City, Sand, and Savanna - Link to new trip report

[BMC423]

WOW! Those pictures are great!! I'm following you on instagram. Also don't worry about the shave, you can just say you were going for that hipster look.

 

[glennbo123]

Just one more item to cover during intermission, and then we’ll immediately move on to the trip report, I promise. I was texting over the weekend with one of my sisters, who is a huge Bruce Springsteen fan. She had just been to his show in Toronto and was saying that I needed to see him. I’ve never seen him, but have wanted to, but I’m not a big enough fan to follow his tour dates or anything. It turned out that he was playing two nights in Philadelphia, this past Sunday and Labor Day Monday. Anyhow, on Sunday afternoon we were texting again and I said something like “I’ll just show up at the stadium and I’m sure I’ll be able to get a ticket at the door”, hoping that the sarcasm would come through. She texted back, “Good tickets are still available. Go to StubHub.” Sure enough, there were. Now I had to decide, because lack of tickets wasn’t an excuse. Well, he’s not getting any younger, and I’m not getting any younger, so I went ahead and got them. Judy didn’t want to stay out late on a school night, and James said he didn’t want to go (although he regretted that decision), and of course Lauren is now at college, so it was just Marlene and I.

The rain held off for Sunday’s show, but by Monday afternoon I was wondering if I’d made a big mistake. Here’s what it looked like as we drove to the stadium. This was what was left of Hurricane Isaac as it went through our area. (All of these pictures are from my iPhone, by the way.)

By the time we got to the stadium, it had started to let up. When we parked, we looked at the car in front of us and knew right away that we were at the right place.

I tried to pull off a similar shot to my Disney fastpass pictures, but with the stadium sign in the background rather than crowds. I doctored the picture somewhat in Instagram.

Marlene and I, before the show. No rain!

Then, the Boss started at almost 8:30.

At one point, he asked for "fireflies" and everyone held up their phones, except for me, since I was taking these pictures, which technically counts as holding up your phone.

You can see him in the crowd on the left side of this picture if you look closely.

Yeah, it was awesome! We were so glad we went!

Up next: Travel Day (finally!)
Link to next chapter

 

[glennbo123]

Well, we’ve enjoyed Lauren’s reporting on the New York City, DVC-trade portion of the trip, and now that her portion is done it’s time for me to jump back onto the keyboard and document the rest.

Judy and Lauren got back on Sunday afternoon, June 17th, and we wanted to get rolling as soon as practical on Monday morning. You can imagine the flurry of activity that occurred with them returning, telling us about their trip and showing us some pictures, and then trying to get ready to leave for two more weeks. They also had laundry to do , and we took the dog to “Camp Kaiser” (we always call his dog-sitting time “Camp whoever-is-watching-him”). Actually, Judy took him to the dog-sitters. I don’t remember what I was doing at the time but I’m sure it was some productive trip-preparation activity.

Since we’d be spending one night in a hotel en-route to Vero Beach, we had everyone pack an overnight bag so that I wouldn’t have to open the cartop carrier where the bigger luggage was, until we hit Vero. Everyone would just happily grab their overnight bag when we got to the hotel and they’d have everything they could possibly need to go to bed and get up the next morning and complete our trip to Vero. Stay tuned on that one.

I only took one photo on this day, and it was before we even left home. It was a side-by-side shot of the Crisco and Philly cream cheese packages that gave us such a good story back in the pre-trip report. Link to the chapter with "the bagel story"!

Warning: Do NOT store your Crisco and cream cheese in the same refrigerator drawer. When they both look like this they can be confused for one another, with disastrous, albeit hilarious, results.

Crisco on the left. Philly cream cheese on the right.

With that important piece of history documented, we were able to pull out of our driveway at 8 am. It wasn’t your classic “oh-dark-thirty” timing, but considering the turnaround that Judy and Lauren needed to accomplish after their NYC trip, we were happy with it.

