Ants!

We have camped at a lot of different campgrounds since becoming full-timers but the one where we are now is the absolute worst for ants. We have camped here a lot of times but the ants have overtaken the campground now and unless something gets done I am not so sure we'll be back here. I have never seen anything like it. When we arrived we covered the ground all around the RV with sevin dust which normally works to keep the ants away under normal conditions. It didn't deter the ants at all here. They even come down on the roof top from the trees. I had to remove my hummingbird feeders after the ants took them over and kept the hummingbirds from coming to eat. Now the ants have found their way inside. This morning I discovered the cat food bowl covered in ants and when I opened a pantry door there they were crawling all around our food. ICK! I have sprayed and sprayed the outside of the RV yet the ants crawl right over it. We leave here on Sunday and although this has been our favorite campsite I can't wait to leave. None of the other Corps of Engineer campgrounds we have been to on the lake have come close to having a problem like this. It has been interesting to see all the wildlife though. The big white skunk has made several more appearances and the past 3 mornings David has been seeing a regular looking skunk... black with a normal size white stripe. He has also seen a grey fox. We have a flock of 9 Canada geese that drop by daily and I feed them. Lots of birds and butterflies and heron too. Double click on the little black triangle arrow on the box below to view a little video I made of the ants on the hummingbird feeder.

Looking for Daddy

Every afternoon when it is about time for David to arrive home from work Millenni jumps up in this chair and looks out the window for him. I don't even have to tell her, she just knows it is time. She sits there looking out the window until she sees the car pull in then she jumps down and gets all excited and waits for him to open the door. It is such a cute ritual. Below is a photo I snapped of her on guard looking for Daddy one evening last week. So cute!

Boone Family Festival

Saturday morning we got up early and went to Joppa Cemetery where our Boone ancestors are buried and visited their graves. The graves of Squire and Sarah are clearly marked with historical signs etc… but we could not locate the graves of Israel and his wife (in my genealogy research no one has ever been able to find out her name). While in the cemetery we did some geocaching as a cache was hidden inside and we quickly found it. Nice! Afterward we went to another cache site and found it as well. Then we were back to the festival where we found good parking and decided to take one of the guided bus tours. The tour was nice and one stop was back at the cemetery we had visited earlier that morning. This time we had a tour guide who shared a lot of info with us. I asked her if she knew where Israel and his wife were buried and she looked astonished and told me that she thought so but couldn’t tell me as it was not yet confirmed. Debbie and I had noticed 2 rocks lying to the left of Squire and Sarah’s graves and I had wondered if that may have been their graves. The tour guide then told me I was standing “very close” to what is expected as their graves and there at my feet were the 2 rocks. I asked if those rocks marked their graves and she said “maybe”. She had received a letter from a Boone descendent in Connecticut who has a letter dated 1850 that gives the location of Israel and his wife’s graves within the cemetery so at present time they are trying to confirm the location. She was so reluctant to tell me any info until I told her Israel and his wife are my direct line ancestors. It was only then that she would tell me anything but she was shocked that I had asked her about them and had even known they are buried there. I suspect their 2 young daughters are also buried there. Israel, his wife and the 2 little girls all died within a few months of each other in 1756. The two survivors of the family were the two boys, Jonathon (my line) and Jesse who were raised by their uncle Daniel. The tour guide wanted me to leave my contact info with her because she wants to put me in touch with the man in CT. I was thrilled to do so and will follow up with her to make sure she has done so. The rest of the bus tour was nice and we learned a lot. I had made T-shirts for Debbie and I to wear stating that we are Boone descendents but no one seemed to notice or comment on them. Nearly two hours later we arrived back at the festival, ate lunch then went to Junker’s Mill to claim our seats for the musical acts of the day. The one we were interested in was Mike Cross, the headliner for the show and the last performer closing out the festival. We were lucky enough to grab front row center seats but that meant staying there all afternoon. We were treated with a couple of blue grass bands then came a blues group that was outstanding! We really enjoyed them and it was a nice change after hearing bluegrass all afternoon. Mike Cross finally came on and the audience was treated to his many talents. Fantastic! The only thing was it was another triple digit temperature day so we were HOT! It was awful. And we had spent nearly 6 hours sitting on those hard folding chairs. By the end of the festival we were all complaining of sore butts and with the heat and humidity there was not a dry thread on any of us. WHEW! From there it was back to the hotel for cool showers and dry clothing for us all then out to dinner at a seafood restaurant. We did one more geocache nearby… we were three for three. By that then it was time to call it a night. We were all exhausted. This is only the second year of the festival and Mocksville is a small town so the crowds were small (very nice!!!). We had a lot of fun and anytime we are together with Debbie and Rusty is a fun time. Mocksville is a cute little town and still rural and almost untouched by all the commercialism that has overtaken most places. There is a super Walmart in town though so it is only a matter of time that things will change. For now it is great! The countryside was so beautiful. I think I could live there.

