THURSDAY – 11/13 – Yep, Judy said it all with a famous line from the Wizard of Oz. From the warmth of Florida I woke up this morning at 6:50 AM, almost 10:OO AM Florida time, to NINE DEGREES ABOVE FREEZING. Clear skies but quite breezy, so the wind chill factor must be about 20 below! My fingers are so cold I can barely write this. All the trees except the damnable Alders have lost their leaves, so, I can barely see the lawn. Looks like I have a little raking ahead. I guess my “iron-man” health status is in jeopardy, after surviving illness from every one of the Florida family members, including my wife, now I’m home and feeling really congested. Oh well.
Yesterday’s trip “home” was quite eventful, AND long. Corinna delayed going to work, so M&C and Caleb went to the airport with us, and they bought us lunch on the way. It was a typical Florida day with partly cloudy skies, but around 70. However, on the way to the airport, we went through a significant thundershower, helping to acclimate us to the ongoing storms in the Pacific Northwest. As required by The Blonde, we arrived two hours early, and found our flight was “on time.” Sad goodbyes were in order, but while 14 days + was a tad long for a visit, we had lots of good times and quality time spent with the family we seldom see.
Our first defugalty was, going through the dreaded security check with half our toiletries in clear plastic bags and a young man came back holding a brand new large tube of Crest toothpaste. Sorry, he said, nothing more than 3 ounces can go on the plane. Poot! I asked if confiscated stuff like that would go to a charity or something, and he said no, it goes into a big bin and is tossed. Ruined my morning! Talk about overkill. Perhaps I fit the profile of a terrorist, but c’mon, use some reason folks.
Next incident was rather heartwarming. We were sitting by the gate during the LONG wait for boarding, and a nice looking young man came to the gate, and he kind of looked like he might be one of the attendants. However, once our plane arrived, he didn’t immediately board, but just stood there. Then the gate attendant got on the PA and announced that this young man needed some help. When we got to our stopover in Kansas City, he was going to propose to his girlfriend and needed help handing out 50 roses. Awwww
We were able to get one of the bulkhead seats for my arthritic knees, Praise the Lord, and this young man was on the aisle in the other bulkhead row, across from Mavis. During the course of the flight, the whole story came out. It seems that Phil Mathis’ mother planned this elaborate scenario to really surprise his intended fiancée. Phil went to Orlando, supposedly for “training” so his mother and girlfriend could be at the Kansas City airport to meet him when he returned. Phil had 50 red roses that he asked people departing at K.C. to walk off the plane with, each with a picture of his fiancée to be, and hand them to her, BEFORE Phil deplaned. Is this cool or what? Mavis was ticked because they wouldn’t let her get off the plane with a rose because they had to go beyond security where his intended was waiting and there wasn’t time.
Phil seemed pretty solemn the first part of the trip, but as the plan enfolded, he got his engagement ring out and was showing it to everybody, and he became more animated. I kidded him about whether he had considered the fact he might get turned down. He didn’t think that would happen. I mentioned that I wonder how his intended (wish I could remember her name) would react if someone told her Phil was flirting with the lady next to him. (ha ha) The lady then remarked that we must have been married a long time and I said, “Yeah, 48 years!” A departing passenger at K.C. congratulated us on our 48 years. Final chapter to this love story is our chief stewardess announced on the plane’s loudspeaker, “She accepted!” Fun stuff. Oh, Mavis just reminded me that just before they let the passengers deplane, the stewardess announced on the PA that on behalf of the flight crew, they were giving him this bottle of champagne. Everyone clapped.
Final comment, Mavis told Phil this would definitely be included in my trip blog and he asked to see it. He gave me his e-mail address, PMATHIS@……
and not knowing his first name at the time I asked if his first name was Phil. It was! Pretty intuitive for an old guy, eh?
Next incident, which occurred during this leg of the flight to K.C. the stewardess suddenly, announced on the PA, “Is there a doctor or nurse on board this flight?” Geeze, that was pretty scary. The young lady sitting next to Phil jumped up and went to the back of the plane with other attendants. Never did hear exactly what was wrong with the passenger but when we landed at K.C. they announced everyone should stay in their seats until the paramedics could attend to the victim. The person was on his/her way to Seattle, and they apparently stabilized his/her condition because he/she wasn’t removed. Probably a heart attack? Wowsers!
Speaking of medical problems, as the new passengers got on in K.C. for the final leg to Seattle, this HUGE kid and his fairly large lady companion came on board and sat in the bulkhead seats previously occupied by Phil. He HAD to have been a football player or something. I thought gee, it’s lucky he has the extra bulkhead room. Not! The attendants ran them off because they brought in a guy in a wheelchair that appeared to be paralyzed from his waist down. He had a heck of a time getting into the plane seat, and made me realize how insignificant my bum knees are. Always someone worse off than thou, right?
As we took off from Kansas City, it was a little before sunset, and there were huge thunderheads everywhere. The sun was shining from behind them to the west, and it was absolutely beautiful around the edges, which became snow white. I wish I had a camera handy to capture the moment. All the cloud formations were magnificent as we climbed way above them and later, as the sun set to the west, we got a huge orange/red sunset.
The captain had just turned off the seat-belt sign and our stewardess (I guess I should call them attendants) came by and we ordered two Tangurey? Martinis, and The Blonde’s eyes began to sparkle. Not to be, as suddenly we hit pretty severe turbulence and the captain made all the attendants return to their seats and buckle up. He announced that we would be experiencing turbulence for about half an hour and then would have a smooth ride the rest of the way.
Of course Mavis was ticked, and, the turbulence lasted over an hour and a half. You couldn’t read, or sleep or anything. Finally we flew out of it and around came our attendant and she whispered, “I gave you both doubles!” Whee! And, best of all, never charged us the $4 each for them.
As we neared Seattle, I couldn’t get my thoughts off my beloved white companion. The original plan was that Kevin would pick us up at the airport, take us out to Suzy’s where we would get MISI and the SUV. However, due to the lateness or our arrival, 9:35 PM, we were told some other plans were being considered because it is such a long drive to Yelm and then an hour and a half home from there. I immediately figured out that Suz & Barn would bring MISI and the SUV to Fife where Kev would drop us off. The more I thought about it, I thought I bet Kevin will bring the car AND MISI TO the airport, because Suzy knows how attached I am to my white companion.
I mentally fussed about how MISI would react to me after two week’s abs cense, because in the past, when I have been away from her for relatively short periods, she gets so excited she acts like she wants to lick me to death or eat me alive. What would I encounter??
Sure enough, as Kevin arrived he DID have the Suzuki and there was my dog, intently looking at me as I came to the window. However, she acted really strange, almost like I was a stranger. Sob! What had they done to my dog? On the way back to Kevin’s house (He and Suzy had rendezvoused the previous evening) MISI laid her head on my lap, not moving, but she was quite warm with a warm nose, not normal. We finally concluded that she was fine at Suzy’s where they had a large fenced yard and two dogs to play with, and, got lots of attention from the family. However, after Kevin picked her up Tuesday night, for one day she was at a relatively unfamiliar house, with three dogs, a cat, a bird, a lizard and two little boys, and being emotionally sensitive, probably was a little spooked, not understanding her changing world.
However, once we left Kevin’s for the short drive home, she began to perk up and by the time we got home, she seemed perfectly normal, and her nose got cold like it should. I’m sure all you readers are just ecstatic over this story.
We arrived in Taylor Bay a little after 11:00 PM, (2:00 AM Florida time, which our bodies were adjusted to.) House was cold and stuffy, but our VERY OWN BEDS were wonderful. You seldom sleep well in a strange bed.
When I finally thawed out this morning, with a roaring fire in the stove, we ran out to breakfast as there was no food in the house, picked up the mail and bought basic food items. Getting back home our fatigue started to set in and both of us have been napping off and on. I’m definitely going to get outside and rake some leaves and maybe shake the cobwebs out.
Great trip and most memorable. Does anyone else have children living far away? It’s tough, eh? But, that’s life, and as long as they are happy, that’s the important thing. Thanks for hanging in with this overly long blog folks.
********************FINIS***********************
PS – Seester Donna finds the word “BLOG” offensive and wants me to call it “George.” Anyone agree?
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
LEAVING FLORIDA NOTES
WEDNESDAY - 11/12 - Just got back from my second solo driving in Florida as I took Zachary to the bus stop and picked up some groceries. To help acclimate me to the Pac. NW I went through a rain shower, but, it's still over 70 out.
More observations, I really like the traffic situation here compared to Phoenix, where it seems everybody is in a big rush and they constantly tailgate you. Here they drive courteously, for the most part, however, on the turnpike where Mike drives 5 over, he is continually passed by drivers going at least 10 mph faster. I guess Mike is maturing because in Arizona, NOBODY passed him. And, you rarely see state patrol pulling people over. Gas was down to $2.12 at 7-11 this morning, not bad. Hope it is coming down back home.
Other than the first few days of our visit, the weather has been lovely, seldom too warm for comfort. While we notice the humidity, the locals say this is much better than during hotter times.
Kevin comes for a short visit this weekend, so the kids get little rest from entertaining. Weather is turning worse then, probably will barely be 70. Tough luck Kevie.
Maybe I'm having a Senior Moment, but I can't remember if I talked about the space shuttle launch coming up? As I recall, this is the last one for the foreseeable future. It was originally schedule for a few weeks ago, and thought we MIGHT get lucky and see it go off during our visit. While we were here, they announced it would go off the 13th, tomorrow, the day AFTER we depart. Seester Donna Jean couldn't believe we wouldn't arrange to lay over a day to see a once in a lifetime event. Well Seester, for a mere $200 extra, we could have stayed, for a 15 minute event that very well could have been rescheduled. Which it turns out is was, until Friday the 14th. Also, many of the Florida days this time of year are partly cloudy, and our kids went to one launch that almost immediately got lost in the clouds. So, we will watch it on TV at home.
