We began our third year on the road with an overnight stay in Pine Grove, PA followed by a stop in Max Meadows, VA. Our next stop was supposed to be for a visit to Charleston, SC but after hearing about flooding in the area that was only going to get worse we made the decision to visit Charleston another time. We ended up in Hardeeville, SC for a 1 night stop before heading off to St. Augustine, Florida. We had some beautiful weather in St. Augustine and we were finally able to enjoy a visit to the Castillo de San Marcos. This is the old fort in St. Augustine that Claudia and I wanted to visit 2 years ago but couldn’t due to the government shutdown. After that we did a bit of shopping and had lunch on a patio at the Bull & Crown along one of the historic walking areas. We enjoyed some time at the beach the following day with Stella before heading back in time to watch a Pats game at Buffalo Wild Wings. They won of course. On the following day we headed off as planned to our first stop in Orlando. Once we arrived at the campground and as we were bringing out the long slide out, unfortunately we had a problem. The slide out came out but the 2 top cables (one on each side) had snapped. One was completely broken and the other was hanging by a few strands. We found a place that ordered new cables but couldn’t replace them or inspect the slide out until several days later when we were scheduled to be in Fort Wilderness. The question remaining was whether or not the slide out would come back in. In the meantime, all we could do was relax and try to have some fun so we headed off for some miniature golf and an all you can eat pizza buffet. While in Orlando Claudia and I took a stroll down to historic Church Street Station before taking a short walk to meet up with some friends of ours, James & Laurel. Once we met up we had a great time reminiscing while also enjoying drinks and dinner at the Harp & Celt Restaurant & Irish Pub. The following night, we treated ourselves to a dinner show called the Pirate’s Dinner Adventure. It was an awesome show with lots of entertaining music, singing and action in an arena complete with a full scale pirate ship. On the next day, it was time to try the slide out. It wasn’t easy but the slide out did come back in after some manual intervention. That meant we were able to make the short drive over to Fort Wilderness and settle in while we waited for my sister’s family. We headed over to Downtown Disney late that afternoon and met up with them there about 7. We called it an early night and then met up with them again the following day, this time at Magic Kingdom. There we enjoyed riding Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, It’s a Small World, Thunder Mountain Railroad and Splash Mountain. We had beautiful weather and really enjoyed just hanging out together. That night we headed off to their room at the Old Key West Resort to watch the Pats game and what a great game it was. It was wonderful to watch the Indy’s fans “deflate” when their own team made one of the dumbest NFL plays ever. On the following day, I spent my time at the RV with the RV Repair guys. We had to remove plenty of inside woodwork to get to the cables but the biggest obstacle seemed to be the realignment of the slide out up until a 3rd cable snapped. That meant that the crew would have to return in 2 days, this time with their Service Manager to assist. The next day we brought Stella over to a kennel for the day while we enjoyed a long day at Hollywood Studios. There we enjoyed plenty of rides and shows including Rock ‘in Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror & Star Tours. I headed back to the RV early to pick Stella up at the kennel while Claudia hung around with my sister Linda and some of her family for what she described as one of the best laser, water and light shows she’s ever seen. As planned, the RV service guys returned the following day and after several hours were able to repair all cables and realign the slide out. We still needed to drop the RV off at a certified Thor dealer for more extensive service at some point but we were hopeful these repairs would get us through till then. We ended our Disney trip with visits to Animal Kingdom and Epcot over the next couple of days before we began our road trip to Texas. Regardless of the slide out issues, we really had great time that whole week in Disney with my sister and her family. There were 11 of us in all including 2 kids, Gabby, the littlest at 1 year old and Olivia who is 8. They definitely helped make it magical.
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