Every Color of the Rainbow: March 2012

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

R E D

I'll give you three guesses as to what this post is about, and the first two don't count.

SUNBURNS

Man, I sure did myself in this time. You should see the whole group of us actually. We look like a herd of lobsters who've just narrowly escaped death from boiling. Carol's face and arms are burnt, along with Melody's, and my legs got the brunt of the sun for me. Its the second day of the burn for me, and I am walking like a 90 year old lady. You can't help but laugh when you see my legs, which doesn't make anything better, as there's a line dividing the front of my legs (white) to the back (RED). Add a bit of swelling and puffiness, and VOILA- my legs.

Other than that we've been having a marvellous time! It rained for a short time this morning, then stopped, and it was just windy and a bit cloudy the rest of the day! I did NOT spend much time outside today!

Now here are some of the pictures I couldn't put on the other day.

Time to head out.

Entering Warshington. hehehe

woke up in the van to see the sun streaming in.

Open highway.

Book #1

BUDDIES

30-something hours later

Land of the free, home of the brave.

Checking our position on the map. She'll kill me if she sees this picture...

Weird picture of me taken by Melody. :) one of my best, by far.

Mrs. Vitale, with refreshments.

Racko, intense game.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Lemon Juice

We'll start off where we left off- Sunday. So Sunday we left for Deland Gospel Hall at 8:50, after having breakfast at the motel. It was already quite warm outside and it was almost hard to sit inside for the rest of the morning. The Hall was very nice, and there was a lot of other visitors there too. At the break after meeting we made our way outside for a teaser of sunlight. After the gospel meeting, everyone was welcome to stay for dinner at the Hall. It was very yummy, and the desserts were fantastic! Mrs. Vitale invited us over to her house for the afternoon, along with a few others. Melody and I took a walk, getting wifi from all the houses on the street that don't require a password. :) Mrs. Vitale prepared a delicious supper for us before we left that evening at 6:00 to go back to the motel. Monday: Monday we were able to sleep in, because we didn't have to pick Carol up at the airport until 11:30 at the Orlando Airport. We had breakfast, then went outside into the already-hot sun, and tried to soak up some rays. When we got to the airport, we had to wait for a while, because the flight had been delayed a half an hour or something. It was no problem for me and Melody though, we brought our books from the never-ending supply we have with us, thanks to the Otim's!!!! Thanks!! Finally Carol came down the escalator and we went to find where we were parked. The next mission was to find another hotel to stay at. We wanted to stay right on Ormond Beach, whih is right down the road from Dayona Beach. We found one. The Days Inn and Suites. It was right on the water, three floors, pool and lounging area. A perfect vacation spot! We arrived at 3:30, and we went straight to the pool deck to start tanning! At 5:00 Mel and I went for a walk down the beach, then back. It took us 45 minutes. We went out for supper and then Went to do a bit of shopping. The Internet is NOT co-operating with my laptop here, so I'm using my IPod, that won't upload pictures. As soon as I can I'll put he pics on!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Slow-riding Saturday

It was another grueling 16 hour trip today to finish off the last leg of the journey. The alarm went off at 3:11, and we were out the door by 4:00. It was just 4 of us, Harvey, Melody, Louise, and I, because Carol is staying and flying to Florida on Monday.
I slept for a good 4 hours, sprawled out on the backseat I had to myself the whole way, and woke up just before Melody threw the package of candy at me from the front seat. I sustained no injuries thankfully! We were in Virginia at that time, and stopped for a break. It was only 8:00 am, but already it was some hot outside! I was in shorts and a t-shirt. We made a few more stops throughout the day, and by 5:00 we were in the state of Florida!!! We still had another 2 hours of driving ahead of us though.
When the G-thing (GPS) told us for the third time to stay in the right lane, it told us twice more that we had reached our destination. The Roadway Inn. It had a pool out front, and a bunch of rooms. Not a place I would drive down to Florida especially to stay there, but it did the trick for the 2 nights.
For example: We are currently sitting in the van, pounding away at the keys of my laptop, sucking the wifi out of the joint. That's not the only thing we are sucking out though, we are sucking the smoke fumes out of the room we are in. NOT SMOKE FREE! GAG. There is this one lady, STARING at us, while she walks back and forth, talking on her cell phone. We have the windows down, but the doors are locked. If I don't show up back in Canada anytime soon, it may be worth it to check this lady out...
Anyways, I'm sure the people at meeting in Deland will be wondering what the story is on our smoke smell....

Friday in New Jersey

Chick flick shake.

Today we didn't wake up until 9:45! It felt some good to sleep in though! When we all arose, Trudy had a lovely breakfast ready for us sleepy-heads. Orange juice, sausage, scrambled eggs, toast, cereal. I was filled up quite a bit when we pushed out from the table!