Last night we magnanimously offered to take Mike & Corinna out for a "thank you" dinner, the only time the four of have had alone. They took us back to the Cocoa Beach area to a really nice restaurant on the Florida River, which is part of the Inter-Coastal waterway. Absolutely delightful, watching the sun set, the myriad of sea birds and swarms of catfish that boil the water below you, waiting for a handout. We had a great waiter, Jacob, or was it Jason, who went along with my normal Brown kidding, and gave it back to me. As soon as the sun set, they brought out propane heaters as the temperature drops quickly. Instead of the sour dough bread many restaurants bring to fill you up befoe you eat, they brought out baskets of Corn Fritters that were scruptious. And, they bring out "complimentary" cole slaw. Suprising how many differences there are between living areas. After dinner, on the way back through Cocoa beach, Mike stopped along the beach where we watched almost a full moon reflecting off the Atlantic. Beautiful! How many Washingonians, or Oregonians, get to see the moon reflecting on the Atlantic? But, how many east coasters get to watch a sunset over the Pacific. Life is good!
More observations, I really like the traffic situation here compared to Phoenix, where it seems everybody is in a big rush and they constantly tailgate you. Here they drive courteously, for the most part, however, on the turnpike where Mike drives 5 over, he is continually passed by drivers going at least 10 mph faster. I guess Mike is maturing because in Arizona, NOBODY passed him. And, you rarely see state patrol pulling people over. Gas was down to $2.12 at 7-11 this morning, not bad. Hope it is coming down back home.
Other than the first few days of our visit, the weather has been lovely, seldom too warm for comfort. While we notice the humidity, the locals say this is much better than during hotter times.
Kevin comes for a short visit this weekend, so the kids get little rest from entertaining. Weather is turning worse then, probably will barely be 70. Tough luck Kevie.
Maybe I'm having a Senior Moment, but I can't remember if I talked about the space shuttle launch coming up? As I recall, this is the last one for the foreseeable future. It was originally schedule for a few weeks ago, and thought we MIGHT get lucky and see it go off during our visit. While we were here, they announced it would go off the 13th, tomorrow, the day AFTER we depart. Seester Donna Jean couldn't believe we wouldn't arrange to lay over a day to see a once in a lifetime event. Well Seester, for a mere $200 extra, we could have stayed, for a 15 minute event that very well could have been rescheduled. Which it turns out is was, until Friday the 14th. Also, many of the Florida days this time of year are partly cloudy, and our kids went to one launch that almost immediately got lost in the clouds. So, we will watch it on TV at home.
Last night we magnanimously offered to take Mike & Corinna out for a "thank you" dinner, the only time the four of have had alone. They took us back to the Cocoa Beach area to a really nice restaurant on the Florida River, which is part of the Inter-Coastal waterway. Absolutely delightful, watching the sun set, the myriad of sea birds and swarms of catfish that boil the water below you, waiting for a handout. We had a great waiter, Jacob, or was it Jason, who went along with my normal Brown kidding, and gave it back to me. As soon as the sun set, they brought out propane heaters as the temperature drops quickly. Instead of the sour dough bread many restaurants bring to fill you up befoe you eat, they brought out baskets of Corn Fritters that were scruptious. And, they bring out "complimentary" cole slaw. Suprising how many differences there are between living areas. After dinner, on the way back through Cocoa beach, Mike stopped along the beach where we watched almost a full moon reflecting off the Atlantic. Beautiful! How many Washingonians, or Oregonians, get to see the moon reflecting on the Atlantic? But, how many east coasters get to watch a sunset over the Pacific. Life is good!
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
BACK TO MIAMI/JULIO VISIT
MONDAY - 11/10 - Back to the Miami area again as Mike has an equipment upgrade to install north of Miami. Its a long drive but we get to visit with buddy Julio again. He met us at Ft. Lauderdale since Mike's job was north of there, and then he took us back towards Miami to show us the little sailboat he recently purchased. Since he recently retired from a local bank, restoring this little boat is going to be his first retirement project.
Since he was a Vice President in charge of facilities, he took us to their new operations center that he helped coordinate and it is quite impressive. I may remember this wrong but they have two huge propane generators to operate the center, or perhaps are backup power, and a mammoth 800 gallon propane tank to power the generators in case of a major hurricane outage.
After that he took us to Hollywood, FL., to their boardwalk, to see how the other half lives. Right on the ocean, of course, with zillions of people sunbathing, biking, walking, jogging and old people in motorized scooters. We had a delightful lunch at an outdoor Greek restaurant overlooking the water. It was a little more windy than usual Julio said, but temperature was still in the mid-70's. A little better than reports we are hearing about Seattle's weather.
After a great visit, we headed north to rendezvous with Mike, and then the long drive home. We have put in a lot of miles with Mike this trip, but it has given us an opportunity to see quite a bit of southern Florida. Interesting to note the topographical differences between Miami and Orlando. Lots more waterways, lakes and ponds, plus palm trees near Miami. Not a lot of palms near Orlando and lots of trees and bushes.
TUESDAY - 11/11 - Lots more observations to share, hope you readers aren't getting tired of them:
I love their handicapped restrooms - not only the convenient grab bars but many have full facilities included, with sinks. Nice, and private.
Boy am I getting into the modern technological age. Christina showed me my first I-Pod and explained how it works. I said I bet you don't have Lawrence Welk downloaded, and she said "Just a minute" and up came Welk with a whole raft of his songs. But, they are only 30-second bits that you can then order. She wasn't interested in that.
Mike has a very unique job, spending the majority of his time at home. The nuclear medicine equipment for which he is responsible is vital to the medical community, and if he does his preventative maintenance properly, the goal is to have them never break down. So, his company is happy if he DOESN'T work, because their customers are happy and the company's repair expenses are minimized. Customers pay big bucks for maintenance contracts, so the fewer the calls, the more Mike's company makes. However, on the drive down to Miami yesterday, he had two service calls where he solved the customer's problem by talking them through it. Very impressive. We actually got to see our son in action, and he "seems" to know what he's doing..
In addition to the very small number of big trucks on the freeways and turnpikes, compared to Washington and Arizona, there are very few RV's on the road. Not quite sure why, perhaps more congregate on the Gulf Coast side. Very few RV's parked in people's yards, however, there are an inordinate number of boats for some reason.
Missing my MISI - While I was concerned that she would miss me to the point she would get depressed, not eat and perhaps croak, apparently that is not the case, per the Dotter. She plays constantly with the other two dogs and Suzy's family is getting quite attached to her. Her half-brother Kolo has an entirely different personality and is not as personable, or well-mannered. Actually, it is me that is having difficulty being away from her. I'm oke except when I see people walking THEIR dogs, or one of M&C's cats comes up and snuggles with me. Sob!
A couple other traffic notes, all school busses have strobe lights on top that make them really easy to see in traffic. Also, you know how you might come up to busy intersections at night, and sometimes it is hard to locate the traffic lights? Well, Oviedo has installed bright blue lights over them that make it easy to locate the signals. Gasoline prices are really dropping here, with many stations at $3.22, and last night the TV showed a couple stations at under two bucks. Wonder how ours are back home? We might start using the RV again, and will probably Snowbird in January, IF I don't get one or more knees replaced.
Since he was a Vice President in charge of facilities, he took us to their new operations center that he helped coordinate and it is quite impressive. I may remember this wrong but they have two huge propane generators to operate the center, or perhaps are backup power, and a mammoth 800 gallon propane tank to power the generators in case of a major hurricane outage.
After that he took us to Hollywood, FL., to their boardwalk, to see how the other half lives. Right on the ocean, of course, with zillions of people sunbathing, biking, walking, jogging and old people in motorized scooters. We had a delightful lunch at an outdoor Greek restaurant overlooking the water. It was a little more windy than usual Julio said, but temperature was still in the mid-70's. A little better than reports we are hearing about Seattle's weather.
After a great visit, we headed north to rendezvous with Mike, and then the long drive home. We have put in a lot of miles with Mike this trip, but it has given us an opportunity to see quite a bit of southern Florida. Interesting to note the topographical differences between Miami and Orlando. Lots more waterways, lakes and ponds, plus palm trees near Miami. Not a lot of palms near Orlando and lots of trees and bushes.
TUESDAY - 11/11 - Lots more observations to share, hope you readers aren't getting tired of them:
I love their handicapped restrooms - not only the convenient grab bars but many have full facilities included, with sinks. Nice, and private.
Boy am I getting into the modern technological age. Christina showed me my first I-Pod and explained how it works. I said I bet you don't have Lawrence Welk downloaded, and she said "Just a minute" and up came Welk with a whole raft of his songs. But, they are only 30-second bits that you can then order. She wasn't interested in that.
Mike has a very unique job, spending the majority of his time at home. The nuclear medicine equipment for which he is responsible is vital to the medical community, and if he does his preventative maintenance properly, the goal is to have them never break down. So, his company is happy if he DOESN'T work, because their customers are happy and the company's repair expenses are minimized. Customers pay big bucks for maintenance contracts, so the fewer the calls, the more Mike's company makes. However, on the drive down to Miami yesterday, he had two service calls where he solved the customer's problem by talking them through it. Very impressive. We actually got to see our son in action, and he "seems" to know what he's doing..
In addition to the very small number of big trucks on the freeways and turnpikes, compared to Washington and Arizona, there are very few RV's on the road. Not quite sure why, perhaps more congregate on the Gulf Coast side. Very few RV's parked in people's yards, however, there are an inordinate number of boats for some reason.
Missing my MISI - While I was concerned that she would miss me to the point she would get depressed, not eat and perhaps croak, apparently that is not the case, per the Dotter. She plays constantly with the other two dogs and Suzy's family is getting quite attached to her. Her half-brother Kolo has an entirely different personality and is not as personable, or well-mannered. Actually, it is me that is having difficulty being away from her. I'm oke except when I see people walking THEIR dogs, or one of M&C's cats comes up and snuggles with me. Sob!
A couple other traffic notes, all school busses have strobe lights on top that make them really easy to see in traffic. Also, you know how you might come up to busy intersections at night, and sometimes it is hard to locate the traffic lights? Well, Oviedo has installed bright blue lights over them that make it easy to locate the signals. Gasoline prices are really dropping here, with many stations at $3.22, and last night the TV showed a couple stations at under two bucks. Wonder how ours are back home? We might start using the RV again, and will probably Snowbird in January, IF I don't get one or more knees replaced.
AIR SHOW
SUNDAY - 11/9 - This was to have been our "big outing" to the Kennedy Space Center for a big air show. All of M&C's family, plus several of Christina's friends and another family the kids know. Late Saturday night, we just happened to catch a news show which said - thousands were turned away from Saturday's airshow due to overcrowding, and these people were guaranteed attendance at Sunday's show. And, Sunday's show was SOLD OUT! Poot. I asked Mike if they already had tickets, and he said "No." Thus endeth the airshow.
