Day 12 – 20th May 2015 – Brandon, Florida

P.S. for the 11th. Did pop out and do some walking and capping, and instead of a mystery on a lamp pole I found a hatching cicada, so I have taken a series of photos which will be below.

Today I found small clusters of specials and capped them, 4 here, 6 there, and then walked around the Mango Shopping Centre and it’s car park and capped those there. Then on to the Brandon Crossings Centre where I was meeting Marie & Tim for a hamburger lunch at Square One burgers. This is the location the Event for Ron and Carine was held only a few weeks ago so the area abounds in all sorts of munzees. I had mushrooms on mine, very yummy.
Then we went to an area with some munzees that Marie and Tim hadn’t yet capped, so did those, added a few more to it and then they dropped me back off at my car. I then drove east down to a spot near St Petersburg to grab the virtual butterfly garden. Home again and am going to see if I can finish off the Parsons Rd mysteries before it gets dark.
I’ve had a great time munzee hunting here in Florida, everyone has been friendly and not too many idiots on the roads, LOL.  The munzee community here is strong and there are lots of munzees out there!
Won’t be doing much in the way of munzees now until I get home, except fot Orlando Airport which I missed on the way in, lol.
Will be collecting puppies from the Poinciana Kennel, picking up Marian, finding our hotel, repacking suitcases (Marian says hers is rather full!) and returning the car, all ready for our early flight the next morning. So not sure if a blog entry tomorrow, will see how things eventuate, I will try! xoxo

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It took 8 minutesfrom first to last photo

IMG_0213  IMG_0217 IMG_0225 IMG_0232 My little beetle, lolIMG_0233
Osprey nest on right above a very busy intersectionIMG_0245Vulture family

Day 11 – 19th May 2015 – Brandon, Florida

Well, today was very exciting, NOT!!! I sat in the Westfields Brandon shopping centre car park all day. Cap the surrounding munzees, then move on to the next spot and do it all again. I did briefly go into the mall (as it’s called here) and visit the Apple shop, but didn’t stay long. There were some physical munzees scattered around the outside of the car park, so grabbed those as a variation on the virtuals, lol. I didn’t use the air con much this time as I was getting low on fuel, so when I had finished I set off for fuel and lunch. Got to the Chevron down the road a bit, but the external pump didn’t like my credit card, so the attendant ‘opened the pump’ for me so I could pay inside after filling up! He made me laugh as he knew Australians drove on the other side of the road, but he was incredulous when I told him the steering wheel was on the other side of the car as well, and you changed gears with the left hand! As for lunch, I had some chicken and chips, I’m sure someone would have liked them, but both were rather spicy, lol. Saw 3 new birds today, but no photos, a blue jay, a cardinal and a black-headed gull, which was rather big! Am planning on going out tonight to do a blue mystery trail as soon as it gets a bit cooler out there, haven’t done much walking at all today!

Day 10 – 18th May 2015 – Brandon, Florida

Just a quick comment about the bed at Celebration. It was so high off the ground that I almost needed a step ladder to get into it. My feet did not touch the ground when sitting on the side!
Also, another observation, all the showers have been in baths, so the climbing in and out ritual, but I haven’t yet had two taps the same, so it’s a puzzle every time trying to work out where the hot water is, LOL.
OK, I finished off my book from Rachell this morning (Divergent by Veronica Roth). Am going to have to get the rest of the series, probably as ebooks, can’t just leave it at the first one!!
Packed up and checked out and I’m not even sure what time I hit the road. My first destination was Plant City, where a nice large strawberry shaped virtual garden has been created. It’s over the grounds of where the Strawberry Festival is held, much like the Royal with pavilions and open areas, but it has roads running through it and a school next to it. So I parked and capped and drove on a bit, and did it all over again. Once finished I saw a litle patch of physical mystery munzees around a Walgreens (chemist) so popped in there for some advice from the duty pharmacist and came away with some antihistamines. So we will see, mind you the voice is better than yesterday, but still croaky. Grabbed the munzees and then headed for the motel. The room was ready when I got there at midday, so unloaded and headed out to the Florida sun virtual garden. Once again, parked and capped, it was rather a hot day today, so that was way more comfortable, LOL.
Finished there and headed for the Publix supermarket again, a couple of salads for dinners, breakfasts and some fruit. Dropped all the rovers onto a munzee in my room so that they can have their goals reset to home and am going to have dinner when this has uploaded. It’s almost time to come home!!!

