Jll's van has a drinking problem

One of the recurring events that makes me laugh is that every time we reach a new destination and unhook Jll's van, the GPS still thinks we are in the location we left. For example, yesterday we drove from Punta Gorda, Florida to Montgomery, Alabama. This morning when I unhooked the van to drive the three miles to the Rosa Parks Library & Museum, the GPS informed me it was 550 miles and ten hours and forty nine minutes away. It's like the van drank itself to blacking out while we were on the road and woke up in unfamiliar surroundings. Luckily this never happened to me. The worst I ever did was getting into Jeff Hunter's car at the Beta house in college and waking up in Wyoming on the way to Vegas for Rick Haussler's impromptu bachelor party.

Homeward Bound

Not much to report today, we bade farewell to the Anthonys so that they could get back to work and school. Jody had Dylan and Hayden out of school the last two days, and it was time for them to go back. We packed up our things and drove from Punta Gorda, Florida to Montgomery, Alabama. Even though we planned to drive only 350 miles today, to Adel, Georgia, we stretched it into about 580 miles so that we have fewer to travel tomorrow to Birmingham. Even though MapQuest says today's drive should have taken eight and a half hours, that doesn't account for the fact that we top out at about 60 miles per hour. Needless to say, it was a long day in the car. Also, I will not be having new shirts printed to reflect the correction.

Today's trip marks the first day of driving towards home. When I gassed up today, we had traveled just over 5,000 miles so far. The total trip will be on the order of 7,500 miles. Unfortunately this means that we covered two thirds of the trip in two months and we will cover the remaining third in just two weeks. In other words, we have many long days on the road ahead of us.

In other, not so interesting news, as of today's fuel stop, the RV has gone through 676 gallons of gas, averaging $3.65 per gallon and 7.53 miles per gallon. I haven't tracked what we've burned in the minivan. It's too depressing as it is.

Dave

Something good.

We have had so much fun in Florida I am really behind on my blog posts.  On Monday, August 5th, we had a gross breakfast at the Waffle House (Dave's choice) and packed up the RV to drive a little farther south to Punta Gorda (fat point) which is between Sarasota and Fort Meyers.  Punta Gorda is the home of Jody and Dave Anthony.  We haven't visited this area since their wedding in 2001.  Jody and I have been friends since the 7th grade and she is like a sister to me so I have really been looking forward to this time at her house.

We arrived in time for dinner and a very fun swim in their pond.  The Anthonys' pond has a zip line, rope swing, slide, and diving platform.  Pond swimming is very fun for a bunch from Colorado.  The kids have had so much fun together and they are whooped every night.

Tuesday, August 6th we split up for the first time in 2 months.  David and Alastair went fishing all day with Dave and Hayden.  Dave owns his own boat and all the requisite gear and the boys had a great day.  They caught about 25 fish (snook, red fish, trout), and Dave caught a seagull.  They had some fish in the live well to bring home for dinner but unfortunately an otter stole their fish while they were docked for lunch.  Lame!

The girls (Addie, Dagny, Magnolia, Jody, Dylan and I) declared beach day.  Jody took us to Boca Grand beach and it was AMAZING!  It was the first day of school for that area of town and the beach was deserted.  We might have seen a total of 10 other beach goers the entire day.  We played in the surf and collected sea creatures all day long.  We only took a break for lunch at a cute place just down the beach.  It was so great to spend the day with Jody and Dylan and we had such a great day.  I even spotted a manatee swimming close to us.  We had to drag the girls back to the car at 4:30 so we could get home in time to meet the boys.

Last night we had our first baby sitter of our summer.  Jody and Dave made plans for a sitter for the 6 kids so the 4 of us could go out for a grown-up evening.  We enjoyed a drink from a roof-top bar near the water which was really pretty.  We went to a yummy dinner at the Perfect Caper.  By far the best calamari of the trip and everything else was super delicious too.  We really enjoy time with Jody and Dave and it was good to be sans kids for the night.

All day today, Wednesday, August 7th, was all about Dagny Tess and her 7th birthday.  Adelaide and Dylan made her a big happy birthday banner and card signed by the whole crew.  She had a birthday muffin with a candle and singing this morning from us all to start the day.  We took our time getting ready for the day and then drove to our second breakfast at Smoky's Smoke House to find David's biscuits and gravy.  He has been talking about them for a few days so we needed to check it off of our list.  They were delicious.  Dagny had grits with butter and salt for her breakfast and I think she is a fan.  I am sure she will find some more to eat in Alabama or Louisiana.

