Airline Woes

It's amazing to me the airlines can fluctuate so much in cost hour to hour. Southwest has changed their costs twice a day for the last few days.

On the Road Again

We decided to hit the road and packed up our stuff. I woke up at 7:30am. The front tire looked a little low the night before, but I decided not to gas up and fill the tire to see if there was anything wrong. Sure enough, the front driver's side tire was flat in the morning.

We packed up everything and called AAA at 8:30am. After being disconnected several times, I was told I'd receive assistance by 9:39am. At 9:50am, the assistance arrived and he put the crappy tire on. Remember the old days when your spare would allow you to drive on? After getting the doughnut/crappy tire on, we finished packing up and went to the front desk to check out. I really tested their knowledge of the area when I asked where I could get a tire. They seemed clueless at the concierge desk (where I was referred when I asked about this during check out).

As it turns out, there is a Firestone Center across the street from Red Lobster, CiCi's Pizza, and near Long John Silvers. There were all the places, 10 miles down the street, where we had visited during the week. How the folks could not know where it was is beyond me. It's where everything is, because NOTHING is located closer than 10 miles to the resort.

Victoria was pouting. I had suggested we stop in Hershey, PA on our way home. Our more than two hour delay in dealing with the tire was making the idea obsolete. Everything in Hershey closes at 5pm during this season. We hit the road running at 11:15am. We drove up 81 for about a half an hour before getting off at the exit to gas up and grab something to eat. We passed on McDonald's because the line was out the door. We grabbed something at Burger King, gassed up, and hit the road within ten minutes.

Cows and farms, farms and cows all the way up 81. We arrived in Hershey at 3:40pm, just as the GPS told us we would. I used cruise control a lot this trip. I think it really saved a bit of gas too. We pulled in to the Hershey area, seeing the Hershey Amusement Park in a similar setup to Sesame Place - in a parking lot. We found the little zoo area and paid 9 dollars a person. This is a little high priced for such a small area. We spent about an hour walking around and headed over to the Hershey area where we did a little shopping and took the chocolate tour ride. Very cute. We stopped at the outlet center, grabbed some yogurts and fruit and iced coffee products at Starbucks and we were on our way. It was a nice stop, spending about 2.5 hours there. We made it home by 10pm.

I woke up at 7:15am. There was a dense fog outside. I could not even see the pond. We lounged around and had breakfast and headed out at 10:30am. We planned on going to the Shenandoah Caverns and the National Park. We arrived at the Caverns and went inside a little store. There were about 25 people waiting in front of an old elevator waiting for a tour. This was when Victoria told me she wasn't feeling too well. I told her we did not have to go to the Caverns, we've seen caverns before. She said she did not want to do it but did not want me to miss out. We walked around the little Main Street display. It was cute.

Anything mom & pop looking in this area is either closed or burned down. Nothing seems to be thriving here except McDonald's, Burger Kings and Walmarts.

We got back into the car and drive the skyline drive of the Shenandoah National Park. Victoria played with her whoopie cushion the entire drive. Did I mention everything was far away from everything here? Victoria announced she was so hungry she was feeling weak so we drove by cows and farms until we hit CiCi's pizza. Yet another chain place, but one we never ate at before. Cheap, carbohydrates all you can eat. Pasta, salad and frozen pizza topped with carby dessert. We headed back to the condo where Victoria napped a bit.

Swim

The sales woman said it hardly ever rains here in the valley. Baloney. The two mountain ranges protect the valley from a lot of rain. We woke up to day two of rain and slept in until 8am. The highs are around 50 degrees, so we decided not to venture out. There were not too many die hard golfers braving the weather.

We headed up to one of the club houses around 10:30am. We were one of two families playing ping pong on one of the four tables. Playing ping pong on deck 9 of the Disney Magic is a lot more fun than playing in the basement of a Virginia spot. Within a half an hour the place was packed with people waiting for a table. We went into the basketball gym where Victoria and many other people took shots. All of the balls were mens size, not the 26 inch ball Victoria is used to. After fourty five minutes, we went to the pool where Victoria spent the next hour jumping off the diving board. I read my book.

We headed out and had lunch at the resort's restaurant. It was a nice restaurant, overlooking the golf course. I had the cuban sandwich, Victoria had the kids pasta. After lunch we chilled at the condo. Later, we did one of the things we always do on vacation - spent stupid amounts of money in the arcade collecting tickets to get plastic crap. I was doing some token machine where the tokens push over and you get tickets. I had mad skillz and racked up some tickets! When we cashed in the tickets, Victoria looked at the prize counter and said, "Wow, I've never gotten to pick stuff from the top shelf before."