Since they had promised us a day at the beach, I suggested going there and everyone readily agreed. They are only 45 minutes away from a popular public beach, called Cocoa Beach, so after packing a picnic lunch, gathering up chairs, towels and play toys, we headed over to the beach. It was a perfect day, mid to high 70's and quite comfortable by the ocean.
Some of you will remember what I think is one of my GREAT lines from diaries past, when we visited Florida in Miss Dazy several years ago, Julio took us to a Miami area beach and for the first time ever, I got to stand in the ATLANTIC Ocean. I vividly remember saying, "Here I stand in the mighty Atlantic, with the waves, CRASHING against my ankles." Yes, ankles. Hmmmm. Floridians say that was not typical, and sure enough, at Cocoa Beach there were fair size waves, 4-5' high, and kids were surfboarding and boogie boarding. Zak & Cabe had a ball playing in the surf, as did Christina and her two friends. I even hobbled down to the water, which seemed slightly chilly at first but I quickly adjusted to it. I avoided getting wet while jumping waves by pulling up my walking shorts. However, I was fooling around with a kid, pretending to drop him into the water, and since my hands were full, a good size wave hit me, I got wet clear into my non-walking shorts. Geeze!
We played, girl-watched, ate and fed the seagulls until the sun went behind a condo, and then it started to cool down rapidly, so we headed on home. Nice to be so close to home. Our kids are really enjoying the Florida recreational water opportunities. In fact, they seem to be thoroughly enjoying ALL of Florida's advantages, and they are (admittedly) numerous.
Ah, just remembered another little defugalty, which didn't happen to me for a change. I continually compare Florida to Arizona, and one thing I really like about M&C's residential location, is that there aren't zillions of cars parked ON the street. In their Arizona neighborhood, sometimes you couldn't get two cars to pass because of parked cars. Well, an incident happened last Saturday night, or early morning, that explains why. One of Christina's friends was staying the night, and parked her Dad's car on the street in front of M&C's. Then next morning it was GONE. Panic set in until a neighbor pointed out that it had probably been towed, as no cars can be left on the street overnight. M&C were not aware of that, and probably haven't studied the neighborhood covenants very carefully. But, a really pissed Scottish father came over to pick up his daughter and coughed up $112 cash to retrieve the car. See, no all defugalties happen to me!
Since they had promised us a day at the beach, I suggested going there and everyone readily agreed. They are only 45 minutes away from a popular public beach, called Cocoa Beach, so after packing a picnic lunch, gathering up chairs, towels and play toys, we headed over to the beach. It was a perfect day, mid to high 70's and quite comfortable by the ocean.
Some of you will remember what I think is one of my GREAT lines from diaries past, when we visited Florida in Miss Dazy several years ago, Julio took us to a Miami area beach and for the first time ever, I got to stand in the ATLANTIC Ocean. I vividly remember saying, "Here I stand in the mighty Atlantic, with the waves, CRASHING against my ankles." Yes, ankles. Hmmmm. Floridians say that was not typical, and sure enough, at Cocoa Beach there were fair size waves, 4-5' high, and kids were surfboarding and boogie boarding. Zak & Cabe had a ball playing in the surf, as did Christina and her two friends. I even hobbled down to the water, which seemed slightly chilly at first but I quickly adjusted to it. I avoided getting wet while jumping waves by pulling up my walking shorts. However, I was fooling around with a kid, pretending to drop him into the water, and since my hands were full, a good size wave hit me, I got wet clear into my non-walking shorts. Geeze!
We played, girl-watched, ate and fed the seagulls until the sun went behind a condo, and then it started to cool down rapidly, so we headed on home. Nice to be so close to home. Our kids are really enjoying the Florida recreational water opportunities. In fact, they seem to be thoroughly enjoying ALL of Florida's advantages, and they are (admittedly) numerous.
Ah, just remembered another little defugalty, which didn't happen to me for a change. I continually compare Florida to Arizona, and one thing I really like about M&C's residential location, is that there aren't zillions of cars parked ON the street. In their Arizona neighborhood, sometimes you couldn't get two cars to pass because of parked cars. Well, an incident happened last Saturday night, or early morning, that explains why. One of Christina's friends was staying the night, and parked her Dad's car on the street in front of M&C's. Then next morning it was GONE. Panic set in until a neighbor pointed out that it had probably been towed, as no cars can be left on the street overnight. M&C were not aware of that, and probably haven't studied the neighborhood covenants very carefully. But, a really pissed Scottish father came over to pick up his daughter and coughed up $112 cash to retrieve the car. See, no all defugalties happen to me!
Monday, November 10, 2008
INSTRUCTIONS
I am realizing as I get used to "blogging" that the way I am presenting it, it becomes quite confusing. So, to make any sense of these various blogs, please scroll towards the bottom, starting with the next blog you haven't read, then go up. Follow me?
There may be a few new readers that don't understand some of the terms I utilize. I.E.:
DEFUGALTY - Any negative happening of significance, like mechanical breakdown
or mental breakdown.
M & C - Son Mike, wife Corinna, sons Zachary & Caleb, C's daughter Christina
OVIEDO - A suburb of Orlando, Florida, where M&C live
THE DOTTER - Our daughter Suzanne
I throw in all kinds of weird things so just ignore them. KenB Master Blatherer
There may be a few new readers that don't understand some of the terms I utilize. I.E.:
DEFUGALTY - Any negative happening of significance, like mechanical breakdown
or mental breakdown.
M & C - Son Mike, wife Corinna, sons Zachary & Caleb, C's daughter Christina
OVIEDO - A suburb of Orlando, Florida, where M&C live
THE DOTTER - Our daughter Suzanne
I throw in all kinds of weird things so just ignore them. KenB Master Blatherer
BACK TO ORLANDO (OVIEDO)
Saturday - 11/8 - Second day in a row that we have had really nice weather. This morning I am conscripted to help Mike and the boys pick up toys in the area for a Boy Scout toy drive.
After Mavis read my preceding draft diaries, she pointed out I had forgotten to write about a couple things. After leaving Crane Point on our way to Key West last Monday, we needed a place to eat lunch, so Mike looked for places on his handy GPS unit and found a Tiki Bar called Porky's listed. He followed the directions given which lead us deep into a residential area, with no sign of Porky's. A GPS failure!
Heading south on the main highway, a few miles down the road I spotted a sign saying "Porky's" and we did a "U" turn, finding a delightful little tavern/restaurant, with seating right on the water overlooking a boat basin. Very enjoyable and enhanced with a very cute waitress with an accent. There are more accents around here, many people coming from the Caribbean area.
We read somewhere that the original African Queen boat was displayed along this road but never saw a sign indicating such on the trip down to K.W. However, returning to Miami after leaving Key Largo Tuesday morning, I saw the sign. To our amazement, there was no viewing fee! The old craft was in a boat basin, suspended over the water with a protective weather cover, and was surprisingly large. Fun to visualize Bogart and Hepburn chugging through the African waterways in this very boat. Mavis was ecstatic as she loves these kind of historical things.
I finally have dredged up a couple Corinna stories, as I have already worked over Mike. A couple days ago she came home from picking up Caleb at his pre-school, just fuming. Apparently there is a hefty fine for running over a turtle in the roadway, and there are turtles everywhere. She had come across one trying to cross the road, and like a good Samaritan, stopped to move it to safety. Her reward, it peed all over her legs as she was setting it down. Into the shower she went.
The second incident happened last night while we were all attending a big pep-rally activity at Christina's high school. It had won an award for excellence and was awarded a "A-1" rating, so, they had a celebration at the football/soccer stadium, with all kinds of entertainment and booths set up. We had taken two cars and as we arrived at the packed parking lot, Mike parked some distance from the grandstand.
I just don't get it. EVERYONE was running around in shorts and T-shirts, and Mavis and I were QUITE chilly. Thank goodness I wore a heavy sweatshirt, jacket and Cabella's hat. Mike insisted it was well over 70 but I guess the humidity is what we are not used to. Anyway, the two boys DID get cold so I offered to walk back to the SUV to get their coats, giving me a chance to stretch my aching knees. As I was walking back, I saw several parking spaces close to the field and thought Mavis would appreciate not having to walk so far, so decided to move the SUV closer. When I got back to the grandstand with the coats, Corinna was missing? Talk about coincidences, while I was gone, Corinna got a phone call, and she couldn't hear with all the celebration noise, so decided to walk back to the SUV to call back. When she got there, and found the SUV gone, she freaked out, thinking it had been stolen. (In Arizona they DID get their SUV stolen and never got it back). She immediately called 911 to report it, but couldn't remember the license number, so that sort of dead-ended. So, I was in trouble again. Fortunately, every member of the family, except the boys, carry cell phones so the mystery was quickly solved. Poor Scorpi (her nickname).
Oke, back to Friday afternoon - one reader severely criticized me for jumping around a lot in my Blog, but, I write as things come to my mind. Sorry. Anyway, I feel sorry for the Florida kids, trying to find things to keep us busy, without spending a fortune. Well, I TOLD Mike, "three days....." so it's his own fault. Anyway, they came up with a winner this afternoon. After Caleb got home from school, M&C, Mave, Cabe & I headed to another Orlando suburb called Winter Park. We were going on a boat ride! Hey, anything to do with water and I'm good.
In what was originally Everglades Swamp land, they have developed six lakes, all connected with narrow waterways, and a company offers open boat cruises throughout the day. It is quite popular and there were so many Tuourons waiting for the 4:00 PM cruise, they had to put a second boat into service. Geese Louise, if you every want to see how the "other half" lives, take this narrated tour. The waterfront mansions are unbelievable and there are hundreds of them, framed by gigantic, moss draped trees. The captain/narrator explained who lived in many of them which was quite interesting, and, as we passed through the narrow connecting channels, pointed out the names of the widely varied trees, bushes and flowering plants.
