The Baggot Family's END OF CHEMO END OF CANCER PRE Trip Report and Trip Report!!!!

[TotallyAngelic]

Hi
I am really enjoying your pre - trip report so far - the T-Shirts are fantastic - would love to see the others you have made. That's some journey you have ahead of you, but a good way to see the different states that you pass through. It's amazing that your DD has managed to beat cancer and a wonderful way to celebrate.

Funnily enough my 18 year old DD is called Taryn and it is a very rare name here in the UK ( up to now we only know of one other Taryn so now we know of 2). I also have a DS (15) called Daniel, would you believe it!

Look forward to reading more about your planning and your adventures!

[tjbaggott]

Originally Posted by TotallyAngelic

Hi
I am really enjoying your pre - trip report so far - the T-Shirts are fantastic - would love to see the others you have made. That's some journey you have ahead of you, but a good way to see the different states that you pass through. It's amazing that your DD has managed to beat cancer and a wonderful way to celebrate.

Funnily enough my 18 year old DD is called Taryn and it is a very rare name here in the UK ( up to now we only know of one other Taryn so now we know of 2). I also have a DS (15) called Daniel, would you believe it!

Look forward to reading more about your planning and your adventures!

That is Funny! I have a cousin named Tara and I always loved her name, and my DH's name is Martyn spelled with a "Y". When we were expecting DD, we couldn't seem to agree on a name. Then I was reading the birth announcements one day and saw the name TARYN. I had never seen or heard that name before. I asked DH how he liked that. It was close to the name Tara that I loved so much, and was spelled with a "Y" like DH's name. Well, right off the bat, he loved it! Hmmm, seems thats how we've got each of our childrens names (the first one we both agreed on became THE name, LOL) Except our youngest, Tim. We lost two babies before him, a little boy in 1999, we named him Jacob (carried him half way through the pregnancy), and a little girl we carried to full term and she too was born still. Her name was Hailey. When we knew our last child was on the way, and found out he was a boy, we gave our DD the Honour of naming him herself. I think she picked a wonderful name!
We've met two other Taryn's, but even here, it's not a name you hear very often at all.

News of tonight, I've been so busy saving files for Journal, Activity and Autograph books (taking the files on disc into Staples tomorrow for printing and binding), that I still haven't gotten any further on the pirate costumes. I think at this point I'm going to post on my local FREECYCLE bulleting board, an OFFER to pay someone to finish them up for me. Basically it's just my daughters and my costumes that need doing. Two or Three of my kids need new sandles (what they had this past summer they've either already outgrown, or outworn). I assume the stores in Orlando still sell sandles at this time of year? I'm counting on it!
I will post more pictures tomorrow of the shirts and and Thursday I should have photos of the Staples booklets. The books are all done up with the help of Donatalie and Milliepie! (I was SO surprised to here my DD18 and DS16 tell me that they TOO want Autograph books!)
TTFN

[kindra657]

BUSY BUSY BUSY!!!

Do you have an Old Navy near you or a Claires? My bf got us some flips from both of those places for $1!!! I know I am like the only fool running around in flip flops at Disney but if you are looking for some, you may be able to find some there for pretty cheap! Good luck getting everything together and finishing the costumes!!

[jordak]

Wow, your pre-trip report has me really excited for you! Have a great trip!

[tjbaggott]

Wow, I haven't had any time to update over the last couple days. Busy, busy busy! Got a lot of sewing done, but still a bit more to do. Leaving for the bank soon to get travellers cheques, then to the fabric store for the last few notions I need. A little more packing to do, then tidying up. Tonight we plan to have a nice family dinner then watch a Disney movie. The plan is to RELAX. I received the last of our travel documents via UPS yesterday. Package was filled with little glitter Mickey Heads! Below are photos of the last of the shirts I made up, and DS6 in his Pirate Costume. We leave first thing tomorrow morning so there might not be any more updates till it's time to write up my TRIP REPORT once we are back (I dont' even want to think about coming back right now )

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I also finished up the files for the Journal for Tim, his Activity book and Autograph books, and had Staples Business depot print them up and bind them for me (cost an arm and a leg, but for this trip, it was worth it!)

First, Tim's Journal and a few of the pages. (There is a set of pages for EACH Day of the trip as well as one page for each Country in World Showcase in Epcot:
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The Activity book will keep him busy on the drive down and back:
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And the Autograph books, each one different as each child had their own favourites. DS6 wanted Absolutely NO Princesses in his book! Surprisingly, DS16 actually wanted a book! And also wanted Princess Aurora and Mulan in his!:
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FE Gifts we are GIVING:
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[TotallyAngelic]

wow - your T-shirts are amazing and I love the travel journals and the aurtograph books - you are very very imaginative and talented!

