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By Vicky Wells, on November 24th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Nov 23 ~ Day #197
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$19700
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$15.00
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$17041.71
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$86.51
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Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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16084.6
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12056.7
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7662
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196
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35999.3
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We Did It!
When we began this adventure we set ourselves a challenge. To complete this trip on an average of $100/day or less.
As you can see from the recap of our final totals, we not only met that challenge, we exceeded it.
We traveled for a total of 197 days on an average of $86.51/day. Not bad!
Thank You! Thank You! Thank You!
First we’d like to say a heartfelt thank you to all the friends and family we stayed with along the way. We could not have achieved our goal without your generous hospitality.
We have mentioned all of you in each appropriate blog post but we would like to thank you all once again. We couldn’t have done it without you.
Putting Things in Perspective
When we mention the mileage, the number of days, places visited, etc. sometimes things just become a blur and the true magnitude is not particularly clear. So, here we’re going to recap things and try to bring some perspective.
Mileage
The total miles traveled, including road, train, sea and air, was 35,999.3. Too bad we couldn’t have added just 0.7 of a mile more. That would have pushed us to an even 36,000 miles.
But, to put this mileage in perspective, the circumference of the earth, at the equator, is 24,901.55 miles.
That means we could have traveled around the globe almost one and a half times. Wow!
Days Traveled
I don’t think we actually calculated the number of days we were going to be traveling when we started this adventure.
Oh sure, we knew the day we were going to start. We also knew the day we were going to fly back home. Both were booked before we set out. But we didn’t actually take the time to calculate just how long the time in between those dates was.
Total number of days traveled = 197.
If you apply an average of 30 days to a month, then we traveled for a total of 6.6 months, more than half a year. Again – wow!
Cruises and More Included in the Trip
It seems amazing even to us what we were able to pack into this trip. Here’s a quick recap.
Cruises
Our trip included three cruises:
- a two week Alaska cruise
- a six day Greek Islands cruise
- a two week TransAtlantic cruise
That’s a total of 34 days – more than a month – spent on cruise ships.
Narrowboats in the UK
We were able to spend an entire week on a narrowboat on the Trent/Mersey canal system in the UK.
Orlando and Disney
We spent two weeks in Orlando at two different timeshare resorts and spent time at more than one Disney theme park.
Landmarks Visited
Along the way we were fortunate to visit many landmarks both in North America and Europe.
Here’s a few:
United States
- Carlsbad Caverns
- Monument Valley
- Grand Canyon
Canada
- Victoria, British Columbia (a must-see)
- Hell’s Gate, British Columbia
- Columbia Ice Fields, Alberta
- Banff and Jasper, Alberta
- Lake Louise, Alberta
- Terry Fox Monument, Thunder Bay, Ontario
- Reversing Falls, New Brunswick
- St. Andrews-By-The-Sea, New Brunswick
- Confederation Bridge, between New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island
- Birthplace of Canadian Confederation, Charlottetown, PEI
- Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia
England
- Buckingham Palace
- Tower Bridge
- Tower of London
- British Parliament Buildings
- Big Ben
- British Museum
- Stratford-Upon-Avon, birthplace of Shakespeare
Spain
- La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona
- Dénia Castle, Dénia
Portugal
- Madeira, the home of Madeira wine
Greece
Croatia
- the old walled city of Dubrovnik
Italy
- St. Mark’s Square, Venice
- the ruins of Pompeii
- the ruins of Paestum
- the Amalfi Coast
And, I’m sure there are things we are forgetting. It’s time for us to go back and re-read all the posts we have made along the way and to review all the photos and videos we have as well.
This was the trip of a lifetime for us. We will continue to travel, of course, but it is unlikely that we will ever again take such an extensive trip. It was a great adventure but a very long time to be away from home.
We will continue to have, we hope, many, many more adventures. But, perhaps shorter ones this time. 
Thank you to everyone who has followed along with us and to those who have made comments as well. It was a pleasure to share this adventure with you.