*************************
The Cub Scout food drive turned out to be quite an undertaking. Four fathers and five sons, with me handling the dangerous part, driving Mike's SUV, completely walked a large residential area next to the one we are in. They all had to walk, I would guess, more than a couple miles, picking up sacks of groceries people had left on their doorsteps. It started out with pretty meager pickings, but by the time they finished, there was a huge pile of bags in the back, which we took to a shopping center were dozens of Scout groups were dropping off their donations. Very rewarding.
Well, the world's healthiest man is the only one in the whole family to have escaped illness. A couple days ago Mike came down with a bad cold. Mavis' throat congestion is pretty well gone and the rest of the family seems fine. I am really going through the hand sanitizer however. Either that is working or the Mono-Vie Acaci antioxidant drink the Thews put me on has built up my resistance to germs.
Last night M&C invited a Scottish couple over for dinner, parents of one of Christina's friends. VERY enjoyable people, with delightful accents, and we had great fun talking with them about our trip to the British Isle a few years ago. Corinna continues to prepare great, and unusual dinners for us.
After Mavis read my preceding draft diaries, she pointed out I had forgotten to write about a couple things. After leaving Crane Point on our way to Key West last Monday, we needed a place to eat lunch, so Mike looked for places on his handy GPS unit and found a Tiki Bar called Porky's listed. He followed the directions given which lead us deep into a residential area, with no sign of Porky's. A GPS failure!
Heading south on the main highway, a few miles down the road I spotted a sign saying "Porky's" and we did a "U" turn, finding a delightful little tavern/restaurant, with seating right on the water overlooking a boat basin. Very enjoyable and enhanced with a very cute waitress with an accent. There are more accents around here, many people coming from the Caribbean area.
We read somewhere that the original African Queen boat was displayed along this road but never saw a sign indicating such on the trip down to K.W. However, returning to Miami after leaving Key Largo Tuesday morning, I saw the sign. To our amazement, there was no viewing fee! The old craft was in a boat basin, suspended over the water with a protective weather cover, and was surprisingly large. Fun to visualize Bogart and Hepburn chugging through the African waterways in this very boat. Mavis was ecstatic as she loves these kind of historical things.
I finally have dredged up a couple Corinna stories, as I have already worked over Mike. A couple days ago she came home from picking up Caleb at his pre-school, just fuming. Apparently there is a hefty fine for running over a turtle in the roadway, and there are turtles everywhere. She had come across one trying to cross the road, and like a good Samaritan, stopped to move it to safety. Her reward, it peed all over her legs as she was setting it down. Into the shower she went.
The second incident happened last night while we were all attending a big pep-rally activity at Christina's high school. It had won an award for excellence and was awarded a "A-1" rating, so, they had a celebration at the football/soccer stadium, with all kinds of entertainment and booths set up. We had taken two cars and as we arrived at the packed parking lot, Mike parked some distance from the grandstand.
I just don't get it. EVERYONE was running around in shorts and T-shirts, and Mavis and I were QUITE chilly. Thank goodness I wore a heavy sweatshirt, jacket and Cabella's hat. Mike insisted it was well over 70 but I guess the humidity is what we are not used to. Anyway, the two boys DID get cold so I offered to walk back to the SUV to get their coats, giving me a chance to stretch my aching knees. As I was walking back, I saw several parking spaces close to the field and thought Mavis would appreciate not having to walk so far, so decided to move the SUV closer. When I got back to the grandstand with the coats, Corinna was missing? Talk about coincidences, while I was gone, Corinna got a phone call, and she couldn't hear with all the celebration noise, so decided to walk back to the SUV to call back. When she got there, and found the SUV gone, she freaked out, thinking it had been stolen. (In Arizona they DID get their SUV stolen and never got it back). She immediately called 911 to report it, but couldn't remember the license number, so that sort of dead-ended. So, I was in trouble again. Fortunately, every member of the family, except the boys, carry cell phones so the mystery was quickly solved. Poor Scorpi (her nickname).
Oke, back to Friday afternoon - one reader severely criticized me for jumping around a lot in my Blog, but, I write as things come to my mind. Sorry. Anyway, I feel sorry for the Florida kids, trying to find things to keep us busy, without spending a fortune. Well, I TOLD Mike, "three days....." so it's his own fault. Anyway, they came up with a winner this afternoon. After Caleb got home from school, M&C, Mave, Cabe & I headed to another Orlando suburb called Winter Park. We were going on a boat ride! Hey, anything to do with water and I'm good.
In what was originally Everglades Swamp land, they have developed six lakes, all connected with narrow waterways, and a company offers open boat cruises throughout the day. It is quite popular and there were so many Tuourons waiting for the 4:00 PM cruise, they had to put a second boat into service. Geese Louise, if you every want to see how the "other half" lives, take this narrated tour. The waterfront mansions are unbelievable and there are hundreds of them, framed by gigantic, moss draped trees. The captain/narrator explained who lived in many of them which was quite interesting, and, as we passed through the narrow connecting channels, pointed out the names of the widely varied trees, bushes and flowering plants.
*************************
The Cub Scout food drive turned out to be quite an undertaking. Four fathers and five sons, with me handling the dangerous part, driving Mike's SUV, completely walked a large residential area next to the one we are in. They all had to walk, I would guess, more than a couple miles, picking up sacks of groceries people had left on their doorsteps. It started out with pretty meager pickings, but by the time they finished, there was a huge pile of bags in the back, which we took to a shopping center were dozens of Scout groups were dropping off their donations. Very rewarding.
Well, the world's healthiest man is the only one in the whole family to have escaped illness. A couple days ago Mike came down with a bad cold. Mavis' throat congestion is pretty well gone and the rest of the family seems fine. I am really going through the hand sanitizer however. Either that is working or the Mono-Vie Acaci antioxidant drink the Thews put me on has built up my resistance to germs.
Last night M&C invited a Scottish couple over for dinner, parents of one of Christina's friends. VERY enjoyable people, with delightful accents, and we had great fun talking with them about our trip to the British Isle a few years ago. Corinna continues to prepare great, and unusual dinners for us.
KEY WEST #2
Monday - 11/3 - Our original plan was to drive to Key West today, back to Key Largo tonight, then hook up with Julio for lunch Tuesday while Mike made his service call north of Miami. Well, anyone who knows son Mike, knows that plans are made to be changed, as you find out later.
Once it was daylight, we could see how close our condo was to the Atlantic, maybe 75 yards away. In the boat basin below our veranda were four good size fishing boats. Behind each big condo complex were large parking lots FULL of big boats of every size and variety. This area is definitely a place where fisherpersons come. We had a cup of coffee on the beach and decided that we would change Tuesday's plan, since this was such an unusually beautiful location, to spend several hours on the beach Tuesday morning and meet Julio later in the day.
As we headed out for the 2+ hour drive to K.W., we realized we were going to arrive there fairly early and really didn't have a lot left to see, and Mike, surprise surprise, wasn't interested in Hemingway's house or 6-toed cats, since he owns FIVE cats himself. So, we looked on his GPS, which will identify points of interest in the area you are in, and found a park called Crane Point Park. When we arrived there I expected to find another tourist trap like Jungle Adventures, however, found nice grounds and a very nice Interpretive Center. Some years ago, a family named Crane bought this little peninsula of Florida Everglades, to protect it from being destroyed by developers. They built a house on it and put in trails throughout, leading to the point that juts into the Gulf of Mexico. It was about 3/4 mile to the end and we wondered if I and Mavis could handle it, and decided to go as far as we could go.
Everglade vegetation is amazingly varied, and all along the trail, they had the different trees and plants identified, which made it quite interesting. Lots of unique flowering bushes and areas under water. Part way in we came to the bird sanctuary, and as luck would have it, found an attendant feeding the birds. This whole facility is set up to handle injured birds, and, hopefully, return them to the wild after recovery. The very nice young lady said watch this, and opened a small door off the big cage, and dozens of cormorants streamed into their feeding trough. In the big cage were many pelicans, and they are quite large and voracious eaters. I'm guessing these birds have wingspans of 5-6 feet and one was floating in a tub of water, whacking its wings loudly against the water, which the attendant, Tracy, says is their way of bathing themselves. We were SO fortunate to get to see this feeding operations. Mike says he is definitely going to bring his whole family down to experience Crown Point and Crane Point.
We waddled down the trail to the end, where there was a little bridge over a small channel, where dozens of gulf fish milled around, wanting to be fed.
As we were returning to the Interpretive Center we ran into Tracy again and I asked her if there were any other "special" places to visit, that the regular Tourons probably never found out about. She said sure, you want go to the Blue Hole. I asked for directions and she said to come into her office and she would draw me a map. Mike & Mave continued on back. After she finished drawing me a map she said, you know, I don't have much to do today, I'll give you guys a "behind the scenes" tour. AwwRight! I ran, waddled, out on the trail and whistled and yelled, but they were out of sight. When I came back to tell her she said come on back anyway. She then showed me several different birds that were in different stages of injury recovery, inluding one tiny Nighthawk someone had found and eventually turned over to them. She said looks at this - it was about the size of a Robin and had a tiny beak about the size of a ball point pen. She wrapped it in a towel, forced open the beak and you wouldn't believe how big its mouth was. She says they fly at night with their big mouth open, catching small insects. She fed it half a dozen big larvae worms until it seemed full. She said they will have to hand feed it the rest of its life because it has never learned to catch insects in flight.
I can't remember the names of all the other birds - an Osprey, an white heron, a turkey vulture that had just come in and wasn't happy about being handled, an owl, a pigeon, etc. etc. MOST interesting and I was SO sorry the other two missed this unique opportunity. I asked Tracy if she was a vet and she said no, she had worked at the San Diego Zoo and when her "friend" had been transferred to this area, she was able to get this job. However, she said she couldn't handle the humid summer heat and was going back home to S.D. soon.
From here we meandered south towards K.W., going from one Key (Spanish? for Island) to another, and there are dozens of them, all connected with various length bridges. One bridge is seven miles long and Mike thought it was the longest bridge in the world? Anybody confirm that?. Key Largo has a rich and varied history, dating back to Indian days. As it continued to develop a relatively rich gentleman by the name of Flagler, co-developer of Standard Oil with a guy named Rockefeller, decided there needed to be a railroad to KW. The challenges were enormous, but in 1912 it finally opened and operated successfully until 1935. As I have mentioned in previous year's diaries, this whole area along the Gulf is famous for its "Big Hurricane" and in 1935 the Keys got their Big One. A train was leaving KW heading north when the word came to evacuate the keys, so the engineer backed the train back into KW, loaded up all the people he could carry, and while speeding north a huge storm surge knocked the train over, killing almost everyone. Over 700 people perished in this hurricane. They never rebuilt the railroad line and there are still some of the bridges standing, many of which are used as fishing piers.
