Wildlife Visitors

It's been pretty quiet out here where we're staying, but we have had a few visitors.

On March 6 this mottled duck flew in near the RV and stayed for a little while before flying off.

From Kissimmee - March 2012

The next morning on March 7 we had this family of sandhill cranes show up. We think this is probably the same pair of sandhill cranes we saw here back in January. They must have a nest nearby and the chicks aren't very old - they have to stop every so often and rest.

From Kissimmee - March 2012

The sandhill crane family comes by nearly everyday to look for food and the chicks are getting larger, but one seems to be the weaker of the the two.

From Kissimmee - March 2012

Then this morning this wild turkey flew in to look for food, but was more timid than the sandhill cranes. When I started walking away from the RV to get a closer shot of the turkey, it took off running and then flew away.

From Kissimmee - March 2012

Tomorrow we're driving down to Wilton Manors to spend a couple of days with our son Fletcher.

Illinois Cousins Visit

My cousin Frances and her husband Jack arrived in Kissimmee yesterday for a short visit. We met them and my brother's family for dinner at the Golden Corral in Kissimmee. Afterwards we all went back to my brother's house for a longer visit.

We caught up on each other's news and family happenings. Then I showed Frances and Elaine the family genealogy I've entered on Ancestry.com.

From Kissimmee 2012

We took a group photo before we all left Cyril & Elaine's.

From Kissimmee 2012

Then today we had Frances and Jack come out to the RV for dinner. Mike grilled chicken and we had potato salad and beans for dinner and sat outside to eat.

From Kissimmee 2012

After dinner we drove over to Cyril & Elaine's for a visit before Frances and Jack leave tomorrow. It has been almost 5 years since we had seen Frances and Jack and we plan on visiting them in Illinois later this year.

Fantasy of Flight Museum

We met Chris, Carole, Paulette and Dredsel at Perkins Restaurant for breakfast before Paulette and Dredsel left to go back home to Jacksonville. Before saying goodbye to Paulette and Dredsel, we took photos of each other in front of Perkins. We wish that they could have stayed longer.

From Kissimmee 2012

Chris and Carole followed us back to the RV so we could park the Vue and then we drove south to Polk City in their car to visit Fantasy of Flight. Fantasy of Flight is located 25 miles south of Kissimmee just off of I-4.

We arrived at Fantasy of Flight a little before noon. Fantasy of Flight advertises itself as "an attraction on a higher plane", not an aviation museum.

From Fantasy of Flight

With our AAA discount of $8, the admittance fee for Mike and I was $53.40. We entered Immersion Environments which took us from Early Flight through World War II. We walked through

Kissimmee Air Museum & Columbia Restaurant

This morning Chris, Carole, Paulette and Dredsel came over and we split up into two groups. Mike, Dredsel and Chris drove in Chris' car over to the Kissimmee Air Museum that is located at the Kissimmee Airport.

The Kissimmee Air Museum & Warbird Adventure Flights has displays of airplanes from the WWII era. The admission for the museum is $7.00. Judging from how many photos Mike took of the museum, I'm sure the guys had a great time.

From Kissimmee Air Museum

 I drove Carole and Paulette in our car to downtown Kissimmee. We found out when we got downtown that there is a Farmers' Market on Thursdays,

Out of town visitors

This morning I saw 2 bald eagles here - one eagle was sitting in a pine tree

From Kissimmee 2012

and the other was sitting on top of a light pole.

From Kissimmee 2012

This is the first time we've seen bald eagles here and they only stayed for a few minutes before flying off.

A few months ago Mike's brother coordinated with their cousin (who lives in Jacksonville) to plan a trip to Kissimmee to visit with us. Today Mike's brother Chris and his wife Carole arrived here at the RV around noon. We

Sandhill Cranes visit us

It's fairly quiet where we're staying and we have very few visitors. There is a hawk that stays around here and we see it hunting and one morning it caught a small snake. We did get this photo of the eagle sitting on one of the lamp posts here.

From January 2012

This morning we had a pair of sandhill cranes walking around looking for food and they eventually came close to the RV.

From January 2012

One of them actually walked across our patio mat.

From January 2012

Sandhill cranes are quite large, can live up to 20 years and stay with the same mate for years. I don't know which was the female and which was the male since their markings are identical.

Earlier this month Mike had taken a photo of the RV with his cell phone showing our solar panels tilted up. I thought I would include that photo today.

From January 2012

Visit to the Tampa RV Super Show

This morning after breakfast we drove over to Tampa to visit the RV Super Show that is held at the Florida State Fairgrounds. This is not our first visit to the Tampa RV Super Show. Our first time was several years ago before we had our Adventurer and we were still deciding what type of RV we wanted. We've been to the Super Show a couple of times since then.

We paid a $5 parking fee when we entered the fairgrounds gate. We were directed around to the south side of the fairgrounds and parked the car. We brought Tinker with us and he was ready to go exploring. I had downloaded and printed (a $1 discount coupon for the RV show, so we paid $9 each for admittance.

We walked through the vendors' area and then walked outside to look at some RVs. We're not in the market for a new one, we just like to see what the new models look like and see what new features the manufacturers are coming out with. We picked up some brochures of some of the RVs we looked at.

We took turns looking inside the RVs since we had Tinker with us and he can't go in the RVs. We did fill out a survey at the Winnebago display. The survey was about the things you like in your Winnebago/Itasca RV and what things would you change.

We bought a couple of Philly Steak sandwiches and soft drinks ($19) and found a picnic table where we sit and eat lunch.

We looked around some more before we headed back to where we had parked the car. Tinker had a good time walking around and seeing some of the other dogs that were at the RV show. He slept most of the 63 miles back to Kissimmee.