Luke’s Notebook

Home, sweet home.

We drove approximately 450 miles today, and we ended up in the City of Cartersville, which is north of Atlanta and about 25 miles south of Calhoun, which is where we spent the very first night of our trip.

This afternoon, we stopped in Marietta, Georgia, and visited with Ray and Naomi, and their daughter Terry, some friends of Grandma and Grandpa’s. They spent about an hour in the RV with us, reminiscing and talking about all sorts of things. From there, we continued the drive to the campground.

Tomorrow morning, we pull out and hope to end up back in Belleville by the evening. It’s hard to believe it, but we’ll be heading home tomorrow! I can’t wait to see everybody again and, believe it or not, to get back to work. We have been able to accomplish quite a bit while on this trip, but obviously we’re much more efficient when we’re at our desks instead of trying to work with a laptop on a table or on your lap in a noisy vehicle.

Almost there!

Yesterday, we left Jonathan Dickinson State Park and drove 200 miles to this KOA which is located in Wildwood, Florida, just south of Ocala and Silver Springs Park. This morning, we drove over to the park, and we took a couple of glass-bottom boat rides on the Silver River there. It was beautiful! The water is crystal-clear; you can see down 50 feet. It was awesome!

Anyway, tomorrow morning we leave to head north to Cartersville, Georgia. From there, we should be able to drive the remaining 500 miles back home to Belleville. It’s hard to believe that the trip is almost finished with.

Throughout the vacation, I’ve been keeping in contact with Wizzy by way of e-mail. I really miss her and all of the chubs, and I look forward to getting to reunite with them in a couple of days.

At the second day of spring training down at Roger Dean Stadium, we had a pretty full morning. Mark and I ended up getting a bunch of fan interviews. We talked with everyone from a six-year-old Cardinals fan, to a 17-year-old, to a 74-year-old, to a… munchkin. I kid you not. Mickey Carroll, who, evidently, was one of the munchkins in “The Wizard Of Oz,” is a big Cardinals fan. He is from St. Louis originally, and he just happened to be down in Jupiter as a fan to watch the Cardinals in their training camp.

We also talked with Junior Spivey, who is a newcomer to the Cardinals. Aside from that interview and the chats with fans, we just gathered some more footage of the goings on at the park. It was a pretty productive morning. Thank You, God!

To switch gears to a much, much more serious and sobering topic. Please pray for my friend Ashley. She just found out some devastating news, that her dad has gotten a divorce from his wife of 20 years. Please lift up Ashley, her dad, and everyone else involved and affected by this. Thanks.

The past couple of days have been extremely busy. On Tuesday night, we arrived at Jonathan Dickinson State Park in Jupiter, Florida. Bright and early on Wednesday morning, Mark and I left the campsite and drove south on Interstate 95 over to Roger Dean Stadium, which is the spring training home of the Cardinals and the Marlins.

When we got to the complex, we acquired our media credentials and got to work. The Cardinals were spread out across six different baseball fields at the complex, with different players and coaches focusing on different drills.

We ended up with a bit of video footage yesterday. We nearly filled an hour-long tape, which is a lot considering it’s essentially “B” roll — background footage. Capturing everything from the players stretching, to baserunning drills, to bunt practice, to batting practice, Mark and I walked from field to field in order to get a taste of everything.

We ended up leaving the stadium around 1:00, and we headed back to the campground. Shortly after we returned to the RV, we left with Jude, Grandma, and Grandpa and drove out to a nearby public beach. Since it was pretty warm outside (lower 80s), we decided to take a dip in the Atlantic Ocean. So the three of us ran down the beach and plunged into the water.

It was hard to believe that it was late February and we were swimming in the ocean! But things are just that warm here in southeastern Florida, so we were able to cool off in the ocean while everybody back home is trying to stay warm enough. For now, though, I’ve got a sunburn.

That pretty much sums up Wednesday. Today has been pretty interesting, as well. I’ve got to do some more scoping right now, but hopefully I can give a rundown of today later on.

As I said in my previous entry, there has been very little down time the past couple of days. Once we returned from Epcot on Monday evening, I pulled the laptop out and started working on a long deposition. I put in a few hours last night before eventually shutting down and heading to bed.

This morning, I got up around 7:00, and after getting ready for the day, I spent an hour or so, wrapping up the depo that I was working on. I went ahead and e-mailed it on home to John.

