Last of the travel log going to Florida

5:19 am

Yep, John "the bat" got us up again! That's what Cathi said: he's always up at night. She then told the dogs that "When we eat lunch at 6am, I'll give you a treat!"

Obviously, someone is too excited to sleep! That and he wants to be through Jacksonville before rush hour, and really to hopefully get in our site early.

We stop at the Hess station right outside the campground to fill up the tank and grab coffee.

5:46 am

Welcome to Florida!

Never entered the state in the dark before!

7:47 am

Turn off to I-4! I woke up just in time!

Weather is beautiful! Warm and sunny! And we understand that the snow stopped at home last night.

8:07 am

See billboard with "Vascectomy! No needles! No scapel!" John finished it with "We just use our teeth!"

Traffic jam. Thankfully we're going on Love Bug Rd (Rt 417) soon and will miss all this. We call it Love Bug Rd after the first time we went on it and it was love bug (they look like Jersey lightning bugs) mating season. Thousands of them were in the air!

8:15 am

Turn on to Love Bug Rd. Hopefully, traffic will be better.

Cathi and Casey were cuddle buddies in the chair, but Casey moved up here when I had pretzels. Now she and Elphie are sleeping side by side across my lap. It's funny when they lift their heads in unison to see something.

First toll plaza. Lose my lap buddies. :(

I smell garlic in the air. John says it's Old Lady smell. Cathi asks does he go around smelling old ladies?

9:00 am

We're here! Oh how great! So beautiful!

When we pull up to the guard post to explain that we're checking in, the CM discovered we frequently stay here. He waved his hand towards Fort Wilderness and said, "Welcome hom!" Oh, he made my whole trip with that!

We can't get on our site yet; the people who have been staying there haven't checked out, so we walk the dogs, use the restrooms, and relax. I'm so happy that I throw myself in John's arms and give him a huge hug as we walk into the lobby!

John wants a nap and sends Cathi & I to breakfast. We find a Hidden Mickey in the kennel sighn! And then take the bus to the Settlement where I am so busy pointing things out to Cathi that I walk right into one of those yellow poles! We both crack up and turn around to see the bus driver grinning and shaking his head.

We go to the gift shop and saw a great camper ornament on the tree. We took it down to get a price, but the CM told us, "Ma'am, this isn't for sale. It's a decoration." Cathi thanked me for getting her into trouble already! Getting arrested for stealing ornaments!

We go to Trails End and get the bad news that you can't get the buffet to go anymore! That stinks. So we sit down to eat and bring John breakfast back. Actually, I toast him a bagel, get some cornbread and other things, and we stuff them in Cathi's bag in case the CMs tell us we can't take them wil us. We felt like we stole it! Cathi thanks me for getting her in trouble yet again.

Cathi got a call from her in-laws while we were eating and we thought it was bad news. Thankfully, everybody is fine. Our waitress is from Cinnamonsin NJ!

We take the bus back to Outpost and get the same driver again. We check with the lobby and the people are still are in our site! Cathi passes time by reading the resort information and sees the small note that while everything is done to be safe, they can't guarantee something like a snake or gator isn't in the lake. She swears John has joined the list of brothers-in-law trying to kill her. ;)

It's not until 12:30 that we get clearance to go, and when we get there, the people are still there! But they're leaving, a mother and son, and we finally get to settle in.

We get site number 322, one of the ones we requested!

As we check out the site, we see Carol walking Zak and Zoe and stop to say hi. She tells us they've been watching out for us all day. Sharon and her husband are "up there somewhere", so it's Tagrel.com homeweek here in loop 300! We tell her our sister, Cathi, is in the van with our dogs.

While we're setting up, (Cathi nicely took the dogs for a walk while we backed up the camper), Gary stops by to say hello. He had sent a note to us before that Fort Wilderness is clearing out the brush around sites; a lot of it was messed up a few years ago with the storms, so they clearing out the ratty pieces of brush to replant with better brush. It makes sense, but it makes things look bare. One of the things we love about here is how the brush gives privacy to the sites; fortunately, our loop hasn't been cleared yet and the brush is fine.

Cathi & I go to Meadows to pick up the golf cart. Carol stops by on her bike and Cathi tells me how Carol has said hello to her while walking the dogs; she didn't know how Carol knew her name! Carol says she could move in a minute, and loves being back at Fort Wilderness again, but Cathi tells her how Gary said he still loved snow. She rolls her eyes.

We get the same bus driver again! Poor guy can't get away from us!

The CM at the Meadows Bike Barn asks if I had ever rented before and I say yes, realing off the rules of the electric carts: buses and traffic have right away, if I damage the cart, I'm screwed, etc. She laughs and says that saves a lot of explanation. I hear her say we have cart 626 which, being a Disney geek, I know is Stitch's experiment number so that'll be easy to remember! It also has a fold down windshield which will make John happy, and is a newer cart with a battery meter. It feels so great to be scooting around Fort Wilderness again with the warm breeze playing around and the serenity of the campground all around. Plus, the Griswolds are back in their spot at 301, and 303 is giving them a run for their money!

I'm so happy! This is the best part! It's all in front of us now.