Nothing much in the way of photos today, but this tree was so draped in Tillandsia it had to have a photo taken, and the little black dot is a vulture!!!

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Day 9 – 17th May 2015 – Celebration, Florida

Well, I think I am Disneyed out, and as Ursula has taken my voice, doubly so. LOL. I was a bit croaky yesterday, but woke up to no voice at all, and it’s still gone. Hopefully tomorrow will see its return.
I actually think I slept relatively well until 2.30, which taking into account daylight saving would be 3.30 in proper time and my normal waking up time, it would seem that my body clock has got the hang of the time change as well, and only a few more days before wending our way home.
Marian is having a great time egging. They went to Gatorland yesterday and she held a snake, an alligator (baby), and wait for it…. a tarantula!!!
I spent today flitting in and out of Epcot, I think it was 3 times I went in. I did the monorail again as it was raining quite heavily (umbrella still in car,  lol) as well as a small ferry ride across the lagoon. I walked around the World showcase, where there are numerous countries represented, with not only buildings that are country specific, like a stave church for Norway and a pub for Britain, but they had a taste of food and drink for each country as well. I had a Pulled pig slider for America (pork & coleslaw bun), California roll for Japan, chicken kebab & couscous for Morocco and weren’t those 2 pieces of chook spicy, and ice cream for Canada.
I caught a couple of different buses (or motor coaches) from Epcot in circles through some of the resorts so I could cap munzees along the roads and in the resorts themselves, and then I went to Downtown Disney which once again had a lot of munzees to get. Got back to Epcot in time for the 7.30 bus back to the hotel, which is my last night here.

IMG_0183Mallards in the garden

IMG_0190Beautiful bromeliads

More topiary

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Day 8 – 16th May 2015 – Celebration, Florida

Well, what a day today was. Woke up earlyish and stayed in bed a read for a hour! What luxury, lol. Left here about 7.30 and
drove back into Celebration and that great park. Had a wander around including another transit of the park, capped a few more virtuals that had been put out overnight. At around 9 saw the specials, a kangaroo with a suitcase, appear on the map, and the mystery virtuals, so made a start on capping all of those. We were all meeting for lunch at 1, but kept bumping into other early bird munzee hunters as we all wandered around finding the specials. Getting back to the Celebration Town Tavern for lunch and a room full of munzee hunters, great stuff! Dropped off the rovers to go and play with whom ever wanted them and had a fishwych for lunch, it was fish in a roll rather than a proper sandwich, but it was very yummy.
The event hosts, Hunniees, dt07751, Rosieree and war1man did a great job, setting it all up and arranging everything.
Left the building about 2.30, but then sat outside whilst several more people picked up and dropped off the rovers, and as it’a a time consuming process didn’t leave there until just after 5. Then had to go back around the park and some of the streets to get the photos required for Eventzee which is a a photo scavenger hunt, which is also fun to do! Finished all that about 7, so then time to pop into the supermarket for a couple more salad dinners and some fruit and back here for the usual. Not much in the way of photos, too busy, lol, but here is a squirrel, an egret and a little silky terrier in a special doggy pusher!

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Day 7 – 15th May 2015 – Celebration, Florida

Well, I was going to have an early night, but it’s nearly 8.30 pm so not so early, lol.
Had to evacuate to the main lobby in the middle of the night for a false alarm, and as I am on the top (8th) floor, all those steps were not fun. Then we sat around for ages before another guest said they had asked the staff and as it was a false alarm we could go back to our rooms, nothing said by the staff though!!!!
So of course I over slept, waking at 7.20 and having the bus to catch at 8. Needless to say I was a bit rushed, lol, but I made it.
I then progressed through various forms of transport, as a nice, pleasant, easy method of munzee hunting, as the entire place is full of virtual munzees. From the bus drop-off point at Epcot, there was a longish walk to the main entrance, with a bag search completed I then took the path over to the ferry and journeyed on that up to the Magic Kingdom. As the gates were not yet open, I then caught the Walt Disney World Rail Road steam engine and went twice around, merrily capping anything in reach. After that I actually went into the park, lol, and started my way on a circuitous route as the best way to get them all!
Apart from people everywhere making noise, there is also music going in shops as well as street performers and performances in front of the Castle, it is a very noisy place!!!!!
I went around TomorrowLand twice in the people mover as well as the paddlesteamer around Tom Sawyer’s Island in the Lagoon.
I did have a look at the rides as I went past them but the minimum wait time was 20 minutes with 90 minutes for Pirates of the Caribbean! However, if you are willing to spend even more money on a fast pass, that queue was only 2 minutes! Boy, they must turn over a lot of money on a daily basis!!! Needless to say I didn’t ride. I did go and see the Tiki Island Show as there was only 2 minutes for that and no queue as it was a cast of singing animated birds, flowers and totems.
Got a bit lost trying to get out of the Magic Kingdom, hey what’s new, but eventually found the monorail station and caught that back to Epcot. Did a small round there, but will go back on Sunday and finish that off.
Have the Munzee Event in Celebration tomorrow with currently 62 attendees, going to be great fun! xoxo

