A Saturday in Central Florida in the land of Disney vs. Ron DeSantis! The dogs were up early for their usual saunter about our section of the park. Afterwards it was a bit of computer time with coffee and my lovely bride. I then fired the flat top and fixed us both Fracos which we enjoyed on the veranda (aka under the awning and bedroom slide-out) as we watched the world wake up and drive by down Seatrout Lane. After straightening up the morning dishes, it was off to Aldi and Wally World to resupply the Coach with essential food items. We are good to go for at least another week lest we restock consumables.
Got home in the nick of time to clean the coach and put away groceries as Randy and Linda came over for lunch. Fired up the flat-top yet again only this time it was burgers and fries. Love that thing! We chatted about most topics worthwhile until around 4 when they took Pepper, their dog, and themselves down the road to their RV. It should be fun to spend a couple weeks with them on the road. In the evening hours, took the hounds on an extended walk and then had leftovers for supper as we continued to binge watch the 2nd season of Outlander. We did make a second trip to Wally World. Note to self, Saturday is NOT the day to go to Walmart unless you are into ginormous crowds, long lines, and people watching. Seriously, avoid it like the plague!! Otherwise, did I mention we’re STILL loving retirement!
Sunday was not the best day for Vicki as she was downed by a migraine headache. She hasn’t had one since retirement so was a little concerned. As the day progressed, she got better, so we basically made it a relaxation day. One of the perks of retirement. Started the new week with a cleaning of the rig both inside and outside which of course means that we are going to have rain. As of 5 this Monday evening we are under a severe thunderstorm warning. So its a good thing I spent yesterday washing the rig with waterless cleaner. (sigh) But at least the rig looked good for a few hours. We did our running around getting documents notarized, sent via fed ex, new updated hardware and software at Verizon along with some forgotten items at Publix market here in Orlando. Will fix a rib supper this evening and binge watch something as the rain prevents us from a bike ride. We’ll have the generator guy coming tomorrow and then Wednesday are heading to Kennedy Space Center for the day. Looking forward to seeing the place after some 30 years. One of the neat things about this campground is that we have a sedge of Sand Hill Cranes that meander through our campsite several times a day. They are essentially Florida roosters as their call is the first thing heard after the sun rises. Also, as mentioned earlier, the place has an enormous squirrel population. They are everywhere and scurry onto unattended vehicles, trees, and right down the middle of the road. They silly things have no fear and are hiding their nuts everywhere!! Inuendo intended!! LOL Not much else to report today, so will close. By the way, we’re still loving retirement!
Day 49
The day was a day filled with logistics. It included a trip to UPS to get a document notarized, to Walgreens to send documents via FedEx and Verizon to increase the amount of data we can get on our MiFi devices. We ended up with a second device so we’ll be able to stream more efficiently. Then a trip to Lowes to get a wrench to recenter the big slide. Again, maintenance is a never ending journey when one deals with an RV. Also scheduled an appointment for Annie to get a Cytopoint injection.
The weather has turned a bit stormy as we are under a severe thunderstorm watch. Of course, it is going to rain since I washed both the car and rig. The weather caused issues with cell service, so we went to the tried and true DVD and watched The Full Monty. An absolute cult classic on par with The Big Lewbowski, Raising Arizona, and Oh, Brother Where Out Thou. The storm passed so we concluded the night with RuPaul’s Drag Race. Why on earth people are afraid of Drag Queens and Drag Shows is beyond me. They harm no one, entertain countless numbers and basically promote loving one another. Why do we make such a big deal? If you don’t want to go to a drag show….DON’T GO!!! Seems pretty simple.
The Sand Hill cranes are sounding the 8:00 pm and all is well alarm so should probably close for now. Did I mention it? We’re still loving retirement!
Day 50
Orlando greeted us with yet another sunny morning with 72 F (25 C) but later in the day rose to 85 F (32 C) with 70 to 80% humidity. So after a nice easy breakfast, I played the role of Hoke and drove Miss Daisy to Walmart to get her second shingles vaccine injection. Glad she is protected and when I go on Medicare I go through the same protocol. We then spent the better part of the afternoon planning our route to Las Vegas to see Oliver and his hip hop crew prior to the 4th of July.
From there we decided to go for a bike ride around the campground and admire some of the rigs in the park. We walked the dogs and then tried to settle in for the evening. No such luck!!!! Our phone exploded with a severe thunderstorm warning and to take immediate cover. We were to expect Baseball sized hail, strong winds and possible tornadoes!! As the pictures above indicate, we definitely had the hail. Thank goodness it didn’t reach baseball sized, but it did get to golf ball and marble sized. Glad it only lasted about 10 minutes but it did knock out power for about an hour. After it passed everyone in the park got out of the rig to inspect the damage. One of our neighbors had a window broken and several folks had the vent covers on their roof broken. Didn’t get up on the roof as I decided it was still to dangerous. Will probably attempt it tomorrow when things dry out completely.
