30 Apr. This is the circular accent in the right side entrance wall. When finished a great wrought iron lantern will hang here. Turned out really well. I would also like to send a welcome out to Purplecupcake, who recently left a nice message on the service. Thank you, feel free to stop in anytime.

Here is a shot of the guest room and the circular accent in the entrance way. The master bedroom is at the far end.

A view of the middle of the house highlighting the guest room and my mom's suite.

30 Apr. News flash on the house. The last 3 modules have been poured and my sister (and a friend from Texas Lutheran University) came out and took some pics. Here is the finished modular construct of the shell of the house.

26 Apr. Hello Mae. Working hard to help out as usual. Really good to see Mae and Allen at the muster. Mae was everywhere it seemed always lending a hand where she could, she's still my favorite scullery maid (wink, wink).

Allen taking moment to espy what's going on next to him at one of the many social hours (attitude adjustment hour as we like to say).

Off loading from the tour bus, Mom takes a moment to readjust.

Behold, the entrance to the Kennedy Space Center. Once you get your tickets, you'll be ushered towards a security area. Believe me, the airports don't have anything on these guys. They check you out right down to the hat pins. And don't even think of bringing a pen knife in here.

Walking up to the entrance gates, we could see many different rockets. Due to time constraints, we were not able to visit some of the remote locations such as the space station center and the launch pads. We also did not get to see the Space Shuttle exhibits. We did see the Rocket Garden, a couple of museums, and an Imax in 3D presentation on the effort and subsequent landing on the moon. Narrated by Tom Hanks, this was a very good presentation and the 3D wowed the kiddies. We didn't get to see the Imax 3D presentaion on the Space Station narrated by Tom Cruise. Accounts by others seemed to think this was the better of the two. We also had lunch in the Orbit Cafe. Not to bad, about what you might expect at an amusement type venue. I had a pizza, good. Christa had a Calzone, not as good.

Yes, we really are at the Kennedy Space Center.

Inside the "Rocket Garden" are static displays of rockets used to launch both manned and unmanned vehicles into space. Impressive to stand next to, humbling as well.

The Saturn 1B rocket, predessesor to the Saturn V rocket used in the Apollo missions. Huge.

Christa and I in front of a later Gemini manned vehicle.

Here mom stands next to an early Mercury manned capsule. What a tight fit. I can see why these missions only lasted a few minutes in sub-orbital space.

27 Apr. The Early Space Museum at the Kennedy Space Center. A nice museum with in depth displays and histories of the exploration of space including contributions of other nations. Well done.

Caravaner Bev standing next to the beatiful mural she just had done on the back of her rig while at the muster. Inspiration came from her two dogs and the memory of Terry. Bev wasn't feeling to good this day (alot of campers came down with a 24 hour bug, including Sid), but she did come out and have her pic taken with the mural.

28 Apr. The muster comes to an end and of course we have closing ceremonies. Very nice. New Officers sworn in for the forth coming year, old Officers given rounds of credit for the "job Well Done" for the previous year, and accolades for the many volunteers that made this muster special. Immediately following the ceremony, door prizes, 50/50s, and grand prizes were awarded. We also took in a little over $800 for the JROTC that performed the opening ceremony. I was pleased as I walked away with a $100 gift card for Camping World. Oh yeah. Tomorrow we will depart for Thomasville, GA. We'll be there for 2 days picking up some things out of storage. Then heading west bound for home.

24 Apr. Well, we made it to the SMART National Muster. Our first (hopefully not the last). This is the front page of the "Gator Gazzette." The daily paper posted by the host chapter, the Florida Buccaneers, keeps everyone up to date with changes and announcements to the program. On the first page are some pics of the Winter Springs HS JROTC. What a terrific show these young men and women put on, you had to be there. Rest assured they represented their class and there generation well. The muster will last all week with us departing on Saturday the 29th of Apr.

Having membership in a couple of Chapters can be time consuming, but for this muster we opted to be with our first chapter, The Tri-State Rebels. Nice big campsites make the Clerbrook RV Resort stand out. You did not feel crowded here.

Waiting to get into the ice cream social. And yes, it was ice cream (I know what you're thinking).

Curt and Audrey outside of the main muster registration building. Good to see you guys again.

Getting a quick shot of Roger and Jeanne heading into the Muster tent for poening ceremonies.

Opening ceremony for the National Muster. A very good show put on by the Winter Springs HS JROTC recreating the war history of our flag, thereby doing honor to those who have fought to prserve the freedoms we enjoy today. The Ceremonies were kicked off by Colonel Kevin Nally , Deputy Director for Command and Control, Communications and Computer Systems, United States Central Command at McDill AFB. He briefed us on the status of our current missions around the world. A fresh look at operations going on around the world without the media focus on just the bad stuff happening. About 418 rigs and 423 members showed up for this rally. Pretty good for a bunch of old sawdogs.