a state historical marker at the Joppa Cemetery entrance

Squire and Sarah Boone's graves. Squire's is the large stone on the left and Sarah's is the small one on the right. Apparently visitors were chiseling off pieces of the stones to keep as souvenirs so they ended up putting the stones inside the brick wall.

Debbie and I standing on the sides of Squire and Sarah's graves

this is the back of our T-shirts, on the front in the upper left corner I had our line from Squire on down listed

Junker's Mill was the site where all the music was during the festival

Mike Cross entertains the crowd with one of his stories before singing a song

Mocksville, North Carolina

We have been away for the weekend. We took a trip to Mocksville, NC to attend the Daniel Boone Family Festival. Being a Boone descendent I was interested in attending. It is also were my ancestors Squire and Sarah Boone and their son Israel and his wife (also in my direct line) are buried. We were met in Mocksville on Friday afternoon by my sister and her husband. We decided to eat at the BBQ dinner at the festival then attended the play “A Wanderer Born” about the lives of the Boone’s in the area and the wedding of Daniel and Rebecca Boone. The play was very interesting for my sister and myself since it was about our ancestors. It was at the local performing arts center which is a beautiful facility. As we entered to take out seats there were two young boys playing acoustic guitar and singing. It was lovely and they continued to play, entertaining everyone while we waited for the play to begin. They were very good and just before 7:00pm David leaned over to me and stated rather emphatically that when those boys were finished he was going to give them a hearty round of applause. What happened next had me belly laughing for the rest of the night. The boys finished the song they were playing and David thinking they were finished for the night erupted with one of those thunderous claps of applause and soon the rest of the audience joined in. The look of bewilderment on the faces of the boys was priceless… they were not finished playing! Ha! Ha! Ha! David had prematurely started the applauding and the boys were not quite sure what to do at that point. They didn’t say a word. They looked at each other for a while with a stunned look on their faces then played their last song. I am sure they were wondering whether they should continue and play it or just stop right there. It was hilarious and one of the few times I have ever seen David actually blush! The play started and there was one character in the play that kept the audience in stitches. She was a small girl around six years old with Down’s Syndrome, as cute as could be. She played her part with gusto, never missing a dance step or a word of singing. There was one part of the play where Daniel and Rebecca were getting married and this little girl was standing with another little girl and a young lady. She somehow became fixated on the lady’s long dress and started dusting it like it was dirty. She wouldn’t stop no matter what, she just kept dusting it. The only time she would stop was when a prayer was being said and at that time she would stop what she was doing to bow her head and tightly close her eyes. Afterward she would go right back to dusting the dress. At one point several members of the audience started laughing out loud and she turned around and gave a priceless look and gave us all the sign of “zip it up and lock it” using her hands and mouth in jester. I think that made everyone laugh even more. She was the hit of the show! Absolutely adorable! I continued to spend the rest of my night laughing about David and the applauding episode. My sides were sore by the time the night ended. No words I can write would express how funny that was. Oh and I do have one more story to tell about this night. Prior to entering the auditorium for the play we had to wait in the lobby for about half an hour before the doors were opened for seating. There was a group of mentally challenged adults who had come from some local center for the show. They were milling around in the lobby as other people began to come in. One male individual came over and started talking to Rusty and David. I was busy looking a map of the county from the 1700’s showing where the Boone’s had lived. I could see and hear David and Rusty introducing themselves. Later Debbie told me I had missed the funniest part. Apparently another man in the group came right up to David and looked him directly in the face and just stood there for a minute or two then just started laughing really hard the walked away, never saying a word. Oh how funny! Probably a good thing that I didn’t witness that event or I may have been asked to leave before the show even started. Oh what a night! If laughter truly is good for the soul then I should be feeling great after a night like that.

the town of Mocksville had these banners on the street lights thru out the historic part of town



this was the play we went to see

RAIN!