Was expecting the generator repair guy to come, however, when I called them with updated address information, they apologized and said they couldn’t make it out. So after a bit of wrangling, they are going to come out on Thursday first thing in the morning and repair the generator. It did work okay, when we lost power, but my confidence in the long term run is not high at all.
Day 51
Today led us on a trek across central Florida to Kennedy Space Center. (KSC) It is much changed from the last time we were there some 30 years ago. Sadly, it has become more of an amusement park than a historical attraction. Getting into the park was a pain in the ass. I got to the security checkpoint and didn’t realize I had my 2 in pocketknife. So had to walk back to the car. Glad we used our handicapped placard. Then when we got to the ticket check, we were told we had to get paper tickets. AYFKM!!! We paid a $5 online ticket fee and had a QRS code on Vicki’s phone for crying out loud. So we had to go through security again, hence the picture of the patient lady. We did take some space related “rides” though. Our first was Mission outside our solar system. (Not its actual name, but at my age, remembering the true title in nye on impossible.) Interesting, albeit a long wait for a short experience. Next was a visit to the Shuttle Atlantis visit which was awe inspiring. Vicki and I both commented on how that was our memory as young adults. We were able to watch the shuttle ferry into Tinker Field on the back of a special 747. The thrill of seeing a mission launch while departing from a cruise ship, and sadly the disasters of Columbia and Challenger. We finished the day with an Atlantic Shuttle simulation which was very memorable. The simulator actually rotated 90 degrees to simulate actual launch and liftoff. Didn’t feel the effects of 0 G, but did get “pushed back” in our seats.
An interesting observation while traveling to KSC. The distance from the campground to KSC was only 80 miles. So based on that we planned the travel time at 90 minutes. Were we way off!! Almost 2 1/2 hours to get there. It is a highway, but in Florida apparently they like to put a traffic light every two miles and set them on wait at least 2 minutes when red. So on the return trip I thought I’d outsmart Siri and the Google machine and return on I-4. Wasn’t much better! Central Florida is a major traffic jam. For us this makes it a nice place to visit, but definitely don’t want to live here.
After arriving home at around 4, we took the dogs for an extended walk considering they had been inside for almost 7 hours. Then, drove into Kissimmee and picked up Panda Express for supper. We basically ravaged comfort food while binging Yellowstone. It is such a mind numbing soap opera with interesting characters. Yet another good day of retirement!
Day 52
Was again greeted with Orlando’s high humidity and temperature as we awaited the arrival of the generator technicians. Believe it or not, they arrived on time and attempted to fix the Generator. They did clean the carburetor, change plugs, and got it running smoothly. However, the tech said in broken english that the control to the butterfly value was not working properly and since it was part in parcel (my words) of the carburetor, I’d have to replace the whole thing. Since we are leaving in two days, there would be no way to get the part ordered and arrive in time for installation, so will need to baby this thing until we get back to Texas and I can preform surgery myself. I’m hoping that it is just a sticky valve and that it will hold out for the trip to Vegas and beyond. Fingers crossed.
Took Annie to the vet in the afternoon to get a cytopoint injection. PetSmart was nice. The only issue was it took 30 minutes to go 12 miles. Florida and their damn traffic lights!!!
I started feeling a bit under the weather around supper time, so after the meal I just literally became a lump on the sofa and then retired at 8. Even when we are not feeling our best, still loving retirement!
Day 53
It’s posting Saturday, so this should be a fantastically descriptive ending to this week’s blog. But to quote Wesley from the Princess Bride,”Get used to disappointment.” The day was a bit of chilling around the rig. Tried working on getting the trip to Vegas squared away but failed. We did locate a flea market which we’ll explore tomorrow, which I guess could be considered an accomplishment. We looked at the weather and there was a ginormous thunderstorm to our west so decided to stay close to home. Of course, it didn’t materialize so we picked up some items at Publix. Spent $80 and filled only three bags. Prices are certainly high here in central Florida. Spent some of the afternoon communicating with FMCA in reference to our AT&T hotspot. Looks like they’ll send us a new one when we reach St Augustine. They were very friendly in the e-mails. We did get our car tabs in the mail so we are now legitimate for the next year. Looking forward to putting Orlando in our rearview and exploring America with Randy and Linda for a couple of weeks. Did I mention we’re still loving retirement?
