November 1-14, 2023 Heading South to warmer weather.

We got a late start this year because I had my 40th High school reunion at the end of October. Holy Family, Class of 83. It was so great to see my classmates and reminisce and catch up. I even found out that many of them actually read this Blog and love following along with our travels.

We also spent some time with Family and Friends and then I attended a weekend retreat at Huntington Seminary. It was amazing. Greg, of course, attended a couple of Broadway plays while in town. After the retreat we were eager and ready to finally hit the road. We have exactly 6 days to get from Long Island to Disney World. We made reservations for 4 days at the Fort Wilderness Campground. Last year we stayed one night but didn’t go into any of the theme parks. This year we decided to splurge and see all 4 of the theme parks. So our normal hour or two of driving per night would have to be put on hold so that we can get to warmer weather faster and also make it to Disney in time for the Reservation.

Our first stop was to the MGM Grand Casino in Maryland. They have the most amazing lobby. Each year we stop there and each year the lobby is decorated so amazing. We played some slots. I lost and then won the next day so I wound up breaking even which is pretty much winning.

The next day Greg wanted to stop to see a National Park Historical Sight. This was a building that was built in the 1700’s. It was called Harmony Hall. I believe George Washington’s friend used to live there but I could be wrong. Greg is the history buff, I just wanted to get my steps in. Lol

We continued on for a pretty long drive for us. Maybe 5 hours or so and decided to stay at a campground as the sun sets so early right now and we both hate driving in the dark. We made it to North Carolina and stayed at Medoc Mountain State Park. Greg decided to post some campground tours this year on his YouTube page. He did some filming and will probably wind up posting once a week or so on each of the campgrounds we stay at in our travels. So more info about that will be revealed later on in the blog.

Next day we headed off again for another 5 hour day which really is way to long of a drive for us. We arrived around 3:30 to Santee State Park and got an awesome spot right on the lake. These past two days have been everything that I love about traveling. Both Campgrounds were fantastic. Peaceful and Serene.

For dinner I made some concoction of Rice, spinach, beans, mushrooms and chicken. We are trying to eat up all the leftover food from Raquette before we go shopping again. This might take a while as we intend to eat out every night at Disney.

People often ask me, “what do you cook in that small van of yours?” I only have one burner but I also have a barbecue as well. But really I cook mostly everything on the one small burner. I think at some point I’ll post all the different dinner options that I have made thus far in the van. I got tons of photos of van food.

I started walking again in the morning now that we are on the road again. I really enjoy my morning walks.

We did another 4 hour drive and crossed the border into Florida. Currently we are staying at some Jacksonville City Campground on the beach. There’s nothing “city” about this place. It’s absolutely beautiful and the sunset tonight was crazy!! The only bad thing about this place is that the Naval base is right across the water and the Navy Helicopter has been taking off, flying, landing and over and over and over again. We were planning on doing two nights here but they might not have an open spot for us tomorrow. So we’ll have to see.

Well I’m glad we didn’t book that second day because this morning when I was getting out of bed, the wooden pole that supports me and my mattress snapped and splintered. Thankfully I did not fall to the ground because the canvas held together. Today we head to Lowe’s or Home Depot in search of another 6 foot dowel to replace the one that snapped.

My morning walk to the Atlantic Ocean was beautiful and peaceful.

We found a Home Depot not too far of a drive and purchased another closet dowel to repair my bed. It is getting super hot here in Florida. I’m not complaining cause I love hot weather but sitting in the van to repair the bed is just waaaay to hot. So off we went to The Blue Spring State Park. Unfortunately they didn’t have a campsite available for us. After all it was Friday Night. We went into the park anyway because we needed somewhere shady to fix the bed. That worked out great and we even got to do a short hike and explore the Springs.

We then waited for the sun to set and headed to the nearest Cracker Barrel for an overnighter. We each have our own fan and they were both blowing on us for the entire night. Woke up to another hot day so we decided to get some work done. We did our laundry and had our haircuts. The “barber shop” we went to was super busy and we were basically the only ones that spoke English. It was quite an interesting adventure and I’m thankful that I found a good picture of how I wanted my hair cut. She did an awesome job, I thought.

After that we headed to Walmart to go food shopping and also to buy some Disney hats. Tomorrow we head to Disney!!

We still had some time to kill so we walked around Bass Pro Shops and then took a drive to the local library. The key to hit days is either to swim or go to where it’s air conditioned.

Our plan for the evening was to stay at the Cracker Barrel closest to Disney. We had stayed at that one last year and it was a huge parking lot with tons of campers. We arrived in the dark and the lot didn’t have a single camper in it. There were new signs up that said “No overnight parking.” Apparently the town had a new ordinance about sleeping in Parking Lots so we went to the hotel next door and found a nice spot. When we got out to walk around, we noticed all the cars in the lot had parking passes on the rear view mirror so knew we could not stay there for the night. Off we went, another 10 minutes closer to the Advent Health Hospital in a town called Celebration. This hospital is like no hospital we have ever seen. We decided to go inside for some dinner. We have eaten in Hospital Cafeterias many times and they never disappoint. This was was great. We had roasted chicken with fresh string beans and rice. With soup or salad and drinks for a grand total of 13 bucks. Total for both of us. And it was tasty!!

Had no issues overnight parking in the hospital lot and headed out at 7 am to Disney. The Fort Wilderness Campground has a huge overflow lot where they let you park while you wait for a site to be open so we left the van there and headed to Magic Kingdom. We took the bus to Epcot and then the monorail over.

They were having a special event, ABC was there filming the parade and the fireworks show for their Christmas Day special show. We were happy that we got to witness that on top of all the normal magical happenings. I put together some clips of the parade that they were filming.

When the parade was over, I noticed the “real” Santa in the crowd and went over to say Hi. He did confirm that he indeed was the real Santa and then reached into his bag and gave me some Disney Cookies and told me he would see me on Christmas Day but that I wouldn’t see him. I told him I know all about that and that I believe.

We went on a few rides and saw a few shows. The lines were pretty long but atleast we knew what we were getting ourselves into with the Fisney app that tells you the wait times for each attraction.

Then we headed to our 2:00 lunch reservation at the Crystal Palace. This is an expensive buffet but worth it because the Disney Characters come right over to your table.

After lunch, we got a text telling us that our campsite was ready for us so we took the boat back to the Campground and then a bus to the parking lot to get the van and bring it to our spot. We also needed to charge our phones. The Disney app just EATS you phone battery because it tracks your every move. Once our phones were charged, we headed back for an evening of fun. We just went in ride a free ride and show after show. Wound up walking over 9 miles according to my watch.

We got back to the Campground at midnight, way past my bedtime but worth it.

Next day headed over to Epcot. We are super lucky because the food and wine festival is currently going on. That means that they are offering like small apps at each of the country’s. This is awesome because you can do like tastings of each country without having to eat an entire meal. We managed to do 6 countries but I wished I would have forced myself to do 3 more. There were three more tastings that really caught my attention. The problem was, I was getting too full and then some of the rides were making us a little queasy. All in all, it was a magical day at Epcot!! We loved it.

We brought a bag of snacks with us but barely ate any of them. Maybe a few here and there at the shows.

I can’t believe it’s Already Nov 14th and that it’s time to post the very first blog of Season 4. We still have 2 more days here at Disney so you’ll have to wait another 2 weeks to find out about them.