Change in plans

Posted on March 5, 2018 by liv2rv

One of the benefits of the full-time RV lifestyle is the flexibility that it offers. Originally, we had planned on staying in Florida until the end of March, but we have departed and are currently heading west to Texas to visit with my sister LuAnn and her family. We are looking forward to spending some time with them, and seeing a new part of the country prior to returning to Wisconsin about a month sooner than expected.

At the end of January and the beginning of February Dan flew back to Wisconsin for a couple of weeks. Originally, he was going to stay in Milwaukee and help his friend Mike with more remodeling work on his new bar and grill. However, Dan’s plans changed a little as his father was recently diagnosed with stage 3 bladder cancer. Along with being able to help his friend with more of the remodeling work, Dan was able to drive his parents to Green Bay so they could all attend several doctor appointments and his Dad’s first chemotherapy treatment. His Dad will be doing six rounds of chemo followed by surgery at a later date to remove the bladder and prostate. To date Dan’s Dad has finished 3 out of his 6 chemo treatments with round four coming tomorrow and the good news – none of the usual chemo side effects have shown up. He is still lifting weights three days a week and walking two miles a day. He plans on swinging a golf club as soon as the weather in Wisconsin cooperates and he will turn a young 81 in a couple of weeks. We are all praying for a complete and speedy recovery!

We did manage a bit of fun while we were here in Florida. Dan’s brother Gary and his wife Julia flew down, and we spent several days with them in Cocoa Beach where they were staying. At the same time, one of Dan’s good friends from high school, Kevin, was down at Disney with his wife Kathy for a conference. We have not seen them for several years, and they live in New Jersey (Kathy is a huuuuge Eagles fan, so we cheered for them in the Super Bowl!). All of us had an enjoyable afternoon together at Disney Springs, on one of the rare cooler days in Florida.

Dan, Buzz (ole?) and Kevin

Me, Dan, Gary, Julia, Kevin & Kathy

I was quite fascinated by the Lego display at Disney Springs. Getting paid to build Lego sculptures would be a fun job!

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While Dan was away in Wisconsin, I went down to Titusville with another couple from the campground, and we waited about five hours, to witness an amazing launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy Rocket. It kept getting delayed due to high atmospheric winds, and the launch window was coming to a close when it finally went off! It was totally worth the sunburn!! We found a spot due west of the Space Center, about 8 miles as the crow flies, to witness history! This was our view from across the water.

Falcon Heavy liftoff

About 10 minutes later, we were able to watch two of the rocket boosters return accompanied by their loud sonic booms. They looked like 2 shiny UFO’s!

2 rockets returning

I’d like to see SpaceX do a night launch with this rocket. It would be spectacular!

Makena Update

With all this traveling we will be doing, Makena will be spending a lot of time in her crate in the back seat of the truck. This will be a good thing. The mosquitos have been very active in Florida, and I think she has a few bites, which has caused her to scratch a lot. With all the scratching, she has been walking a little more gingerly. I think she may have tweaked her back. Hopefully this won’t be too much of a setback on her healing. I did make an appointment for her in Wisconsin to see the veterinarian, so we’ll know more at that time.

I know it’s been a long time since I have blogged, but we have not really been up to too much. Over these next few weeks, we will be seeing some new areas, so I will have more to write about soon.

Quote for the day: “There is nothing permanent, except change.” – Heraclitus

NASA: To Mars and Beyond

Posted on March 13, 2017 by liv2rv

We have made several visits to the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex on Merritt Island, just south of Titusville, Florida. There are plenty of things to see and do, and a few exhibits are under construction, so we will have more to explore next year when we return to Florida. The visitors complex is separate from the Kennedy Space Center (KSC). The visitors center is operated by an outside firm, and does not receive any government funding. I will break up my blog into several posts, starting with the future of space exploration.

NASA continues to operate at the space center. Some people are surprised by this, and think the space program was cancelled due to budget cuts from Congress several years ago. They are no longer flying the Space Shuttle, as it had completed its two main missions: build the International Space Station, and launch and repair the Hubble Telescope. NASA has partnered with private companies such as SpaceX and Boeing to continue servicing the Space Station and sending satellites into orbit. Both of the private companies are planning on sending manned trips to the Space Station. Currently the United States has to pay Russia to send our astronauts up there.

NASA is focused on the next generation of space travel and exploration. They are working on the most powerful rocket ever built, Space Launch System (SLS) and a new space craft, Orion, which will go to Mars. The first launch, called Exploration Mission – 1, is tentatively scheduled for 2018.

There is a bus trip that takes you around KSC, as part of the admission to the Visitors Center. The most famous building, visible for miles, is the 526 feet tall Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). This building was constructed in the 1960s and was used for both the Apollo and Shuttle programs. It is now being modified for use to assemble Orion and SLS.