IMG_0116 Steam engine ride IMG_0122 Frog I rescuedIMG_0127 Great damselfly?IMG_0129The Castle, of course

Some great topiary/floral art at Epcot

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IMG_0139 IMG_0145 IMG_0157Epcot

Day 6 – 14th May 2015 – Celebration, Florida

Celebration is the town that Disney built!
A bit late again, sorry, time just disappears. Not going to say anything again about sleeping badly, I’ll just comment when I sleep well, lol.
Left the motel about 7, and headed in the opposite direction for a little bit. There were a few more munzees that needed getting (well far more than I was capable of, but just a few more, and I wanted to get a couple of hotel rooms so that I had my deploy for the day. Made a stop at the Ulumay Wildife Sanctuary though and had a walk alongside the river there. So many butterflies and dragonflies, and those lizards are everywhere, scuttling across the grass, jumping up the fences, running through the trees, stirrings everywhere. Headed off to an Avenue for a hotel room and drove right past the dirt track with such a fancy name the first time, lol, and it even had a stop sign for leaving it, most bizarre.
Did the hour’s drive to Celebration. They have lots of toll roads here, will be interesting to see what it all adds up to!
Found a nice parking spot just down from the lunch venue that Marie & Tim (fellow munzee hunters of course) had invited me to. It was facing a great big park/wetland area with a great trail of munzees around it. There is also a Minnie Mouse vitual munzee garden, which I did a little bit of sitting in the car before braving the humidity, lol.
Well, the walk trail was brilliant, saw 3 alligator babies, a blue heron and a great blue heron, loads of squirrels and lizards once again everywhere, spiders and a great beetle sitting on the back of a sign just above the munzee. Apparently they have armadillos come out at dusk, so I will have to see if I can get back there, would love to see one, they have migrated over from Texas!
Met Marie & Tim at the Columbia Restaurant which is a Spanish style place and famous apparently. I had the Cuban sandwich, which was very nice indeed. Chatted, swapped rovers (they call it flipping) and then after lunch we did a little deploy trail up and down the side of the canal, which was very pretty. They then headed home to Brandon (about an hour away) and I headed off to the hotel. The GPS took me to the back car park, so finding the reception (no, it’s main lobby here) was a bit of an adventure, lol.
Tried to have a nap but it didn’t work, so left to go and finish off Minnie Mouse and grab some more groceries as there’s a fridge to keep a few bits and pieces in. A couple of salads, a grapefruit and oranges (hope they are local!!!) and some more Californian cherries. Of course I forgot the water, and just as well I got back to the car as I had left the lights on. I’m too used to mine turning off automatically. So back to get the water and then back to the hotel for the usual evening rituals.
Disney World tomorrow, the shuttle leaves at 8 am and the first one back is at 6.45 pm. Not sure I’m going to want to spend all that time there, and in a straight line Epcot (the dropping off point is 2.5 miles from here, so if I plan the route right, I could just walk back here. We’ll see! Now to do something about photos for 2 days, lol.

