A look back at Walt Disney World and what happened next!

We really enjoyed our vacation and felt we celebrated our tenth anniversary in style. Here are some notes:

• The scooter was worth every penny for me. Without it my energy level would have been much lower and I would have had a lot of back/hip pain. I wouldn't hesitate to do it again. We rented from Apple Scooters but looking at the rentals at the hotel, Buena Vista seems to be the favorite for most folks.
• If you rent a scooter, be sure to bring something brightly colored to attach to the handlebar when you come back to it. They all look alike and for some reason, I kept thinking I had a red one. LOL!
• Something to clip on the back of the scooter seat is handy to hang things. While mine had a little basket, my purse took up that room. Stu used our Mickey Mouse clip to hang his backpack, helping HIS back.
• If you can, request a cup holder. I didn't have one and missed it.
• Bring a shower cap for the scooter controls for rain - I have a couple of cheap hotel ones in my travel stuff. It worked perfectly to cover the controls in the rain.
• Any time you are stopped for more than a few seconds - yes, SECONDS not minutes - turn the scooter off. It's not like a car - as soon as you turn the key back on, you can move.
• DO bring the charger, yes, it's a pain but better than finding yourself stranded. We only almost had an issue one day. We did so much walking/scooting that it JUST made it back to the room.
• Be prepared to get stopped going through the security check, they have to check the back storage area where the charger is usually stored (and where we ended up storing our mugs).
• We found FANTASTIC water bottles, ice cold for hours. Saved us. Amazon! Wish we had bought these years ago instead of multiple cheap options.
• When you are on a scooter, prepare to be INVISIBLE! Everyone is looking at eye level, the only ones that truly see you right away are kids at the same eye level. Even then, be prepared to stop quickly when people are ready to walk into you or when they stop abruptly in front of you. BRING YOUR PATIENCE!
• Don't be intimidated by getting on/off the buses. If you can't parallel park the scooter, they will park it for you! Just follow their instructions...some buses require you to get off the scooter but the newer ones have seat belts and you get to stay on it (I liked that).
• Use Fast Passes for the most popular rides. Because we were staying in the resort, we could book ours 60 days in advance. There was still one new ride in Pandora that we never could get. Next time!
• Download the Disney app - it has so much valuable information and can help you get the most out of your visit.
• While we loved the deluxe dining plan, we wouldn't do it again. But we would do the 2 coupon dinners at both Brown Derby and Sanaa. They were more than worth it.
• Buy a small power bank for your smart phone if you are using the Disney app. We each had one plus a short cable for our phones. Really helped. This one is about the size of a deck of cards but thinner. We just charged it in the hotel each night along with our phones and other items.

We left Disney on Saturday morning, headed to Vero Beach to see family.

Our intent was to have everyone gather since we hadn't see them all in a couple of years. I have two brothers living in the area along with three nieces and their families. In addition, one cousin lives in the area and another used to but has moved further north but both hoped to make it. Well, all good plans have to be prepared.

1. My middle brother had a heart attack and had to have an emergency stent put in.
2. His wife had a massive COPD attack and was hospitalized in the same hospital.
3. Their oldest daughter had an attack of pancreatitis and gallstones and, yup, same hospital.

So our first visit was to all three in said hospital...jeesh! What a way to see family, NOT! Fortunately, all three are now home and doing okay. A few lifestyle changes, but that's the way it goes.
We headed out after breakfast on Sunday and somewhere along the way, just north of Jacksonville I think, they were paving BOTH sides of US1.

But we did make it back to the RV in Folkston and by Tuesday we were packed up and headed back to our home in Tennessee. That's the next chapter...LOL!

Ciao for now!

Reflections on the A to Z of Goldendoodles

Well, April came and April went. Now it's time for some reflections on the April A to Z Blog Challenge. This is not my first year. In fact, it was my fourth year. But it was my first year where I did two blogs, this one for the Goldendoodles and flash fiction on my author blog.

This was also the first year the staff at A to Z tried using Google docs to master the beast of link signups. The first two years, they used LinkyList. Last year they tried another method that was so bad, I can't even remember how it worked. LOL!

So here is my take on the good, the bad and the ugly for 2018, both for my posts and the challenge overall. [NOTE: This post will be repeated on my author blog.]

THE GOOD:

• I prefer themes and easily set them for both my blogs and then participated in the theme reveal.
• I pre-wrote all 26 blog posts for this blog. I kept it simple, a little text and a several fun photos.
• I pre-wrote 65-75% of my blog posts for my writing blog.
• The Theme Reveal list helped me choose blogs to follow.
• Being able to add my blog links to the Daily List in advance was a HUGE advantage. I suspect I would have missed many days of posting as I often did last year.
• I managed to reply to EVERY comment left on both blogs. Phew!
• I visited the blogs of all my commenters, often adding them to my blog reader to follow.
• I commented on 60% of the blog posts I read.
• I checked out the blogs of commenters and found some new ones that way (not all were A-Z).
• I found way less folks who posted they were going to participate but didn't! Yay!!

THE BAD:

• I got sick in the middle of April. A nasty cold that hung on for weeks. I barely got the last three posts written in time. Phew!
• There were a couple of folks that didn't make it easy to find their blogs (from the comment profile). Hoping they will realize that and fix it. It's the one way folks find their way to the blogs if they don't have a direct link.
• Still not a fan of Google+ but I did join a group and post all my links there (and they post to my G+ profile automatically from Blogger).

THE UGLY:

• I really can't think of anything other than the personal time sacrifice - and I'm retired. LOL!

Would I do anything differently? Not much that I can think of. I would stick with writing in advance

What were my goals and did I accomplish them? My first goal was, and always is, to increase readership of my blog(s). I definitely did that as compared to last year where I had very few comments and no gain in readership. I also found some new blogs to follow, non-writing related blogs (of which I already follow too many). In addition, I gained a couple of new friends on Facebook, folks who had interesting blogs and got me invested in their lives.

My second goal was to get my writing mojo back. I was ready to retire from it and writing flash fiction re-ignited the fire. But, I still plan on taking a couple months off to read. It's been too long!

What's next? Well, this blog (our personal blog) will continue to be about our daily life as well as the life of the #2Doods. I hope you will continue to stick around for my ramblings and our meanderings. My author blog? TBD [to be determined]

Ciao for now!