An arm load of plastic junk, we had an ice cream cone and called it an evening.

Everything seems to be 10 miles away. Even when you drive the ten miles, all there is are chain stores. I haven't spotted any home town spots to try out the food.

Woke up to a foggy, rainy morning at 7am. Victoria was up an hour later and commented how early I fell asleep. She stayed up until 10:30pm and I crashed into a Benedryl coma at 8:30pm. I woke up without a sinus headache and was grateful.

We changed our site seeing plans and headed out at 10:30 to the indoor water park. With my 50% discount, Victoria was 19 dollars and I was 10 dollars to observe. It took forever to pay and I could not believe the prices the families ahead of us were paying. 300+ dollars. Wow.

I headed up to the second level and began my Twilight III book Victoria got me for my Easter basket. Now this felt like an April vacation; Victoria splashing around and me reading a book. The place was packed and many people had piled up their things on chairs, never to sit in them. There was no empty chairs and people were floating around looking for empty seats. A woman stood behind us when we got up to leave at 1pm. We headed out to Red Lobster for lunch. I had a gift certificate which covered Victoria's cup of potato/bacon soup, kids meal, my lobster pizza and sodas. The cost of a glass of soda is ridiculous.

We headed back to the resort and I did a load of laundry. We planned on seeing the comedy act in the ski lodge at 7:30pm. I called the front desk to ask what time we should plan on getting tickets for the comedy show. I was told the doors open at 7:30pm, and show is at 8pm. Because it was raining, they might open at 7:15pm so he suggested I arrive then. We arrived at the ski lodge, the site for the show, at 7:15pm prompt. There was a huge line. Soon an employee came out and said the end of the line (that would be us) would get in to see the show, but it would be standing room only. We got out of line and left. We were pretty disappointed.

We went back to the condo and watched television.

I woke up at 7:00am, thinking the mattress felt a lot more comfortable the day before. Victoria got up an hour later.

I showed Victoria the web site for the site I wanted to visit. . We showered and dressed and headed out to go to the Virginia Safari Park. As soon as we got outside, I realized I needed a sweatshirt. Chilly!

Set the GPS for the address and left at 11:30am for the park. It took an hour and fifteen minutes to get there. We passed lots of cows and farms. It started to sprinkle but never really advanced to anything I would call rain. We stopped for gas before entering the park. We entered the drive thru window, I said a prayer for window to work, and we paid 32.50 for one adult, one child, and 4 buckets of feed.

We got out and walked to the Safari Village where we saw tigers, monkeys, birds, and fed the giraffes. It was pretty cold outside and we finished looking at the animals and headed to our car.

Victoria sat in the back initially, with the sliding van door open. We drove slowly along the path, seeing llamas, ostriches, deer, pot bellied pigs and other animals which are all named in the handy dandy guide they give you. You are not allowed to leave your car, and you can't touch cows, bison or zebras. Victoria did not want to feed the ostriches because she did not like their pecking. It was fun to drive through and we did it twice. Once was probably enough.

It was 4:30pm and we hit the road to head back. A quick fast food dinner and we were back by 6:30pm. My sinuses were killing me. I think the animal park made it worse.

Sales Pitch

I don't know what possessed me to get a new camera. I have a point and shoot and a DSLR, but when I was shopping the other day, I couldn't resist the little digital camera for Victoria. Her current one is only 3.1mp and does not have a display screen. This Panasonic LS 80 Lumix camera is too darn cute! It's really small, unlike my Canon point and shoot, and it's 8.1 mp with only 3x zoom. It's truly a pocket camera. My Canon takes 4 AA batteries and can weigh a little more than you'd like for a pocket camera.

Victoria took pictures of the game room, and of the ducks outside. She's fed and named the ducks. They are so used to people, it looks like they are posing for her.

I woke up at 5:30am. The mattress seems comfortable. I did not get out of bed until 7am. Victoria did not get up until I insisted at 8:15am. We headed down to the pool which opened at 9am. The indoor pool area was so hot. A few other families had the same idea we did, by arriving early to avoid the crowds. We left at 10:15am and drove around to the other parts of the resort. We looked at the go cart area, but it requires people to be at least 57 inches tall, and Victoria falls short a oouple of inches.

