Wheels-to-Wings - Orlando Inter-regional Meet

Sneed and I took off early Tuesday morning trailering Marque to Florida. As the journey is always the same, across I-10 to Florida and then South down the central part of the state, I won't bore you with more pix of the same. I can hear you saying, Yippee! Anyway, we spent the night in Quincy, FL, outside of Tallahassee. Had takeout from KFC and it was finger lickin' good. The next morning we found another car enthusiast in the parking lot. This fellow from Oklahoma built this neat little buggy fashioned from a Model T truck. He and his wife had been down in Key West visiting grandchildren and were on their way back to OK. This is the second one he's built and he's driven over 100,000 miles in them. Told him I liked his license tag. It didn't mean what I thought it did. Since the base is a Model T and he built it for his grandchildren, the plate is named after a child's tea (T) party. He's had the plate for years but everyone asks him how he got that plate so quickly. Oh well, guess that's a good story behind it.



So, we boogied on down the road to Kissimmee to the Gaylord Palms. Took our breath away when we saw the place. One could spend an entire vacation here. After we unloaded Marque, we joined the line of cars that were allowed to be parked in the front of the hotel and be watched by their security.



The glass roof of the atrium reminded me of the glass domed Crystal Palace eatery at Disney World. Inside there are several different themed-restaurants to choose from including a 60' docked sailboat which served, you guessed it, seafood a la the Hemingway era in Key West. Ernest was even represented along with his cat sitting in his dinghy via a beautiful sand sculpture. There's always someone posing with a phenomenal sailfish catch. Koi abounded in the streams that flowed throughout. Each time I stepped to the railing to watch them and I admit, talk to them as I do all living creatures, they clustered together with their mouths open as if I were going to give them a bounteous meal.



The area is climate-controlled so the tropical plants were abloom. I always have to have some flower photos to show.



Crossing a wooden bridge would bring you to a Tom Sawyer hut that had a display of snakes in terrariums. Although not in this photo, there were some children braving the chillier temperatures enjoying the spouting octopus in the children's pool. The adult pool was serene and unoccupied. Whilst Sneed was in Board meetings, I played 2 rounds on the outdoor miniature golf course. Each hole had so many sand traps that I got to know them quite well. I was having such a good time, interpret thtat as getting so frustrated, I totally forgot to take a photo of the course.



As with other meets, our favorite part is participating in the breakfast runs on which we drive locally to a venue early in the morning. Thursday morning, we drove to WDW and entered the tunnel to the Richard Petty Driving Experience track. Our expeience was truly unique as we got to drive Marque on the track. The instructor in the lead car said we would do about 5 laps gradually getting up to speed. I was all ready to take a photo of Sneed traveling along at 100mph just breaking Marque in. Imagine our disappointment when the needle barely got to 45!! But we did lap the track.



That afternoon, Sneed's buddy from Va Tech, George Fox , and his wife, Jeanne, drove up from their home in Englewood for a visit. We had lunch together and then took them for a ride about the area. That evening we went to Cirque Du Soleil's presentation of La Nouba. Since photography wasn't allowed inside, we took the photo outside with CA members Ivonne and Robert Webb.



Friday morning's run was to Celebration, the self-contained community Disney envisioned for his workers to live to be near to the park. There is a back entrance to WDW so residents don't have to get on major roadways to gain entrance. Unfortunately, Disney died before the project reached fruition. One of the retaurants on the Town Square opened at 7 to accomodate our early breakfast. It's such an idyllic area, very clean and Disneyesque. That evening we went to the Orlando Bentley dealership for a lovely reception and a visit to the restoration shop it runs.



Saturday morning, we all motored to Fantasy of Flight in Polk City. This weekend there was a celebration honoring The Tuskegee Airmen from WW II. Sneed, and another of his Tech buds, Roy Simpson, visited with Leo Gray, Lt Col, USAF Ret., 100 FS, 332 FG. Doesn't he look great? Kermit Weeks, the owner of Fantasy of Flight, gave us a performance in Ina, "Macon Belle". The photo is of Ina coming in for a landing. Here we are with Roy and his wife, Roz, who drove down from Ocala to visit and enjoy the great lunch buffet.



And here we all are displaying our cars on the grounds. Cathie from Texas, who is standing in front of Marque, won the Ladies' Best Bonnet award (bottom row, second photo from left). The car in the center is a 1910 Silver Ghost from Georgia.



The Florida sunshine followed us all the way to Texas where we encountered some rain. When Sneed saw the GPS reading that we could be home around 8 or 9 if we kept up the pace, he decided to trailer on. Got a bit dicey about 80 miles from home when the ground fog limited visibility to less than half a football field. We arrived home around 9 after 1002 miles of only stopping for gas and a quick Panera Bread lunch. Home again, home again, jiggedy jig. Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!