2nd Week in Review

Day 14- Week in Review

Where to start……Everyday has been filled with fun and new experiences, and not a day has gone by where something amazing has happened. So we started the second week in Texas outside of Six Flags over Dallas. The park had a southern, New Mexico/Texas feel which we liked. We slept in a hotel parking lot between Dallas Stadium (gi-normous), Ranger Stadium and six flags. The park was nice and had a few good rides, and it was nice to take a day off to break up the Texas drive. We spent the night at my mom’s high school/nursing school life long friend’s house and wow, what a great call that was. Kinda didn’t know what to expect, since I hadn’t seen Tim and Louis since I was a child, but it was great to catch up and meet again. Louis stayed up til 11pm to meet and greet and make us feel at home, which we did, especially when we woke up to our first home cooked meal of the trip. Some delicious coffee cake, coffee and juice, strawberries and pineapple, and an egg & ham casserole that I’m sure others would have loved. 3 out of 4’s not bad for not knowing our finicky eating habits. Talked some more and hit the road. Saw an Armadillo sleeping on the side of the road….fact, we saw a whole bunch of animals sleeping on the road between Dallas and New Orleans.

I thought we were stopping in Baton Rouge for dinner, but when I woke up from what I thought was gonna be an hour nap, we were a half hour from New Orleans. We made it work. Snacked on some food and found a Church in Downtown, New Orleans doing the first mass of Easter. Of course in Placke tradition we were late. Mass started at 8 and by the time we found parking it was 845. Walked in and sat down in to the most beautiful church. We immediately stood up and the priest proceeded with the gospel. I kind a chuckled to myself remembering that mom always said that if you make it for the gospel, it counts. Stayed to the end then we took Nancy a block from Bourbon St and got a Margarita and Pizza. The streets were packed for a Saturday night and the buzz of the superbowl is everywhere. Decided to make up some time and found a Wal-mart (thanks for reminding us Louis) a couple hours out.
Woke up early and hit the road to Clearwater, FL. Drove through Pensacola, home of the Blue Angels. Made it to Amanda’s cousin’s hotel around 8 who just happed to be in town for spring training for the Phillies minor league team. All the other Phillies teams had left town, but his team’s first game started later than the rest allowing both of us to be able to say we spent Easter with family. We took Eric to a fabulous Italian restaurant played squeezed 18 holes of miniature golf in, finishing a half hour after closing, and went back to the hotel to watch the last few innings of opening season for baseball. Took off just before midnight and drove the 3 hours to Cape Canaveral for the shuttle launch.

In the excitement of getting there and still being able to find an excellent parking spot in the tiny community of Titusville, which was buzzing with activity for 3 in the morning, I locked the keys in the car for the second time since we picked up the bus. Waited an hour for the locksmith from AAA and passed the time by seeing who could get their penny closer to the handicap head…loser picks up. Sooner than later it was 6:20 am and we had a great uninterrupted view of the shuttle right on the water where a gator could strike at any time. The countdown began and the lake and sky lit up like we were crashing into the sun. Watching it clear the tower brought so many sensations throughout the body, I cannot even explain. It is something you can only experience first hand. About 20 seconds after take off a massive shockwave hits the shores and rumbles the ground like an earthquake. Our friend Keri who lives in Orlando some 70 miles inland said it woke her up.

We waited for the crowds to die down by napping til noon then headed to Cocoa Beach for some fun in the sun. Bought some cheap bogie boards, played some paddle ball, got a tan in April (actually got burnt) and swam in the warm ocean. Headed back to Keri’s for the first shower in 4 days and realized that 3 days should be max. Got to Keri’s picked up some Howie’s Pizza and caught up on life. The hospitality see has given us over the last two years has been so generous and we cannot thank her enough. Her son Noah is the coolest 5 year old I have ever met. And incredibly smart too.

