Arrival Date 1/24/2015 John Prince Park Campground - Lake Worth FL
Our stay at John Prince Park was two weeks. We had a site on the water with full hook ups. Those sites only allow for a two week stay. So we booked this two weeks and then went to South Bay FL for a week and will come back to John Prince for a third week before going back to the keys (Key Largo) to meet back up with the Bournes.
John Prince Park is a large multifunctional Park in the middle of suburban sprawl. The RV campground is on one end separated from the rest of the park by a road and a canal so it was somewhat isolated. Our site was nice and big and right on the edge of the large lake that wound around the park. We had a full hookup and the WIFI was good. Since it was a municipal park the prices were reasonable. There was a paved path that wound around the park and if I rode my bike from our RV to it’s end and back it was 12 miles! There was a lot of wildlife in the park, mostly water birds. With in a day or two we saw two lifers (a bird that you saw for the first time in your life). The first was a Loggerhead Shrike AKA “The Butcher Bird”. It gets that name because after it catches its prey it often pierces it on barb wire or thornes and then eats it off the spike. The second lifer is a Lempkin. It’s a medium size brownish water bird similar to an egret or ibis. There were multiple Ospreys in the park and one day we saw one that caught a huge fish, flew it up to a tree and settled into lunch. The next page in this blog has the video I took of the Osprey in the tree having lunch. Several days Linda and I went for walks around the campground and on bike rides around the park. The bike path allowed me to get in some needed exercise cycling around the park.
While in John Prince Park I tried to get our AC unit repaired. After not being able to get service at a couple of RV dealerships, I noticed the park was serviced by Coastal RV Service. This was a mobile RV service truck that came to you to do service. What a find! Mike of Coastal RV was a real professional and he repaired our AC the next day for $120 on site. No muss no fuss. He even told me how to repair our steps myself.
On Wednesday we played golf at Palm Beach National CC. Dispite the grand name this was a local golf course. Reasonable priced it was a nice fun course. It wasn’t in lush shape but was very playable. We had a lot of fun and it was nice to be playing golf in January.
On Friday we went off to check out the beach, the beach road is A1A which I think goes up and down the atlantic shore in this area of Florida. The real estate was a mix of nicely maintained older high rises, homes and new luxury residences. The drive down A1A was very nice and a view of upscale beach front living. We stopped at a public beach to stroll the beach and tour the small shopping block that was called the Casino. Not exactly the Casino that Linda would like to be frequenting. The beach was packed with bathers and had a funny 2 to 3 foot drop off between the sand beach and the waterline. Jimmy Buffett has a song that refers to A1A in Florida. It was fun to be driving on it. Friday night is a no cook night for Linda, so we have to either order takeout or (most likely) go out to eat. This Friday we ended up going to Smokey Bones (our favorate restaurant chain) in Wellington FL. We ended up eating at the bar ad a nice woman from RI ate next to us. She was in Wellington because she owned and showed horses (very exclusive breeds). That chance meeting lead to our activity the next day.
It turns out that Wellington FL bills itself as "The Winter Equestrian Capitol of the World”. Who knew! Apparently it is true. The town is full of equestrian schools, big developments with horse pastures and stables, polo fields and horse trails. This weekend there was a large international equestrian compitation going on and on Saturday was the horse jumping portion of the event. So off we went out to Wellington and the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center. This was the best horse jumping I have ever seen. Of course I have very seldom seen horse jumping. There were multiple rings, each one grander than the next. We initially started watching a junior competition and then moved on to the top ring with more and higher jumps. The horses were magnificiant and the riders really knew how to control them. The jumping was beautiful. I took a couple of hundred pictures. The people watching was interesting. Clearly this is not a poor mans sport. The place reeked of money. There were a lot of different languages being spoken. It was a thoroughly unique and entertaining event. We even discovered what will likely be the next dog we acquire. A woman had a pair of Wheaton Terriers. They were good looking, a nice size (not too big not to little), hypoallergenic, and very cool.
The next day was Superbowl Sunday. Our friends Betty and Larry Egan were down on Florida visiting with Walter Adley. Walter lives at the Florida Club in Stuart FL. So Sunday we watched the Superbowl with Betty, Larry and Walter in his condo on the golf course in Stewart. What a game. The ups and downs were epic. The ending astounding. Go Pats! GoPats! GoPats!
We took an afternoon and went to West Palm Beach and parked at a Publix supermarket. A block away was a Bike Trail along the Intercostal waterway. Big dollar homes, lots of big yachts. These homes and yachts were truly impressive. I have been impressed in the past with the wealth along the shore road in Naples but Naples has nothing over West Palm Beach. And then there was the Publix supermarket we parked at. This was a very different Publix. The supermarket sign was carved into stone above the archway. We had a Ferrari come into the lot when we were returning. The supermarket had Valet parking!!!! On the way out we followed a Rolls Royce. Talk about upscale, WOW!
On Wednesday we were back up in Stuart to play golf at the Florida Club with Betty Larry and Walter. The Florida Club is a really good golf course in excellent shape. We had a lot of fun playing and I did well. To top it off I got another lifer, a Purple Gallinule. The Gallinule is a chicken sized bird with iridescent green, turquoise, and brown top with deep blue/violet below. It has a red and yellow bill. This was one pretty bird. Dinner by Betty at Walters was good and it topped off a good day.
