Almost Outta Here!

This weekend’s Flower Power entertainment was Harold Melvin’s Blue Notes, and in spite of a bad review from someone here at the park, we decided to check them out for ourselves Sun. night and are glad we did. They’re very entertaining and invited everyone to sing along with their big hit “If You Don’t Know Me By Now”. You may recall that at one time Teddy Pendergrass was their lead singer, but nowadays those vocals are handled by Donnell "Big Daddy" Gillespie who has a big, powerful voice, and the guys performing backup vocals sing and dance wonderfully. We arrived for the 6:30 show and enjoyed it so much that we actually decided to return for the 7:45 one as well. During one song in each set, they were joined onstage by Philadelphia International recording artist, Sharon Paige, who added another layer of talent to the group’s performance. Before exiting the stage, the guys came to its edge to greet their fans and shake hands as the band continued to play (we were in the 2nd row). Unfortunately, this is the last of the performers we’ll see in this series, and that’s such a shame because during the month of May there are some really big name acts, i.e Chubby Checker, Jose Feliciano, Tony Orlando, and one of my all-time favorite groups from that era, The 5th Dimension. Oh, well, perhaps next year.

After the last show, we hung around for the fireworks, and then boarded the monorail for Magic Kingdom. We stopped by and saw Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor, a silly and funny interactive show inspired by the movie Monsters, Inc. It’s all done in animation but the characters actually converse with members of the audience. And as promised, I finally got a picture of the animatronics entertainer, Sonny Eclipse, at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Café! We not only were able to see MK’s fireworks at 10pm, but they were having a second performance of the Spectromagic light parade at 11pm!




























Our car was parked at Epcot so we had to take the monorail back, and while waiting we asked one of the cast members if we could ride up front with the engineer. They have space for about 5-6 people and will generally let you sit up there if you ask. We were the only two on this particular trip, and our engineer, Brian, invited Russ to stand by him as he explained how the monorail is operated and showed him all the screens and gadgets. Because it was so dark out and there was a glare through the front window, I wasn’t able to get any pictures even though Brian nearly came to a dead stop specifically so I could try to get a photo of the big “golf ball” directly in front of us. What a great view and a fun experience!
As mentioned in my last blog, I underwent another colonoscopy last week at the University of South Florida Healthcare Center in Tampa, and the results were pretty much as expected. The inflammation is gone but the stricture remains and the recommendation is surgery to remove this part of the colon. The stricture has resulted from scarring over the years from Crohn’s flare-ups and inflammation at the site of the surgery performed over 20 years ago. I have been extremely fortunate not to have needed surgery sooner as many Crohn’s patients do. But the opening has gotten increasingly smaller, basically pen hole size now, and if not careful, a blockage could occur at any time requiring emergency surgery. By electing to have the surgery done as a non-emergency, the surgeon has a clean environment and there’s less chance of infection. The idea is that cutting out this narrowed area will basically give me a clean slate, and I’ll supposedly be able to stop taking all the meds I currently take for the Crohn’s…yay! I’d have regular bi-annual checkups and should there be any issues, it could be addressed immediately and some sort of treatment could be started at that time. This by no means a cure, just another form of treatment. We meet with my local gastroenterologist this week to further discuss the results, and though we plan putting off the surgery until our return to the Orlando area in the fall, we’ll get a surgeon referral to get the ball rolling.

Our time here is nearly up, and it’s time to hit the road again. Thurs. we’ll leave with an overnight stop in Woodbine, GA, before arriving for a 5 night stay in Charleston, SC, to visit friends. From there we’ll continue up the East coast to stay once again on the Outerbanks in Waves, NC. But this time we are going to do something a little bit different…we’re taking the RV on the ferry to get there! It’s about a 2-1/2 hour ride for a cost of $45, and will be cheaper than driving since we’d have to go about 180 miles around to get from point A to point B. Since we’re a fully contained unit, we can hang out inside, watch TV, surf the net, or whatever as we journey across. After Waves we’ll continue up the East coast with a couple stops along the way before a visit with my sister in DE and then Russ’ sister and mom in NJ. From there we plan to visit Gettysburg and Harpers Ferry again because we so enjoyed them two years ago, and then it’s westward ho! Our plans this summer are to visit several of the national parks out West where we have never been. We have plans to visit the Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Yellowstone, Glacier, Bryce Canyon, Zion, Grand Canyon, and several others as well as Salt Lake City before making our way back to St. Louis at the end of Aug. for the annual Missouri/Illinois football game on Sept. 5. We’ll even spend a few weeks at campgrounds inside the national parks. In all we have 32 national parks or monuments that we will be visiting and another 24 on the maybe list! We will spend 12 weeks in SD, WY, MT, UT, AZ, and CO. We’re both really excited and looking forward to experiencing this part of the country. Our friend, Scott (http://www.serenityadventure.com/), was to join us on this summer excursion, but since he’s busy dealing with his cancer treatments in NC which seem to be going well, his plan is to meet up with us in St. Louis.

