2019 December, XMAS with Grandson, Universal Studios

 Hi Everyone – Departing DC in the Rialta it was so good to be on the road again. Seems we really love the lifestyle of RV traveling and can't get enough of it! Slept so good it is uncanny.

Dinner with Doug and family at El Jalapeno we catch up on what's been going on. Missing our other grandson Alex for he is in boot camp, it was still good to get together, I guess having everyone in one place at the same time will be harder to do from now on.

Of course, every trip starts with a Waffle House breakfast. 

Picking up essentials at a Walmart we head to Savannah, GA for the first stop. Izi Travel app has a good tour of Savannah. Riding around the city listening to Izi describe each location where ghosts had made appearances and the buildings that were important such as Juliet Gordon Low who created the “Girl Scouts" in the 1920’s. Cool stuff and fun to learn about. Or the servant who haunts the kitchen and throws pans around!

Leopold’s ice cream parlor, mmmmm, with marble countertops and soda jerks. Parking was in high demand, so Tanya circled the block while Zach and I ran in and picked up some double scoop ice cream.

Zach has a lunch visit with Grandma Doris at Texas Roadhouse – so much food! Catching up is always fun, and Doris shares pictures of Zach’s visit with her the previous year and make plans for spring break since he will be with us for the summer. Always too short amount of time and try to keep planning to spend more time together.

Here we are finally at Universal Studios!

Zach:

We got up early to get breakfast then took an Uber to Universal so we could get our tickets and get in before it became crowded. Once we finally got in the first thing, we did was ride the Fast and Furious ride, it was cool how they added the “smoke” for effects.

Went over to Dragon Alley and found a wand that caught my interest. It was filled with darkness like my soul, so I felt a special connection with it. 😊 The wand was interactive within the park, so I went on to practice the dark arts.

Tom:

Zach’s wand had interactive properties in the Harry Potter area of the park. We're able to find many of the features, and Zach was able to make them perform magic!

Zach does Magic! – click this link - https://youtu.be/PPRN7arZP_M

 

Getting back to the campground, Tanya put on some Christmas music, for it is Christmas Eve. Before long, Tanya and I are dancing to the music and Zach joins in and we're dancing all together having a great time dancing in the campground. Soo good to move your body after driving all day!

Tanya:

Next morning, the Christmas day, we slept in a little bit. The weather was so nice at the night – a light breeze, very quiet, not too cold, the perfect sleeping weather. We went to the same Waffle House for breakfast as we did yesterday. Even though it was noisy there, we decided to brave it, and it was even more loud there today! As we were eating our food, several people walked in and started handing $100 bills to the staff – that surely made everyone working there very happy!

After our very, very loud but good breakfast, we went back to Universal. We're currently standing in line waiting for our rollercoaster ride. Keeping my fingers crossed that it’s not going to be too scary… I'm a bit afraid of the rides… will be brave.

Tom:

After a few rides at the Studios Park, we ride the train to the Islands of Adventure. The train was part of the movie (Zach lets us know what fits the movies, for we're so not with it on this type of thing) getting off the train the first stop is for sustenance, WOW, you know the cost is high but it's still a shock.

Castle ride and I hope the food stays down:::::: 😊

Pictures that talk, holograms getting us to the castle, I'm assuming it is scenes from the movies or something like that. What great science!

 Good ride through the castle. Tanya and I head back to the RV for a much-needed rest, and Zach soldiers on!

Zach:

I rode the Harry Potter motorcycle coaster and bought some chocolate frogs. Then I went to back to the RV and we sat around watching a Christmas movie – I don’t remember the title, but it was good. I made us all dinner and we all ate together at the table while watching the movie. Once it got dark, we headed back into the park to see the Christmas parade.

 

 

 

And cool cars too!!

Grandpa couldn’t hold out for the rest of the night so him and Tanya went back to the RV as I stayed and rode the Transformers ride and watched the water show. Went back to the campground and fell asleep when my head hit the pillow.

Now its Thursday, the day after Christmas, and we decided to start the day out with something different, so we went to First Watch for breakfast. Once we got to Universal, we decided to lose our breakfast on the first ride, the Hulk coaster. It goes up and shoots you off going at a high speed in just seconds. Lines started getting long so we left and went to Walmart and picked up some things. Before heading back to Universal we stopped at Burger King and got some whoppers. I went off on my own while grandpa and Tanya went to the campground and did their own thing. I went and scouted out Volcano Bay, but I couldn’t go into the water because the park was about to close. After checking out the park I went back to the regular theme park and got a classic Cinnabon because I was getting hungry and needed something to eat. I haven’t had one in a while, and it was so worth it!

After enjoying my delicious Cinnabon roll it was time to have some fun. I rode the Cat in the Hat coaster then went off to so fast spinning ride. I got dizzy before the ride even started: it had a wheel in the middle that you could turn, and it made you spin faster, so once I sat down, I started spinning it before the ride even started. Once it stopped, I could not get out of it to save my life!

