Five Days with 5 Charlebois' - Lake Placid

After leaving the Keys, we drove north past Miami and Lauderdale towards south central Florida to Lake Placid where Dalton Charlebois, John’s long-time friend, lives during the winter months. However, we were not the only visitors Dalton had that weekend – turns out a number of us all had the same week in mind! And so, Dalton’s brother Larry and his wife Denise and his sister Linda and her husband Peter were visiting at the same time. Each of us had our own RV space in the park where Dalton lives. Happily, we gathered together at some point each day together in Dalton’s new (large) lanai. And luckily, Dalton’s 7 or so other brothers and sisters (and nephews and nieces) were not able to visit that same week!

What did we do in Lake Placid? Well, we drank any number of pitchers of Mojitos, laughed a lot and created new memories: we attended the Elk’s Lodge Friday night dinner where we learned to play table-top shuffleboard; we went to the Thirsty Camel for lunch located at the Royal Palms 10-pin Bowling Center; and we had brunch at the Golden Corral where we all enjoyed the senior discount!

And, best of all, John, Dalton and I took a day in the Jeep and drove to Fort Myers about 1.5 hours away on the Gulf Coast. What’s important about Fort Myers? This is one of the places where Johnnie lived and worked for awhile in the mid-60s as a teenager. We strolled along the beach front at the pier and John floated memories past Dalton and me. We asked an older security guard if he remembered where The Breezy Freeze used to be located and the old guy was quick to say “Oh! 40 years ago, that became Pete’s Time Out!” So, we zoomed over to Pete’s and took a look around inside the restaurant to see what was still familiar to Johnnie.

And there on the wall, was a black and white photo of The Breezy Freeze taken in the 60’s before Pete took over. John’s memory instantly became a reality for both of us! What a great thing to experience together!