Feb 2007

We get up early and say good-bye to my parents as they are driving back to Big Cypress today. I'm glad they came up for a few days. If everything goes as planned, we won't see them again til next August (or later, if we decide to continue our trip til November).

For those who are concerned, my parents are doing as well as can be expected, considering everything they've been through the last month or so (the possibility of my mom having pancreatic cancer and then the unexpected death of my brother). They both seem tired, but that is understandable. My mom is concerned about how tired she is, but I think it's simply stress/depression. I did talk to my parents more about the last test my mother had where they could not find the mass to do a biopsy. That doctor that did the test feels that there is no reason for more tests; she is not sure what the mass was that showed up on the mri and catscan. The doctor who ordered this last test has not talked to my mom yet about the latest results, so hopefully he will say the same thing.

After our good-byes we pack up the rv and head over to Camping World for our appointment to get our heater fixed. The part did arrive and they install it and test it and we're on our way around 2pm.

We decided to make it a short day and only drive up to Lake Louisa State Park, but when we arrive we find that they have no campsites available. They offer us an overflow space and we quickly accept. $6 to park in the parking lot near the lake! Good deal :-)

Soon after we pull in, another trailer also parks in the overflow. The guy gets out, waves and screams "Hey Buddy" to my husband. He looks like an older Willie Nelson, but dressed in Hells Angels motorcycle gear. I remind myself not to judge people from their looks and enjoy a relaxing evening.

We have a relaxing breakfast with my parents and then head over to the Magic Kingdom to ride the rides we missed and ride a few of our favorites again. My parents take off to run some errands. We meet with them at the RV in the afternoon and then decide to go back to the MK for a few more rides while they ride the boats/monorails/buses around Disney World. They had no desire to see the Magic Kingdom. With Disney's new ticket pricing, since we already paid for 5 days, it only cost us $2 each to go in the park today, so we decided to go for it. (It would have cost them $65 each for the one day--which we were willing to pay--but they insisted that they didn't want to go). We're not sure when and if we'll be back so we're trying to make the most of this visit. Joe has really enjoyed Disney World, but he may lose interest during his teenage years.

We stop for take-out fried chicken on the way back to the RV and all eat a very late dinner.

We were supposed to all get up early to get an early start for the flea market, but none of us were very ambitious and we didn't leave til close to 8am. We stopped for breakfast and arrived at the Webster Flea Market around 10:30. The place is humongous! We split up and agree to meet around 1:00. It was aisle after aisle of everything from junk & antiques to earrings made from bottlecaps & 5/$10 t-shirts. We bought some Disney pins, socks, Nandes sweet potatoes and a crate of strawberries! No, not really a crate, but it was a very large box of very large berries for $6!

We stop at Louisa Lake State Park on the way back to check out the campsites -- nice park....we may camp here after we leave.

We realize we didn't have lunch and stop for an early dinner at a Golden Corral buffet. It's surprisingly good food and we all ate too much :-)

When we get back to the campsite, my parents and Jere have some R&R time while Joe and I take the bus to Downtown Disney to check out the Lego store and trade some Disney pins. We get back to the campsite in time to gather everyone together and take the bus to the end of the campground to watch the electric light parade on the lake and see more fireworks from the Magic Kingdom. My Mom and I stood on the dock together to watch the show...she really enjoyed the lights and the fireworks, so I was glad that we went to see them.

All in all, a good day for all.

One more thing: We were originally planning to leave Ft Wilderness Cpgd today, but we extended our stay for 2 days (while waiting for our heater part to arrive).

It's another gorgeous sunny day here. We ride our bikes to the end of the campground and then ride the boat over to Magic Kingdom and enjoy a relatively uncrowded park til early afternoon. We go back to the campground, start some wash and my parents arrive soon after that. They have the next few days off from their campground host duties at Big Cypress National Preserve, so they are going to stay with us for a few days. We spend time together, have dinner and then take the shuttle to the end of the lake to watch the 8:00 Magic Kingdom fireworks.

Some trivia: Disney allows up to 10 people to stay at each campsite, with no additional charge -- I find that amazing, especially since some campsites charge extra for having more than 2 people on a campsite.

We finished seeing the parts of Future World we missed yesterday and saw all of World Showcase today. We spent another hour or two at Innoventions today again (seeing the House of Tomorrow with the jacuzzi that had a built-in plasma tv and Joe made paper at the forestry exhibit). Nothing very eventful. It did turn colder tonight.

We are still trying to get our stay here extended 2 days. They are booked solid, but they tell us to call back each day to check for cancellations.