Family, Friends and Jimmy Buffett

Well - it has been a few days. Somehow I equate what we have done to how many pictures we have. And, since there are not a lot of pictures of different activities from the past few days, I was thinking there wasn’t much to write about. But, as I sit here thinking about it - there is way too much to tell.

We left the Cape Canaveral area with our heads spinning from the sight of the launch!! Next destination was Sarasota to visit with cousins Julie and Mike AND to celebrate Gary’s x#@-something birthday.

Monday was a settle-in day and getting ready for a ‘celebration’ day for Gary. Tuesday - b-day - was wonderful - we joined the circus for a day:-))!!

Our morning was slow and easy - then off to meet up with the Cuz’s and wander St. Armand’s Circle and enjoy a relaxing lunch. Then, Gary, Julie and I went to the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum where there is a fabulous exhibit of “Howard’s Miniature Circus”. Howard Tibbals spent years traveling and studying the circus to get all the details accurate in this miniature replica of the circus in the early 1900’s when it still traveled by train and was a ‘Main Event’. AND it IS incredible - right down to the little forks and knives! Gary even tried to get into the act.

At the Ringling Brothers Circus Museum with Cousin Julie

The Howard Tibbals Miniature Circus was amazing

Hanging with the crew

We also toured the home of Mabel & John Ringling - and took a quick ‘spin’ around the Ballroom in their house -

Dancing at the Ringling Mansion

Then we toured the Ringling’s private train car that accompanied the Circus train. I guess this was there version of the ‘Magic Bus’.

John and Mabel Ringling's "RV"

This FUN afternoon was followed by a wonderful Birthday Dinner for Gary. All in all - a VERY NICE DAY!

Wednesday the 4 of us (Julie, Mike and us) headed to Key West with a quick overnight stop in Key Largo. Thursday we settled in to ‘our spot with a view’ which would be our home for the next five days.

A great view from our camp site in Key West

There was much to do in Key West - besides just chillin’ and drinkin’ and eatin’ a cheese burger in paradise. We took the Conch Train to get the overview of this little island, wandered Duval Street, biked into ‘downtown’ and had breakfast with the locals at Harpoon Harry’s, wandered Duval Street, ate and drank.

We did take time for a little history. The Navy has a significant presence here in Key West, although not what it used to be. In 1890, the US Navy built an 8700 square foot home (really a duplex) on the waterfront to house the base commander and paymaster. As time went on, the wall separating the two units was removed and the building was modified to one home. Harry S. Truman had visited and loved it so much that from 1946 to 1952 he used the house 175 days as both a retreat and functioning White House - thus it became known as the Harry S. Truman Little White House. In subsequent years President JFK met here with the British Prime Minister just prior to the Bay of Pigs (1961), US Secretary of State Colin Powell hosted peace talks at the dining room table between Armenia and Azerbaijan (2001) and the Carters (1996) and the Clintons (2005) visited for a little R&R.

President Truman's Little White House

The Navy is also ‘home’ to the Blue Angels - and they just happened to be here for an air show this week-end (they hadn’t been here for 10 years!). AND, we had front row seats as the air base is just across the water from our little ‘parking spot’:-) Our friends Bill & Louise (you know - the goat ranchers we stayed with in Houston) were now here with us and we all settled in for cheeseburgers in this paradise and the air show. A glorious day!!!

Terrific views of the Blue Angel's performance from our camp site

Look out!! They are coming for us.

Don’t know how we could ask for anything after this wonderful day - but it just kept getting better. We had dinner at Blue Heaven - the subject of Jimmy Buffett’s song ‘Blue Heaven Rendevouz’. Food was very good and the atmosphere can’t be beat for here in Key West - expecially the little chicks and roosters roaming around between the tables!!

Our Blue Haven Rendezvous....

...with Bill & Louise

After dinner was a short stroll up Duval street - where Gary & Bill were approached by some of the most interesting ‘women’ of the street. Next was dessert at Better Than Sex! No lie - that is the name of this little restaurant that only serves desserts and wine. AND - their desserts are BETTER THAN SEX!!!

