Into the New Year - 12/27 to 01/27

It is our first January in Central Florida. It isn’t unusual for the overnight low to get to 40° F. In Kentucky, our former home area, this is a cool night. In Florida it’s considered very cold. One thing we’ve noticed is that gloves go on at 50 whereas in Kentucky 40 seems like a suitable temperature.

After starting earlier in December, Byron was well into working at Casey’s Corner on Main Street USA in the Magic Kingdom. Several of the shifts he worked were late at night meaning that he’d start after 6:30 PM and not get off until cleaning and closing at 3 AM in the morning.

Between the middle of December and middle of January Magic Kingdom opens at 8 or 9 AM and closes after midnight. For New Year's Eve the park closed at 2 AM.

He did get to work a variety of the dozen positions at Casey’s. His preference is to work as a dishwasher, fry cook, order filler, toppings bar attendant, or greeter. What he doesn’t care much for is working on “the line” which involves assembling the variety of dressed hot dogs that are their specialty. It involves remember which bun to use and what toppings among a choice of pork bar-b-q, slaw, hot cheese, sauerkraut, whole seed mustard, and bar-b-1 sauce. To him, a hot dog should only involve a bun while the eater puts his/her own toppings on. All in all, however, he enjoyed working with the college students he encountered.

After the seasonal rush of (Magic Kingdom operated a capacity for several days and even closed the gates by noon on three days) hours at Casey’s have been cut back severely. They’ll pick up again after the middle of February. During the interim Byron picked up extra shifts working in Parade Assistance Control and as a Seater at the ’Ohana restaurant in Polynesian Resort.

Between Christmas and New Year we got together with

David and Stephanie Garrard. David is a magician as well as

the Children’s Minister at our church in Louisville. Stephanie

was raised in the Orlando/Kissimmee area.

During the first week of January our daughter, Candice, came to visit for a week. While here she and Martha spent a day at Magic Kingdom. The three of us made it to Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.

While in the Magic Kingdom, Martha and Candice stopped by

for a visit with Mickey Mouse, the boss.

Near the end of her visit Ashley and children came up for a visit from their new home near Fort Lauderdale. Of course, we all made a visit to Magic Kingdom where grandson Ben quickly adjusted to meeting some of the Disney characters.

Martha and Ben meet Minnie Mouse at the

Square on Main Street.

While it was handy, we decided to go to the highly touted Tampa Super Show, an RV show that is well known among RVers. Some full-timing friends we met at a Newmar rally this past summer decided to meet us to walk around the show.

Present and marching around the grounds was this bagpipe band

playing some patriotic American music.

Roseanne, Sue, Martha, and I also got together a week later for an excursion to Epcot. We all had a great time covering just about every square inch of the World Showcase, which is the back side of Epcot where we got to experience Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, Morocco, Italy, Germany, China, and Mexico. We experienced some British cuisine by eating at Rose and Crown Restaurant. The weather was ideal and the time with other adults quite enjoyable.

Two of us have sunglasses and two of us don’t, can you

tell which two? Spaceship Earth at Epcot is in the background.

Lest you get the wrong impression, Martha has been keeping up with her job putting in an average of 32 hours per week across five days. That means she works part of the day on Sunday and Monday and then eight hours each Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. She’s off on Friday and Saturday. So, when Candice was here, she was fitting it all in – the visits to Walt Disney World and working from 3 PM to 11:30 PM.

We’re also continuing to attend First United Methodist Church at Kissimmee. We’ve been accepted by our Sunday School class and are happy with the worship style of the traditional service. In fact, this week Byron openly asked if we’d get our chairs back when we return next year. And, yes, we plan to return next year though we’ve decided to stay at a different RV park; one with better facilities and a bit closer to Walt Disney World.