More Disney World

During our last week at Disney World Phil and Mary Gelhorn from Braham, Minnesota, their Daughter Colleen and Granddaughter Brianna from Edgerton, Wisconsin joined us for a few days. It was a great time!

Don't worry about the guy behind them in the picture. He obviously was still trying to figure out his Christmas Shopping List!

Piratesof the Carribbean--Arrgh!

Happy Holidays

Disney World is always a place of beauty, but especially so during the Holidays.

Daughter Lori and husband Mark, Son Rich, and Grandson Ty and Fiancee' Kari (Ty asked Kari to marry him on this trip) recently spent some Holiday time at Disney World with us.

rPior to the trip, Lori held a month long Disney Trivia Contest which Kari ran away with and collected at Disney her Mickey Ice Cream Treat.

We celebrated the engagement of Ty and Kari and Rich's graduation in Journalism from the University of South Florida at St. Petersburg.

On the Kilimanjaro Safari Ride in Animal Kingdom they play about 20 seconds of a song that has held me (Marv) spellbound from the first time I have heard it. I have often asked Employees at the Ride and Animal Kingdom as to its name and where I could get a copy, but never had any luck. This time when the song came on I told Ty and Kari I would give them a $100 if they could get me a copy of that song. Of course, I never suspected they would get it done. Well, they persisted with several Employees at the ride and finally found one that made a call to a friend and they found it. It is Swahili and it is the Lord's Prayer. Its on a CD called African Dawn and available from amazon.com.

http://forums.wdwmajic.com/showthread.php?T=54314

Even in the fantasy world of Disney, reality does occur. We saw a young man, with artifical legs, and his wife pushing a stroller with two small children. He also had an obvious head wound. When we asked, he said he had been wounded in action. We thanked him for the sacrific he had made that allows us to enjoy the true amazement of freedom!

Whereever you are this Holiday Season we wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Triva Winner Kari

Graduate Rich and Kari

Kari and Ty Celebrate

Bon and Marv at Mexico at Epcot

Ty and Kari on Kilmanjaro Safari Ride in Animal Kingdom
(Kari overcomes fear of Giraffes)

Lori and Mark after Splash Mountain

Lori and Mark Relax

Bon and Jack Hannah

In an era of a seemingly endless line of self-centered "celebrity types" we have Jack Hannah who is a true Celebrity.

He grew up in rural Tennessee with a love of animals and a commitment that one day he was going to be a Zoo Keeper during a time when being a Zoo Keeper was not cool.

He achieved his goal and has gone way beyond that goal to truely be a service to the people and animals of the world.

Mr. Hannah was in Gainesville for a fundraising event for the Teaching Zoo at Santa Fe Community College. It is one of only two such programs in the nation. Mr. Hannah has been an advisory to the College for years.

Even though his voice was hoarse from 16 speaking events in 17 days in Florida, he was passionate in his time with us as he showed incredible animals and videos and answered questions.

He was common and sincere and he made us feel that he appreciated us as much as we appreciated him and we know he did.

He was gracious taking time with each for pictures and autographs.

Gainesville and St. Pete

We've been in Gainesville for a month with the exception of a short trip down to St. Petersburg last week while Rich attended class at the University of South Florida. Rich will graduate in three weeks with a degree in Journalism. The USF St. Petersburg Campus is highly regarded for journalism as it sits right next to the Poynter Journalism Institute. The value to USF is that when Journalists from all over the world come to the Poynter Institute, they often lecture at USF. Rich has heard several including those from the BBC. USF's library is the Poynter Library.

St. Petersburg is probably the most beautiful small city we have every visited. And driving in downtown is like driving in a town of 5,000. Desoto Beach lies south of St. Pete and in 2005 it was voted the #1 Beach in America. Its easy to see why when you take an early morning or late evening walk on that beach.

Rich will depart the day after he finished class for a month in Thailand and Laos. His friend Gik who is from Thailand and is working on her Doctorate at Unversity of Florida in Gainesville will travel to Thailand on December 23rd. We will watch Rich's dog Brownie until he returns on January 8th. Brownie is 16 years old.

While in Gainesville we have attended several sporting events at the University of Florida including Men's Basketball, Ladies Basketball and Volleyball and even a NCAA Regional Cross Country Meet which was held at the U of F Golf Course which is a block from the home we are staying.

We have visited some State Parks that feature fresh water springs. The last one we visited had a fresh water flow of 150 million gallons a day. Manatee's like to come into that spring when the Gulf of Mexico water temperature cools since the spring waters have a temp of 72 degrees. We saw a Manatee on the day of our visit.

After Thanksgiving here in Gainesville, family from MN (Lori, Mark, Ty, Kari) will meet us for a week at Disney World.

On December 14 we will end our stay here at David West's home. Its a great home right on the edge of the U of F Campus. Mr. West is a retired Attorney who is a good friend of our Son, Rich. He will return home from three months in Paris on the 14th.

Oct 15--Gainesville, FL--Home for Two Months

We arrived yesterday at the home of David West in Gainesville, Florida where we will call home for a couple of months with the exception of a week at Disney World.

We traveled just under 4000 miles in 17 days. We had planned on being on the road for about 30 days, but we cut out a large segment of Canada and a couple of other stops in North Carolina. If we had gone the full route we probably would have traveled 6,000 miles. We are glad we made the change, but we definitely will go back to Canada as we want to see Quebec and Nova Scotia. Probably do a tour.

