Our Jolly Song of the South

Sunny Florida called to us, so my husband and I packed our shorts and swimsuits, took the dog-baby to the kennel and headed to Orlando. As many of you know by now, I love to stay home but we have a favorite place, and Orlando is almost like home to me, and in January it has a pool, a lounge chair and easy access to beverages and appetizers.

Early one morning, we dropped off the dog, turned on the seat warmers, found the business station on the satellite radio and confidently headed to the highway. Then we remembered that we had forgotten something important, so we looped back home before getting on the interstate. We needed our pool noodles! We have saved these for five years now and they are vital, because a big part of the pool experience is a lazy river!

Since we had to go back home we also stopped at the bathroom and then double-checked that all the doors were locked and after all that, we were truly on our way. We drove to Columbia, S.C. and had dinner and a pitcher of Bahama Mama’s with some of our favorite relatives. The next day, we had eight hours more to go, which we thought would be fine, but after five hours we began to get tired and cranky. We stopped for gas, and attached to the gas station was a Dairy Queen! It’s amazing how fantastic we felt after we slurped down a Peanut Butter Parfait.

We checked in to our timeshare and started our routine: head to the pool, sit in the hot tub, and then circle around and around the lazy river. We did this everyday and we also planned where to go out to eat and imbibe. I read a good-for-me book about President Dwight Eisenhower and my hubby worked his sudoku book. One night we splurged and sprang for super seats at an Orlando Magic game.

Perfect! and so it went until…

.. the phone rang when it was still dark out. ( 5:30 am) After answering the alarm clock, hubby found the phone and the resort security informed him that a professional gang had broken into every car in the parking lot. My husband rushed down and found that the passenger side window of our SUV was smashed in, glass was everywhere, and our important things like extra napkins, straws, pennies stuck to gum, and zips ties were thrown around, but nothing was taken. Nothing…not the GPS or my cute watch with the bright yellow band. The police said that thieves like these move fast and grab for money and medicine. Later that day, Safelite Autoglass came out and their friendly and competent employee did a speedy and professional job, and all was well. Plus we had many more stories to tell to our vacation friends in the hot tub! Do you know how much it costs to fix a Maserati’s window and body scratches- yes someone had a Maserati!

After that excitement, we appreciated our vacation routine even more.

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Hot tub, tubing in the lazy river, then sushi. Hot tub, lazy river, then a gourmet flatbread, or southern ribs. Perfect and after three weeks, it was hard to leave. But we did miss our dog. So we drove back home and didn’t hit a bit of snow and we sped towards Believeland, with a quick stop for more Dairy Queen, until…

…we were 10 miles from home.

Ping! Crack! A stone had hit our dashboard and you guessed it, the next day we got to to sing the “Safelite Repair Safelite Replace” song again!