I went looking around for other things to explore and found an arcade, so I went inside and got some tokens to play some games. I stayed there playing games till the park closed. It was so much fun! I could have stayed there all-night long-playing games. I was lucky enough to win tickets in a crane machine on my first try and I ended the night with 910 tickets which I used to get candy. 😊

 

Pic-tickets

 

The next morning, we had our usual Waffle House breakfast. Grandpa was planning to do some work repairing the black water tank in the RV that morning. I had a chance to help him with that but had to man up and deny the job to go to Universal! I just couldn’t take the fun away from my grandpa and leave him being bored with nothing to do. 😊

So, I headed off to Volcano Bay and went down all the slides. Most of them required at least 2 people, so I met some new people and had fun. But the best of all was the 6-foot drop slide: you slide down a tube and at the bottom is a 6-foot drop into a 10-foot-deep pool. None of the other water rides could even compare to how much fun this one was. When I went to the other rides and they said one of the slides was more intense I expected it to be very thrilling, but it wasn’t as intense as I was hoping for.

In the afternoon we met with Grandma Doris at her hair salon and ate spinach fandango – this is our signature family dish! It was very nice to have everyone together one more time before we headed back home.

So, it has been a wonderful Christmas filled with Travel, Fun, Family

2019 December, Winter in FL, Jekyll Island

 Deciding to spend the winter in Florida like the Snowbirds we finish our home upkeep in Maryland and Doctor appointments, so we are free to be gone for an extended time.

Tanya flew to Kiev, Ukraine to visit Mom and other family while Tom takes the RV to South Carolina to visit my son and family.

Tanya Kiev trip was unlike other trips, her cousin was working in Germany and provided his home in Kiev to Tanya. Having a place to stay alone rather than staying with other family members provided time to herself to rest and relax. This also meant she was recharged and her visits to family and Mom were more interesting and fun. Interesting to learn how that impacted her visit.

Tom’s visit with family had similar results for I was able to retreat to the RV for rest and recharge. Each evening grandson Zach and I would play a card game of cribbage, interestingly each night the end of the game would be so close with each of us within 3 points of ending. Wow I’ve never seen this before and it was really a thrill.

Tanya returns from Kiev and I pick her up in Jacksonville, FL and begin our winter escape from the cold. It is the beginning of November and already 2 cold fronts have reached all the way to mid Florida. We stayed at Ocean Pond National Forest in north Florida. Nights are cold enough to snuggle under the heavy blanket and days are warm enough to kayak and fish. Sitting in the National Forest among the trees and a water view. Sunrise over the water is beautiful. What a way to begin this adventure!

Another cold front is on its way so heading farther south we go to another National Forest, Ocala NF. It is 10 degrees warmer both day and night here! Good move! Thinking about it we have been doing this since the Rialta Rally in Vermont. I guess we have been acting like snowbirds all along. Planning to paddle the Juniper Springs River we decided to postpone this paddle to go over to Crystal Springs for the close of the spring itself on November 15 and I really did want to see the Manatees in the springs.

Arranging a Boondockers Welcome stay near Crystal Springs we head over and launch the kayaks at a city park to paddle the Crystal River. Wow, the were so many Manatees in the river, this is the first time for both of us to see them up close and from a boat.  Huge mammals that breath air they would surface and raise their snout to blow air out.  One place they we're packed, there must have been 25 in this small cove and appeared to be sleeping, just floating and not moving.  It was kind of strange that there were so many and so immobile as we slowly paddled near them.

The water in Crystal spring was so clear, sit a moment and allow the ripples from the kayak to dissipate and you could see the bottom as if it was not under water. No Manatees were in the spring itself currently for the surrounding waters were still warm. We were told that soon the water would cool, and they would be inside the spring for the warmth of the constant 72-degree water all through the year.

Stay with Randy and Sonya nearby and sharing life experiences was fun, they have had a great life and career. It is always so interesting to meet other people and share life’s experiences.  It was scheduled to have rain all day the next day so we're having a down day.  Good thing for Tanya has a cold starting, this is Friday, so she has the weekend to rest and let the cold work its way through.

I kayaked the 12 miles of the Withlacoochee River to where it joins the Rainbow River, it is a wild and scenic river through cypress swamps. Very few houses and mostly near the end of the paddle with a slow current. Saw a few young hawks along the way (I recently learned they migrate during the fall). We are too far inland for the Manatees here.

Traveling back to the Ocala National Forest intending to paddle the Juniper Spring River, Tanya’s cold goes deep in her chest and some fever too, so we look for a military hospital nearby to get it checked out. At this same time the job we were expecting to hear about in Miami became indefinitely postponed. Fortunately, another company called for work and although it means giving up the dream of spending the winter in south Florida at least there is work for the winter season.

The ER in Jacksonville Naval Air Station was fantastic. Although they could not hear anything in Tanya’s chest, they took x-ray’s anyway and decreed pneumonia! Wow so glad we stopped and had this looked at. So now with drugs in hand we head north to DC for the winter.

On the way north we stop at Jekyll Island to tour the Historic District. This is Tanya’s first time here and we enjoyed the tour. First time I have seen a Christmas tree with Magnolia flowers.

A week later we have arrived and set up house in DC. Tanya’s pneumonia has cleared, and we have contact other Rialta friends in the area to meet up on weekends during the winter. This will be a great winter sharing with friends travels and experiences and keep the feeling of road warriors going throughout the winter. I plan to have some of the get together with a theme of “bring your favorite RV meal” so we can learn other recipes to have on the road!