Monday - 18th - The Fun Has Begun - We Think.

Monday - 18th - The Fun Has Begun - We Think.

Slept well and woke to beautiful sunshine.  It was warm enough today for short sleeves and short pants and sandals!!!   It was even warm enough to buy some ice cream bars when we went to the commissary!  Roger had one Mr. Fixit project which he was able to complete satisfactorily.  He made me blueberry pancakes for my birthday breakfast and it has been a nice day.  

I mentioned that folks have been stopping by to greet us (to check us out).   They are friendly enough and ask if we are spending the winter and when we say we are here only two weeks their interest fades.  It’s quite a clique of regulars here - many of them have come here every winter for over 10 years.  It’s more like the 55+ communities you find in the warmer climates where people come from up north for the winter, stay in the same place, have the same friends and get involved in the same activities to stay busy.  This morning I saw a group of 5 ladies out for a walk and they probably do it every day.  It’s all retired military in this park right now.  I haven’t noticed any active duty.  We are right next to base housing and there are several empty homes so I’m guessing the base is not at maximum staffing.  The Marines are flying trainer jets all day right now.  The Blue Angels and their squadron are not due to come here from Pensacola until January - long after we are gone. 

This base is very small and has a small commissary and exchange and a fitness center available.  Tomorrow we will start going to the gym.  Town is seven miles east.  We went out today to check things out and found a mall, Costco, Target, and Wal-mart - all of which were about 8 miles from the main gate.  

The town is very Hispanic.  We went to the food court in the mall for lunch today and the whole time we were there I heard no English being spoken.  The Costco was the same way.  We are close to the border and this is an agricultural area with lots of workers.  (Lettuce seems to be what we see growing right now.)  

I took the laptop up to the rec center this afternoon to try the internet there.  I got on but it would fade out after a few minutes.  No time to do anything.  Oh, so frustrating.  When we went to the office to pay for our stay this morning I noticed a sign:  “Due to the government shutdown and the budget cuts there is no WIFI available on base.”   They don’t have a library here, either.  I asked a sailor in the commissary this afternoon if there was one and he said no and he didn’t know where I could find a hotspot.  Pretty sad when our troops are having to do without. 

Anyway, tomorrow we will go into town in search of a place I can download this journal into the blog, download photos, and get everything posted.  Fortunately we can get our email on our cell data plans.  Hmmm....could be a very long two weeks.  We tried to find something on TV - about 16 Spanish speaking channels and 5 Asian speaking channels.  We did find the basics - ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox.   I guess we will get a lot of reading done and we will go through our crossword books pretty fast!