Prelude
California to Florida or "Does this road ever end?!"
April 15th to April 19th
 We left for Florida on the 15th. I got out of town about 11:00 am after Greg and Jon left Chino at about 8:00 am. We were going to meet up at our first stop over in Tucson, AZ. They were pulling the trailer with the equipment and were limited as to how fast they could go - 55 in CA. I caught up to them just outside Tucson. The wind started blowing hard at about Phoenix and didn't stop until we stopped for the night in Beaumont, TX. That caused some interesting movements with the trailer.
We got up the next morning to heavy rain that followed us past Lafayette, LA. While driving we had a really close call. It's a three lane highway through this portion of TX and we were in the middle lane - the trailer in front and I was following behind. Jon and Greg were just passing a loaded 7-Up truck driving on the right. The rain was coming down pretty hard and the spray from the tires even made it worse. Well, I look over at the truck as the cab just comes into view and he begins moving into our lane! I see the cab so close to the trailer I start slowing down and expecting to see contact and all heck break loose. But it moves out of the way and into the shoulder area. Well, Jon and Greg keep driving while I'm slowing down thinking this guy's going into the grass and trees with all that 7-Up but he keeps it on the pavement and continues to slow down. Well I decide to move past him and as I do I look over at him and he's looking at me with eyes bigger than grapefruits! It looked like he was going to stop (change of underwear) so we leave him to his business grateful that he didn't hit them. As we travelled on I got to thinking about him stopping and wondered if he thought he HAD hit us and was stopping because of it. I called Greg and Jon and asked if they saw or felt that guy hit the trailer and they said no. Well we pulled off the highway just to have a look and sure enough, there on the side of the trailer was a 5-inch long scratch at about the height of his fender…of course we were too far down the highway at that point to talk to him and actually it was nothing a can of white paint can't take care of. It was just what could have been that was scary.
 All-in-all the drive wasn't THAT bad, if you like driving 10 - 11 hour days. DVDs are wonderful. Driving like that and looking at the scenery up close, it's amazing to see the contrasts of the country side. You hit desert outside of Palm Springs and then don't see another tree until eastern Texas! But really! Part of Texas has desert that looks like the ocean - flat and featureless from horizon to horizon, the only texture is scrub brush. Louisiana is beautiful and has lots of water - kind of - swampy water. In fact, it seemed like most of the highway was built up in the air OVER the swamps! But it was beautiful and we're already arguing over whose going to be riding the bikes during that part of the trip! 
From Louisiana on into Florida was lush vegetation and beautiful. We arrived in Orlando at about 12:30 pm after finally finding the hotel. Now I had left Greg and Jon in Tallahassee at about 8:00 am and was going on ahead to get the rooms ready and then get Brian and Brian at the airport. Well, I wanted to see more of central Florida and environs around Orlando so I took the long way and actually got to the hotel right behind Greg and Jon - literally! They pulled into the driveway right in front of me! Of course I was  looking for a somewhat large sign, somewhat elevated in the air like the other businesses around there. So drove right past it, should have seen the beautiful and functional business marquee out front. We were also greeted by their welcoming committee. As you can see, each room has assigned to it, two or three lizards living in the wall air condition intake. They are cute little things really, scurrying inside when you walk by and then checking things out when it's safe to do so. We'll leave some cheese out and see if they actually come into the rooms. So that's it in a nutshell. After arriving, we worked on completion of setting the trailer, quads and motorcycle up.
We picked Brian and Brian (Doc and Crash respectively) at the airport at about 4:30 pm and they immediately set in about how they were sooo tired and hungry after the looonnnggg flight. Wah Wah wah, all the way to the hotel and then some. HA! We showed them alright, the lizards, raccoons in the trash, the disinfectant. Boy, are they sorry! We took them to dinner (Tony Roma's) and then tucked them in for the night. Poor boys had it so rough and they were soooo sleepy. You've just got to feel sorry for them. Gave them a binky and they shut right up.
Tomorrow (Sunday) it's off to Daytona Beach and a BBQ with the Fire Department after breakfast with our hosts from Translife in Orlando.
We're going to try and post some video on Youtube. We'll keep you posted on how to check it out. We're still toying around with it.
More to come so stay tuned!
April 20, 2008
Spent the morning with Lesley, Summer and Martha at Translife. We had a breakfast meeting at 9:00 am to go over the program at the school tomorrow morning. It's going to be quite the affair and we can't wait to go.
This afternoon we met her and Dee at the Daytona Beach Fire Department for a BBQ (chicken) and all the fixings. We wanted to have our flag folded (the one for the Air Force Reserve shadow box) and Lesley asked the FD if they could help out. They sent three of the Daytona Beach Fire Department Honor Guard to fold the flag and insert it into the shadow box. It was very moving to see them treat the flag with such honor and deep respect. We have video footage of it and we'll see about getting it up on Youtube.
 We then had the Honor Guard be the first to sign the matting around the flag and then the others who were there followed suit. We then sat down and had great chicken and baked beans and spent a little while talking and then headed back to the hotel. The guys at the department got a couple of calls while we were there. It was a busy day and we're tired - and we're just getting ready to go!
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