The beginning of this week will be spent doing last minute errands and preparing the Folly for travel again since it’s been sitting idle for basically five months. Hope you’ll stay tuned for the continued adventures of the Farmer’s Folly!

A Little of This, That, & The Other

After not much happening last week, this week sure proved differently. Our friends Richard and Shelly were back in town for a couple weeks but were tied up most of the time with family and friends. However they found some time Tues. to stop by for a visit. Their 4-year-old granddaughter, Kayla, is spending several months with them as they travel, and it was our first time meeting her. What a delight! Extremely inquisitive, silly, and fun! She had a gotten a very rubbery dinosaur when they were at the T-Rex restaurant earlier in the day, and we had fun playing with it. She totally enjoyed meeting the dogs and kept wanting them to come out and play. We all sat outside chatting for several hours, and she didn’t want to leave. In fact, when Shelly got up, Kayla plopped down in the chair so Shelly sat in her lap. LOL Kayla even took a shine to Russ and jumped on his lap before leaving!

We had a couple doctor appointments scheduled this week. Russ’ was a routine follow-up with our primary doctor before we hit the road again. Mine was with a gastroenterologist (GI) at the University of South Florida in Tampa for a second opinion. My GI here suggested it since the facility there specializes in Crohn’s disease and so much advancement has been made in the nearly 21 years since I was first diagnosed. USF is located about an hour from here, and we had a 1pm appt. Initially we met with a resident GI doctors who took all our info, then consulted with Dr. Saloum, and then both doctors came in to discuss a plan with us. Since Dr. Saloum is unfamiliar with me other than the records sent by my GI here and the records I brought with me, he has opted to perform another colonoscopy this coming Thurs. so he can see things for himself and make a recommendation as to what he thinks my continued treatment should be. We probably won’t make any changes until we return from our summer travels, but it’s good to get a plan in place.

My good friend, Linda, drove over from Tampa on Sat. so we could spend the day together. Since we both like to explore new places, we drove to the Lakeridge Winery (http://www.lakeridgewinery.com/) located about 20 miles up the road in Clermont. This family owned winery offers free tours and wine tasting daily. They are the largest Florida winery with 44 tanks that can hold 416,000 gallons of wine and producing 1,000-1,500 bottles of wine per day. The tour started with a 14 minute video showing the winery’s history and the bottling process. They say you learn something new everyday, and I was amazed to learn how much of the bottling process for champagne (or sparkling wine) is done by hand! Our guide, Shep, then took us on the tour, which is rather short since the winery is not very big, but he was very informative and readily answered questions. Out back, just past the vineyards, was a large grassy area that Shep said was once a lake but the drought has caused it to dry up. The water shortage has not affected the winery as they draw their water from deep wells. Now it was time for the wine tasting! We sampled 6 wines but they give you a very minimal amount…darn! We both liked the first two (a red and a white), but then it got into wines made from the Florida Muscadine grape and we discovered that neither of us really liked the flavor of that grape though the last red made from it was okay. As we were tasting the last selection, we started chatting about wine and chocolate with the lady serving it, and I mentioned something about Russell Stover. As it turns out, the Russell Stover Outlet Store is only a short distance from the winery! Oh, Linda and I jumped at the idea of extending our adventurous day a little further down the road for chocolate!

Linda had decided she was going to get her husband a bottle of the first red we sampled and herself a bottle of the white. She insisted on buying a bottle for me as a belated birthday present so I chose the first red as well because I knew Russ would like, too. As she was picking them out, one of the workers told her that if she bought 4 bottles, she’d get a $2 discount…woohoo! The wine is not very expensive anyway so she bought a fourth. Linda had brought a picnic lunch of cheese, crackers, summer sausage, fruit, and bottled water, and we sat at one of the picnic tables outside the winery, enjoying a beautiful day and each other’s company.

Now it was off to Russell Stover’s! We walked up and down every aisle and of course, both ended up buying some chocolate. My friend, Anne, had introduced me to their mint patties, which are indescribably delicious, so I just had to pick up a box of those! As we were leaving, we noticed an antique mall across the street and spent the next couple hours wandering through it. It was now time for dinner, and on the way home we stopped at Olive Garden. It was getting late and time for Linda to head back to Tampa, but what a wonderfully fun and relaxing day with a good friend.