I hadn’t thought too much about the route I wanted to take (most of it would be down I-95), but we wanted to take 301 to go around D.C. on the eastern side and avoid some of the traffic. I had trouble getting the GPS to let go of its desire to take us immediately to I-95 and so had to pull over 2 minutes into the trip to try to get the GPS lined-up with the way I wanted to go. It was then that I made up my first joke of the trip. It goes like this:

My GPS asked me if I wanted to avoid tolls.
I pressed “yes” and it said, “when you get to the toll plaza…
…gun it!”​

Ba-dum-bum.

Anyway, we started traveling through Delaware and the thought hit me that we’ll soon be in the south…home to Hardee’s and their luscious sausage biscuits. Maybe I could get one at some point during the trip? I had just mentioned to Judy that I had a Hardee’s sausage biscuit floating in a thought-bubble over my head when not 5 minutes later we hit Middletown, DE (stomping ground of DISers MEK and Captain_Oblivious, by the way) and there was a Hardee’s! Who knew? (Probably MEK and Captain_Oblivious, but they were keeping that info. to themselves apparently.) So I pulled-up to their drive-through ordering microphone (imagine the voice of the teacher from Peanuts cartoons…”wah wah, wah wah wah”) and ordered 2 sausage biscuits for myself, and Marlene and James looked at the menu board and both decided on some kind of bacon-cheese covered french fry monstrosity. No one else wanted anything -- apparently Judy and Lauren’s arteries weren’t in need of clogging. Anyhow, we pulled away from the microphone and Judy said, “I’m surprised you didn’t order a coffee.” Doh! Then while contemplating that mistake, I proceeded to drive right by the window where you pay and get your food. Double-Doh! I tried to get around the building quick enough that I could beat the people behind me in line, but despite nearly putting the van up on 2 wheels while going around the corners, I didn’t make it. So, I parked and went inside. Naturally, there was a customer at the register inside so I had trouble interrupting to shed light on why there confusion at the pick-up window. When I was finally able to explain what happened, one of the workers said “No wonder they looked so confused when I told them that their fries would take a couple more minutes.” Anyhow, since I was in there I ordered a coffee and picked up our order, and a couple of minutes later we were back on the road.

I’m sorry there aren’t any pictures of us driving along, but it was just basically a day-long adventure of us cooped-up in a minivan and all that that entails. We had arguments about which DVD to watch, one set of headphones had sound coming out of only one side, and we had to ask James to turn down the volume on his Nintendo games. Can anyone relate?

Oh, we did have a rather lively debate about whether time machines could ever possibly exist. James postulated, and I agreed, that they couldn’t ever exist because time travelers would have visited our time and we would have learned about the machine. The girls both argued that if someone could invent such a machine, they could also visit us without our knowledge and resist the urge to tamper with the past….kind of like Star Trek’s “prime directive”. Meanwhile, Judy time-traveled herself, by falling asleep at 9:30am and reanimating in our dimension sometime about an hour later.

Further along, Marlene asked what AM and PM stood for. I told her that AM meant “it am morning”. She then correctly deduced that PM meant “Past Morning”.

We had lunch at a Chick Fil-A somewhere in Virginia. Then we got back in the van and Lauren did some of the driving. I discovered that it’s really cool to look at Google Earth on an iPhone when you’re heading down the highway at 65mph (do not attempt this while behind the wheel). The scenery whizzes by on the app (but with a birds’-eye view), as it tries to keep up with your position, but as you go under bridges and other landmarks you can tell that there’s about a second or so delay from real-life. You have to remind yourself that the satellite picture was taken who-knows-when and that you’re not looking at an actual current feed from a helicopter camera. “Hey, I’m watching my own police chase! Woo hoo!”

Later in the afternoon Marlene awoke from a nap in the backseat (the wayback!) and asked Judy, who was sleeping in the seat in front of her, “can I open these pretzels?”, which awoke her from a sound sleep. We had a good laugh over it, and suitably teased Marlene about it, but it’s probably one of those “you had to be there” things, isn’t it? Yeah, I thought so.

Dinner was in South Carolina at a place that was part Wendy’s, part gas station, and part fruit-stand. So we ate up, fueled-up, and bought up some Georgia peaches. The guy selling the peaches yakked Judy’s ear off while I was filling the gas tank. Fortunately for her, I finished fueling so she had an excuse to leave.