The big plans for the day were Gatorama.  Yep, a field trip an hour inland toward the everglades to a place that houses hundreds of alligators and crocodiles.  We arrived just in time for the "show."  The gator lady spends about 15 minutes talking about the differences between crocs and gators all the while dangling pieces of cut up raw chicken over the tops of the animals encouraging them to lurch toward her to grab the raw poultry from her hand.  Yep, that was what we expected and it was amusing.  The kids also had special little croc biscuits they were allowed to toss through the fences to the crocs and watch them fight over them.  Amusing also.  In addition to gators and crocs Gatorama also had turtles, raccoons, peacocks, a leopard, bob cats, and parrots.  All of the kids had a chance to hold a baby gator (as did I) and I think Dagny had a really good birthday field trip.

We spent a few more hours on the pond this afternoon.  Dagny decided to learn how to do a front flip off of the diving platform today.  So now she has tackled that life obstacle.  While Magnolia can now swim we decided to put her in a life vest today so we didn't have to eagle eye her all day long.  She bobbed around like a cork for hours.  Dave and I even took turns on the zip line, rope swing, and water slide.  We had lots of family fun until the rain rolled in.

The Anthonys put together a really great birthday dinner for Dagny.  We had grilled steak (special request from Dagny), grilled tilapia, corn, water melon, and salad.  We had fun party hats and horns and she loved all of the gifts.  She is such a beautiful 7 year old and I think she will always think back on this birthday as a really great birthday.  We concluded the evening with cake and ice cream and a final round of catching frogs and lizards.  The Anthonys have hundreds on their property so Dagny has been in heaven.

We will begin our drive north in the morning and our children will need many quiet hours in the RV to rebound from our fun week in FL.  We have had a blast and look forward to our next visit to Florida and to the Anthonys.

Jll

I've Been There

Hey this is Addie, again. Orlando was awesome. We did so many things. Now why did I title my blog post that? Well Magnolia always says that when we watch a Disney movie because in the beginning you see the Disney castle and Maggie says "I've been there" because she has been to Disnelyland and we say no, that is the Disneyworld castle. Now Maggie can say I've been there. Anyway about Orlando, the first park we went to was Universal Studios. We saw Toon Land, Marvel Land, Dr. Seuss Land, and best of all, Harry Potter Land. It was amazing. Some of the things we did were going on the Harry Potter ride, drinking butter beer, eating chocolate frogs, eating at the Three Broomsticks, but I thing I really liked was learning that I like roller coasters. That's right, Dad said he would buy me a chocolate frog if I went on a roller coaster that went upside down. I loved it!!! I realized I really don't hate roller coasters and then I wished I had noticed that before Cedar Point. Oh well. I promised myself I would buy dad and me tickets some day and we would go back. I can't wait until Schlitterbahn.

Goodbye,

Addie.

* We also went to Magic Kingdom. We did a lot of things there with the Anthony's and we stayed up late and saw the parade and fireworks. It was so fun.

It's supposed to be the sunny state.

Hey this is Addie. Here we are, the farthest south this RV will go... Florida. We just left Orlando. It rains once or twice a day. It seems like on the trip we have been bringing on the bad weather. We have been hanging out with the Anthonys in Orlando, so we are going down to their house in Punta Gorda. I can't wait to see them again. At their house they have a pond. Just over the pond is a zip line that you can drop off and fall in the water. I can't wait. I get to sleep in my friend Dylan's room. I will blog about it when we do it.

Bye,

Addie

Fort Wilderness fun!

Saturday morning the 9 of us (Anthonys and McLains) managed to get ready for the day and have breakfast in a reasonably organized manner.  We took the Disney ferry boat across the lake and joined the masses at The Magic Kingdom about 10am.  We started the day with 2 trips down Splash Mountain which we all agree is a really great ride and lots of fun because all 9 of us could ride in the same log.  Good times.

We moved all around the park all day and hit all the oldies but goodies like the Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, Small World and the tea cups.  That isn't entirely true.  The 8 of them rode the tea cups.  I took a pass because they make me want to barf.  Not kidding.

After lunch we started our trek to Space Mountain.  Poor Magnolia isn't allowed to ride it so she had to sit out 3 different times while the rest of us took turns riding.  It is a great little coaster and the lines weren't too long (in Disney standards.)  Dave treated her to an ice cream cone on the down low during the first miss so that worked out for her pretty well and she and I had a lovely ride on the people mover once and a spin around the arcade for the last.  She is such a trooper but she still doesn't get why she can't ride with the big kids.  She has the guts now she just needs to grow 4 more inches.