By Vicky Wells, on August 30th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Aug 30 ~ Day #112
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
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|
Total
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$11200
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$27.20
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$9458.17
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$84.44
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|
Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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13853
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4451
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000
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69
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18373
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Current Location: Davie, Florida
Accommodation: $27.20
Mopping Up
A bit more water got into our tent overnight, so we had some mopping up to do in the morning.
It wasn’t too bad and things were dry again in no time.
Too Many Meatballs
We had bought a rather large package of pre-cooked frozen meatballs when we were in Orlando and it was beginning to feel like it was an inexhaustible source.
Even after having some at the condos and having spaghetti and meatballs for dinner this evening, there’s still enough left for at least a couple more meals.
Cooler Isn’t So Cool
As the days progress the frozen water bottles we use as ice in the cooler are beginning to melt. We are making sure that we’re using up anything that require refrigeration.
It’s not a huge problem because the camp sells a 10lb bag of ice for just a $1 so we don’t have to worry about anything going bad.
By the end of this week we’ll be into the canned stuff.
By Vicky Wells, on August 27th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Aug 27 ~ Day #109
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
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|
Total
|
$10900
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$93.19
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$9376.57
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$86.02
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Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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13580+273=13853
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4451
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000
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69
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18373
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Current Location: Davie, Florida
Transportation: $30.00
Accommodation: $27.20
Food: $35.99
Today’s Total Expenses: $93.19
Condo to Camping
Today we made the transition from a one-bedroom condo back to our tent. It actually isn’t as difficult as you might think.
With all the tenting we’ve done on this trip the tent and inflatable mattress have become quite familiar and comfortable.
Geoff is now an expert at setting the tent up quickly and getting the mattress in place in the back of the Jeep.
We are here now until we leave for Europe in just a little over a week’s time.
We’re staying in another naturist resort. Yes, we’re very comfortable with that and, hey, it means a lot less laundry!
However, this resort was established in the late 60s and at that time it was out in the middle of nowhere. Now it’s actually surrounded by subdivisions with lots of houses.
Trying to Find the Cheapest Gas
We always try to make sure we get the best deal on gas whenever we need to fill up but this time we left it a little late and spent a little too much time trying to find the best price.
We pushed it so far this time that we almost ran out of gas! And, the gas station we did stop at had pretty high prices compared to what we had seen in the Orlando area and on the drive down to Fort Lauderdale. So, we just put $30 worth and headed back to the campground.
We aren’t planning to do much in the way of driving during this stay anyway. I expect we’ll head out for groceries in a few days and then the car will go into storage while we’re in Europe.
By Vicky Wells, on August 24th, 2010
Blog Title: Inception at IMAX
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Aug 24 ~ Day #106
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
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Total
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$10600
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$58.00
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$9223.38
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$87.01
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Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
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13542+28=13570
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4451
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000
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69
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18086
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Current Location: Vacation Village at Parkway, Kissimmee, Florida
Accommodation: $30.00
Entertainment: $28.00
Today’s Total Expenses: $58.00
More Rain? Yep!
We woke up to overcast skies and it wan’t long before it started to rain yet again.
The forecast on the Weather Channel calls for scattered thunderstorms EVERY SINGLE DAY!
Watching the Tropical Updates
We currently use the Weather Channel on TV and the National Hurricane Center (www.nhc.noaa.gov) online to follow any activity in the Atlantic. and, it looks like things are starting to heat up.
Fortunately, it looks like we don’t have to worry at all about
Danielle. But now there’s Earl and something else behind that.
Keep your fingers crossed that there’s nothing we have to worry about over the next few months of hurricane season.
Over the past few years it seems that most of the hurricanes have been going further North than usual. As a matter of fact, over the last 5 years Geoff’s daughter in Halifax has been hit twice, while we got nothing.
It also looks like she may have to worry about Danielle.
Unfortunately, the Weather Channel really only cares about hurricanes that may threaten the US. So, there’s not a whole lot of information about ones that threaten the Bahamas or Atlantic Canada.
