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I’m addicted to my phone!
Activities
We’ve gotten settled in here in Lakeland and it’s almost time to leave! We’ve been continuing our volunteering at Lighthouse Ministries; which we really enjoy, I’ve golfed a number of times; showing signs of improvement, but ever so slightly. Mag has been arranging activities; we’ve hiked, been to the movies and more.
Hiking
We ventured north about 45 minutes last week to check out a hike at Colt Creek State Park. When we stopped at the Ranger Station we were greeted by a pleasant young woman who, after greeting us and noting we were visiting from Massachusetts, asked if it was our first visit to Colt Creek State Park. After we responded in the affirmative, she said, “Welcome to the least visited Florida State Park.” She was very helpful, provided us with maps and info, and sent us on our way with wishes for a great hike.
The Orange Trail was our goal, a nearly 7 mile hike. We encountered a few birds, hikers & bikers but no equestrians, or stray dogs. At the entrance we could see they allowed horseback riding on the trails but what we learned in addition was, they have two Horseback Campgrounds. At the Ranger Station, we learned that a posse was onsite searching for a horse that had broken loose overnight.
The Orange Trail surrounds nearly the entire park and we passed through the two Equestrian Campgrounds on our trek. Although Mag was familiar with this, it was something new to me, it looked like it could be a lot of fun. It was a vey nice park and we thoroughly enjoyed our hike.
Disney
Even before we arrived in Florida, we were considering making the trip to Disney. It has been a long time since either of us had been and thought it could be fun to see what’s new. Mag inquired online regarding ticketing, parking, activities and we learned the cost for both of us for one day would be over $300, just for admission! During her research she found a spot named Disney Springs, which is a Shopping, Dining and Entertainment venue without an entry fee. We decided on this option and it turned out to be a fun day. Mag had made a reservation at the Summer House (not to be confused with the Summer House in Southwick) for lunch at one of the many restaurants. The first item we saw when we arrived at 11 a.m. was Cirque Du Soleil. Neither of us have ever attended one of their performances but always wanted to. We hemmed and hawed, but we gave in and purchased tickets to Drawn to Life. The show was at 5:30 so we spent the next six hours walking though the venue shopping, enjoying our lunch, and people watching. There was a good crowd on hand today and we saw people from all over the globe. The park was spectacularly maintained and the attention to detail was amazing, as you would expect; if you ever visited a Disney property. The staff was equally amazing, attending to our every need with a big smile and a very pleasant demeanor.
The Cirque Du Soleil show was great! The storyline involves a little girl with a ponytail and overalls, who lost her dad and is tasked with finishing an animation that he left for her to complete. Her nemesis is the evil wastebasket lady.
| From Cirque Du Soleil website: Julie, a courageous and determined girl, discovers an unexpected gift left by her late father: an unfinished animation piece. Guided by a surprising pencil, she embarks on an inspiring quest sprinkled with her Disney childhood memories. Through this journey, she will learn to imagine new possibilities and animate the story of her future. |
The acrobatics, the daredevils, the performers were all great. It’s amazing how they make things appear on the stage that just come from seemingly nowhere. Or, like a drawing on the backwall, suddenly comes to life! We enjoyed the show a great deal. The row in front of us was occupied by a small family of three: dad, mom and daughter, who appeared to be from a far away land. Just as the show began, we noticed the little girl, maybe 10 years old, give a hug to mom on her left and dad on her right; it was so cute.
Tampa RV Supershow
The RV industry holds shows across the country and it just so happened that the Tampa RV Supershow
was last week! If you’ve attended The Big E, it’s like that except the Florida State Fairgrounds was loaded to the gills with RVs of all shapes and sizes, suppliers to the industry with everything you can imagine, or not. I can’t even estimate how many RVs were onsite but I was totally amazed how they packed them in so tightly. I navigate our 5th wheel into a campsite with great caution and at the show, they’re packed just inches from one another.