Sun. Russ and I went over for the Flower Power Concert Series featuring The Ventures this week. Inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year, they are an instrumental group best known for the “Hawaii Five-O” theme and “Wipeout”. Two of the original members, Don Wilson, (on the right) and Nokie Edwards (seated) are still members of the band and are accompanied by Bob Anderson (on the left) on bass guitar. Their original drummer, Mel Taylor, passed away in 1996 and his son, Leon, took over dad’s role with the band. Though there was some fine guitar playing, it was not a very exciting show, and we didn’t stay for any other sets.

Mon. morning we took the Saturn in for what turned out to be a very minor repair and returned home in just over an hour giving us the whole rest of the day to do whatever. One of the things I have wanted to see at the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival is the English Tea Garden tour at the United Kingdom Pavilion so that’s where we headed later that day. The free 20 minute guided tour, hosted by Twinings Tea, is given daily during the Festival in the afternoon and early evening and was designed to give the history and art of tea blending as you stroll through the English Tea Garden. We had signed up for the 6:30 tour and spent the time beforehand checking out some more of the topiaries, flowers, and this waterfall that actually flows up!











At 6pm we decided to catch the British Invasion, one of the many daily free band performances, while we were waiting for the tour. They dress like the Beatles and perform their songs at 5 shows daily, each show a different time period in the Beatles career. The 6pm show featured songs from their movies and cartoon series, and though they don’t look anything like the Beatles, I love the songs. When they were done, it was time to head down the walkway to the Tea Caddy shop for the tour, and as it turns out, the British Invasion was coming the same way to head upstairs to change outfits and were gracious enough to pose for pictures with a few of us.

I found the tour very interesting and informative (did you know that tea blenders have to train for 5 years before they are allowed to actually start applying what they’ve learned?) But about 10 minutes into the tour Russ moseyed across the road, chatting with a cast member, Carolyn, outside the Rose & Crown Pub. She and her husband are full-time RVers, too, and live at one of the nearby RV resorts. They struck up quite a conversation, and she added us to her list of “VIPs” for a special place from where to watch the fireworks! All we had to do was return by 8:50, and she’d let us in to a place that is usually roped off behind the Rose & Crown. By the time the tour finished, British Invasion was back for their 7pm show performing songs from Sergeant Pepper. I snapped a quick photo of them performing in that costume before Russ and I strolled down the road to get a bite to eat.

One of the other things I had wanted to see was the Bromeliad Dragon in front of the Temple of Heaven at the China Pavilion. This topiary dragon is made entirely of a type of bromeliad from the pineapple family…quite impressive! On the way we made a pit stop at the Norway Pavilion. The roof of this building actually has grass growing on it and is regularly mowed! We had decided to just get a pretzel from the Germany Pavilion instead of a big meal and then enjoyed some ice cream from the American Pavilion. Now there’s a nutritious meal! Since we still had a little time to kill before the fireworks, we decided to head back to the Rose & Crown for a pint and check out the pub’s entertainment, “The Hat Lady”. Having never seen her before, we didn’t know what to expect and were pleasantly surprised. Wearing a large, feathered hat, she sings and plays the piano while chatting with the pub crowd in between. She has quite a variety of hats surrounding her on the wall and periodically changes the one she’s wearing. She broke into a rousing rendition of Irish Rover, encouraging audience participation. As she continued to play in between choruses, she’d ask someone their name, where they were from, what they did for a living, and then create a chorus off the top of her head using those facts! Really creative and fun! At 8:50 we had to leave to meet Carolyn and watched Illuminations from an entirely new place and as always, it was wonderful. Afterwards Russ decided we’d try to catch the fireworks at Magic Kingdom that were set to go off at 10pm. This meant we had to boogey to catch the monorail to the Ticket & Transportation Center, and then instead of taking the second monorail to MK, we took the ferry. We walked inside MK just as the fireworks were starting and found a place in the middle of Main Street from where to watch. Though MK was open till 11, we decided to head back to the car taking the two monorails for our return trip. As we passed in front of Epcot (which was now closed), I snapped this shot of some of the topiaries in front of Spaceship Earth.

We only have 10 more days here at Lake Magic before we once again hit the road. Originally we had planned to leave May 1 but have decided to leave April 30, taking 2 days to get to Charleston, the first stop on our summer tour. Perhaps next week we’ll fill you in on the plans for that tour. Until then be well, stay safe, and keep smiling.

Second Verse Same as the First!