Not much traffic heading into KW but when we got into the city proper, it was jammed with people. We inched our way to the center of town, just off the boardwalk, and parked in a lot about a block from the water. With Standard Time in effect, by the time we got parked, organized and walked to the boardwalk, it was already getting close to sunset time. There was a huge crowd, amazing as this was a Monday, so you can imagine what a weekend or holiday would be. Girl watching was incredible, dozens of vendors of all kinds and some kind of entertainer every few feet. Mike kept saying, "I gotta bring C and the kids down here!"
Guess what? No fog but no clouds either, so the sunset occurred with little excitement. Sunsets in Arizona are always colorful due to the dust and pollution in the air, but here, not a lot of color, except for the last couple inches when it dropped below a far-off cloud bank.
Time for Sloppy Joes so we wandered along the touron filled streets along zillions of specialty shops and taverns blaring live music. It reminded us of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, lots of fun. This S.J. tavern is where Ernest Hemingway hung out frequently, and the walls are covered with pictures of him with famous people and hunting buddies. He was quite a guy, no doubt. And, the Sloppy Joes were delicious of course.
Then came the long, leisurely drive back to Crown Point at Key Largo for brandy on the balcony, enjoying the perfect weather. One of the few cloudless days we have encountered. I can't express enough our appreciation for the fact Mike did all the driving. I'm at the point in my life where I am mentally prepared to be "taken care" of by my kids, physically and mentally.
Oh yes, I would be remiss in not telling this story on the son. As we drove into the large condo complex, of five buildings, a very tired of driving Mike pulled up and told us to go on up to the room as he had something or other to do. Two tired, happy Seniors waddled over to the elevator and pushed the button for floor three. Unfortunately, the keys do not have the room number stamped on them, but I remembered our four digit room numbered ended in "04" Waddled down the hallway to the room, put in the key and it wouldn't work! Then I noticed the room number was 4304. I was on the wrong floor. An increasingly grumpy wife waddled back to the elevator, thinking I had apparently pushed "4" in error, and went one floor higher, because I thought our room number started with a "5" for condo unit #5. Waddled down the long hallway to the 04 room, and it still said 04. Then it dawned on me, Mike had pulled into condo unit #4 instead of #5! Back to the elevator just as he came out, and Mavis was ready to kill him. That was a "gotcha!" sonny.
Tuesday - 11/4 - Oke, big time plans change - poor Julio - Our plan to sit on the beach a couple hours got scrubbed by a low-cloud, breezy morning, Ratz! Plus the fact Mike found that a retro-fit part had come in that required several hours of installation, so he suggested coming back down to Miami Thursday or Monday, and we could spend several hours with The Cuban while he worked. Good 'ole Julio, he is always agreeable to anything, so we scratched lunch plans and headed northward on the freeway that follows the coastline, and stopped briefly at a clinic that has a portable nuclear medicine unit, and installed a switch.
One thing Mike wanted to do on the way home was stop in Ft. Pierce and go through a local museum that has displays of shipwreck mementos. There have been hundreds of shipwrecks over the years around the Keys due to the numerous little islands and shoals, coupled with major storms, and plundering shipwrecks was a way of life for a good many people, so that sounded interesting. Whee, only five bucks for Seniors to enter. It turned out to be far more than just shipwreck stuff, but lots of information of the many Indian tribes and their way of life. Like Indians everywhere, they fought the white man running them off their land, and succumbed to the white men's diseases, some tribes being totally wiped out. The displays were very well presented and extensive.
The last item of interest was an original house owned by a local resident, nicely furnished with items from the early 1900's. An old lady docent showed us around the house, with three other young people present, and found many of the items I had used, or we had as antiques, or I remembered my folks using. At the very end, standing on the porch visiting with the tired lady, on her last tour of the day, she wanted to know where we were from, and when she found out we were from Washington, she exclaimed how beautiful it was there, continued to gush about it, and wondered why the heck we were in Florida. We told her we came to visit our Son and family, and she looked at him sternly and said something to the effect, you mean you came FROM the Northwest TO hot, humid Florida? On purpose? She couldn't believe it. He got us out of there quite quickly, muttering to himself.
Arrived in the Orlando area about rush hour and found there was more traffic around than I previously thought. What a great adventure, albeit a little long, for his trusty GPS unit told us we had driven over 750 miles! No wonder Mike was bushed, but seemed to thoroughly enjoy his time with Mommy and Daddy.
Once it was daylight, we could see how close our condo was to the Atlantic, maybe 75 yards away. In the boat basin below our veranda were four good size fishing boats. Behind each big condo complex were large parking lots FULL of big boats of every size and variety. This area is definitely a place where fisherpersons come. We had a cup of coffee on the beach and decided that we would change Tuesday's plan, since this was such an unusually beautiful location, to spend several hours on the beach Tuesday morning and meet Julio later in the day.
As we headed out for the 2+ hour drive to K.W., we realized we were going to arrive there fairly early and really didn't have a lot left to see, and Mike, surprise surprise, wasn't interested in Hemingway's house or 6-toed cats, since he owns FIVE cats himself. So, we looked on his GPS, which will identify points of interest in the area you are in, and found a park called Crane Point Park. When we arrived there I expected to find another tourist trap like Jungle Adventures, however, found nice grounds and a very nice Interpretive Center. Some years ago, a family named Crane bought this little peninsula of Florida Everglades, to protect it from being destroyed by developers. They built a house on it and put in trails throughout, leading to the point that juts into the Gulf of Mexico. It was about 3/4 mile to the end and we wondered if I and Mavis could handle it, and decided to go as far as we could go.
Everglade vegetation is amazingly varied, and all along the trail, they had the different trees and plants identified, which made it quite interesting. Lots of unique flowering bushes and areas under water. Part way in we came to the bird sanctuary, and as luck would have it, found an attendant feeding the birds. This whole facility is set up to handle injured birds, and, hopefully, return them to the wild after recovery. The very nice young lady said watch this, and opened a small door off the big cage, and dozens of cormorants streamed into their feeding trough. In the big cage were many pelicans, and they are quite large and voracious eaters. I'm guessing these birds have wingspans of 5-6 feet and one was floating in a tub of water, whacking its wings loudly against the water, which the attendant, Tracy, says is their way of bathing themselves. We were SO fortunate to get to see this feeding operations. Mike says he is definitely going to bring his whole family down to experience Crown Point and Crane Point.
We waddled down the trail to the end, where there was a little bridge over a small channel, where dozens of gulf fish milled around, wanting to be fed.
As we were returning to the Interpretive Center we ran into Tracy again and I asked her if there were any other "special" places to visit, that the regular Tourons probably never found out about. She said sure, you want go to the Blue Hole. I asked for directions and she said to come into her office and she would draw me a map. Mike & Mave continued on back. After she finished drawing me a map she said, you know, I don't have much to do today, I'll give you guys a "behind the scenes" tour. AwwRight! I ran, waddled, out on the trail and whistled and yelled, but they were out of sight. When I came back to tell her she said come on back anyway. She then showed me several different birds that were in different stages of injury recovery, inluding one tiny Nighthawk someone had found and eventually turned over to them. She said looks at this - it was about the size of a Robin and had a tiny beak about the size of a ball point pen. She wrapped it in a towel, forced open the beak and you wouldn't believe how big its mouth was. She says they fly at night with their big mouth open, catching small insects. She fed it half a dozen big larvae worms until it seemed full. She said they will have to hand feed it the rest of its life because it has never learned to catch insects in flight.
I can't remember the names of all the other birds - an Osprey, an white heron, a turkey vulture that had just come in and wasn't happy about being handled, an owl, a pigeon, etc. etc. MOST interesting and I was SO sorry the other two missed this unique opportunity. I asked Tracy if she was a vet and she said no, she had worked at the San Diego Zoo and when her "friend" had been transferred to this area, she was able to get this job. However, she said she couldn't handle the humid summer heat and was going back home to S.D. soon.
From here we meandered south towards K.W., going from one Key (Spanish? for Island) to another, and there are dozens of them, all connected with various length bridges. One bridge is seven miles long and Mike thought it was the longest bridge in the world? Anybody confirm that?. Key Largo has a rich and varied history, dating back to Indian days. As it continued to develop a relatively rich gentleman by the name of Flagler, co-developer of Standard Oil with a guy named Rockefeller, decided there needed to be a railroad to KW. The challenges were enormous, but in 1912 it finally opened and operated successfully until 1935. As I have mentioned in previous year's diaries, this whole area along the Gulf is famous for its "Big Hurricane" and in 1935 the Keys got their Big One. A train was leaving KW heading north when the word came to evacuate the keys, so the engineer backed the train back into KW, loaded up all the people he could carry, and while speeding north a huge storm surge knocked the train over, killing almost everyone. Over 700 people perished in this hurricane. They never rebuilt the railroad line and there are still some of the bridges standing, many of which are used as fishing piers.
Not much traffic heading into KW but when we got into the city proper, it was jammed with people. We inched our way to the center of town, just off the boardwalk, and parked in a lot about a block from the water. With Standard Time in effect, by the time we got parked, organized and walked to the boardwalk, it was already getting close to sunset time. There was a huge crowd, amazing as this was a Monday, so you can imagine what a weekend or holiday would be. Girl watching was incredible, dozens of vendors of all kinds and some kind of entertainer every few feet. Mike kept saying, "I gotta bring C and the kids down here!"
Guess what? No fog but no clouds either, so the sunset occurred with little excitement. Sunsets in Arizona are always colorful due to the dust and pollution in the air, but here, not a lot of color, except for the last couple inches when it dropped below a far-off cloud bank.
Time for Sloppy Joes so we wandered along the touron filled streets along zillions of specialty shops and taverns blaring live music. It reminded us of Bourbon Street in New Orleans, lots of fun. This S.J. tavern is where Ernest Hemingway hung out frequently, and the walls are covered with pictures of him with famous people and hunting buddies. He was quite a guy, no doubt. And, the Sloppy Joes were delicious of course.
