Serendipity in South Dakota

Moon Rising over Wall, South Dakota

What are the chances?  We were crossing South Dakota yesterday and decided to camp in Wall, SD so we could travel through the Badlands with good morning light.  As we pulled up to the campground office we noticed an RV with California plates.  Jane went in the office to register and met one of the owners, a woman from Santa Rosa.  We parked at a site next to the Californians and discovered that the owners are two retired women who have been traveling the US since September.  It was great to meet some kindred spirits while on the road.  Charlie and Gina have a wonderful blog documenting their travels.  It seems that they are looking for community as we are.  They discovered Gulfport, Florida and loved it (as we did) but were concerned about buying a home that requires costly flood insurance.  We talked about what it was they were looking for in terms of a community and were told that multi generational and LGBT friendly would be the best fit.  They spoke fondly of the Santa Clara community and recommended we visit Fountaingrove, the new LGBT senior housing there as well as Friends House, a retirement community created in the Quaker tradition.  Both were already on our list but it was good to have confirmation that we are checking out the right places.