Frank, Joyce & Kids Come to Visit

Marlon's step-brother Frank came to visit with his family from Sebring, Florida. Frank and Joyce and kids, Aron and Austin, were welcoming us to Florida.

First, Aron gave us a show from his inventory of card tricks...

and Austin gave us some lessons in the fine art of somersaults.

Then the family treated us to one their favorite restaurants in Orlando, Don Pablo's Mexican Kitchen. The chips were so good, Doug ate a couple of bowls of chips by himself.

Then we all headed over to Pirate's Cove for a little miniature golf action.

A group photo between holes.

Frank and sons after the game...Aron and Austin look excited to don the pirate hat...well Austin does anyway.

They were BOTH excited to see their parents in the pillory.

But Austin was more excited when we went to Fun Spot. Here he and Joyce are about to ram Aron in the bumper cars.

Hey, are you looking at me?

Time for Frank and Austin to take a few laps around the go-cart track.

Then Aron is ready to soak 'em in the bumper boats...

and soak Marlon and Austin he did.

Here's a video of Austin enjoying the fun.

For more pictures of this evening, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/october/franks-family-take-/ .

To be continued...

Theme World RV Resort & The Citrus Tower

Today we arrived at Theme World RV Resort just off I-4 and US27 in Davenport, Florida about 10 miles west of the entrance to Disney World.

Our plan is to be here at Theme World enjoying the Florida "winter" until about mid-April. We will be in this spot.

The day after we arrived we drove around a little bit looking for the nearest Wal-Mart and found this offbeat attraction-The Citrus Tower in Clermont, Florida.

Built in 1956, it was one of the first tourist attractions in the area. At over 200 feet high, orange groves could be seen for miles from the observation tower at the top.

As you can see, the current view in the same direction has a few less orange trees in it.

Another view from a different direction atop the tower gives vast insight into the high cost of orange juice nowadays...there are NO more orange trees in Florida.

This picture of Marlon provides a little proof that we really did go up in The Citrus Tower.

A volunteer tour guide gives a brief history of The Citrus Tower in this video.

For more pictures of Theme World RV Resort and The Citrus Tower, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/october/theme-world-rv-reso/ and http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/october/citrus-tower-clermont-fl/ .

To be continued...

Atlas 5 Rocket Launch Viewed from Cocoa Beach

Marlon heard that there was going to be an Atlas 5 Rocket launching this evening, so we headed over to the Cocoa Beach Pier to view the launch.

This Atlas rocket was to launch the first Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft...whatever that is. Here is the video as recorded by DOUG with the camera...

and here's the same event recorded by MARLON with the camcorder...

The pictures following were taken when we returned to Cocoa Beach during the daytime the following Saturday.

Although the sand at Cocoa Beach is not white like at Navarre Beach, it is pretty clean.

A small sea gull struggles to keep hold of his food.

Marlon made sure to take off his $1 shoes so they didn't get wet.

This is the Cocoa Beach pier where we viewed the Atlas Rocket launch days before. We stood at the very end near the Tiki Bar.

To see a few more pictures of the Atlas Rocket Launch and Cocoa Beach, go to http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/october/atlas-rocket-launch/ and http://public.fotki.com/Marlonfleenor/1/2007/october/cocoa-beach/ .

To be continued...