Following the path online at the National Hurricane Center is a bit better but still slanted towards US interests. Not surprising as these are US sites.
Checking Out the Travel Club We Just Joined
We managed to get a temporary membership number from Global Discovery Vacations as we still have not received our regular number by email. That was promised to be available to us no later than Monday (yesterday) and still nothing.
Anyway, we have the TransAtlantic Cruise to book and have already determined the best price we can get on our own online. We called and spoke to the travel agent part of the club and they gave us the same price we could get ourselves!
I told them that and they said that certain cruise lines (this one is Celebrity) will not allow travel agents to discount their cruises. So, in this case, the travel club does us no good.
Next, we asked them to find a hotel close to the cruise port in Barcelona for around $60/night. They came back with three hotels ranging from $150 to $250/night and said that was the best they could do.
Again, we can do much better on our own using CheapOstay. And, we told them that, too.
One More Chance
We decided to give the travel club one more chance to prove that they are worth the membership fee.
One of the things they do is offer condo stays around the world. So, I checked for what condos they had available for a certain time frame.
For the entire two week time frame that I checked the ONLY condos they had available were on the Texas Coast. Really? Nothing else? That’s just way too restrictive for our needs.
Our decision was clear – this travel club would just not work for us.
We contacted our salesperson and they told us it was no problem to cancel, we just have to send our cancellation to Global in writing. I’m hoping we can do that by email, we’ll see.
We’ll keep you posted on this.
TransAtlantic Cruise Booked
We went ahead and booked the TransAtlantic Cruise on our own because the travel club couldn’t get us a better price. We certainly don’t want to use them if we’re canceling our membership.
We will be leaving Barcelona on Oct. 25th and arriving in Miami on November 8th. That’s a full two week cruise and we paid a total of $1432.74. That works out to just over $100/day and that includes food, accommodations, entertainment and transportation. A pretty good deal,
actually.
I did check airfare and it was only a couple of hundred dollars less. It was a no-brainer to take the cruise.
Inception at IMAX
Tonight we treated ourselves to a movie. We’ve been wanting to see Inception and it was playing at the IMAX theatre in Orlando.
We had seen Avatar at this same theatre in April, but that was also in 3D. Inception was not in 3D.
It’s a good movie and certainly worth seeing. We’re just not sure if it was worth paying the extra to see it in IMAX.
But, hey, at least in an IMAX theatre I don’t need to put my glasses on to read the credits. They’re not tough to read when the letters are several feet high!
See the movie, but it’s up to you if you want to shell out the extra to see it in IMAX.
We actually went to the late showing – 10:30pm. As it’s almost 2-1/2 hours long, that means we didn’t get out until after 1:00am!
By Vicky Wells, on August 20th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Aug 20 ~ Day #102
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
|
|
Total
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$10200
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$148.10
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$9064.38
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$88.86
|
|
Miles by Road
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Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
|
|
13472+16=13488
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4451
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000
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69
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18008
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Current Location: Vacation Village at Parkway, Kissimmee, Florida
Transportation: $49.48
Accommodation: $30.00
Food: $68.62
Entertainment: $
Today’s Total Expenses: $148.10
Time for a Change
We had booked two weeks in the Orlando area using our timeshare, but at different resorts. That meant we needed to check out of Wyndham today and check into Vacation Village.
Check out time, which apparently is strictly enforced by the use of penalties (like a $100 fee if you check out late), is at 10:00am. We were a bit rushed but managed to make it in time.
Check-in time, however, is usually about 4:00pm. So, we thought we’d probably have some time to kill between condos.
Hoping our condo might be ready, we decided to go directly to Vacation Village at Parkway. As luck would have it, our condo was available and we were able to check in at 10:30am!
This made it very convenient as we didn’t have to worry about the frozen and refrigerated food we were bringing with us from the previous condo.
Parking Pass – Really?