We got rain! That's right, early this morning right after day break it started pouring and rained hard for about 20 minutes. Not much but at least it is something.

Stupid People

As if one blog a day is not enough I find myself blogging twice a day now. OK, so here's the thing. I needed to vent and you readers are the lucky...err... well you are the one's who are gonna be on the receiving end of my ranting. I just returned from the grocery store. I just needed to pick up a few cleaning supplies and some ingredients to make tonights dinner. When I went to pay I noticed the self-service lanes were not open so I got in one of the long lines to pay for my items. It seemed I had chosen the wrong lane because the lady at the register was a complete idiot! I'm sorry but it is true. There were only 3 in front of me, none having more than a few items to purchase. I kid you not... I was in line for more than 30 minutes! When the lady in front of me was waiting for her items to be rung up I noticed the cashier having a difficult time with one of the items... a bunch of green onions. Now I may forgive a 16 year old boy for not knowing what green onions are but this lady looked to be in her 30's-40's and I can't imagine a woman living in the good old US of A not knowing what green onions were! So OK, maybe she slipped by, I can handle that. What came next had me shaking my head and wondering how she made it this far in life. The customer had to tell her what the item was, she then proceeded to look it up on the produce list in order to find the correct code. That must have taken a good 3 or 4 minutes. Once she discovered the code she put it in the register then commenced to count out each individual onion! I am not kidding! The customer looked at her like she was from Mars or something and said, excuse me but they are sold by the bunch, not individually! I nearly lost it then. Where do these people come from??? When it was my turn one of the things I had purchased was a box of ziplock bags that had a discount coupon stuck on the box. I peeled it off and handed it to the cashier who had completely forgotten about it so I reminded her. It was only for 20cents off and I was wishing I had kept my mouth shut and let them keep the money because it was another 7 or 8 minutes before that was resolved. Two other cashiers had to leave their customers to come and help her out and no one could figure out how to subtract the coupon. GOOD LORD!!! When I arrived home I discovered she had put cleaning items in the bags along with the food. ARGH! Honestly, how stupid can people be??? I just don't understand. I think she must be related to the folks that work at Best Buy. Recently I had purchased an accessory for connecting my GSP to my laptop. Simple, right? Well not exactly. I've bought 3 different things now, each time the sales person at Best Buy swearing this was what I needed, only to get home and discover they didn't know what they were talking about. Living out in the boonies it is not always easy to drive to a town that has a Best Buy. The last time I went I even took my laptop in with me, explaining to the sales guy what I needed. He took back the previous accessory telling me this was the one I needed. WRONG! I got home and the darn thing won't even fit my computer at all. So it is going to be a 4th trip there. Maybe I should just give up. OK, so enough ranting. I just needed to vent and get it all out. I'm feeling better now. Thanks for being there.

Springfield Site #70

This is our campsite for the next couple of weeks. We have camped on this site before and so far it has been our favorite. A little update on the skunk... last night when I took Millenni out to pee I could smell a hint of skunk. I don't know if one had sprayed somewhere not too close by us or perhaps just a little spray since it was not overwhelming. Early this morning at dawn David saw the same skunk from a few nights ago. We are sure it is the same one because of its unusual looking appearance. It has a very large wide white stripe down its back. Like me, he first thought it was a possum until he saw the black on the sides and its very bushy tail. It is not afraid of people. I wish it would go on its way though, I don't want to be worried about smelling that scent and I worry even more about rabies than anything else. So anyway... the heat continues here and still not a drop of rain. Yesterday was another recording breaking 103 degrees for this area and today promises more of the same.

taken from afar, this is our nice campsite, you can see how low the water level is

a closer view

this is our view from the RV looking out the front

our front yard... this is the nice rug that blew out of the truck a few weeks ago when we moved, we were so happy to find it again

I try to make our campsites pretty with flowers and a lot of bird feeders to attract birds and butterflies

a view of the RV from the backside

Along Came a Spider...