Nancy was overdue for a tune up so I found a mechanic, at 5: 15 pm the Monday after Easter in Cocoa beach who said he could fit us into his schedule the next morning. In Sacramento I had to wait 3 days. So tue. morning we headed back to Cocoa Beach and met Mark, the VW mechanic. When we pulled in there were a variety of VWs spread about and a small little mechanics garage with a house attached and Mark wrenching away on one of his own VWs. We were a couple of hours later than we talked about, but from the phone Mark sounded laid back. And he was….a tall, skinny, long sandy blonde hair, in his mid 40’, who looked like he probably had a surf session that morning. We left Nancy in his hands and caught the trolley into town. Ate at McDonalds who had free Wi-Fi and while waiting for food, had a conversation with Wayne. Wayne was a 65+ retired dentist who lived in Cocoa Beach his whole life and started a conversation with me first about how to make the lines at McDonalds move faster then into politics. There was a crowd in the McDonalds and we covered a lot in 5 minutes. He just happened to take the seat next to Amanda and when I sat down with our food, we had an awesome 45 minute conversation about politics and government and the space program. It ends with Wayne “…..last bit of advice. Always brush your teeth after every meal. Even with no toothpaste. No one in my (his) family has cavities.” Spent the rest of the day shopping and went to pick up Nancy. Mark was finishing up when we got back and had done a through check of Nancy including the tire pressure. He asked if I was a “paper person and needed the work done written up.” After he wrote it all down and forgetting half the stuff he had previously told me he checked he came up with a number off the top of his head and said “ohh..I guess around 70 bucks.” Needless to say, I gave him a hundred considering Sacramento charged around 160. Had dinner that night with Keri (picked up Olive Garden) and headed off to Atlanta that night. Got in round 3 am, took a power nap and went to our second six flags.

Six Flags over Atlanta was packed. Apparently spring break is late out here, but that’s also the reason we were able to go mid week. We upgraded to Platinum Flash Passes and had no wait time to ride the rides and with the Platinum you get to ride ever ride twice and the second time in the front. Great way to ride all the rides in the park and get the coaster count up. We had a great day, but knew there were better parks to come. Found a great burger joint comparable to in n out after a day at six flags called steak and shake. Kinda a Johnny Rockets meets Sonic meets In n Out. Delicious. Spent the night closer to North Carolina and finished the drive the next morning.

Spent the next day at Hendrix Motor Sports, in North Carolina, home of NASCAR. The history and details of the sport were interesting and we say a pretty awesome showcase of cars. The highlight was defiantly seeing the workshops for Dale Jr. and Gordon and J. Johnson and M. Martin. Pretty impressive. And I think we made some family members in Cali jealous. Headed to Virginia that afternoon, but didn’t get there til sometime past 9 due to road/tunnel work and a later than expected start.
We got into Virginia and were greeted with a warm and loving reception from Joe and Karen who even had steak, potatoes, and salad, hot and ready for us. Even strawberry cake dessert. And we were starving at the time. It was so awesome to catch up and see and hear their life in Virginia. They were so kind and gracious to us; Joe even insisted we take a portable jump starter battery, which we are finding handy to charge electronics. And let me just say “thank you” to all our friends to let us stay at their place and steal their power. I think at maximum capacity, we need to charge 9 different pieces of electronics. The next morning we woke up and had another great meal prepared for us. Scrambled eggs, fruit, biscuits and jam, milk and cereal. Couldn't ask for more. Took some pictures and heard some stories with Gunther and said our good-bye’s. Even got some great advice to check out Jamestown and the first settlements of America which we had not planned into our trip. Spent the afternoon seeing the beauty and history of Yorktown, Williamsburg, and Jamestown. The buildings there were amazing. Wish we had more time to see all the exhibits. But it was off for two days at six flags.

Nancy’s running strong after the tune up. The turn signal completely froze for a while. Now it’s just hard to operate and takes some force. We are finding the Hazards work just as well. The front speaker went out this week. Now only the speaker in the back of the bus works. We do have a battery powered I-pod speaker dock which can get the job done for the front, or the favored option is the Bluetooth headset so the person in the back can listen to karaoke or American Idol tryouts while they blog. We are also playing the license plate game when we are both in the front seats and so far it is really close. We have had a few moments of silence after poor navigating and/or poor decision making, but are learning to laugh off the mistakes. We are looking forward to spending the next week in the NY/DC areas and having a minimal week of driving.

The Bus compliments are rolling in and we are getting LOTS of figure pointing, picture taking and story telling. Ever since cape canaveral it hasn’t stopped…

Chris