Here we are on the bus to take a tour of the Dora Canal and the small town of Mt Dora. A quaint little lake town filled with the little specialty shops that make these little towns so much fun.

Loading up on our tour boat to go down the Dora Canal. This would prove to be a vary nice tour with lots of wildlife and an excellent guide.

Cruising down the Dead River between Lake Eustis and Lake Minneola we passed many fishermen.

A photo of our Captain and the second boat holding the rest of our group. They're boat was considerably smaller.

In the canal we were actually able to get pretty close to some of the wildlife. Here a young Osprey looks on as we pass beneath.

A snowy egret focusing on a potential meal.

A male Blue Heron. The feathers on the back of his head gives away his gender, the female lacks this plumage.

A small gator (about 4 years old according to our guide) taking in a few rays.

25 Apr. In the town of Mt Dora, Christa leaves me in the dust already in shopping mode. I'll have to catch up.

Donna and Ed sit and chat at our caravan reunion. Good to see them again. Last year was a hard year for them. If you remeber back to our caravan trip Jerry was a good wagonmaster creating a trip to remember and forged friendships to last a lifetime.

26 Apr. Today was kind of a free day in the in the National Muster. We took this opportunity to have a reunion of the 2004 and 2005 Alaska Caravans. Good fun was had by all, we were all a little sad that Jerry could not be with us, but I think he would be pleased knowing we are all still good friends largely due to his efforts, as well as knowing that we were taking the opportunity to remember him. Rusty looks across the gulf as Sid tells a story. Winston & Joyce are also along the side flanked by members from the 04 caravan. Sorry guys, I didn't get yor names.

Sid stands and tells a tall tale while members of the 04 and 05 caravans look on.

Here we have Peggy & Frank (kind of hidden), Roger & Kathy (also hidden) enjoying the get together. A lot of fun just getting back together with everyone.

I haven' t seen Al & Donna since the caravan broke up in Lynden, WA. Still looking good there guys.

Sid is so tricky sneaking off some quick shots. Little does he know the hunter is hunted. Roger is sharing a tale with someone off screen.

Mom, Iva & Kathy sharing a moment at the Caravan reunion.

24-29 Apr. During talent night, many terrific acts were performed by by various members. My favorite was put on by the new Chapter (Alamo Smarts) I have joined. These guys performed a Precision Lawn Chair Drill Team. Man, this was hilarious. The act was followed by their wives who "straightened them out" at the end. Tomorrow we go on the Kennedy Space Center tour. I'm looking forward to that, but I do hope is without the bus mishaps present in the first tour.

Apr 17th. Pictures of the house build will have to be put on hold for the time being as Christa and I, along with our good friends Roger & Jeanne and Sid & Iva head east for our travel clubs National Muster. We all belong to the SMART (Special Military Retired and Active Travel) Club. We are making our way to Clermont, FL and the Clerbrook Golf and RV Resort. I am looking forward to a really good time, especially the part where we will catch up with some of our friends from last years caravan to Alaska. We stopped at this unamed rest area for a quick stop and lunch before heading back out onto the road. Sid is walking back to his rig after a stretching his legs a bit.

Apr 19th. Here, we are taking a bit of leisure time at Coushata Casino and RV park in Kinder, LA. A really terrific RV Park. Roger is acting as the maiter'd. Sid is in receiving mode while Iva, Jeanne, Christa, and Mom look on. Though only a one nighter, we had a pretty good time here.

Apr 20th. Roger, Christa, Jeanne, Diane, Lamar and Mom pose for this photo taken at Blue Angels Famcamp at Pensacola Naval Air Station in Pensacola, FL.

Apr 20st. Sid & Iva, Roger & Jeanne, Diane & Lamar, and me at the Blue Angels FamCamp in Pensacola, FL. Christa and Mom are taking this shot. Tonight Lamar & Diane are taking us to a really good Oyster Bar down the road. The following night we had a pot luck spaghetti dinner. Deliscious. We were waiting on our friends, Al & Donna, but they were delayed until after we departed for Tallahassee one night and then onto National Muster in Clermont, FL.

Apr 11th. A wider shot of the pumper and the master bedroom module. There you go Ted, you're caught up. Have fun in Colorado by the way. Hi Jan.

A couple of spectators. Christa and BJ. Yeah, that is the accumulating pile of debris. Burn bans are still in effect.

The concrete truck backed up to the pumper just before dumping the load.

Pumping to the master bedroom module.

Here is a shaky photo of Ruben connecting the wall forms. Tedious and laborious.

Here is a poor photo showing the lift for the main roof form. You can barely make it out in the center just above the white can. This puts the roof up pretty quickly.