Kevin's Excellent Excursion

Read earlier entries from November.

December, 1998

1st

Today we went to Colonial Williamsburg. Colonial Williamsburg is a historical settlement. We saw the silversmith, the magazine, the blacksmith, the wigmaker, the shoemaker, the cabinetmaker, the Capitol, the jail, the printing/post office, the carpenter, and the apothecary (drug store).

Kevin on Duke of Gloucester Street, Williamsburg At the silversmith we saw him only selling items, but there was a craftsman making a charm. He was working with silver.

At the magazine there were bayonets, cannons, and all sorts of guns. The magazine is the gunpowder storage stronghold.

In the blacksmith shop the smiths were making a door handle and a hatchet handle. They had several piles of coal in the back yard for the forge.

The wigmaker was also a barber. She had a blue-and-white barber pole and said she wanted to shave dad's beard.

The shoemaker used pegs instead of nails to hold the shoe heels on.

The Windmill in Williamsburg The cabinetmaker used black walnut stock for most of his woodwork. He had a beautiful bookshelf made with pine and black walnut.

At the Capitol the outside wasn't much. Just about like what a kid would make out of blocks.

The jail was pretty primitive. The cells were just rooms with a slot in the wall and a seat with a hole.

The printing/post office was more of a store.

At the carpenter we didn't see much. It was just two people sawing a log and making lumber.

At the apothecary they had all sorts of wierd instruments and medicines. We heard someone say, "I want some of that, that, and that," and the owner said, "OK, but I just have to make sure that you have the money." There were no prescriptions then.

[December 2nd was spent Christmas shopping and doing schoolwork.]

3rd: Dillon, SC

State skip! So much for NC but with 275 miles of traveling we made it to SC. There are alligators in the pond here.

We saw some mistletoe in the treetops on the way here, but never on pines.

We went on a ferry to Scotland. Ha ha, how about Scotland, Virginia. We went on a ferry from Jamestown to Scotland. We didn't know we were going on the ferry, but once you are two hundred feet from the end of the road with a twenty-nine foot trailer behind you there's no turning back.

About twelve miles from the SC border I saw a forest fire. So much for Smokey. It was big, red, and about 6:30 PM.

4th: Townsend, GA

Today I slept as I crossed the Georgia border. We went to Lake Harmony Campground. Their motto is "a place you'll come back to," and I kind of agree with that.

We accidentally dragged the trailer off the jack stand and ditched it into the sand. It was a minor setback and we broke an S-hook but it wasn't much. What happened was there was a chain still atached when my mom tried to pull away. The trailer went to one side and fell off. Lucky for us I had put the jacks down.

5th

Today we went on a hike and on a boat ride. On the hike we saw a water moccasin but not much because he was in the tall grass. My mother said it hissed at her and swam away.

We rented a paddleboat, went all around Lake Harmony, and got a lure that's been underwater for who knows how long. We tried to catch ducks but you can't really do much in a paddleboat.

6th: St. Cloud, FL

New state, that's always good with the exception of this time. The men's room is totally dark, parts of the women's room are closed, it's fire ant heaven, there's an alligator in the lake, the drinking water's contaminated, and there are ninety-nine billion mosquitoes half the size of the sun that sound like 747's, not to mention that you have to wear shorts. Chomp!

7th

Tomorrow good bye and good riddance to Cypress Lake campground. We are going to one a lot better in Kissimmee.

Everything else we did was shopping.

8th: Kissimmee, FL

We are in Secret Lake Campground. It's a lot nicer than the last dump. There are better things here like fire ant control, alligator control, and city water, but the bathroom is still dark. We spent all afternoon washing the camper and in a nicely heated pool and overheated jacuzzi.

9th

Today we did schoolwork and went to a science fiction store, a gun store, an Office Max, a go-kart track, a Camping World, a grocery store, and the pools.

We saw a free-fall sky diving place. It was a building where they turn on huge fans and when you step in you float.

Kevin drives his Go-Kart The science fiction store had books and toys for plenty of shows, possibly all of the sci-fi shows I can think of.

At Kissimee Kart-world I thought I had the slowest car and it proved to be the slowest. I raced my dad with my pedal to the floor and he almost lapped me.

At the pools we stayed all night until our fingers looked almost identical to prunes.


10th

Today we went shopping and spent the rest of the day in the pool.

11th

Today we went shopping and spent the rest of the day in the pool, again.

12th

Today we went to Gatorland. We saw gators (of course), birds, deer, a black bear, and gator shows.

For birds we saw an American anhinga, flamingos, egrets, some herons, storks, some common gallinules, an osprey, ibises, and about 1,000 boat-tailed grackles.

Judy the bear was sleeping, so we didn't see a lot of action.

There were something like fifteen hundred gators and 15 crocs.

The deer were very tame and ate out of my hand.

The shows were gator wrestling and gators jumping for chicken. In the gator wrestling the man picked out a kid and had him choose a gator to wrestle. The man pulled the gator out of the water but there was one problem about it. He didn't wrestle the gator a lot, all he did was talk about animal anatomy while sitting on the back of the gator. I thought the gator would fight back more. I mean, it still had two feet and a tail which makes about eight claws and a whip, because the front two feet were being stepped on. You could see that he was trying to keep the gator's mouth shut the whole time.

[Kevin has a roll of film coming back Monday. We'll add some photos next week.]

