Bassman's Blog

Animal Kingdom Villas

Monday, January 11, 2010
Today we thought that we would check out the Animal Kingdom Villas where Terry & Mandy & the kids will be staying when they arrive.
WOW!! What an awesome environment. You get the whole African feeling as soon as you arrive.
There are two resorts here. The first one we stopped at was Kidani Village where the kids will be staying.

The outside entrance

The view you're greeted with inside

There were probably hundreds of these displays throughout the hallways.

This is the savannah that surrounds the comlex. There is an outside viewing area where someone from South Africa helps point out the different wildlife.

A typical view! Pretty mind boggling!

We then went over to Jambo House, the other resort that is adjacent to Kidani. This is just a small sampling of the views. It is really overwhelming.

The kids are going to love it!!!!

Orange Lake!

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Today is a big day for us. We finally get to move into the unit that we bought at Orange Lake last year on e-bay! Now that we are owners here, we can trade our other weeks in every year instead of every 4 years. We have been to so many beautiful timeshares, but Orange Lake remains our favourite.

Our Unit!

Home Sweet Home!!

Our First Week

Sunday, January 3 to Sunday, January 10, 2010

We were greeted with some of the coldest days in recent Florida history this week. Now you have to put this in context since the lowest record temperature was 26F but still definitely not pool weather, so we made the best of it and got a lot of our shopping out of the way. Most of my time was spent sitting/sleeping/reading (yes reading) in the van while Chris hit all her favourite stores down here (and there are a lot of them!). We hit all the Bealls on 192, the one in Clermont on both Monday (over 50) and Friday (under 50 discount), one of the benefits of looking younger than your age. We also went to Florida Mall, WinterGarden Mall, and the Loop.
There many more stores (too numerous to mention) where all I heard was "Stop the car!!!!"
We also drove by the rental house we'll be at later next month (very nice) and stopped at Orange Lake to arrange for our next three weeks there. The staff was excellent and gave us all 3 weeks in the unit that we bought on ebay last year. They also arranged for Paul & Andrea to have the unit beside ours for the 2 weeks that they are here. Couldn't resist sitting at our spot on the Lazy River and soaking up the sun! Still cool although it almost reached 60F, but sunny and T-Shirt weather.

We saw these on the Orange Lake property when we were leaving.

Saturday and Sunday will be the low point ( highs in 40's), but it should all be downhill from there!
Cheers!

We're Here!!

Monday, January 3, 2010
We had a good night's sleep and left Columbia early in the morning and had a relaxing drive to Florida. Had to get the standard picture at the Florida Welcome Centre and the requisite glass of Florida Orange Juice!

People were walking by saying "What is that all over that van??".................."Salt you dummies!!" 8O)

We stopped at the Daytona Flea Market for a quick look around and picked up our 10 pound bags of Oranges and Grapefruits.
We then drove to Kissimmee and checked in at our first timeshare, Vacation Village at Parkway. We have stayed here many times before. It is a nice resort and we got a two bedroom unit on a last minute deal.

Tough Drive

January 2, 2010
We left this morning at 2:30 am for the Sunny South. The weather report last night was calling for a storm coming across from the west. The weather was clear when we woke up. I figured if I could get to Erie before it hit I would be ahead of the game. Roads were all clear right up to the Queenston border where we were greeted by about 8 inches of snow with flakes coming down the size of baseballs! It was hit and miss as we passed through Buffalo so it seemed like it was just streamers coming off of Lake Ontario. Once out Buffalo we had clear sailing all the way to Erie. I figured we had it beat!
We stopped at McDonalds in Erie for breakfast and while we're inside it starts snowing. Holy crap, it really started snowing! The only way I knew I was on the road was by staying between the snowpiles on each side of the road! It was so bad that we finally had to pull over at one of the rest stops and wait until daylight.

Our drive was a real tough one well past Beckley! There was even snow in the parking lots in Charlotte from their last storm!
We kept pushing on and made it all the way to Columbia, South Carolina. Glad we got that one behind us!

I'm Back!!

January 1, 2010
Happy New Year everyone. After a bit of a hiatus (just too busy or too lazy to post), I have decided to continue my Blog, if not for my friends then at least for me. I have found this a great tool to review and re-live my adventures since I've retired.
I will be doing it a little different until I catch up. I will be trying to do a daily or periodic report and will also be going back and filling in the missing events as I find time. For those that are interested, send me an email and I will let you know when I have posted an older report. Otherwise just keep checking back on the older pages as I will be trying to keep things in chronological order.
Talk to you again soon.

Pete's Place

Sept 11-13, 2009
As many of you know, September is my favourite month of the year and one of my favourite activities is the annual get together with my Tromper buddies! These guys have hiked the entire length of the Bruce Trail over a 25 year period and with that conquered, this year's Tromp was scheduled for Pete's Place, Peter Burton's unique octogon shaped cottage on Lake Isabella just north of Parry Sound. The other Trompers arrived on Thursday and I pulled in Friday afternoon with boat in tow. Once I got settled in, I took a few of the boys out to catch a few fish. The guys are seasoned Trompers, but not anglers and I was anxious to put them on a few fish to show them how much more enjoyable fishing was compared to dragging your butt up a bunch of rocks!! Confidence was much higher than reality as the bass proved hard to locate on this pretty little body of water. Here's Gary and Doc in deep concentration doing a little "Drop-Shotting".

By the end of the weekend only a few Pike and a small bass were caught, but as usual the company was excellent and the scenery spectacular!

We retreated back to the cottage for one of many fabulous meals and relaxing nights.

The next morning we arose to a beautiful misty morning.

The view from Pete's Place is something out of a magazine. Talk about serene beauty!!

This was going to prove to be a day of adventure. We paddled to the other end of the lake in canoes and kayaks. Bud and I paddled a canoe down the lake and returned in the kayaks, a first for me.

Nobody told me how hard it is to get out of one!!!!

Next, in keeping with unusual experiences I took a dive and went for a swim in the lake to cool off!! Water Temps were still in the low 70's....................... very refreshing!!!!!

Doc and Bag went waterskiing, but I did pass on that......been there done that 8o)

Saturday evening started with the Annual Quoits Tournament that Peter and I were quickly eliminated from!
This was followed by another fabulous meal.

Here's Doc, Bud, Bag, Gary and Peter

The highlight of the evening was a Jupiter sighting through Gary's fantabulous Telescope!!! You could see 4 of Jupiter's moons and also make out the colour bands on Jupiter!! Really amazing!

Sunday we went into Parry Sound for a little investigating.

I got this close to the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame, but it was closed on Sundays (next time!!).

We did do a short hike and Doc and I met a guy that let us take his electric bike for a spin.

We arrived back at the cottage and I was preparing to take my boat out of the water. Doc shoved me away from the dock, but unfortunately in the wrong direction and the motor was heading towards the rocks on shore! Doc quickly circled around and took one step in the water to get a bit closer to the boat. It was a BIG FIRST STEP.........

hahahahhahahahahahahahahaha.......Doc is a great guy!!!!

Just another great time with a bunch of great guys.
Thanks for the memories!

U2

Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2009
We got tickets from Terry & Mandy for the U2 Concert at the Rogers Centre. The wild looking "Thing" (Spaceship??) is a special stage that was pretty amazing. They actually have three of these on the tour as it takes so long to assemble and disassemble. Word is that it costs over $800,000 for each show so they haven't broken even yet!!