Florida Thanksgiving, gators, jumpers

First of all... I must confess that it has been years since I have celebrated Thanksgiving with my REAL (biological) family, due to living in Texas for years. So spending yet another Thanksgiving NOT with my "own" family is not a hardship for me. L and I had already looked at airfare prices and decided that we could only realistically afford one trip this year -- so we chose Christmas.

We had a gathering at the clubhouse of this RV park, so those who were not able to be with family, could have a social gathering. The park's management provided the turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls and margarine -- and the residents who chose to join in the meal, were asked to bring a dish or dessert. I am SO hungry for vegetables, so I chose to steam several heads of brocolli. I sliced and sauteed several cloves of garlic and stirred this into the brocolli before I covered the dish and we walked up to the clubhouse. And it was a good meal, with certainly PLENTY to eat. Most of the vegetable-based side dishes were definitely made from scratch. Not so, with most of the desserts (I noticed). I think ALL of the pies were "store bought" or at least store-purchased, then later baked. The same was true of most of the cakes. So it's given me some ideas for NEXT year... I will probably still bring a good veggie dish, but maybe a from-scratch dessert, too. I could make a good bread pudding (a taste that I acquired while living in Houston), for example.

Gators: L has noticed gators in the water, on most of the golf courses on which he has played. So here are a snap or two of one of the gators - only about a five-footer - that he and the rest of his foursome came across while playing in a tournament the Monday before Thanksgiving. This first shot shows the gator mostly out of the water, headed (already) back to "safety" after being spotted.


Here's the gator making his way back to the pond and already partially in the water.



JUMPER! A friend that we've made at this park, did a tandem jump (yes -- he jumped out of a perfectly good, still operating plane) the Friday after Thanksgiving. Here's a couple of photos of that day.

First one shows him practicing the "assume the postion" that he is supposed to be in, soon after bailing out of the plane.
>>== "And smile for the camera..."


<<== Supportive friends - plus B's wife, S (blue jacket, right side)



SAFE LANDING! They sold a tee shirt: "The sky is not the limit: the ground is"