You may recall me saying a few days before we moved from the previous campground that we had a spider who had decided to spin a web outside on the window in front of the desk. I was a bit concerned about what to do with her since I knew we were moving soon and I wasn't sure she would survive. Well... not only did she survive the move but she has once again spun a web in the same place. We rolled up the awnings and removed the hummingbird feeder that the web was attached to then moved 30 miles away to another campground. Imagine my surprise this morning when I opened the blinds to find a new web and the same spider there. She must have made the move inside the awning. Needless to say she is driving the cat mad anytime she moves around. Between the hummingbirds and the spider the cat has plenty of entertainment.

Pitiful Sight

A year ago we camped at this campground. The lake was much fuller at that time. The first photo here is taken from one of the campsites we stayed. The lake covered all of the green grassy area you see here. The tree tops you can see sticking up out of the water were under water!

This is another site where we have camped in the past. The island with the trees shows how far the water level has gone down. Last year only the trees were showing and no land. If you look to the right you will see another island has emerged. And if you look closer you will see a link between the two islands. In a few days the two will be connected and will appear as one island.

We have had so many days of triple digit temps here and even the days that haven't reached 1oo or above have been close...98... 99 degrees. The water is evaporating and with no rain the lake continues to dry up. The draught continues.

Pepe le Peu

Yesterday was moving day and we are now at a different campground. Last night as we were heading to bed I took Millenni outside to pee pee one last time. I had the outside lights turned on and had a flash light with me. It was dark oustide and as soon as we walked out something caught my eye. It looked like a big white cat but I soon thought it must be a possum. It walked across our campsite and Millenni saw it. She was trying to run toward it but I was holding her leash tightly. Thankfully she didn't bark. The creature slowly walked to a group of trees and stopped, hiding silently and being very still. I shined the flash light right on it and still it did not move. David opened the RV door and I told him something was out there. About that time it scurried across our campsite and I could clearly see it was not a cat... it was not a possum... it was a SKUNK! A very large skunk! Black on the sides and a large wide white stripe running from its head down to the end of its tail. Whew! All I can say is we were very lucky that Millenni didn't bark and scare it enough to cause it to spray. Oh the adventures of the RVing lifestyle.

SC Botanical Gardens

Late yesterday evening David and I decided to go to the SC Botanical Gardens located on the grounds of Clemson University. Each day has continued to be unmercifully hot and humid so we wanted to wait until late in the day to go, as the sun was setting and it was more tolerable to be outdoors. This was our first visit to the gardens and we thoroughly enjoyed walking around. Below are a few of the pictures I took as we strolled along. Enjoy!

Campsite

Thought I would post some pictures of our current campsite. We will be moving on Sunday but this is where we have been living for the past 2 weeks. We have a large campsite on the lake. We have enjoyed our time here. We have had lots of hummingbirds, lizards and heron. We even have a huge spider that has spun a magnificent web outside one of our windows. Not sure what to do with her when it is time for us to leave. We spent several nights lying back on the lounge chairs looking at the clear dark sky hoping to see meteorites but never saw even one.

this is our view from the RV looking out at the lake in front

Hummingbirds

I have been blessed with visits from hummingbirds this year. They have been keeping my feeders busy and I love watching them. I have 2 feeders attached to windows so I can get a close up view. They are also providing excitement for our cat, Oreo. She spends her day sitting on the desk keeping watch on the bird feeder hanging on that window. Occassionally she lunges forward trying to catch one of the hummingbirds but of course the window is always in her way! No matter which campground we are at it seems the hummingbirds find my feeders right away and provide lots of entertainment.

My Mom's Got a Blog

Yes, that is right! My mother now has a blog of her own. I have put a link to her blog on my page. Check it out and leave her comments and encourge her to write. I think it's fantastic!

