Dufus Came From Orlando FLA

Yep, I'm back from 10 days in Orlando. It was just the tonic I needed. Quality time with the brothers Bray golfing, clubbing, ballooning, bocci balling - and the meals: I've never eaten so much. Diet time now that I'm back. Just take a look at this, for example, a cardiac arrest on a plate:

Bacon Cheese Burger, Chilli Cheese Fries and a couple of Coronas at the Tiki Bar

Of course the main attraction was the golf. My brother Steve lives on the Highlands Reserve Golf Course just outside Orlando. And Steve, Whitey (you remember Whitey! - "Hi Whitey") and I golfed every day but one.

Whitey, Dufus, Steve at Highlands Reserve - "watch out for that bunker!"

Sure we all look happy in the picture. But there were days, for each of us, when our favourite golf club was the rake. We all managed to find the bunkers on the course. To the point we thought we were guest stars on All In The Family.

So Steve and Whitey who are both avid golfers scored in the 80s. For a guy who has only been golfing for a year I did all right. I started the week at 118 and on the last day managed a 113 with a 5 stroke par on the 9th hole and a 4 stroke par on the 11th. I came way very pleased with my game.

A highlight of our trip was winning Trivia Night at Sunday's British Pub, known affectionately among the Bray brothers as the "ice store". This all started during last year's get-together when, having run out of ice at home we said we were going to the ice store for more. Turns out the pub is right next to Publix. Except we'd hit Sunday's and forget all about the ice. We visited the ice store a few times this year too, including trivia night.

But the deck had been stacked. Steve, who'd been down all month, alerted Ron the quizmaster that his brothers were coming down from Canada. So he created a "Canadian music" category, which of course we aced and when the night was done had won the overall contest...by a point! (that's point, not pint). So having been drinking all night what' the prize they award you? A jug of more beer? We deferred to claiming our prize the next day because we knew we'd have to get more ice. Steve and I claimed the prize while Whitey went shopping for ice. Oh, hey, we one this contest last year too. Whitey's thinking of getting t-shirts made up for us!

Another high-light of our trip, literally, was the day we all went hot air ballooning. It was a gas (get it?).  The Bray family, and 2 Brit friends, split two balloons. We lifted off around 7am from a farmer's field and for the next hour or so floated silently over the early morning Orlando countryside. The sunrise was gorgeous.

Now the owner of the balloon company, Bob's Balloon's, was quite entertaining and quite the entrepreneur. As we'd float over neighbourhoods of folks just getting up, some out on their porches having their morning coffee, Bob would drift down, peer over the side of the basket, give the balloon a shot of gas and shout "Good morning - Bob's Balloon's Dot Com" and wave. And then it was up, up and away. The other balloon had a guy that played a ukulele. Neat, eh? We had Bob.

We were in for a surprise when we landed. Turns out part of the ballooning "experience" is helping Bob roll up the balloon. Once that was done we were treated to a bit of a breakfast buffet and mimosas. Or as Whitey liked to say, "We had mimosas. And then we had more mosas." Hey, we Brays like to get our money's worth. And rolling up that bloody balloon was thirsty work!

So back on the ground and back at home I now hope to get back up on the blogging horse. We'll see where my health is at and my level of creativity and hopefully I can get back into a routine of some sorts. Hopefully, to begin, I'll see if I can't come up with a post or two a week.

Thanks for visiting. I appreciate all your comments wishing me well. And I'll be around to visit your blogs soon.