Islands of Adventure

17 Feb 2013

Well, today was sure interesting, complete with unexpected twists and turns along the way.  Actually, it started last night.

I hadn’t made any reservations for the RV because I wasn’t sure if we were going to Elaine’s house or not, and I wanted to be as close to Universal as we could be.  I knew all the Walmarts in town would probably NOT allow overnight parking, since even the freeway rest stops forbid it in Florida – there are just too many vacationers here and they want to be sure everyone is contributing to their number one money maker – tourism.  So, after dinner with Elaine, it was very late and I just used my GPS and typed in “RV Park” to see what was nearby.  Something showed up just a few miles down from the restaurant, so off we went.  Turns out it was a regular trailer park – and gated at that – so that option was out.  Elaine said everything near Orlando is gated, I guess with good reason.

As we were driving down the road wondering what to do after 9pm at night… we passed a large hotel, so we stopped and I asked if we could pay to have our rig in their parking lot for the night.  They said we could do it for free.  It was one of the quietest nights we’ve had yet, so it was perfect, and this morning we were up and heading down the freeway to Universal – just minutes from where we were.  Sweet.

I knew it was a quiet night because I was only asleep for about three hours of it.  I was coughing the rest of the time, and my exhale kept me awake from all the noise it was making!  I knew it wasn’t good, but I had to plod on.  I bought the Universal tickets in my name and they said they required ID to enter the park.  I figured this is what the love of a mother does – sick as a dog – but doesn’t want to disappoint her son yet again, as the last time we’d scheduled a trip to Universal, Kory ended up in the ER with a near heart attack, so that trip got cancelled. 

God was with me today, however.  The form of ID they use when a person enters the park is a scan of a fingerprint.  Kaleb scanned his finger, which ties only him to his park pass.  When I put my finger on the scanner, it didn’t read.  I tried it again, and it still didn’t read.  Finally the guy just bypassed the system and let me in.  This meant that my ticket is not tied to me.  That was a God Thing for sure and I knew it right when it happened.

I did my best to keep up with Kaleb, but I sat down as often as possible and only did one ride.  I just put one foot in front of the other, but I had no energy and my cough was horrible all day.  Kaleb was having a good time, so that’s all I cared out.  I bought that Express Pass, but I don’t think it’s worth the money as it only cut the wait time in half so if the line was 60 minutes long, he still had to wait 30.  Many of the rides had “single rider” lanes that probably went quicker.  Lesson learned. 

By about 2pm I was really dragging, so when we went by the First Aid station I went in just to see if someone could listen to my lungs and tell me if I was in need of further medical attention.  Within minutes they had called the paramedics who showed up with a stretcher and were ready to take me to the ER!  Crazy.  I had a fever, high pulse rate and my lungs sounded terrible.  Of course they thought I needed to rule out pneumonia and the only way to do that is with an x-ray.  I thought they responded with a bit of overkill and I told them I was there alone with my son – so how would that work out with me going off to the hospital?  What were they thinking?

I signed forms “denying medical advice” and they went away.  The First Aid folks gave me the address to a local Urgent Care place I could go get an x-ray at my convenience, but they strongly cautioned me to rest and drink lots of liquids.  Afterwards, I used my phone to Google the difference between bronchitis and pneumonia and I do feel it’s probably acute bronchitis, NOT pneumonia, since I have a low fever, no rattle on the inhale and no pain in my chest – all sings of pneumonia.

I let Kaleb run around and do what he wanted while I baked in the sun on a bench for hours on end.  We did see a few shows together, but mostly I just sat.

Kaleb had a pretty good time today but was a little disappointed there weren’t more rides.  We were at Island of Adventure, so he especially enjoyed the Harry Potter ride, which I went on with him first thing this morning.  He bought Butter Beer (above) and Pumpkin Juice with his own money and cringed at the $17 price tag, but was still happy with the purchase.  He had hoped to buy some candy at Honeydukes but couldn’t bear to spend $10 on a small bag.  I love that he’s careful with his money like that.  I bought him a souvenir coin, which he designed and they “struck” it right in front of us (below), but he didn’t tell me he put it in the backpack with my socks (I was wearing sandals) and when I got cold in one of the shows and put on my socks, it must have fallen out.  He was totally bummed about that and he teared up when he discovered it missing.  It was pretty expensive, so I felt badly too, so we shared the blame.  That was the worst part of his day.

Kory just sat in the RV in a nearby shopping center and drew and read the news.  He said it was kinda boring, but I think it sounds kinda nice.  We are now at a fancy RV resort 20 minutes south of Universal so at least we’ll all get a hot shower and hopefully another good night’s sleep.