Orlando is popular with the British

I haven't written much lately because once we settle into a place, things become more routine. Seems no matter where you are, you need to establish some sort of routine.

In going around Kissimmee and Orlando I'm hearing a lot of British accents. Sometimes I strike up a conversation with a bloke and apparently it's a school holiday time in thier country. Anytime I go out with the dogs I attract people who are homesick for thier dogs. They want to pet Muffy and William and show me pictures of the doggy they left at home. We both enjoy the encounter.

Yesterday I met a lady and her son from the UK and it was her first time to our country. She said it was everything she had ever heard it was and she was very impressed. I welcomed her to our country and felt proud of the great things I was hearing. We can all be ambassadors in the right situation.

There are so many people from the United Kingdom here that at the clubhouse there is a paper printed here in Orlando but full of news from the UK. Here's a picture of the one from today:

Looks like the UK has the same problem with fraud and disability or incapacity claimants as we do.

It was in the 90's here today so part of my 'routine' is to sometimes sit by the pool in the morning with my morning coffee. That's the time of the day when it's not too hot and the humidity is lower. Boy life is rough.

An update on the kittens; they are safe, they are being fed and they are in an undisclosed location. They are part of the kitten protection program. Here's proof that they are alive and well:

 No, I'm not picking her nose.

At first they were unapproachable, but now they are very lovey. They will make great pets someday.

I am enjoying taking random pictures of things that catch my fancy. Here are some of the photos I've taken lately:

This looks innocent, but it is an ant hill for red ants and if you disturb them you will get bitten and it hurts! These ant hills are all over the place here.

This is a flower that has lost its bloom. I took this as it was getting dark and the flash makes this look like fireworks. Here's the same flower without the flash:

I love the contrast of the two photos.

Here's a picture of a favorite flower:

Amy plans to plant some of these Birds of Paradise at the house in California.

These are electric cars parked in the town of Celebration.

They have special parking spots.

I took this picture today because when I looked up I liked the way the lamp post was framed by the cloud.



As you can see, there weren't too many clouds in the sky today.

Don't worry Florida, I don't plan on feeding or harassing your gators!



Oh no, not kittens on vacation!

The dogs and I go on walks here in the resort where we are living everyday and one day I noticed some kittens; little kittens, adorable kittens like these:

So after I walked the dogs I went back and it's clear these kittens belong to a feral mother. What do I do? If you know me, you know I love animals and do not want these kittens to grow up wild and unneutered and unspayed.

So I tell the people in the clubhouse and they tell me I can call animal control to pick up the kittens. They also inform me that if the kittens are too young they will be put to sleep immediately. NO!!!!

So I call animal control to ask how big the kittens need to be before they will attempt to adopt them out and not kill them. The guideline is two pounds; these kittens do not weigh 2 pounds yet.

So I guess I will be feeding these kittens and when they are big enough I will call animal control. What I really want to do is catch the babies and keep them where I know they will be safe, but this probably isn't practical.

I have caught 5 blue gill fish with my rod; I threw them all back but here's a picture of my largest one:

Remember, my feet are huge!

As luck would have it there is a fly fishing expo near me so tomorrow I plan to take my rod there and get some tips from the pro. Never thought I'd be excited about going to a fishing expo!

I have seen my first gators! I didn't see them where I fish, I saw them in a pond/lake in the town of Celebration. I've been there twice and like it; it's like a poor man's Disney because it has these fakey pretty buildings but you don't have to pay admission. They have a great path around the lake where I can walk the dogs. Here are my gator pictures:

Don't worry, they are only about 4 feet long; they are babies.

On our walk the other day, I saw a beautiful flower and I'm a sucker for taking pictures of these beautiful creations:

I'm also including another picture of where we are staying; for a gated community there is a lot of wildlife; for example last night we saw an armadillo!



Gators = Florida's official critter?

Since arriving in Orlando, I feel like a lazy bum; the last two mornings I've taken hubby to Disney World and haven't picked him up until the park closes. In between I've been enjoying our new location and just taking it easy.

I have gone fishing twice in the small pond behind the townhouse. When I first asked about fishing in the pond, the lady at the desk in the clubhouse seemed appalled because she said 'There are alligators in there!'. Well, that could be a little bit of a deterrent; however, I decided to find out more.

I mentioned I was at Walmart in the sporting goods department talking to the employee who was at the counter. Now he was a great one to talk to because he has a lot of experience fishing in the area. If you ever look at a map of Florida you will see it has a tons of lakes.

So I asked the clerk about 'gators and he said you only have to worry about the gators in the spring when it's mating season. He said they get pretty testy at that time as they search and compete for a mate. The rest of the time the gators would rather not mess with a human. Well this made me feel a lot better about trying some fly casting in the small pond on the property.

