Girls Road Trip 2018

In 1980 my parents took my brother and I to Florida and for a week we stayed at a condo across the road from Walt Disney World Magic Kingdom. At the time, they were still building Epcot Centre. There was not much else here. They went to the "come and chat with us and get a free dinner out" meal, and next thing they knew, they were the proud owners of a week at Vistana Resort.
Fast forward over the years. They barely got to use it. The area grew, the resort grew. Rob and I came here on our honeymoon in 1997 but that was the last time I was here. My younger brother and his partner Cheryl have been twice, 2008 and 2016.

Cheryl planned to come back this year and bring her mom. Then she invited my mom, who is good friends with her mom (Nicki). Then I sort of invited myself because she forgot to LOL.

I had a Christmas concert on Dec 1 with my community band, so I considered flying down on the 2nd (check in was on the 1st). I watched the prices as during the summer I have no job and I hadn't found out if I actually got the supply teaching job. Eventually I got my acceptance but the flight had increased so eventually I decided to come on the roadtrip with them.

I spent Wednesday night with the ladies at Cheryl's house, so we could leave at 4:30am. Well....Cheryl was sound asleep with ear plugs in and didn't wake up till almost 5. Then there was a conflict with her downstairs neighbour. We finally left at 5:50am.

This is what I intended to take, plus my "in car" bag:

This is what I actually took:

I did manage to fit the polka dot bag into the GoodLife bag, and I sat on my seat cushion. However, I had a few more bags for the trip home LOL.

We hit the road, and stopped just before the Fort Erie border. Then again at the Duty Free, where I got some lesser strength reading glasses to wear with my contacts. Then we crossed over and not long after stopped again.

This is the rest stop south west of Buffalo. You park over at the right side and walk across an enclosed pedestrian bridge to the rest stop in the middle of the Interstate. The bridge was cold. 

So much snow through New York and Pennsylvania. Apparently they just had a big snow storm.

We made it to Weston, West Virginia, which was about an hour further than our "must reach" point. We were on the highway and the view was not great

Wal-mart, a Sheriff, and fun traffic to watch. We went to Wal-Mart for some shopping and people watching LOL. Our moms were quite fascinated by the local "culture". They were amazed at how different Americans seemed to be, especially in such a small town. Our towns of similar size (4100 people) do not have Wal-Marts. And while we don't have free dental care here, since health care is covered, perhaps we just place greater emphasis on general well being, including dental care. Just speculating. I can see that if you are making minimum wage, affording any type of health care would be a challenge so taking care of your teeth is probably not a priority.  As always, the locals were friendly, funny and helpful. I love West Virginia and really want to come back for another holiday here. Rob and I spent a few days here in 1995 and I've wanted to come see more ever since!