Back on the road, we finally arrived at our nights’ accommodations in Brunswick, Georgia, at the Comfort Suites. We got there at 10:20pm, so it was quite a long day of travel, but we had around 2/3 of the trip behind us, so mentally, tomorrow’s journey should be easy in comparison. We had a little trouble finding the hotel because it was situated behind a gas station and my GPS didn’t recognize the street that I got as its address. It wasn’t much of a street, more like an access road. But anyway, once in the room we realized that it was going to be perfect – it had two double beds and a pull-out couch…so James, who usually gets stuck in a sleeping bag on the floor, would actually have a bed to sleep on.

Then came the words that I knew, I knew, someone would utter. Marlene looked in her overnight bag and said, “I forgot clothes for tomorrow.” “What, I got distracted!”




Up next: Vero Beach arrival
hold on -- first we have a DISmeet
Link to next chapter

 

[KatMark]

0 Judy

***I'm off to bed (exhausted), but will read the full update tomorrow.

 

[dwelty]

Ok, now that you are at the Disney part I am subscribing

 

[glennbo123]

Thanks for once again sharing the beauty of Longwood Gardens with us! Great pictures!

You're welcome Dee! Thanks.

It's like a mini-World of Color!

You're right, I hadn't thought of that! They don't project any characters or movies or anything like that, just colors.

I never knew they did the lights like that at Longwood Gardens. So pretty!

It's actually pretty impressive, being a local place that doesn't get the attendance of a big amusement park.

those were very cool light pics...

They were very cool to see.

nope not for a little while other places we want to go first.

Good, get out there and enjoy.

Wow Longwood Gardens is beautiful. I love a pretty place to walk round, and am very lucky to live a stones throw from some fantastic places myself. Lots of historical houses and halls etc with amazing gardens, I even have a castle in my village which is quite cool

That's great! Castles are cool!

WOW! Those pictures are great!! I'm following you on instagram. Also don't worry about the shave, you can just say you were going for that hipster look.

Thanks! Hipster or homeless, I'm not sure which.

 

[scottny]

love reading about peoples trips to NYC.

Funny about the guy from the show was there on the train.

The light show you went to was gorgeous.

Bruce!!! Love his shows. Seen him 3 times and always was a great time.

I never had hardees before and will never have Chick-Fil-A and your on your way.

 

[Squidgyness]

A great update! Some very funny moments

 

[PrincePluto]

Anyway, we started traveling through Delaware and the thought hit me that we’ll soon be in the south…home to Hardee’s and their luscious sausage biscuits. Maybe I could get one at some point during the trip? I had just mentioned to Judy that I had a Hardee’s sausage biscuit floating in a thought-bubble over my head when not 5 minutes later we hit Middletown, DE (stomping ground of DISers MEK and Captain_Oblivious, by the way) and there was a Hardee’s! Who knew? (Probably MEK and Captain_Oblivious, but they were keeping that info. to themselves apparently.) So I pulled-up to their drive-through ordering microphone (imagine the voice of the teacher from Peanuts cartoons…”wah wah, wah wah wah”) and ordered 2 sausage biscuits for myself, and Marlene and James looked at the menu board and both decided on some kind of bacon-cheese covered french fry monstrosity. No one else wanted anything -- apparently Judy and Lauren’s arteries weren’t in need of clogging. Anyhow, we pulled away from the microphone and Judy said, “I’m surprised you didn’t order a coffee.” Doh! Then while contemplating that mistake, I proceeded to drive right by the window where you pay and get your food. Double-Doh! I tried to get around the building quick enough that I could beat the people behind me in line, but despite nearly putting the van up on 2 wheels while going around the corners, I didn’t make it. So, I parked and went inside. Naturally, there was a customer at the register inside so I had trouble interrupting to shed light on why there confusion at the pick-up window. When I was finally able to explain what happened, one of the workers said “No wonder they looked so confused when I told them that their fries would take a couple more minutes.” Anyhow, since I was in there I ordered a coffee and picked up our order, and a couple of minutes later we were back on the road.

Too funny about passing the drive-thru window! I have come close several times, but have managed to back up without hitting the car behind me.

 

[PrincePluto]

I tried to pull off a similar shot to my Disney fastpass pictures, but with the stadium sign in the background rather than crowds. I doctored the picture somewhat in Instagram.

