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The big thing we miss about living in one place for a long period of time is the sense of familiarity and community. There is something comforting about knowing the roads and seeing familiar faces every day. During a recent stay at an Encore RV Resort in Florida, we got to experience that sense of community and familiarity again. Winter Quarters Pasco RV Resort hosted us in one of their temporary full hookup sites and the experience gave me a different perspective on RV resorts. Our stay was free, but I do believe the experience would have been the same.
Winter Quarters Pasco RV Resort
“Would you like to choose a dog toy for Leo?” asked Carol, the front desk attendant. Did I hear her correctly? Pick out a toy for Leo? Then a basket filled with tennis balls and squeaky toys in various shapes and colors appeared over the counter along with a milk bone for Leo.
This was by far the most friendly and welcoming check-in experience we’ve had and we’ve stayed at several campgrounds and parks, but maybe RV resorts are all like this? Needless to say, our stay was off to a great start. In case you’re wondering, the tennis balls were destroyed in record time and Leo put on a few extra pounds during his stay.
We received an activities sheet at check in along with an invitation to the ice cream social. We’ve stayed at parks that offer activities such as movie night or game night, but nothing close to the number of activities offered at this resort. There were multiple activities each day, some were free while others required a fee. A garage sale was even on the schedule for the weekend we were there. The one activity we were looking forward to the most was Euchre, unfortunately, we were short one person and didn’t get to put our skills to the test.
Two of our favorite activities were the ice cream social and the welcome back party. We ended up sitting with the same group of people for both events and really enjoyed getting to know them, especially over the box of white wine we won at the party.
Joe even got to attend their men’s luncheon and met a lot of great guys while I got to relax in the RV (not a bad way to give the women some time off from their husbands). There were so many activities going on and many of them involved indulging on tasty treats like donuts. It’s a really good thing that we didn’t stay longer or we may not be able to fit through the door of our motorhome!
The familiar faces and friendly people really made our stay an enjoyable and memorable one. We met some great people from all over the country that we hope to see again down the road.
Susan is an artist and snowbird from Ohio who lives at the resort 6 months out of the year. Her park model usually has empty wine bottles out front because her neighbors save their empty bottles for her to make into decorative lights.
Lloyd is the resident “chef” and in charge of dishing out good food at the parties. He made a plate of bacon wrapped goodness for the welcome back party that disappeared the minute it hit the table.
Rachel and Carol are two of the awesome people who work at the resort. They knew all the residents by name and always had a positive attitude and a smile on their face.
There were so many great people that we met we couldn’t possibly talk about them all. The point is, there were friendly and familiar faces every where and we got that sense of community we were missing. RV resorts aren’t for everyone and the people we met all live there for different reasons. Some of the women lost their husbands and their children urged them to moved down permanently or winter in the area. Others wanted to scale down so they sold their homes and moved into a park model.
Regardless of the reason, one common thing they had was that they enjoyed and valued the people who live there. “Everyone helps out!” “The people here are great!” And we got a taste of that during our stay. We were all a bit sad to leave at the end of our stay including Leo.
Disclosure: Our stay at Winter Quarters Pasco RV Resort was hosted by Encore. This review represents our own opinions.
My Father in Law and his wife stayed there for several winters. They became part of the community over the years even though they were from Ontario, Canada. I think it’s more of a “senior” park, not that there’s anything wrong with that. (My life and I are young seniors, you know being 60 is the new 50) Have fun. Love your dog! Cheers Gary
Gary – the park is definitely older but we felt right at home. We had a great time with everyone and it was fun to talk hear their stories. There were people our age but they didn’t participate in the activities as much.