Typical Day on the Road

January 2005

<- December 04 - January 05 - February ->

Jan. 1

St. Augustine, Florida. Slept in until almost noon, because we were all up very late last night. We're at the home (a bus in the midst of being converted into a dream home) of our new friends, where we spent the night. The lady of the house hasn't been around, or at least up and about, because she's had to keep some very long hours at work this holiday weekend. Zephyr, Tyler and another boy who is Tyler's neighbor spent the day concocting and filming a movie - and most of the evening (until the wee hours) plotting a future project.

Jan. 2

St. Augustine, Florida Went to a performance of "Honky Tonk Angels", a country-western musical revue, at the Limelight Theatre, where Mark works and performs. (Which is ALSO work, kiddies.) Toured the facility afterward, and was quite impressed by how well equipped it was.

Jan. 3

Toured the Fountain Of Youth park in St. Augustine, Florida, and drank some of the water. Now we'll never grow up! Also returned to the fortress. Said goodbye to our gracious hosts and headed southwest, hoping to find a Kinko's before day's end. But no such thing until Orlando; and since it was already so late, we just spent the evening at a Barnes & Noble in Daytona, across the street from the famous raceway.

Jan. 4

Drove on into Orlando, where we picked up our mail. Dennis was very happy to receive a flute he had bought on ebay - the first genuine orchestral flute he's had in years. Then we hit Kinko's for a long stretch of catching up on some work.

Jan. 5

Orlando, Fl. Stopped in at a very busy Kinko's to catch up on some business, and whom should we encounter but the Myachi Guys, whom we met originally at this very same Kinko's two years ago. (See story about the Columbia launch.) Actually, we met Jason two years ago, but his touring partner, Sebastian, has married and put down roots, so this time Jason was traveling with Steven.

Jan. 6

Orlando, Fl. Returned to the post office to get mail again - this time our first copies of Zephyr's book, "Tales from Under the Crevice".

Today, Congress certified the results of the presidential election; and we were very pleased to hear that several Representatives and Senators objected to the numerous irregularities. It was, of course, much too little and much too late, but it at least provides a glimmer of hope that the system might be repaired in the future.

Jan. 7

Winter Park, Fl. Returned to our favorite YMCA that we've seen so far. Unfortunately, they were not having the Friday night movie series as they were last year. But we at least got in a workout.

Jan. 8

Winter Park, Fl. Kinko's day. At least this Kinko's is situated next to a Whole Foods Market, so we had access to some great food during our day at the "office". Also, massage therapists were on hand (pun intended) in the store, so Kimberly took advantage of the opportunity to have some work done on her ailing neck.

Jan. 9

Altamonte Springs, Fl. Intended to do laundry today, but found only one laundromat in the area, and it was minuscule and packed with a Sunday crowd.

Jan 10

Began the day with 3 back-to-back morning performances at a school in Altamonte Springs, and of course Zephyr was delighted as usual about the opportunity to get up at the crack of dawn and go to work. Then we headed down to Kissimmee, where we finally found a place to do our laundry. After which we picked up the discount tickets for Disney World that we'd found online.

Jan. 11

Visited Disney World's Animal Kingdom, and partook of all the usual attractions - the Dinosaur ride (Zephyr's favorite - he has the script memorized), the safari ride through an outdoor replica of an African wilderness (complete with animals), the water slide and the Lion King spectacular, etc. There was also a new street show that we thoroughly enjoyed - a trio of jugglers/ acrobats disguised as a painting crew. They even juggled paintbrushes and did balancing acts on paint buckets. Quite clever.

At the end of the day as we were putting our new antenna ball on our van we saw a hidden Mickey in the sky. Is Disney magical or what?

Jan. 12

Another (ho-hum!) day at Disney World, this time at EPCOT. There was a new ride that we really LOVED - Mission Space. It's a high-speed simulation ride of a voyage to Mars, with excellent graphics and a thrilling high g-force blastoff, followed by a momentary sensation of weightlessness. Bravo!

We also, of course, took the stroll around the world, pausing for a vegetarian dinner at the Tangerine Café in Morocco before watching the fireworks/ lightshow finale, which was enhanced by the holographic special-effects glasses we had purchased especially for use with Christmas lights. Wow!

Jan. 13

Took a break from Disney World, and we really needed it - the last two days have been exhausting, especially for our feet. Took the van and trailer in to a Tire Kingdom in Kissimmee to get the bearings re-packed on the trailer and the wheels aligned on the van. They discovered the van needed new ball joints as well, so we ended up spending considerably more money than we'd planned. But just as bad, we ended up spending much more time - over EIGHT HOURS in the waiting room! We find it very hard to believe this is really necessary.

Jan. 14

Had intended to make today another Disney day, going to the Magic Kingdom this time. But it was extremely stormy (even had some thunder during the night), so we decided to postpone it. In addition to problems with the weather, Kimberly and Zephyr were not feeling well. Apparently, they picked up a bug yesterday in the waiting room at Tire Kingdom. Kimberly was especially affected, and spent most of the day in bed.

