Peacock Baby!!

Ok, so less of a baby and more of a teenager...but we'll get to that.  We're finally back in Orlando, land of sun and warmth and Disney!  Our first stop (since we had to be out of the Thousand Trails system for a week after our last stay) was at Magnolia Park, an Orange County park sadly a bit of a hike to Disney World...that said, I think it might be my favorite county park, so I was still happy to stay here!  Now, you may recall from our stay last year that this park sports a decent population of peacocks - much to our surprise, this year we saw a juvenile peacock in the crowd!  We noticed fairly quickly that there was one more peacock than last year, and as we watched the peacocks we realized there was a not-quite-right colored male hanging out with the females all the time.  Must be the new baby!!  Very cool.

Our campsite at Magnolia Park

The juvenile - he was skittish so I had to zoom in from 
far away - note the speckles on his breast (the adults don't
have those).

The juvenile peacock with the peahens - note how he has a much
bluer head than the females, which is why I'm assuming he's a male

For completeness, an adult male

We're just making an assumption on the juvenile male based on the fact he didn't exist last year and looking at his emerging colors, but honestly I had trouble finding information online so I *could* be wrong, don't quote me!  I did see something that said male peacocks don't begin developing their tails until 2 years old, which would be consistent with his presumed age and current tail growth (nonexistent).

We tried out our new waste tote for the first time!  This allows us to haul wastewater from our holding tanks to the dump station at parks like this where we're not on sewer, without having to drive the RV to the dump station.  Before we bought this, I used to collect each dishwashing's water and carry it in a bucket to the restroom's outdoor sink to pour down the drain, so this was a huge improvement!  It was great to use the RV sink like normal and only have to have Aaron haul wastewater once during our stay.

Hauling the tote to the dump station

With just about a week left before our Disney annual passes blocked out for the holidays, we spent several days in Disney World even though it was a long-ish toll-filled drive.  We were able to experience Epcot's long-awaited new Space 220 restaurant, ride Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, and see the holiday decorations at all the parks.  

Inside Space 220 at Epcot - the idea behind this restaurant is that 
you take an 'elevator' to a space station, and once there the 'windows'
show you a view of Earth far below, with astronauts and spacecraft
floating by.

Also at Epcot - one of the many bronze statues Epcot put out 
for the 50th anniversary celebration.  This is Rocket from 
Guardians of the Galaxy.

Decorations at the main pond in Hollywood Studios

Christmas decorations on Main Street, USA (Magic Kingdom)

We'll see Animal Kingdom at our next stop.  Overall this was a great stay and we're glad to be back in Orlando!  

A last week-ish in Orlando

We just spent our last week-ish in Orlando before heading north for some general maintenance and repairs.  We stayed a second time at the Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort.  Our stay this time was MUCH better than our previous stay last year.  Last year we made the mistake of taking a pull-through site when it was offered (usually these are better sites!), and ended up in the absolutely worst part of the park in a site where we couldn't put out our window awnings without hitting the RV next to us.  This year we were prepared and told the we wanted a back-in site, and we lucked out and got a spot in the brand new section of the park (new since last year) with wide level concrete pads and ample space between RVs.  Much improved!

Campsite at Orlando RV Resort

The first week we were there we visited Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, and Epcot in our final 'goodbye' tour.  It seems several school systems were already in spring break, as the park reservations were sold out every day.  Fortunately I had booked the 3 parks months in advance, but we could only sit on 3 reservations with our annual passes, and once we used those three everything was sold out and I couldn't get any others for the week.  In one bright side of COVID-19 restrictions, the park capacity limits meant that the parks didn't actually feel much more crowded, if at all, compared to our last visits in the fall before our Texas trip.

With the Lady & the Tramp topiaries
at the Flower & Garden festival in Epcot

Living with the Land ride at Epcot during the Flower & Garden Festival

Chip inside the Land Pavilion at Epcot

Inside the butterfly garden at the Epcot Flower & Garden Festival

In front of Spaceship Earth

Baby giraffe at Animal Kingdom!

Magic Kingdom!

The second half of our stay we enjoyed seeing my sister and her family, who were there on Spring Break and managed to find an AirBnB on the approach road to our RV park.  Together we visited Hollywood Studios, the first time at Disney World for my niece and nephews!

All of us in front of the Millenium Falcon at Galaxy's Edge.  
Our first time with matching Disney shirts!

We had an awesome day, park open to park close, and the kids had a ball!  My sister's family is planning to move to St. Augustine this summer, so she and my brother-in-law went to look at houses and we babysat the kids at Gatorland!  Our nephews are obsessed with alligators and snakes so this was a perfect option.

Hunting for snakes on the 'Swamp
Walk'

Wrestling an alligator!