We pulled out of the Kissimmee/Orlando KOA, and after driving about 180 miles, we ended up near Jupiter, Florida, at the Jonathan Dickinson State Park. It’s a really pretty area! We’re near a scenic river, and we’re only about 20 minutes from the Atlantic Ocean.

After landing at this campsite, I drove to town and went grocery shopping at a Winn Dixie. I also stopped by the public beach and checked out the ocean. There were actually people swimming in it! Hmm… this gives me ideas.

Well, I’ve been talking about work. Jude and Mark have done a great deal of scoping today, as we are trying to do all we can to help Dad and John keep up with the work back home. A little while ago, Mark wrapped up the scoping on a deposition, so I e-mailed a couple more back home. I’m in the process of downloading the next job so that we would have work to do over the next couple of days.

Tomorrow, Mark and I are going to head over to Roger Dean Stadium, which is the site of the St. Louis Cardinals’ spring training camp. Our hope is to get some interviews with players as well as fans — features that we can use on our “Cardinal Country” TV show. I’ve never attended spring training, so it’s kind of exciting! Please pray that we would have a fruitful trip to the park. Thanks!

There has been very little down time since Monday. Early in the morning on Monday, Mark, Jude, and I left the KOA in Kissimmee in order to head out to Epcot. We stopped by a restaurant that offered a breakfast buffet, and then we continued west on Highway 192 until we reached Walt Disney World.

Epcot is another really well-kept park. They have all sorts of different rides and attractions. We checked out everything from “Honey, I Shrunk The Audience,” to Mission: Space, to Test Track, to Spaceship Earth, to Soarin’, to the World Showcase area, to… other stuff, as well! I especially loved Soarin’ and Test Track.

While walking through the different countries on display in the World Showcase, we came upon China and saw these acrobats doing just some incredible things. The balance, flexibility, and strength of those ladies was so amazing. Very impressive.

Another amazing thing from the World Showcase is when we visited the Canada section. They had a film on the country that was projected in 360, on nine large screens in a room. It was really awesome! Canada’s got some scenery; I’ll say that.

Our trip to Disney would not have been complete without a photo shoot with Mickey, Pluto, and Donald. We managed to get a photo taken with each of those three characters. We also tried to coax Jude into getting his picture taken with the princess from Sleeping Beauty, but he chickened out of it…

After we left Epcot, we decided to eat a late supper at a Ponderosa Steakhouse in the area. From there, we returned to the KOA, and thus ended our Epcot expedition.

If I had to choose between Magic Kingdom and Epcot, that would be a tough call. I would probably opt for MK, mostly because it’s kind of the Disney World attraction. I was very impressed with both parks, though.

What a fun day! It was a busy day, too, as we were gone all day. We had a blast at Epcot. I’d love to give a recap, but that might have to wait until tomorrow when we’re on the road again. We plan to head out of the Kissimmee/Orlando area and end up on the east coast of Florida, near Jupiter.

Gotta run! I’m tired.

Yet another fun day! Jude recapped it nicely. The highlights were: church in the morning, lunch at IHOP where we got to talk a bit with a waitress, then Mark, Jude, and I played disc golf. It was a nice and relaxing Sunday. I’d better go, because tomorrow we plan to get up early to visit Epcot over at Walt Disney World!

Yesterday, the five of us — Grandma, Grandpa, Mark, Jude, and I — took a drive over to the east coast of Florida in order to visit the Kennedy Space Center. It took us about an hour to get there, and once we arrived and got inside the visitors complex, we started a bus tour of the center.

The tour brought us around different buildings and launch pads. We got to see the actual NASA control room for Apollo 8, and we also saw one of the rockets that was used, and a couple of films covering different launches.

I’d have to say the highlight of the trip was when we stopped at the IMAX theater to see a short movie about walking on the moon. It was actually in 3D, and I was very impressed with it! You actually kind of feel like you’re in space and on the moon. It was very cool!

Now it’s Sunday morning. We’re going to be leaving for church in a little bit, and then after that we don’t really have specific plans. Maybe we’ll try to go swimming here at the campsite. Perhaps we’ll go play disc golf. Or we may shoot some hoops on the little basketball court here. We’ll see!

Oh, and it’s yet another beautiful day. I don’t think we’ve had a drop of rain since arriving here Wednesday afternoon. I hear it’s extremely cold back in Belleville. Yesterday, they were experiencing temperatures of seven degrees, while the thermomemter here was around 77. Quite a change!