March 17, 2008

I am here at the Expedited Motor Carriers and Air Freight Forwarders Conference at the Omni Hotel and Resort in Orlando. Biggest crowd ever, over 800 registered guests. Most of the guest speakers so far have been pretty boring. The main speaker on opening day is usually a motivational speaker, this year it was the CEO of United Airlines. Most of what he spoke of did not effect any of us and was really not interesting. Tonight we had our dinner at the Fantasy of Flight Museum in Polk, Florida. There is another dinner Tuesday night at the hotel facilities but I am not going to attend. I will instead go out with one of our good customers from American Airlines. The conference ends on Tuesday night and I will check out of here on Wednesday and return to our motor home which is only about ten miles from here. Lay around the pool and read a couple of days, and then fly back to Minnesota for a week. Talked to Kathy and she is keeping real busy back home this week visiting family and friends. We are closing on our lot today. It is all done by e-mail, don't even have to be in Fort Myers.

March 15, 2008

Linda joined us Thursday for a couple of days before heading to the Airfreight Conference at the Omni Hotel. We went to the beach here at Fort Wilderness for a couple hours of sun and after dinner we went to the outdoor sing along. Friday Linda and Kathy went to Animal Kingdom and enjoyed all that it has to offer. Friday night we had a great dinner at Disney Downtown at Portebello Yacht Club., After dinner we saw the show Cirque Du Soleil, a fantastic show. Today Kathy left for home for a couple of weeks while John moved the motor home over to Encore RV Park a few miles away and then checked in at the Omni for the conference. John will head home next Saturday and we will both return on the 31st. After a couple of more days in Orlando at Encore we will start a month long trek home. We hope to see all our loved ones when home but Kathy will be very busy at church getting the Choir and Bell Choir ready for Easter Sunday service. Yes even though she is out, she is in.

Ft. Wilderness Campground, Orlando, Florida March 11, 2008

Inside the Grand Floridian Hotel
The Contemporary Hotel Resort

The Minnesota "Cowboys"
Talking to Aunt Sharon
The Circle D Ranch
The Grand Floridian from the lake
Riding the boat to the Magic Kingdom

Here we are in Disney again, only this time we are staying at the Ft Wilderness campground. It's really pretty nice. I think it would be better if you had kids because John and I have really seen most of what Disney has to offer but we are doing crazy things now. We got here Saturday and pretty much scoped out the campground on our bikes. Sunday we had to leave the resort to stock up on a few groceries, but Sunday night we went down to the beach area and watched the fireworks from the Magic Kingdom. They do such a great job. Yesterday we went horseback riding.....I wish I could collect 42.00 / person to ride at a walk for 45 minutes. Whatever, it was pretty and boring....I mean relaxing! :) In the afternoon we hopped on a boat to the Magic Kingdom and then caught the Monorail and went to see a couple of the resorts. The Grand Floridian is really beautiful, can't imagine what that costs a night for a family. We then found a bar (imagine that!) and had 2 drinks for 20.00! Met some nice people from Layfayette, IN who were fun to talk to. 2 of their 3 kids are in college and the wife is going back also to get her PHD. At least she works at Purdue so gets the tuition at a better rate. It's fun to talk to other empty nesters to see how they are re-inventing their lives. At 7:00 we went to the campfire sing a long...yes, we sang campfire songs with every child in the park!! We also got to meet Chip and Dale. Even got a hug!!!! Then I coaxed John into staying a little while for the movie, "Mary Poppins"! We made it about 30 minutes! Then we decided to ride our bikes back down to the beach and catch the electric parade that they have on the water and more fireworks! What a busy day, eh???

John and I figure it would cost a family of 4 to stay in a hotel here on the property, go to several parks, eat, buy souvenirs etc...about 7,000.00 for a week...maybe more! Pretty amazing place but also expensive. We figure camping is the way to go, you only pay 80.00/night and can buy your own groceries and spend the bulk of your money on the parks etc.. Enough of the sermon.

Tonight we have dinner reservations at the Ft Wilderness Lodge and it is so beautiful, looks just like lodge in Glacier, only a lot bigger. We will let you know how it is.

The weather has been a little cooler since last Friday night when the cold front came through. We had a terrible storm in Ft Myers that night and like idiots, we went to bed without shutting our front door and closing the roof vents. Needless to say we had water issues in the am! Live and learn! Now the temperatures in the daytime have been in the high 60's and low 70's, which for us Minnesotans is perfect for biking etc...

We have a few other things planned for later this week, but won't tell you about them, I will just say, "Stay tuned."

March 8, 2008

Thursday we went to another Twins game. It was a lot of fun and the Twins won over Baltimore 8 to 6. It is interesting to watch the different young players that are trying their hardest to do well and go "north" with the team. You see probably 24 different players every game as they try to decide who to keep.

We are in the middle of the Crypress Woods Weekend. They have all sorts of fun activities, well, like, Eucure, Bingo, Horseshoes, and a big golf cart parade. Included some pictures of the big parade. Kathy wishes we would have had a golf cart to join in. Not too hokie!! (John wrote this and now I am here to tell you ...it was so DUMB...I had no part in it.)

