lunch and leaving Florida

Well, we were able to make everything fit in the car, and take

Oscar with us.  Dad had the means to encase the rocking horse in shrink wrap so that we didn’t have to take up space with sheets or blankets to protect it and that was a life saver.  It’s cramped for the person riding in the back seat and the driver is the only one that can sit right besides Oscar.  Even Oscar has to hold stuff in his lap though.  We’re stopping at the Villages to have a late 

brunch with John’s teacher from high school, Marnie.  He got to have class with her for 4 years in high school because he was “talented and gifted”.  I asked her if that was a Georgia euphemism for kids that needed extra attention in school, but she was fooled into thinking that John was a bright student, so I see his acting chops go

 back way further than I thought.  Marnie doesn’t live in the Villages, but near it and I was glad that we got to go here because I know that a lot of snowbird Canadian Lakers are here and I wanted to see the community with the highest or one of the highest STD rates in the country.  That’s right, a retirement community in Florida that is 

 the size of Big Rapids or more has one of the highest rates of sexually transmitted diseases.  This is what happens when you think that protection is only for preventing pregnancy…Anyway, back to the story at hand, we were able to have a very nice lunch at the New York Style deli place, TooJay’s, but I should have gone with my gut instinct and ordered the cheesecake that was on display in the front cabinet.  My French onion soup stayed around too long on the drive and turkey and avocado wrap is a dim second to cheesecake.  It was a nice place and Oscar was a good boy for the majority of the meal.  It was a joy to meet the great Ms. Leopold and she brought Oscar two shirts from the area and made the mistake of offering her place for us to stay if we started coming to Disney World with Oscar in a few years.  She probably doesn’t know yet that we take people up on those offers pretty regularly.  Marnie is keeping up with the blog and mentioned that there are people out there that probably don’t know what I mean about CPS being called in every state, Child Protective Services is who I’m referring to coming after us and taking Oscar away for abuse and neglect.  After this nice diversion, it was back on I-75 where the traffic was not much thinner than on the way down and we immediately ran into backups from an accident before breaking free.  Again, Florida is a state that should be cut in half so that you don’t have to drive all day just to get out of one state, and this is said as a former Texan.