Universal Studios – Harry Potter, Super Heroes, and so much MORE!

On Tuesday morning, 11/8, we moved the rig just 50 miles to our next stop, a city park only a few miles outside of Universal Studios in Orlando.  Randi and Ryan were due in around 6:30pm so we did some shopping and Rog dropped his bike off to get a new “rock shock” installed and the brakes upgraded. Mountain biking won’t be on the agenda while we’re in Orlando, so it was the perfect time to get it into the shop.

Randi called to check in during their layover in St. Louis and disaster was narrowly averted. They had forgotten about the time change and thought they had time for a leisurely lunch. Oops! They cancelled their order, grabbed some (really) fast food and made a bee-line to their gate. Whew!   Traveling can be stressful, so we were thrilled when they and their luggage all arrived on time.

After lots of hugs, we had dinner and formulated a plan of attack for our first day in the parks. Universal Orlando Resort, as it’s now called, is actually two separate parks – Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. You can walk from one park to the other through Universal’s “City Walk” which is an area of shops and restaurants or take the Hogwarts Express train between the parks. We decided to start in Islands of Adventure which has more thrill rides. We settled in early since we wanted to be at the gates when they opened at 9am. Unfortunately, we ended up having a sleepless night as the election results came in. Nuff said.

Universal has done an excellent job creating attractions and rides for an older, more adventurous crowd. They have awesome rides using 4D simulation and thrilling roller coasters that you just won’t find at Disney. They’ve also done an incredible job creating a detailed, realistic, totally immersive experience for Harry Potter fans. Gotta say, this is my favorite park for fun!

Islands of Adventure is divided into different themed areas – the Wizarding World of Harry Potter™, Marvel Super Hero Island®, Toon Lagoon™, Jurassic Park™- The Lost Continent™, and Seuss Landing. As you walk from one area to the next all the details and even the background music changes. There are areas and rides for littler kids, but a lot of the rides are for older kids (like us!).

Hey, we're in the funnies! Randi & Ryan in Toon Lagoon. 

Fun photo ops abound.

Kong is the new ride at Universal.  You are right in the middle of the awesome action!

There is no real point in trying to describe all the rides – they just have to be experienced. But I will give you the lowdown on the Incredible Hulk, our favorite roller coaster. It’s a 2:15 minute, 3,700-foot-long ride with a top speed of 67 mph that features seven inversions including a zero-g roll, a cobra roll, two vertical loops, and two corkscrews. It reaches a maximum height of 110 feet and the first drop is 105 feet! What I like best is that there is no slow excruciating climb up – the part I hate most!  The Hulk launches you from 0 to 40mph in 2 seconds and the track drops away so it’s just blue sky and blind faith. Whoohooo! Lol. To be honest, I am not a huge coaster fan, but when we came here in 2000 I figured I had to ride with Rog and not wimp out. We ended up riding it six times! We only managed it twice this trip, but it’s still a great coaster. Unfortunately, Randi gets motion sick so, while she rode everything at least once, she opted to sit out repeat performances.

Me and my Hunk with the Hulk coaster is in the background. :)

We decided to save all the Harry Potter areas/rides for Thursday. Universal has recreated Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. For anyone who loved the Harry Potter books – this is a bucket list item. The detail is phenomenal! Apparently J.K. Rowling visits often to ensure it’s done right. And it did not disappoint. Randi and Ryan loved it and we even had dinner and a Butterbeer at the Three Broomsticks. Lol.

Diagon Alley

The dragon breathes fire atop Gringotts Bank.

Hogwarts

Approaching the 9 3/4 platform for the Hogwart's Express.

Tired puppy with sore feet awaiting the train to Hogsmeade.

Randi & Ryan at the Hogwarts Express station.

Dinner at the Three Broomsticks. The Butterbeer was a hit! 

The dragon is especially impressive at night.

On Friday we started with the rides in Universal Studios. There are more shows and themed areas here too, including a whole irreverent section dedicated to the Simpsons. We all thought the Horror Make-Up Show was hilarious! We had an early dinner in City Walk and then switched parks to do the water rides. Universal has three “wet” rides and we opted to save then all for one day and come prepared! Lol. It was almost dark by the time we got started, but they ended up being Randi’s absolute favorites and we did two of them twice. I’m sure seeing Mom and Dad get drenched just added to the appeal. Lol.

Had to stop here in the Simpson's area. 

Body by Duff. Lol. 

Loved the tropical flowers and landscaping.

Since Saturday was our last day we picked up a few rides we’d missed and repeated some favorites (not the water rides!) and then treated ourselves to the Dessert Foundry – A Toothsome Chocolate Emporium. (No counting calories here!)

