An Unexpected Journey - Chapter 3

Just back from my brothers wedding so can crack on with the reports..

An Unexpected Journey –Chapter 3

Monday August 27th

Woke up again pretty early – fooled again by the air conditioning noise making me think there was torrential rain outside. I peeked out the blinds, and…. it was torrential rain outside!….

Switched the TV on to Channel 13 (The Weather Channel) to find that whilst we were indeed in for pretty much a day of rain and wind that fella Isaac had presented with a little more excess wind than was expected (maybe he ate Mexican too yesterday?) and had blown himself out in to the Gulf of Mexico with poor old New Orleans as his next target.

We breathed a collective sigh of relief and resigned ourselves to pretty much writing today off but were happy that the forecast looked decent from Tuesday. We watched TV (US TV fascinates me!), played card games, the kids played on their iPods and passed away the day pretty quickly and before we knew it the inclement weather seemed to be subsiding.

So, to celebrate the back of Isaac and surviving the day without getting cabin fever we got our glad rags on and headed out for a slap up meal. After looking at menus online and reading some reviews we decided to plump for Longhorns steak house on the 192 at Rolling Oaks.

Best steakhouse for us in the past had been Outback which had set the bar pretty high and Longhorns was our ‘first’ today. Angela had the fillet, Ben had the New York Strip and I had the rib eye. When it turned up it literally did look like half a cow. I took my first mouthful and couldn’t speak afterwards. It was the most tender and juiciest steak I have ever had – surpassing Outback as my new favourite steakhouse.

I was stuffed afterwards but Ben managed to tackle a monster of a chocolate brownie sundae before we headed home happy and content. Jack watched the pre-recorded WWE Monday night RAW and then we headed off to bed with a little renewed optimism following Isaac’s early and welcome departure...

Nowt much really in the way of photos again unfortunately so more ramdoms it is...

Tuesday August 28th

Animal Kingdom was the park of choice today. We set off reasonably early getting there around 10am. Headed straight for the safari and got into our jeep after a 20 or so minute wait.

‘Get your cameras ready’ shouted to guide as we passed whatever the first animals were so I reached into the trusty bag only to find no camera…

"Where’s the camera?"

"I dunno"

"Did you not pack it?"

"Why should I have to remember everything?!"

And so it went on…

Anyways, the safari was good – we saw some lovely animals up close and personal but have nothing to show for it as I (apparently) forgot the camera (and therefore more 'randoms' below - sorry!)… Incidentally, didn’t there used to be a bit on that safari thing where things went a bit ‘pear shaped’ and you had to do a bit of a detour? If there was, it didn’t happen this time?!…

We next headed over to the Khali River Rapids (a favourite from last time) and got ourselves seated and strapped in. The rest of the raft was made up with what I consider to be quite typical Americans (and don’t get me wrong I really do love the yanks) who kept pointing out to everyone in the raft as it rotated “You’re gonna get it!”, “No, YOU’RE gonna get it!”, “NO, YOOOOOOU’RE GONNA GET IT!!!” and so on, getting really excited.

Well, we all ‘got it’ and ended up getting off drenched – but it was indeed fun and worth it. It was pretty hot and we were drying off quite nicely as we headed over toward Expedition Everest - which I had hoped to be our ‘first’ today - but the kids were unsure so we went to Dinosaur instead.

When we came out of Dinosaur the sky had darkened it felt like we really had been transported to the Jurassic period. The thunder was clapping, the lightning illuminating the sky and the heavens opened; before we knew it we were soaked (again). We found shelter at the Barbecue restaurant where we decided we might as well have lunch (consiting of a very nice pulled pork sandwich and fries).

Once the weather cleared up we headed over to the ‘Bugs Life’ show - our lame excuse for a ‘first’ for the day (as only Jack didn't do it last time) and then on to the Flights of Wonder show. Did a couple of the nature trails and then headed back to watch the parade – which was kicking off a little early due to more predicted rain.

The parade came and went and was enjoyable but we didn’t see any more rain. By 4pm I think we had pretty much done all we needed to do so headed off back to the car park, into the Jeep and back home via Walmart where we stocked up on provisions and did a little bit of secret pre-birthday shopping for Jack...

As mentioned previously we forgot the camera so here is some very poor subsitutes for 'wildlife' that we encountered...

Great reports Dave, keep them coming. I agree with you about Longhorns, great steaks. Mind you, I also love Manny's, have you tries there yet. I like the one at Haines City, I think it is the original and best.

i so love your report!! cant wait for the next part thanks Dave

We love Longhorn too! Their current special "STEAK HOUSE DINNER for Two" at $29.99 is excellent value.

We love Longhorn at Rolling Oaks as well, it surpasses Manny's for us. Never had a bad meal there and maybe we have been lucky but the servers have always been really friendly.
although its not as rammed as Manny's it can get very busy so we always call ahead.

Thanks for the tip re longhorns, we will make a visit priority for our next trip!

Expedition Everest is an excellent ride!
Mouth is watering thinking about Longhorns Steaks mmmm
Hope ur trip up to Bonnie Scotland for the wedding went well