Magic Kingdom and Epcot

 Orlando, FL

The obligatory selfie in front of Spaceship Earth

Disney World 2023 Starts!

Today we all packed in a Toyota Sienna Hybrid (a van we are thinking about as our next travel van) and headed to Magic Kingdom.  We are staying in a house with old and new friends from our Disney Days.  Gordon, Brenton, Alison, and Billy.  We have just met Alison and Billy and they are great.  They met Gordon while leading pub trivia.  We also have Susan with us.  She lives out here and works for Universal so she doesn't need to stay in the house with us.  

Me, Susan, Gordon, and Donna on the boat to The Magic Kingdom!

This is what we are riding only a different one going in the other direction.

We started out with lunch at Harbor House Cafe

We took the opportunity to ride the Liberty Belle Steamboat and packed in for a group shot.  From left to right, yours truly, Susan, Gordon, Brenton, Donna, Alison, and Billy.

I stepped up my crabby guest persona and complained on Facebook that we drove all the way from Washington to ride Big Thunder Mountain and it's closed.  

After getting our fill of Magic Kingdom, we took the Monorail over to Epcot for a few drinks and dinner at The Biergarten. It's a must do when you are in a big group here.

Beers as big as your head!

That's it for today.  If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

Dinny Whorl!

 Kissimmee, FL

Donna playing darts at Cheers

Back to Florida

We left New Orleans on Thursday the 5th and blasted to Tallahassee, FL for our night.  The next morning we visited the capitol building and then went on to Stephen Foster Fold Cultural Center and State Park for the night.  Stephen Foster wrote a bunch of songs that you have probably heard in Bugs Bunny cartoons including the Official Song of Florida, "Old Folks at Home" or the Suwanee River Song.  After a night there we went on to Bill Frederick Park in the heart of Orlando.  A surprisingly nice campsite in the middle of Orlando.  Today we met Gordon, Susan, Brenton, Billy, and Alison for a week long adventure at theme parks in the Orlando area.  We met at Cheers and played darts and had a few beers while Brenton, Billy, and Alison went to The Magic Kingdom.  After Cheers we all went to Disney Springs and met there for late lunch.  Now we are all in a house in Kissimmee, FL for a week.  It will be a really nice break from our break.

Francis being The Best Boy at Cheers

Morning Coffee at Bill Frederick Park

An East Coast Sunrise

A Cuban Coffee in Gainesville, FL

The Capitol was meh...

The original capitol in front of the new skyscraper 

When we were leaving New Orleans our car wouldn't turn over so AAA came out and sold us a new battery!

That's it for this post.  We will be pretty busy so posts will probably be sporadic for a bit but hang in there.  If you missed the previous post you can find it here.

2022 by the Numbers

 New Orleans, LA

We saw the sign

2022 in Review

2022 has been a great year of travel.  We have seen a lot and also done a lot of relaxing.  Let's look back at the numbers that make up 2022 for us.

Miles Driven Since we hit the road - 14,903

States Visited - 29

Washington D.C.s Visited - 1

Countries Visited - 2 (USA and Costa Rica)

Unique Counties Visited - 361

New Counties Visited - 304

Tiki Bars Visited - 11

New Breweries Visited - 55

State Capitols Visited - 7

We have hosted visitors in all of our stays except for Baton Rouge 

Museums Visited - 42

36 Inch Po'boys Eaten - 1

Pinball Places Visited - 12

Our County Collecting efforts this year in purple

Happy New Year from Francis!

See you in 2023!

If you missed yesterday's post you can find it here.

Remembering Katrina

 New Orleans, LA

A leftover FEMA X Mark 

Katrina Inspections and X Codes

After Katrina came ripping through New Orleans recovery crews were on site quickly.  FEMA went through and marked houses with an X and put info in the four quadrants the X makes.  The top is the date it was inspected, The left shows the task force that inspected it, the right shows any special notes.  Special notes could include Gas Off, Pets, F/W for food and water, the NE here stands for No Entry.  The bottom quadrant was reserved for the number of live and dead found in the building.

Stolen from here.

Some of these marks have been removed, some are still there due to the house being abandoned, and some are there as a badge of honor.

This one is actually preserved in the concrete now.

Another left the way while the rest of the house is kept up.  Probably preserved on purpose.

My friend Chris pointed these out to me.  If you aren't looking they kind of blend in with the graffiti.  

That's it for today.  If you missed the previous post you can find it here.

Crescent Park and Two Footbridges!

 New Orleans, LA

A Walk in the Park

Today we walked along the levy and crossed the tracks to Crescent Park.  The deep freeze here is over so it was time to go outside and see the sun and other things.  It's a beautiful park along the Mighty Mississippi.  It is cut off by railroad tracks so it could be better IMHO.  

We started our crossing on the West End of the park at the Crescent Park Elevator (and stairs).

Great views of Downtown from the top of the bridge

The obligatory DANGER sign along The Mississippi

Son of Morgh!

The Rust Rainbow crosses the tracks in the middle of the park.

Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection.

The levy has a logo.  

It was a nice walk and a great day to be out but that's it for today.  If you missed the last post you can find it here.