Then, the Boss started at almost 8:30.

Doesn't this count as evidence of you being a scofflaw, against the explicit "No Photos" on the ticket?

 

[Stringbean&Wingnut]

BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCE!!!!!!!!!! That concert sounds awesome! I know a bunch of people who were also there, actually!!

Yay for getting a good start on your travel day! It's alright, the Hardee's secret was kept from me too!!

 

[Poolrat]

Darn it 0Judys. Glad you had a chance to see the boss.


Sounds like you drive was interesting but luckily not eventful. :

Chalk up the Hardees thing to no coffee.

 

[natebenma]

Longwood Gardens: 0 Judys

Springsteen Concert: 0 Judys

Drive to Disney, Part 1: 0 Judys (photographically speaking)

You need to start spending more time with your lovely wife!!!


Thanks for the pictures from the concert. Bruce puts on a great show- I saw him in 1986. Really works hard during the show. I miss the Big Man

Glad there were no major issues during the drive. The drive-thru story is hilarious though!!!

Bummer about Marlene's forgotten clothes. Was she able to piece together and outfit from everyone else's bag, did you have to venture into the luggage or did she just wear the same outfit the next day? Or, did she pick up some fashionable items at the Comfort Suites gift shop?

 

[vamassey1]

Never fails someone always forgets something.

Glad you got to be the cool Dad and catch a concert and it didn't rain on you.

Good turn around to get back on the road a day after returning from NYC. We don't have Hardee's here in Louisiana so we usually stop in Alabama on our way to Disney.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

It goes until Sep. 29th, but don't think about going this Saturday, I hear that you're busy.

Nah, I can blow that off.

Um, I mean, thanks for the reminder.

Just one more item to cover during intermission, and then we’ll immediately move on to the trip report, I promise.

Uh huh. Sure.

The rain held off for Sunday’s show, but by Monday afternoon I was wondering if I’d made a big mistake. Here’s what it looked like as we drove to the stadium. This was what was left of Hurricane Isaac as it went through our area.

Hey, that's what my yard looked like, too. Without the cars and pavement, I mean.

I tried to pull off a similar shot to my Disney fastpass pictures, but with the stadium sign in the background rather than crowds. I doctored the picture somewhat in Instagram.

I seem to recall seeing that stadium before...

Well, we’ve enjoyed Lauren’s reporting on the New York City, DVC-trade portion of the trip, and now that her portion is done it’s time for me to jump back onto the keyboard and document the rest.

Awww--er, I mean, great! Glad to have you back!

I don’t remember what I was doing at the time but I’m sure it was some productive trip-preparation activity.

Arranging ketchup and mustard packets like dominoes?

Everyone would just happily grab their overnight bag when we got to the hotel and they’d have everything they could possibly need to go to bed and get up the next morning and complete our trip to Vero.

Brilliant!

Warning: Do NOT store your Crisco and cream cheese in the same refrigerator drawer. When they both look like this they can be confused for one another, with disastrous, albeit hilarious, results.

Anyway, we started traveling through Delaware and the thought hit me that we’ll soon be in the south…home to Hardee’s and their luscious sausage biscuits. Maybe I could get one at some point during the trip? I had just mentioned to Judy that I had a Hardee’s sausage biscuit floating in a thought-bubble over my head when not 5 minutes later we hit Middletown, DE (stomping ground of DISers MEK and Captain_Oblivious, by the way) and there was a Hardee’s! Who knew? (Probably MEK and Captain_Oblivious, but they were keeping that info. to themselves apparently.)

And yet MEK and I had no idea you were in Middletown. Who's the one keeping secrets here, hmm?

If I recall correctly, you could also have gone to the Friendly's next door before it sadly disappeared.

Marlene and James looked at the menu board and both decided on some kind of bacon-cheese covered french fry monstrosity.

Good work, kids.

No one else wanted anything -- apparently Judy and Lauren’s arteries weren’t in need of clogging.

Oh, come on. That's like deciding you don't need oxygen.

