Day 15

Epcot 3/19

We were planning on being at the opening of the park at 9:00 but that did not happen, we arrived at about 10:30. The first order of business was to try to up our dinner reservations to 6 people because Anna and Jane’s grandparents decided to join us for a few days. With our
dinner/fireworks reservation set, we headed into the park. One of the first rides we did was “Sum of all Thrills” where you learn a bit about designing a ride and then do it! Your ride is played out on a simulator – a robotic arm that moves a two person pod around while the riders watch a screen that approximates the ride. Anna was smart enough to decide that she didn’t want to go on the ride, so she and Mr. Barnes designed a ride, but only he rode it.
Mrs. Barnes was not so smart….despite the warnings, she gave in to Jane’s pleading and went on, on the condition that they design something really tame. Bad idea…motion sickness kicked
right in! Jane had fun though.

Other rides throughout the day included “Mission:Space” (an interactive 3-D space mission simulator) “Test Track” (based on the safety tests autos go through) and “Spaceship Earth.” All fun and educational! One of the most educational and enjoyable rides was “Living With the Land” It offered a really great look at agriculture techniques and food plants from around the world. Of course, walking around the World Showcase offered a taste of architecture and culture from many different countries.

In the evening, we went to the United Kingdom area of Epcot for dinner at the Rose and Crown Restaurant. They knew it was the girls’ first time at Disney, and gave us amazing
seats for watching the “Illuminations” fireworks and light show out on the water.

Day 14

March 18

Disney day 1
Day 14 3/18

The Disney part of the trip we had been saving for six years. We had a five gallon jar that we would add our change and occasional cash to. When we emptied it a few weeks before the trip we discovered we had saved $2800. This money is not counted in our daily average because it was saved separately. This covered our accomodations at Disney, and our admission to the park, as well as our tickets to Universal Studios (which we will be visiting next week) as well as our accomodations for all stops in Florida during the next week!

We left Marco Island at around 9:00 and arrived at Disney’s Fort Wilderness around 2:00. We set up camp and took a boat over to the Magic Kingdom and were pleasantly surprised that it was open till midnight. The laser show on the castle was amazing, with the fireworks after. We included for your enjoyment a virtual teacup ride (caution it might make you dizzy)

Day 13

March 17

We drove around Marco Island in the morning looking for the two endangered animals that live there, Ground owls and tortoises. The ground owls dig their nests underground. Since they are a protected species any where they dig no one can build on until they leave. This can be very burdensome and annoying for land owners that leave a lot vacant for any amount of time, some people have had to wait years for the
owls to leave. The tortoises are the same way, except you can pay Dem in some cases to come and move them at a cost of 5000 dollars per animal. (Same as the
fine if you move them yourself)

We did some grocery and supply shopping at Wal-Mart. Then in the evening Anna and Jane’s grandparents hosted a big St. Patrick’s Day party.

The Scituate High School Drama Team went to the Rhode Island Drama Festival to perform their play without us, Mr. Dunne took them.

Anna money review week 1

I am working on learning how to use a spread sheet. https://docs.google.com/open?id=0BwWHOGUc8TJwQTFMbFpMelRURzZZcHlwVm1lVE9qUQ

Day 11

March 15

We spent the day working on the camper. We added a new cabinet and a rack to store the bathroom stuff. We fixed the emergency brake cable. Mrs. Barnes found a soft spot in the floor, after further investigation we found a small hole where water had gotten in and rotted a small portion of the floor. It does not need fixing yet fortunately. Fixing it right will be a big project when we get home. When the awning was installed they left a hole open at the base, we sealed up the hole to slow down or stop further rot.

In the process we found this little gecko.This gecko needed a place to shed its skin. It was not moving so we thought it was dead. When we tried to sweep it up it did not like it. Anna saved part of the skin to add to her scrap book. She ran out of books to read so went out to the book store to get some more. Jane is taking it easy today recovering from ten miles of paddling yesterday. She has a great sunburn on the left side,
that was the side in the sun all day. She got the nice burn even with a good layer of sunscreen.

Day 10

March 14, 2012
Today Mrs. Barnes and I spent the day de-winterizing the camper. We had to sanitize the water
tanks and flush out all the antifreeze from the water lines. We also cleaned it inside and outside which we could not do in the freezing weather up north. I heard that you had record high temperatures this week back home.

Jane went on a ten mile paddle in a kayak in the Gulf of Mexico along the shore near Marco Island. She saw lots of wildlife, including dolphins (if you look carefully in one of the pictures you can see a dolphin). A mullet jumped right over the nose of the kayak. She also saw three brown pelicans.

Anna helped set up for Jane’s confirmation party.

day 9

March 13

We visited the winter home of Thomas Edison and viewed his
workshop and museum. Notice the picture
of one of his notebooks as he set up an experiment. I was glad that they showed some of his
scientific method and record keeping. He planted extensive gardens around the
home, he was trying to find an alternative plant to the rubber tree. The Banyan trees are the most
fascinating, as the branches grow they
will send down new roots from the branch and make a new trunk to support the
weight of the growing branches. Check
out the pictures

Mr. Barnes collected some Fossiliferous Limestone ( A
limestone that contains obvious and abundant fossils. These are normally shell
and skeletal fossils of the organisms that produced the limestone.) This is the
main type of stone you find in this part of Florida. It would have been nice to
be able to collect some Travertine ( A limestone that forms by evaporative
precipitation, often in a cave, to produce formations such as stalactites,
stalagmites and flowstone.) but that is usually not allowed and in some cases
illegal to collect. Travertine is what
we saw at Dixie Caverns, they gave us a chunk to hold to see how dense it is,
it is almost as dense as Basalt. It is denser than granite.