In addition to see Canada and New England in the fall, we also wanted to look at some areas that we might consider for a winter home spot. We found none.

David's home is great and Bon is looking forward to having a kitchen for awhile and I found a nice spot to do some business.

Our Son Rich and his Gik met David West when they put up some posters to do clean-up work after a hurricane a few years ago. They had just arrived in Gainesville and Gik had started work on her Doctorate at U of F and Rich was attending Santa Fe College.

Since then they have become great friends and Rich has done a lot of carpetry work for David.

David is a retired (very young Retiree I might mention) Attorney who had worked for U of F, Had his Own Law Firm and various other ventures. He is a very interesting person. He has a wonderlust for travel and as I write this he is spending three months in Paris and other places. In fact, I just got an e-mail from him that he just returned from Morocco and I know in a couple of weeks he is off to Italy.

We are now officially Defending National Champion Florida Gator Fans and presently ranked #2 University of South Florida Bulls (Rich's University) Fans! Of course, we are still pulling for University of Minnesota and University of Arizona! I understand from my friend Dr. Bob in Tucson, that Arizona has had a couple of VERY CLOSE LOSSES!

Oct 14--Callaway Gardens, Georgia

Beautiful!

Oct 13--Atlanta, Georgia

Oct 11-12--Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

On the way to Gatlinburg we passed through Pigeon Forge which is like mini-Branson with a lot more traffic. So we did the tourist thing and hit a couple of shows; Country Tonight and Dixie Stampede.

Oct 10, Roanoke, VA

On our way to Roanoke we made a short stop at Antietam National Battlefield. This is the site of the Bloodiest Day (September 17, 1862) of the Civil War as a total of 23110 were either killed or wounded.

The battle was basically a draw, Union General George McCellan hailed it as a victory. Shortly after the battle President Lincoln visited McCellan at the battlefield where he learned that McCellan had gotten a little carried away with his victory talk. Lincoln wanted McCellan to press the attach to General Lee, but that was not McCellan's approach. In November Lincoln removed McCellan.

In a way it was a victory for the Union in that the Confederates had a smaller army and could ill afford equal loses.

Oct 9--Chambersburg, PA

Chambersburg, PA is where Lee camped his Troops after marching from the Richmond, VA area and before he debarked on Gettysburg.

Oct 8--Binghamton, NY

We somewhat reluctantly departed New England today after nearly a week of some of the most wonderful sites we have ever seen. Fall in New England is everything it is billed to be and the stop at Boothbay, Maine was like a mini visit to Nova Scotia. The fall color pictures we took don't begin to do justice to the spectacular colors. And in fact, in some of the areas that were a sea of red and orange we did not take any pictures. What's the point? One simply must come and see. We are already planning a return trip.

We have already traveled 2300 since September 29 and probably have another 1500 to go. Next area to visit is Shenandoah Valley.

Oct 7--Rutland, Maine

Oct 5--6--Boothbay Harbour, Maine

Beautiful Atlantic Ocean Harbour Town. Will spend a couple of nights here. Bon is doing Laundry as I do this blog update. Had fresh lobster last night.

From here we will head inland and south.

GO GATORS

Oct 5--Plainview, Vermont--Where Rich Once Lived

Oct 4--Montpelier--Capital of Vermont

Beautiful Little Capital City. Drove up to Seyon State Park. Fall colors in Vermont are everything that they "are billed".

Bon got stung by a bee and at 1:30am ended up in Emergency at Hospital which was conviently across the street from our hotel. Everything was OK, just a quite substantial reaction.

Oct 3--Burlington, Vermont--Lake Champlain

Great Bike Trail right along Lake Champlain--I (Marv) did 8 mile right on the morning of Oct 4--Great!

Oct 2--Ottawa, Ontario

Parliment Building at Ottawa, Capital of Canada

Rideau Canal

Cathederal of Notre Dame which we think is in O'Canada Film at Epcot Center

Oct 1--North Bay, Ontario--Lake Nipissing

Sept 29-30 Hayward, WI--Newberry, MI

Camping with Rich in Smokey Mountains

Rich had a break before starting his final semester of his Senior year in Journalism at the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg, Florida and he decided to get out of the summer heat and humidity for a bit by going camping in the Smokey Mountains. Since my schedule is SOMEWHAT flexible I decided to join him.

I flew into Tampa and Rich and I went to Gainesville for a night and then on to the Smokies. We camped at Balsam Mountain and Cataloochi and also spent a night in Cheerokee, NC where we went to the Outdoor Theater, "Unto these Hills" a great story about the Cheerokee Nation. While the temperature in the surrounding area was 100 degrees or more, it was nice and cool in the Smokies. We also spent a night in Asheville, NC before I flew back home out of Asheville.

Rich then went back into the Smokies for a couple of more nights before heading back to Florida.

Scotland--A Great place to Golf

A great trip with a great friend, Dr. Bob!

We stayed at the Park House B&B in Carnoustie and played the Carnoustie Championship Course as well as six other great courses. Six of the seven courses were Links and four of the six were Seaside.

Carnoustie is now definitely the greatest course I have ever played, but Balcomie Links at Crail right on the North Sea is definitely the most special.