Mid-day we stopped for lunch and a break. A gentleman sat down at the same table and we struck up a conversation. He is from Forest City, NC and has been living on-the-road in a fancy camper van with all the extras for year, or so. In addition to owning a Micro Greens & Mushroom Farm, he got into the Air B&B business and has been expanding it on acreage he owns. He acquired the van when a family from Italy wanted to rent the first and second floors in one of his properties for 6 months. It so happen at the time, he was living in one of the units, so he decided to buy a camper van to make the unit available to the Italian family and began travelling all over the country visiting friends & family. He has a Planet Fitness membership to exercise and shower, and a membership at Panera Bread to have his coffee & breakfast and Internet, where he can run his businesses remotely. You just never know who you’re gonna run into…
The show was fun. We spend over 6 hours at the show walked through RVs ranging in price from $50k to $750k. The higher-end units are something to see. Tile floors with radiant heat, two bathrooms, beautiful furniture, and so on. After spending 6 hours trekking through many RVs, we both came to the same conclusion; we are happy with the manufacturer and model we selected; it fits us perfectly.
The Addiction
One day last week when we were just hanging around and I caught myself reaching for my phone a number of times and asking myself, why. Why was I grabbing my phone, while simultaneously not making any conscious reason to do so? This was immediately troubling to me.
We’ll, you know how weird it is when you have a conversation with someone, an actual oral conversation, then shortly following you are given some sort of electronic notification or feed on the subject related to that exact conversation. Maybe it’s beyond weird, more like troubling. Anyway, whether it was related to this perceived eavesdropping or an intervention, I’m inclined to believe the latter, I came across a program named Digital Detox.
Digital Detox is a 28 day program to help break the addiction; yeah, I’m addicted. I’m slightly beyond halfway through the program and it’s been eye-opening, and rewarding. For me, and maybe many others, the addiction is a way of avoiding silence and solitude. In this day and age, silence & solitude feels and sounds quite terrifying. I’m now developing a habit that allows me to be more intentional with my phone usage, using it more like a tool, freeing up time to just be with myself; as uncomfortable as that might be, eventually yielding peace & calm.
When I began to understand the engineering and intentionality behind the design of the software on these devices, it made me angry. It reminded me of how tobacco companies engineered cigarette smoking; they became quite wealthy at the demise of our health and well-being. It’s obvious these schemes continue today. I’m grateful I found Humanality.org and hope to have continued success.
The Movies
We went to the cineplex to see, A Complete Unknown, a movie about Bob Dylan’s musical career. We enjoyed it. The actors were great and the music was fantastic. If we rated movies, we’d say, 4.5/5. Other musicians that were portrayed in the flick were Woodie Guthrie, Joan Baez, Jonny Cash, Pete Seeger and others. We had both forgotten the massive amount of songs he created. We’ve been follow-up with listening to Dylan on Spotify the last couple of days.
Ending our time in Lakeland
We will be leaving Lakeland soon and heading to the Panhandle. Our friends Darlene and Rick are there now braving low temperatures in the high twenties with 5 inches of snow that fell recently! We’re hoping that this is the end of the winter weather and the beach is in the forecast!! We’ll take a couple of days to get to Freeport with one overnight in Tallahassee.
We spent our last Friday at Lighthouse Ministries which left us a little sad. We’ve met some wonderful people there and we’ll miss them. Maybe we’ll see them again next year?
Hoping everyone is well and staying warm!
♥ Tim & Mag
Looking forward to spending some time together again. Safe travels. See you soon xo
See you tomorrow!!
As always, I enjoy reading about your adventures. Interesting insight about your wanting a digital detox. I will not even google that for more info hee hee
WOW with all the RV’s. I can only imagine the plush interiors.
Safety and fun in your travels.
Ellen
Thank you Ellen! Glad you’re enjoying our blog.
Safe travels, bring some warm weather with ya. Look forward to seeing you.
Love Trice
Warm weather is on the way! 😉
See you soon!
It was great to see you! See you next year. Safe travels. All my love.
Thanks Cil. It was so nice to see you, Tom and the gang. Wish we had more time. Love you!