I guess it rains almost every afternoon here in Orlando which worked out OK.  We found some fun rides that were inside and the rain managed to cool things off a bit.  The kids were starting to drag from 3-5pm and I wasn't sure they were going to make it.  An afternoon popsicle brought them back up to speed and we managed to power through the afternoon and early evening in good spirits. 

Before we knew it we were back to Main Street and people were already lining the streets to save spots for the parade.  Jody, Dagny, Maggie and I save some curb-side space while Dave and the bigs hustled to find dinner.  We enjoyed cheese burgers on Walt's extra clean sidewalk and had our dinner cleaned up just in time for the parade.  It was really fantastic and the kids had a great viewing spot.  I am so glad we were able to stay and see it.  Fun for us all.

After the parade we caught our ferry back to Fort Wilderness just in time for the 10pm fireworks to begin back at The Magic Kingdom.  We felt like we made a good decision on timing because our view of the fireworks was great over the lake and we had the kids that much closer to showers and a very late bedtime.  We were all wasted tired.

This morning was nice because we had no plans.  A nice breakfast and coffee had us fueled and to the pool by 10.  We swam for a solid 3 hours and had a really good time before the rain rolled in.  The Anthonys needed to head back to Punta Gorda and my crew needed some down time.  The rain kept up quiet and inside the motor home for lunch and a little afternoon TV time.  It was good to sit still.

Tonight we wrapped up our Fort Wilderness vacation with s'mores, camp fire sing-a-long, and an outdoor movie with the kids.  The campsite offers this every night and the kids have been begging to participate.  I am glad the weather cooperated so we could do it.  I sat with Maggie in front of me sitting on my lap and Alastair on my left leaning in on my shoulder and really thought about how precious this uninterrupted time is with my children and husband.  I feel so blessed to be healthy and able to create this experience.  We are so fortunate.

Tomorrow we drive our last leg of the trip south to Punta Gorda to the Anthony's home.  After that we head north east and that will feel odd.  That will mark the point in the trip where we are actually driving back in the direction of Denver and I think that will make me a little sad.  I have really enjoyed this trip and I don't want it to end.

Jll

Fabulous Florida

Yesterday was a long travel day for us.  I think we were on the road from 8-3.  We were very anxious to arrive in the Sunshine State and leave the rain and clouds behind.  We checked into Disney's Fort Wilderness and we were in our fabulous pool by 4.  The kids had just enough time to splash and play before the rain started to fall again.  Dave grilled steaks and the 6 of us had a very nice dinner as a family our first night in Florida.

It is worth mentioning that Magnolia has finally learned to swim on this trip.  I believe she is disadvantaged by her tiny size and it has been a challenge for her to get it.  Well, now that she has she is so fun to watch in the water.  This campsite has a good water slide and she can go on it all by herself and clear the slide at the bottom without any help.  I am very proud of her and she is quite proud of herself.

This morning we were to Universal Studios by 9am.  The main priority for the day was to give Adelaide and Alastair a chance to ride the Harry Potter ride.  I have no idea what it was like because Magnolia and Dagny are too short to ride it so we were doing our own thing but all reports were great and they loved everything about the whole HP section of the park. 

Dave spent a day at Cedar Point begging Addie to ride coasters with him and a day at Hershey Park doing the same with no luck.  As it turns out she just needed to be bribed with a chocolate frog.  She rode the coaster, got the chocolate, and now she loves roller coasters.  It was a fun, crowded, and hot day at Universal.

For dinner we were able to meet up with my cousin, Lance Sergio, and also Jody, Dylan and Hayden Anthony.  Lance is the youngest of my Brazilian first cousins and it was really great to catch up with him.  He and his wife Diana have lived here in Orlando for 13 years.  He is my only Brazilian cousin that lives here in the U.S. but I am hoping we find more of them coming to the States soon.  A very fun branch of my family tree.

The Anthony's are some of our favorite friends.  Jody and I have been friends since 7th grade and her kids are good friends with mine now too.  They are 9 and 7 and we see them a couple of times a year.  We invited them to stay in the motor home with us for the next 2 nights so we are up to 9 bodies sleeping here tonight and bedtime was shockingly easy.  I expected to have to use my mean mommy voice at least once or twice to get giggling kids to settle down but I did not.  They fell asleep in a snap.  Clearly they are worn out.  :)

Tomorrow we head to the Magic Kingdom so we can experience the "real" Disney World.  I am excited to spend more time with the Anthony's and hopefully keep the kids awake long enough for the parade and fireworks tomorrow night. 

Nightie night.

Jll