Update from my parents........

I love these trip updates that my Dad sends out.... as before I am just copying and pasting his email... enjoy --

Since the cruise in early February, nothing extremely unusual has happened. However in the last few weeks we did a few nice and different things.

• We watched Mark a few days in Tampa then again in Orlando. We did not bring him any luck.
• David and Nicholas visited us in Disney’s ft wilderness. We hit all 4 theme parks pretty hard. We did all the really scary rides at least once. Not Mom /Grandma/ Sharon (MGS). The boys usually went back to one of the theme parks without us after we had dinner. They usually got 4 -6 hours of sleep each night. After we dropped them back at the airport, MGS slept 12 hours straight. I did 10 hours. Best comment by David after a number of rides = “grandpa, why are your eyes always closed”. Best comment by Nicholas just before the start of the Everest ride = “I think I’m going to have to change my shorts after this one”. Best comment by the grandpa after the Everest ride = “I just wanted it to be over before I died”.
• Traditionally we spend the last week of our winter in a campground near Daytona beach. On a couple of those days we pick up and drive the motor home to the beach and drive right on. This year was no different even though we saw a number of TV reports that more and more vehicles were getting stuck up to their axles in the increasing patches of soft sand. Graphic reports like this made MGS nervous. We made it on and off the beach, just barely, last Friday. Yesterday I parked on the street and walked the beach before we drove on. The sand had deteriorated somewhat from Friday because of the heavy spring break traffic. Also, no other motor homes were on the beach. However thru the years we have seen very few other than ours so not seeing others was not a negative indicator. Upon my return to the motor home from my walk on the beach I lied to MGS and got the clearance from her to proceed. The gate keeper of the beach entry also questioned our intentions after he measured our rig (we are at the allowable Max length). He shook his head, took our money and let us go. Yes, you guessed it. We did get stuck in the soft sand. This was great fun for the big crowd on the beach. I am sure we are the subject of hundreds of photos now spreading over the internet. Anyway, a beach patrol truck, equipped with a sturdy rope, 4 wheel drive and smirking officer came to our rescue pulled us out to a hard packed area near an unused beach exit. Cheers by the crowd were deafening. All this time MGS sat in the back of the motor home, out of sight wrought with embarrassment and worry. Her only comment was “now what, how will we get out”. After I told her that we should just enjoy the beach and maybe we could figure it out. Her comment was “OK I’ll just sit here and worry for a the rest of the day”. The day calmed down and we did have an enjoyable time. During this time I walked the escape route a number of times. The beach condition deteriorated as the day moved on but conditions improved on some parts, usually off limits to traffic because of the tide situation. I had a plan. On the beach there are a number of beach patrol vehicles. I noticed that the smirking officer was still on duty but there was another woman officer who on the surface looked like she would be more sympathetic to my plan. I flagged here down and proposed my plan to have her lead me over the normally restricted area at a relatively high speed so I could plow thru to the exit. She had a better plan. Putting her job in jeopardy, she opened a never used restricted exit gate which I was parked near and we were able slowly back off the beach with no difficulty. This greatly disappointed the crowd that was gathering to watch our impending disastrous exit. However GMS was ecstatic. The glooming countenance was lifted immediately and she celebrated with numerous strawberry margaritas at dinner.

We are heading back in the morning. Plan to be home by Saturday evening.

The dad / Grandpa / Jay