Since we left Walt Disney World about a month ago we've been at Oak Alley RV Resort near Webster Florida, about an hour north and west of Orlando.  There was no grieving when it was time to leave Oak Alley.  It's a decent campground, new with modern amenities, but I'm afraid that our long term stays at amazing campgrounds like Disney's Fort Wilderness and The Resort at Canopy Oaks have spoiled us.  A decent campground is just not good enough.  We were happy to get on the road.

Monday March 6, 2023

This morning Carol wasn't counting the minutes until we got to Walt Disney World.  She was counting the minutes until we left Oak Alley.  We had a couple of disappointments there that will guarantee that we never return.

She breathed a big sigh of relief when we pulled out at 9:28 and headed southeast toward Orlando.

At 11:00 a.m some familiar signs came into view!

The Security Guard at the Fort Wilderness gate welcomed us with a loud and sincere 'Howdy' and just seconds after he punched our name into his handheld device Carol's phone chirped.

It was confirmation of our campsite so we unhooked the tow-car and drove directly to site #1720 which will be our home for the next six nights.

By noon we were almost fully set up for our stay so we took a short break for lunch.

After lunch we spent another half hour putting the finishing touches in place, then Carol stretched out in her lounge chair, looked up and decided that the heavenly view needed to be captured in a picture.

This is the heavenly view I saw from inside the motor home!

We spent a relaxing afternoon with the dogs.  After a month of blistering heat and absolutely no shade at Oak Alley we really enjoyed basking under those tall pines!

Carol fed the dogs a bit early and at 4:30 we drove to Animal Kingdom Lodge for dinner at Boma.

A big Tom turkey waved at us as we left the campground.  He was guarding a couple of hens who were grazing along the roadside.

On the way to Animal Kingdom Lodge we did some memory searching - we think it's been ten years since we last had dinner at Boma.

We arrived a bit early so Carol had time to browse the shops while I took a few pictures.

Dinner was great.  We were asking ourselves 'Why has it been 10 years?'

I'm sure we'll be going back to Boma soon!

We were back with the puppies by 7:45 so their first night listening to the fireworks didn't upset them.

We needn't have worried.  They both slept through the ordeal.

Tuesday March 7, 2023

It was a real treat to wake up with cardinals singing in the trees.  Carol said, 'Yes, and when I looked out the back window I saw trees instead of a bunch of other campers.

This place is heaven!

There won't be many words in this trip report so the pictures will have to tell most of the story.

Carol loves flowers and she loves butterflies.

Put them all in the same place and she's a very happy girl!

Apparently WalMartians like flowers and butterflies too!

We left the EPCOT at about 1:30 and went home to the dogs.

At 5:00 we caught a boat to the Magic Kingdom.

It's been a long time since we've had dinner at the Diamond Horseshoe.

The puppies were alone a lot today!  We were back home with them by 9:00 p.m.

It started at about 8:30 this morning!

'Take Jasper to the dog park.'

'Yes dear!'

'Load the car and drive me to EPCOT.'

'Yes dear!'

'Look at the pretty flowers.'

'Yes dear!'

'Look at the pretty butterflies.'

''Yes dear!'

'Look at the pretty topiaries.'

'Yes dear!'

'Look at the tasty food.'

'Let's eat some dear!'

We saw different topiaries and ate different food, but it was pretty much exactly the same as yesterday.

This Japanese water garden played musical instruments when the

bamboo pipes filled with water and rocked to drain themselves.

Bonsai - A 40 year old bougainvillea tree about 20" tall

The village square is decorated with Flower & Garden Festival banners.

Six dwarfs.

Dopey, Grumpy and Snow White!

Gnome houses.

We were back home with the dogs at about 1:30 and enjoyed a quiet afternoon. (that means we had a nap)

Carol fed them a bit early and at 5:00 p.m. we headed back to EPCOT for dinner at Via Napoli.

The dogs were happy to see us when we got home just after 8:00 p.m.

This morning we got away at 9:30 and headed to Disney's Animal Kingdom where we encountered Kevin near the entrance.

Carol browsed through one of the shops while I waited for the 10:15 Winged Encounters show in front of the Tree of Life.

Carol joined me just before dozens of brilliant macaws filled the skies.  They are beautiful to see and painful to listen to!

She browsed some more here!

Otters were sleeping in that log and had no interest in performing for us!

The safari ride was disappointing.  Not many animals today!

Carol spotted a few beautiful flowers as we left the park at 1:00 p.m.  We enjoyed another quiet afternoon with the dogs and left at 5:15 for dinner at Olivia's in the nearby Old Key West Resort.

As always, it was tasty.

We enjoyed a lazy morning and it felt really good . . . so we followed it up with with a lazy afternoon.

The dogs were happy to have us home for a change.  They enjoyed a run in the dog park until the heat tired them out and their tongues were dragging!

