We were sooooo extremely tired from last night that I got up at 8:45 and everyone else got up at almost 10. “Uncle Bill” wanted to see all of us again today but we were supposed to leave to go the Kennedy Space Center. He wanted to take us to the Backlot Disney Shopping Center where we could shop for extremely discounted Disney products. We asked the kids what they wanted to do and it was unanimous that they wanted to shop. So shopping it is . . . and wow was that a great idea.
Uncle Bill came to the camp ground and we unhooked and packed up. Since he is a bus driver for Disney, he wanted to drive the RV and I immediately said “Yes”!! I was his co-passenger and as we drove along, he gave me the run down and great tips on driving a big rig . . . gotta love that! It was fun watching him drive with his expertise.
We arrived at the Backlot Disney and everything was discounted between 50% and 75%. We all went wild in there shopping for about 2 hours. The sweatshirts that were originally $50-$60 were about $15, and Brookes was even $8. The t-shirts that were originally $30 were about $8. We had a great old time gathering Disney memorabilia like we have never been able to before!
When we finished everyone was hungry so we went across the street to good old Taco Bell. But this Taco Bell was special because “Aunt Vicky” (Shelley’s sister-in-law) is the new manager of this beautiful new one right across the street from Downtown Disney. It had all kinds of Disney pictures in it to make it apart of the Disney area.
It was time to say goodbye to Uncle Bill and his family because we needed to get on the road to Kennady Space Center. We are so thankful for their generosity and kindness . . . for blessing us with many treasures. . . a day at Disney, driving us around, letting us use their car, helping us break into our camper, letting us shop at the Backlot, and giving all of us wonderful gifts. The last treasure that they gave me as we were leaving was an adorable camera strap that I was going to buy last night, but Vicky said “I have that, don’t buy it” and then brought it for me today. I was so excited and it will be a great memory of our time with them, along with my walking stick, hat, and photo album. It was such a blessing to get to know them.
Uncle Bill also insisted that we take his GPS unit to help us with directions. He showed us how to use it and set it all up for driving to Cape Canaveral. It was fabulous to have around all the turnpikes and tollbooths along the 95 Florida “Expressway”. They are not call freeways here because they are not free. . . you have to pay several times along the way. As the GPS was taking to me telling me where to turn, all of a sudden toll booth signs were everywhere. And they were very confusing because it would have a sign saying “Tollbooth” but the freeway would keep going, and the tollbooth would be to the right. It looked like you were getting off the freeway when you entered the tollbooths, so we just kept going. It would say tollbooth $.50 at one point, we would keep driving and it would say tollbooth $.75, and we would keep driving and then it would say $1.00. Finally we entered the tollbooth that was straight ahead and it was literally just a booth machine . . . no person like California. And you had to have the exact change. So we quickly grabbed our laundry money, opened the window, and actually had to throw the change into the booth, as it said in big letters: “Stay in vehicle”!!!
I don’t know if we went around in a circle following the GPS, but it sure felt like it because we went through 3 of these tollbooths. After the first one, Shelley started handing me all her pennies because it was exact change and I kept throwing them in. At the third stop, she only handed me 3 pennies at first, I threw them, and I missed. What do you do if you miss when it says “Stay in vehicle”??? Well, I didn’t exactly read that sign until after I decided to get out and pick up my pennies. And as I was picking up my pennies I found all kinds of other change on the ground . . . score! Laughing about finding the “golden change” I threw it in the booth and quickly got back in the car. I know this is not the last of the tollbooth’s that we will be going through up the east coast. Hopefully now we are a little more experienced.
Driving out along the expressway to Kennedy Space Center we were told you might see alligators. We told the kids to look out the windows and all of a sudden Maddie yells, “I see one.” They all immediately looked out the window and were yelling excitedly, “I see it”!!
We arrived at Kennedy Space Center right as it closed . . . bummer! But we weren’t really excited about paying $45 a person to enter the exhibits. I know it’s an awesome experience but considering the price and not sure how much the kids would appreciate it, we were fine with just looking at the rockets and space shuttle from the outside. We read to the kids all about the space shuttle and launching of the missiles and I think they got a lot out of just seeing the real life ones.
One of the rockets that we saw was the Mercury/Redstone which was the first “maned” space vehicle by Alan Sheppard and Virgil Grissom in 1961. Wow . . . that’s awesome.
We then drove to our KOA in Mims and set up for the evening. Brooke, Christian, and Grace were again my enthusiastic helpers to hook up and then they were incredibly excited about going to do the laundry with Shelley. We put Brittany and Madison in charge of cleaning up the camper and getting dinner started.
Another great day of adventure!
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