13th

Today we tried to see Star Trek Insurrection and went to an ice cream social.

14th

Today we saw Star Trek Insurrection, and did laundry and schoolwork. Laundry took more than two hours while schoolwork was being done.

The plot of Star Trek Insurrection is that the Federation and some aliens team up and try to take some people off their planet, but the crew of the Enterprise try to stop them because it's against the Starfleet prime directive.

15th

The WonderWorks Building Today we went to WonderWorks. The building looked like a building fell on another, only upside-down. It was the perfect science fieldtrip. They had the floating ball, earthquake and hurricane simulators, a moving wall, a bubble room, a baseball throw, Total Eclipse, three balancers, a giant Simon, a reflex tester, blue-screen games, a "How Old Are You Really?" computer interview, and a lazer tag.

The floating ball wasn't very interesting. It's just a ball being kept in the air by a fan, a big fan.

The way the moving wall works is simple. You climb up, it goes down. It was a challenge, but I maxed my time by keeping up.

The bubble room was really just a couple of wands and some soap. It was just "bubble soap playtime." Wand sizes were tiny and immense industrial size. The immense industrial size was big enough to put a bubble around me, and we did!

The baseball throw was interesting. My highest velocity hit was forty-one mph.

The hurricane simulator was really just the wind while real ones can throw cows and tractors at you.

The total eclipse was impossible for me to make, but fun. It was like a crane grabber but picked up disks with a magnet to try to cover an image of the sun.

The three balancers were disks to try to balance on. They were really hard but it was easy to cheat.

The reflex tester was amazingly hard. You had to press the two bottom buttons until the top one lit up and then you had to press the top one as fast as you could. Then on a screen at the top it would show you how long it took you to press the top button.

The blue-screen games were not really good but I liked them.

The "How Old Are You Really?" obvously didn't have age limits programmed into it because I said I was nine and it asked how far I drive daily.

The lazer tag had to have at least two people, so some guy from the staff joined me. At one time we were shooting from about three feet. It was really fun.

16th

Today we went to Orchid World. We saw orchids, orchids, orchids (hey, look, a parrot). When we were feeding the koi I discovered a three-and-a-half foot long catfish. Yum! We also saw what I think is a Eurasian Wigeon.

17th

Today we went on a paddleboat ride and to Splendid China.

On the paddleboat ride we chased two Sandhill Cranes and then went around the rest of the lake.

When we went to Splendid China we saw a show and some shops. The show was interesting but I don't know what part I liked best. There were acrobats, a boomerang man, and that was about it. Some people were on a bike and so many others jumped on I was surprised it could hold that many people. I thought the driver needed to see. Some shops just had junk to take up space like a "Weasel Ball."

18th

Today was spent with school and the pool.

19th

Mom and I help the pilot inflate the balloon. [We added some photos up above today, as well as to the November page.]

Today we were up before the sun to see it rise because my dad and I went on a hot air balloon ride. There were five passengers and a pilot in our basket. I didn't see much because I was cowering in the basket, looking through a peephole. I mean, the burners were only about two feet from my head and shot flames five to ten feet in the air.

The balloons were owned by Orange Blossom Balloons. Each balloon was given a name. The first was O-B 1, so they named it Kenobi. The second (which my dad and I were on) was white, red, and blue so they named it Patriot.

The landing was rough but it was only two bounces and a lot of swaying. Kenobi's landing was two bounces and too much swaying. Actually they swayed so much the basket fell over.


The varied terrain of Kissimmee as soon from our balloon.

After, the passengers were asked to help pack up the balloons, but I didn't see much because I was playing with the other kid from Patriot. After the folding, there was champagne and Coke for the kids and later a breakfast at a Days Inn. I'm surprised the caffeine still hasn't kicked in yet and it's Sunday. The next morning my father said, "Did you know you were snoring like a buzz saw?"

Kevin in front of the City of Tavares sign

21st: Port Richey, FL

Today we left, went to Tavares, FL, got a license plate, went to a chocolate factory outlet, and set up here in Port Richey.

We went to see Tavares because it's the same as our name, but it's pronounced "Tuh-VAIR-ees." We got a "Tavares" decorative license plate and mailed some postcards home.

When we went to a Russell Stover chocolate factory outlet we bought presents for our family in Florida.

27th

I'm not writing every day because of my Christmas vacation and a busy schedule.

On the 24th we picked Russell up from the airport. Ol' doggie was so happy, and he was wagging his tail so hard, I think he might have hurt it on the cage bars.

We spent Christmas at my grandparents' house. For Christmas I got a pair of swim fins, some Legos, a Lights Out game, some brain teasers, a book, a tool set, a flashlight, and more.

We visited my uncle, aunts, cousins, and everyone else on different days. Russell and I went swimming on the holidays. My dad helped do chores like fixing a computer at my aunt's house and a leaky faucet at my grandparents' house.


Photo of the Nina reproduction

28th

Today we went to see a reproduction of the Niña.

On the Niña they didn't let you in more than half the ship because of Coast Guard regulations. No tourists go up to the quarterdeck, and no tourists go down to the hold.

The Niña's real name was the "Santa Clara." "Niña" was her nickname because the owner was named Niño. The name was "Niña" also because the ship was small compared to other ships and niña means "little girl."

Everyone slept on the deck, even the captain. They got hit by a hurricane on Columbus' second voyage and they were the only ship to survive.

Continue on to January, 1999.