As at the other condo, after we were checked in (oh, and this resort requires a $100 refundable damage deposit that was not required at Wyndham), we were directed to Guest Services to obtain our parking pass for the week.
The gentleman at Guest Services welcomed us, gave us each a welcome gift (a plastic toiletries bag containing shampoo, conditioner and shower gel) and then proceeded to sign us up for an owner’s lunch, tour of their new model and a survey.
We asked if they were going to try to sell us more timeshare and the answer, of course, was a resounding “no” but, yes, we knew better.
And, as usual, they wanted a $20.00 refundable deposit to “reserve our space for lunch”. And, of course, they were offering us discounted tickets for 2 to the Arabian Nights Dinner Show for only $20.00 (hmmm … how convenient that our deposit would cover that) or an $80.00 gift card. But, we didn’t need to decide which gift we wanted until after the lunch.
They had space for us on Sunday or Monday, so we chose Monday. More about this on Monday …
Gas Price Rip-Off
After finding our condo and bringing everything up from the car, we headed out for some groceries and gas.
We had passed a gas station a day or two before that advertised gas at $2.52/gal. That’s the best price we had seen and it was a Shell Station. The next cheapest price was $2.54/gal. We were almost empty so saving a couple of cents per gallon seemed like a good idea.
As we always do, we swiped our credit card at the pump and began to fill our tank.
Don’t ask me why I looked at the price per gallon that was actually displayed in the selected grade part of the pump, but for some reason I did and it displayed $2.64/gal – WHAT?!?
We stopped pumping and I went inside to ask about the discprepancy. Apparently the $2.52/gal was for cash only – and – sure enough – on the sign, in tiny letters, was the word “cash” under the price.
But, when others were charging $2.54 and credit was okay, how could this Shell Station possibly justify charging $2.64/gal when using a credit card?
We immediately stopped pumping on credit at just over $13.00 and paid cash for the rest.
But that didn’t stop us from feeling like we’d been ripped-off and mislead.
If you don’t watch every minute some greedy bastard is going to try to take advantage of you.
By Vicky Wells, on August 16th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Aug 16 ~ Day #98
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
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Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$9800
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$38.31
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$8774.76
|
$89.53
|
|
Miles by Road
|
Miles by Sea
|
Miles by Air
|
Miles by Train
|
Total Miles
|
|
13352+42=13394
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4451
|
000
|
69
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17914
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Current Location: Kissimmee, Florida
Today’s Total Expenses: $38.31
Transportation: $2.00 (Parking)
Accommodation: $30.00
Food: $6.31
Downtown Orlando
We decided to take a drive into downtown Orlando and stop into the British Consulate because we had a few questions we thought they might be able to answer.
I had tried calling them in the hopes of, perhaps, getting an appointment with someone who might be able to help with our questions. However, all I could get was a automated attendant and recorded messages, no matter which options I chose. Very frustrating.
British Consulate
Naturally the British Consulate was in a high-rise office building in the heart of downtown Orlando. That meant we would have to pay for parking as there didn’t seem to be any place that we could park that didn’t have meters.
We chose a municipal parking lot and prepaid for two hours. It was the cheapest option at only $1.00/hour but you had to guess at how much time you would need because it had to be prepaid.
Well, we might as well not have bothered as the person we spoke with at the consulate, through a glass barrier, couldn’t help us at all.
We were inquiring about how Geoff would re-patriate to the UK and what was required so that I could go, too. He referred us to the British Government website and to a company in the US that CHARGED for any information it gave you!
About the only thing this consulate could have helped with was, if Geoff had entered the US on a British Passport and was injured or in trouble, then they could have helped.
You’ve really got to wonder why there needs to be a British Consulate in a place like Orlando at all.
Any visas that we might require would apparently have to be processed in New York. Same goes if Geoff had wanted to renew his British Passport.
It amazes me what governments will pay for (like a consulate in Orlando), when, perhaps, a toll-free number to call would suffice. That is, a toll-free number where someone actually answers the phone and not just a bunch of recorded messages that don’t help anyway. Sorry – bit of a rant.
