Thursday, December 18, 2014

We are at Tyler State Park, near Tyler, Texas.  This is our view:

We have been lucky to find nice places to park.  We are only here for one night, but this is such a nice park, we hope to be back.  It's just a couple of hours from Natasha, so it should be easy to get the trailer parked in storage and get everything back to Natasha's tomorrow.

I last posted from Meaher State Park in Alabama.  We ended up staying there two extra nights, as Steve came down with a really bad cold.  My back had been bothering me, so we just hunkered down.   I slept in the living room on the sofa bed and we could still get to our desks for eating and our computers.  That meant we could watch the bay whenever we weren't asleep.

But the extra two nights put a crimp in our plans to get to Natasha's by the 20th.  We had left Disney on the ninth and camped at Recreation Plantation near the Villages for 3 nights.  Since we made arrangements to see Sam and Joy on Tuesday and Steve's Uncle Eep on Wednesday, we thought we might leave early, but then my computer died.  Deader than a doornail.  Steve was able to make an appointment with Apple in Orlando on Thursday, so we stayed.

Early in my RV research, I ran into the rule of 2s.  To keep sane, it's recommended that you travel about 200 miles a day, stay at least 2 nights in any spot, and be parked by 2 pm.  When you can follow that, it's a comfortable way to travel.  In plotting our trip from the Villages to Dallas, I could do that if I had one one night stopover.   I planned that for Tallahassee, FL.  And things were going according to plan, until Steve got his cold.  After that we had to plan more of a rush trip to Dallas.  We managed to travel to Vicksburg, MS last night and stayed at a casino RV campground.  Not much to write home about, but easy off and on I20:

Many casinos apparently allow RV'ers to park overnight in their parking lots.  Some have hookups; most don't.  This casino has created an RV park across the road from the casino.  They'll shuttle you over to the casino if you want.

We've driven to within 2 hours of Natasha's and settled in around 4 here.  We could have made it to Dallas, but then we would be packing and unpacking and parking in the dark.  This way, we get to experience a nice state park and we should mostly be settled at Natasha's by dinner time tomorrow.

Just a note on the roads - Mississippi and Louisiana still have bad roads and Texas roads are much smoother.  But it all three states, the roads are lined with trees, which makes for a calmer drive.  They kind of remind me of driving in North Carolina, except that there is a mix of evergreens and deciduous trees.

Next post from Plano, Texas!

Deb

Sunday, December 14, 2014

We are at Meaher State Park, Spanish Fort, Alabama, not too far from Mobile.  And this is our view:

We don't always get this lucky, but I'm sure enjoying it.  We are on Ducker Bay, which is off of Mobile Bay, near the Gulf of Mexico.

My computer died last week and Steve took it to the Apple Store.  They had to send it in to be fixed and it will be shipped to Natasha.  So I'm borrowing Steve's computer.  It's taken me  awhile to get these pictures posted, so I'm going to get this published before I have any more issues!

Deb

Saturday, December 6, 2014

Fort Wilderness, Walt Disney World, Florida

What a week!  Many years ago we brought Betsy and Darci to Disney with my mom and two nieces, Jessie and Jamie.  This was a return trip for Betsy and Darci, who brought husbands and kids.  They were kind and let us tag along.

Needless to say, we all had a blast!  The girls and their families have headed home this morning.  My task was to gather all the pictures that Steve and I took, along with the ones that Disney took, and burn them to a disk for them to take home.  Roughly 1000 pictures later, I got that done.  That doesn’t count any that anyone but me took on their phone, or Darci’s camera pictures.  She should have plenty to choose from.

Highlights of the week:

The whole gang at Animal Kingdom meeting King Louie and Baloo:

Riding Mt. Everest:

 

 

Meeting the princesses:

 

Getting makeovers:

 And riding the new Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

Matthew also got to spar with Darth Vadar.

And today, I recover.  Steve is off to Epcot to spend time in innoventions, which usually showcases interesting upcoming technology.  I’m catching up with the blog and reorganizing the trailer for two instead of four.

We’ll go to the Magic Kingdom tomorrow and Animal Kingdom on Monday.  Tuesday we leave Disney World and begin our travels to Dallas for Christmas.

Deb

Friday, December 5, 2014

Just a few minutes to post before we head to Epcot.  I spent last evening organizing pictures after visiting Hollywood Studios, so here’s a few:

Steve says it's time to go!

Deb

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Walt Disney World, Orlando, Florida!

We left home on Friday, targeting for 11 am and actually pulling out around 1 pm.  Since on our first big trip we left 2 days late, and on our second, 1 day late, I figure we’re making progress.  We drove out to the farm to pick up Reston and Reston and Betsy’s luggage.  Then we headed for Indy to pick up Betsy from work and on we rolled!

