Traveling With Peace of Mind

After a long, adventurous winter vacation, we are now back at home in the Villages.  It is easy to travel from a Villages home without worry. Besides wonderful neighbors who keep an eye on what is going on in the neighborhood, there is a Neighborhood Watch organization.  For a small weekly fee they will check on your house a couple of times a week to make sure everything is OK.   If there is a problem, they will contact you or someone else you designate.

The biggest problem was our mail.  The post office doesn't like the hold mail that long.  I asked if they would throw out the catalogs and only hold the other mail, but they wouldn't do that.  About half way through our carrier was nice enough to bring some of it to our house and our neighbor let her in. By the time we got home we had 3 big mail buckets full. Once I sorted it I filled one bucket with catalogs, one with solicitation mail, and a small pile of letters we actually needed to look at, mostly subscriptions that were expiring.  We pay all our bills electronically, so that wasn't an issue.  I wish there was a better way to deal with this.

Although our 2 and a half month trip was wonderful, it's always good to get home to my own bed. The only problem is, because we were gone so long, there was no food in the refrigerator .  No worries, Food shopping is easy here.  There are three Publix, a Winn-Dixie, a Fresh Market, and a Sweet Bay grocery stores, all accessible by golf cart.  There are also several Walgreens and CVS drugstores that also sell groceries.  A Walmart  and a Target are also nearby, but not easy to get to by golf cart.  I tend to use the car though, because it holds more bags.  The closest store to me is one of the Publix and I shop for some items there, but mostly I go to Winn-Dixie.  They offer gas credits at Shell stations based on how much you spend and special bonus credit items. I like filling my gas tank for half the price and sometimes even less. The only problem is that Winn-Dixie doesn't always carry the brands I want. That's when I go to Publix. Or, if I want something really special like really good cuts of meat or gourmet food, Fresh Market is a little further but definitely worth the trip.