Back to the Resort
After wasting $2.00 on parking that we really didn’t need, we headed back to the resort, picked up a few groceries along the way, and got back to trying to catch up on the computer stuff we need to do.
By Vicky Wells, on August 11th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Aug 11 ~ Day #93
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Budget to date
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Spent today
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Total to date
|
Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$9300
|
$89.62
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$8412.43
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$90.45
|
|
Miles by Road
|
Miles by Sea
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Miles by Air
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Miles by Train
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Total Miles
|
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12585+563=13148
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4451
|
000
|
69
|
17668
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Current Location: Rest Area in Florida
Road Miles: 563
Today’s Total Expenses: $89.62
Transportation: $86.00
Food: $3.62
Happy Anniversary
Today is the 20th anniversary for Geoff’s daughter and her husband.
Happy Anniversary J & P. Hope you have a great day.
Lots of Miles
Today was another day spent putting lots of miles behind us.
At this point most of the highways are starting to look the same – long stretches of asphalt flanked by trees with lots of exits boasting hotels, gas stations and restaurants.
For some variety, now that we are in Florida, some of the trees on the side of the highway are actually palm trees.
Do I sound like I might be getting a bit tired of the drive?
Well, not to worry, we’ll be recharging for a couple of weeks at timeshare condos in the Orlando area.
Think of it – full kitchens, kingsize beds and lots of room to stretch out!
A Case of False Economy
We again decided to stop at a rest area in lieu of either camping or a hotel. Money just seems to be going way too fast and we saw this as a way to, metaphorically, put a finger in the dyke. And, you know, it might have been okay were it not for a suggestion I made at a weak moment. But that’s part of tomorrow’s post.
By Vicky Wells, on August 8th, 2010
Our transportation, accommodation, food and entertainment cost so far
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Aug 08 ~ Day #90
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Budget to date
|
Spent today
|
Total to date
|
Daily average
|
|
Total
|
$9000
|
$141.71
|
$8151.66
|
$90.57
|
|
Miles by Road
|
Miles by Sea
|
Miles by Air
|
Miles by Train
|
Total Miles
|
|
11047+538=11585
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4451
|
000
|
69
|
16105
|
Current Location: Waterville, Maine
Today’s Total Expenses: $141.71
Transportation: $64.53
Accommodation: $53.45
Food: $23.73
Family Farewells
It was back on the road again, so we said our reluctant farewells to family and began the long drive back to Florida where we have two weeks of timeshare booked in the Orlando area.
22nd Anniversary
Today is also our 22nd anniversary, pretty much smack dab in the middle of our 2010 adventure.
It’s hard to believe it’s been 22 years already. Time just seems to be moving faster and faster all the time.
Wal-Mart Dinner
To try to save money (it’s a constant theme) we stopped into the deli section of a Wal-Mart Supercenter.
Things looked a bit sparse and we really should have known better, but we bought an 8-pack of fried chicken (which had probably been on the warming tray way too long) and a bunch of onion rings because they were all out of potato wedges.
Well, we’ve certainly had better anniversary dinners, but I don’t remember having a worse one.
Like I said, we should have known better.
On to the Hotel
So, after eating a crappy fried chicken and onion rings dinner while sitting in our car, we treated ourselves to a hotel for the night instead of camping. We used a highway coupon book to get the best deal we could in the area.
Like most low-priced hotels we have stayed at, it was clean and comfortable. Really, all you need for a quick, overnight stay.
Geoff’s Note
Just to make things clear Vicky was on board with the crappy chicken and highway motel thing because we had to cover a lot of miles in a short time.
The actual anniversary day may have come up a little short but we are headed to Europe for two months.
By Geoff Wells, on March 2nd, 2010
Daytona Beach is only about 50 miles NE of Orlando and is currently home to Bike Week. It was not part of our original vacation plan to visit but after stumbling upon the Spyder at Central Florida PowerSports we couldn’t pass up the chance to test drive one. Since neither of us has a motorcycle license the only way we could ride one is on the track.