Vehicle Assembly Building front view

This view below shows the side where the rocket exits the building and moves down the gravel road to the launch pad. The building on the left is the launch control center. Once the space craft and rocket booster has been assembled in the VAB, it will be moved down to the launch pad on a giant mover vehicle.

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vehicle mover

Construction is underway on the launch tower for the SLS. This tower will eventually be moved to the launch pad.

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NASA will be using launch pad 39B, which was used for both the Apollo and Shuttle programs. They are currently demolishing the old launch facility, and building a new tower to be placed on the launch pad. This is the current view of pad 39B. The towers that you see are lightning rods.

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SpaceX has obtained a 20 year lease to use launch pad 39A. They recently launched Dragon-9 which carried supplies on a trip to the Space Station. It was the first time this pad has been used in years. The white tower on the right in the picture below is what they use for their rocket launch pad. The tower on the left is what remains from the shuttle program.

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The bus tour is very informative, both for the history and the future of the space program. For an additional charge, there are several more in-depth tours that you can take. We plan on doing this next year when we return, to see what has developed with Orion. NASA has a model of the 364 feet spacecraft and rocket on the tower. The spacecraft would be at the top of the model, just above the NASA logo.

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Below is what the Orion spacecraft will look like. The base is 16 feet in diameter. It can carry 4 – 6 astronauts.

Orion model

NASA currently has 3 rovers on Mars. They have models of all three on display in their newest exhibit, Journey to Mars. The smallest, Sojourner, landed in July of 1997, and broadcast images until September 1997.

Sojourner Rover

In January of 2004, two rovers landed on opposite sides of Mars. The Spirit mission ended March 2010, but Opportunity continues to roam around.

Spirit/Opportunity Rovers

The larger Curiosity Rover is about the size of an ATV, and it landed in August of 2012. It will break down and “digest” rock samples and send back data on what it “ate”.

Curiosity Rover

It will be exciting to follow along on NASA’s progress in the Journey to Mars. Right now they estimate sending humans to Mars in the 2030’s. Stay tuned for additional posts on the center.

Quote of the Day: “Mars has been flown by, orbited, smacked into, radar examined, and rocketed onto, as well as bounced upon, rolled over, shoveled, drilled into, baked and even blasted. Still to come: Mars being stepped on.” – Buzz Aldrin, from his 2013 book, Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration.

Just chillin’ in the Sunshine State

Posted on March 1, 2017 by liv2rv

Obviously I did not make a New Years Resolution to blog more frequently, since this is only my second post this year! We really have not done too much here in Florida. Dan drove his parents down from Wisconsin at the end of January. They are renting a condo, in New Smyrna Beach, about 20 miles from us. There is a dog-friendly beach in the area, and we made the mistake of going there on the first warm Sunday. Parking is limited, so you have to wait until a spot opens up. So we sat in line for almost one hour, but it was worth it, as Makena had a great time running around on the beach with her grandparents!

Beach time!

This year we decided to purchase an annual pass to the Kennedy Space Center, and met up with our friends Karen and Al. There is so much to see and do at the Center, that we plan on going several times this year, and again next January when we return to Florida before our pass expires. I will have several blog posts on KSC (and promise it won’t take a month to post them!)

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Karen, Dan and I decided to check out one of the space capsules they had on display. It was pretty cozy inside!

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We managed to get in one round of golf at The Great Outdoors RV resort, with Ken and Martha, who do an excellent monthly podcast called RV Navigators. It is free on I-Tunes, and very fun and informative to listen to. Dan noticed an alligator peeking out of the water when I was hitting the ball. He made me move my ball a few feet because he thought I was to close to Mr. Gator. Of course there is no penalty stroke from moving your ball when it is a few feet away from a gator.

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At the end of the month, we had our “Disney fix” for the year when we headed to Disney Springs which is a shopping and dining area on the Disney complex. It is one of the free areas to attend. We met up with Karen and Al, and Tom and Ellen for a nice lunch. It was great catching up with everyone.

dsc04218-1 Hello Mr. Potato Head!

img_2037-1 Howdee Buzz Light Year!

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Dan’s brother and sister-in-law will be arriving tomorrow for 2 weeks. They will be staying in New Smyrna Beach by Dan’s parents, so we will be busy with them. After that, we may be heading back to Wisconsin. Our friend Mike, who is remodeling an old building for a new tavern and eatery, separated his shoulder. So he asked if we could come back to Wisconsin to help him finish the remodeling work we started with him a few months ago. We are still working out the details, but it looks like we will cut our Florida time short this year to help out again. In May, we need to head to Wyoming for our summer job, back at Luton’s Teton Cabins.