We sat out in the shade on the patio with them until it got hot for us all.  That's when we loaded the boys in the car and went off to the grocery store.  I read my book in the car while the dogs snoozed in the back seat and Carol picked up some groceries.

We had lunch at home and followed up with a well deserved nap.  Then, all too soon it was time to go.  We had a pass for a special Annual Passholder Preview of the new TRON Roller Coaster.

We rode TRON a few weeks ago as part of a Cast Member Preview (Thanks Curtis & Alek) and we were anxious to ride again!

We had dinner at Cosmic Ray's Starlight Cafe

The intergalactic performer tonight (and every night) was Sonny Eclipse

We stood and watched this talented artist paint the pavement with nothing but water and a brush!  He was amazing.

Yup, it was just s good as the first time!

We watched the fireworks from the boat on our way home.

The puppies were happy to see us when we got back at 8:45

Our last Disney day . . . we spent part of it at Hollywood Studios.

As so often happens Carol browsed through the shops while I wandered around snapping pictures.

It's a good thing I like taking photos because she sure enjoys browsing!

Edna says, 'No capes!'

We took a ride with Mickey and Minnie on their Runaway Railway.  Engineer Goofy blew up the train and we all got sucked up in a tornado, dropped in a raging river, hurled over a huge waterfall and then we all stopped in to visit Daisy Duck and learn a few new steps in her school of ballroom dancing.  Great fun!

We were home with the dogs by 1:00 p.m. and started packing things away to be ready to leave in the morning.  It didn't take long, then we relaxed with the dogs for the afternoon.

Shortly after 5:00 we drove to the Polynesian Village Resort for dinner at 'Ohana.  It's one of our favourites!

Every time we visit Disney we learn something new.  The menu has changed a bit and now includes Teriyaki Beef and Grilled Chicken with Chimichurri Sauce.

I said to Carol, 'I always thought Teriyaki was Japanese and Chimichurri was Argentinean, but apparently they're both Hawaiian words!'

She replied, 'You fool, you've been eating the potstickers here for a few decades without a single comment and they're definitely Chinese.'

Damn I hate it when she's right.

We were home with the puppies by 7:30 and watched a bit of TV.

Scottie, these shrimp pictures are for you!

We had a short drive today, only 220 miles to Brunswick Georgia so we took our time and got away from the campground at 10:30.  We use the Waze app as our GPS and it projected an arrival time of 1:40 p.m.

We zipped through Orlando on Interstate 4 in record time and I made the mistake of saying to Carol, 'The traffic is so much better since all the construction here finished up.'

The rig is almost 70' long when the tow-car is hooked on the back.

That all changed once we turned onto northbound Interstate 95 and joined the motorcycles heading home after Daytona Beach Bike Week.  Daytona organizers were forecasting that 100,000 bikes would be in town for the week and they must have all been heading home today.  Traffic slowed to a crawl for at least an hour and a half.

From our perspective Carol and I suspect that about 6 bikes headed south on I-95 while the other 99,994 were northbound like us.

We saw groups of riders on their bikes, trailers filled with bikes, cargo vans filled with bikes and a school bus pulling a huge trailer carrying about 8 bikes.

After one long slowdown we saw a motorcycle badly battered in the ditch, about 40 yards from the highway.  EMT's were working on the rider who was lying near the crumpled bike.  Hope he's Okay!

Concrete highways always seem to result in a rhythmic bumpedy bump, bumpedy bump as the tires cross from one slab of cement to the next.  After a few minutes the RV almost hums from the rhythm.  Jasper does not like this noise!

Between the concrete road and the roar of the bikes he was rattled all day.  When he gets rattled he does everything he can to get as high as possible.  More altitude is always better when you're stressed.

His harness is too short to allow him up on the back of the couch so he had to be satisfied riding on the arm all day.

If we were to undo his harness he would try to climb onto Carol and sit on her head!

We crossed the Florida/Georgia state line at 3:15, about 2 hours later than planned and by 3:45 we pulled into our campground at Brunswick.

Skies were gloomy and thunder was rumbling as we disconnected the tow-car and hooked the RV up to the campground utilities.

I checked the weather app on my phone and saw that our area was under a tornado watch.  YIKES!  We haven't seen one of those since last November when Disney evacuated Fort Wilderness because of a hurricane warning and we stayed at the nearby Port Orleans Riverside Resort.

Before long it was pouring rain.  There was plenty of thunder, some of it very loud and a few flashes of lightning but no tornado.

We had planned to head out for a bite of dinner but we decided to stay home with Jake and Jasper.  After their long day on the road it didn't seem right to leave them alone in a thunderstorm.

Carol whipped up a quick bite of dinner and we enjoyed a night of TV.

We hope you've enjoyed our Disney trip; maybe we'll 'see' you again in October!