Then came the long, leisurely drive back to Crown Point at Key Largo for brandy on the balcony, enjoying the perfect weather. One of the few cloudless days we have encountered. I can't express enough our appreciation for the fact Mike did all the driving. I'm at the point in my life where I am mentally prepared to be "taken care" of by my kids, physically and mentally.
Oh yes, I would be remiss in not telling this story on the son. As we drove into the large condo complex, of five buildings, a very tired of driving Mike pulled up and told us to go on up to the room as he had something or other to do. Two tired, happy Seniors waddled over to the elevator and pushed the button for floor three. Unfortunately, the keys do not have the room number stamped on them, but I remembered our four digit room numbered ended in "04" Waddled down the hallway to the room, put in the key and it wouldn't work! Then I noticed the room number was 4304. I was on the wrong floor. An increasingly grumpy wife waddled back to the elevator, thinking I had apparently pushed "4" in error, and went one floor higher, because I thought our room number started with a "5" for condo unit #5. Waddled down the long hallway to the 04 room, and it still said 04. Then it dawned on me, Mike had pulled into condo unit #4 instead of #5! Back to the elevator just as he came out, and Mavis was ready to kill him. That was a "gotcha!" sonny.
Tuesday - 11/4 - Oke, big time plans change - poor Julio - Our plan to sit on the beach a couple hours got scrubbed by a low-cloud, breezy morning, Ratz! Plus the fact Mike found that a retro-fit part had come in that required several hours of installation, so he suggested coming back down to Miami Thursday or Monday, and we could spend several hours with The Cuban while he worked. Good 'ole Julio, he is always agreeable to anything, so we scratched lunch plans and headed northward on the freeway that follows the coastline, and stopped briefly at a clinic that has a portable nuclear medicine unit, and installed a switch.
One thing Mike wanted to do on the way home was stop in Ft. Pierce and go through a local museum that has displays of shipwreck mementos. There have been hundreds of shipwrecks over the years around the Keys due to the numerous little islands and shoals, coupled with major storms, and plundering shipwrecks was a way of life for a good many people, so that sounded interesting. Whee, only five bucks for Seniors to enter. It turned out to be far more than just shipwreck stuff, but lots of information of the many Indian tribes and their way of life. Like Indians everywhere, they fought the white man running them off their land, and succumbed to the white men's diseases, some tribes being totally wiped out. The displays were very well presented and extensive.
The last item of interest was an original house owned by a local resident, nicely furnished with items from the early 1900's. An old lady docent showed us around the house, with three other young people present, and found many of the items I had used, or we had as antiques, or I remembered my folks using. At the very end, standing on the porch visiting with the tired lady, on her last tour of the day, she wanted to know where we were from, and when she found out we were from Washington, she exclaimed how beautiful it was there, continued to gush about it, and wondered why the heck we were in Florida. We told her we came to visit our Son and family, and she looked at him sternly and said something to the effect, you mean you came FROM the Northwest TO hot, humid Florida? On purpose? She couldn't believe it. He got us out of there quite quickly, muttering to himself.
Arrived in the Orlando area about rush hour and found there was more traffic around than I previously thought. What a great adventure, albeit a little long, for his trusty GPS unit told us we had driven over 750 miles! No wonder Mike was bushed, but seemed to thoroughly enjoy his time with Mommy and Daddy.
KEY WEST TRIP #1
11/2 - A year ago when we first planned a trip to visit our Florida kids, I was arguing with Mike about how long we should stay. I have a rule that is based on historical fact, and that is "Dead fish and relatives, three days MAX." Anything longer than that becomes a burden. When we visited the kids in Arizona, we always could come and go as needed, or at least go out to The Dazy to get some quiet time. However, even at the low fares Mike found us, $99 one way, we obviously should stay more than three days, right? Somehow the negotiations ended up at two weeks. So, we decided that during this period we would borrow one of their cars and make a short trip down to Miami to visit dear old friend Julio and family, and then go on down to Key West for an expensive overnight stay. Years ago when we brought Miss Dazy to Florida to visit Julio and other old friends the Schwengers of Ft. Meyers, Julio found us an RV park in Miami and we had the little blue Geo Tracker to buzz around in. We didn't think we could afford an overnight in the VERY expensive Key West location, so made a LONG day's trip down and back in one day, which I wouldn't recommend.
We did the normal touristy things, took a tour trolley round town, visited Ernest Hemingway's home and saw his six-toed cats, lunched at the original Sloppy Joe's tavern, saw the stone indicating 90 miles to Cuba, etc. etc. The highlight of the visit was to go to the waterfront and see the world famous Key West sunset. They have this long boardwalk (concrete) where vendors and entertainers set up, making it quite a festive event. We were thoroughly enjoying the ambiance when just before sunset, a fog bank rolled in and engulfed the whole area. Poot! A vendor said he had been here off and on for six years and had never seen the even canceled by fog. Oh well, another defugalty.
It's around 90 miles to Key West from Miami, not very far, but the majority of it is two lane roads with lots of little settlements slowing you down. It seemed to take forever driving late at night. SO, one of our goals this trip, besides seeing Julio, was to experience the sunset again. I made up my mind I would just pay the motel cost at KW and not worry about it.
However, the Son came up with a brilliant plan which was to schedule one of his nuclear medicine camera P.M.'s in Miami on Tuesday, and then he could ethically write off part of the trip expense. Wowsers! I wouldn't have to drive, would save some money AND get some rare quality one-on-one time with the #2 son. He took Monday off so he wouldn't have to take a service call if it came in.
We left about noon Sunday for the LONG trip south to Miami, over four hours. But, great freeways, or turnpikes as they are sometimes called, and like I mentioned previously, minimal traffic, and very few big trucks to contend with. Julio and wife Rosanna planned a Cuban dinner for us when we arrived, around 5:30 PM. The Montejos live on a small lake and have a nice deck overlooking the water, but their home is located in a very complicated residential area, streetwise. Mike, of course, as all techies have these days, utilizes a GPS tracking system, and all we did was put in Julio's address and the dumb thing talked us exactly to his house with a voice telling us EVERY turn to make, the whole trip. Hmmmmm. This is the second time I have seen a practical use for GPS, the first being with our Lazy Daze friends finding a L.D. group campout height in the mountains above Patagonia, AZ, a few years back. Maybe I'll ask for one for Christmas.
After a delightful visit, enhanced by our drinks of choice, they served the Cuban themed dinner of pork, special black beans over rice, and a strange item called plantains, which are a deep fried banana type fruit/vegetable. Hmmmmm. Rather strange consistency for this farm kid, but everyone else loved them.
Mike came up with the idea of getting a motel in Key Largo (what an exotic sounding name - they ought to make a movie about it)(oh, they did). While his company usually allows him to stay in a $130-150 dollar motel for overnight service calls, he went on-line to find a cheaper place we could share cost on, one that would handle three adults. He found one that sounded half-way decent, and utilizing the GPS, we found it just south of K.L. Actually, come to think of it, he couldn't get the location to come up so we found it the old way, stopping at a Circle K and asking directions. Mike was a little anxious, wondering what kind of "dump" he might have found us.
Oops, before I forget it, a couple observations on the drive down. Instead of rest areas like we have along major freeways, this section of the turnpike had travel centers in the MIDDLE of the two freeway lanes, with parking, gasoline, mini-markets and restrooms. VERY slick, and about every 30 miles or so, like in Washington. As we came into one Mike stated he was feeling liquid dropping on them. OH oh, defugalty here! After checking carefully under the dash, he determined it was coming from the air conditioner and by turning it off, the leaking stopped. So, the rest of the trip, ofttimes humid, no A/C. The humidity is a strange beast, one minute you feel clammy and then you dry off. Plus, the passenger side window on the car we were in was acting up, so I couldn't run it up and down like I usually do. I solved this by getting in the back seat, trading with Mavis. She and Mike had a good visit as we had run out of things to blather about anyway.
Oke, back to our "cheap" motel, we went down a long side road, seeing no signs to the place along the way, and to our amazement, it turned into a huge complex with a manned, gated entry. Excuse me? Mike told the guard we had reservations, which he confirmed, and waved us in. Holey Moley! This was a huge condo complex with five big sections. It turns out what they do is when the owner is gone, they rent out the individual apartments. For a "mere" $98 we got a one bedroom, fully furnished apartment, with kitchen, washer/dryer, sleeping couch and an outside veranda overlooking a small boat basin and the Atlantic. We could not believe our good luck. Beautifully landscaped, with a cafe and TIKI bar, beach, swimming area, on and on. And, best of all, we had it for two nights, which gave us an hour + head start Monday morning on to Key West. The Kid came through fantastically. Since he could legally write off $130, our share for two nights was only $70, probably half of what it would have cost us staying IN K.W. one night. Remember the old adage, it's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know!
We did the normal touristy things, took a tour trolley round town, visited Ernest Hemingway's home and saw his six-toed cats, lunched at the original Sloppy Joe's tavern, saw the stone indicating 90 miles to Cuba, etc. etc. The highlight of the visit was to go to the waterfront and see the world famous Key West sunset. They have this long boardwalk (concrete) where vendors and entertainers set up, making it quite a festive event. We were thoroughly enjoying the ambiance when just before sunset, a fog bank rolled in and engulfed the whole area. Poot! A vendor said he had been here off and on for six years and had never seen the even canceled by fog. Oh well, another defugalty.
It's around 90 miles to Key West from Miami, not very far, but the majority of it is two lane roads with lots of little settlements slowing you down. It seemed to take forever driving late at night. SO, one of our goals this trip, besides seeing Julio, was to experience the sunset again. I made up my mind I would just pay the motel cost at KW and not worry about it.
However, the Son came up with a brilliant plan which was to schedule one of his nuclear medicine camera P.M.'s in Miami on Tuesday, and then he could ethically write off part of the trip expense. Wowsers! I wouldn't have to drive, would save some money AND get some rare quality one-on-one time with the #2 son. He took Monday off so he wouldn't have to take a service call if it came in.