Before the game we met again with the builder that we decided to use when we do build. We looked over the blueprint with the changes we made. We sent the purchase contract over to our attorney and will decide in the next couple of weeks if we will go forward with this builder. Big decision. Friday we again went through many model homes with a different goal in mind. We wanted to observe more details this time like colors, types of tiles and the many nuances that we might think of including in our home. It is very exciting but very scary. I wonder if maybe I am too old to be doing this, or if we are even doing the right thing. Anyone wants a house in Cannon Falls, I will give YOU GOOD DEAL. I have included a picture that is like the one we are sure we will build. We made many changes that will better fit our life style.

Today is Saturday and we are leaving Fort Myers for Orlando. We will be staying for a week at Disney World RV Park. We actually stayed there in 1979 in our new 29 foot Winnebago. Kathy and I were not married then. It was a very special park at the time but, after the ones we have been frequenting this year, I am afraid if they have not upgraded we might be very disappointed. It is a Disney Resort so the good thing is you are in the World complex so you only have to hop a boat to go to any of their facilities. We really set this up because we thought Jackie and Brady were going to join us and they were excited about coming back and revisiting. With school keeping Jackie so busy, she decided it would not be prudent to leave. Getting ready to pull out so we will talk to you later.

Tuesday March 4th, 2008

Here are some pictures of the motor coach that we discussed yesterday. Don, you will love this one. It is a Freightliner with a Freightliner chassis. It's overall length is 53 feet. Made in PA, and painted in Michigan. If you notice the lift gate in the back. It is hydraulic with a remote control. He rides his bike on the lift and after pressing his remote, he is up and ready to enter the rear of the coach. The back ten feet is more like a garage that holds both his and his wife's Harley's.

Went to the RV dealer in Fort Meyers to finish up a few small things that needed fixing. Still did not fix a couple items, first, because the part did not come in and, 2nd because they broke a part that was not broken when we went in this morning. Oh well, for those who have had the joy of RVing, well you understand! Tomorrow we are headed to the Freightliner dealer to get a recall notice attended to. Nothing serious, just the brake system has a slight flaw. Eeeek!

After we drop the coach off, (which they say will only take one hour,.... right!) then on to discuss with a possible future builder the recent changes we made on their model of home. At 63 I wonder if I will ever see this to conclusion. Come on all of you, I need to sell our house in Cannon, and I mean real soon!!

Thursday we attend another Twins game, this time against Baltimore. It is fun because you sit really close to the field. Autographs? Not that I have seen. There goes that myth! 7800 people is a sell out and I understand that the Twins are the second best in spring training attendance in all of major leagues baseball behind the Yankees. It is unusual because you have fans from every team in the league. Fans are mostly Twins fans, but not exclusively. We will try and send you a few more pictures and give you more of a feeling of the atmosphere at these games.

You know the movie that I never take Kathy to? Well, we went and saw "The Bucket List". Now, don't think because this is only March that maybe there will be several more before the year is out. Don't count on that happening !!!! I go so seldom that when I see 10.00 tickets, 5.00 popcorn, and 5.00 pop, well, add that up and you have dinner at PF Chang's. You know what I would prefer to do don't you?
Never the less , we also went to PF Changs for dinner tonight. For those of you who read our blog, you know we went there last week with Al and Sue. We liked it so much we just had to return. For those of you in Minnesota, I believe we have one at Southdale. It is excellent food at a reasonable price. I would recommend it. Kathy says we must go there every night for a couple of weeks just to sample all of their menu.

Back home at eight and will be up again at 6:30 and at it again. Only going to be 76 tomorrow, so maybe we might have to wear a sweater!:) Just kidding, I see it is only going to be 9 degrees on Friday in Minnesota. Wow, what a winter to get out!!!! I guess you could say it was worth waiting 63 years for.

Monday March 3, 2008

Our neighbor with his hydraulic lift on his motorhome.
Hammond stadium from the outside.

Inside the stadium from our seats.

The first picture is our neighbor in Cypress Woods. I need to take a better picture of his motor home. It is a Kingsley. It has a semi truck front and motor home on the back. The paint job is remarkable! John said he would take better pictures of it tomorrow so you can see how awesome the paint is. (Wouldn't want to ding this paint job.)

We went to the Twins game today....it was packed...7,800 people. It was 84 degrees and we did fairly well until the last 3 innings and we were in the sun! We pretty much baked. It was tied 6-6 and going into the 10th inning and decided we had better leave before we were over-cooked bacon. We are still trying to find out the ending. We will have to watch the news tonight.

The players are a lot new. We knew Mauer, Morneau, Castilo, Cudhyer (sp?), but after that they were all new to us. It was fun seeing how they all shake out. Perkins started for us but was only in 2 innings. They really try out the newbies to see where they will fit in....if they'll fit in.

We got home about 4:30 and met some neighbors from Montreal, Quebec. Started our grill and had a great dinner...and now settling in for the night. Tomorrow we take the bus in to the shop for some parts that were ordered.

March 1, 2008 Cypress Woods RV Resort

We're here and would rather be there!!! This certainly isn't as nice as RiverBend...but, it is what it is. We got here around 1200 and set up...then I headed down into Ft Myers to Target and Bealls. Did a long awaited grocery run and just shopped around. Got home around 4:30. I took a bike ride around the park, it's just not as nice as the other park, but certainly not a dive! We grilled out salmon and steak and now are just watching some TV. I think tomorrow we will have a pool day and relax as we have a fairly busy week next week.