches for dinner and head back to our room for the evening.

September 23, 2016 (Friday)

After breakfast at a nearby Waffle House, we find a post office to buy some stamps (also allows us to drive around a bit more). We have a morning appointment at a nearby community to look at houses. We are provided with a tour of the community which provides a number of amenities and view four houses, one of which we like quite a lot. Upon recommendation of the sales rep, we lunch at a nearby spot. We also visit a local park which has some nice paths to walk and is quite serene. It is here that I see the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life!!! Back to the hotel to hang out. Tomorrow, we move on to another community.

September 24, 2016 (Saturday)

We pack up what little we have unpacked and hang out as our meeting at the next community where we will be looking at houses is not until 1. We leave the hotel around 11 and as we are looking for a place to have lunch, I get a call from Victoria & Albert's. We had been unable to book dinner there for our upcoming trip and had been wait-listed. Well, our wait-list came through and we now have reservations for next week. We find a little Italian Place in a strip mall with decent reviews on TripAdvisor so stop in for some pizza. Should have ordered the medium pizza instead of the large. Oh well! Pick up some more coke at Publix and head to our next community. We will be staying in a house here for the next two nights to "try out" the community. Since we have some things to refrigerate, our sales agent brings us to "our" house which we quickly tour, refrigerate our items, and head back to the main office to meet back up with our agent. He explains the history of the community and takes us on a tour of the grounds. We tour several homes - most of which have some amazing upgrades that make them quite pretty but also put them way, way out of the price range in which we are looking. After the house tours, we are on our own so return to "our" home. The first thing I do is load up the washing machine so we can wash the clothes we've been wearing for the last several days - big bonus!!

Since we have a reservation for Victoria & Albert, I cancel our reservations for Yachtsmen Steak House which fell on the same evening.

We go for a walk around the neighborhood - so hot!! We need to change. We have been provided a gift certificate to a restaurant in the downtown area so drive there. Indoor tables require a 15-20 minute wait but there is an outdoor table at which we can be seated immediately. I have a rib eye while my spouse has scallops - both are quite good. On the way home, we stop in a grocery store and pick up some crackers.

September 25 (Sunday)

We make coffee at "home". They had left a cheese platter in the fridge for us so we have that for "breakfast" along with the crackers I bought the evening before. After breakfast, we go for a walk. Pretty hot already. I realized I had not packed an evening bag and wanted one for our Victoria and Albert reservation. Since the mall I've located doesn't open until noon, we hang out on our patio for a while. Just as we are getting ready to go, our sales agent calls and asks if we are coming to the main building for lunch (We received a coupon to comp that as well) and we say we're on our way to a store but should be there by 1.

The mall is about 15 minutes away and not very far from the hotel we stayed in for our first two nights here. There is a JC Penny there. I am quickly able to find an appropriate evening bag and, bonus, it is 40% off. We are back to the main building by 12:30. Our agent joins us for lunch. We talk about a variety of things including our experience in the house in which we spent the evening as well as our plans for the future.

After lunch, we return "home". The sun is now hitting the patio head on so we spend some time hanging out inside. When some big clouds block the sun, we are able to return out of doors for a bit. We go for another walk and hasten our step on the way back "home" since there are some looming thunder clouds. Though we sit on a patio for a while longer, the threatened storms do not appear. We head indoors and reheat the leftover pizza from yesterday's lunch for this evening's dinner.

September 26 (Monday)

It's time to move on to location four for this trip. We pack up our things and are ready to leave by 8:30. Our sales person had said someone might be in the office by that time so I call and speak to someone who says he can take our keys, gate pass, and garage door opener so we drive there. Our sales agent is there and collects the items from us and we are on our way to our last house hunting location of this trip. Along the way, we stop at another Cracker Barrel and have breakfast. It's not long before we are pulling into the next community we will review. We meet our sales agent here who takes us on a tour of the community building which is quite nice and offers a number of activities. By time we climb on board a golf cart to view homes, the weather has grown threatening and thunder is booming. I think we view four to five models. The first is definitely too small; the second, still small, but we could work with it; the third and fourth would both work and we could likely make it fit into our budget. The last is nice but likely would end up outside our budget. As we head back to the community center, it is raining. We are shown to our "home" for this night. It is one of the small models - definitely something hat would be too small for us. Our sales agent gets us settled in and heads off. It is close to mid-afternoon so we are hungry. As we travel, we are seeing lots of lightning. Big thunderstorms in progress. Finding a nearby smoke house that has good reviews on Trip Advisor, we stop for lunch. Ribs for my spouse; pulled pork for me. We have lots of leftovers so know what we'll be having for dinner this evening. Returning to the community, we drive around the streets to check out all the other houses and then return to our "home". It's still dark and gloomy out but we head out to our patio for a bit. There is a lovely view over what we were told is a crane breeding ground. This house has a very private back yard and a lovely view - too bad it wasn't a larger model. After a while, we head indoors for the evening. Eventually, we reheat our lunch leftovers and have a fully satisfying dinner. Enough house viewing for this trip. Tomorrow, we'll be heading off to Disney!

**VWL Mom** · 10-09-2016, 07:11 AM

Are you house hunting for a permanent move? Kind of nice that you can overnight in the community and get the opportunity to check things out. Very nice that the V&A came through.

**faline** · 10-09-2016, 06:09 PM

Yes, it would be a permanent move. Still exploring.

**MississippiDisneyFreak** · 10-10-2016, 06:48 AM

Sounds like a nice community. Love the waffle House, I'm hungry now.

**JanetMegan** · 10-10-2016, 10:44 AM

Very nice, my Aunt and Uncle have been exploring retirement in that area and I think have settled on a community in Deland that they quite liked. Hope you find something that really feels like home to you!!