I asked how I would know if the pond had fish or had been stocked with fish; at this the clerk chuckled and informed me that the whole state of Florida sits on reef type of material and that most if not all the lakes are connected underneath the ground. He gave me the example of the pond in his area being completely drained and when there was no water, there were no fish, gators, etc. According to him when the pond was refilled, all the aquatic life was back because they had an underground system to use to move.

He also said if I saw egret birds at the side of the pond that it's  sure sign of fish. They wait for the smaller fish to come near shore and the smaller fish come near shore to get away from the bigger fish. Here's a picture of my little pond and there are a lot of egrets fishing on the edge.

I then talked to a gentlemen here at the clubhouse about fishing and gators and he said he's been here over 2 years and only seen one gator in the area where I will be fishing. The gator was only about 4 feet long. So the good news is I'm not afraid to go fishing, but the bad news is I don't want to take the dogs because I've seen gators in the water and when the dogs get close to the water the gators start swimming closer.

I haven't caught anything yet, but I'm still experimenting with which fly to use. I could see fish nibble at my bait today, so I think it's just a matter of time before we have a fish dinner! I'm sure getting a lot of good use out of the rod I was recently given as a gift by the folks at Casting for Recovery.

Today the dogs and I saw 3 sandhill cranes calmly walking in the parking lot where we live. They didn't seem too bothered by the dogs, but the dogs were on leash.

I took my mom to lunch today and had a nice drive along the back roads from Orlando to Tavares. Mom is happy I'm in the area for a while.

Here is a picture of the gate where we enter and leave and also a picture of Muffy on the walking path here; I hope I don't lose her!

The Magic Kingdom

We arrived in the late afternoon on Sunday at the place we will be renting for a month. This place is very close to Disney World which was our objective.

We unloaded all the stuff we had in the car and then I went exploring while hubby took a much deserved nap. He has driven this whole trip! I headed for the clubhouse pool area; there I met some lovely people from Scotland. We had a very nice chat; too bad they are leaving today for home:-(
Since we're going to be here for a whole month I'll post pictures of the area slowly. We are renting a townhouse in a gated community. This morning we took hubby to Disney World and dropped him off for the day. We are less than 10 miles from the heart of the park; I will stay at the townhouse and put things away and go shopping for necessities.

There is a great pool area here and they have 'spa day' twice a week. The dogs and I took a little walk on the nature walk path after we dropped off hubby. Hubby will probably film half the day and then come back to the condo for a rest and then go back to film some more.

The townhouse is 3 br and 2.5 baths; we got the lead to it on Craigslist. We put an ad for a place and we also look for places. In this case the owner of this townhouse contacted us from out ad. We post a picture of the two of us and the dogs so people can picture the type of people they are renting their property. This works well for them and for us. I've successfully used Craigslist for several things; you do need to be careful in some cases due to potential scams.

Later today I went to Walmart for some essentials for the townhouse, while I was there I stopped and talked to an employee in the sporting goods department. I asked him about fishing laws and techniques in Florida. Turns out that the little pond right behind my townhouse is a great place to fish. Since it is on private property and the property is gated, no license is needed! Yipee, glad I brought my rod!

Arriving in Florida

Hubby and I have a contest when we go south (this includes CA) to see who can spot the first palm tree; well we spotted our first palm tree in Nashville near our motel, but I don't think fake orange palm trees outside of hooters should count!

On Saturday, October 16, we attended the annual Cherokee Pignic in Canton, GA. Boy oh boy could you smell the BBQ in the air! Yummy stuff; but I just can't figure out why I'm not losing weight on this trip?????

They even had deep fat fried creamed corn, now that's a new one in my book.

We walked around the Pignic and I even took part in the cake walk; I haven't done that for years and it wasn't like the old time ones where you walked and then they called out a number and if you were on the number you won. At this one you bought tickets with numbers on them. I didn't win a cake, but perhaps that was for the best.

On display were some really interesting old pieces of equipment. There was an old steam engine pump that was running and then a fantastic display of old washing machines. Here are some photos of hubby filming them in action:

The Pignic stop was a nice little stop in the south for us. I love hearing the southern accents and seeing families enjoying the day. When we got off the highway on our way to the Pignic, we must have passed 5 Baptist churches. Most of the AM radio programs were religious in nature.

We stayed in Tifton, GA Saturday night and today we arrived in Florida. First stop? To see my mom:

We rented a place very near Disney World; I'll have more info on that later!

Time in Columbia and on our way south

Had a fabulous time with Brenda in Columbia; such a dear person (thanks for everything Bren!). One day we got to do a little shopping at a sporting goods store and Bren helped me pick out my new fishing outfit; watch out fish!!

They even had a place where Brenda and I could sit a spell and play an aggressive game of checkers.

I'm getting to be such a sportsman with my fishing and all that I like to share my knowledge when and where I can; it seems only fair.