From there we headed to town to go to Sam's Club. Melody and I had a marvelous time at the MULITUDE of sample booths just waiting for us to take one. Like I mean there was a dozen or so booths! Angel food cake, berries, sausage, crackers and dip, granola bars, smoked salmon on French bread, fish, beef jerky, cereal, cereal bars, cracker chips, and some type of liquid stuff. Next we went to Chik-fil-A and got a chocolate milkshake. An ultimate success! We didn't want to eat any more, lest we spoil our supper in the evening, at the Golden Coral!! We did some more shopping in the evening, then finally, with stomachs growling in hungry protest, we went to the Golden Coral, or Coral Reef, as Carol called it.There was no dissapointment with this buffet! More food than you could shake a stick at. I think it's safe to say we all ate our money's worth that night! It was hard to wind down to go to sleep that night, even though we knew the early start we'd have the next day. It was well-past 11:00 when sleep finally claimed me.

At the Otim's for breakfast.

Ain't it such a cute ole hat on im?

Darlin pie.

Chick-fil-A

Big ole pink blossomed cherry tree right there.

Coral Reef buffet.

I LOVE THOSE ROLLS!

YES they had a chocolate fountain.

....AND crab legs. XXL

Is that Thomas Jefferson? haha

Melody is TOTALLY hogging the sheets!

Friday, March 16, 2012

Florida Road Trip Journey

OUR TIRE ALMOST FELL OFF!!!

Our snack supply.

As me and melody sit here examining our scars, I am remembering to write down the dynamics of our journey. What journey? The Florida Road Trip Journey.
Melody called me at 9:30 Monday night, and tells me they've just decided to go to Florida. I say "that's great!" She replies, "we have room for one extra. Do you want to come?" And what do you think I said?
My boss, Kathy, was so great to allow me to get it off work, so I could go. Thanks so much!
Wednesday evening after work, mom took me down to the Hyde's. We left at 4:00 on the nose Thursday morning, weathering the impeding downfall of snow. The roads weren't too good, therefore It took us a bit longer to get to the border. I slept most of that time. It was a breeze when we handed over our passports to the border-guard. She was very nice, and even though we had 6 apples in the car, she let us through.
The most we had for excitement after that was a lone (marboro) cigarette in the ladies washroom in Maine, a documentary on random drivers as they passed us, movies and the never ending line of toll booths.
Mel and I mustered up some willpower and paced ourselves with the movie watching. We set out a time schedule. First movie: 9:30, second at 2:30, third at 7:00. By the time that one is done, we should be in New Jersey. Just after I wrote this, there was a strange, methodical thumping sound on the left rear side of the van. We thought to ourselves, That cannot be good. We had to find a spot to pull over and check it out, but wouldn't ya know it, we couldn't find a place- so up onto the sidewalk we went. There was almost an avalanche of bags when Harvey opened the trunk hatch to get the wrench to tighten the wheel that was about to fall off. Not too exciting.

America's Sketchiest Service Station

We drove,and drove, and drove, and drove, and drove, and drove and drove, and drove, and drove, and just when you thought you had no legs or your bladder fell out, we stopped at America's Sketchiest Service Station. We arrived to our destination in New Jersy at 9:30, to Judy and Trudy Otim. I love their kitchen! Now Me and Melody are laying here on their comfy carpet, laughing our heads off because we are over-tired. It is a nice temperature outside, and there are even dafadils or some kind of flower growing outside! It's supposed to be like 20 degrees tomorrow!

In order to make it through this trip, you need to be in top physical condition.

Or maybe she's just drying her sneakers....

WOW!!!

This was so good!!!!

Thanks Louise!

Doing a documentary on American Drivers.

Love this kitchen!!

Monday, March 12, 2012

WWW Continued...

So, Here's the rest of the pictures from the Wonderful West Weekend!
To see the first post click here

After sledding at Mill River for a little bit, we went into O'Leary to the Firehall. We sat around and mingled until the food was ready, then we ate! At 1:30, we took a short little walk to O'Leary Elementary, to learn our times tables. I'm just pulling a fast one on you (haha), we actually did activities in the gym. We did our own thing for a bit (mostly Bump, or basketball), then we got into a (huge) line, and were numbered off into groups. We pretty much stayed in the same group the whole time, changing it up a little in the second activity, when we acted out a skit.

From the gym, we went back to the Fire Hall for supper at 5:00. It was Chili and Subs. C'est Bonne! More games, and conversation ensued, followed at the tale-end by a good old-fashioned sing song! I was pretty tired, and I must confess, I DIDN'T EVEN SING.

The ride home was interesting to say the LEAST. Elaine and Lindsay went back to our place early, because she wasn't feeling well. That left Me, mom, Janelle, Kara, Brittany and Sarah, 6, to drive home in our 5-seater Accord.... IT WAS SO FUN! Me and Brittany shared the front seat. Back at the house, Lindsay was still not feeling good. Poor thing. A tournament of arm wrestling got started, Brittany and Rhyl battled it out for the championship title, which Brittany won by a freckle. Then we played this awesome sentence fitting game. Absolutely hilarious! I'll post a video here sometime! It was a much earlier night this night!
Sunday went quite well. The hall was packed. The food was good. The ministry was very helpful and encouraging! Absolutely a hit weekend for sure! Looking forward to next year! :)