Lunch at the aptly named Dessert Foundry- A Toothsome Chocolate Emporium.

After that we called it quits. After four straight days in Universal, Randi was developing some impressive blisters and we have lots more walking to do at Disney. Tomorrow we get to sleep in and have huckleberry pancakes (the last of our berries from Glacier!) for breakfast. Then we move the RV to the Fort Wilderness Campground at Disney and check Randi & Ryan into the All Stars Movie Resort. We had a blast at Universal and are excited to continue the fun at Disney. 

Big Bells in the Belfry and a Sucky Shooting Day

Thursday, 11/3, we headed to the range to shoot the classifier stages. Although we’re already classified in ICORE, the revolver shooting organization that is sponsoring the match, we wanted some trigger time before the big match. Both Rog and I are “B” shooters (Classifications are: Grand Master, Master, A, B, C, D), The qualifier match was just four stages, but there were a lot of folks there so it took us a couple hours. We did as well as could be expected considering we’ve only shot once in the past four months and we got a little preview of shooting in the hot, Florida sun. The good news is the range is very nice, with a covered area at each bay for a little shade.

We also got to reconnect with an old friend, Shannon Smith, who used to shoot with us at home. Smitty left the PNW for sunnier climes and it’s been 16 years since we’ve seen him. He is a nationally ranked shooter and part owner of the range, Universal Shooting Academy, where our competition is being held. Nice to say we knew him way back when. Lol.

This classifier requires you to shoot weak handed. Looks easy, but it aint!

Maddy, our squad's ICORE fashionista. Lol. 

Friday, we had another “free” day so we decided to visit the Bok Tower and Gardens. In 1929, Edward Bok gifted a 50-acre garden designed by Frederick Olmsted to the public. The property includes a 205-foot tall Neo-Gothic Art Deco “Singing Tower” that houses a 60-bell carillon. The bells range from 16 pounds to 11+ tons! They have a world renown carillonneur (no, I did not know that was a word) on site that performs short concerts twice a day. Lovely! 

The gardens are pretty awesome too, with several walking paths and ponds and the absolutely best children’s garden I’ve ever seen. So many cool features and activities – wished I was about 6 again. Lol.

The Bok Tower houses 60 bells that together weigh over 63 tons. It was a treat to hear them.

The gardens were lovely too.

Our snakey karma continued - we saw three in the gardens!

Water lilies in the koi pond. 

Wildlife viewing window. 

The Children's Garden had so many cool interactive features - I wanted to play in the fountains too!

Most awesome sandbox EVER. Lol. 

We headed to the range early on Saturday for an 8am start to first day of the International Revolver Competition. Smitty and his crew did an awesome job setting up the match. There was a total of 13 stages – a combination of steel stages and field courses with lots of props and moving targets to keep things interesting. We were supposed to shoot 8 stages Saturday and then finish up Sunday morning with the awards ceremony in the afternoon.

Rog and I ended up in a small squad with the “good” shooters. I kid you not, we only had six people in our squad and they finished as the #1, #2, and #3 shooters at the match. We got off to a pretty good start, our very first stage involved shooting from a “moving” vehicle. Lol. The prop is on chains and sways when you move. The first array of targets you can hit from a seated position, but then you have stand up and move to the rear to get a clear shot at the remaining targets. So, while the targets didn’t move, we sure did! Our second stage was a fun steel stage.

Starting position - seated in a wiggly wagon. Lol.

Shooting into the sun - where did those targets go???

The third stage looked pretty straightforward. You had to push open a door which activated a moving target and then commence firing.  This is where shit happened. I loaded and holstered my weapon at the line. Ready? Ready. The buzzer sounded. I gave the door a shove and my gun popped right out of my speed holster and hit the ground. Automatic DQ. Nooooooooooooooooooooo!!!  I hadn’t even touched the gun; I can only speculate that it wasn’t seated properly in the holster and just the forward thrust when I hit the door was enough for it fly out. In all my many, many years of shooting I have NEVER had a DQ. To have it happen at the one major match that I look forward to all year long is a suckfest of epic proportions. You can image how pissed off and frustrated I was with myself. Didn’t change a thing though, so it was pack up my toys and go home.  To borrow from Judy Blume, it was Teddi’s Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Shooting Day. L

Stage 3 and the evil door than ended my match. 

Rog shot fairly well the rest of the match, he picked up some penalty points for mental errors (forgot to hit a target, oops!) and ended up placing #53 overall – exactly the same as last year! Lol. I hung out at the RV and got some stuff done around the coach. I know I said that I wanted more down time, but this isn’t what I had in mind! I’m sure some day this will be a funny story, but right now I’m still having trouble seeing the humor in it.