Anyhow, we pulled away from the microphone and Judy said, “I’m surprised you didn’t order a coffee.” Doh! Then while contemplating that mistake, I proceeded to drive right by the window where you pay and get your food. Double-Doh! I tried to get around the building quick enough that I could beat the people behind me in line, but despite nearly putting the van up on 2 wheels while going around the corners, I didn’t make it. So, I parked and went inside. Naturally, there was a customer at the register inside so I had trouble interrupting to shed light on why there confusion at the pick-up window. When I was finally able to explain what happened, one of the workers said “No wonder they looked so confused when I told them that their fries would take a couple more minutes.”

Not much to say here except

Considering your GPS already advised you to try to beat the toll, how can we be sure it wasn't directing you to skip out on the drive-thru?

We had arguments about which DVD to watch, one set of headphones had sound coming out of only one side, and we had to ask James to turn down the volume on his Nintendo games. Can anyone relate?

Oh, we did have a rather lively debate about whether time machines could ever possibly exist.

It would have been awesome if you'd had this debate while driving 88 mph.

You have to remind yourself that the satellite picture was taken who-knows-when and that you’re not looking at an actual current feed from a helicopter camera. “Hey, I’m watching my own police chase! Woo hoo!”

I knew it! You DID skip out on the drive-thru!

You weren't driving a white Ford Bronco, were you?

Then came the words that I knew, I knew, someone would utter. Marlene looked in her overnight bag and said, “I forgot clothes for tomorrow.” “What, I got distracted!”

Does the hotel have a bathrobe?

 

[afwdwfan]

“I’ll just show up at the stadium and I’m sure I’ll be able to get a ticket at the door”, hoping that the sarcasm would come through. She texted back, “Good tickets are still available. Go to StubHub.”

Hey, I guess it was meant to be. I'm glad you were able to have some father/daughter time and go to the concert!

Doesn't this count as evidence of you being a scofflaw, against the explicit "No Photos" on the ticket?

You beat me to it! I noticed the same thing. Nothing quite like posting the evidence on the internet for everyone to see...

Well, we’ve enjoyed Lauren’s reporting on the New York City, DVC-trade portion of the trip, and now that her portion is done it’s time for me to jump back onto the keyboard and document the rest.

Excellent job, Lauren! Thanks for taking us all to NYC!

Everyone would just happily grab their overnight bag when we got to the hotel and they’d have everything they could possibly need to go to bed and get up the next morning and complete our trip to Vero. Stay tuned on that one.

If only real life worked the way "good ideas on paper" do.

I hadn’t thought too much about the route I wanted to take

Do you really still have to think about the route at this point?

My GPS asked me if I wanted to avoid tolls.
I pressed “yes” and it said, “when you get to the toll plaza…
…gun it!”​

Ba-dum-bum.

Groan...

“I’m surprised you didn’t order a coffee.” Doh! Then while contemplating that mistake, I proceeded to drive right by the window where you pay and get your food. Double-Doh!

I actually did the same thing at Wendy's last week at lunch. Makes you feel kind of stupid.

Anyhow, since I was in there I ordered a coffee and picked up our order, and a couple of minutes later we were back on the road.

I guess it worked out for the best in the end.

Oh, we did have a rather lively debate about whether time machines could ever possibly exist.

You really do have some thought provoking conversation on the road.

I discovered that it’s really cool to look at Google Earth on an iPhone when you’re heading down the highway at 65mph (do not attempt this while behind the wheel).

Hmmm... that looks like something I'm going to have to try now.

Then came the words that I knew, I knew, someone would utter. Marlene looked in her overnight bag and said, “I forgot clothes for tomorrow.” “What, I got distracted!”

I guess somebody's going to be wearing the same clothes 2 days in a row then.

 

[MEK]

Great updates. Read them this morning. So glad you loved the Bruuuuce concert. It looks like you had a blast. Thanks for posting the "illegal" pictures. I looked at them this morning. I mean, come on, how can a DISer not take pictures??????

That rain on Monday was terrible. Its been so wet my cat came inside the other day with a slug on his @$$. Gross!

Yup - good old Hardy's in Middletown. Bet you didn't know we have a chik-fi-la now. Remember that the next time you are passing through.

Can't wait for more!