After this stay, we'll start heading north to West Virginia to do some semi-annual maintenance on the RV and work on a few more repairs on our repair wish list.  At the moment we're planning for six weeks at the farm before hitting the road again, so get ready for some more 'RV repair' posts!

First time at Tropical Palms RV Resort

Tropical Palms RV Resort is the most convenient Thousand Trails park to Disney World, and unsurprisingly we could never find a spot here last time we were in Orlando.  This time around we got in!  I'm not sure whether it's because we're looking pre-Winter (not as busy?) or because the Canadians have been largely unable to come to the US (though that seems to be changing), but we made it!  This is my favorite Orlando-area Thousand Trails park so far!  It is clean and well-kept with concrete pads for the RVs and several trees scattered throughout, plus the laundromat is HUGE and clean with new machines.

Our campsite at Tropical Palms

A rainbow over the campground

On our way to the campground we stopped by Tire Pro Mobile RV & Commercial Truck Tire Repair to get our front tires replaced.  We really liked the mechanic who owns this business - he was knowledgeable and friendly with reasonable prices, and he seemed quite honest.  He told us we were probably ok for many more months, but together we decided that since Aaron and I are planning a big trip to Texas later in the winter, we should go ahead and get the tires replaced.  Aaron really enjoyed watching him work and asking lots of questions.

Tire's off!

The mechanic had a seriously 
impressive set of tools in his truck!

We only had a 12 minute drive to Hollywood Studios, where we enjoyed some holiday fun.

A 'chestnut pinecone' dessert

Santa!

We also took a quick trip to Epcot and Magic Kingdom.

Christmas lights are starting to go up at Epcot

Christmas cavalcade at Magic Kingdom

We rode Splash Mountain once more to make sure we saw it
at least one last time before they change the theming to 
the Princess and the Frog

Back at Animal Kingdom, we caught a Christmas cavalcade on the water with a festive Chip & Dale!

Christmas float!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in Orlando!

Camping at Disney's Fort Wilderness

We decided to splurge a bit and make our first Orlando campground the Disney one...Fort Wilderness.  We talked about this campground a bit last winter but weren't able to get a reservation.  This time we booked in the shoulder season and found a site Sunday-Friday - we still couldn't find a site here for the weekend!

Our campsite at Fort Wilderness

Fort Wilderness was everything we hoped.  The campground had more of a feel of a state or county park than a private RV park.  There were lots of activities on site, including pools, outdoor movies, gem hunting, archery, horseback riding, bike and boat rental, and more.  Most of those you had to pay extra for of course...  The whole campground was bike friendly and we enjoyed taking our new-to-us bikes all around.

We're well into Halloween season of course, and our favorite nightly activity was to pick a new couple loops in the campground and walk or cycle around to view the outrageous Halloween decorations from our fellow campers.

These skeleton pirates were Aaron's favorite

Zombie Flamingos!  (Look closely at the eyes of the black
ones)

 Our decorations weren't nearly so impressive, but at least we had some!

Daytime view - Aaron decided all of his Baby Yoda 
decorations needed to join the pumpkin lights

Nighttime view

We visited each of the parks while we were at Fort Wilderness.  Sadly, only Magic Kingdom had special transportation - a boat that left from the back of the campground.  This was definitely the nicest way we've ever gotten to Magic Kingdom (normally you have to park and then take a crowded monorail or ferry).

Our transportation approaches

Going to amusement parks right now is a very different experiences, and I'd say in all ways except the sweaty masks a much better one.  Lines were shorter - rides that normally had 2-4 hour waits we could get on in less than an hour - and people stood farther apart in the ride lines, so I no longer had strangers leaning on my backpack while waiting for a ride...(yes that really happened multiple times last year).  They've also upgraded the security scanners so there's no longer a bag check line!  They've removed the fingerprint scanners and added hand sanitizer and handwash stations throughout the parks, so you can keep your hands cleaner.

Masks at Epcot

Social distancing at the manatee exhibit at Epcot

Social distancing in line for 
Smugglers' Run at Hollywood Studios

Masks at Magic Kingdom

All I have from Animal Kingdom are animal pictures...this
is from Kilimanjaro Safaris, which we basically walked
straight on due to the low park attendance (normally this is a
LOOONG wait)

Back at Fort Wilderness, our last morning we went on a trail ride around the remote areas of the campground.

Outside Tri Circle D Ranch at the front of the campground

Here I am atop Riley

The last pictures I'd like to share are of some random carriage sightings at the park - the carriage and hay rides weren't running due to COVID-19, but it seems that Disney is keeping the horses exercised and practicing.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay and I hope we can make this an annual-ish tradition - just a few days a year.  We didn't get to enjoy many of the perks of staying on Disney property (mostly in terms of early access to dining and FastPass+ reservations) - hopefully next time we'll be able to!