DON AND SARA SCHULTZ SAY HELLO:

Sara and I have settled into our winter home base for December at Gold Coasters RV Resort on the southwest edge of Homestead, Florida, for the month of December. When you make a commitment to stay at a place for a month or more, it generally involves a down payment which is usually non refundable. It is always a bit of a gamble as to whether you will like the amenities and a month can be a long time if you don’t.

Well, this time the gamble paid off and more. Gold Coaster is a gated park with over 500 sites, three quarters of which are semi permanent residents with park homes or side by sides interspersed with RV sites which are meant for moving “snowbirds” like us. We lucked out with a very large (40 ft x 100 ft) grass site with a concrete pad, large shade trees and our very own backyard. The site is quiet and secure with great neighbors. The resort has a high level of security which I guess is somewhat necessary. Homestead is the veggie growing center of south Florida and has a very high concentration of farm workers and its share of poverty. The recent hurricanes did not affect this area as far as damaging buildings, but many of the crops were hurt. Vegetables are surprisingly expensive considering that many are grown within miles of the city. Seafood is very inexpensive however, and I made the most incredible broiled grouper and shrimp on the grill.

We get water, sewer, 50 amp electric service for one month for about $425 which is very reasonable. There is an Olympic sized pool and jacuzzi and large club house. Sara critiqued the laundrymat which is attached to the club house the second day, and gives it an A-.

Computer connections here are awful. Some RV parks have wireless WyFi, high speed LAN or several phone modem connections. Not Goldcoaster!!!!! There is ONE phone connection for the whole park in the office, so we had a phone line installed at our site. It kind of expensive a single month of service, but we use the internet as a source of information, communication and planning ahead and are lost without it. It is truly surprising how computer unfriendly some of the parks are, but then they cater to an age group that usually not that computer savvy.

The location of the park is great being just nine miles from the east entrance to Everglades National Park and about a half hour to Biscayne Bay National Shoreline. A trip to Key West is about one hour and forty five minutes. Miami is very close, yet far due to the morning and evening rush hour traffic. We will venture to Miami to scout out the airport where we will pick up our younger daughter Polly who plans to visit us for Christmas, and to see the sites such as Little Havana and Miami Beach.

There are daily activities at Gold Coaster. We have water aerobics, bingo, shuffleboard, crafts, blood pressure checks, line dancing, ice cream socials, flu shots, bridge and poker, Sunday church services and other activities too numerous to mention. So far we tried one ice cream social. Everyone owns golf carts to traverse the few blocks from their residence to the club house which we find amusing.

Goldcoaster was leveled in hurricane Andrew in 1992 along with most of the rest of Homestead. We are told that only two structures remained in the resort after the big wind. Gradually the park has filled with manufactured homes, both single wides and double wides. This means that RV’s like us are getting squeezed out. The goal of the resort is, of course, to sell all of the lots. When you buy a manufactured home and set it up in the resort you then pay a monthly maintenance fee of about $300 a month whether you are at your residence or not.

As we get to know a few of our neighbors we find that most residents at Goldcoaster are in their early 70’s, former RV’ers, who due to health reasons or whatever have given up the road travel and decided to settle in Homestead. Many have sold their home and are permanent resident.

Sara and I think Homestead is a great place to visit, good location and all, but 85 degrees in December with high humidity is not something we are ready to settle into yet.
Well, it is time to put up the tree and work on the Christmas cards. We hope all is OK with you………
more later…………….Sara and Don

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