The kicker is very nearly the same thing happened to another guy in our squad on Sunday on the next to the last stage. I’m not sure which was worse – getting DQ’d early and not getting to shoot or shooting almost the whole match and getting DQ’d at the very end. As it was, Rog ended up finishing the match with just him and the three top shooters in the squad. Lol. He said they were all nice guys and he learned a lot watching and talking to them. I learned that I should go holster shopping – several people told me this is a known problem with the CR Speed Holster I use. I can screw up all on my own thank you, I don’t need to worry about equipment failure too. Lol.

We are having dinner Monday with Smitty and his lovely wife Kristen. They are expecting a baby girl in just two weeks!  Happy me got to go shopping in the baby department. I forgot how precious all those teeny, tiny little outfits were – it’s been a few years. Lol.

Fun shopping! Girlie on the right, not so girlie on the left. 

Speaking of itty bits, my baby will be here tomorrow! Can’t wait to see Randi and her fiancé Ryan. We’ll start out in a city park near Universal Studios with four days to do Universal. Then, on Sunday, 11/13, Rog and I will move the RV to Fort Wilderness Campground at Disney and Randi & Ryan have a room at the Disney All Star Movie Resort for six days. We figured after five days together in our little 33 foot box some alone time might be a welcome thing. Lol. I’m sure we will be spending as much time as possible in the parks, so don’t worry if you don’t hear from us for a bit. We will be trying to squeeze every ounce of fun out of the happiest place on earth. Lol. 

Welcome to Florida. Spiders and Gators and Rattlers…. Oh My!

We have officially joined the migration of the white crested snowbirds to Florida! Lol. The number of motorhomes, 5^th wheels, and travel trailers heading south on I95 is hilarious. We left South Carolina on Sunday, 10/30, with three days to drive a little over 450 miles to our next scheduled stop in Lake Wales, Florida. 

We spent the first night in an RV park in Darien, GA.  Rog scoped out RV parks between there and Lake Wales and they were pricey and pretty full. We hate to pay resort prices just to park for the night. We thought about staying the night in a Gander Mountain parking lot but nixed that idea when we realized it was Halloween. No sense inviting trouble!

We checked and the Lake Wales Campground could accommodate us a day early, so Rog opted to power through and we arrived on Monday, 10/31. We did a quick run to the grocery store just in case we had trick-or-treaters. We didn’t, but then we never do at home either and I always buy at least one bag of candy just in case! Lol.

With an extra day to play, we decided to run some errands and then check out the hiking trails in Kissimmee State Park. It was a bit further away than we anticipated, so we didn’t get there until mid-afternoon. The park had two major loop trails that were each 6-7 miles long. We opted for the slightly longer one since it seemed to be more in the forest. We were enjoying the interesting vegetation and saw lots of deer, flocks of wild turkeys, a bald eagle swooped through the trees, and a raccoon ran right down the path toward us. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough to get good pictures and nobody, except the deer, seemed interested in posing.

The giant oaks and palmettos are sure a change of pace.

The "Zipper" canal runs through the park.

Hello! Is anybody home?

The bromeliads growing wild on the trees was just so cool!

Pretty doe and she didn't mind posing. :)

The hanging moss is awesome.

It was a great trail with lots of wildlife and that was both good and bad because then we came across the snake. Not just any snake, but a really, really big snake. Not just any really, really big snake, but a really, really big RATTLESNAKE.  We were tromping along when I stopped dead my tracks, Rog was like, “What?”. “Isn’t that a snake across the trail?”  He walks a few feet closer. Yep. “Isn’t that a rattlesnake?” He takes a closer look. Yep.

I started snapping pictures while we waited to see what Mr. I-Own-the-Trail Rattlesnake wants to do. He was content to crawl off into the palmetto bushes, but I can assure you that as I passed those bushes I was feeling decidedly underdressed in my shorts and sandals with no suit of armor. I wonder if my accelerated heartrate got me any extra credit on my FitBit. Lol.  

He was stretched across the entire width of the trail, easily 4 ft. long.

The pointy end and the noisy end. I'll avoid both, thank you very much!

We continued along the path, but let me tell you, I was keeping a pretty sharp eye out for any of his reptilian relatives. It was starting to get late and completing the loop would mean we wouldn’t make it back to the car until around 6pm so we opted to take a “shortcut”. It was on the trail map as a “fireline or dirt service road” and looked like a broad mowed track. It would cut off about an hour so seemed like a good idea at the time. The first half mile or so was just fine, but then the track got more overgrown and rutted and boggy. After encountering one big rattler we weren’t happy about stomping through tall grass and brush where we couldn’t see what (or who) we were stepping on - but we were committed (or committable – not sure which! Lol). We made it back without incident, just did a lot of high stepping and hoping we didn’t disturb anyone. At the end of the trail we came across this giant spider and loved his message. How appropriate. Lol.

