It begam as a Vacation scam

September 28, 2008
We have just returned from watching football with our posse at one of our 9 country clubs. The Buffalo Bills won again today. 4Wins/0 Losses for the first time in a decade. All is right with the world.

This blogging stuff is new to me. I called my daughter, Erika this morning and asked for a quick course. She thinks I will enjoy blogging as an avenue to vent about the election. I think she may be right.

Let me talk today about how we found the Villages. I worked for a component division of General Motors. Harrison Radiator, as it was called when we signed on, we manufactured heat transfer products for GM cars and trucks. Harrison employed over 11,000 employees in 1977 when I started and the new lean Delphi Lockport is now down to about 2000 folks making less than half the money we made when we were told to retire. That story is for another day.

A co-worker, Ruth Ann, brought a video into my office one Friday afternoon, and we plugged it into the VCR and had a hoot watching the line dancing, golfers in the Villages. My family loves to travel and being a thrifty traveler, we suffered time share pitches and what ever else we had to endure to subsidize our vacations through the years. The lure of a really cheap vacation in the form of a “Lifestyle Tour” was too much for me to resist. I signed us up for 5 days in April, even though I was just 50 and my husband was 49. My husband, Wayne was not as enthusiastic. He watched the tape and complained that we were no way near ready to join the geriatric group. That was 2003.

Ignoring his protests we flew into Orlando and were greeted by a Limo driver in his early 80’s who told us of the 800 player strong softball leagues that he plays on. Wayne’s interest was slightly peaked as he gave up softball in his thirty’s and saw an opportunity to again be the young ringer on a team. Peaked interest or not his arms were still defiantly crossed as he prepared to hate this vacation that I had planned. “What are we doing here?” he asked , “we are probably 10 years away from retirement and can’t afford this place in any event.” We had one daughter, Erika in her freshmen year at Niagara University, an expensive private college in NY and the other daughter, Briana was still in high school.

It was late when we arrived and we were dropped off at our Villa well after everyone else was down for the night. The driver cheerfully pointed out some of the highlights of Village living and told us to call the sales center in the morning for our Welcome package. I expected the worse. For the bargain vacation (About $25 per night) in very nice accommodations, including the gift of $75 per day in Village dollars, I expected the sales pitch would be over the top high pressure. Nothing could have been further from the truth.

We were used to trying to avoid the obnoxious sales pitches from time share promoters, and were told that we could visit models if we liked, but the package was waiting for us with no obligation. We picked up our package at the Spanish Springs Sales Center and began spending Village Bucks like shoplifting kids in a candy store. Village dollars were currency good only in the Villages, but that proved to be quite a buffet of goodies. We rented a golf cart, went to lunch at Katie Bells and even picked up a bottle of wine at the Village owned Liquor store. Now they had Wayne’s attention. He was still suspicious of the friendly waves from passing villagers, “No one is THAT happy.” He complained

I was curious after several days of exploring, getting lost and spending the Village booty, why no one was badgering us to look at houses. Didn’t they think we were worthy? Had they discovered that we were just young stowaway’s sneaking in for a look under false pretense. I guiltily called the sales rep whose card was included in my welcome package and he assured me that if we wanted to see some properties he could probably find time. Wow! This place is very different.

Our Villa was probably 20 minutes by cart from the Town Square and we sometime had trouble navigating the Labyrinth of Neighborhoods (Villages), but we were having a great time. The sales rep set up tee times for Wayne and showed us several surprisingly affordable (Under $100k) villas and ranch homes. Other than the need to rescue our daughter Briana, from a fight with her friend in Daytona we had a wonderful stress free vacation. She liked it here too. We went to the pools, saw a movie and settled in like residents. If I had my way we would have put money down on a lot that trip but Wayne was still hesitant. He was however waving back now happily to the passing villagers in golf carts like the new mayor. This is like Disney for adults, we concluded.

We went home with plenty to think about, but we still were years away from this option. How unpredictable life can be.