IMG_0076 Bohemian HotelIMG_0085 Blue heronIMG_0093 Alligator (baby)IMG_0098 Great blue heronIMG_0104 The CanalIMG_0107Marie & Tim munzeeing

Day 5 – 13th May 2015 – Merritt Island, Florida

Sorry, I know this is a bit late, but it’s been a long day. I will post the pictures for today, tomorrow, so check back, as it’s too late to fiddle with the phone, especially as I’m eating my salad dinner as well.
Once again didn’t sleep well! Left here about 7 and headed over to Cape Canaveral to cap the space shuttle munzee garden. This took about 3 hours to accomplish and I did it all from the comfort of the air conditioned car. I would drive, park, cap the munzees within the 300 ft circle and then move on. Popped in for another chat with Barb in the geocaching store and returned the puppies to my kennel.
From there drove over to Canaveral Cove as Barb had said there were often manatees at the lock there. However the lock was closed for construction work! So munzeed instead, lol. It seemed the perfect time for lunch so had a steamed seafood platter at Rusty’s. Very nice, cocktail sauce here is tomato+horseradish, an interesting combination, and of course the salad side comes out before the main dish!
Started to wend my way back to the motel via a couple of parks. Lots of squirrels, lots more of those great lizards and an osprey nest dripping with tilandsia like the trees. Pelicans here are brown and finger mullet (smallish fish) swim around in circles. I watched a small shoal of them for ages. They would briefly swim in a straight line, then the leader turned them all into a circle. Some would leave and others join in, then one would swim off followed by the others and then another circle. It was fascinating stuff! Once back at the motel realised that I had got a bit sunburnt I hadn’t thought I’d been out in it all that long, but it was overcast a lot, so that probably didn’t help. After a little computer munzee, I then headed out to the streets around the motel, and of course, got a little carried away, so got back here about 9.30. Shower (done), dinner (eaten), blog (almost finished) and bed (very soon).

IMG_0046 Great spiderIMG_0047  Canaveral CoveIMG_0052 Brown pelicanIMG_0063 Lizard pole dancingIMG_0068 Tight rope squirrelIMG_0070Osprey

Day 4 – 12th May 2015 – Merritt Island, Florida

Woke up just after 2 am and couldn’t go back to sleep. Read a bit (Rachell gave me a great book for Step-Mothers Day), played a few games which usually sends me off to sleep, but no go!
Got up at 4.30 did a bit of packing, had breaky, finished packing, packed up the car and then stopped up the road to collect the rovers that were still there. 7.10 and peak hour traffic again, lol. But I didn’t mind the slow transit as I saw a flock/pack/gathering of vultures!!!!!!! In fact is was a good morning for birds. There are usually herons around wet areas on the side of the roads and there are 30,000 lakes in Florida, no wonder the place is just so green!
Went back and walked a couple of the areas from yesterday that I had had to miss, and the lakes edge is part of a birding trail. Saw roseate spoonbills (which are pink because they eat the same type of shellfish as flamingoes), a juvenile American white ibis (it’s brown, muscovy ducks (which apparently are native here) one lot displaying with tails wagging and heads bobbing and 2 of them with ducklings, which are always great fun to watch. A passerby who had brought her grandson to see the ducklings remarked that the numbers were dwindling, “Why” I asked, “‘gators” was the reply! So of course, then I was keeping an eye open for alligators! There were noisy black birds with round tails called boat-tailed grackles (isn’t google a wonderful thing!) and small black birds with a small red patch at the top of their wings, which turned into a glorious red-patch in flight, very pretty indeed. The local called them redtips but they are red-winged blackbirds.

Anyway on the way back from the last Trail munzee (couldn’t find the motel under the table) one of the ladies told me there was a young ‘gator up near the old boat ramp, which I was walking past anyway. Up near there was a young man perched on the side of s bench. I asked him about the ‘gator and he asked me if I was munzeeing. Tim is the local for the area and had popped out for a chat, it is always nice to meet up with others. We had a look for the ‘gator, but it had gone. Tim walked me back to my car and now I know someone who’ll be at the Event on Saturday, LOL.