Thanks to Reston helping with the driving we made great progress.  Traffic was heavy at times, but our only bad incident was a car on fire on the side of the road.  It looked like the car might have been being towed, as there were people with another vehicle standing and watching it burn.  We passed before the first responders got there, but just barely.  I checked the news the next day and no  one was hurt.

We drove to just north of Nashville, pulled into a KOA, opened the slides and fell asleep.  Steve had us up early the next day and we headed for Disney World.  We arrived about 9:30 pm and with both Reston and I to help, we were parked fairly quickly.  And again, we just fell into bed.

Sunday was a recovery day.  After some discussion, Betsy and Reston chose to head for Hollywood Studios while Steve and I took Obi to the Best Friends Kennel.  Unfortunately, we ran into a snag there.  They don’t give shots, so can’t give Obi his medication.  Ouch!  Our alternatives were to go to the kennel twice a day to give him his shots or find another kennel. 

Last year Obi had stayed at Miss Emily’s Bed and Biscuit and even liked it.  But it’s about an hour away.  I gave them a call and they will give shots, so off we went.  After he was settled, we headed back to Disney.  Betsy and Reston had gone back to the trailer and then headed for the beach at Fort Wilderness.  When they came back, we headed out to see Christmas decorations.  First a boat to the Magic Kingdom for a quick dinner at Casey’s corner and some pictures.

Then we grabbed a ride on the monorail over to the Grand Floridian hotel to see the ginger bread house and all the decorations.  The ginger bread house actually is tall enough that it houses a shop that sells goodies.

Then it was back to Fort Wilderness by monorail and boat and we all crashed again.

Betsy and Reston seem to be adapting well to our life in a trailer.  Reston has been going to the comfort station (restrooms, showers and laundry) for his showers.  It’s very close, so it’s convenient.

Monday we went to Universal studios to see the Harry Potter lands – Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley.  Poor Betsy couldn’t go on any of the rides – they are all classified as rollercoasters and she’s pregnant.  I’m not a roller coaster person, but loved the Hogwarts ride!  Steve and Reston went on the Gringott’s ride in Diagon Alley and convinced me that I’d like it.  Wrong! 

But we had lunch, including butterbeer, at the Three Broomsticks in Hogsmeade, which was very good.  Then we split and Steve and I went to listen to the Blues Brothers, while eating Ben and Jerry’s.  Life’s rough!

We met up again at an animal show and then headed back to Fort Wilderness.  After a quick dinner, Betsy and Reston went off to the campfire to toast marshmallows and meet Chip and Dale.  Then again we crashed.

Everyone’s about ready to leave this morning, so I’m going to get this posted without any photos.

More later!

Deb

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

We are home in West Lafayette!  We arrived mid afternoon on Monday and started unpacking the trailer.

We spent Saturday with Molly, Nick, Will, Clara and Fritz in Johnson City, TN.  The kids and Nick had built a really tall snow man, but it’s head fell off before I got a chance to photograph it.  Although there was enough snow to build a snowman, there wasn’t any on the roads, so traveling around wasn’t a problem.

The kids were delighted to see Obi and we thank Molly and Nick for letting us bring him along.  Will was wise enough to ask how old Obi was and upon learning that he’s 77 in human years, all the kids were especially gentle with him.  They took turns reading him to sleep!

Obi seemed to enjoy it and stayed quietly in his bed, occasionally looking in the direction of the reader.

Molly made us a delicious butternut squash soup for lunch.  We ordered pizza and took it out to the trailer for dinner, as the kids wanted to see the RV.  Now they want one!  Sorry, Molly and Nick!

On Sunday, we got up and headed for home.  The snow was all gone and it was a bright sunny day.  We have been blessed with mostly gorgeous weather and scenery.

We drove through Cumberland Gap National Park on our way.  These were a few of the deer that were near the visitors center.

The Cumberland Gap led pioneers to Kentucky and other lands beyond the Appalachian Mountains.  Daniel Boone blazed this and other trails through the mountains and established several communities.

I look at the landscape and am amazed at the people who came through here.  We forget that, for the most part, they were traveling by foot.  Walking.  Hundreds of miles.  Daniel Boone was born in Pennsylvania, moved to North Carolina with his parents, and lived there, in Kentucky, West Virginia and Missouri, traveling mostly on foot.  No GPS, no maps, only animal trails to follow.  And existing with whatever you could carry on your back or horse if you were lucky enough to have one.

I much prefer our trailer!

Deb