Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom was the park of the day, today. I guess the best way to describe it is a cross between an amusement park and a zoo. The first thing we did was go on the Kilimanjaro Safari where you board an open bus type vehicle and take a drive through a wildlife preserve with a chance to see various animals in a natural-type setting. Aside from the Safari ride, there are several other animal viewing opportunities. Here are photos of some of them...


There were unigue, interesting and beautiful birds everywhere. Harder to get pictures of them, but here are a few...

Fireworks

After Epcot, we came home to take care of the doggies, and then went back to Magic Kingdom tonight to see the fireworks show. Wow. It's absolutely spectacular. Amazing how they can choreograph the fireworks with the music to tell a story. I loved it. Here's a small sample.

Epcot

Today we visited Epcot, the second of the theme parks to be built here at Disneyworld. Epcot is divided into two sections - Future World and The World Showcase. World Showcase is a collective of Pavilions with shops, attractions and restaurants that represent the culture and cuisine of 11 different countries.

Future World has rides, exhibits and shows focusing on technological advancements, innovation and wonder. Among the rides at Future World is Mission Space, a motion simulator ride that realistically mimics what an astronaut might experience during a space flight to Mars. Maybe a little too realistically. My stomach still hasn't recovered from that one. My favorite though was Soarin' that simulates a hang-gliding flight over California.

All throughout the park they have topiaries depicting various Disney characters. I don't think I found them all, but here are quite a few....

We're at Disneyworld!!

Today we arrived at Disneyworld for our long anticipated 10 day visit. We are staying at the Fort Wilderness Campground that is part of the HUGE Disneyworld complex of resorts, shopping/entertainment centers and of course theme parks.

We got to our campsite and all set up by about 2:00 this afternoon. After taking care of the poochies and such, we took a boat from our resort to the Magic Kingdom park (one of four theme parks here, it's the one most like Disneyland in California) at around 4:00. It wasn't too crowded by Disney standards, so we were able to hit most of the "e-ticket" rides like Pirates of the Carribean, Haunted Mansion, Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain in just a few hours. I'm bummed though because Space Mountain and the Hall of Presidents are both closed for refurbishing.

Our original plan had been to stay until closing at 9:00 so we could watch the fireworks, but we both started to poop out around 7:30. We got back to the motorhome by about a quarter after eight. It had been a busy day even before we went into the park, so that's my story and I'm sticking to it. It's not 'cause we're old.

Polo

On Sunday we went back to The Villages to watch a couple of polo matches at their polo club. We had a blast! And I learned so much about polo.

There are four players on each team. Men and women can and do play on the same teams. Each player has a ranking/rating from -2 to 10. Only about 1/3 of all polo players are ranked at 3 or above. The ranks of each team member are added together for the team ranking. The idea is to find teams with the same totals to play against each other so they are evenly matched. For instance. in one match we watched, the individual rankings on one team were 0-1-3-4, on the other it was 0-0-4-4. So each team had a total of 8.

A game consists of six periods, called chukkers, which run seven minutes each. And yes, the spectators actually do swarm the field after the third chukker to stomp down the divots. During the second match, the club even served champaign to the stompers. Great fun.

Florida's Friendliest Hometown

Those readers who have watched any golf on television have quite likely seen commercials for "The Villages - Florida's Friendliest Hometown" where residents "golf free for life." Well, turns out The Villages is only about half an hour south of here. So today Tom and I took a tour of the city and were very impressed. It's like living at a 5 star resort.

There are two big town squares and several community centers with just about any kind of shopping or restaurants or entertainment you could want. Not to mention all the recreation opportunities.

They've got their own hospital and numerous health care clinics with every kind of specialist you can imagine. This place is huge. It's hard to describe. After visiting their website and getting the brochure and DVD mailed to us before we left Fairbanks, I had an idea of what to expect, but the reality went way beyond our expectations.

It will definitely be on our list of places to consider settling when we are ready.

Since this area of central Florida is serious horse country, there is also a polo field within the city and our guide today gave us complimentary tickets to watch the polo matches this weekend. I've always wanted to watch a polo match. This should be great fun!

Further into Florida

We moved further into Florida today when we traveled from the pan handle to Silver Springs, which is near Ocala, about 80 miles north of Orlando. We were very impressed with the interstate highways in this state. They are in terrific shape with really nice rest stops every 30 or 40 miles. It made our 4 1/2 hour trip a piece of cake.

We are staying at the Wilderness Estates RV Resort. This place is gorgeous. Big open grass areas, lovely mature trees, a beautiful clubhouse and (heated) pool area, a small cafe and store, a river running by (with lots of fish to keep Tom occupied) tons of room at your RV site and more. The only thing it's missing is a golf course or we might be persuaded to stay here over the winter. Most of the snowbirds have already headed north so we practically have the place to ourselves.

We'll be here for the next six days, then it will be time to go to DISNEY!

Filling in the Map

We crossed into Florida on Thursday so we got to fill in another state on the map on our motorhome. We've now covered all the states along the southern border of the US. We'll be in Florida through mid-May and then we'll start heading north. I wonder how many states we'll have filled in by the time we get back to Arizona for the winter?

Health Insurance Getting a Workout

Our health insurance sure is getting a workout lately. In addition to Tom's little episode, I have had an ear infection for over a week now. I was on an antibiotic for a week and at first it seemed to make a big difference and I thought the infection would soon be gone. But the little buggers managed to develop a resistance to the type of antibiotic I was taking and the last couple of days, I could feel the pain growing again, along with the feeling that my ear was full of liquid.

