With Aaron and Chris in Orlando

Tuesday, March 31 - back at Port St. Lucie



Chris and Aaron arrived at Orlando International Saturday night at about 9:15PM. By the time we picked them up and got back to the coach, it was after 10PM, so we got settled and went to bed for the night.

On Sunday morning, we awoke to a tropical rain storm. During the night, we had a wild thunderstorm, but Aaron managed to sleep through it. Can't say the same for Beasley, though. He absolutely abhors thunderstorms! He actually trembles when it thunders. Poor guy! Fortunately, the storm only lasted about 15 - 20 minutes, then it just rained for the rest of the night. At about 10, we headed off to Sea World to spend the day. Just as we arrived at the parking lot, the sky opened up again, so we decided to wait in the car until it passed. Finally, we headed into the park as the rain subsided about 10 minutes after it started. If you have not been to Sea World recently, or ever, this park is a MUST! We attended several shows, saw lots of sea creatures, and generally had a blast! We also took lots of pictures here, so check out the web albums after you read the blog.



After Sea World, we spent some time at the pool, back at the resort. Aaron loves the pool! He is like a fish in the water.



On Monday, we awoke to a beautiful day, so we headed off to Disney's Animal Kingdom to spend another exciting day exploring the wonders of wild animals. As luck would have it, so did about 100,000 other people. It was very crowded at Animal Kingdom on Monday. It took us 1 hour and twenty minutes to get onto the African Safari ride, which turned out to be a "bust", since we didn't see very many animals, since they were spending the day "in their caves/lairs/habitats/dens, due to the heat. This was not a very good "take", according to Aaron. He thought he would be able to get close enough to the animals to "pet" them, so he was disappointed when we couldn't.

For the weekend, here's Aaron's grades for the parks: Sea World - two thumbs up!
Animal Kingdom - so so!

Here are the links to the photo albums from the weekend:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/SeaWorld?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AtThePool?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/AnimalKingdom?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/MeanwhileBackAtTheRV?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TimeToGoHome?feat=directlink

Anticipation!

Friday, March 27 - Tropical Palms RV Resort, Kissimmee, Florida

We arrived here at Tropical Palms RV Resort this afternoon and are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Chris and Aaron in Orlando tomorrow night. After arriving and getting the coach set up, we went out to do some scouting around. We went to Sea World and Animal Kingdom, just to familiarize ourselves with the route, since we will probably be visiting these venues on Sunday and Monday with Chris and Aaron.

It's understatement to say that we are excited about seeing Chris and Aaron. We have been looking forward to this visit ever since Chris announced that he and Aaron would be coming to Orlando. We almost can't believe that the day is almost here.

Tomorrow we will drive out to the airport, just to get familiar with that route, since we will be taking it after dark tomorrow night. We will also make a trip to the local Whole Foods Market to do some grocery shopping for Chris and Aaron.

Please be sure to check back either Monday or Tuesday night for a report on our visit with Chris and Aaron. I will be too busy to post until then. Their flight leaves Orlando on Tuesday morning, so I may be able to post Monday night. If not, then I will definitely post on Tuesday night, after we return to Port St. Lucie. Oh, yeah, I will have pictures! Until then, be safe!

The FMCA Rally at Perry, GA

Sunday, March 22 - back from the Rally in Perry, GA

I know that it has been some time since my last post. I apologize for that. Over the past week or so, we traveled up to Perry, Georgia for the FMCA biennial rally. Our trip began on Wednesday, March 11, as we traveled up to Titusville, FL to get a closer view of the shuttle launch which was to have taken place that evening. However, as the countdown was in progress, a leak forced cancellation until at least Sunday. As a result, there will be no pictures of the launch, since we had to leave for Georgia on Friday morning. We spent Friday night in Tifton, GA, at a place called AGRIRAMA, which is Georgia's historic farming museum. We could not check into the rally field until Saturday, so we spent the night in Tifton, which was quite a bustling community. On Saturday morning we headed off to Perry, and the rally field, where we would spend the next week dry-camping. The rally itself did not officially open until 1:00PM on Monday, so we had 2 days to spend scouting out the area. The photo, above, shows the Perry Hotel, in downtown Perry, where we found a flea market in progress along Main Street.

As luck would have it, it began to rain on Saturday, and it continued to pour right through the weekend, finally giving way to clearing skies on Monday afternoon. There is nothing like dry-camping in a field when it's pouring outside, and all you can think of is "will my coach start to sink into the mud?" I don't know if you've ever seen Georgia's "red clay", but when it gets wet it is like grease. If you get stuck in it, you will need a tow truck to get you out. Fortunately, none of us got stuck in it, and the sun came out on Tuesday morning and stayed out for the remainder of our stay.