Not much happening this week so will simply review the weekend’s Flower Power Concert Series…Herman’s Hermits starring Peter Noone. This is undoubtedly the best one we’ve seen so far. What a great show!! Highly entertaining, energetic, and Peter can still sing! He obviously has a huge following as there were quite a number from his fan clubs at the two shows we attended. All of them seemed to know the appropriate moments in the songs to raise their arms, shout, or whatever. In fact there was a family of 6 or 8 people (gals AND guys) who brought their own props! Peter evidently knew them from probably many previous performances and said he used to refer to them as the stalker family….ha ha ha ha!! During “Just a Little Bit Better” he stood near them and interacted with them as they held up the appropriate props at the appropriate times. They were a riot and very entertaining! The second to the last song in both shows was “I’m Henry the VIII, I Am”, and Peter got the entire audience involved singing along several times (“trillionth verse, same as the first!”). And as we all yelled out spelling H-E-N-R-Y, the “family” held up large cards with the letters on them. During the shows he’d run out into the audience while singing, handing a Herman’s Hermits CD to several of the little kids (who he said probably had no idea who he was….LOL). We thought about staying for the 3rd show, but it was 45 min. away and the line was long so we decided to head home. There seems to be no pretense with Peter Noone, and he seems to thoroughly enjoy who he is and what he’s doing. Each show was a little different, and we had a great, fun time!

Easter Blessings

Seeing the Candlelight Processional at Epcot during the Christmas season is one of the most enjoyable things for us at Walt Disney World. The following is part of the script from the Candlelight Processional, and we thought it appropriate to share with you on this Easter Sunday.

He was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman; he grew up in still another village, where he worked in a carpenter shop until he was thirty. Then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He didn’t go to college. He never visited a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He did none of the things one usually associates with greatness. He had no credentials but Himself. He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through a mockery of a trial. He was nailed to a cross, between two thieves. While He was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property He had on Earth. When He was dead, He was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today He is considered by many to be the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind’s progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this Earth as much as that One Solitary Life.

Wrong Information

[Remember that you can click on any picture to enlarge… then arrow back to the blog]

One place we had never visited was Rafiki’s Planet Watch at Animal Kingdom (AK), located towards the back of the park between Africa and Asia and accessed only by the Wildlife Express Train. This non-stop train is a quick trip (less than 5 min.) to the Conservation Station that gives an in-depth look at the care given the animals through veterinary attention, nutrition, and research programs. We’ve always heard that Rafiki’s was never crowded but Tues. that was proven wrong. We just missed getting on one train going out there because there was a short line, and by the time we returned the line waiting to board the train was really long! This was definitely the most crowded we’d ever seen AK.

At the Conservation Station are several interactive exhibits with interesting facts about animal habitats as well as live animal encounters such as the small snake a cast member was encouraging the kids to touch as she described its habits. In the research area they were monitoring a live feed from an area in a separate building of baby woodrats that are on the endangered species list. These rare rats can only be found in Key Largo, having only 1 to 3 pups per litter, and have not shown to survive anywhere else. A couple years ago AK developed a captive breeding program to closely monitor their behavior and release them back into the wild. In the room next to the research lab was the veterinary clinic. Both areas have full pane glass windows for observation, and they were in the process of giving a Marabou Stork its annual physical. When we passed by later, they were in an adjoining area doing a routine x-ray and the film was being shown on a TV monitor in the exam room….very interesting. In yet another room a cast member was preparing food for the AK animals. There was no glass separation so people could ask questions as she weighed, mixed, and molded the various concoctions. We also saw a rare cricket sighting….Jiminy Cricket that is! In all the years we’ve been to Disney World, we had never seen a Jiminy Cricket character. As with other characters, he was signing autographs and posing for photos.

Also in this area just outside the main building is a petting yard called Affection Section, and what area of any Disney park would be complete without a gift shop, here appropriately named “Out of the Wild”. We saw some kids playing with a cool toy and Russ just had to go check it out. It was a tiger pincher with sound. You squeeze the handle at the bottom which not only opens and closes the tiger’s mouth but makes 3 growling sounds! We decided this was the perfect item for the Missouri Tigers football game in Sept.!!

After returning from Rafiki’s, we meandered along a couple off-the-beaten paths to avoid some of the mob and for the first time saw the back of the Tree of Life. As you may recall, the Tree of Life has hundreds of wildlife carved into its “trunk” and in this area behind it is also a waterfall and more real life creatures…a very peaceful and pretty oasis. In fact, we don’t think this cardinal lives at the park; just thinks it’s a nice place to visit, too.












Before leaving the park, we stopped to watch Tam Tam Congo perform outside the Tusker House in Africa. They were just starting as we passed by and are always entertaining.