[LindaBabe]

Safe Travels, Baggot Family!

[tjbaggott]

DAY 1!
YAHHHHH!!!! TODAY IS THE DAY!!!!!! Everything is DONE! Thats a relief! Just have to pack the van, get the kids up, can't believe they aren't up yet, I didn't get much sleep last night I was SO excited about today! Did up two more T-Shirts last night that I had forgotten to do. Will take pictures of those once we are in Orlando.
We'll have DH's laptop with us, but I dont think I'll be on it to update. Going to use it to save Pictures to the memory stick. Anyway's thanks for the safe travel thoughts.
Au revoir, and Bon Voyage!

[praisehisname]

I just found your report. Hope you have a safe trip and a wonderful vacation!

Denise

[Alice_on_WONDERland]

Have a wonderful trip!

[tjbaggott]

Day One Is Done! Wow, we left the house at 8:30 yesterday morning, stopped at a conveinence store in Ogdansburg for some munchies and juice (a few of us forgot to have breakfast before we left). We drove as far as (some place in PA starting with an H) for lunch at a Cracker Barrel. Fabulous place, never been to one before! My kids got a real kick out of The Smarties there! They were like Giant Rocket candy that we have. Our Smarties are more like M&M's (something I've brought tons of along with us for the FE Exchange).
It got dark around 6pm and was pitch black out by 7. We drove till 9:30 pm and stopped here in Fredericksberg VA. Two rooms for the night at a Days Inn @ $47.95 each for the night. Free wi-fi (thus why I can do an update now), free breakfast, and the rooms are clean! The three most important things for me on what a hotel must have for me to stay. Only two scary incidents last night, both within 20 minutes of each other and both in West VA and both in the dark. First, a near miss with a deer, jumped out of nowhere on the drivers side. DH swerved to miss her, and thankfully she too stopped where she was when she saw the headlights. Missed her by inches! Second was two dogs chasing each other, ran out into the road, but not in our lane. My goodness, why were they loose and running onto the highway? I hope cars that came behind us didn't have problems with the deer or those little dogs! Nonetheless, we definately won't be driving at night again here! DS6 and DD18 are watching the DISNEY CHANNEL right now (we don't get this channel at home as I refuse to pay a huge chunk of $ for a cable package upgrade for just ONE CHANEL. LOL
Anyway, we are about to go for that free breakfast then hit the road again.
TODAY: the plan is to get at least across the Florida boarder! Stop for some OJ, maybe stop at "South Of The Boarder" before that (just to see and say we've been). So if we are going to get that far before dark, I'd better get off here now. Hopefully the next hotel will also have free wi-fi!

Crossing the boarder: [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG]

Funny House we saw in Ogdansburg: [IMG][/IMG]

DS enjoying his Activity book: [IMG][/IMG]


I had to throw this photo in! Our rootbeer does NOT come in bottles like they did here at Cracker Barrel. DS6 got a real KICK out of the fact he could drink from a beer bottle! In retrospect, perhaps THAT was not such a great idea...... [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG]

[kindra657]

Originally Posted by tjbaggott

Day One Is Done! Wow, we left the house at 8:30 yesterday morning, stopped at a conveinence store in Ogdansburg for some munchies and juice (a few of us forgot to have breakfast before we left). We drove as far as (some place in PA starting with an H) for lunch at a Cracker Barrel. Fabulous place, never been to one before! My kids got a real kick out of The Smarties there! They were like Giant Rocket candy that we have. Our Smarties are more like M&M's (something I've brought tons of along with us for the FE Exchange).
It got dark around 6pm and was pitch black out by 7. We drove till 9:30 pm and stopped here in Fredericksberg VA. Two rooms for the night at a Days Inn @ $47.95 each for the night. Free wi-fi (thus why I can do an update now), free breakfast, and the rooms are clean! The three most important things for me on what a hotel must have for me to stay. Only two scary incidents last night, both within 20 minutes of each other and both in West VA and both in the dark. First, a near miss with a deer, jumped out of nowhere on the drivers side. DH swerved to miss her, and thankfully she too stopped where she was when she saw the headlights. Missed her by inches! Second was two dogs chasing each other, ran out into the road, but not in our lane. My goodness, why were they loose and running onto the highway? I hope cars that came behind us didn't have problems with the deer or those little dogs! Nonetheless, we definately won't be driving at night again here! DS6 and DD18 are watching the DISNEY CHANNEL right now (we don't get this channel at home as I refuse to pay a huge chunk of $ for a cable package upgrade for just ONE CHANEL. LOL
Anyway, we are about to go for that free breakfast then hit the road again.
TODAY: the plan is to get at least across the Florida boarder! Stop for some OJ, maybe stop at "South Of The Boarder" before that (just to see and say we've been). So if we are going to get that far before dark, I'd better get off here now. Hopefully the next hotel will also have free wi-fi!