Computer Update

Since my last post I've had nothing but trouble with my Verizon Air Card for my internet connection. After uninstalling and reinstalling the software several times with no luck I finally decided to take it in to Verizon and find out what the heck was going on. It got to the point to where my computer would not recognize the air card at all. It took less than 10 minutes and the friendly gentleman who was waiting on me had it up and running again. Apparently I had a defective air card. I am thrilled. Not only did I get a new air card (free of charge I might add) but it is an upgraded card at that and I didn't have to sign anything extending my contract etc... Who could ask for more??? It is still not running as fast as I would like but wow, what a difference! I am so grateful for the man who waited on me and for getting a new, upgraded card that I just had to share my excitement with you. Now I must find something more interesting to blog about before I totally bore everyone to death!

Oh... Kathy, I love the photos of the deer and the bear. WOW! You be careful, seems you were awfully close to that big bear. I know you were zoomed in but still.... just be careful!!! Those were awesome photos!

Computer

I finally got my laptop back today. I took it in last Tuesday to see what was wrong with it. Well after spending $59 for the diagnostic testing by the Geek Squad at Best Buy and waiting all of this time it seems nothing is wrong. I am thrilled I didn't have to spend any more money and thrilled that nothing is wrong with it but it is still not acting like it should. Oh well, what can I say??? We had a lovely time with Hannah over the weekend. She bring so much joy into our lives. We've been out each night looking for the meteor showers but the past two nights were mostly cloud covered in this area so we didn't see anything. We'll be out looking again tonight and hope for better luck. I am thrilled to have my computer back, even if it is not zooming along at least I have a connection again.

Geocaching and Donkeys

Another day of triple digit recording breaking temps here in SC but we made the most of it. We got an early start today and went geocaching. Hannah always enjoys going when she is visiting us. This one was a really nice walk on a good trail in the woods so the high temp didn't bother us. After searching for a little while Hannah discovered the cache and went thru it to take the trinkets she wanted and replace them with the ones we brought with us. What fun! We stopped at Wendy's for lunch and on our way home we passed by some donkeys. There is a farm near the campground that has donkeys and I have wanted to photograph them for a long time. Today they were in the field near the road so we stopped to take some pictures. A couple of them were really playful and Hannah thought they were wrestling and we had a good laugh over them as they frolicked around the pasture. We finally made it back to the campsite and treated ourselves to fudgecicles! YUM! Tonight we are planning on setting out on the lake shore and looking for meteors streaking across the dark sky. The annual Persied meteor showers are this weekend and we have a good unobstructed view. We sat out there last night for a while but never saw any. Hopefully tonight will be better as we are approaching the peak nights of Sunday and Monday.

Hannah finds the geocache!

David looks over the log book as Hannah checks out the trinkets in the cache

Hannah looks at the cache inside the box

these are the two donkeys that were "wrestling"

OH MY!

Friday

Spent all day yesterday with my mother getting her new computer set up and visiting. Brought Hannah back with me for the weekend. We're going to go see the movie Underdog today. Still hot and humid here.

HOT!!!

Man was it ever HOT here today. Actually the past several days have been over 100 degrees here. Today it reached 105.4 at the RV and we are parked in the trees with a lot of shade. When I stepped outside I thought I was in central Texas during the summertime. I won't complain though, instead I am focusing on the positive.... at least it is not snow and cold! Thank goodness for air conditioning! I am going to visit my mother tomorrow and will be bringing Hannah back to spend the weekend with us. I am looking forward to her visit. She always brings so much joy into our lives. Still no word on my laptop. When I dropped it off the man told me it would probably be a couple of days before he could get around to running the diagnostic testing to see what the problem is then he would call to let me know before doing any work on it. I hope to have it back soon, I really miss not being connected. At least I can use David's laptop at night to try and catch up.