So, today we went to a walk-in clinic near where we're currently staying (Fountain, Florida.) The doc took one look in my ear and said "You have a really bad infection!" Guess now there's a lot of yellowish liquid in my ear and it is distending my ear drum. I've now got a new prescription for a different type of antibiotic to fight the infection, an antihistamine to help re-open the drainage tube inside my ear, and a topical med to help with the pain and itching so I stop digging at it.

If this doesn't work within a few days, the next step is a trip to an ENT specialist and getting a drainage tube inserted into my ear. Let's pray it doesn't go that far!

The initial COBRA health coverage we got when Tom first retired is about to run out and his "regular" retirement coverage will kick in, but at about double the price. Maybe this is God's way of reminding us not to grumble about the cost and just be thankful we have insurance!

Gulf Shores Alabama

You know you're in the south when you see this...

And you know you're in a tourist town when you see this....

So I guess that means we're in a southern tourist town. We're in Gulf Shores, Alabama and it's "spring break" down here so we are certainly getting the tourist experience. Our RV park is only about half a mile from the beach. We took a nice long walk along the beach today enjoying the feel of the sugar fine sand between our toes and the warm gulf water washing over the tops of our feet. What a great day!

Bump in the Road

Wednesday we were supposed to have left Louisiana and gone to Gulf Shores, Alabama to meet up with our Alaskan RVing friends Doug and Karen. While we were going through the motions of getting the motorhome ready to go, Tom started feeling a bit light headed. Turned out he was dehydrated and we ended up spending the afternoon in the hospital emergency room where Tom was monitored and pumped full of IV fluids. He was back to normal by the time they released him, but we figured it was probably better to stay in that area for a couple more days before we started traveling again.

As soon as I called Karen to let her know we wouldn't be getting to Alabama as planned, she and Doug changed course and came right to Louisiana. What a blessing to have such good friends. They kept us company in the hospital and stayed through the weekend. Not quite the visit we had originally envisioned, but we had fun anyway. We even got in a round of golf.

Yesterday we went through another tornado watch and severe storm warning. We never got anything approaching high winds, but we sure did experience heavy rain and a lot of lightening.

Today we are back on the road and on our way to Gulf Shores, AL for a few nights. We are traveling between storms. We are following the one from last night and trying to stay ahead of the one behind us. If the hourly forecast on weather.com is correct, we should arrive in time to get set up for the night before the next storm comes along. But it will probably be another rainy night full of thunder.

On the Move Again

We had such a wonderful time these past two weeks visiting with our friends Elizabeth and Roland. It has been great seeing Elizabeth almost every day again - just like when we both lived in Fairbanks. But yesterday it was time to move on.

We left Luling and traveled east, through Houston, to Beaumont, Texas where we spent the night. While walking the dogs around the RV park there, we noticed little mounds of mud (like tiny volcanoes) all over the place. Very curious. We learned these were crawdad (crayfish if you're a Yankee) holes. I guess in the south, it is not uncommon to find crawdad holes a good distance from water, especially in places with high water tables. Also, crawdad tend to migrate, especially after a heavy rain, so it is possible to find them in places that you would never expect. Now why they do this, I have no idea.

Today we drove another 250 miles east to Abita Springs, LA. Abita Springs is a pretty little town about 60 miles or so north of New Orleans.

And amazingly enough, there is a Cafe du Monde only a few miles away from our RV park. The original Cafe du Monde is a coffee stand in the French Quarter of New Orleans famous for its cafe au lait and beignets. Beignets are squares of fried dough (sort of donut-like) that are covered in copious amounts of powdered sugar. Each one is just a little bit of heaven. So this evening we had to go there to get beignets for dessert. There is simply no way to eat one without getting powdered sugar all over yourself, but it is soooo worth the mess.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Friday we drove up to Austin to visit the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. The name seems self explanatory, so I'll skip the text and just add the pictures. :-)

Wimberley

We visited Wimberley on Thursday, a small hill country town with some charming gift shops. The main attraction is the Wimberley Glass Works where we were able to sit and watch the glass blowers weave their magic. And I'm not talking about those cute little figurines you see at fairs. I'm talking major works of art here. It was facinating to see the process from start to finish. Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures as I didn't want to distract the artists with flash photography.

Remember the Alamo

On Monday, we went into San Antonio to visit the Alamo. Originally built as a mission in the early 1700's, the Alamo was the sight of one of the most important battles in Texas' war for indpendence from Mexico. Facing Mexican troops numbering in the thousands, the small band of about two hundred defenders held out against Santa Ana's forces for 13 days. In the end they were all killed but their brave fight bought time for a larger army of Texans to reach the area and defeat Santa Ana shortly afterward. Aside from the famous church building seen in the picture at left, the Alamo is actually about a 4 acre complex that is now comprised of the church, the long barracks a museum gift shop and internal courtyard garden area which is a lovely memorial to the courageous men who gave their lives for the cause of freedom.

After our tour of the Alamo, we explored around the "River Walk". It's an area of downtown San Antonio where the river is lined with restaurants, cafe's, shops, hotels and more. We had lunch at a fabulous riverside restaurant called Iron Cactus. I guess I'd describe it as a mexican bistro. Mexican food, but with a twist. Tom ordered seared spicy Ahi tuna tacos with pineapple salsa and I got roasted red pepper pasta with tomatillo pico de gallo. I had a very hard time deciding between that and an artichoke/portobello mushroom enchilada. I look forward to the chance to go back and try the enchiladas. Everything was delicious.

Very fun day.

New Additions

There are two new additions to the stable next to our RV park in Luling. Both are only a couple of weeks old. They look like future Derby winners to me!