20171119 – Nature Parks; Goodbye Orlando; Christmas Light Parade

As usual a lazy start to the day. Then as it’s forecast rain we decide to suffer the Outlet store shopping expedition for Kurt’s top today rather than later in the week.

Then Wendy notices her new toy is no longer showing the time when she raises her wrist. Check all the settings, but alas it’s still kaput. Oh well better pop down to the Mall and return it whilst we’re up here. 9 miles later we’re back at the Apple store. A very relaxed and laid back Apple guy tries, checks the settings and it still doesn’t work. He’s just about to replace the watch as faulty when he remembers Theatre Mode, which turns off the screen on wrist rise. Yes, sure enough Wendy must have caught the setting for this. Take it out of Theatre Mode and all is ok.

And the moral of that story is go check on the Internet before wasting time and petrol.

The evening’s spent with a few “Dark and Stormies” and more sex and nudity scenes from the Game of Thrones.

Lazy morning as usual and then we drive up to Wekiva Springs for a picnic and walk.

I thought so, we’ve been here before, back in 2010. It’s all very picturesque and the water is tempting for a swim – 72F apparently – but I give it a miss. Don’t see any gators in there. After lunch we go for a walk but it’s so boring and lifeless we head back after a mile. At last the Circle B Bar is teaming with life.

For a bit of variety we avoid the toll road on the way back and spot the Oakland Nature Reserve. Looks interesting so perhaps we’ll save that for another day.

Lazy morning and it’s raining on and off. By 14:00 it seems to have stopped and we’re chomping at the bit to go somewhere.

I have a plan. We drive down to Celebration; order one of those awesome looking stromboli’s; go for a power walk around the lake – gets the Exercise level up on our watches; have a leisurely starbucks sat in the rocking chairs, watching the lake go by; pick up my Stromboli; and go home. What an exciting life we lead.

The Stromboli is massive, packed with meat, pepperoni and cheese, with a great crust. Awesome. It’s an alcohol free night. Watch Game Of Thrones, can you believe there’s a whole episode with no nudity and sex. What is the World coming to, perhaps it’s time to give it up. We’ll soldier on and said we’ll endure the first season before making a final decision. Have to say it’s very good overall and you soon manage to put the crappy dungeons and dragons aspect of it behind you.

Lazy morning then off to Oakland Nature Reserve for a walk and hoping to see some wildlife. This is a lovely free nature reserve, but sadly hurricane Irma has destroyed part of the boardwalk down to the lake so we can’t do that. Have lunch on the deck their in some lovely old rocking chairs, all very pleasant. Feel like the Clampits. Don’t really get to see much wildlife apart from a randy Gopher Tortoise whose head starts bobbing up and down in a horny courtship display. Then a female arrives on the scene and before you know it he’s trying to mount her – who says you need to watch Game Of Thrones for exciting sex scenes. Sadly the females got a headache and kicks sand in his face.

Because gopher tortoises share their burrows with more than 350 other species they are referred to as a keystone species. The presence of gopher tortoises indicates whether a habitat is suitable not only for tortoises but other species, as well. Some of the species known to share their burrows include the Florida mouse, burrowing owl, gopher frog, and eastern indigo snake. As the primary burrow-builder in its ecosystem, the gopher tortoise is very important to maintaining the structure, composition and populations within an ecological community. Similar to the role of a keystone in an arch, an ecosystem may experience a dramatic shift if a keystone species is removed. Conversely, an increase in the number of tortoises is evidence of sufficient food and shelter for reproduction, and when the tortoises are thriving, so are many other species.

We then call in at Lake Louisa State Park and have a leisurely stroll down to the lake. Alas very little wildlife apart from a Gopher Tortoise crossing the road.

Call in at Public’s for some Turkey for our Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow. We’re not bothering going out for dinner as usual, all the Disney places are booked up and the Marriotts – who usually do a great buffet – are just too far away. Plus we’re getting tight in our old age and somewhat begrudge $150 on an all you can eat buffet that only encourages you to eat more than you need – bloody hell if we carry on like this we’ll end up as some tree hugging, liberal, PC, Bed Wetter.

In the evening it’s more Game Of Thrones. We’ve survived season 1 and really enjoyed it – the sex scenes certainly help, but the intrigue and plotting makes for a great story line – so will be watching the rest of it.

Thanksgiving Day here in the USA. Just another excuse to stuff yourselves with turkey and pie. A day when people are supposed to reflect on what they are thankful for. The most common answers seems to “Living in the greatest country in the World”. You have to give it to them for confidence and patriotism. Unlike us Brits who openly talk our country down and it’s almost considered racist to fly the Union Jack.