Gave the GPS the address of the Space Coast Geocaching Store and just over an hour later I arrived. Met Barb, chatted, looked around the shop, bought a couple of things and ‘found’ a cache. Mind you it was a bit hard to miss, an enormous box outside the door, full of all sorts of things. Wandered off to get some of the many munzees around the store, popped back in and dropped off the rovers for Barb to look after for the night. And, now someone else I’ll know at the Event. As I was about to leave, Barb had spotted a special May Flower on small island reserve, the road which I had to drive past to get to the Motel, so that was great. Had a little walk there and then on to the Motel. Now the GPS has been good so far, but not this time. She took me to a Wine & Spirits Shop. I asked someone and she said it was a couple of traffic lights up the road, so 5 traffic lights later I turned right, pulled over and phoned, and of course it was at the next set of lights, so went round the block, turned left instead of right and had to do the whole get back to right spot again. The highway here in most places is 8-10 lanes of traffic and you can only go the other direction at lights, there are no breaks in the median strip. Oh well, got here, settled in a little early than check-in time and started writing this. Then figured as I have a full size fridge and a microwave in here I would walk to a supermarket and get some supplies for the next couple of days. The lass in the Office said it was quite a long walk, but as there were munzees on both sides of the road, I got directions and started. Found most of the munzees, but where the lights (and pedestrian crossings) had been quite close together near the Motel, the one after the supermarket (which of course was across the road) was a long way off. I stood there for several minutes, pushing the button occasionally when I finally saw there was another button for the direction I wanted to go, not the side road I had already crossed. Sigh!!! I don’t think it would have made much difference, the lights don’t change for a looong time. As there are so many lanes it takes a while to get across and though most cars stop for you, some of them sneak through in the bit you haven’t got to yet!
Found some salad packs and some plastic cutlery (free) and grabbed a gallon of water. Got a little lost leaving the shopping centre, headed down the wrong road, but I did realise before I went too far, LOL. Got back to the room and finishing off this, some dinner and then hopefully some sleep. xoxo

IMG_0024Tillandsia hangs in lots of trees

IMG_0027 Boat-tailed grackle

IMG_0029 Mum & bubs

IMG_0031 Red-winged blackbird

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Couldn’t resist the lizard, like our fence skinks they are everywhere!

Day 3 – 11th May 2015 – Kissimmee, Florida

Tossed a bit, but did get some sleep, and didn’t really wake until 7.20, how decadent, lol.
Fiddled around for a while, online munzee stuff, and then left on the search for a sim. Traversed my first 4-way stop sign intersection (twice in fact), noticed that generally there are no number plates on the front of vehicles and most rear indicators are red not orange. Also noticed that speed signs are obviously for decoration, as no one, except me, seemed to see them. Traffic lights stay red for a very long time, far longer than at home!!
Found the shopping area with Verizon in it, and after a bit of a wait was told they couldn’t provide a sim for the iPhone, so I would have to go to AT&T, which was up the road about 5 minutes away. There was a Publix supermarket there so popped in and grabbed something for brunch and breaky tomorrow. Stopped up the road and couldn’t see anything that looked like AT&T, so a very nice lady in the Bank, pointed out the set of buildings further up and advised going the back way, not up the highway. So found the correct place, only to be told they only had one computer working properly and so I had to wait until it was available. Sigh, so left there just after 12, after being there the best part of an hour! But happy with a sim and a working phone!
Drove back to the motel so I could put my goodies into the fridge and then walked up the road to cap the Rover munzee Hunniees had put out for the rover drop. Only then discovering that Munzee was down and flummoxed the drop off plans. Oh well, the best laid plans of mice, men and munzee hunters…. lol. Waited around for a little while, but decided to head off to Kissimmee Lakeview Park and hope that Munzee would be working by the time I got there. It wasn’t!!
Decided on a wander by the lake anyway and there on the first lamp pole I passed was a nice blue mystery, so I scanned it, and yippee Munzee was up and I got 50 points. Much happier I carried on down the walkway, just scanning each lamp post until I got to one that said it was the 2nd in a Trail. I then had to back track to the first one and get that before continuing on.
Then it decided to rain, it’s 33 C, and raining, talk about broiled chicken, lol. I had left the brolly in the car, but it was basically a sun shower so cover wasn’t really needed, though over the lake behind it looked very heavy indeed, but a local said it was going the other way and it was! I couldn’t get as far as the 4th Trail munzee as I was expected at Joan’s for dinner, so headed back to the car, and found myself driving in peak hour traffic, talk about reminding me of home!!
Decided I really had to drop off those rovers as I was going past anyway, so did that and then on to Joan’s. We had a great dinner, turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce (which comes out of a can and is sliced up) potatoes, peas, fruit salad, and then some more of that strawberry cake for dessert.
Marian is sleeping surround by eggs, she is a very happy girl! I had a tour of the cabinets of Joan’s eggs. Most amazing collection, they sparkle and glitter, hang and sit, play music and light up. No wonder she is a name in egg decorating circles. She also beads, not ony on her eggs, but pictures and jewellery, such beautiful stuff.
Back here now writing this and snacking on a few Californian cherries! Way past bedtime, so will catch you all tomorrow, driving to Merritt Island for 2 nights! xoxo

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