Wednesday fireworks

During the day Wednesday, we took a walk around the campground...

We saw some sandhill cranes at a campsite just behind where we are parked...

They had been making their distinctive sound and raising their wings but seemed to relax as Carl took their pictures!

We headed up to the entrance gate at noon to see the parade of RVs entering - there they come!

There did not appear to be a lot entering on Wednesday...

... we had figured that somewhere near 25-30 rigs could fit onto the 1/2 mile entry driveway. On Wednesday, about 15 entered and then there was a gap - so we guessed that there were not as many new entries as have been on some other days.

We have heard the booms of the Disney fireworks a few nights, and went out to look at them a few nights ago but found that they were hidden by the trees behind our rig. While we were on our walk earlier on Wednesday, someone else in the campground suggested that the viewing area near the lake at the east side of the campground was a better vantage point. So on Wednesday evening, we decided to ride our bikes down to the lake at about 8pm to see what we could see!

The fireworks were not high in the sky...

... but at least they were clearing the trees on the far side of the lake.

The reflection in the lake was nice...

We tried several different camera settings, and none of them seemed ideal, but we enjoyed seeing the fireworks anyway.

We have acquired headlamps for our bikes which worked well lighting our way while biking down to the lake. They also make us more visible even during daylight hours, as they have a blink option which we use if we are out on roads or trails in the daytime. We were particularly glad to have them when biking at night as the headlamps that came with the bikes are not very helpful.

Tuesday - more tasks around town

On Tuesday, we headed north a little ways to the town of Clermont to see "Avatar: The Way of Water". 

A photo of part of the credits at the end...

... selfie of us "stylin'" in our 3D glasses. The seats were lounge chairs - comfy, which was good, as the movie was 3 hours, 12 minutes long - not counting the "coming attractions" that preceded the movie! Unfortunately, the chairs also made a disconcerting groaning noise when they were being adjusted (not just ours, it seemed a common issue with all in the theater).

Carl at the movie poster.

We decided that we liked the movie, but felt that it did not match up to the original "Avatar", and that it had too much fighting and gore and not enough "story" and plot.

From there, we headed east back to Florida mall which we had visited on Friday - my ring had had to be left for repair at Helzberg, and we got a call on Monday that it was completed, so we picked it up.

This time, we stopped in the Apple Store that we had taken a picture of from the outside (https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-day-of-errands.html). We asked a lady inside what all the folks were doing...

... she said that they were all shopping! There were again a *lot* of people in the store, and the fixtures in the store were very minimal - just tables with electronics on them.

Heading back to the campground, we stopped at Giordano's for pizza (we brought more than half of it home for later!)...

And then we stopped at Culver's to share a double scoop of Tuesday's Flavor of the Day, Chocolate Caramel Pecan - yum!

Space flight launch

You may recall that we tried to watch a space launch from our campsite at Clerbrook Golf and RV resort a week or so ago with limited success: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2023/01/spacex-launches.html

We had thought that we might have more success with a launch that was after dark, and Monday night's launch was scheduled for 11:50pm, well after dark... so we decided to try to see it. Earlier in the evening (about 8:30pm) we heard fireworks and had heard that we could possibly see Disney fireworks from our campground too... we looked, but there were trees to the east of us that pretty much obscured any fireworks viewing. We thought that our viewing of the SpaceX launch might have a similar problem, but it did not...

... we could actually see it quite well...

... unfortunately, we did not take the tripod with us...

... the camera was trying to do a long exposure...

... and we just couldn't hold it still enough!

The above photos were taken with Carl's camera (not the one on his phone, a separate camera).

Meanwhile, I took a few pictures with the camera on my phone:

It was also trying to keep the aperture open for a longer time...

... making the campground look really lit up...

... but you can see the rocket as it was clearing the trees and heading up...

... it was much brighter and more visible than we expected.

What we did not get a picture of and what was the most amazing to us was the first stage booster main engine cutoff, then separation and seeing the second stage light up - we could distinctly see the two objects split apart from each other, almost like the ship had exploded, but we could see each of them for a few seconds proceeding in their separate directions. The first stage darkened as it returned to land close to where the rocket took off but had an additional landing burn to slow it down as it was coming through the atmosphere, and we saw that too (that may be what the last picture that Carl took was showing). We couldn't see the final burn as it was nearing the ground (we watched it on my phone via the broadcast) as it was below the horizon for our location. But we were happy to see what we could, and were pleased that our decision to stay up past midnight was worth the cost!