Update

Wanted to let you all know that I am taking my laptop in to the "Geek Squad" to have it tested. I have never done this before so not sure what all it will entail. Jamie took hers in one time and it took them about a week or two to test it and locate the problems and get them fixed. I am hoping they won't keep mine that long. I will try to use David's laptop each night to check my email and post a blog but just wanted you to be aware if you don't see anything here on a daily basis it is because I don't have my computer. I will do my best. I did manage to make some headway today in cleaning the carpet. It is still a mess but looks a thousand times better than it did yesterday. I wish I had taken some photos but I was too upset at the time to even think about that. Just imagine how bad balsamic vinegar would look on a tan carpet and I can assure you it was much worse. Today was a much better day! :)

Moving Day Fun

For anyone who thinks living the full time RV lifestyle is all fun and roses then you need to read this blog. Yesterday was moving day for us. It is a day I both dread yet look forward to at the same time. It is always nice to have new scenery and a new front yard and a new little town to explore, but the moving process itself is very demanding and physical. We were only moving 10 miles yesterday but it turned out to be one of our most horrible moves. So, the day started out beautiful. The sun was up and we decided to spend the morning doing our laundry. We found a place in the nearby college town and had the place to ourselves. It was clean and cool inside and we had six loads of laundry to wash. David dropped me off and he went to get some cash. I put the clothing into various machines and used the quarters I had to get a couple of machines started. David arrived back with money and I put quarters in the remaining machines…. Or so I thought! After drying everything I realized our towels were missing. I looked around and there they were in a washing machine….they had never been washed. Apparently when I was putting the quarters in the remaining machines I had missed that one. ARGH! That was only the start of our day. We got back to the RV and started packing and securing things for the move. I always do the inside things and David takes care of the outside things. Yesterday was one of those hot, humid, miserable days where you sweat like mad just standing still so poor David didn’t have a dry spot on him as he worked outside. It was time to leave and I followed David to the dump station then we were off to the new campsite. As we arrived to our site we were met with a loud clap of thunder and lightening and the rain started pouring. We decided to leave the truck attached to the RV and leave it sitting on our site and take the car into town to get something to drink and let the storm pass over before returning to set up. By the time we got back the storm had passed and I opened the door to the RV to go inside and start setting up again. When the door opened I was met with an overwhelming scent of vinegar! Whoo-boy, it was strong! I knew right away something was wrong. I looked toward the kitchen and saw a mess on the floor. One of the cabinets had popped open and the contents spilled out. A large bottle of balsamic vinegar hit the floor and broke into many pieces. Regular vinegar would have been bad enough but balsamic vinegar is syrupy and sticky and that dark red color. The kitchen floor was covered with the vinegar and pieces of green glass shards with other items sprinkled in the mix. That took forever to clean up and I am afraid the carpet in the office area is ruined now. I tried to get up all I could but it now has large maroon spots. I have to work on it more today and hopefully I can get it all up. Once I got most of the vinegar cleaned up and mopped the floor twice I then got started doing the normal routine set up inside. I quickly discovered I had forgotten to put away Millenni’s food bowl for traveling and the bowl had turned over and poured out all over the floor under the desk. I had our laser printer in the floor and dry dog food had spilled all down inside the printer. UGH. OK, OK, I got it all picked up and then went outside to hang my hummingbird feeders. David met me with a question that made my heart sink… “where is our rug?” We have a large outdoor rug that we put under the front awning while camping. It is a really nice rug that folds up nicely for moving. He had folded it and put it in the back of the truck and had placed two pieces of wood on top so it wouldn’t blow away during the move. It was missing. After a quick look around, hoping against hope, it was nowhere to be found. We hopped in the car and decided to make the drive back to the other campground, searching the roadside along the way. We arrived at the campground and drove to our site and had still not seen the rug anywhere. On our way there we did see one of the pieces of wood David had placed on top of the rug, it was laying in the road about halfway between the two campgrounds. On our way back we decided to stop and pick it up and drive very slowly around there looking on the roadside very carefully. Sure enough, there it was, along with the other piece of wood over on the side of the road in some high grass. We both breathed a sigh of relief. We came home, the strong scent of balsamic vinegar greeting us as we entered the door, and decided to call it a day. We were both worn out. This little move had taken its toll on us. Oh and I failed to mention that while crawling around on the kitchen floor trying to clean up the vinegar I cut my foot on a piece of glass I had missed. Nothing serious but just one more inconvenience as I had to stop long enough to clean it up and put a bandaid on it. So the next time you think the RV lifestyle sounds like a lot of fun, think again, sometimes it is anything but fun.