Quote for the Day: “It is nice finding that place where you can just go and relax.” – Moises Arias

A full social calendar

Posted on March 7, 2015 by liv2rv

We have settled in for 2 months at Crystal Lake RV park in Mims, Florida, where we stayed last year. It is a small, no frills park right off of I-95, conveniently located south of New Smyrna Beach (where Dan’s parents rent a condo for a few months), North of Cocoa Beach, and about 70 miles East of Orlando. The best part is the price, $400/month plus electric. And many of the folks from last year have returned, so we have been busy with activities.

The RV lifestyle can be as social as you want it to be. In talking with people who are not full-time RV’ers, many cite the fear they would miss their family and friends too much, or the fellowship they have at their church. For us, we are more active now, than when we had a regular sticks and bricks house. But we also make it a point to swing “back home” to Wisconsin in between our workcamping jobs to visit family and friends.

When we were listening to the February podcast from the RV Navigators (free on ITunes), we discovered they were ‘parked at a campground nearby’, so we sent Ken and Martha an e-mail to see if we could meet up with them, and they were happy to do so. They have an excellent monthly podcast about the RV lifestyle which we have listened to for several years, and we were excited to finally meet up with them. We had an excellent lunch, and then made plans to golf nine holes, at the RV resort they were staying at. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera, and left the phones in the truck while we were golfing. On the first hole, we encountered a large bird, a large turtle and a small alligator, all sitting together by the cart path. You will just have to take my word for it! They were very interested in hearing about our workcamping jobs, and how we are making a living doing this. We agreed to do a short interview, which will be broadcast on a future episode of their show. We look forward to meeting up with them again.

There is an excellent farmers/flea market in Deland on Wednesdays, and we picked up Dan’s mom and headed over for a few hours a couple of weeks ago. While we were there, we heard a woman’s voice yell “Wisconsin”. We turned around and I yelled “Seattle” back! It was Marilyn and David, whom we worked with at Amazon in 2013 in Kentucky. Marilyn was a “stower” at Amazon, so we saw her on a regular basis. She would always great us with “Hello Wisconsin”, and we would always say “Goodnight Seattle” when she left for the day. Depending on your age, you may or may not get those two television references! As it turns out, they have a house in Titusville, about 12 miles south of our campground, and they invited us over for a wonderful shrimp pasta dinner. If you have been reading my blog for a while, you know how much I like to emphasize the “family” atmosphere of the workcampers. Thanks again “Seattle” for your hospitality!

beautiful table setting

David, Dan, Marilyn

We also got together with Dick and Cheryl, whom we worked with at Crazy Horse Memorial this past summer. They have a home in Cocoa Beach. Cheryl had been having some problems with her back, and went in for surgery last fall when they arrived back in Florida for the winter. After surgery, Cheryl had no feeling her extremities. It was a very life changing experience for her and Dick. After very intense physical therapy, she is slowing gaining movement, but still faces a long road ahead. When we first met up for lunch, she was able to walk without her walker, but needed some assistance. A few weeks later, when we met up to golf with Dick (Cheryl road along in the cart), she was able to walk gingerly, without assistance, for short distances. She continues physical therapy, and is just taking one day at a time. You just never know what life will bring you, so be grateful for every day you have!

Dick, Cheryl & I

This time I remembered to bring my camera while golfing. We did not see any alligators, but did see this unique soft shell turtle, with sort of a pig stout for a nose.

Soft shell turtle

unique nose

This week we made another trip back to Epcot, to visit with a former co-worker of mine, who was escaping the cold of Wisconsin! It was also the start of the annual Epcot International Flower and Garden, which is held every spring. We were amazed at how “alive” the park seemed to be, since our last visit, with all the beautiful flowers and topiaries. It was a perfect day, and we had a lot of fun with Katie and her husband Sam. Thanks for letting us crash a day of your vacation!

Katie, Sam and I

Katie is an avid pin collector (I need to hook her up with Karen!), and I have learned that the Disney Cast Members are required to trade pins when anyone asks. Katie scored a nice Buzz Lightyear pin from one of the employees.

I’ll take that one!

And here are just a few of the topiaries located throughout Epcot.

Flower Festival

Butterflies

Monsters Inc

Woody

Captain Jack

colorful animals

Lion King

Quote for the day: “A friend is like a good bra….hard to find…supportive…comfortable…always lifts you up…makes you look better…and always close to your heart.” – Maxine

Final Day – Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Posted on February 27, 2015 by liv2rv

Animal Kingdom

Our short vacation at Disneyworld was coming to an end, and we spent our last day at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. It is one of the largest animal theme parks in the world, home to 1700 animals and 250 different species. We were very impressed by this park, opened since 1998, as it really focuses on conservation and education. It had less of that traditional “amusement park” feel to it.

The iconic symbol of this park is the Tree of Life, which is a sculpture 145 feet tall and 50 feet wide. It has 325 animals carved into the tree.

