For the most part I am not familiar with the various occupations my fellow Whisper Creekers held in their pre-Florida days. I am sure however that many of them were movers and shakers in some faraway corporate life somewhere. Maybe even a few of them were titans of industry.

Although most of us are no longer corporate shakers, most of us are still movers. As I sit in my rocker (ummm, even my chair moves) outside my camper and watch, there is a steady parade of dog walkers, joggers, golf carts, bicycles and cars that wander up and down Mahogany Court. I even saw a guy with a cane amble by slowly, but I think he may have just been lost. We may be getting old, but we are out there, moving about, going from point A to point B with no purpose in mind other than motion.

I fear that most of us suffer from a severe case of wanderlust. Heck, most of us here in the park even live in houses with wheels. We Whisper Creekers come from a number of different states and even a foreign county or two. Although we are about as diverse as any group could be, we share one thing in common, our need to move.

Since we purchased our little motor home, my personal need to wander has only increased. We bought one of those United States maps with the little state magnets and my intention is to fill in every blank as soon as possible. There is no greater feeling than driving down a county road in the middle of nowhere, wondering what is around the next curve or just over the hill.

I remember as a child, my parents would squeeze all nine of us kids into the family station wagon each Sunday to go for a drive in the country. Although the trip seldom took the same route or even had a clear direction in mind, we almost always ended up at the Twirly Top to our combined epicurean delight.

My favorite author John Steinbeck wrote about our wanderlust in his book "Travels with Charley: In Search of America." He wrote “I saw in their eyes something I was to see over and over in every part of the nation - a burning desire to go, to move, to get under way, anyplace, away from any Here. They spoke quietly of how they wanted to go someday, to move about, free and unanchored, not toward something but away from something. I saw this look and heard this yearning everywhere in every state I visited. Nearly every American hungers to move.”

America is a nation of movers. Remember Horace Greely's famous words? “Go west young man.” Every day, we see news articles about people moving from north to south, east to west and one guy who even moved to Wisconsin, but I am not sure why.

According to the AAA, Americans who had to cancel getaways and get-togethers last year because of the pandemic made up for lost time this recent holiday season. More than 109 million people — an almost 34% increase from 2020 — traveled 50 miles or more as they hit the road, boarded airplanes or took other transportation out of town between Dec. 23 and Jan. 2. That’s 109 million of us on the road at one time!

Youzer, you think we’d run out of roads!

Travel and wander around we do, even here in Whisper Creek. A few times a week, I hear a small but loud group taking off in their motorcycles for a ride in the country. Then there is the dedicated line of shoppers headed toward the WalMart. The dog owners gather at the dog park near the airport where even the dogs wander!

Come to think of it, I guess some of us still are shakers. I recently attended a dance at the community center and I saw some serious moves out on the dance floor, but they best not be described here as my readers would think I am guilty of exaggeration.

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