We went back to the condo and had soup. It's sunny outside, but you need a sweatshirt. Most people walking around are either looking like LL Bean models or wearing sweatsuits. The soup hit the spot.

We hung around until our 4pm 'survey' time. We drove into the hills to the conference center where we were met immediately. They assigned a woman originally from Germany but moved to the states in 1991 to me. She still has a very heavy accent. She is a single mother but that is about all of the similiarities. Her daughter is 30, this woman does not own a computer, and is an artist. I answered her questions, trying to decifer them in a crowded room with one hundred other survey participants required me to focus. She insisted on drawing me maps of area attractions for us to visit. I told her I had a GPS and the maps were not necessary and thats when I learned she owns nothing computerized.

Just when I thought the survey was over, she insisted on taking us to see models. Honestly, the two other models we visited were just like ours. This resort is huge, and the maintanence fees are very low, about 220 per week, so if you like resorts like this it's great. They are able to keep their fees down because they own so many fee-activities on site like gift shops, golf shops, water parks etc. I just don't want another time share. After driving around, she told us they have to make us a friendly offer. They explained the worth was 32k blah blah blah but I could have 2 weeks today for 10K. No thanks. No thanks, and one more no thanks for good measure. As we left a woman offered the same deal for 5k. Interesting.

We headed out for a bite to eat and ended up at Long John Silvers. I don't think I've eaten there since I was a child. It was pretty much what I remembered and we headed back to the resort.

Virginia

I knew I would not leave at 6am. Check in for the resort was not supposed to be until 5pm so I snoozed until 5:20am, thinking 'why arrive so early?'. I putzed around and had coffee until I woke up Victoria at 6am. We were on the road at 6:45am.

Our destination was 450 miles away and according to Mapquest, would take us 7.5 hours through 287. The GPS did not take us to 287 but veered more south. It rained slowly but steadily throughout 6 hours of the drive. I listened to The Time Travelers Wife on audio while driving. The ride was not bad, we passed lots of cows and farms. Victoria spent most of the drive either sleeping or staring at a screen so she missed most of the scenery.

A few months ago, my driver's side window stopped working. The Dodge dealer told me it would cost 400 dollars to replace the motor. I decided I would skip the drive thrus and save the 400 dollars. I did not take into consideration paying tolls would be challenging until I happened upon them at Christmas time. To avoid this awkward situation again, I applied for an ezpass.

Getting an EZ pass took more time than I thought it would. Some of them charge monthly fees. After researching the best place to buy an EZ pass, and applying for one, my window decided to work again. I forgot I had it in my car until this morning when I attempted to attach the EZ pass gadget onto my window while on the highway. I wasn't even sure I had it on the right way. I spent lots of unnecessary time worrying it would not work.

Victoria asked for a bathroom beak and we stopped half way, after 4 hours, and had lunch and a stretch. I was trying to make it to 11am so we could do lunch. We ate at a Panera Bread by the fire. Victoria had chicken soup in a bread bowl and I had chicken ceasar sandwich on asiago bread. Eh, it was so-so. I ate half the sandwich and she left the bread bowl in tact.

We filled up the gas tank and hit the road after a full 30 minute break. The car lurched forward after getting the gas. I don't know why it does that but it's not the first time it spurts like that after getting gas. I'm hoping it's the gas, but it's more likely my car.

More cows and farms later, we stopped at the Virgina Welcome Center for a stretch at 1:30pm. Nothing very exciting there. We arrived at the resort at 3:15pm. We checked in with no problems. I was considering getting the resorts activity card, which would cost 170 dollars total, but they offered it to me if I did a survey. I know it is a sales job, but the woman swore it would not be a sale job, only a survey. I can't imagine why I'd need to get my parking pass from a woman who was different from the woman who checked me in, unless it's for the sales job.

We went to our condo and we were very pleased. The resort is surrounded by farmland, mountains and golf courses. The unit is one of the best we've ever stayed in. The master bedroom has a king size bed, a writing desk, a bathroom with a sink outside of the bathroom along with a table with two chairs. Now that's a master bedroom. I can stay in here all week! The master bedrooms in the homes I rented two weeks ago had a king size bed with a bathroom and tv. That's it! There are two baloncies, one facing the parking lot and the one off the kitchen which faces the golf course/lake. The other bathroom has a garden size whirlpool tub. You can swim in the darn thing if you wanted to. There are three televisions, all flat panel ones, that are pretty big. There is a gas fireplace in the living room.