Tree of Life

Can you spot the animals is this photo? You may need to double click on the photo to blow it up, but there are dozens of animals in just this section alone. You can spend a lot of time walking around the base, and seeing something different each time you look.

animal carvings

Our group started out the day with the excellent 30 minute Broadway style show, Festival of the Lion King. The music, performers and costumes were fabulous. Part of the “homework” that Karen and Al made us do was watch the Lion King movie before we went, so we would have a better understanding of the show. We would recommend using one of your three allotted FastPass selections for this show.

the gang

There are many animal exhibits scattered throughout the park, and we stopped to view of few of the many species of ducks on display, such as these Indian Spot-Billed Ducks

Followed by the Black-Necked Swan

And this very popular “duck”, which had a long line of people waiting to see her!

Daisy Duck

We headed over to the Tree of Life to see the “It’s Tough to be a Bug” 3-D film, which is in a studio underneath the tree. The interactive movie was a lot of fun, even if you find bugs to be a little creepy.

There are many other outdoor exhibits featuring many species of birds from around the world. This Victoria Crowned Pigeon was a favorite of mine. I love the big “crown” of hair.

The area also contained a popular exhibit on bats. We saw two species on display, the Giant Flying Fox, which is one of the largest bats in existence. They can have a wingspan over 5 feet. This guy was a bit of an exhibitionist!

covering the “privates”

To get an idea of the size of this bat, they had a common fruit bat in the same exhibit.

fruit bat on right

After lunch, and with a great deal of hesitation on my part, I did agree to go on Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain. The ride goes straight up into a mountain, and then you go around inside the dark, and backwards, before coming out and dropping down the mountain. You are supposed to see the Yeti monster, but I had my eyes closed most of the ride, so I just have to take everyone’s word about the monster! Many of the reviews of this ride describe it as the best roller coaster in Disney. I just know there was a lot of screaming going on this ride, and it wasn’t all by me!

Expedition Everest

The highlight of the day was going on the Kilimanjaro Safari. You board an open top vehicle to explore African animals in a natural setting on 110 acres. The narrated ride is very bumpy, to simulate the roads that you would travel on a real safari trek. There is no guarantee of what animals that you will see, as they may or not be active during your trip. These are just a few photos of the animals that we saw.

Safari vehicle

African Elephant

Hippopotamus

Giraffe

African scenery

Mandrill

Greater Flamingo

African Lions

Zebra’s

Addax

And unlike the other parks where you can stand in long lines to meet the characters, the animals “go wild” in this park, with an afternoon dance party with the characters. I think the ‘moms’ had the most fun during this impromptu dance session by the characters.

line dancing, to the left, to the left…

animals gone wild

Because of the animals, this park has the shortest operating hours, so we still had a few attractions that we did not have time for. We headed back to the campground to feed the dog and get ready for our morning departure. We did make it over to one of the hotels for a quick meal, followed by this excellent Mickey cupcake.

yummy!

It was a great way to end the short but busy week at Disneyland. We can’t thank Karen and Al enough for being our tour guides, and to their friends and family for letting us be a part of their week.

Thanks for putting up with a few too many Disney photos!

Quote for the Day: “Animals don’t lie. Animals don’t criticize. If animals have moody days, they handle them better than humans do.” – Betty White

Day 3 – Magic Kingdom

Posted on February 20, 2015 by liv2rv

Our busy week at Disneyworld continued, as we headed to the Magic Kingdom via the ferry shuttle from Fort Wilderness. Our Fastpass rides were not until the afternoon, so we did our best to see as much as we could before meeting up with the rest of our party. This was our first daytime visit to the park, and it certainly had a different vibe than our nighttime visit.

Main Street

There is a lot of construction going on around the park. You can see some green walls to the left, and there is a green box in the lower middle of the picture. Apparently that box is covering up a statute of Walt Disney and Mickey Mouse. Some of the construction was recently finished, so we are looking forward to seeing the changes when we go back to the Magic Kingdom for a visit in March (trying to take advantage of our annual pass before we leave Florida!). You can also see a crane behind the castle, as they were taking down their Christmas decorations and doing a few minor repairs.

Cinderella’s Castle

up close

And it would not be Disney, without a huge parking area for strollers!

lots of strollers

Or lots of balloons for sale!

Since we had seen the 3D film Captain EO at Epcot, Al and Karen recommended we see Mickey’s PhilharMagic, which is another 3D movie to get an idea of how far 3D technology has improved since the 1980’s. We loved the movie, and recommend this for all ages. The 3D technology is impressive, and the wait time for this attraction was only 10 minutes.

We wandered over to the Liberty Square section of the park, to view the replica of the Liberty Bell, and check out the Hall of Presidents, which contains artifacts from a number of former Presidents, as well the story of the United States, complete with Audio-Animatronic figures of every single President. It was a very informative and impressive display of the technology that Disney perfected back in the early 1970s.

Liberty Square

replica of Liberty Bell

After lunch, we met up with the rest of our group, and headed over to the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, for our first FastPass ride for the day. As far as roller-coasters go, this one is pretty mild, which made it a very enjoyable ride for me.

an ‘easy’ roller-coaster

Next up was Splash Mountain, which you may want to use as one of your three FastPass options, as this can have a long stand-by waiting line. This is a log flume ride, so you will get a little wet, or in Al’s case, a lot wet! (he was in the front row of the ride!) These are some photos of our group, although not everyone went on the ride. And the young man in the front row with Al was not with us. And yes, I did put on my raincoat for the ride!

ready for splash down!

If you double-click, you can see the photos better. Dan and I are in the 2nd row, I have my hood up!

Fred hanging on to his hat!

Al was pretty soaked, and Fred never lost his hat!

all smiles!!

We had some time to kill before our next FastPass ride, so everyone headed out into different directions. Al, Karen, Dan and I went over to see how long the wait would be to get on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. It was close to the 3:00pm daily parade, so there was not too many people in line, so we were able to see that attraction. Although we didn’t notice anything wrong on our boat ride (you won’t get wet on this one), Karen and Al commented that ‘things were not working right’ and after we exited the ride, we heard the announcement that the ride would be temporarily shut-down. So we will have to go back on this in March, to see what was not working.

We quickly headed over to Tomorrowlands, on the other side of the park, to go on Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. This is another shooting arcade game, similar to Toy Story ride at Hollywood Studios, but it is not in 3D. We thought the Toy Story ride was better. There were several other attractions in the Tomorrowlands that we plan on seeing in our future visit. This is also the area that has Space Mountain, which is an indoor roller-coaster ride that has been around since 1975. We did not go on this, and maybe will consider it for a future visit….maybe if Dan can talk me into it!

We headed back over to the Liberty Square area for our last FastPass ride for the day, the Haunted Mansion. You sit in what they call a ‘doom buggy’, and go through various rooms in the mansion. Personally, I found this boring. There was a long wait to get on this, so I am glad we didn’t have to wait in line for this. But I have no interest in going back to this ride.

Haunted Mansion

180 days before our visit today, Al’s sister Ginny set her alarm for 5:00am to make reservations at Be Our Guest Restaurant at the Magic Kingdom. Apparently this is the most popular restaurant on Disney’s property, and very difficult to get into for dinner. Disney allows advance dining reservations up to 180 days ahead of your visit. So thanks Ginny for doing this! In preparation for this dinner, Karen loaned us a copy of her Beauty and the Beast DVD, so we would understand the story, and the various rooms in the Beast’s Castle. If you are going to dinner here, I would recommend seeing the movie as well. It does add to the experience.

The Beast’s Castle

The dinner was excellent, and we appreciated the fact that Disney knows you have been in the park all day, so there is no dress code for such a formal meal. Even though the Beast was all dressed up!

meeting the Beast

And here is our entire group: Fred, Al, Jim, Kathy, (Judy behind my head), myself, Sue, Denise, Bill, Karen, Patty, Dan and Ginny. We were happy to be ‘adopted’ into their family!

our group

After an excellent meal, with our belly’s full, we headed back to the campground to make sure Makena’s belly was also full!

As with the other parks, there is really not enough time to see everything, unless you just run yourself ragged from the time the park opens until it closes. And since we already knew we would be back, we decided not to wear ourselves out (we did that enough at Amazon!)

Quote for the Day: “Life itself is the proper binge.” – Julia Child

Day 2 – Hollywood Studios and IllumiNations Fireworks

Posted on February 15, 2015 by liv2rv

Hollywood Studios

After an excellent buffet breakfast with our lucky crew of 13 at the Wave resort, we headed over for our first experience at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. There are 8 different sections to this park, and even with our best efforts, we were not able to see everything in this park. This park offers several attractions that are 20 – 40 minutes in length, making it difficult to see everything. But the shows we did attend, were excellent.

Each Disney park has a ‘signature’ building/attraction, such as Cinderella’s Castle in the Magic Kingdom, or the sphere at Epcot. The Studios used to be the Sorcerer’s hat, but this is all that remains of the hat.

a disappearing hat

I have no idea what will go up in its place, or why it is being removed. If anyone knows, please feel free to add a comment. The map of the park does not even mention this display, and simply has a blank spot on the map in its place. There is a topiary design outside of the park that shows Mickey with his hat. Since I never saw the movie, I am not really sure what the broom thing is next to him.

Mickey the Sorcerer

The first section of the park is a recreation of the shops along Hollywood Boulevard.

Hollywood Boulevard

We ventured over to see the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, which is a 30 minute live action show to demonstrate how movies are made and stunts are performed. You can do a FastPass for this attraction, but the show seats several thousand people, so it is not always necessary.

stage set

The show begins with Indiana Jones rappelling down a rope, and running across while dodging stakes jutting up from the stage.

ouch!

After this scene is complete, we can see how they clear out the set, with the next stage set brought in by tractors for the next shoot.

removing the walls

The next scene is put in place and there is a fighting scene that goes across the top of the buildings.

scene # 2

The final scene has a lot of pyrotechnics. It was a very enjoyable show.

After Indiana Jones, we headed over to the Pixar Studios area, to ride the Toy Story Midway Mania. We had FastPass reservations for this ride, and I would highly recommend using one of your three choices on this attraction. It was a blast! You go through a 4D arcade game, shooting at toy story characters. This is a great ride for all ages and abilities. Here is Karen and her friend Patty, all set for the game.

ready, set, shoot!

Waiting in line for the ride is fun as well, just looking at how they have decorated the walls, with our favorite board games growing up! Candyland on the wall, and a checkerboard on the ceiling.

remember these games?

And the giant Etch-a-Sketch was doodling out puzzles.

I had one of these

Outside, the Pixar area continued the theme of the popular games we played as kids.

And who can forget the plastic green army men? They even have the melted shoes on this guy. (if you played with these army toys, you will understand that!) Karen and I had to stop for a photo.

Next up, we headed over to The Great Movie Ride, which is an easy 22 minute tram that takes you through the sets of various movies. It was very enjoyable, but I’m still trying to figure out why they have a disclaimer that it may be frightening to children.

And speaking of frightening rides, we headed over to the very popular (use your fastpass) Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, where you go up in an elevator, and it randomly drops you down, then shoots you back up, and drops you down again. The ride is always a different experience, because you never know how many floors you will drop or shoot back up (it is all in the dark). And when it shoots you back up, the doors open, and you are just staring out into the park. That is the part I had a problem with! I would go on this again, now that I know it’s is not “that bad”!

a fun ride

They also have the Rock N Roller Coaster at this park, but you can’t do both with the FastPass. That coaster apparently goes upside down, and bangs you around a lot, according to Al and his cousins. If you like roller coasters, then you would probably like that one instead of the Tower ride.

We headed back across the park to get in line for the Lights, Motors, Action! Extreme Stunt Show, which is currently performed twice a day. You get a behind the scenes look at how they perform and film car and motorcycle chase scenes. The outdoor stage for this attraction seats 5,000 people, so you probably won’t need to use your FastPass for this. The show is about 40 minutes long, and was very interesting to watch the great stunts.

After the stunt show, we wandered through a street set of New York City, and a painted wall of San Francisco.

New York City set

San Francisco

Our final FastPass reservation of the day was on Star Tours – The Adventure Continues which is a fun 3-D motion-simulated space flight with characters from Star Wars. Disney also has this ride set so that each ride is a different experience, so you never know what to expect. This way you can go on this ride multiple times, and still have a different experience each time. It was certainly a fun for all ages ride.

After a full day where we still did not get to see or do half the things in the park, we headed back to the campground to feed and play with the dogs. Al and Karen then took us to Disney’s Boardwalk by Epcot where we ate dinner, and walked over to Epcot to view the nightly IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth show. This is a laser light show, along with fireworks that you can view anywhere along the World Showcase. Here are a few photos that turned out from the show.

glowing globe of Earth

Quote for the day: “Cinema should make you forget you are sitting in a theater.” – Roman Polanski

Our first rocket launch

Posted on February 12, 2015 by liv2rv

I’m interrupting my Disney blogs, to bring you news of our first rocket launch. After several delays, the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite into orbit. This satellite was a collaboration between NASA, NOAA and the U.S. Air Force.

We have never seen any type of rocket launch before, and were very excited to have an opportunity to observe our first one, launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. We were visiting with Dan’s parents at the time, in New Smyrna Beach, which is about 25 miles north (as the crow flies) from the space center. So our photos are a bit limited of this sunset launch. My in-laws have seen several nighttime launches, and stated they are quite spectacular. The space center is set to launch another rocket in March, so we are hoping it will be a nighttime launch.

If you want to see the official video of the launch, click here for the You Tube link.

These are the photos we were able to get on the beach. It’s amazing to think that “little glow” was over 25 miles away!

The rocket will be positioned almost 1 million miles from Earth, and should reach its destination in approximately 110 days. This satellite will be used as a solar observatory, and will replace the aging ACE satellite.

Quote for the day: “I think we are at the dawn of a new era of commercial space exploration.” Elon Musk (founder of SpaceX)

Disney after Dark!