What, exactly, is the FMCA rally? It's a lot like a convention, only the attendees are all in motor homes, campers or trailers, instead of hotels. There are seminars on various topics geared to motor homers, and vendor display areas where one can buy almost anything from food to RV/camping supplies. There are also NEW coaches on display, and some really good deals to be had on new coaches. Presumably because the dealers would much rather sell the coaches at the show rather than drive them back to the dealership. There were more than a few new coaches sold at this particular rally. When folks are not attending seminars, or cruising the vendor booths, or visiting the new coaches, they are probably back at their coaches, sitting out in the sunshine visiting with friends (we did a lot of that). All-in-all, we had a very enjoyable time, made a few purchases, got some things on our coaches serviced (free, of course), and ate lots of GOOD FOOD!

But, alas, all good things must end, so, on Friday morning John and Nancy left for Titusville, while K, Kathy B. and Gailsey made one final trip to Tuesday Morning, and the boys, me, Charlie and George, traveled up to Warner-Robins, GA to the Robins AFB Air Museum. This was an excellent trip, and Charlie was most informative when it came to pointing out the various aircraft on display. His knowledge of things aeronautical is phenomenal.

Upon returning to the rally field, we met with the girls, hitched up the cars and got underway. Our first stop was back to the AGRIRAMA, where we spent Friday night. On Saturday, we departed Tifton heading for St. Augustine, FL, where we spent the night in the Camping World parking lot. We made this stop so that the girls could do some more shopping at the Outlet Malls in St. Augustine, while Charlie and I had repairs to attend to on our coaches. I had to repair the water pump on my coach, as it blew a fitting Saturday morning before we left AGRIRAMA. Fotunately, Camping World had the part(s) I needed, so the repair was simple, and only took about 20 minutes to complete.

Finally, on Sunday morning (today), we headed out and began the final leg of our journey to Port St. Lucie. We arrived here at about 1:15PM and promptly got out our recliners and "vegged out" for the afternoon.

Be sure to check out the web albums (yes, I said "albums"). I have two albums for you today. One is from the rally at Perry, while the other is from our side-trip up to the Robins AFB Air Museum. I hope you enjoy the pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/chuckb42/FMCARallyAtPerryGAMarch2009?feat=directlink

http://picasaweb.google.com/chuckb42/PhotosFromTheRobinsAFBAirMuseum?feat=directlink

The Mets, Reality, and Bath Night

Tuesday, March 3 - Bath Night

No, no for me, for the dogs! They really get filthy walking around the park here. I'm not sure what it is, but the roads in the park are asphalt, with a sealer coat on them. When you walk, the bottoms of your shoes/sandals/etc. get black! We usually remove our shoes before we enter the coach, so that the black doesn't transfer to the carpeting. Needless to say, the same thing happens to the dogs paws when they walk on the roads. So, as a result, tonight was bath night (it is usually cards night, but all our friends are away this week, so....):-(

The Mets game on Sunday afternoon was pretty good - if you like to see the ball leaving the park on a regular basis. After the top of the first, it was 1 - 0, Astros. It stayed that way until the bottom of the third, when the Mets came up with 8 runs, 6 of them on home runs (1 Grand Slam, and one two-run job). The Mets won this one, 13 - 1. Check out the web album for pictures of the park, the Mets, etc.

Reality! Today, reading the newspaper (The St. Lucie News Tribune), in the Classifieds section, I saw 4-1/2 pages, that's right, 4-1/2 pages) of foreclosures listed for St. Lucie County alone! I was shocked! I knew the housing problem, or more correctly, mortgage problem, was bad, but I never realized just how serious it was right here in Port St. Lucie! Not only that, but there were also another 3 - 4 pages of For Sale listings, as well. If you want to come to Florida, this is a great time to buy anything down here. The problem is that you will need excellent credit, and a 30% down payment in order to get financing.

Upcoming events: tomorrow evening we are attending the second "Dinner and Trivia" event here at the resort. We missed the first one, so we wanted to be sure to get to this one. We have heard that it is so much fun. There are prizes awarded for the winning table(s). We'll let you know how it went in the next post of the blog, so stay tuned!

Here's the link to today's web album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/cbenoitiii/TraditionFieldMetsVsAstrosGame?authkey=Gv1sRgCIrwwKe3s9SSVg&feat=directlink

(I had a problem making the link, above, work by clicking on it, so copy and paste it into the address line of your browser to get to the album.)