I'm Back

Firstly a huge thank you to those who sent me an email, checking I was enjoying myself, and not suffering in silence, it really meant a lot to me. So where have I been hiding myself, I've been basking in the Florida Sun, which greatly helped my low vitamin D levels, and also cleared my allergy ( unfortunately that returned as soon as I got back to a very wet UK ! LOL) So what have I been doing while away, mostly sat in my wheelchair, watching my children enjoy themselves in Disney World. Unfortunately my wheelchair got a flat tyre 4 days into the holiday, so we had to hire one for the rest of the vacation, my wheelchair also then got severally broken on the flight home, and we now have to get it assessed on whether it can be fixed, or needs replacing ( luckily the airline is footing that bill ! ) I wish I could say that was the only problems I had with the wheelchair, but I actually got hit by an electric scooter and crushed up against the wall, as when the lady hit me she panicked, and hit accelerate instead of stop ! with all the other incidents we witnessed with scooters while there, I really think people need a licence to be able to use one ! Enough of the sob stories, lets get onto something more fun, while in Disney, I went to Galaxy's Edge, now for anyone who doesn't know, this is a new section that is set up to look like a giant scene from Star Wars, it is very thematic, and a great source of ideas for future scenery projects, my only complaint is that the whole area is based off my least favourite 3 Star Wars movies, but that's just me being fussy ! LOL see picture below for what it looks like ( not my picture, but one I found on the internet.

now visiting a place like this, you would expect I may have found some bits to add to my Star Wars project, and you'd be right ! LOL Originally my wife was going to get me the Sandcrawler that was only available at the park, turns out it was a limited run piece, and they had sold out ! So I found something else instead a toy of Slave 1, it's from the mini figs range, and looks a good size next to the model shown with it, it will need some work filing in holes, and making it less like a toy, but a lot of that will come from the painting.

Is that the only bit I got, no I also found a Mando's N-1 Starfighter, that with a little work should come up a treat as well, this was also from the mini figs range, and looks to be a good scale next to the miniature.

So did we spend our entire time in one place ? No as I always like to see some history whenever I'm on holiday, we visited the museum in Gainsville, which had an interesting exhibit on dinosaurs found in Antarctica, they also had a great display on the Native Americans that lived in the area, until the Europeans came over and wiped them out, so much culture has been lost throughout history, which is a huge loss for us as a species. another exhibit we saw there was a butterfly farm, my daughter could have stayed there all day, and I have to admit it was very relaxing watching these colourful and sometimes huge butterfly's fluttering around. Sadly I forgot to take pictures as I was so busy soaking up all the information I could, and hoping not to forget too much.

We also visited the Spanish Fort at St Augustine, as you'll see from the picture below, it is a strange shape on the corners, these were not on the original build, as it was just square to begin with.

The designer, died before completion, and never saw his vision come to fruition. An interesting fact is the fort was never taken in battle, but changed hands multiple times due to treaties. After the wars between the European countries ceased it was used as a prison right up to World War Two, firstly holding Native Americans, then later was used to hold prisoners from the American War of Independence, the American Civil War, and later deserters from WWI and WWII, you can see many etchings in the walls from all the different time periods, and they are trying to preserve these. One thing I found is that the original occupants must have been a lot smaller than myself, as getting into the observation post was a tight squeeze, and the vision slits were about my chest level. All in all if you get chance I would recommend a visit, and take the time to read all the historical facts.

I think I've waffled on for long enough, and I really need to compile the round up for Apocalypse Me, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave