So Many Sweet Faces Along the Way! Orlando and Tampa, Florida

March 18, 2020 Note: As Craig mentioned in his Naples/Fort Myers blog, our travel posts are a couple of weeks behind our actual travels. A lot has changed since our travels to Orlando and Tampa. We need to be people of strength and faith with grateful hearts. Our hope and a spirit of gratitude will sustain us and give us peace when the world around us is unstable. No one knows what will happen next, but we know because God has carried us through so much already, we are not afraid. We are now in a remote area enjoying nature and will evaluate day by day what our plans for the coming weeks will be. We love you all!

We are now heading north, up the western coast of Florida, but planned a small eastbound detour back over to Orlando. Our friends Rob and Angela, from Dacula, met us at Walt Disney's Fort Wilderness Campground. It was sure great to see them again! We all visited, laughed, and enjoyed grilling out, playing card games, and general camp life, Disney-style. We spent an evening at Disney Springs (an outdoor shopping, dining, and entertainment complex) and then went to Epcot the next day. Having not been to Disney Anything in over 25 years, I have to say Mickey has not been idle while we were away. He is alive and well and has been very busy. Every aspect of Micky's World is new or has expanded and is top-notch. We also chuckled at the over-the-top, friendly workers. No matter what happens, if you interact with a Disney employee, they all wish you a "magical" day at the end of the exchange. Even if they told us we couldn't do something, we would get wished a magical day. We jokingly wondered if "Have a magical day!" actually were code between the employees for something completely different!

After saying our goodbyes to Rob and Angela, we headed to Tampa, where we looked forward to seeing our nephew, Casey. Also, a few weeks ago, we heard there was an RV dealership heaven of sorts in Tampa, called Lazy Days. Lazy Days is a huge RV sales and service center that also has a large camping resort. The buzz is Lazy Days is a place where you can buy any RV thing you need, get your rig serviced, and they even provide a place to pull up and unload your all your stuff into a brand new camper when you decide spur of the moment to trade yours in for something better! We were interested in the service center since we still had a generator that would not start since the first day of February. We now had a reservation at their campsite and an appointment with the service center. 

It was such a pleasure to see our sweet nephew, Casey! He took good care of us, too. He recommended to us a lovely spot where we could watch the sunset from a restaurant rooftop lookout and had made dinner reservations for a great outdoor dining spot where Clay was also invited!

While in Tampa, we sought out a dog-friendly beach and found one of the best north of Clearwater. We walked for what seemed like a ½ mile and then waded in 2 feet of water to get to it, but it was worth it. While there, we also met Jenny. She was a beautiful 30-year old girl who seemed to be enjoying the beach like everyone else until we began to talk. She has Lyme disease. She was a precious girl that touched my heart. She was in Tampa for the sole purpose of medical treatment. Her young husband travels from Miami every weekend to care for her here while her mother goes home (to Dacula, Georgia!) for a break. She had to quit her job and has had many medical procedures in this process. Please pray for Jenny if you will. I have been praying for her recovery every day.

Our appointment with Lazy Day’s service center was scheduled for the day we would leave Tampa. On this morning, our generator started up like a charm and has purred like a kitten ever since. We have no idea why it would not cooperate with us for the first six weeks of our journey, nor why it decided to start working on the day of it’s scheduled repair. We supposed it just needed a good threatening. Oh well, we’re thankful. Now on with the journey! Our next stop is Tallahassee, and it turns out to be more exciting than we expected. 😊

Pictures from February 29-March 7, 2020:

Where you are sure to have a Magical Day!

This is the Disney Campgrounds. So fun!

It was refreshing to see faces from home and to laugh with our dear friends, Rob and Angela Little. They brought their golf cart with them, and Clay thoroughly enjoyed the rides.

The four of us love playing pickle ball. As we started to play, a plane began to write in the sky. We thought it may be the beginning of a marriage proposal, but the finished product said, “Love U Jesus”, “Thank U Jesus” and finally, “Praise U Jesus” 😊🙏 March 1, 2020

Forky, from Toy Story 4, effectively recreated by a fan for the top of their golf cart.

It was hard to get a picture that did justice to this LEGO Woody and Buzz Lightyear creation.

LEGO Cinderella has over 36,000 lego blocks and the inside is partially solid with LEGOs as well,

I was mesmerized by the way Alice stayed in character as she posed for pictures and interacted with the kids and adults at Epcot. Here, she thoughtfully considers her answer before answering a child’s question.

We just happened to walk into a building where Micky was standing around. It was basically the four of us, Micky and maybe 6 other people that also had just discovered him. He was so cute and sweet and gave us each what felt like a genuine hug. 🤗 I’ll admit, I was star struck! 😲

Morning routine: Spark for Angela, water for Clay and coffee for the rest of us.

Even the powerlines in the area remind you of where you are.

Craig took this picture in Tampa from the rooftop of the restaurant Casey recommended.

Waiting at M. Bird for Casey to get off work.

After dinner on the boardwalk with Casey. It was great to see him!

Clay enjoyed the boardwalk festivities on his big night out to dinner.

The Strawberry Festival nearby in Plant City, Florida took us back in time to the days of country fairs and livestock competitions. Clearly, these things still go on today, but we had not been in years.

You cannot go to the Strawberry Festival and not partake in the signature dish, strawberry shortcake! 🍓

I wanted to win Craig a sloth at the fair, but I was too busy eating shortcake. 😋🍓

If you want to take your dog to the beach at Honeymoon Island State Park, near Clearwater, FL, you’re going to have to work for it! This is part of the trek from the parking lot to the beach. The video below shows the other challenge.

Part of the trek to and from beach to parking lot