From Wikipedia:
West Orange and Fort Myers (1886–1931)


Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Harvey Firestone,
respectively. Ft. Myers, Florida, February 11, 1929
Edison moved from Menlo Park after the death of Mary
Stilwell (his first wife) and purchased
a home known as "Glenmont" in 1886 as a wedding gift for Mina in
Llewellyn Park in West Orange, New Jersey. In 1885, Thomas Edison bought
property in Fort Myers, Florida, and built what was later called Seminole Lodge
as a winter retreat. Edison and his wife Mina spent many winters in Fort Myers
where they recreated and Edison tried to find a domestic source of natural
rubber.
Henry Ford, the automobile magnate, later lived a few
hundred feet away from Edison at his winter retreat in Fort Myers, Florida.
Edison even contributed technology to the automobile. They were friends until
Edison's death.
In 1928, Edison joined the Fort Myers Civitan Club. He
believed strongly in the organization, writing that "The Civitan Club is
doing things —big things— for the community, state, and nation, and I certainly
consider it an honor to be numbered in its ranks."He was an active member
in the club until his death, sometimes bringing Henry Ford to the club's
meetings.
End quote

We also went shopping for good hiking boots for Jane and
Anna. They need good boots for hiking in
the mountains out west. I figure they
will hike over a 150 miles by the time we are done touring the parks.

Day 8

March 12

We went to the beach today. It was a great day in the 80s. The pictures speak for themselves. Notice the shells that turn into the limestone of this area eventually.

Day 7

March 11
Sunday,
We went to church after a nice long sleeping in. There were maybe six kids in the church and
500 older people. Jane got a kick out of
the guy in front of her that was snoring very loudly, the women next to her
also felt it was nap time. The priest
was on vacation from Minnesota.

Day 5 and 6

March 9th-10th
After a brief family meeting, we have unanimously decided to
abandon the idea of setting foot in each of the lower 48 states in favor of spending
more time in places we love. We
originally had a few brief stops planned in WV, KY, TN, NC, SC, and GA, we instead
chose to drive as long as we could in the straightest line possible toward our
next destination. We drove all day from
Salem, VA to Osceola National Forest, just west of Jacksonville, FL. So, although we did not stop in the states we
did go through, we did make some observances.
Interesting things we noticed as we were traveling though
the Carolinas and Georgia:
Gas priced at $3.49/gallon!
A truck in the bed of a truck!
Lots of license plates from Ontario. (Jane kept count for an hour and found that
10% of all cars that she saw were from Ontario!
And most interesting to watch was the transition though
spring to early summer happen before our eyes over the course of this one
day. The grass got greener, trees “started”
flowering, and vegetation became more sub-tropical, with the appearance of palm
trees.
As we entered Florida at about 9pm, it began to rain heavily
for about an hour, and then the rain subsided.
This is a common occurrence in Florida.

Anna's financial review day 1-4

This will get more specific as I learn how to use a spread sheet.

Thanks,

Anna

Our goal is $130 dollars a day.

Day one:

$312.37 Mostly gas and tolls, some supplies we will not need to buy again

Day two:

$194.85 New Battery for the camper, gas, and special National Park Passports

Day Three:

$218.87 Annual Park Pass for National Parks, gas, train tickets

Day Four

We actual got our goal of being under $130.00

$111.42 Dixie Caverns and Gas

total so far 837.51 that is $209.37 a day

Gas milage was about 10.5 miles to the Gal.

For the High School Drama Team

Break a leg at the competition!

Day 4 (March 8)

Dixie Caverns

Salem, Virginia

It was a 5 hour drive from Greenbelt National Park to Dixie Caverns campground in Salem, Virginia (they have wi-fi). We drove in just in time to catch a tour that was just about to begin. Bo was a great tour guide through the cavern. Lots of neat formations. Stalagtites on the ceilings, stalagmites on the floor.

This is called the wedding bell, they hold weddings under it. (20 people can fit) Over 50 couples

have been married here.

It takes a stalagtite 100 years to grow an inch this one is about 900,000 years old.

http://www.dixiecaverns.com/index.htm

Day 3 part 3

As Evening came the Museum closed, 5:30. We got a quick bite to eat and went to see the new World War II Memorial. Each state is listed to honor the soldiers homes living and dead. On one wall is hundreds of stars. Each star represents 100 hundred soldiers that never came home alive.

The sunset was fantastic. As the sun was setting over the Washington monument the full moon was rising over the capital.

Day 3 part 2

We got some good advice and parked at a Metro station where
a very nice attendant taught us how to use the machines and buy our tickets and
how to use them. We got off right at the
Smithsonian, notice the Statue of Joseph Henry, we read about him in our
text. He helped
found the Smithsonian and was considered the father of weather forecasting. We visited several museums all of them were
amazing. We all went to the American
History Museum. Then Anna and I went to
the Natural History Museum to look at Dinosaurs. They had more than we had time to see. We could have easily spent all day in any one
museum. Next time we come to DC we will
plan to spend a day at each museum we want to see.

We then went to the Air and Space Museum. Notice Jane standing next to the odd looking
plane, Jane’s grandfather worked on the
project that built it.