View from front balcony


View from back balcony


master bedroom




We spent an hour unpacking then explored the resort a bit. We drove down to the indoor water park. It's just like the Cocoa Key ones Victoria has visited. She is interested in spending a day there. There is a sweet shop, an arcade, a gift shop and two places to eat in the building. We went back to the other recreation center where a pizza place and an indoor pool was, along with a marketplace. We could not decide what to eat so we just drove off property to a diner.

After dinner, we went back to the condo at 7pm and crashed. I took a swim/bath which was too hot and I collapsed. I'm glad we are here. The drive was long but not as bad as I thought it would be.

I thought when I got back home, I'd manage to keep up the frantic pace and actually get things done around the house. I didn't. At all.

I did not unpack the suitcase until Sunday. Night. I took Monday off and it felt like I was home sick because I stayed in sweats and a bathrobe all day. Once I went back to work the week went by quickly.

We are off to Virginia for spring break. We are staying at a resort with all sorts of things to do. Victoria wants to do the zoo in DC but I think I found some things close to the resort she will enjoy. www.massresort.com

My goal for spring break/drive-to vacations are for getting reading done while Victoria splashes in an indoor pool. We've spent the last few years in the Poconos, Williamsburg, and Newport, RI. I like staying close to home but going a little south for warmth is always hard to resist.

The resort offers a day long bus tour of DC. I keep thinking we 'should' do it but we might still be recovering from an all day bus tour in 2005. We spent 14 hours off and on busses exploring LA. It was a long day. This day sounds pretty long too, leaving at 6am. The schedule would be:

Washington D.C. Tour Detailed Schedule

* Jefferson Memorial (30 min)
* Iwo Jima Statue (10 min)
* Arlington National Cemetery (1 hour 45 min)
* Air Force Memorial (10 min)
* The Pentagon (drive by)
* Pentagon City Mall – Lunch on your own (50 min)
*
Capitol Building, Supreme Court, and Library of Congress (2 hr for all 3)
*
Navy Memorial (10 min)
*
White House (20 min photo stop)
*
Vietnam Veterans Memorial, World War II Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, and The Korean War Memorial (1 hr 10 min for all 4)
*
Roosevelt Memorial (30 min)
*
Washington Monument (drive-by)
*
The National Mall (drive-by)

Does anyone know if 2 hours in a cemetary is necessary? You also have an option to spend the day at the museums of the Smithsonian Institution. The trip is offered on Wednesdays and/or Thursday departing Massanutten Resort at 6:00am and returning around 9:00pm. The price is $89.00 for adults and $79.00 for children 12 and under. There is a $20 discount with the Activity Card. The price includes a buffet dinner at Golden Corral in Manassas.

It sounds like work and education. I'm not sure if we are up for it.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

Everyone in my house packed up their suitcases and brought them down to have near the door. We tried to get an idea of what cases should go where.

I couldn't sleep and it sounded like not many in the house could. The beds were very creaky and I could hear the bedroom above me being restless all night. I woke up every 15 - 30 minutes. The other folks in the other house had the same problems I learned. For the first time all week I felt hot and stuffy. The other house had air conditioning problems all week and could not get the house to a comfortable temperature. They found out on the last day two people were turning the temperature up. Not good. You could tell it was going to be the hottest, muggiest day in Florida.

I got out of bed at 5:20am, thinking I had overslept by 20 minutes but I forgot I turned the alarm to 5:30am. Nuts. I quickly finished packing up and headed out to the kitchen to make breakfast. All week no one came downstairs until they knew I was there. It worked out pretty well. Everyone got up and had bagels and coffee. Everyone was in a pretty good mood and anxious to get home.

We packed up the cars and did a sweep through the houses. Each person had their IDs either in a wallet worn around the neck, or a lanyard. That system worked out well. For the first time all week, we were 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I followed the GPS back to the airport. It did not take me on any highways which I thought was odd because I've always taken a highway from Orlando International. It was a foggy day.

We returned the cars to AVIS and grabbed three luggage carts to toss all the luggage onto. We took the elevators down one level and waited. And waited for Genese. Gense seemed to be stuck in the Twilight Zone, her elevator refused to go to the level we were on! After gathering up Genese, we went over to the ticket counter. I like for people to wait on me in the airport. I do a lot of travel planning myself but when I get to the airport I just want to flash my ID and get my boarding pass. I don't like these ticket booths where you have to scan your confirmation number, or scan your credit card. I did not want to do that 15 times.

