Florida - Week 1

Friday/Saturday, Jan 31/Feb 1 , 2014

We have been looking forward to this trip to Florida for a long time.  Between Lynn's Dad being in the Hospice for 8 weeks before his passing and both of us working full time, we haven't had much downtime together.  

We left Brantford for our first trip to Florida at 2:30 am Friday morning.  All was quiet as we passed through  Beamsville at 3:30 am

We had a great drive. 

While there was snow all the way into South Carolina, the roads were all clear and it was a relaxing drive. 

We were making great time, so took an opportunity to stop at the New River Observation park

 We caught a bit of rush hour traffic in Charlotte so stopped and enjoyed dinner at Cracker Barrel just outside the Six Flags Amusement property. 

Temps were already in the 60's, a nice break from the crap we've been dealing with back home. 

We made it to Country Inns and Suites in Columbia SC before dark leaving us a relaxing drive for the next day. 

Saturday we drove through rain showers throughout the day that helped wash most of the salt off of my van.   The new van is a joy to travel in and I can't wait to be able to use the sunroof once we get those warm Florida temps. 

We checked into Orange Lake around 4:00 pm and were assigned a nice villa (2211) on Springer Circle.  We dropped off our stuff and headed to Miller's Ale house for Lynn's first Alehouse experience.  

Some peoples feet don't reach the floor!!

The Fish & Chips were great as usual!

As always, it did not disappoint. 

After dinner we went to Walmart to pick up supplies and some fine wine .......

All this for just over $10!!!

Temps are in the high 70's and will be in the 80's  for the first part of this week. Yeehaw!!

Who'da Thunk!!

I received an email back in late September asking if id be interested in returning to Dofasco for a six month stint to help in the roll out of Windows 7 to the company's 5000 PCs.

My first reaction was NO WAY!!!, but after some further thought and viewing the perspective of spending most of this winter at home, I thought Why Not??

After further discussion and clarification with Mark Radey I decided to accept. 

Never ever in my life did I ever think I would return!! 

I've been gone for over 5 years, but when I returned it seemed like 2 weeks!!!!  Same faces (just fewer), and same problems they were dealing with before. There were new challenges, but when I looked around the room, I saw people who were capable of making this happen. 

The most difficult challenge for me was the new drive from the West side of Brantford. I have to drive through 2 cities to get to work! What used to be a 15-20 drive is now a 55+ minute drive!

One of the funny things that has happened is that I am working with my good buddy (and almost cousin), Maurice Hughes on this project.   

We never had a chance to work together in my previous career. 

The other bonus is that I get to see my little squirt sister every day!

That's Judy on the left (50 Shades of Gray) and our good friend Cheryl on Halloween day!

This is a poster that I put up when I left 5 years ago!!

It's nice to see it still there. 

I will keep you posted as the project progresses.