Celebrate Good Times!

This past week at Epcot’s Eat to the Beat concert series we enjoyed the funky, energetic disco sounds of Kool & the Gang and the laid back, mellow sounds of Spyro Gyra…quite a contrast.

Tues. we arrived for the 6:30 performance of Kool & the Gang, and what a show it was! They started the set with 3 songs in a row with no break and had nearly everyone dancing in their seats. Being a self-proclaimed former disco queen, I was in heaven! After they slowed the tempo a bit, they launched into Ladies Night and invited all the ladies to stand up and dance. Oh, you don’t have to ask me twice! Shawn came down and even danced with one of the ladies while singing! The last song was Celebration!, and though it was hot and humid, nearly the entire audience was on their feet clapping, singing, and dancing! We’ve seen several great acts over the last few years at Epcot, but we both agreed this was the first group we’d seen that had the entire audience so involved. Of course, we stayed for the 7:45 show and were able to get seats in the 4th row. Almost from the moment they stepped onstage this time, they invited everyone to stand up and dance…oh, yeah, I was up immediately. This time when they started Ladies Night all the ladies were invited to come down to the stage. A lady seated in a wheelchair was at the end of our row, which was right at the end of the stage’s catwalk, so none of us were able to get through, but we were close enough to boogie anyway. The party continued on during Too Hot, Get Down On It, Jungle Boogie, and of course, Celebration! At one point several of the members came down the catwalk to jam with sax player, Dennis Thomas, amidst the partying crowd. They crammed a lot of songs into their half hour, and what a blast!












Now contrast this with Fri. night when we attended the 5:15 performance of Spyro Gyra, a jazz fusion band with such hits as Morning Dance and Shaker Song. There was no singing or dancing, and they only played 3 songs but each one lasted about 10 min. It was all just mellow and laid back on a day that wasn’t quite as hot and humid. Though I thoroughly enjoy their music, and we can now say that we've seen them in person, we could have just as easily popped in a CD at home and enjoyed them just as much.

There was a little excitement at the campground last weekend when a hot air balloon full of tourists landed right here at Lake Magic RV Resort only a few hundred feet from where we’re parked. Several companies offer balloon rides in the area so we regularly see them especially on Sun. mornings, sometimes seeing as many as 10 in the sky at a time. We don’t know exactly what happened to cause its descent, but it brought several folks out of their rigs, most with cameras in hand. The chase car showed up a few minutes later, maneuvering their way through the park to get to where the balloon had landed. All the passengers were told to stay in the basket until they could secure, anchor, and deflate the balloon, and help them out. Now there’s an unexpected twist to your ride!

Other than that it was doctor appointments and pretty much hangin’ out in the coach. Due to a follow-up appointment, the trip to the Everglades has been scratched but still plan to head to the Keys the following week.

Another Birthday at Disney!

With Russ’ birthday being Sept. 27, he definitely wanted to be back in Orlando so we could go to Disney World. The main reason being that had we gone with our original plan of not leaving St. Louis until the 29th, he would have missed the opportunity to receive his free Disney gift card because you have to pick it up on your birthday! We didn’t want to miss that by just a couple days! Since we have an annual pass and don’t need the free admission, the gift card equals the price of one day’s admission (currently $79) and can be used for merchandise in any of the parks. You may recall that I picked mine up on my birthday in March (for further information see Happy Birthday To Me!) and we’re saving both to use towards the end of the year when WDW will put its 2009 merchandise on sale. More bang for the buck!

We spent most of the day hanging out at the RV because 1) we were so tired from the long drive over the previous couple days, and 2) it was so blasted hot and humid! About 5:30pm we finally headed over to Epcot, where Russ got his gift card and Happy Birthday button to wear the rest of the day (this is always fun because as you walk around the park cast members (employees) and even other guests wish you Happy Birthday!) A couple days earlier the 13th annual International Food & Wine Festival had begun at Epcot, and for those of you who don't know, this festival is held for about 6 weeks each year offering food and beverage samples at nominal fees from more than 25 different countries. However, included during this event at no additional charge is the Eat to the Beat concert series held at the American Pavilion, featuring an incredible line-up of top name entertainment. The artists change every few nights, with three 40 minute shows nightly, and on the 27th it was Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (http://www.bbvd.com/), a modern swing band. Not really knowing anything about their music, we weren’t sure what to expect, but wow, were we pleasantly surprised! This 9-piece group was awesome! Their latest album is a tribute to Cab Calloway, and several numbers were performed from it as well as some original songs. In spite of the heat (felt like a sauna), we watched not only the 6:30 performance but also stayed around for the 7:45 show. If you ever get the chance to see this fun, high energy group perform, don’t miss it. Of course we finished the evening by watching the fireworks spectacular, Illuminations.

The next group we saw perform a few days later was Starship Featuring Mickey Thomas (http://www.mickeythomas.com/), and it was another awesome performance! He definitely hasn’t lost his voice, and the gal doing lead vocals with him (Stephanie Calvert) is amazing…man, can this gal sing! They sang such Starship hits as Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now, Sara, Somebody to Love, and had the place rockin’ with We Built This City. Again we stayed for two shows, enjoying every minute especially since

they were not exactly the same lineup of songs.

Instead of staying for the third show, we decided to walk around, seeing the sights, and checking out some of our other favorite things at Epcot. When we had arrived at 5pm, amazingly there were still Fast Passes left for Soarin’ and the timing worked out perfectly allowing us to board after 7:15, which was after the second show was over. From there we walked over to ride “Finding Nemo”, and then had time to see Turtle Talk with Crush and ride Spaceship Earth before Illuminations began. In case you’re new to our blog, you may wonder why we love going to Walt Disney World so much. To fully answer that question, click on the link and check out our blog post from 2007, So Why Disney World?

As I noted in our last post, we’re staying at Lake Magic RV Resort in Clermont, FL, just outside of Orlando and no more than 15 min. from Disney World. This is where we spent 4 months last winter, but since we are only here for a couple of weeks this time, we’re staying on the Coast to Coast plan and paying only $18/night. We’re located on the opposite side of the campground under the shade of a big, beautiful tree, one of only a few in the entire park. Even so, we’ve had to run both air conditioners 24/7 most of the time because it’s been so hot, even setting new record highs in the area.

Before arriving here, we learned that our friends from New York, Susan and Chris, had purchased a vacation rental home in the area. As it turns out, the place is only 5 minutes away, and they happen to be in town this week. So Fri. night we dropped by their place with pizza and beer in hand to welcome them to the area. They’ve been busy redecorating the place and already have quite a number of rentals lined up, but saving a few weeks here and there for themselves. No pictures this time, but we’re looking forward to more visits this winter.

The rest of our time here so far has been spent mainly going to doctor appointments and getting lab work done. As I mentioned in April, surgery has been recommended to remove the scarred and narrowed section of my colon, and one of the appointments was with a surgeon. To our dismay, he is not recommending it be done laparoscopically because of the scarring but rather conventionally, meaning longer recovery time. Though I could have had the surgery in a couple of weeks, we’ve decided to wait till after the first of the year when we’ll be settled in one place for several months. We’ve got another week here before heading even further south towards the Everglades and the Keys for a few weeks. Later gator!