Jan. 15

Drove to Gainesville. Dennis did the driving, while Kimberly slept. We arrived at the home of some friends we knew in Los Angeles several years ago. Tara was a single homeschooling mom at the time, and her son Aiden was a playmate of Zephyr's. She's now married to Ben, who is a professor at the University Of Florida. After dinner, we went to a contra dancing session, a pastime in which they are apparently rather active.

Jan. 16

Gainesville, Fl. Attended a family contra dancing session, and then we did a performance for the group, after which Kimberly taught a "Hand Play" (ASL) workshop. Then we drove back to Orlando.

Jan. 17

Made up our missed day at Magic Kingdom, although Kimberly and Zephyr are still not feeling entirely well, and Dennis now is feeling the bug himself. Also a rather chilly day, the coldest we've experienced yet in Florida. And this being Martin Luther King's Birthday, the park was a little more crowded than usual. Still managed to have a good time - it's hard not to at a Disney theme park. But we were disappointed to see that "it's a small world" is closed for repairs.

Jan. 18

Went to Disney MGM, where we of course rode Rock ‘N' Roller Coaster and Tower Of Terror numerous times. Also saw the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular as usual, caught the "Beauty and the Beast" live show for the first time(We rather enjoyed it.) and visited our friend Isaac in the soon-to-be-practically-nonexistent animation department. Caught three performances by a trio of comics who improvise an act while posing as inept street maintenance workers. (Think Jackie Gleason, Art Carney and Lenny and Squiggy.) Quite impressive! And of course we finished the day with an evening performance of "Fantasmic", the light/fireworks/waterworks/character extravaganza.

Jan. 19

A day of recuperating from the hectic pace of the past few days, although we also had to put in some lengthy office hours at Kinko's.

Jan. 20

Another Disney Day, this time a return to Epcot.

Jan. 21

Returned to Disney MGM. Spent some time chatting with Isaac, an animator who has been working in the now-defunct animation department at Disney. (See previous story about our first trip to Disney World.) He's now looking for a new job, hopefully still with Disney. Zephyr and I attended another performance of the Indiana Jones Stunt Spectacular, and there were some technical glitches - for one thing, the giant boulder that was supposed to barrel down toward Indy decided not to budge. We also took the studio backlot tour, and saw a rehearsal for the new auto stunt show opening in May. That's right, its opening is four months away, and they're already practicing like crazy. Not only that, but their act already looks highly polished.

Jan. 22

Winter Park, Fl. A day of catching up on business.

Jan. 23

Our final day at Disney, this time at Animal Kingdom. Watched Tarzan Rocks for the first time, and were quite impressed by how it incorporated so many elements so smoothly: a rock band, dancers, an utterly fantastic troupe of stunt skaters, and Tarzan & Jane - who were stunningly adept highrope-twirling acrobats. Great show! Also watched the live Pocahontas show for the first time, and it consisted of a Pocahontas singing and interacting with some unbelievably well-trained animals.

Zephyr is very excited about the new ride being built in Animal Kingdom: Expedition Everest, which will be Disney's first high-thrill rollercoaster. He's been salivating as he monitors the progress of its construction.

Jan. 24

Back to the real world. We're making our way northwest to Fort Walton Beach for our next engagement. Stopped in Tallahassee to spend a good part of the day in Kinko's (errr FedEx-Kinko's. We've taken to calling it Fed-inkos for short.)

Jan. 25

Continued to Fort Walton Beach, Fl. For the first time, we are seeing some obvious damage from the recent hurricanes.

Jan. 26

Did two performances at a school in Fort Walton Beach, then spent the rest of the day giving writing workshops to fourth-graders.

Jan. 27

The second day of our writing workshops at Fort Walton Beach. Today, we ended by having Zephyr show a copy of his book and answer students' questions. They were quite excited to see that kids can write books too.

We drove on to Pensacola, and saw some really extensive hurricane damage. Some places look as if they had been hit by a bomb.

Jan. 28

Pensacola, Fl. Another office day at Kinko's.

Jan. 29

After banking in Pensacola, we drove on to Mobile, Alabama.

Jan. 30

Went for a workout at the in YMCA Mobile, Alabama. Someone asked us if we were here for Mardi Gras. We thought they meant the one in New Orleans, but we learned that Mobile has its own sizable Mardi Gras celebration. We decided to stick around for the parade downtown in the evening.

It was a slightly chilly night, perfect for a parade, so we got out our lawn chairs and competed with the rest of the crowd in trying to catch the items thrown from floats. The parade was rather short, so we ended up watching it three times from different positions. We netted three commemorative plastic tumblers, several stuffed animals, packages of peanuts, and tons of beads. Zephyr caught - and even ate - a couple of Moon Pies, an item which we didn't even know was still marketed. We also saw another product we thought was long extinct - toy cigarettes. A couple of vendors with carts were selling them, and we saw children, as young as about 8, "smoking" them by blowing out the powder they contain. Lovely, eh?

We were astonished to see so many men dressed in tuxes along the route, but soon realized that they were planning to attend another event afterward.

Jan. 31

On to Hattiesburg, Mississippi. A gray, rainy day on which we did laundry and more officing.

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