Gorgeous pics!!
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Iâm frequently in the small town - approximately 40,000 population - that is the capital of Missouri. And often in the college (at least 3) town 30 miles north, approximately 108,000 population.
Mask wearing is as youâve noticed. Employees in businesses generally wear masks. Except both of the credit unions I use have no masking and donât seem to want customers to mask up.
About the only time youâll see folks walking with a mask on are office employees who havenât yet removed theirs yet.
Interestingly, the small town had no mask mandates while the college town had serious mandates most of 2020, into the spring of 2021. While both towns have had spikes in numbers since March 2020, healthcare was not overwhelmed. It has nearly seemed that there hasnât been much pandemic here.
Iâd think Tampa would be have been more affected. Tho we drove to WDW in December 2020 and were surprised at the casual mask wearing then, in central Florida. Elsewhere in Alabama and Mississippi we were surprised at how much more mask wearing we saw.
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Afternoon on the beach. Pretty crowded. Apparently racing speedboats is a thing, and there were an awful lot of helicopters.
The sand is a gorgeous fine white sand, and the beaches are really clean. The water is bathtub warm with gentle waves, a far cry from the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic beaches I am used to.
This is the hotel where the conference is. If you look really close, you can see the crane that is my view from my balcony just on the inside of the tower on the right.
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Wake me when you get to WDW 
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Will do.
Thursday. âŚI expect we will be checking in at the Poly sometime between 3:00pm and 4:00pm. 
I also wonât be leaving the conference hotel much after today. Tomorrow runs from 8am through 10 or 11pm and includes all meals. So not much time to post and wonât have anything remotely interesting to share (⌠unless you like PowerPoint and presentations?).
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Our last happy hour will be wrapping up the conference in a few minutes.
I am repacking my bags tonight to prep for WDW. The hotel moved my room on Monday night due to broken a/c (81°!) so I am ending my stay with a much better view than a construction crane.
Heading to the Tampa airport around noon tomorrow to pick up the car and dd before traveling to WDW. I am SO excited!!!
Here are a few shots from the last couple of daysâŚ
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I was at Cali Grill tonight and they can do the wonton without spice. Just tell them no chili oil. Itâs the last thing they add so is easy to omit.
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Thank you so much for thinking of me!!! I am excited to try them on Friday!
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Gorgeous!
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I do love those Gulf sunsets 
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My alarm is ringing! Time to wake up!
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Beautiful. I 
sunsets.
Yay for Disney next!!!
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Ddâs flight is delayed. I found a Publix close to the airport and am getting drinks to use my time wisely. This puts us behind about an hour.
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We are here!!!
Finally!!!
Need to drop off the car then off to MK.
We are in Tokelau which is what I requested, but I am surprised that it isnât one of the updated rooms.
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Yay! Weâve been waiting all week. 
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that youâre finally there. Iâm sorry your room is t updated. But I hope you have an amazing trip!
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It is fine. We wonât be there much. Dd actually wants to try sleeping on the pull down bunk/trundle.
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Finally on the monorail.
An hour later than planned due to ddâs flight delay, but we will get just under 2 hours before the early closure tonight.
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Weâre in Tokelau too. This is the new refurbished everything except for the Murphy bed. I guess they ran out of time before the 50th.
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