We were up bright and early, packed and cleaned up the suite. Hard to believe we created so much garbage in just a week. We were charged a standard cleaning fee anyway so we could have just left it – Oh, well!
The sun was shining, the drive was easy and in no time we were following dozens of motorcycles to the Daytona Speedway. As you might expect the grounds are huge and packed with exhibitors. We hadn’t given any thought to finding the Spyder exhibit once we arrived but once again fate was smiling on us as we were directed into the parking lot right next to – you guessed it – the Spyder exhibit.
The staff were signing people up for test drives but we would only be able to drive around the test track they had set up. We got to drive both the sport model and the touring model, which is the one we are interested in.
Vicky had never driven a motorcycle before but had no difficulty learning the simple controls.
Several Spyder dealers and customizers had supplied bikes fitted out with available 3rd party add-ons and paint jobs.
We spent a little time wandering around the exhibits but we had to leave much earlier than we wanted if we were to make the last train from Fort Lauderdale to Miami. It turns out that it was a good thing we didn’t try to push the time too much. We arrived in Fort Lauderdale and put out car back in storage with lots of time to spare. In fact, if the cab had arrived in a reasonable time, we could have caught an earlier train back to Miami airport. As it was, we had to make several desperate calls to the cab company and then just made it for the last train.
Turned out to be a pretty long day but we’re glad we had the chance to ride the Spyder. We have been invited to tour the factory when we get back to Canada. We hope to do that some time in July.
If you’re interested in one of these machines, be sure to check out our post then as I’m sure we will have some great video of them being made.
By Geoff Wells, on March 1st, 2010
Beautiful sunny day. Light jacket cool, but a cloudless sky – so we don’t expect any rain.
We have been to the Magic Kingdom and Epcot on previous Disney visits, so for our last day we chose Animal Kingdom and kept our fingers crossed that it would not be as disappointing as Hollywood Studios.
If you plan to visit, don’t forget to budget an additional $14 a day for parking on top of whatever you pay for admission.
The animals in Animal Kingdom are all in the Safari area of the “Africa” section. This is the furthest point from the entrances and is where we headed first. We had been told by staff at the resort that the animals were most active in the morning and it was best to get there early.
I guess a lot of people had been given the same advice because there was quite a few ahead of us. They moved everyone through fairly quickly and the wait was not too bad. We are not fans of zoos or circuses where animals are in cages but here they roam free and seem to have lots of room. We understand that elephants in the wild will roam hundreds of miles which they obviously cannot do here but they also don’t have to worry about being shot by poachers. The animals here have absolute right-of-way and if one decides to stop in the middle of the road, the whole ride stops until it decides to move. This is what happened to us and we were able to enjoy a giraffe family at breakfast. A little later we were charged by a rhinoceros but, unfortunately, I did not get a picture of that.
The Africa section also includes a train ride to the conservation station where the animal receive veterinary care. The kids will enjoy the petting zoo here. We were also lucky to get up close to some gorillas on the walking trail.
Asia is the next section and it also includes a walking trail past tiger, bats and Komodo dragons.
We passed on the Kali River Rafting ride as they guaranteed you would get wet and it still wasn’t very warm.
We did, however, waste about 90 minutes in a line for the Expedition Everest Coaster. Waiting more than 10 minutes would have been a waste of time.
Worth mentioning is the “It’s Tough to be a Bug” 3D movie underneath the Tree of Life on Discovery Island. 3D movies are commonplace now but this is cute and has some co-ordinated animatronic characters and other effects.
Animal Kingdom closes before the other parks so they can take care of the animals. So be sure to plan your day accordingly.
So, yes, Animal Kingdom is much better value than Hollywood Studios but the prices are still too high for what you get. With the world economy in the dumper postponing a trip to Disney World should be a pretty easy decision.
That’s it for Orlando. Tomorrow we make a quick side trip to Bike Week at Daytona Beach, then home to Eleuthera.
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