Posted on February 10, 2015 by liv2rv

After a busy first day at Epcot, Dan and I took the complimentary shuttle boat ride from Fort Wilderness to the Magic Kingdom for the evening. Karen and Al, along with his cousin Bill, would be taking a later boat over and joining us for the parade and fireworks. This would be our first visit to the Magic Kingdom. And needless to say, we were immediately lost without our tour guides!

boat ride from campground

Upon arriving on the grounds, we had no idea what to see or do, and actually had to get a map! We promptly texted our ‘tour guides’ to see when they would be arriving, and they were on the next boat over…whew! Even though it was only 6:30, people were already lined up for the 8:00pm Main Street Electrical parade, making it difficult to wander through the crowds to see anything.

We quickly became overwhelmed as we had no idea what to see or do, so we found refuge in a gift store and waited for the rest of our party. When you live in an RV, it’s easy to avoid buying souvenirs, as we have very limited space. But it’s always fun to look, and Disney seems to excel in merchandising. You will see I am wearing neon mouse ears in the photo below. These were a gift from a former co-worker, Katie, from her honeymoon in Disney! She was happy to know they made “the cut” when it came to deciding what to pack in the RV! Thanks again Katie!

Disney after Dark

Karen, Al and Bill quickly found us in the gift shop, and then we headed out into the park and they gave us a quick explanation of the six different themed areas of the park. Since we would be returning to the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday, this gave us a brief overview of the areas we needed to see during the day.

Cinderella’s Castle

We wandered around the Main Street, USA area for a while, taking in all the sights and sounds before heading over for coffee and dole whips (a fresh pineapple dessert). Then we headed to Adventureland to stake out our parade route. There was nobody there before parade. We thanked our excellent tour guides for again leading us in the right direction…away from the crowds. No sense standing 10 deep in line at the Main Street area, when we can have our own personal space in another area. Once it was close to the 8 pm start time, the area quickly filled up, but we had our front row spots.

The Main Street Electrical Parade is a 20 minute parade of floats and characters covered in LED lights, with music playing across the parks loudspeakers. I love parades, and this was very enjoyable, and a must see item at the park. Tinkerbell leads off the parade.

Tinkerbell

beautiful floats

let the Magic begin

Alice in Wonderland…not sure why she is on a mushroom. Someday I will see that movie!

Alice in Wonderland

magic mushrooms?

ladybugs and butterfly

Lot’s of Disney characters were in the parade, so it was fun for me to try to figure who they were. Some were obvious.

Pinocchio

I thought this was Puff, but Karen told me this is Pete the Dragon!

Pete the Dragon

Captain Hook & Peter Pan

Cinderella

Fairy Godmother

Behind Cinderella’s pumpkin coach, was a float with Prince Charming, hanging out with her step-sisters, who were having a lot of fun.

Prince & step-sisters

They were followed by his majesty’s court, and the clock turning midnight.

midnight?!

Snow White was roaming around the crowd.

Snow White

Followed by the dwarfs.

can you name them?

The last float in the parade was a patriotic tribute to the United States, complete with bursting “fireworks” and a bald Eagle.

final float

a very long float

After the parade, we headed over to the main street area to watch the fireworks, formally known as Wishes nighttime spectacular. I was expecting a basic fireworks show, but this was an excellent light show displayed on Cinderella’s Castle, with an appearance by a flying Tinkerbell followed by fireworks. No matter how tired you may be after a day at Disney, this is well worth staying for. The castle is constantly changing colors during the show. It’s hard to take photos of fireworks, so these are the best I could get from the show.

Wish Upon a Star

It was a great way to end a long, busy day seeing two of the four parks. And it was just day one!! Stay tuned for more of our busy Disney week.

Quote for the day: “There is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.” – Winnie the Pooh

Walt Disney World!!

Posted on February 8, 2015 by liv2rv

welcome!

Although it has been a few weeks since last posting, I will be making up for that absence with a bunch of posts on our stay at Fort Wilderness Campground, on the grounds of The Magic Kingdom. After our first day, I had good intentions of putting a post out right away, but with so many photos and videos to sort through, plus being tired from playing tourist for 12 hours, I figured it would be best to wait until our “vacation” was over, and then work on the blog posts.

And yes, I am calling it a vacation. Many of you may think we are on a permanent vacation, but the reality is we still need to work. Our ‘house’ just has wheels and a changing view! But for this week, we went into ‘vacation’ mode. If you enjoy Disney, then hopefully you will also enjoy the next several blogs, as they will be all about Disney. If you are one of the few that can’t stand the big mouse, well……!

