Sunday, May 15, 2016

Orlando, Florida (Walt Disney World)

April 7th, 2016

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We arrived in Florida on Thursday April 7th.

Florida
Thousand Trails has a park called Orlando Thousand Trails. It is actually in Clermont, Florida but it is just about 10 miles from the closest Disney Park.

This is our site #G32 at the Thousand Trails Park.

Site G32
This is a very large park and is the nicest Thousand Trails park we have been in by a large margin! We had a 50amp full hook up site for 3 weeks and because of our membership we don't have to pay per night.

We found out that they were having a Florida State University (FSU) Seminoles open scrimmage football game at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando in Saturday. We decided it would be fun to go. 

Here is their mascots Seminole leader Osceola, and his Appaloosa horse Renegade. 

Mascott
It was fun to watch this perennial powerhouse football team! The stadium was packed which was amazing considering that FSU plays in Tallahassee which is 250 miles from Orlando.

FSU Seminoles
Of course we could not get to Florida without Patty getting her Disney on! Those that know Patty know she is a Disney fanatic. At first she was happy with the idea with only going to Epcot and deferring the rest of the parks for when the grand babies get a little older and can meet us here. Epcot would probably not be as interesting to them so that made sense to her.

That is until we were here for a couple days. Then the other parks started calling her name! Patty, PATTY, PATTY! You must come!!!

All Parks!
So I found the best deal I could, 5 day pass for the price of 4 to be used within 14 days. $343.00 per person including tax. Yes they add tax here! So instead of $112,00 per day it was $68.00 per day. Still almost $700.00 total for both of us! Oh well, She's worth it!

Unlike Disney in Anaheim where you can just walk between the two parks this is a huge area! 

WDW
You drive in to Disney World and then may drive for 10 miles more to the park you want. The first day we chose Magic Kingdom which is best described as Florida's Disneyland. They do have some rides Disneyland doesn't and Disneyland has some they don't but in essence it is very close. Also some of the rides are not quite the same but very similar. It is also more spread out as they own so much property and is not limited as in Anahiem by the city limits.

After parking you MUST take either the Monorail.....

Monorail
Or the Ferry to the Magic Kingdom.....

Ferry Boat
Those are the only two options. No Tram or walking, either Monorail or Ferry Boat. They are very efficient to move a lot of people quickly!

We chose the Ferry Boat because it seemed like it could hold more people. We did take the Monorail back in the evening. both were quick.

Magic Kingdom
Patty in her HAPPY PLACE!

Magic Kingdom
The castles are different at Magic Kingdom and Disneyland. The one below is a picture we took at the Magic Kingdom of the Cinderella Castle. The much shorter castle in Disneyland is the Sleeping Beauty Castle.

Cinderella Castle
We actually rode most rides. Because of my Neuropathy I am able to get a DAS Pass which is like the Fast Pass. The difference is once you use the DAS Pass you can get another, with the Fast Pass you use three for the day and your done! You can also combine the Fast Pass and the DASS Pass. We think we rode about 17-18 rides all day. We got to the park at about 9:30am and left about 10:30 after the fireworks. It was a full day and we were exhausted!

In the area but not actually part of Disney World is a town called Celebration. It was started by Walt Disney but is no longer part of Disney. It was featured on the Great Christmas Lights show last year.

Celebration
The town has the feel of Downtown Disney. It is an amazing town.

Celebration
That's it for today. We will continue with the other parks. 

God Bless and thank you for reading,

Brian and Patty














Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Roberstdale, Alabama

We are heading to our campsite for two nights in Robertsdale, Alabama. There is a 77 mile stretch of Mississippi we are driving through on the way to Alabama.

Mississippi
We decided we wanted to stop in Mississippi so we stopped at a rest area to... well lets just say rest for a couple minutes. Now we can say we have been in Mississippi.

Rest Area
After a few minutes stop we continued towards Alabama.

Sweet Home Alabama
Our campground is called Wilderness RV. It is an RPI campground so it costs us just $10.00 a night. It was about 25 miles past Mobile, Al. We chose to stay in the pull through sites which were very close together, but there are no trees overhead so we would not have any issues with our rooftop satellite. For just a couple nights this is what we prefer.

Wilderness RV
On the way in to the campsite we saw a sign for Lambert's Cafe.

Lambert's Cafe
We had seen Lambert's Cafe on TV on one of the food shows, maybe Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives or one of those type of shows. They are known for their yeast rolls. It sounds weird but they throw them to you, sometimes from across the room. You can see from my picture their web address is www.throwedrolls.com,

Throwed Rolls
You order you meal and then they constantly bring around the pass arounds which consist of the throwed rolls, apple butter, black eyed peas, mac and tomatoes, fried okra, fried potatoes (my favorite!), cabbage.

I ordered the Chicken Fried Steak and Patty ordered the Meatloaf. Notice that Patty's meatloaf was a whole meatloaf, not just a few slices of meatloaf!

Great Food!
Needless to say we took about 3/4 of our diner home for the next night and they even gave us more rolls and potatoes to take home!

The next day we drove back to Mobile to the USS Alabama battleship. You do a self guided tour that actually takes all day.

USS Alabama
There are three tours, the Green, Red and Yellow. You can start with anyone you want. They give you a paper that describes each stopping point.

Tours
You will do a lot of climbing on these tours in fairly small areas. We have done tours of other retired ships, but this is by far the most complete!

Ladders
When will Patty learn? She keeps locking me up and I keep coming back for more! LOL!

In the Brink!
Thes are some big guns!

Big Guns
As part if the tour you can also view the USS Drum a 1941 submarine.

USS Drum
The sailors who ran this sub must have been small, and not claustrophobic! Look how small the doorways are!

Small Quarters
The periscope was still working. You had to climb up a ladder to get into a small area to use it. The ladder was made for people with small shoes, not size 12 like mine, but I still went up with Patty.

Patty on the Periscope
We went into the Plane hanger and looked at the planes and then decided we were tired and hungry. We had seen a commercial on TV for a fast food chain called Krystal's Burgers. They are small slider burgers similar to White Castle Burgers. They have a special going for 3 Sliders, fries and a drink for $2.99. We liked these better then White Castle. Thought they were more filling and taste better.

Krystal Burgers
We drove the next day to Quincy, Florida.

Florida
We stayed in a park behind a gas station. You actually pay at the gas station and then go park in your spot. I didn't take a picture since we didn't even uphook from the truck. I got this picture from the internet and acutally this looks better then it was. It has rained a lot around here so the grass had gotten a little muddy. Wasn't a problem for us as we have a 4x4, but it didn't even feel we needed it here. This is a Passport America so we pay 1/2 price. It's OK for an overnight, otherwise I probaby wouldn't stay.

Beaver Lake RV
Well that's it for today. Next stop is Orlando and Disney.


God Bless you,

Brian and Patty