Desert at Better Than Sex was orgasmic

Sunday was a peaceful day visiting with friends who live in this paradise - Bruce and Risha - in their beautiful home lovingly built with incredible attention to detail. After watching the completion of the Masters - the six of us (Risha, Bruce, Louise, Bill and us) met up for a wonderful, relaxing dinner at Lattitudes - a boat ride away to an escape island!

Monday we were to head over to the Dry Tortugas to take in another National Park. However, a ‘little’ electrical problem prevented that trip. I am happy to say that the problem turned out to be the RV park’s and not Magic’s - but the discovery of that made us ‘miss the boat’ to the NP. So - we spent the day on Duval St and headed to the Southernmost point in the Continental US and actually drove all the way into Key West on Hwy 1 to be sure we completed the trip to the end - or is it the beginning - of Hwy 1!

Only 90 miles from here to Cuba

The end of the line..

...is just the beginning of the next adventure

Tuesday we were on our way again. This time to the Everglades. Unlike early parks established to protect scenery, Everglades was created to preserve a portion of this vast ecosystem as a wildlife habitat. The park’s unique mix of tropical and temperate plants and animals - including the manatee, alligator, crocodile and Florida panther - has prompted UNESCO to grant it international biosphere reserve status as well as World Heritage site designation. We saw various birds and gators - but, no manatee or panthers:-(

A three colored crane

An Anhinga drying off after a long swim

Oops, sorry, we didn't mean to disturb you

These birds seemed very calm in the midst of all the gators

It has been a VERY active week - with lots of family and friends! Now we are off to Beaufort, SC with a little stop on the way and maybe a round of golf. More later -

Elizabeth, Gary and Magic

BLAST OFF!!!

Friday and Saturday reminded us why we set our new ‘rule’ for travel. After last spring’s trip we decided that our travel days should be NO more than 250 miles or 4 hours. HOWEVER - sometimes there are special events that come up that make all those ‘rules’ go by the wayside.

Back to the beginning - as we were planning our trip this year, we thought it would be really neat if there was a launch at Cape Canaveral at any time that we might be in or around Florida and could work our schedule to be there to see it. After checking a couple of times and seeing nothing on the NASA website during my early planning days - the thought kind of went away. Wednesday there was an article in the USA Today about the ‘NASA Teacher Program’ and the fact that a teacher was going up in the launch Monday, April 5th! Needless to say, I flew to the website AND sure enough there was a shuttle launch scheduled now for the 5th - the last scheduled launch in the dark. Immediately, we began to think how we could make this happen as we were to be in Tallahassee the 3rd and 4th and on to Sarasota on the 5th. We thought - WE CAN DO THIS!

Getting a place to ‘park’ around Cape Canaveral would prove to be the difficult part, I thought, as it was Easter week end - AND it was a shuttle launch. BUT, we did it. A few quick calls to cancel the other arrangements and reservations and we were ready to put the peddle to the metal. Friday - armed with many bags of homemade snacks from Louise - we flew out of Texas across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and into Florida. After a 9 hour day we were ready for a break - and, again, reminded why we set the rule of NO MORE THAN 4 HOURS TRAVEL A DAY!!.

Where's the light at the end of the tunnel.

Way down yonder on the Chattahoochee.

Saturday was more of the same - all the way across the panhandle of Florida from Pensacola down to Cape Canaveral - another 9 hour day:-( I must say, Saturday was at least a beautiful day to drive because there was little traffic, beautiful scenery and NO WIND!!

Little traffic, beautiful scenery and no wind - what a beautiful morning for a drive.

We now had all of Sunday to check out the area and assess the launch site to see where we wanted to be to see this event.

Sunday - countdown to launch time and are we getting excited! After a nice, slow Easter morning we headed to Highway 1 - the preferred ‘watching’ area for the launch according to the NASA website and everyone we talked to. Boy, Titusville (the town across the river from the island ‘housing’ Cape Canaveral) is DEAD. Like a ghost town! Looked like the whole town was ‘out of business’ - made worse by the fact it was Easter Sunday. We had been told there were two mall parking lots on HWY 1 that they let people park at in the morning (we were told we needed to be in the area by about 3AM!!!) and then you walk to the viewing area of your choice. As we arrived at the now closed Penney’s parking lot, a coach was pulling up to park. Steve (driver of the coach) indicated he had talked to the Chamber of Commerce and been told one could park here overnight for the launch. HMMMMMM. Maybe we should go back, pack up Magic and move over here to the parking lot for the night instead of getting up at 3 and driving over in the car?!?!? OK - LET’S DO IT!! By 5 PM we were back to the parking lot - greeted by Steve - and set up in Magic. We greeted our fellow Tiffin Bus travelers and the rest of the RVers here to see the launch. What a kick - almost like a Jimmy Buffett concert!!