As we drove to St. Louis we veered from the main road (I-70) and went through Fulton, MO. We finally found a police car we think our Prius could out run:

When we got on the main road we started seeing a sign that was hard to read going 70 mph; for a while we thought if we hit a road worker there was a reward:

Big news;  I got to see my brother in St. Louis! It worked out perfectly for us to meet for lunch. We drove from the west and he flew from the east and out lives touched for a couple of wonderful reminisent hours. He looks absolutely fabulous; still my buddy brother. Love him, love him, that's all I can say along with feeling very lucky that we got to see each other. You take your precious moments in life where you can get them.

After seeing Larry a 'must do' was to stop at a White Castle hamburger joint. If you've never had a White Castle here are a few pictures for you. If you have had a White Castle then you can imagine the smell of the burger, bun and onions.

After seeing Larry we drove to Nashville for the night. Today we're planning to make it to FL, however we're stopping in Canton, GA for a Pignic. Not sure what that is, but I can fill you in later.

We have a lead on a couple of houses in FL but nothing secured yet. The offers have been interesting. We plan to go on down and look at the houses that have been offered to us to see which would fit our needs the best.

Here's my cute dog pictures for the day; I like the one that looks like the dogs look like either a dog with two heads or a siamese dog. The other one was taken at the Shelter Gardens in Columbia.

More later.....

Arrived in Columbia, MO

On Tuesday, October 12 we left Selina, KS; we stopped in Kansas City to visit our friend Joe. Joe is a college friend of hubby so we had a lovely lunch in KC before hitting the road to Columbia. It was great to catch up with an old friend. Joe is a film maker and has been promoting his film about the Cowtown Ballroom in Kansas City. It was a hopping place in its day. Here's a link if you're interested:

http://www.cowbr.com/live/

One of the great things about traveling across the country is that you can  pull out your Christmas list and see who might be along the way. We all seem to have regrets that we don't keep in touch with valuable people in our lives, but we're trying not to have that regret.

I am so excited at the prospect of seeing someone very special this weekend. When I lived in Columbia from 1980 to 1985 I went through a major transition. I came to the town as a married woman and within a year I was a single mother of my two girls away from home. I look back now and it I should have been scared out of my wits and maybe should have run for home in Indiana; but I didn't and I'll never regret that decision.

One reason I stayed was that I had a steady job at an insurance company; Shelter Insurance. I was receiving child support, but it certainly wasn't enough on it's own to take care of us. Corrie was going through stages of evaluation for her disability at the University of Missouri and we had established the girls in school.

One of the things that held me together here in Columbia was my wonderful infrastructure of friends. To this day they are dear to me. I'm staying with my very good friend Brenda who still works for Shelter. I also met hubby here, so Columbia has always held a special place in my heart.

As luck and fate would have it, in the first duplex my first husband and I lived in here, our neighbor was a young medical school student. We became friends and after I moved into an apartment we remained friends. Then one day we decided to adopt each other as siblings. I highly recommend this informal procedure. He didn't have a sister and I didn't have a brother and we loved each other in that way. So I have a brother who is a pediatric cardiologist; who says you can't pick your family? I also have a son, but I'll tell you about that informal adoption at some other time.

With a good job and a chance to advance with my career, with my new brother and friends who helped me live and laugh, Columbia became home for 5 years. They are cherished years because I was able to manage in a pretty tough situation.

My brother lives in Wisconsin and as you can imagine is one busy person. Through the years my brother and I email, but we haven't gotten to see each other for at least 20 years. He did come visit us once in Oregon.

So again, as fate would have it my brother will be in St. Louis this weekend for a class reunion. We are trying to set up a day and time we can see each other. I'm prepared to have him too busy visiting friends and 'other' family to see me, but that's okay because I know we'll connect someday.

So today I will work on that connection with my brother and try to find some things around Brenda's house that I can do to make her life better. Bren had a rough summer due to health issues and I would like to help her if I can.

Wish me luck with the connection with my brother.

Goodbye Colorado - Hello Kansas

Hubby created a map of our travels; this way you can follow the route if you want.

2010HansenFallTrip

Sunday it was stormy in Fort Collins but my sister Lizzy and I managed to take a walk in a park near her home; here is a photo of our walk.

I also helped my sister clean the habitat for my nephew's ball python; my job was to keep the python happy while my sister rearranged the habitat. Apparently it's good for the snake to be handled; as he wrapped himself around me I wasn't sure if it was going to be good for me! However, he just seemed to want to snuggle to get warm. Here's some photos of Adam and I:

You never know what type of critters you're going to encounter at my sister's house. One time they had a pirrana fish.

We started today out in Fort Collins and left after my sister left for work; we stopped in Denver to see my sister Patty. She had made us a delicious no sugar strawberry pie - yummy!

Tonight we are staying in Salina, KS and tomorrow it's on to Columbia, MO.We'll stay with my dear friend Brenda and hopefully see some more friends while we're there.

Here are a few more cute dog photos I captured (sorry I can't help myself!):