A man from Delta came over and asked how many parties we were. Because I made three separate purchases, we were 3. I did have all of the confirmation slips printed and scanned one to find all 7 people showed up on the screen. It was then we we discovered the flight was delayed about 45 minutes due to a late arriving crew. I asked what that meant and the man said our crew who was flying with us arrived late last night due to weather and needed to obide by the mandatory rest period before flying again. I never heard of this! A flight from last night made us late almost 12 hours later? Blech.

The first group I made purchases for had their luggage included in their ticket price and a Delta representative tagged 7 pieces of luggage for us. The next grouping, with Bill, had to pay 15 dollars per piece of luggage. That's an extra 30 dollars per person, and I thought it was great the price had gone down but it was a wash in the end.

After tagging all 15 pieces of luggage, and paying for 8 more bags, we had to drag the luggage over to the xray machine. This is a stupid system. I like the system where you hand the luggage to the person who tags, weighs and tosses onto a belt. The Delta representative looked at our group, then to me, and said, "I should ask to see everyone's ID but if you'll vouch for them I'll just look at yours."

We all went to the side and had a quick pow wow on the expectations of the security check. Slowly and deliberately we confirmed we would all be taking off our shoes. The group looked at the staff as if we were nuts, of COURSE we'd be taking off our shoes, we did this LAST time, remember?

We went through security without a hitch. We took the tram/monorail over to the gate without event and began our 2 hour wait until we boarded. I walked over with Jim to ask about what time we would be boarding to ensure we got on first this time. I wheeled Jim over to the gate at 10:30am. They called his name at 10:40am and we got him on board first. Because he was sitting on the 2-seat side with me, it was easy for him to slide over to the window. He liked having the window seat and he especially liked the turbulance. He napped a little and chatted a little about how much the staff at the group home miss him. Behind me sat two of our folks who talked the entire flight about what they would do for dinner, breakfast and lunch this weekend. Lots of other folks napped.

We landed in rainy Connecticut on time and were surprised to find Lisa at the airport who had gathered up most of the luggage! It was a real treat! Lisa gave Jessica and Genese and a few folks a ride home. Bill and I took the other 8 residents over to the Park/Ride/Fly spot and got into our cars. It was raining pretty hard and an accident delayed us longer than we would have liked. I still had to pick up my daughter and my dogs, so I knew my day was far from over.

The residents teased me on the way home about our trip 'next month.' They indicated they knew the staff had a long week and needed some rest. They kept saying things like, "I know Jessica and Gense are going to sleep this weekened!" They met their staff at the office at 3:45pm and cheerfully waved.

All in all it was a good week. I know some new friendships were made and hope they are kept.

Honestly, I could not imagine going with a better group of staff people. They all worked so hard, putting in a minimum of 16 hour days. Jessica and Genese were the best. Jessica kept things moving at a good pace in her house, trying to keep a schedule and a consistent routine. Her knowledge of Disney allowed for the groups to have the best time in the parks without getting over tired or missing anything. Genese's easy going style remained constant throughout the week and was such an easy person to live with for the entire week. Though she had never been to Disney before, and lacked a GPS, she took on each challenge with determination and success. The residents all enjoyed having Bill on the trip and getting to know him in a casual environment. The constant laundry, dishwasher, meals, medications and other tasks kept most people busy when we were not out enjoying Florida. Cooking in the home kept things affordable for the folks but also healthier. If we had eaten out more often chances of people not feeling well due to salt and sugar issues could have made the trip more difficult.

What I learned this trip:
Check the medications and check them again before leaving.
Bringing less clothing and doing laundry is probably best because it keeps packing manageable.
The pool was not an important part of the environment. We only used the pool once and no one seemed very interested in it.
Shopping was an activity everyone enjoyed.
One week may be too long for most people. 5 days/ 3 parks may have worked.
Next time I'd choose a house with more sitting areas. The bedrooms had no chairs in them and the living room was not very large. I rented a house once for my family which had two living rooms and it worked well.

Thanks for reading!

Epcot

Everyone was up pretty early. They were all at the breakfast table by 7am. The other house was a little slower and required a lot of encouragement to go to the last park. A little bit of the grumpies on the way to Epcot. Some were not pleased with going out on a foggy day, but we assured them the sun would come out.