Lazy morning and then we set off to the Polynesian resort resort for a walk around the Disney World lagoon. The walk from the Polynesian to the Floridian is reckoned to be very picturesque. We’re told it’s a 37 minutes walk – very precise. Turns out more like 12 minutes, but there again Americans don’t walk a lot. We then enquire about walking to the Magic Kingdom. Alas we’re told we’ll get eaten by fast racing gators. There’s a nice path most of the way but we’d probably have to swim across a gator infested canal.

Never mind it’s plan B. It’s time for my treat, mono-rail to transit centre, then round trip ride on mono-rail to Epcot. It’s the nerd in me just loves riding the mono-rail, I’ll be mono-rail spotting next. Then we walk to the Polynesian.

In the evening we have our turkey dinner and an expensive bottle of Lahor Merlot from Paso Robles – one of my favourites, yes all of $12, exceeds my $10 limit. Dam me no, Wendy likes this wine and has a glass. This is not conducive to marital harmony, have to get back to the cheaper wines, which she usually turns her nose up at.

Black Friday – in the land of the mighty dollar when muppets trample other muppets for cheap goods mere hours after supposedly being “Thankful” for what they already have.

We decide to have a lazy day hunkered down whilst we pack. Avoid the chaos out there.

Joy of joys, it appears that the Apple store in Tampa has some iPhone X for store pickup and it just so happens we’re driving past Tampa for tomorrow morning. As my Mother would have said “you were meant to have it” – I don’t think she ever realised she was a dedicated Stoic. Order it for a 08:30 pickup today, knowing full well it will be tomorrow, but “computer doesn’t allow that…”. Actually turns out that the store will keep it for 21 days – unbelievable. With the excitement will I be able to sleep tonight?

Up, car loaded and out by 09:15. Apple store Tampa bound. Oh the excitement. Yes and there it is my new toy. As I want to ensure it’s unlocked and works with my 3 SIM I let them set it up and being the professional nerd test to make sure I can call and connect with mobile roaming. Yeah, it all works as promised. Lash out on a new case because surprise, surprise the old case doesn’t fit – Wendy buys it me for my Birthday.

Then it’s onwards down to Venice, that’s the one in Florida, in case anyones confused. Don’t want anyone asking how long it took to drive all the way to Italy – yes I know it sounds far fetched but we have been asked these ridiculous question before, several times, by geography masterminds, sadly always Americans!

Our new home exchange for the next 12 days. The homes lovely, spacious and comfortable. So much more homely and personable than your average VRBO. Talking of which I have to say the VRBO we’ve just spent 3 weeks in was awesome. They’d thought of absolutely everything; fantastic manual; everything you needed was there, including cots, high chair and even pushchairs; good location; clean and immaculate; everything in good condition; great themed bedrooms for the kids; nice pool; even installed a smart DNS and ROKU box to give access to UK TV. A real home from home. I would highly recommend it to anyone. Worth every penny. I really struggled to find anything to say “I don’t believe it”. The best I could come up with is the WIFI password was tortuous.

Venice is mostly on an island. It looks a lovely quaint old retirement community. Almost makes Lytham look like a Kindergarten.

Meet our hosts Judith and Joe who have kindly stayed to greet us and show us around the house before they set off. Always nice to meet your hosts, it’s a luxury we rarely have as we do few simultaneous exchanges.

There’s a Christmas parade this evening so it’s a quick dash to the supermarket, weaving our way around cordoned off streets.

Then we walk down the street to watch the Christmas light parade, all 2 hours of it. Sensible people have bought their “Deer Valley concert chairs” with them. After an hour Wendy’s whimpering about standing for so long. After 2 hours we head for home, the parades nearly finished. It’s bit like “Trick or Treat” on steroids as the kids just sit there – no exercise to burn off those sweetie calories – and the sweets are just handed to them. Best of all is the old geezer sat in front of us. Chomping away on his swag bag of sweets. He accosts everyone handing out sweets with his swag bag, a plastic carrier bag already brimming with goodies, that he thrust into their face of for his fair share of the booty. Any minute now I think he’s going to push the kid aside in a race to grab the spoils that fall on the road, fortunately he resists the temptation. A child at heart and judging by his proud stand to attention, with hat off and hand over heart when the flag passes I guess he may be a veteran and deserves them all.

Then this plonker drops his brand new iPhone. I don’t believe it. I’ve never drop my sacred device before. Thankfully we bought the case this morning so it helps it survive – no damage.