Business In Florida

We left Texas on April 12 and took four days to get to Orlando towing our Airstream. Because of the high fuel prices, during our 1200-mile route, we conserved on expenses by staying all three nights at Wal*Mart supercenters or Flying J truck stops. Here in Orlando, we are camped at Theme World RV Park. It’s not the greatest campground, but it is clean and has all the amenities we need. Additionally, the location is perfect. It provides Gloria with a chance to shop, rest, work out at Curves, and continue to rehab her torn shoulder tendon.

Our primary purpose for coming here was for Jerry to attend the annual two-day Inscape Publishing Conference. This is the company that authors the assessments and off-the-shelf training programs we provide to our corporate, government, and association clients. It is during these annual events that new products are released, and we learn how to use and market them. This year is special because our daughter, Robin, is also in attendance. She has assumed the presidency of our business. Both she and Jerry were honored for high volume sales, and therefore, their conference fee was free. It has been a productive father-daughter learning experience.

For Robin’s nine-year old son, Samuel, and husband, Alejandro, the purpose of Orlando was to visit the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Universal Studios and Epcot Center. We have not gotten to see much of them, but we did have dinner together twice. Samuel is glowing from all that he has seen and done. He loves staying in a classy resort hotel. One evening, all five of us were dinner guests of Gloria’s niece, Dale Ann, and her husband, Gary. They recently relocated from Ohio to Celebration, Florida, which is near Disney.

The last couple of days have been such fun. Bonnie, our good friend for the past 43 years, stayed with us in the trailer. Yesterday, she suggested a trip to Lake Placid, Florida. It is famous for its 40+ historical building murals. Its trashcans are camouflaged as old cars, train engines, apothecary jars, etc. Melville Dewey, father of the Dewey Decimal System, named the city after his beloved Lake Placid Club in New York. We did a lot of walking, looking, photographing, and talking about how our lives have changed through the years. Bonnie was pregnant for the first of her six daughters when we fist met in 1965.