Our "short cut" had us high stepping through tall grass.

Ya think?! Lol.

On Wednesday, I needed to catch up on laundry and housework, so Rog decided to check out a mountain bike trail in Alafia State Park. It is the only “Epic” rated trail in Florida and it was only an hour away – how could he resist?! He was enjoying the trail – since the topography is so flat they’ve built ramps and tricks to keep it interesting. There are lots of water crossings and  Rog was flying across one of the bridges when he heard a loud angry splash. Oops! That sounded like a gator! He stopped, but the gator didn’t make a reappearance. Rog did manage to add some tree rash and a swollen knuckle to his collection of mountain bike trophies, but nothing serious. (And he wonders why I worry! Lol.)

Spitfire Trail

Rog had a blast on the banked corners. 

Ramps, bridges and gaters in the water, keeps it interesting. Lol.

Looks like prime alligator habitat to me!

Let's race! Rog's competition on the trail.

The next few days will mostly be about the shooting. We shoot some qualifier stages on Thursday and then we have Friday free. The match is Saturday and Sunday. Wish us luck!  

Congaree National Park – by boot and by boat

On Friday morning, 10/28, we drove the hour from our campground to Congaree National Park. Considering the trail closures at Poinsett State Park, we weren’t sure what to expect. The bad news: Congaree also had extensive wind damage from Hurricane Matthew. The good news: They already had several miles of trail open.

We had to laugh at the Mosquito Meter at the park headquarters – we were at five out of six. It wasn’t so funny once we were out on the trail. Even wearing the high powered Deet repellent we were walking in a cloud of the little blood suckers. If you stopped moving even for a moment the hordes would descend, so we were highly motivated to keep movin’ on. Lol. We weren’t even at DEFCON 6, although I can’t image it being much worse!  

They aren't joking! Ruthless is right, it should have been at war zone! 

The two things we wanted to do at Congaree were both at least partially open: The Boardwalk Loop Trail and the Cedar Creek Canoe Trail. Since Congaree is in a floodplain a lot of the park is often underwater. The 2.4-mile Boardwalk Trail gives you a chance to enjoy the park even when the water is high (typically in the winter and spring). While flooding wasn’t a problem this late in the season, there were still a lot of downed trees and park staff were working on the boardwalk and other trails.

Rog on the Boardwalk. :)

We did get to hike almost five miles – most of the boardwalk and some other short trails. We found both the flora and fauna very interesting. One thing we noticed is that this part of South Carolina isn’t very warm and fuzzy. The wildlife we saw on the trail was limited to lizards, a snake, huge spiders, and one turtle. Nothing snuggly there. Lol.

While some areas looked like a pretty typical pine forest, others were very, very different from anything we’ve seen so far - the bald cypress with their knobby knees, the tea colored water, hanging moss and palmetto bushes. On the drive over we also passed cotton fields – certainly something you don’t see in the northwest!

Swampy goodness.

Bald Cypress "knees".

Pretty fungi.

This guy was hiding in plain sight on a bridge. We walked right by him the first time across!

This guy was huge, easily a couple inches across.

At last, some wildlife that was at least sorta cute! :)

Cotton fields.

We came back on Saturday to kayak the Cedar Creek Trail. We would have liked to do the longer 4-6 hour float but the Ranger said there were too many downed trees and recommended we put in at South Cedar Creek and just paddle up or down stream. We put in at the bridge and went downstream for close to an hour before we hit an impassible snag. Not up to trying to portage around it, we headed back upstream. We saw several locals fishing and a couple of kayak groups. The water was very slow and was pretty low too. It is such a dark brown, you can’t see more than a few inches into it. We passed our takeout spot to see what was upstream but didn’t get very far before we came across another downed tree that spanned the whole creek. By then we’d been on the water about two hours and decided that was good enough.

So cool, unlike anything we've seen so far. :)

Can you see the color of the water? Tobacco juice brown. 

Rog paddles and I photograph. Lol.

Some fall color even here, the bald cypress lose their needles every year (hence, bald). :) 

Cypress swamp.

Downed tree blocking our way.

We turn back downstream...

... to the take-out point. 

We hauled the boat out and got it cleaned up and packed away for the drive back to the campground. We leave tomorrow and have three travel days to get to our next stop in Lake Wales, Florida.