Orlando, Florida

Oct 26th

Mia was up early this morning and eager to go. Kathy dropped Mia and I off at Universal Studios, right at 9am. It is only about 5 miles from where we are staying. There are three different parks, and Mia and I got lost immediately. We reached the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and Mia was beside herself with excitement. I pointed her to Olivander’s Wand Shop and told her that we should start there. She picked out her wand and we spent most of the day wandering around Hogsmeade and Diagon Alley. We visited Hogwarts, The Leaky Cauldron, Honey Dukes, Gringot’s and more. We drank butter beer, took a ride on Hogwart’s Express, and rode some Harry Potter themed rides. By late afternoon, we had explored every corner, and Mia asked to see other parts of Universal Studios. We rode several rides in other parts of the park, and thoroughly exhausted, I called Kathy to pick us up.

Oct 27th

I slept amazingly well after yesterday’s excursion. Today I have an appointment to have the tires replaced on our truck. I noticed last week that there was very little tread left on them. I took the truck in while Kathy and Mia had some school time. The tires were expensive enough, but when they took the wheels off, they found the reason for the weird wear on the front tires. The front shocks were blown and leaking. So, four hours later the truck had 4 new tires, 2 new shocks, and an oil change, plus we had just destroyed our maintenance budget for the year. On the drive back to our trailer, I was amazed at how much better it rode. After lunch we hiked the nature trail at the park, but still didn’t see any alligators. At sunset we walked to the lake again, and Mia did find a great horned owl up in a tree.

Oct 28th

There are supposed to be severe thunderstorms in central Florida today. We left earlier than usual this morning, to avoid some of the rain. It rained pretty heavily in the morning, but by the afternoon we were out of it. We did get two emergency broadcasts interruptions on the radio, telling us about tornados. Kathy found that we were well south of the warnings, but the strong winds persisted all day. We are staying at Torry Island Campground in Belle Glade. It is a city campground on an island in lake Okeechobee. Our site backs right up to the water. Again, there are signs warning us about alligators, but we still haven’t found any.