We arrived at the parking lot by 9am and had spot close to the entrance in the handicapped section. My group was Ed and Oriana. We walked over to the LAND to try and ride Soarin' Over California. The wait was 40 minutes so we got fastpasses for 11:00am and went to the Finding Nemo ride. Oriana and Ed thought it was so-so and I have to agree with them. We went to Journey to your imagination and we all liked seeing Figment. Honey I shrunk the audience was a big hit. Soarin' Over California was the most thrilling attraction we did. Oriana loved how there were smells to enhance the experience of flying. Ed definitely enjoyed that ride best.

It was hot and sunny by 11am.


We walked once around the countries. Oriana and Ed are good walkers, most of the other groups had a time walking this park. We ate in China, the most adventerous thing my group could agree on. We rode both boat rides in Norway and Mexico. Ed and Oriana had a bite of candy from Norway and Oriana said it was a better chocolate bar than in the United States.

We did a bit more shopping and then Spaceship Earth. I really like the enhancements and I could hear giggling in front of me from Oriana when she spotted her face on the screen in front of her. We met Jess and her group at 2:45pm and we went back to the house. We did a bit of packing and afternoon stuff.

Everyone liked Epcot but Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom are the biggest hits.

We did Subway for dinner to make it easy to serve and clean up. Everyone showered, checked their IDS, and packed for an early morning departure. Our flight is at 10:25am so we hope to be on the road by 7:30am. This will require our earliest leave yet and we're optimistic for everyone to cooperate.

Wednesday

We planned on sleeping in a bit today. I heard some of the folks up at 6am but everyone seemed to return to bed until 7am. Pancakes for breakfast and a leisurely morning. The pace feels very brisk to me, but I'm not sure if it feels that way to the residents. At the beginning of the week several folks asked why I had 'only' booked one week while others wanted to move here. I am getting the feeling now some are ready to go home. They are talking about the plane ride back and who is working this weekend. My daughter is ready for me to come home too. I had to venture out after 8am to get the delivery at the post office. The slip left on the door said they would re-deliver, but when Genese called they indicated they would not.

Sherry and George came for the ride. I love my GPS. I hardly pay attention to how to get home because I just follow the pre-programmed address I put into it. I had downloaded a file from mousesavers.com so all of the Disney Parks were already in the GPS system. George and Sherry got a kick out of me asking the woman at the post office where it said they would not redeliver. She said they stopped doing that six months ago. Why wasn't the card information they leave on the door updated? She said the card does say it and could not point it out to me after I asked her to show me. After she found out we were on vacation she said they don't even normally deliver to vacation homes. Sheesh.

We got back to the house and everyone was up and well fed. We had a pool tournament in the garage. None of us are very good so one game lasted at least an hour. It was the hottest day we've had, and we decided to skip on the miniature golfing due to heat sensitivities.

The residents are trying to hold on to all of their reciepts and they bring me crumpled up slips of paper at the end of each day. Everyone has done really well with their money and spending.

After lunch we split up into two shopping groups: Downtown Disney and Disney Outlet/Coffee shop groups. We went back to the outlet store. Jim wanted another shirt (his third) and dismissed any shirts with modest/small sized Mickey Mouse emblems on them. He wanted a BIG Mickey across his chest,nothing else would do. After making our purchases, we headed across the parking lot to the coffee shop. Folks had lattes and cinnamon buns. We picked up a couple of things to go with dinner and were home by 4:30pm. Most people napped for an hour and a half. Genese played a pretty good April Fools joke on me and Bill. I can't believe we fell for it.

We spotted some vultures outside of the lanai and when we took a peek at them we saw an aligator in the pond. He slipped around the lake for most of the late afternoon, never showing more than his head. Karen was dropped off just before 6pm. Dinner was grilled meats and some salads. After dinner everyone watched American Idol.

Tomorrow is Epcot. A couple of us are concerned about it holding everyones' interest. We are adding a wheelchair for one individual so he does not injure himself reacting to the hot sun. It's fun to listen to the folks talk at the end of the day about their experiences. Each person treasures different moments. I was listening to Lori explain how exciting the Tikki Room was with all of the colorful birds. I was glad to hear it because she avoided many major attractions. She told me a story about how she was tricked onto a rollercoaster when she was younger and that was why she did not want to do any of them. She does have an appreciation for the colors and costumes of Disney World. Splash Mountain was a big hit with the people who rode it. Pirates of the Carribean was also favored by many.

Tomorrow is our last day then we do everything we did a week ago ... backwards!