KyleRhea: 1000 Places...Orlando---5 Down...995 to go!!

Orlando January 13-15 2010

So Bridge and I decided to meet in Orlando. I was getting off work late Wednesday night on the 13th of January 2010. I drove until about 2:30am to meet Bridge at the hotel. I decided that we were not going to waste the next day by sleeping in. All I needed in the morning was good coffee and I’d be fine.

Let me start by saying that I had been asking Bridge for the hotel info for a week for the purpose of printing out good maps so we knew where we were going, but she didn’t ever give me the info. So, we started early the next morning to head out to Cape Canaveral. We knew we needed coffee before we could do anything. Bridgett talks me out of getting directions from the hotel and instead we will just get directions off her Iphone. This was my first mistake. Forty five minutes later and about 11 u-turns (literally) we still had no Starbucks…I was panicking. She kept telling me to turn left and I would start getting in the left lane, then she would start telling me...no, I mean right, so I would do the 3 lane change or pass the turn....then do a u-turn. This whole thing went on for what felt like forever. It finally dawned on me that homey (Bridgett) doesn't know her right from left. I’m serious!!! This was the big problem when she is the one navigating the party van(I use to drive a Honda Odyssey). She kept telling me to take a left...but she really meant right.

Once I got food and coffee and I gave Bridge a little left/right lesson we finally reached Cape Canaveral. The Kennedy Space Center was okay…we got to see the Endeavor on the launch pad which was pretty cool. Toured the facility and learned crap I didn’t know, blah blah blah. It was definitely worth seeing.

On the 2^nd day, January 14^th, we went to see the manatees at in Florida's Natural Springs (Blue Springs). It was so awesome! We went on this tour of the river where we learned all about manatees. We saw two bald eagles, one of which was swooping down in the river to catch it's prey. Our tour guide was so cool and he mentioned that it was nice having people our age on the tour (everyone else on the tour was at least 40 years older than us). Bridge and I loved it. In the spring there were about 150 manatees trying to stay warm. They head to the springs when the river is too cold for them. I have to say it was my favorite part of the trip.

After Blue Springs, we went to Mount Dora for lunch. It was a cute little shopping town. Then we went to get a psychic reading at the Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp. Man those people are weird. My psychic told me that Kent was going to cheat on me!! What a weirdo?! Who tells people that? Bridge’s psychic gave her about 15 names of people that she was going to meet in the future. Gimmee a break!! I really wish I had gone and written down everything that mine told me, but it was all pretty bogus. The only thing that was kind of funny is that in one of the pics that bridge and I took in front of the camp I swear there is a huge orb. Maybe we would have had better luck if we went to mediums instead of psychics.

At the end of the day, Bridge and I met up with Jeff (her bf) and went and had a few drinks and dinner at hard rock. We discussed our plans for going and driving cars at Daytona in the morning and then heading to Universal. Well, needless to say the Hard Rock “hit” at about 2:30 in the morning and lasted until about 5am. I canceled on going to Daytona but met up with them for lunch and Universal where I made the mistake of going on the Superman ride and sent my stomach back into fits again.

I have probably been to Orlando between 10-15 times. I end up doing Disney every single time because I love it but I had no idea there were so many other really cool things to see. I still have to go back and do the Daytona cars, but I’m sure that Kent would love doing that with me.

Orlando Area 1000 Places Checklist

1. Kennedy Space Center-- Cape Canaveral