But first a little background. Last year we were invited to Disney by our friends Karen and Al, whom we had met at Amazon. Neither Dan nor I have ever visited any of the four parks at Disneyworld. And when it comes to Disney characters, I am pretty clueless. Karen and Al have been visiting Disney for years, and are very knowledgeable about the entire complex. We hooked up with them last year for one day at Epcot, just to get a feel of Disney. You can read about last years blog on Epcot here, as well as my blog on Disney history and pricing here. We had a great time last year, and decided to come back for a longer stay this year, so we could see all four parks.

Our opinion that Disney is still very expensive has not changed, and they just reported on the local news that Disney recorded record attendance and profits in their last quarter. So Disney can continue raising prices, and it does not appear to have any affect, so far, on their attendance. But since we changed our residency to Florida, we can now get a resident pass. For $233.00 (which includes tax), we can visit any of the four main parks, Monday thru Friday, most of the year. Holidays, summer months, and the weekends are blocked out. And we can go to more than one park in a day.

This year, we did stay at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort, which is both the nicest, and the most expensive campground we have stayed at. We paid $82.00 per night (plus tax) for a premier site. They do not offer any discounts, weekly or monthly rates. And their pricing varies depending on the season (we stayed during the cheaper “off-season”). But they do allow up to 10 people per site, without an extra charge, and we did see a few sites that had both an RV and a tent (which is permitted), so if you come down with a few families, it is not a bad deal. And it does include a parking pass (which would cost $17.00 per day if not staying on the grounds). They also offer a boat shuttle to the Magic Kingdom, as well as a shuttle bus to all the other parks and Downtown Disney. We were able to link our reservations with Karen and Al, so we were all in the same loop (they have family and friends that also visit every year, and we joined in with the group).

Welcome to Epcot

Our first day was spent back at Epcot, on a much more relaxed pace than last year, when we were trying to see and do as much as possible! When you stay at any Disney hotel, you will receive complimentary FastPass bands, which allow you to make advance reservations for up to three rides/attractions at each park. This will allow you to avoid long waiting lines on the more popular rides. Last year we did the ‘green’ option on the popular Mission Space ride, which simulates a rocket launch and spacecraft flight. This year, we opted to try the more intense ‘orange’ ride. This one made my stomach a bit queasy, but it was not too bad, since we were familiar with the ride from last year. When it was over, I did notice several people getting off and sitting down right away on benches, holding the complimentary “space bag” that is on the ride. I would recommend not doing this ride right after eating!

After that, we toured the Journey Into Imagination, with Figment, before our next FastPass, Turtle Talk with Crush. This was an interactive, animated story telling with Crush The Turtle that is geared towards children, but is fun for adults as well. It appears that you are watching an animated movie, but the character does interact and talk with the audience.

You can tell when you are close to more kid friendly attractions, when you run into the designated stroller parking areas!

lots of strollers

Dan and I originally set up our FastPass to include Captain EO, but Al stated there is never a long wait for this, so we did not have to waste one of our three options on this. Captain EO was originally made for Disney in 1986, and was discontinued several years ago. But after the death of Michael Jackson, Disney brought back this 18 minute 3D film. It was interesting to see how much 3D technology has changed since this was made. What was state of the art back then, just seems a little ‘ho hum’ now.

With the FastPass option at Epcot, Disney only let’s you select one of the two biggest rides. You can choose either Soaring, or Test Track, but not both. Last year we went on Soaring, which was excellent. This year we opted for Test Track, which was also a lot of fun. You design a car, and then take it for a ride along a test track to see how it performs on turns, speed and under adverse conditions.

Test Track entrance

Both would be great choices, and both have long ‘stand by’ wait times. Your best bet would be to get to the park right away and stand in one of the lines, and have a FastPass for the other later in the day.

where’s Nemo?

All these rides made us hungry, so we headed over to the World Showcase portion of Epcot for a late lunch. Al had made reservations in Italy, at Via Napoli Ristorante e Pizzeria, where we sampled several different wood-fired pizzas.

We then headed over to France, for some excellent desert at Les Halles Boulangerie & Patisserie. We stopped there last year, and it was so good, and reasonably priced, that I wanted to stop there again this year. We burned a few calories walking around the rest of the world, and then headed back to the campground to let the dogs out.

Epcot World Showcase

Since I took so many pictures last year at Epcot, I do not have a lot of photos from Epcot this year, but I did manage on finding a few more characters. This year I did a little better in guessing who they were!

Mary Poppins

Do you know how to tell these two apart?

Chip and Dale

Chip has a brown nose, and Dale has the red one. Learned something new at Epcot!

After feeding Makena, Dan and I took the free shuttle boat ride from our campground to the Magic Kingdom, to watch the evening parade and fireworks. Since this blog is already pretty long, and I took a lot of photos in the evening, that will be the topic of my next blog.

Quote for the day: “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.” – Walt Disney

Liv2RV

Living and working around the country in a RV

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