 

[winkers]

My mental picture of you whipping the mini van around Hardee's to get to the window is quite funny.

Growing up I loved Hardee's breakfast biscuits.. They were hot with raisins and icing.

I knew when yo said that everyone was to pack an overnight bag that something would go wrong. We've been there and done that. And getting everything to fit in our car carrier is a pain in the patooty.

Taking Marlene to see Springsteen is a great memory she'll always have of spending time with you. The fact that as a teenager she wanted to spend time with you...in public...is a testament to what a good father you are.

 

[eandesmom]

BRUUUUCE!

One of my favorite concerts, EVER!

What a performer.

I only took one photo on this day, and it was before we even left home. It was a side-by-side shot of the Crisco and Philly cream cheese packages that gave us such a good story back in the pre-trip report. Link to the chapter with "the bagel story"!

Warning: Do NOT store your Crisco and cream cheese in the same refrigerator drawer. When they both look like this they can be confused for one another, with disastrous, albeit hilarious, results.

Crisco on the left. Philly cream cheese on the right.

Anyway, we started traveling through Delaware and the thought hit me that we’ll soon be in the south…home to Hardee’s and their luscious sausage biscuits. Maybe I could get one at some point during the trip? I had just mentioned to Judy that I had a Hardee’s sausage biscuit floating in a thought-bubble over my head when not 5 minutes later we hit Middletown, DE (stomping ground of DISers MEK and Captain_Oblivious, by the way) and there was a Hardee’s! Who knew? (Probably MEK and Captain_Oblivious, but they were keeping that info. to themselves apparently.) So I pulled-up to their drive-through ordering microphone (imagine the voice of the teacher from Peanuts cartoons…”wah wah, wah wah wah”) and ordered 2 sausage biscuits for myself, and Marlene and James looked at the menu board and both decided on some kind of bacon-cheese covered french fry monstrosity. No one else wanted anything -- apparently Judy and Lauren’s arteries weren’t in need of clogging. Anyhow, we pulled away from the microphone and Judy said, “I’m surprised you didn’t order a coffee.” Doh! Then while contemplating that mistake, I proceeded to drive right by the window where you pay and get your food. Double-Doh! I tried to get around the building quick enough that I could beat the people behind me in line, but despite nearly putting the van up on 2 wheels while going around the corners, I didn’t make it. So, I parked and went inside. Naturally, there was a customer at the register inside so I had trouble interrupting to shed light on why there confusion at the pick-up window. When I was finally able to explain what happened, one of the workers said “No wonder they looked so confused when I told them that their fries would take a couple more minutes.” Anyhow, since I was in there I ordered a coffee and picked up our order, and a couple of minutes later we were back on the road.

We had lunch at a Chick Fil-A somewhere in Virginia. Then we got back in the van and Lauren did some of the driving. I discovered that it’s really cool to look at Google Earth on an iPhone when you’re heading down the highway at 65mph (do not attempt this while behind the wheel). The scenery whizzes by on the app (but with a birds’-eye view), as it tries to keep up with your position, but as you go under bridges and other landmarks you can tell that there’s about a second or so delay from real-life. You have to remind yourself that the satellite picture was taken who-knows-when and that you’re not looking at an actual current feed from a helicopter camera. “Hey, I’m watching my own police chase! Woo hoo!”

Dinner was in South Carolina at a place that was part Wendy’s, part gas station, and part fruit-stand. So we ate up, fueled-up, and bought up some Georgia peaches. The guy selling the peaches yakked Judy’s ear off while I was filling the gas tank. Fortunately for her, I finished fueling so she had an excuse to leave.

Then came the words that I knew, I knew, someone would utter. Marlene looked in her overnight bag and said, “I forgot clothes for tomorrow.” “What, I got distracted!”




Up next: Vero Beach arrival

Cream Cheese, Crisco, Hardees, Chick-Fil-A and Wendy's.

My arteries hardened reading this



You knew SOMEONE would forget stuff in the carrier...happens every time!

And I bet you are nicer than us, and got them out. As opposed to making them wear the same thing until we reached our destination.

Time travel...gotta love car conversations!

 

[winkers]

. Its been so wet my cat came inside the other day with a slug on his @$$. Gross!