No offense Ocala, but I can see why some call you Slocala. There really isn't a ton to do here. While you have beautiful horse farms and lots of acreage, there really isn't much to do besides going out to eat, seeing a movie, swimming... Keith and I have been trying to stay busy these last few days while getting a lot of errands checked off our list. Get trailer registered, check. Get car registered, almost checked. Oil change, check. Car inspected, check. Get hair done, check. Spend time with Mom, check. Get out of the house and move, check. Watching a puppy, check. We still have several items on the list not completed and we are hoping to get a few more checked off today before we head to Ft.Myers to see friends. I have been an avid Groupon user these last few days trying to find a few fun things for us to do next week and not spend much money. Right now we have a winery visit, golfing and massage scheduled. Yesterday, we went to the RV show here in Ocala that runs through the weekend. Being that we went during the week and on the first day it was just $5. For 3 hours we looked at tons of RV's trying to see if we could finding something that would work better for our little family since our current RV is a wee bit too small for all of us. We are actually thinking of leaving the dogs in Ocala for the 2 month journey so they won't be uncomfortable/we won't be uncomfortable. I made a video... of course.
So yeah, Ocala is a bit more on the slow pace side and more errand driven but only a few more days till we hit the road again and head to Myrtle Beach. Adventure awaits!!
If you weren't aware, we have a YouTube channel where we upload all of our videos of our travels, family, our Keto journey and more... Check it out - maybe you'll find something of interest. Please subscribe!
Keith has been wanting to go swim with the whale sharks since we first visited the Riviera Maya. June - August are the most popular months as they are here feeding. So, yesterday, for his birthday, I wanted to make sure he got exactly what he wanted. (We stopped buying gifts a few years ago and just do experiences.)
On the Monday we met with 12 friends for dinner and drinks at one of our favorite locations, the Jungle Fish Beach Club. We love the guys who run it and were thrilled to be able to support them for Keith's birthday dinner. As always, they were amazing to us and we had a great meal. Keith was offered the largest lobster I have ever seen. He ate the hell out of that thing!
As for the whale sharks, I was excited to be able to find 6 friends willing to go with us - trust me, when you say "swimming" and "sharks" in the same sentence people tend to back away. Rob, Kris, Annette, Vince, Chris (it was also his b'day), Jodi, myself and Keith got up super early to grab our 5:20am shuttle to Cancun. After a quick briefing, some snacks and water we headed out on the boat for about an hour. The area where the whale sharks are feeding was really busy with other boats and people. You are only allowed 2 people per boat at a time but it was still a bit chaotic. The whale sharks are spectacular and very large - they are just eating plankton and minding their own business. You basically jump in, swim around them, don't touch them or swim under them and then you are back in the boat. Everyone had 2 jumps - I opted for one but Keith did both of his and each time was just in awe of these animals. After we were done snorkeling, we headed over to Isla Mujeres for some lunch and swimming. It's definitely a birthday he will remember! Rob put together a video of all of our footage - enjoy!! :)
We recently had the pleasure of being a part of a pilot for a new potential expat show that is being pitched to the networks. They came to our home and filmed us answering questions and talking about our move to Mexico. We also had the opportunity to check out a local cenote we hadn't been to before where they filmed us jumping off the rocks and swimming. The crew was so much fun to meet and work with. We can't wait to see the final result and we hope the show gets picked up! We had no idea when we moved down here that we'd have the chance to be on TV talking about this new life of ours. Funny thing is, a few weeks later, we were picked to be on a popular TV show that has to do with moving abroad. Not sure how much we can really say about that right now but we are really excited for this opportunity - more info to come!
We are trying to post videos of our adventures so our family and friends can see what we've been up to. Check out our YouTube Channel, we try and update it often.
Mexico has been an amazing experience thus far. Sometimes it's hard to explain to people what life is like here and why we chose to leave a nice home, good jobs, and our friends and family back in the old country. So, Tarah and I have recently made a short video describing what we love, and give you a quick tour of our home. We also made this video as an application for House Hunters International. Hopefully we get picked. Wish us luck.
