On the Road with Dave and Pat: But I don't want to leave!

Listen, do you hear it? The faint sighs and tentative sniffles of a few of our friends actually talking about heading north! Take for example, Jim and Judy. In less than a week they're headed to Colorado to go (are you ready for this) skiing! They'll be driving so they'll get to see the seasons change on a daily basis. Talk about going from one extreme to another.

Then last week we mentioned Ray and Rose bought a new home just down the street from Lake Magic Resort, and they're talking about heading north as well. Around the camp ground you hear others already setting dates to return home. Geesh, it was just yesterday that everyone settled in for the winter!

But have no fear. Things are going along nicely in spite of those few making plans to leave. The Atlanta Braves are here for Spring Training, school vacations will mean more visitors and the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival will be in full swing tomorrow. http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/parks/epcot/special-events/epcot-international-flower-and-garden-festival/ We can look forward to the Flower Power Concert Series. We'll all miss Davey Jones this year.

However, we did a few things this past week to talk about. Pat and I got to see a few characters "hangin' around...

Leave it to the Disney "Imagineers" to make you look up at the ceilings inside Disney University.

It was a great morning to walk around the Magic Kingdom. It was March 1st and we think most of the people who (literally) spent the night (Feb. 29th, 24 hours of Magic Kingdom) had enough.

From there we picked up Bill (Angela had to work) and we headed to one of our (other) favorite lunch stops, The Earl of Sandwich. This was Bill's first time this year for him to enjoy one of his favorite sandwiches at The Earl of Sandwich. (Don't ya hate it when work gets in the way of your retirement!)

Before leaving to see if we can connect with Angela over at ESPN Wide World of Sports, we stopped in to see the resident baseball bat maker at Team Disney (and our free Ghirardelli chocolate sample). We were impressed with his talent. So wasn't this little boy. When the bat was finished he brought it out for us to see and I think it make this kid's day.

We did bump into Angela and she told us about these "giant" multi-legged insects she had to walk around as she did her rounds. Oh they were dead. Angela says she can clean-up just about anything, but she doesn't do bugs!

Then it was time for another Palm Tree Biker Social!

Once again we headed to Jim and Judy's site and Larry set up the "Corn-hole" game.

Larry coerced some of the attendees to try their hand at tossing the bean bags in competition.

Rather than write out all the specifics, I'm going to let the photos tell the story....

Remember, they say a picture is worth a thousand word. Here are a couple of photos of the winners....

First, Larry's "winners dance" worth a thousand words.....

Then, Peter's "winners dance" also worth a thousand words...

and finally, this stitched photo says it all...

We ate so many goodies, Monday couldn't come fast enough so we can burn off our "guilt!"

I know, this picture looks like all the others we've taken on the West Orange Trail.

So, how's this one....

Thank you Kathy and Joepy!

....of course the guys have to solve all the "world's problems."

Then, it's off to Killarny Station...

...and the obligatory rest!

Then we got to watch Ed install his new handle bar bag...

...and install...

...and work at it he did.

One of our fellow riders was the first to come to Ed's aid. Bill and I almost got up to add our two cents and four hands!

(It's a good thing there were only two straps holding the bag on.)

Everyone made it back albeit some of us were more than close to our limit of the ride! Of course we headed for lunch and, no no one had any trouble making it to lunch. It's that burst of energy you get when you know you're headed for something you really enjoy.

Along the way I spied our friend the Osprey who nests in the water tower. You may remember this fine feathered friend from an older blog. Well, this time our friend gave us a striking pose.....