Tuesday, November 6, 2007

11/02/07 A Surprise for Some Old Friends

After breakfast in the hotel dining room we decided to see if we could find our friends Marv and Vi that we met last year in Florida. We know they are in Zephyrhills but not what RV park they are in. The plan is to go there and tour all the parks we can find to see if we can find them. We have to have something to do to pass the time away since we aren't going to meet up with Bonnie and Chris until this evening.

So off we go. As we took the off ramp to Zephyrhills there was a billboard of sorts listing about a half dozen RV parks within the town limits. I noticed Happy Days RV Park and that rang a bell. Bob thought that rang a bell with me because we were going to stay in an Arizona park of the same name. We found the park after stopping to ask directions and when we pulled in the first 5th wheel we saw was a Montana and that is the same brand as Marv's. Bob said that was it right away but I wasn't so sure. There was no black truck in the parking space, in fact there was no vehicle at all. We stopped and I got out. I looked in the window and recognized the table cloth on the table and there was a little ceramic pot on the ground next to a lawn chair which Vi always had handy for her cigarette butts. I looked at the dealer label on the rig and it was from an outfit in Michigan, Marv and Vi's home state. OK, we found them but they weren't home. Since it was lunch time we decided they had gone out for lunch.

We decided to take a ride to pass the time and passed a manufactured home dealer and we stopped to tour some of the models. This is something that we see in our future when we decide to settle down somewhere. We were truly surprised at how spacious and pretty they are! We spent about an hour or so walking from model to model and decided that surely Marv and Vi would be back by now.

We drove back to Happy Days RV Park and sure enough when we pulled in the first thing we saw was Marv's black truck. As we pulled into the additional parking space we saw Vi sitting outside reading. She looked up and had this look on her face that seemed to say, "I know you, but I don't know where from". Had we been in our truck she would have known us right away but the rental car threw her. She was so surprised when Bob said, "Hi, Vi, how are ya doin'?" Then she knew us. Marv was inside and heard our voices and came out to see who was there. The look on his face when he saw us was priceless! Huge grin! After hugs and handshakes we sat down outside to bring each other up to date on our lives. We visited for several hours and then had to be on our way because we were to meet up with Bonnie and Chris back in Tampa for the evening hours. We told Marv and Vi we would be back on Sunday.

Back in Tampa we found our way to Tampa East RV park where Chris and Bonnie are staying for the night. There were several other rigs there that their friends own and they will all take them to the fair ground tomorrow for the concert. Bonnie knew we were coming to Florida but I made her promise not to tell Chris. (I had to tell Bonnie we were coming because I needed her help in getting tickets) Luckily, Chris' back was to us as we approached and he didn't know it was us until he turned around. He too was surprised to see us. His first reaction was, "You aren't supposed to be here!"

We spent the time meeting and talking with this group of Parrotheads and four pizzas were ordered for dinner.
Eating Pizza
After a while the mosquitoes just got too bad and we decided it was time to go.

We agreed to meet everyone the next morning around nine at the fairgrounds to get the decorating started for this last show of Jimmy's Bama Breeze Tour.





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