OMG hitting a deer would have been aweful!! We saw MANY deer on Saturday when we on the roads at night! They are definitely out and about so be careful, especially right at dusk too!! I'm so excited for you guys and your tee shirts are fabulous!!

[MagicMe]

Glad to hear you made it safely so far and avoided all the four-legged obstacles!!!

[tjbaggott]

Well, Day 2 is Done and today is Day 3 I managed to wrangle out some free internet here.
Day 2 was spent driving all day, we decided to bite the bullet and drive straight through to Kissimmee! We arrived at 10:30 last night. The roads were great. Moderate traffic, well lit, thus less risk of deer. Plus once we hit FL., the highways were wider, and not much woods on the side. The only thing I found nerve racking was the construction. No real slow downs because of that, but there were cement walls right at edge of the road. Driving next to that was a chore! We did stop at South of the Border, I didn't think much of it. Most of it was closed, it was lunch time, raining, and nothing there appealed to us. We ended up at some place in Dillon South Carolina, for a bite.
We stopped again in Savannah Georgia at a subway for dinner just as the sun was about to go down. The kids were enamoured with the palm trees. I will post pictures when I can.
Our hotel is called "Suites at Old Town" and is more like an apartment. Clean yet homey. Not a 5 star hotel by any means, but perfect nonetheless. 3 night stay came to $175 and change with all taxes and fees) The lobby is clean, but musty smelling, and the staff so far has been very friendly. It has a living room with a Murphy bed that pulls down out of the wall, a nice little kitchen with a fridge, microwave, stove top, coffee maker, dishwasher and table and chair set. (no dishes or pots and pans though). It has a single bathroom, and a back bedroom with two double beds and another counter with sink. Two television sets, patio doors off the bedroom and AIR CONDITIONING! WOW, we were pleasantly surprised when we got out of the van last night. It had just rained, but the temp out was 28 degrees Celcius, and HUMID! Considering it was about 4 degrees when we left home, THIS WAS NICE!

Today, DAY 3, DH went out early this morning to get McDonalds take out for breakfast (hot cakes and sausage and OJ!) Then we all drove to Walmart and picked up formal wear for DH, DS16 and DS12, new running shoes for two of them, some groceries, and several other items along with a bathing suit for me (I'd prefer the one I left at home, but I didn't have time to be picky). DS16 works at a Walmart back home, and were thankful he was allowed to use his employee discount card here! I was honestly surprised with the total bill, expecting it to be close to $500.00 but I came to just under $300.00. Not bad considering it was two sets of mens dress pants, dress shirts and ties, dress shoes, a two piece SUIT for DS12 and shirt with tie and dress shoes, dress socks, jean shorts for one of boys, two sets of mens running shoes, along with the other items. I know without a doubt back home it WOULD have come to around $500.00 easily. I LOVE SHOPPING HERE!
DH and sons have gone for a swim in the pool, so I'm heading off to join them and take pictures.
TOMORROW is DOWNTOWN DISNEY DAY! I will update tomorrow and try to upload some of the photos if I can. Tomorrow is the last day while on vacation I can update the trip report as I know we won't get free internet at Disney (likely wouldn't have time even if we could).
It's HOT outside, did I mention that already? I'm loving this!!!!

DD18 loving the Palm tree in Georgia just outside her favourite fast food place "Subway" [IMG][/IMG]

Our Hotel Room at "Suites At Old Town":

Walking to our room:[IMG][/IMG] Our room number: [IMG][/IMG]
To the right of where we first walk in: IMG][/IMG] This is the left side of the same room: [IMG][/IMG]

The Kitchen: [IMG][/IMG] [IMG][/IMG]

To the left off of the Kitchen: [IMG][/IMG] The back Bedroom: [IMG][/IMG]
[IMG][/IMG] And the view out the back bedroom: [IMG][/IMG]

The Pool area: [IMG][/IMG] We thought seeing these things EVERYWHERE was awesome!! [IMG][/IMG]

DD's trip on the SLINGSHOT: [IMG][/IMG]

[MagicMe]

Glad to hear things are going well and that you made it safely to Florida!! Enjoy!!!!