Early arrivers at the JC Penney parking lot.

The launch platform the afternoon before blast off.

What a lovely parking spot.

More sundown arrivals

We tried to get to bed early as we knew it would be a VERY early morning. But - it was opening night for baseball and the Yankees were playing the Red Sox (not a good result):-( Anyway - 4 AM did come early - but we were up and waiting for the countdown - 10 - 9 - 8 - 7 - 6 - 5 - 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - BLAST OFF!!!!!

The launch platform about 10 minutes before launch. It hasn't gotten any closer. That's as good as I can get it.

T minus one minute.

Ignition!

Lift off!

I can take you higher (thanks Sly & Family Stone).

Higher, and....

Higher, and ....

Higher....

Heading for the horizon.

That's all folks.

What's left at the launch site after the launch.




Elizabeth also captured a video of the launch - the sound effects are the best part!

AWESOME!! We were so glad we came - it was beautiful!

Now - on to Sarasota and cousins Julie and Mike.

More later - Shuttle Struck E & G

Old Friends

Well - we have spent the last week enjoying old friends!

After Fredericksburg we headed to Austin and more GREEN. We checked out the famous/infamous Oasis for dinner and the sunset, wandered South congress and drove through the University of Texas campus.

We had company (the Maisels)

over to Magic for brunch - then played a round of golf with Chris on a beautiful course (Barton Creek - Canyons) followed up

with a lovely dinner with incredible views at the Maisel home:-) It is the ‘catching up with old friends’ part that really makes our day.

Beautiful day of golf with Chris.

Then it was time to head on down the road to Houston - and the Lane’s ‘ranch’. What a treat to stay on such a beautiful, green, wooded piece of property:-) Although, I must say, poor Bill did not know what he was in for when he said “come on down and park next to my fifth wheel”. I think we used every 2x12 that he had on the property to try and level Old Magic - only ‘punching’ one major hole in his driveway while doing it. Then we really tested Bill’s electrical skills in trying to get everything working in Old Magic. In the end - everything was in working order and we didn’t lean to one side while walking from front to back of the bus:-)

Well, let's see...if we use four 2 x 12, a few 2 x 6 and the cut the tree limbs back a few inches - or how many men does it take to level a BUS?!?!

Looks like we are ready to go airborne here

Aw crap, we've ruined Bill and Louise's driveway. They will never invite us back again.

Now it was time to really enjoy the angora goats, the beauty - and, oh yes, Bill and Louise. We spent a lot of time on their back porch just visiting and watching the 20 goats, 3 guard donkeys, 2 cats and 1 dog eat, sleep, play and ‘check us out’. We even had more old friends - Dale & Judi Stephenson - drive down from Dallas to visit for an afternoon - which required more sitting on the porch:-) AND the sitting on the porch also required a lot of eating, drinking, visiting, bond fires, etc., etc., etc.! What more could one ask for?!?!

A tough day on the porch - Bill, Louise, Judi, Dale & E

What a beautiful spread.

Will the guard donkey bite??

The lady angora goats get to roam

The top dog.. er.. goat.

The rest of the males. Hmm mm, where did they hide the ladies.

A BIG THANK YOU TO BARBARA & CHRIS, JUDI & DALE and LOUISE & BILL for making our stay in Austin and Houston a wonderful couple of days!!!! We hope to see all y’all again SOON.

Now we are making a frantic dash to Cape Canaveral, as we just learned there is a shuttle launch Monday morning at 6:15AM. Will give you that update after the week end.

We hope that you all have a wonderful week end and a VERY HAPPY EASTER:-)

Elizabeth & Gary (and Magic)