We left about noon Sunday for the LONG trip south to Miami, over four hours. But, great freeways, or turnpikes as they are sometimes called, and like I mentioned previously, minimal traffic, and very few big trucks to contend with. Julio and wife Rosanna planned a Cuban dinner for us when we arrived, around 5:30 PM. The Montejos live on a small lake and have a nice deck overlooking the water, but their home is located in a very complicated residential area, streetwise. Mike, of course, as all techies have these days, utilizes a GPS tracking system, and all we did was put in Julio's address and the dumb thing talked us exactly to his house with a voice telling us EVERY turn to make, the whole trip. Hmmmmm. This is the second time I have seen a practical use for GPS, the first being with our Lazy Daze friends finding a L.D. group campout height in the mountains above Patagonia, AZ, a few years back. Maybe I'll ask for one for Christmas.
After a delightful visit, enhanced by our drinks of choice, they served the Cuban themed dinner of pork, special black beans over rice, and a strange item called plantains, which are a deep fried banana type fruit/vegetable. Hmmmmm. Rather strange consistency for this farm kid, but everyone else loved them.
Mike came up with the idea of getting a motel in Key Largo (what an exotic sounding name - they ought to make a movie about it)(oh, they did). While his company usually allows him to stay in a $130-150 dollar motel for overnight service calls, he went on-line to find a cheaper place we could share cost on, one that would handle three adults. He found one that sounded half-way decent, and utilizing the GPS, we found it just south of K.L. Actually, come to think of it, he couldn't get the location to come up so we found it the old way, stopping at a Circle K and asking directions. Mike was a little anxious, wondering what kind of "dump" he might have found us.
Oops, before I forget it, a couple observations on the drive down. Instead of rest areas like we have along major freeways, this section of the turnpike had travel centers in the MIDDLE of the two freeway lanes, with parking, gasoline, mini-markets and restrooms. VERY slick, and about every 30 miles or so, like in Washington. As we came into one Mike stated he was feeling liquid dropping on them. OH oh, defugalty here! After checking carefully under the dash, he determined it was coming from the air conditioner and by turning it off, the leaking stopped. So, the rest of the trip, ofttimes humid, no A/C. The humidity is a strange beast, one minute you feel clammy and then you dry off. Plus, the passenger side window on the car we were in was acting up, so I couldn't run it up and down like I usually do. I solved this by getting in the back seat, trading with Mavis. She and Mike had a good visit as we had run out of things to blather about anyway.
Oke, back to our "cheap" motel, we went down a long side road, seeing no signs to the place along the way, and to our amazement, it turned into a huge complex with a manned, gated entry. Excuse me? Mike told the guard we had reservations, which he confirmed, and waved us in. Holey Moley! This was a huge condo complex with five big sections. It turns out what they do is when the owner is gone, they rent out the individual apartments. For a "mere" $98 we got a one bedroom, fully furnished apartment, with kitchen, washer/dryer, sleeping couch and an outside veranda overlooking a small boat basin and the Atlantic. We could not believe our good luck. Beautifully landscaped, with a cafe and TIKI bar, beach, swimming area, on and on. And, best of all, we had it for two nights, which gave us an hour + head start Monday morning on to Key West. The Kid came through fantastically. Since he could legally write off $130, our share for two nights was only $70, probably half of what it would have cost us staying IN K.W. one night. Remember the old adage, it's not WHAT you know, it's WHO you know!
MORE FLORIDA
Thursday - 11/6 - Just took a short break to recharge my Vitamin D level, and realized I forgot to mention under the animals/birds paragraph in the previous blog, that everywhere we have gone in Florida, there are buzzards lazily circling overhead. To support these numbers, there must be a lot of dead carrion lying around. Around the garbage dumps, instead of sea gulls like we have back home, hundreds of buzzards circle above it, looking like a whirlpool of bird life. Also, there are often buzzards circling almost so high you can barely see them. I guess they are looking for other birds congregating around some food they have found.
Gee, this is one of those rare times when I am completely alone. Mike & Mave have gone to pick up Caleb from pre-school, then will have lunch with Zachary at his school, Christinia is at School and Corrina is at work (hair/nail specialist). I was supposed to be catching up on my blog, but I can also sun-bathe, nap or eat left-over Halloween candy for lunch. Hmmm, may do everything.
Gee, this is one of those rare times when I am completely alone. Mike & Mave have gone to pick up Caleb from pre-school, then will have lunch with Zachary at his school, Christinia is at School and Corrina is at work (hair/nail specialist). I was supposed to be catching up on my blog, but I can also sun-bathe, nap or eat left-over Halloween candy for lunch. Hmmm, may do everything.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
ORLANDO DIARY-HALLOWEEN PARTY
Wowsers, what an exciting Halloween last night. Up to that point we have mostly been hanging out, visiting both boys schools, which are really first class, and making runs to the store to pick up things we need. Now Christina's big Halloween Party is history, Mike is promising us some sightseeing to day, and tomorrow, Mike, Mavis and I head for Miami for dinner with dear old Cuban friend Julio Rene Esteban Montejo Sanchez and his family. I have known Julio since my early days at the National Bank of Washington, meeting him through the Purchasing Management Association of Washington. More on this trip later.
For two 70+ year olds, watching this party evolve was quite an experience. Christina (Corinna's 16 year old daughter) and a couple of her friends planned it, expecting up to 40 kids, plus M&C invited a few adult friends. The girls had the house, inside and out, decorated extensively and it was really cute. All this week they were laying in supplies for the party.
About six PM Mike, Corinna, Zak & Caleb were dressed in their costumes and ready to go trick-or-treating. They invited us to go, but it was a cool cloudy evening, and as we started out and then looming off to one side was a huge, black cloud that smelled of a shower. So, the old buggers begged off. It did sprinkle a little but the shower never hit this area.
I can't begin to properly describe the ambiance of a huge youth dominated party, with no liquor allowed, but lots of loud youth music, food, snackies and noise. M&C insisted be put on a costume, but we resisted, and sat in one corner of one of the living rooms, watching TV with no sound, visiting with occasional adults that dropped by. VERY INTERESTING experience, and pretty darn enjoyable. Around midnight most of the adults left and we retired to our bedroom, which was surprisingly quiet with all the activity going on.
I got some powerful decongestant/cough medicine yesterday and it seems to be helping her a little. She's in good spirits but still congested. I, of course, am the picture of health.
Another mostly cloudy day today, Saturday, but supposed to get into the high 70's.
For two 70+ year olds, watching this party evolve was quite an experience. Christina (Corinna's 16 year old daughter) and a couple of her friends planned it, expecting up to 40 kids, plus M&C invited a few adult friends. The girls had the house, inside and out, decorated extensively and it was really cute. All this week they were laying in supplies for the party.
About six PM Mike, Corinna, Zak & Caleb were dressed in their costumes and ready to go trick-or-treating. They invited us to go, but it was a cool cloudy evening, and as we started out and then looming off to one side was a huge, black cloud that smelled of a shower. So, the old buggers begged off. It did sprinkle a little but the shower never hit this area.
I can't begin to properly describe the ambiance of a huge youth dominated party, with no liquor allowed, but lots of loud youth music, food, snackies and noise. M&C insisted be put on a costume, but we resisted, and sat in one corner of one of the living rooms, watching TV with no sound, visiting with occasional adults that dropped by. VERY INTERESTING experience, and pretty darn enjoyable. Around midnight most of the adults left and we retired to our bedroom, which was surprisingly quiet with all the activity going on.
I got some powerful decongestant/cough medicine yesterday and it seems to be helping her a little. She's in good spirits but still congested. I, of course, am the picture of health.
Another mostly cloudy day today, Saturday, but supposed to get into the high 70's.
SECOND DIARY CATCHUP-ORLANDO
Let's see, where was I? Oh, on the way home from the airport. late at night Florida time. Since we had nothing to eat but snacks since noon the previous day, Mike stopped at Wendys and got us a burger. Their rental home is fairly close to the airport, but impossible to find without a map as the roads wind around considerably before coming to their cul de sac. VERY nice location for little kids. In fact, the whole, huge gated community is full of nicely kept up homes, and we continually make mental comparisons to their Arizona home. Wider streets, virtually no cars parked ON the street, and virtually all the homes have lush, green lawns, not rocks and colored gravel like in AZ. The lawns are really weird, a really thick grass with tangles of roots ABOVE the sandy loam, but they are ALL green. Mike says it needs to get 4" high before mowing. Another interesting feature is that there are few fences, unlike AZ. which has an 8' cement wall between EVERY house. And, many of the houses have large, screened rooms, which tells me they must enjoy a variety of flying creatures. The people who have pools or hot tubs, normally have them screened.
M&C's rental is quite large, and has a unique design. The front door leads to a small room where they have a computer and small davenport. Off this, is a larger living room. Every room in the house has a TV, (I think). Off the double garage it leads into the laundry room, large kitchen, and another living area I believe is called a Great Room. In this they have a huge, flat screen, HD TV and a gigantic, curved couch.
On each side of these two living areas are two bedrooms and a bath. In an alcove off the living areas is a huge screened area for outside living. Lots of room for two adults, three kids, five cats, a big turtle and several poliwogs, rapidly reaching frog status.
The creatures of Florida are numerous, and quite entertaining. They have various "hatches" of insects, a small frog "hatch" where they found zillions of poliwogs in the kids wading pool, possums, endless ducks and birds, and some very large egret/heron type birds that wander around the neighborhood. There are ponds everywhere in the region, and they support lots of aquatic life.
It's always hard for people to accommodate our separate sleeping areas, so this was solved by bringing Christina's bed into the kids playroom for Mavis, and at one end, we took cushions off one davenport for me. They keep the house quite warm at night, so we had to adjust to that being used to a frigid bedroom. We just completed our third night's sleep and are beginning to adjust. What we're finding hard to adjust to is the three hour time differential. I am forcing myself to hit the cushions around 11:00 PM, which is only 8:00 our time, so I have difficulty going to sleep. Even going to bed that early, I am still sleeping in until past 10:00 AM, 7:00 our time, Oh well. Just about the time I am "adjusted," daylight savings time elimination will throw me off some more. Woe is I. Fortunately, Mavis has no trouble going to bed at ANY time.
M&C's rental is quite large, and has a unique design. The front door leads to a small room where they have a computer and small davenport. Off this, is a larger living room. Every room in the house has a TV, (I think). Off the double garage it leads into the laundry room, large kitchen, and another living area I believe is called a Great Room. In this they have a huge, flat screen, HD TV and a gigantic, curved couch.
