On Wednesday, 3/1 we were invited to a brunch with our friends Judy and Steve Czarsty.  She is a VP of the Eastern Area of FMCA, and there were about 20 others at the brunch; most were past senior officers of FMCA. 

On Friday we went to "Pirates" with Lois and Arnie Strauss, which was a dinner theatre in Orlando.  We got free tickets by attending a time sharing session, and it's a good thing that the tickets were free, as both the show and the food were only moderately OK.

On the following afternoon, Shelley organized a neighborhood barbecue down by the end of our road.  We had 5 families and 6 dogs!  We had a great time and the dogs played and ran around.  Even Rags joined into the fracas and excitement!!  The grown up people cooked supper and shared side and dessert dishes.  By the time 7:30 p.m. rolled around, the temperature had fallen to 60 degrees.  We grabbed some blankets and tried to plug in outdoor heaters, but finally gave up and went inside.  After spending a month or so in Florida, 60 degrees was cold to us, even though it might sound positively balmy to those in the north.

On Monday, Norm drove down to Lake Wales for his interview before he can join the Elks.  It appears that lots of Elks lodges have camping spaces in their parking lots and we hope to find an Elks lodge close to Rocky Hill where we can stay when we go back home in early May.  Joining the Elks takes a lot of time and this is the first time since we left Connecticut in September of '04 that we will be in one place for any length of time.

On Tuesday, we met our friends, Judy and Steve Czarsty at Animal Kingdom in Disney.  Everyone but Shelley went on the new "Everest Expedition" super duper roller coaster ride which was pretty exciting.  We also saw Crush the Talking Turtle and an exotic bird show.  Afterwards we went to the Animal Kingdom Resort and had a buffet dinner at BOMA, which featured many African dishes. It was really delicious.

On Thursday, eight of us from Deer Creek went to Kissimmee to see an exhibition baseball game between the Mets and the Astros.  The small field gave us a unique sense of things, since we were sitting close up (row 12) and could see and hear the players.  It was fun and something different to do.

Tom, Shelley, Norm, Dick, Sally, Tony & Barb at Mets game

 

Friday found us meeting Pearl and Harold Laroff and driving to Altamonte Springs for some kosher deli.  We then stopped off at Costco for a quick shopping trip.  There was lots of traffic everywhere, but since Pearl had volunteered to drive it wasn't too bothersome.  It felt like every time we turned the corner, traffic was backed up. 

During the next two weeks, we did the following, in no particular order:

1. We went to Downtown Disney with our KY friends, Jim and Judy Ploesser.  They came up to Orlando to spend a few days with us.  Rags got to see his friend Max and Judy and Shelley were giddy with laughter!
2. We spent a late afternoon and evening at Disney with Arnie and Lois Strauss and Laura and Shelly Singer.  We stayed to watch the fireworks show called "Illuminations" at Epcot. 
3. We spent a day at Epcot and MGM with Laura and Shelly Singer.  We did the new ride Soarin' at Epcot - it is just awesome.  At MGM, we watched the show "Lights, Action, Cameras", which is a stunt driving show that Disney brought over from Disney Paris.  We also got picked to be "volunteers" in a show about film making.  The film they were making included gallons and gallons of water as the scene was on a Naval ship that was being attacked.  Laura and I were told to "act like Lucy and Ethel" - which wasn't hard for us!  Norm was the captain of the boat and Shelly took pictures!  We really had fun....

Norm, Shelley & Laura at "The Living Seas" at Epcot	Shelly with a Geisha	Crew getting ready	Swabbing down the decks	Jet Bombers approaching!	The ship is getting bombed!	We're getting bombed with water!	We survived!

 

4. Judy, Jim, Shelley & I visited Laura & Shelley and Pearl & Harold Laroff at a Winnebago rally at the Central Florida Fairgrounds in northern Orlando.  Compared to the huge FMCA rallies that we have attended, this was really tiny with only 340 coaches there, and only about 25 vendors.  But we all had a good time there, there was this machine that dispensed Margaritas and Pina Coladas....plus they had dinner and entertainment.  It's just fun being with friends....

Laura, Shelly & the strawberry onion	CHAI at the Winnebago Rally	Shell "D" & Shell "E"

 

5. We went to Typhoon Lagoon, one of Disney's water parks, with Jim and Judy.  It was our first visit to a water park and we had a ball.  There was a huge wave pool with waves well over 6 feet high and lots of rides, including a water roller coaster and rides where you sat in a tube and went down and around turns.  There were two rides where you just went down cylinders with water flowing down also.  One was curvy and much like a water slide that you see at some big swimming pools and the other was a straight down drop of 214 feet.  In both cases, we came out of the cylinder almost horizontally into a pool of water.  We all also went on a "Lazy River Tube Ride" that just floated around the perimeter of the park, with a gentle current pushing us along.  We did that twice!  What neat fun.

6. Shelley continued with her physical therapy, usually three times a week.  Most of the time she was sore and achy by the time she got back to the motorhome.  This will continue until just before we leave Orlando, in mid April.

7. Norm and his friend Dick, a retired 72 year old pediatrician, went to Animal Kingdom to try out the new roller coaster, Expedition Everest.  They each went on it twice and loved the thrills.  There are times you cannot tell if you are going frontwards or backwards!

8. We went to Coronado Springs, a Disney resort, with Arnie and Lois.  We just walked into the resort and out the back, where a golf cart whisked us around the property to the pool.  Free towels were there and we had a nice time just relaxing, both inside and outside the pool and in the hot tub, too.

9. Norm became a member of the Elks.  Now we'll have another book to look in when we need a campsite...many Elks lodges have campsites with no, partial, or full hook-ups.  It does appear, however, that none of them are in CT!

10. We went to downtown Disney for dinner with 3 other couples, George and Judy, Cathy and Tom, and Dick and Sally.  After spending an hour or so wandering around, we went to have fish and chips at a place called Dublin.  Although the food was pretty good and the price reasonable, the wait was really interminable.  But we had a good time anyhow.

Cathy, Tom, Shelley, Norm, Judy, George, Sally & Dick at Downtown Disney

 

11. We went to Magic Kingdom one evening with Lois and Arnie.  Everyone but Shelley went on Splash Mountain, a pretty good roller coaster and then we saw the 3-D movie about the Disney characters.  Pretty neat stuff.  For the first time, we saw the parade at night and it was spectacular.  The bright lights frightened some of the smaller kids.  We also saw the Magic Kingdom fireworks for the first time, and we all pretty much agreed that they were more spectacular than the ones at Epcot.

12.  We continue to watch for progress on our RV lot.  So far, not much has been done other than the pavers.  The whole Regal Pointe continues to be built, sod is being put down, palm trees are being planted, electricity is being turned on and the water sprinkler system is slowly working its way to being completed throughout the area.  Norm is on the committee fro installing WIFI throughout the development.

Our RV pad pre-improvements	Our site with pavers	Another view	Another view