Entertainment at the Flower Power Concert Series this weekend was The Turtles… featuring Flo & Eddie (http://www.floandeddie.com/). In case you didn’t know, Mark Kaylan and Howard Volman (aka Flo & Eddie) are the original founding members of the The Turtles. Due to contractual restrictions made early in their career, Mark and Howard were prevented from using the name The Turtles, as well as their own names, in a musical context so in 1984 they started performing as "The Turtles...featuring Flo & Eddie”. Evidently it’s ok to use “The Turtles” name in that context. We arrived for the 6:30 show and once again stayed for the 7:45 show as well. Though their voices are not what they once were, they still do a nice show…fun and full of energy. We actually thought they sounded better on the latter show plus it included their hit “Pied Piper” which was not in the earlier one. Both sets ended with their signature song “Happy Together”, which had everyone on their feet towards the end of the last set (that’s the back of me right behind the lady with the short blonde hair).

We caught the beginning of the fireworks and then walked from Epcot over to the Amphitheater at Hollywood Studios (about 1-1/2 miles) to catch a performance of Fantasmic. This show used to be performed nightly but has been cut back to only a couple nights a week. However, with the anticipation of huge crowds due to the beginning of spring break, it was being performed twice nightly, and we decided to catch the 10pm show.

To digress just a bit….there's supposed to be a recession, right? You definitely couldn’t prove it by the crowds at the parks! They’ve been packed! In fact we read that the Magic Kingdom was set to break attendance records! Disney is offering all sorts of specials, but it’s still not a cheap vacation. Plus people aren’t just buying a ticket and walking around, enjoying the rides; they are eating and buying stuff in the shops. Lines are long everywhere.

OK, back to Fantasmic…a 25 min. “nighttime spectacular with lasers, lights, dancing fountains, and special effects”. The premise of the show is Mickey’s wild imagination come to life complete with all the Disney characters and villains, music, fire on the lake, scenes projected on water screens, and so much more. Mickey is the hero, of course, who slays the dragon and wins the day. At the very end a steamboat comes from around the bend carrying all the characters and piloted by none other than Mickey from his Steamboat Willie days!

Now I’d be remiss without sharing some excitement that happened here at the resort in between those two fun days at the parks. I was walking the dogs Thurs. afternoon when two sheriff’s cars slowly passed me, driving slowly up and down the roads. As I started walking back towards our rig, I noticed that they stopped at the end of our row, one space over from ours. One cop put on some black gloves as the other one got out of his car, and as I got to the door of our place to tell Russ there were cops outside, an unmarked car pulled up behind them, right in front of our place looking towards the campers along the end row. I got the dogs inside; Russ came out, and asked the officer of the unmarked car who was opening his trunk if there was a problem. Initially he said no, and as the other officers were opening their trunks, our neighbor, Jack, said “hey, you two, get in here!” Just then the officer told Russ he should get back behind our rig as he started putting on his bullet proof vest! The other cops were following suit and from Jack’s window we could see them pull out assault rifles!! It seemed they were focused on a camper that had arrived earlier that morning. Russ had seen these folks when they arrived and said they were an older couple and the guy could barely walk. Russ decided to go back outside and from behind the back end of our rig, watched what was happening. Curiosity got the better of Jack (and me, too, I guess) that we went and joined Russ. From our viewpoint we could see all 3 cops at the door of the camper, rifles ready for action, and then saw a pair of bare legs come down the steps. Two of the cops went inside, another pair of legs using a cane came down the steps, followed by the cops, and we could see that the person with the cane had sat down in a chair outside. Finally the cop from the unmarked car came back to put his rifle away and remove his vest. Russ went over and asked if everything was ok, and all the cop said was “wrong information”. Soon the cops left and all was well again.

Now for the rest of the story…..as it turns out the man has a couple pinched nerves in his back and has been in so much pain he can hardly walk. He had been trying to reach his FL doctor to try and get some stronger meds, and no one was returning his call. The last time he had called earlier in the day, he got the answering machine and was so angry that he left a message saying that the pain so bad that if something wasn’t done he might as well shoot himself. Evidently when the doctor’s office got that message, they called the cops who have to come prepared for anything. When his wife opened the door and saw those assault rifles pointed at her, she said she nearly had a heart attack! They made her come outside and wouldn’t let her go back in to get her husband who she said was in so much pain he couldn’t get up from his chair. She told us her husband is such a pussycat and doesn’t even have a gun, but he was so angry that he wanted them to understand just how much pain he was in! So this is a valuable lesson for all of us…don’t offhandedly say you’re going to shoot yourself unless you want the swat team at your door!!