Ancient Oaks Oldlympics

Saturday, February 16, 2013

Today's blog is about old timers having a good old time at the Ancient Oaks RV Resort.  The park sponsored  the first Oldlympics (Olympics for oldies) which consisted of four members per team competing in ten events.  Teams that finished with the three highest scores in each event were awarded gold medals, silver medals, and bronze medals respectively.  The events consisted of ten games such as bean bag toss, frisbee toss, shuffle board, monkey golf, marshmallow golf, casting, horse shoe throw, petanque, cotton ball carry, and cup stacking.  Other games were considered such as Twister.  But, the committee figured that game would require too many ambulances to carry the injured to the hospital!

Our street, 65th Avenue, had folks on three different teams.  Our three teams were named the Jungle Jocks, 4 Smileys, and Domestic Goddesses.  Let's meet the players now.

Here's the 4 Smileys strutt'n their stuff with their smiley faces!

L to R: Barb, Pat, Carol, and Joan

Costumes designed by Susan

Here's the Jungle Jocks warming up before the games begin!

L to R: Captain Craig, Leaping Larry, Bird Man Barry, and Eagle Eye Ted

Costumes designed by Susan

 And here's the gorgeous Domestic Goddesses.  I am not sure if they are ready for the games or if they are going to clean the place up with those feather dusters! Ha!

L to R: Barb, Carolyn, Carol, and Norma.

If you think the competition wasn't serious, well...you're wrong!  But, all in good fun and the competition was truly international.  There were participants here from Canada and other foreign places like Kentucky, and Texas!

Here's a shot of the opening ceremony when the teams all march into the club house.  Notice the precision  marching of these highly trained athletes.  Everyone is in perfect step with each other.  We practiced this for days and it really paid off!

 Here's a few shots of some of the action.  This is Leaping Larry casting a fishing pole, and it's a three pointer!
Look real hard and you will see an island between the clump of trees near the center of this picture.  The next pictures shows a gator on the island.

Here's the gator keeping an eye on the games!

This is Leaping Larry throwing the horse shoe.  Each team member only gets one throw.  We didn't even get a practice throw, so you really had to be on your "A" game today!

This is Eagle Eye Ted concentrating on his swing.  You have to hit that marshmallow just right to get a three pointer using a putter.  If this had been a real hot day, that marshmallow would probably have stuck to the putter and it is never good to have marshmallow stuck to your putter!  But, Eagle Eye Ted nails it!

This is Captain Craig shuffling his way through the shuffle board contest.  They let us each have one practice try before the real shuffle.  The Jungle Jocks scored big on the practice shots, and we thought we were on our way to a gold medal.  But, the practice didn't  count.  Naturally, we didn't get any points when the shots were for real!

This event requires nerves of steel, a steady hand, and some creative strategy stacking paper cups!

This is Bird Man Barry carrying cotton balls with a spoon before an admiring audience.  The score is based upon the number of cotton balls that the team drops into the bowl on the floor after carrying them across the room without dropping any.

This is Pat (Mrs. Eagle Eye) on the shuffle board court.

Oops! We might have the first injury of the games here.  Oh... no, it's just Pat tying her shoe while Joan checks out the competition.  I guess no one told Pat to tie her shoe BEFORE the games started! Ha!

This last picture is the cheering section.  Debbie is on the left and her mom is on the right.  Debbie was a cheerleader back in high school, and you can see they both really know how to whip the crowd into a frenzy! Ha!

The Oldlympics was a great success.  Everyone had fun and no one was admitted to the emergency room!  It's yet another day full of great old times with great old timers.

South Causeway Island Park, Fort Pierce, Florida

Sunday, February 10, 2013

It's 7:30 am Sunday morning and Kitty says, "I would like to eat at Crackerbarrel". It's 7:35 am and Kitty says, "I would like to eat at Crackerbarrel".  It's 7:40 am and Kitty says, "I would like to eat at Crackerbarrel".  This goes on several more times and I finally I have a brilliant idea and say, "Would you like to eat at Crackerbarrel?"  And she says "Duh!"

By this time it's too late for breakfast because the nearest Crackerbarrel is in Fort Pierce, Florida 45 minutes from Okeechobee.  So, we decided to go there for lunch instead of breakfast and invited Barry and Susan to join us.  Our plan was to eat lunch, then head to the beach.  Since it was windy day with temperatures in  the low seventies, we knew it wouldn't be a great day at the beach, but we didn't let that stop us.

We arrive to a very full parking lot at Crackerbarrel around 1 pm.  But, we only had to wait about ten minutes to get seated.  Since we all knew what we wanted to order, the waitress took our drink orders and lunch orders at the same time.  While we waited for our food, we had a casual conversation having to talk loud enough to be heard over the noise in the packed restaurant.

But, once the food arrived, all of our conversations stopped and we got down to business.  We all ate like we hadn't eaten in weeks.  The waitress came back in a couple minutes to check on us and our plates were already cleaned!  They must have put something in the food that made our clothes shrink.  I think we popped a few buttons as we left.

It's a short drive east to US 1, and then to A1A.  We crossed the Indian River in Fort Pierce and stopped at South Causeway Island Park.  This park has a sandy beach along the Indian River about a quarter of a mile before the river empties into the Atlantic Ocean.

Here's a few shots of the beach at South Causeway Island Park..

We stayed here about a half hour, then headed south on high A1A along the Atlantic coast.  We stopped at another public beach, but didn't stay long.  Red flags were flying warning swimmers of the dangers in the high surf.  So, we continued south on A1A all the way to Stuart, Florida enjoying the occasional views of the ocean on one side and the Intercoastal on the other side.

Someone mentioned ice cream.  Then Barry said, "I'm buying!", and the car we into automatic pilot!.  Our car has been trained since it was a baby compact, that when someone says ice cream, it automatically flips on the GPS and steers itself to the nearest ice cream parlor!  Sure enough, we found ourselves in downtown Stuart at an ice cream parlor.

Well, the ice cream was great, the beach was nice, lunch was great, and we always enjoy being with good friends.  It's yet another happy day in the Simmons Saga!