Van Fleet State Trail

On Monday, after joining others in the campground for exercising using the Walk Fit program in the morning, we had an early lunch and went to the Van Fleet State Trail to bike ride in the afternoon.

We try to check out local bike trails via Google maps and had seen this very straight trail a little west of our location (see Google maps link). Its arrow-straight-ness made us think that it was probably a rail-to-trail and we also found it on TrailLink (see TrailLink link).

The reviews on both Google and TrailLink were positive, and the trailhead about 10 miles north of the trail's beginning in Polk City was not far from where we are in Orlando Thousand Trails, so we decided to try it on Monday afternoon.

We started at the Green Pond Trailhead...

... trail information near where we started.

From what we read, the area north of the Green Pond trailhead was where we were most likely to see wildlife and natural flora.

Just starting out heading north - nice wide, relatively-smooth asphalt path.

When we were unloading our bikes at the trailhead, another couple rode their bikes into the parking area having just ridden part of the northern section. They told us that just a couple of miles up the trail there were three bridges, and at the 3rd bridge, there was a large alligator (8' or more) in the water below...

... so we stopped to look...

... I'm on the bridge looking over the edge for an alligator...

... we saw interesting views of the woods...

... but a warning sign was our only view of any alligator.

Carl crossing the bridge.

We were several miles further along, nearing the northern end of the trail and had really not seen any wildlife other than squirrels and birds, when we noticed a creature at the side of the path...

It was a turtle -- not positive of the kind, though from this website, I think it might be a cooter (another link here)...

Carl taking a picture of the tortoise -- it is on the side of the asphalt in the shadows.

Continuing on to the end of the trail - the picture looks foggy, but it was a clear sunny day - we appreciated the shade provided by the woods on either side of the trail - but I like the effect of the picture!

The trail ends in Mabel, Florida.

Some information about the towns of Mabel and Linden -- interesting that "... it is now most recognized for the annual picnic that has been held for more than a century at the Linden Cemetery."

Mile marker 29.0 (I know it looks like 25, but it is 29!). Since we started at about mile 10, we rode 19.2 miles one way or 38.4 round trip!

One of the things we noticed along the trail was that there were several places where a dock-like structure was built out over the swamp. Some of them had these boxes installed too...

... on the side, it says "Bike Rx"...

... the plaque on the front indicates that it was placed as part of an Eagle Scout Project...

... inside was an air pump and adjustable wrench, and they were cabled to the box so the items wouldn't walk away...

"Bike Rx"

View out over the swamp.

On our way back, we came across this little guy (look on the asphalt - it may look like a stick)...

...it was a little alligator (notice the pine tag under his tail to get an indication of his size - 9-12" long we guessed)...

... he stayed still while we were there. Carl thought Miss Kitty might enjoy playing with it; I did not!

We were nearly back to the trailhead where we had parked when we saw a gopher tortoise (https://www.floridastateparks.org/learn/gopher-tortoises-van-fleet-state-trail) - a protected species that we had read about being on the trail.

The trail was so straight that we could see for long distances - this picture was as we were nearly back to the parking lot.

It was really an enjoyable trail!

Sunday around the campground...

On Sunday, in the morning we took a walk around and in the afternoon we rode our e-bikes around the campground -- 

... we've been riding our bikes around the perimeter, but we decided to walk more of the internal roads. It looks as if we spent part of the walk off property, but the mapping software doesn't know that the campground has expanded into the new area.

 

We saw the toad vehicle for this motorhome on their site on our morning walk -- they've had it custom painted to match the motorhome... seems that may affect the resale-ability of the car, but maybe they don't need to worry about that!

In the afternoon, we biked and tried to cover more of the inner roads of the campground, so it looks as if we were zig-zagging a lot! We had a goal of biking for 30 minutes, so we didn't do all of the campground.

We are enjoying our stay at Thousand Trails Orlando!

Saturday

On Saturday, I finally got my hair cut (it has been needing it for a while) -- a lot shorter, but still down past my shoulders...

...and we met friends Jeri and Keith whom we met at Paul Wolfe back in September. They are staying at a state park very close by, so we arranged to meet up with them at a nearby restaurant...

... we met at Hurricane Grill and Wings where we enjoyed catching up on what we've been doing since we all left the Chicago area!

Unfortunately, we forgot to get pictures with them! Oh well, next time!!!