A lot of people have e-mailed, telling me that we have to go to Disney World and Epcot while we’re at the Clermont Thousand Trails preserve. Sorry, but it isn’t going to happen. I don’t do mice, even ones named Mickey.
When I was a kid, we spent almost a year living within a five mile drive of Disneyland in California, and I never saw the place. My parents took my sister a time or two, but I never wanted to go, and instead spent the day at a friend’s house.
I’ve just never been into theme parks. I went to high school in Toledo, Ohio, a short drive from Cedar Point, perhaps the biggest amusement park in the Midwest. I went one time with some friends, and was bored stiff. I just wasn’t interested. Does that say something about my warped psyche, even way back then?
So paying big bucks for tickets to Epcot just isn’t going to happen. Heck, I don’t even think we’d go if the tickets were free! We’re not into crowds, and we have too many other things we’d prefer to do with our time.
We much prefer simple things, like the little Historic Village that we discovered yesterday when we drove into Clermont to pick up our mail at the post office. Located near the southern shore of Lake Minneola, the village is a collection of historic buildings that include the train depot, which was built in 1925. The large round gray doors on the side of the building, in the forefront of this picture, are to the building’s old boiler.
The two story building just past the depot is the circa 1895 Townsend House, which is furnished with period items. The village also includes the Kern House, and the original Cooper Memorial Library. Tours are conducted of the buildings on Saturdays and Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m.
Back at the Thousand Trails campground, the new seat for my Sea Eagle PaddleSki 435 kayak had arrived right on schedule, just as promised by Tim and Crystal Ryerson at Inflatable Boats 4 Less. These folks really know how to take care of their customers!
I can’t wait to get the PaddleSki back out on the water and try out the new seat, but the wind was blowing hard yesterday, and the water was pretty choppy. Hopefully it will die down today, and I can launch the boat here at the campground.
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A couple of days ago I showed you a picture of the gopher tortoise living in a burrow next to our motorhome. We have seen several of the critters in the campground, as well as a number of sand hill cranes.
These are some big, ungainly looking birds, and they have no fear of people. When I stopped to take their picture, they walked right up to the van.
I think this fellow is doing his mating dance. Or else he just put on deodorant, and is drying his wingpits. I’m not sure which.
While I was busy looking at Big Bird and his pals yesterday, Bad Nick took advantage of the time to post a new Bad Nick Blog titled This Pisses Me Off! Check it out and leave a comment.
Thought For The Day – If all is not lost, where is it?
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Those big birds love to peck bugs off the front of your vehicle and when they do, they sometimes leave a nice little ding.
That always gives me the incentive to keep the bugs off before they get baked on, or pecked off.
We also like the real thing when it comes to sight seeing. Disney Epcot and Disney World are just big upscale amusement parks, expensive and with lots of people. Very plastic. I have been a few times with my young nieces. Then we didn’t like Branson or Dollywood or any of the similar attractions either.
For myself I prefer a nice quiet park, the beauty of nature, the quirky small towns, places like Zion and Bryce National Parks, even a nice cemetery.
Different strokes for different folks.
Celebration is a nice town to walk through.
We don’t do Disney either. You might like the little town of Oakland, off SR50 between Clermont and Orlando.
We do not do amusement parks any longer, we did when the rug rats were small. I would like to do Epcot since it is history related to different countries. It will never happen, we can not see paying $60 each to do it. I grew up spending my summers about 10 miles from Disneyland. It was nice though to sit on my uncles roof and watch the fireworks. We did do Silver Dollar City in Branson and thoroughly enjoyed all the music venues they offered. We will not do it again since it is $60 a pop. The birds are nice but it is a shame that they have no fear of humans, the fact they eat bugs off rigs is not a good thing. Maybe it would be an incentive for Mike to wash the front of the rig to prevent the dings. We enjoy all the pictures that Terry takes, she does such a great job. If anyone does do Silver Dollar City wear comfortable shoes since you need to be related to a mountain goat because it is all hills.