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                                                                                                                        Author: Wolfgang

Travel-Journal

    May 2004

May is at most places in our temperate zones the best month of the year.  Spring is in the air, everything is blooming and animals like song-birds are coming back home from their winter quarters.  That means - on the east coast at least – also from Florida.  Although we were surprised that the month of May was relatively pleasant for non-natives, - people as well as birds were evacuating the area to move North.  That is also the case with TGO residents, - human or animal alike.  More than half the human inhabitants have left by now – others are year-round residents who don’t mind the prevailing sub-tropic temperatures.  I’m not one of them, - so why are we still here?  

As it happened, one TGO resident had his Motorhome for sale ….and we took a liking to it.  After a while we started to get serious about buying it.  Tom – the owner - did show and explain to us everything and we drove it around a bit.  Finally we said OK to the idea and started to negotiate a selling price.  But before that we went on a big tour of places where they sell those Prevost coaches.  Florida is a Mecca for these kinds of luxury Motorhomes.  We went all over the place and got a real updated education about the product and the market, - which by now is entering the off-season, - a good time to buy.   

 Investing the time proved positive and in the end we got our price ….and had a deal.  Here is a view of Tom’s 1997 45ft. low-mileage Country Coach…

                                                                          Dagmar admiring her new dream…

…which – as you can see - is easy to fall in love with.  In fact, she is a real charmer and has everything imaginable.  We decided to keep and leave our old MCI coach at our lot in the TGO and drive with the new one back home.  But as the old German saying goes: “Erstens kommt es anders, zweitens als man denkt” (First it comes different, second as one thinks), this proved the case for us.  We found out - in the nick of time - that those particular coaches (Country Coach) were not manufactured according to CSA (Canadian) Manufacturing Standards and therefore not permissible to be imported into Canada without (major or minor) modifications.  We spent days on end on the Internet, - talking to representatives of the manufacturer, - to custom brokers and agents as well as Government Agencies to find out what this could mean for us.  Result, - either get an American “green card” or start an American business to have the coach licensed and insured in Florida.  Armed with those legal protections we were then allowed to enter the coach into Canada without having to import it.  Otherwise we were not allowed to drive the coach into Canada without having to go through that fateful Transport Canada inspection process, paying the GST and PST on the US sale price so we can get it registered and licensed in Canada.  In this case we would also have to arrange an “out of state delivery” of the coach in order to avoid having to pay Florida sales taxes, which would not have been refundable if exported out the country.  Bummer….  So our dream of owning this beauty came crushing down because of the unknown based on our own research.  Good thing though, - as told by a Canadian Customs Agent - that some people not having realized the hazards of purchasing vehicles in the US had rude awakenings once having crossed the border.  Of course salespeople in the US have their own benign version of such occurrences - or have no idea at all – and who can blame them?

                                                   …only to have it evaporate in thin air (high-up)

 Trouble is - once you made up your mind to go for something, it’s very disappointing to loose out in the end.  But this is life ….and so we endeared ourselves again to the old girl.  I mean, - we really love the old bugger...

....and would not trade her in at all because she might end up in the wrong hands to be abused, lol.   Only the right person will ever get her from me, a person who appreciates what she stands for, - steadfastness, reliability, as well as having special demands and actually being made for an old-fashioned, macho-person not afraid to mix it up with the big boys on the Interstates.  She is a gem alright….but for us it’s time for a change.

 So the month which is supposed to bring new life and hope turned out to be a trying one for us.  If it were not for the good friends we have down here, it might have been a month one might not want to remember.  But that is not the case.  Because possession of material things count very little compared to the value of good friendships.  Take our neighbors Ken and Gail from upstate New York.  They are the most generous people one can find on this earth.  Not only that…they are also a blast to have a good time with.  And so are their and now our friends Paul and Dorothy, which were the last from our group to leave TGO.  And my old neighbors Phil and Jo, who sold their lot to very nice people to move into a beautiful TGO Resort Home.  Physical distance does not matter, we still get together to have a good time.  And now at the Aqua Exercise Class we met Henry (Heinrich) and Brigitte from Germany, - Hamburg exactly.  Boy - are they all interesting people.  They come from all walks of life and from all corners of the globe and meet here in Paradise to prove to the world that we all can get along very well if given an chance.  TGO is an inspiring place of harmony and goodwill among all its residents and it is addictive to be living here.  I hope that one day – when we have added that guest cottage - there will be many of you who come to visit us here at the TGO to see and feel what I mean.  My good old buddy Friedel (from my time in Toronto in the Sixties) and his lovely wife Judy came over from Tampa one weekend.  They could also hardly believe the changes which have taken place over the years.  This fact stands in stark contrast to the city of Titusville itself, which is still lingering far behind other communities along the space coast in their renewal efforts and further developments.  Everything down there looks still stagnant.  But they have a “Master-Plan”, which might look something like this....lol.

 Here are some pictures of close friends and neighbors (Dorothy and Paul – I need some pix from you guys)….

My old buddy Friedel, wife Judy and son Shawn-Paul

Ken and Gail showing me pictures of their latest adventure...and here with their birthday card for me – tooo funny.

Phil and Jo in their new Resort Home right at “their” Golf Course, - their favorite hang-out as champion golfers

Harry and Gitti (Heinrich und Brigitte) joining us for fare-well drinks before leaving for Hamburg  

 So the answer to the question: “And what are you still doing there?” could be also answered in this way….we love it here.  But stay tuned for the June report to find out the real reason…..

...only a small...

....WHAT(?) ...on the road to life !

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