Fun at Sherwood Forest and a Broken Dryer!

We just wrapped up another two weeks at Sherwood Forest RV Resort.  You'll find this one featuring prominently in the remainder of our time in Orlando, as it ended up having the availability we needed and it's super close to Disney.  This time around we were placed in a pull-through site we actually fit into, so that's an improvement over last time!  

Much more appropriate location for our RV!

We took advantage of our proximity to Disney to continue to enjoy Epcot's Festival of the Arts.  We completed their cuisine stroll to earn our 'free' cookie and slushie!  We enjoyed a couple of the best part of the festival - 3D Chalk Art!  Unfortunately the time of day and sunny days worked against us so we didn't get the best pictures with the shadows on the art.  We went to see the Disney on Broadway concert for the first time - I thought it was very fun, though Aaron isn't all that crazy about concerts.  They had the original singers for Mary Poppins and Tarzan on Broadway and they sang songs from those shows and a few others.  We also made it to Hollywood Studios but didn't end up going to the other parks as every time we checked the Disney app the lines were crazy long.  The bloggers we follow have commented several times that there is no longer an 'off' season at Disney, and we tend to agree.  This has us rethinking our plans for next winter, but we haven't decided anything just yet...

Rewards of our (eating) labor.

I'm supposed to be taking a flower 
from Groot

And here Aaron is rescuing Hei Hei 
(his favorite character from Moana) - 
unfortunately on this one in addition to the
shadows a storm had washed away 
the intensity of the colors

For a change of pace we decided to go to Gatorland one day - we had purchased annual passes last year while babysitting my sister's kids, and figured we should make better use of them (we hadn't been since then)!  They were doing their gator feeding show again (it was not running last year due to COVID), so we enjoyed seeing that and visiting the more remote areas of the park we hadn't seen with the kids.

The birds were very bold around the 
well-fed alligators!  

Obviously not a real gator...

As I hinted in my last post, the itinerary for our rescheduled cruise (which we were supposed to go on during our second week at Sherwood Forest this time) was changed again.  At least this time they told us on Monday instead of Thursday, so we had a little more time to NOT prepare to be on a cruise.  Aaron was sorely disappointed (I mean, I was too, but he was more so), but we decided to cancel the cruise.  It just wasn't worth paying the extra money for an itinerary they weren't doing, and we figured it was just going to keep getting changed until this phase of COVID passes, so we'll try again next year.  I've set Aaron to looking for a cruise for our anniversary in May, but in the meantime the good news on this was that we'd be in Florida for our twin nephews' birthday.  We joined them for a fun day of games - arcade and board games - good times!

Playing 7 Wonders with my sister and the twins

The bad news this trip is that the dryer part of my washer/dryer combo seems to have died.  Every time I try to run the dryer it spouts an error that apparently indicates it thinks it's overheating.  Unfortunately the unit is so deeply wedged in the RV we don't really think we can do much troubleshooting until we get back to the farm in Princeton where we have a place to do work and lots more tools.  From googling the error, it may be that something hidden just needs lint/dust cleaned, or that some part of a circuit board needs replacing, but we don't have access to any of that without disassembling the cabinet that holds the unit.  So, bummer that I won't be able to dry laundry in the RV anymore, but at least the washing feature still works!  We had some nice sunny windy days that allowed the clothes to dry quite quickly when I hung them outside.  We'll take a closer look when we get back to the farm in West Virginia in the spring.

Goodbye Orlando!

Our magical winter has finally ended - this Sunday we finally left the Orlando area.  It was a great winter full of Disney, Universal Studios, and the occasional county park full of wildlife.  Our last site in Orlando was Winter Garden (Thousand Trails) - a fitting end as this was also our first campsite in the Orlando area.  We liked our site quite a lot better this time - it was more conveniently located than our first site and we were nestled between two other temporary campers (rather than the permanent residents who flanked us last time).  The site was also very level, always a bonus!

COVID-19 is certainly making big news everywhere and thus far we've managed to narrowly avoid related closures.  My sister's birthday cruise occurred just before all cruise departures were canceled.  Disney World's last day before closure was the day we left Orlando.  The RV park put in some stringent restrictions right as we left.

Activities board at the RV resort

So far we haven't heard of any closures in the parks we've chosen on our trek back north, so fingers crossed our 1.5 week trip is uneventful.  Some of you might have heard that we have been planning a trip to Europe in late spring...of course that is looking less and less likely with every passing day. 

Of course, as with the rest of the country the grocery stores in Orlando have been greatly affected.  Unfortunately I was legitimately out of toilet paper and toilet bowl cleaner when we went to Walmart...I found a secret stash of toilet paper in a corner of Walmart but had to settle for the off brands remaining for the toilet bowl cleaner.  We don't have enough space in the RV to hoard anything even if we wanted to, so it's an interesting conundrum living in an RV during this crisis.  Overall though, spending our time in an RV, hanging out at our fire ring in small campgrounds, seems like a good way to try to socially distance ourselves.

Toilet paper aisle at Walmart

Back to happier (sadder? non-virus related at any rate) thoughts...it was hard to leave Orlando - we've had a wonderful time in the area.  We made great use of our annual passes, and it is strange to think about NOT just deciding to hop over to a theme park for a few hours for some fun.  We FINALLY made it on Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure and it was AMAZING.  We also slipped in a ride on the brand new Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway at Hollywood Studios, caught the Epcot Flower and Garden Festival, and rode the rest of the rides at the various parks this week that we hadn't been on yet.  We're debating whether some sort of visit to Florida should become part of our annual plans...time will tell.  Bye for now though Orlando!

Epcot Flower and Garden Festival

Hagrid's Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure

Goodbye Magic Kingdom!

Goodbye Universal Studios!

Goodbye Epcot!