One of the issues we have had in changing from our tents to the motor home is the fact Mark had booked our campsites based on a tent not the motor home, so we had to call around and change our site plans. Unfortunately this is the busiest season for accommodation in Florida with all the Snow Birds escaping the frigid north and flying south for the winter. By and large this has not caused to many problems except at the site we were due to stay at in West Palm beach over Christmas. Mark had to frantically call around to find somewhere for us to stay and fortunately we found an RV campsite (RV stands for recreation vehicle for those non-Americans reading this) in Hollywood, Florida (between Miami and West Palm Beach). Although not far from Key Largo we didn’t arrive until about 5:30pm, having made a few stops on route – such as to Bass Pro to return the tent we had had for all of one week. As we pulled in Karen noticed a sign on the entrance saying “over 55 community”, assuming this referred to age not the number of people on site we were worried that we might not have anywhere to stay over Christmas (unless we could find a stable with room to park a motor home!!!). Also the office on site was closed and the person who did the after hours booking was off having dinner with his 90 year old mother at her nursing home. So we spent a worried couple of hour waiting for the gentleman to return. As it turned out all was well and we were able to stay. Phew!!!
The site itself is mainly “permanent” mobile home with a few trailer sites. It is in the Seminole Indian Reservation close to a couple of casinos. We have a lovely view across to the back of a gas (petrol) station and a yard for Budget Van rentals, which has bright security lights on all night which our motor home blinds are no match for. Never mind we have a place to stay and it is only for a few days after all.
We are mainly staying close to home and apart from the occasional trip to pick up a bit of last minute shopping we have not strayed to far from base camp. The only exception was that we managed to find a weekend campout for Jack with another Scout troop. We were co-ordinating this trip with a lady called Shannon who proved to be quite hard to pin down. Finally we got an email with the details of where to meet – the Elks Lodge (reminds of the lodge that Fred and Barney belonged to in the Flintstones) in West Palm Beach. We were told to arrive at 3pm which we did but there was no one there – and the people in the Lodge had no idea about any Scout meeting. Of course at this point we started to worry and called around the names of the leaders that Shannon had provided and of course none were answering their phones – so we left messages and sat down and waited. Fortunately the people in the Lodge were very kind, particularly Sandy the lady serving behind the bar. We were able to wait inside, and Laura, Jack and Emily were quite happy sitting down and watching 101 Dalmatians on the large projection TV. Finally we got a call back from one of the leaders saying that they were on their way – finally arriving at around 5pm. This was the troops Christmas party so and there was secret Santa so we left Jack to settle in and the rest of us went to the mall to get him a present. When we got back the party was in full swing (sort of) but was largely an unorganised affair, with the leaders sitting around whilst all around them was burning (figuratively speaking). Fortunately there was plenty of food, mainly of the burger and hot dog variety. We got talking to the Scout Master, Frank who was from Germany is passionate about scouting – he’s even called his dog Scout. Frank who has been involved with Scouts since the age of 10 collect scout badges (has 10,000 from around the world) and over 200 uniforms in his collection. After eating the secret Santa presents were given out – Jack got a voucher for a local Army and 
Navy surplus store, which ever so kindly passed on to a new scout in the troop called Chris – who obviously didn’t have much (he was in a passed on uniform) and was also someone with special education needs. He was delighted with this. Frank had bought all the boys a very expensive looking Eagle knife – but obviously Jack was a late comer, but was not forgotten and Frank had for him a limited edition Norman Rockwell painted plate depicting a scouting scene. Jack was delighted with this gift. After after an hour or so we left Jack for his camp out and went back to our motor home. Karen picked up Jack the next morning and he had a good time although the boy he had shared his tent with had thrown up – so Jack was very indignant when he got back home and Karen made him help clean the tent.
Navy surplus store, which ever so kindly passed on to a new scout in the troop called Chris – who obviously didn’t have much (he was in a passed on uniform) and was also someone with special education needs. He was delighted with this. Frank had bought all the boys a very expensive looking Eagle knife – but obviously Jack was a late comer, but was not forgotten and Frank had for him a limited edition Norman Rockwell painted plate depicting a scouting scene. Jack was delighted with this gift. After after an hour or so we left Jack for his camp out and went back to our motor home. Karen picked up Jack the next morning and he had a good time although the boy he had shared his tent with had thrown up – so Jack was very indignant when he got back home and Karen made him help clean the tent. 
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