Butterfly

Today is a moving day for us... moving to another campground on the same lake. We have been here at Twin Lakes for a week. It was our first time camping here and we have enjoyed it alot. It won't be our last. One afternoon I was sitting outside when I noticed this pretty butterfly on a bush in front of our site. I took my new camera and made some photos. Below is one of them.

Disney Rash

We decided we had seen everything and headed back to the bus for the ride back to the resort. It had been such a fun filled day. As we were leaving the park I turned around and snapped one last photo of Epcot at night. it turned out to be a beautiful photo. We went to our room for a few minutes before going to a restaurant at the resort for our late night dinner. That was when I noticed my legs! I knew they were swollen because I could feel it but when I looked down I couldn’t believe the rash! It was mostly on the inside of both legs between the ankle and calf. Strange thing is it didn’t itch or hurt, just looked awful, like a really bad diaper rash! My skin felt like it was about to rip open from the swelling but the rash itself didn’t bother me. I have been prone to rashes all my life but they always itch and make me miserable and this one was very different. I now know it is something called “golfer’s vasculitis” and usually occurs in healthy people over the age of 50 who golf or do a lot of walking in hot weather. How strange! I have never played golf in my life, but it was very hot and I had done a lot of walking that day. Just leave it to me to go on a trip and have something weird happen! It was such a fun trip for both of us. We had only been to Disney World on one other occasion and that was 30 years ago so this was really nice. We stayed in a very nice resort and had a great time. Thus ends my blogging on our trip to Mickey’s place.

good night and good by Epcot!

my Disney Rash

Soarin'

By this time my legs were swelling and I could hardly walk. We got to the Living Seas and went inside and saw the longest line of the day at Turtle Talk with Crush. I didn’t even know that’s what the line was for. We thought it was to get into the aquarium. We had to wait about 10 minutes in that line then when we got up to the entrance I saw what is was for but we went in anyway. Glad we did. Although it was geared more toward kids (and there were plenty in there) it was interesting. The thing that made it interesting for us was the fact it is interactive. The turtle would ask kids things and would say their names etc. like it was really there. Amazing! After that they had a question and answer time and we left while that was going on. Then we went and looked at the fish and I was really beginning to struggle with my walking. My legs were continuing to swell and I thought it was just from all the walking.

We then found our way to Soarin’. I still wasn’t too sure about going but David talked me into it. We got there only to find out there was a 45-minute wait! No thanks!!! But David really wanted to go so we decided to go ahead. I was so worried because of the warnings… “If you have a fear of heights or are prone to motion sickness this ride is not for you.” David kept saying you’ll be fine! Yeah right! Well we finally made it there and were strapped in our seats. I was not looking forward to it at all but there I was. When it took off it was a wee bit scary because I wasn’t sure what to expect. You feel like you fly straight up and out really fast. Actually you only go straight up then stop. The rest is the movie on the screen but you are so close to it and the wind is blowing in your face so you feel like you are flying. It was great! You fly all over California… San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Palm Springs, Napa Valley, Yosemite, and lots of other places. You fly over a river and you actually smell the pine trees. You fly over the orange groves and you smell oranges. It was so cool. A few times I closed my eyes because I don’t like the feeling of going over something like a cliff. I could always tell when we were about to do that so I would just close my eyes for a few seconds and we’d be over the edge and I would be fine flying the rest of the time. It was the most fun part of the entire day!!! The only bad part is it just doesn’t last long enough. I could ride something like that for 20-30 minutes or even longer and love every second of it.

this photo is from the Disney World website showing the Soarin' ride

The British Invasion

The only thing we did in the UK was use the restroom and sit and listen to the Beatles cover band. We were really getting tired. By the time we made it to Canada we were so tired we didn’t even stop. We wanted to get back over to the Future World part of the park and do the things we had on our list that we had not yet done before we totally wiped out.

loved the red phone booth in England

the Beatles cover band