OneWanderingJew, you'll get a kick out of this. Years ago I had a couple of friends -- one name Bob Fish and the other named Mark Lieberman. One year for a birthday party Mark gave Bob a goldfish in a bowl with a nametag on it -- of course, the fish's name was Bob. At Mark's birthday, Bob retaliated with presenting Mark a hanging plant (a wandering jew) named, of course, Mark. (Mark traveled a lot for his business, by the way).

Clever friends, Patrick! I grew up w/a Mark Leiberman...any chance he was from a place in NY called Suffern??

I don't know. That was in Dayton, Ohio in the early 70's. But he was from the east somewhere. He'd be about 60 now. . .

Red tides, shark attacks, now early season hurricanes! Whatever did the Gulf Coast of Florida do to pi** off Mother Nature so much??!! Did everyone switch to Chiffon margerine?

Anyway, good luck to all of you with travel plans that way. I flew to Orlando during Hurricane Ivan last year--had to spend one night at a Newark airport hotel, but was amazed at how quickly things were back up and working the next day (at my mother's house, we had no power for 3 days, but we did have running water and telephone, so we muddled through without too many problems).

irishdame...

I am not a meterologist, but I think coastal regions/low lying areas are first evacuated during hurricanes and everyone goes inland to places like ORLANDO.

The Hotels in Orlando are built to withstand cat 5 hurricanes. These complexes are their own little city. People evacuate their homes and check into Orlando hotels because they know they will be safe and will not lose electric. So if you are living in a trailer home, or a coastal region this is the place to go. These hotels also offer special rates for these people.

So, when was the last time Orlando was Evacuated? Doesn't the contra-flow evacuation plan end just north of Orlando?

Just in case anyone's reading here and not checking more authoritative sources, Dennis is currently a category 4. And anybody who remembers last year knows that the path can change pretty radically at any time.

Dennis is Cat4 now? I haven't watched the news since yesterday sometime. Omigosh!

Patrick--The Mark L. you knew couldn't have been the same one I knew though he could be his dad ;-) Wouldn't that have been a crazy coincidence though, don't ya think?

BigDan: It is <b>never</b> &quot;forget the dog&quot; and please don't forget that!!

We had to cancel Nassau last Labor Day(2004) due to the hurricane...disappointing, but Nassau was still there when we finally went this past Memorial Day...am sure things will work out.

As of 8:30 am on Friday, it appears the hurricane will not be impacting Orlando, other than with extra rain and some non-dangerous winds. As a former jet pilot, I have gained somewhat of an insight into weather patterns, and my best projection is that the center of Dennis will strike in the &quot;crook&quot; of Florida's coast, where the coastline bends from north-south to become a more or less east-west orientation. I'm expecting, though, that here in St Pete Beach we will be asked to evacuate--probably voluntarily, but I'll be one of those who leaves. Big hurricanes like this, when you live right on the coast, are nothing to mess around with.

Rooms available at Woods Hole Inn B&amp;B in Folsom, LA. Call 985-796-9077

Nineteen members of my family were scheduled to leave this morning for a six-bedroom beach house at Santa Rosa Beach. We were able to cancel yesterday and get all our money back because of the notice to evacuate. We are pretty bummed but celebrated a birthday, a retirement, and a new baby due next week at my daughter's house this afternoon.

Hot and very dry in KY. We hope for lots of rain from Dennis but are really sorry if it makes landfall and does damage in FL.

Well, we back! Hurricane Dennis was a no-show in Orlando. It was a bit cloudy each day and rained most afternoons for a brief time but other than that had a great trip. Ran into a nasty thunderstorm coming up from Florida to Myrtle Beach, but nothing out of control. Thanks for all the advice everyone. Next year, maybe we'll try an all-inclusive in Cuba.

Epcot was okay. Universal Studios was okay. Our favourite part of the trip was probably walking along the beach late at night with the moon watching above and early in the morning when it was just us and a handful of like-minded souls.

Food in Orlando was cheap and good. $4 breakfast buffets were great. Ate $10 steaks at Black Angus.

BigDan,
Whatcha been drinking, pal? What beach did you go to...Orlando is central FL, not coastal ;)


Glad you had fun and the weather was mostly cooperative!