WillowBelle
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Mar 4, 2009
WARNING!!! PHOTO INTENSIVE TRIP REAPORT AHEAD!
A brief introduction before we start our show .
There is me (Mommy) - Have been to Disney 19 times and am already planning our return trip in October 2010. Favorite "ride" is Mickey's Philharmagic.
DD10 (Gabriella) has been to Disney 5 times - favorite ride is Astro Orbiter.
DD8 (Angelina) has been to Disney 4 times - favorite ride Test Track (as of this trip).
DH (Jarrod) makes a brief appearance at the beginning of our story. Not sure of his favorite ride - he is not a lover of all things Disney so doesn't talk about it too much.
Our saga begins Thursday, June 25th. Knew I was going to have to work all day long. We are a few people short right now for various reasons, and there was nothing I could do to get out of it. Jarrod took the day off work today to spend with the girls (and me, my office is in my home ) before we were gone for a week. He wasn't going to Disney with us - he, as it turns out, joined us on our second leg of the trip at my mom's at Jacksonville Beach.
So - I packed most everything on Wednesday night, in anticipation of working most of the day on Thursday. Finished up getting the essentials packed and taken care of. Being the good parents that we are - we discovered very last minute that neither DD had a pair of sneakers that fit, so Jarrod took off with them to get some brand shiney new shoes....yes, I know that new shoes are typically a when headed to WDW .
Anywho - once they got back we fired up the grill. WDW is a million hours from my house here in middle Tennessee. My thought was, we were leaving near(ish) the dinner hour, so if we had a big dinner we wouldn't need to stop and eat again and eat up valuable awake (for me) time making the drive through the night.
We had a delish dinner of grilled steak, baked potatos, great big salad. Everyone went 'potty' and we were ready to pile into the van.
Had Jarrod take a picture of us throwing our WDW gang sign .
Then took a picture of TomTom (which I like to race the countdown time of).
*Note, the blasted thing does not translate the time-zone change....more on that later .
Give our last and kiss to DH/Daddy and off we go. iPod is set to my Disney playlist. Girls have 4 movies to watch on the DVD player. Nintendo DS's are all charged with every game we could locate along for the trip.
Motoring down the interstate - making great time mind you when I hear:
Angelina: 'are we going to pass any buildings (i.e., cities) any time soon?'
Me: 'Why?'
Angelina: 'Because I have to go to the bathroom.'
Me:
We were still North of Chattanooga - only on the road for about 1.25 hours.
So - find a rest stop (because they're quicker than a gas station restroom). Zip the van off the interstate - potty - snap a picture:
And......as then Willie Nelson sings.....On the road again!
Haul hiney through Chattanooga, North Georgia (where DH and I lived many, many moons ago). Blast through Atlanta (made it in 3.3 hours.....:EEK!: <--that's REALLY good time) taking a few pictures with my celly and sending them to friends who live locally showing them where I was along the way.
Just south of Atlanta Angelina and I have the above conversation again. So...pull off as far south of the city I could get us without her having an accident. Don't like to be in an unfamiliar part of Atlanta without another grown up with me.
Call DH and let the girls talk to him while we're at said gas station. Fill up with gas. Got a bug in my eye while doing that. MAN it stung.....Angelina was standing with me at the van while the gas was pumping. It felt like it was about a 5lb bug in there. I kept trying to get it out and she kept letting me know that 'you missed it' until finally it was out! WHEW and GROSS.
Back in the van and talking to Jarrod myself now, while TomTom is telling me how to get back to the interstate. All of a sudden, the car in front of me on the on ramp dashes into the interstate and I am bearing down on bright orange construction barrels and losing onramp as I drive. I slam on the breaks and try to merge, into a car :afraid:, weave back onto what was once the onramp, and is now dirt where construction is going on. Thankfully there were no men working construction. Phone is now at my feet because I had to let go while trying to not get rear-ended by traffic. Hang up with JP and put my hazzard lights on. Slowly trying to merge back into heavy 75-South traffic.
Get going safetly again - call JP back who announces that I am not allowed to merge while on the phone any more . Fine with me.
Pass through 475-South, going around Macon when my phone rings again. This time it's a TA friend of mine telling me about how another friend of ours was trying to check in to ASMo and they didn't show her reservation in their system .
Coming up......a call to Pop Century, more to calls DH, and why does everyone insist on saying 'Good Morning'?