On each side of these two living areas are two bedrooms and a bath. In an alcove off the living areas is a huge screened area for outside living. Lots of room for two adults, three kids, five cats, a big turtle and several poliwogs, rapidly reaching frog status.
The creatures of Florida are numerous, and quite entertaining. They have various "hatches" of insects, a small frog "hatch" where they found zillions of poliwogs in the kids wading pool, possums, endless ducks and birds, and some very large egret/heron type birds that wander around the neighborhood. There are ponds everywhere in the region, and they support lots of aquatic life.
It's always hard for people to accommodate our separate sleeping areas, so this was solved by bringing Christina's bed into the kids playroom for Mavis, and at one end, we took cushions off one davenport for me. They keep the house quite warm at night, so we had to adjust to that being used to a frigid bedroom. We just completed our third night's sleep and are beginning to adjust. What we're finding hard to adjust to is the three hour time differential. I am forcing myself to hit the cushions around 11:00 PM, which is only 8:00 our time, so I have difficulty going to sleep. Even going to bed that early, I am still sleeping in until past 10:00 AM, 7:00 our time, Oh well. Just about the time I am "adjusted," daylight savings time elimination will throw me off some more. Woe is I. Fortunately, Mavis has no trouble going to bed at ANY time.
FIRST CATCHUP DIARIES
October 28 - After a one year wait, we finally headed to Florida to visit Mike, Corinna, Christina, Zachary and Caleb. We are using $99 Southwest Airline fares Mike found us a year ago, when we planned to visit the "kids" on Thanksgiving. However, Mavis' gall bladder defugalty, diverticulitis abscess leading to colon surgery, interspersed with a minor surgical procedure on yours truly, delayed the trip a year.
It seemed that the departure date would never come, with another minor defugalty surfacing a few days before when Mavis came down with a severe cold and throat congestion. While she rested, drank liquids, read and slept, I started taking a product called Airborne, which is supposed to help protect against getting sick, and so far, as of 10/30, I have escaped.
We were scheduled to depart at 1:25 on the 28th, and since I needed to get a bulkhead seat so my knees had room to stretch out, we were told to arrive by 11:25 AM. Kevin was supposed to drop us off at the airport since he works in that general area, however, things went south on him and Kim. The are licensed foster parents and with virtually no warning, an abused 3 1/2 year old child was dropped off. He didn't want to eat, had almost no clothes or personal effects, and cried most of the first night. In addition to this Kim was recovering from a severe back sprain she suffered at work. In addition to this, the second night their son Rivers got sick and threw up all night the 27th. So, Kevin really had his hands full so we asked the Dotter if she might take us to the airport, and since we needed to drop off MISI the morning of the 28th, she agreed to ride up with us and bring the Suzuki back to her place. This worked out well because the hound loves to ride in the car she is familiar with and Suz felt uncomfortable leaving MISI at her home when she had to leave.
I know this is lots of personal detail of little interest to most readers, but sets the stage for a very long travel day. We left Suzy's around 10:30 AM and got to the airport a little early, with poor MISI watching us apprehensively as they drove away. I have allowed the dog to get SO attached to me, and perhaps vice versa, that I was quite worried how she would react being separated from me, even though she has the perfect place to stay at Suz & Barn's, with two other dogs, a large fenced yard and lots of attention.
Got checked in with no problem but going through Security was a bitch. Holy Moses! I knew we would have to take of our shoes, and shouldn't carry anything over 3 oz. of liquid, but what we DIDN'T know was that a large number of items had to be placed in clear plastic bags. i.e. shaving cream, after shave, toothpaste, eye drops, hand lotion, lipstick, cold cream, etc. etc. Fortunately a nice lady behind us helped us through the process. And, since my suspenders set off all kinds of alarms, I got the total wand treatment. Mavis got particularly stressed because she had so much stuff in her cosmetics case. But, we eventually got cleared and took the LONG WALK to gate B-10, arriving an hour and a half before scheduled departure.
Oh, forgot one early defugalty, even though I carefully checked my check list for last minute things to do. i.e. turn off hot water heater, unplug the water dispenser, secure windows, unplug the computer and T.V.'s, etc., a few miles from home we remembered we had not turned the thermostat down. So, as we often do, called neighbor Donald and asked him to take care of it.
Waiting for departure I made arrangements to get on "pre-boarding" so I could get a bulkhead seat, and they didn't question it, as I went to the kiosk with an obvious limp. Then they announced that the gate number was changed from B-10 to B-14, because they had a "sick" airplane sitting at B-10. No problem, however, shortly later they announced the flight had been delayed an hour, until 2:20. Called Mike to alert him, and continued to sit and wait. Mavis bought an over-priced sandwich at Starbucks, that was dry and most unsatisfying, but, we knew there was little food on the flight.
As it grew closer to departure, and our plane finally landed and passengers debarked, more and more people in wheelchairs and with canes (I should have brought one) gathered at the gate, and I assumed the six bulkhead seats would be history. We finally started loading around 2:30, and to my surprise, we DID get two bulkhead seats, and, and window, with is mandatory for me. Finally took off a little before 3:00 PM, but the Captain announced we would make up some of the lost time during the flight, and the short layover at Kansas City would be shortened.
We were on a Boeing 737-700 which was a smooth, quiet plane, and the flight was uneventful, providing us a great, smokey view of all the major Washington volcanoes. Really a lot of smoke and haze in the air which made a lovely sunset behind us. We left K.C. only 45 minutes behind schedule, which is about the delay in arriving in Orlando, which was almost 11:30 PM their time. What a lovely airport, just huge, and baggage claim was a couple miles from the airplane, which we got to by shuttle train, horizontal escalators (is there such a thing?) and walking. there was Mike and little Caleb to meet us, a welcome site to very tired travelers who had been over 12 hours airport to airport. The thing that made it tolerable was that our bodies were still on West Coast time, only 8:30 PM.
It seemed that the departure date would never come, with another minor defugalty surfacing a few days before when Mavis came down with a severe cold and throat congestion. While she rested, drank liquids, read and slept, I started taking a product called Airborne, which is supposed to help protect against getting sick, and so far, as of 10/30, I have escaped.
We were scheduled to depart at 1:25 on the 28th, and since I needed to get a bulkhead seat so my knees had room to stretch out, we were told to arrive by 11:25 AM. Kevin was supposed to drop us off at the airport since he works in that general area, however, things went south on him and Kim. The are licensed foster parents and with virtually no warning, an abused 3 1/2 year old child was dropped off. He didn't want to eat, had almost no clothes or personal effects, and cried most of the first night. In addition to this Kim was recovering from a severe back sprain she suffered at work. In addition to this, the second night their son Rivers got sick and threw up all night the 27th. So, Kevin really had his hands full so we asked the Dotter if she might take us to the airport, and since we needed to drop off MISI the morning of the 28th, she agreed to ride up with us and bring the Suzuki back to her place. This worked out well because the hound loves to ride in the car she is familiar with and Suz felt uncomfortable leaving MISI at her home when she had to leave.
I know this is lots of personal detail of little interest to most readers, but sets the stage for a very long travel day. We left Suzy's around 10:30 AM and got to the airport a little early, with poor MISI watching us apprehensively as they drove away. I have allowed the dog to get SO attached to me, and perhaps vice versa, that I was quite worried how she would react being separated from me, even though she has the perfect place to stay at Suz & Barn's, with two other dogs, a large fenced yard and lots of attention.
Got checked in with no problem but going through Security was a bitch. Holy Moses! I knew we would have to take of our shoes, and shouldn't carry anything over 3 oz. of liquid, but what we DIDN'T know was that a large number of items had to be placed in clear plastic bags. i.e. shaving cream, after shave, toothpaste, eye drops, hand lotion, lipstick, cold cream, etc. etc. Fortunately a nice lady behind us helped us through the process. And, since my suspenders set off all kinds of alarms, I got the total wand treatment. Mavis got particularly stressed because she had so much stuff in her cosmetics case. But, we eventually got cleared and took the LONG WALK to gate B-10, arriving an hour and a half before scheduled departure.
Oh, forgot one early defugalty, even though I carefully checked my check list for last minute things to do. i.e. turn off hot water heater, unplug the water dispenser, secure windows, unplug the computer and T.V.'s, etc., a few miles from home we remembered we had not turned the thermostat down. So, as we often do, called neighbor Donald and asked him to take care of it.
Waiting for departure I made arrangements to get on "pre-boarding" so I could get a bulkhead seat, and they didn't question it, as I went to the kiosk with an obvious limp. Then they announced that the gate number was changed from B-10 to B-14, because they had a "sick" airplane sitting at B-10. No problem, however, shortly later they announced the flight had been delayed an hour, until 2:20. Called Mike to alert him, and continued to sit and wait. Mavis bought an over-priced sandwich at Starbucks, that was dry and most unsatisfying, but, we knew there was little food on the flight.
As it grew closer to departure, and our plane finally landed and passengers debarked, more and more people in wheelchairs and with canes (I should have brought one) gathered at the gate, and I assumed the six bulkhead seats would be history. We finally started loading around 2:30, and to my surprise, we DID get two bulkhead seats, and, and window, with is mandatory for me. Finally took off a little before 3:00 PM, but the Captain announced we would make up some of the lost time during the flight, and the short layover at Kansas City would be shortened.
We were on a Boeing 737-700 which was a smooth, quiet plane, and the flight was uneventful, providing us a great, smokey view of all the major Washington volcanoes. Really a lot of smoke and haze in the air which made a lovely sunset behind us. We left K.C. only 45 minutes behind schedule, which is about the delay in arriving in Orlando, which was almost 11:30 PM their time. What a lovely airport, just huge, and baggage claim was a couple miles from the airplane, which we got to by shuttle train, horizontal escalators (is there such a thing?) and walking. there was Mike and little Caleb to meet us, a welcome site to very tired travelers who had been over 12 hours airport to airport. The thing that made it tolerable was that our bodies were still on West Coast time, only 8:30 PM.
A NEW BEGINNING FOR KENYB.
Yo everyone who has the courage to tackle this new diary concept. I hope it works out. I already have three sections typed out and now have to figure out how to cut and paste them to this site, in a reasonable order. Hope there is "spell check" available to me.
Oke, good luck and watch for more postings later today.
KenyB
Oke, good luck and watch for more postings later today.
KenyB
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