Just Hold On, We're Going Home...All 11 of Us Are Going to Mickeystoontown's Home! Update 10/27

[WishesOnMyMind]

Yay! Another trip report! You are my very favorite trip report writer, Lisa. I love to read about how much fun your family has at Disney World, even after all these years. I especially loved reading about the time when you lost your crown, and made a bad situation seem funny. I am looking forward to reading about your latest adventures!

 

[pwdebbie]

I'm finally here. So sorry to be late to the party! You may now begin posting all about your trip. Thanks for waiting for me!

 

[amazingact21]

I'm here!

 

[MsHershey]

Oh my goodness! I am so happy you have started your trip report! Looking forward to reading about your adventures.

 

[Curiouser&curiouser!]

Yippee! I can't wait to hear the latest tale!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Hello all! I'll be replying to each and every one of you soon but I wanted to thank you all for joining my latest trip report! I'm organizing the pictures for my next installment and should have an update and replies posted tomorrow!

 

[Urugami]

Just saw this new TR less than a week after you started it (which is amazing since it's been a couple of months since I've been here at all.. ). Joining on Page 3!
I guess I need to read the end of your last TR too, don't I?
Don't know when I'll find the time though... We're heading down in about 3 weeks ourselves.
Got our Magic Bands yesterday... yay!

Can't wait to see what Fun and Frivolity the Mickey'sToonTown clan cooked up this time.

 

[thetallone101]

eek! So excited!

 

[mickeystoontown]

joining in!

Welcome Jen! I'm excited to hear about the trip that you are on now!

Joining in as well!

Thanks so much for joining me again!

joining in

Welcome aboard!

*Squeals with Joy!*

So happy you have started. GREAT family picture!

Thanks Dee! We didn't look half bad considering we had been in the park ALL day and night long.

Joining in on the fun.

Welcome aboard so glad to have you here!

Yay!! Fantastic mid-week surprise! Here and eager to read...already subscribed with e-mail updates! What a beautiful family! (Yikes sorry for all those exclamation points but boy am I excited)

Thank you for joining in on my latest report!

YAY!!!!! I'm here, too!!!!

Hey there stranger! I don't see you posting often so I'm happy to see you.

Joining in!

Welcome! Welcome!

Yay! So excited for another report... Have mainly been a lurker of yours for years. Even more interested this time, as we are staying at CBR for the first time from 12/30-1/6! Very excited to stay there and see how we like it!

Thanks for coming out of lurkdom! I hope that you'll post more often. Your trip is coming soon!

Following! So glad to be back on the Dis!

It's Connie! I'm so glad to have you back on the Dis too!

 

[mickeystoontown]

You'll love CBR! I stayed there in 2006 and it was so nice and relaxing with the flower, beaches, hammocks! A word from the person who learned the hard way - stay away from scented shaving creams and perfumes, and bring bug spray. I was destroyed by mosquitoes (but that also happens here in Philly so maybe they just like me!).

I can't wait to get back there!

Thanks! I will! Maybe the bugs won't be as bad in January! we have three boys... 16,14,and11. We are going to be in Epcot for NYE! We are CRAZY! A least they can all hang until well after midnight.

Yep, you ARE crazy but I'd do it in a heartbeat!

I'm here

Welcome aboard! Glad to have you!

Yay! You know I"m in!

Hey Clare! So glad to see you!

joining in!

Welcome aboard another Mickeystoontown report!

I'm here

And I am happy that you are! Welcome!

Yay!!! So excited!! Hopefully I will get the emails when you update!!!! LOL!

Excited that you are here! I hope that the email notifications work. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Joining in- can't wait to hear all about your trip. I loved your last trip report.

Thank you and thanks for joining me!

I'm in!

Hello Michelle! Thanks for coming along!

I am here! Cannot wait to read your latest crazy adventure......all while I procrastinate at work!

Procrastinate at work? I don't know ANYBODY who does that.....said by the woman who wrote the installment while at work. LOL!

Oh gosh you did say your dates and I totally had a Dory moment and forgot! Yes I pray for your ankles they aren't as bad in January! We did MK last NYE and it was absolutely crazy and the most awesome time ever. I would do it again in a heartbeat! I would love to do Epcot for NYE, maybe in 2016! Have a blast! They will definitely be able to hang, there is so much excitement in the air that even as tired as we were, having been at MK since about 830am, we didn't feel it at all. We eventually got in line for the bus I think around 330-345am and got back to Coronado and in our rooms almost 430am. I crawled into the bed, I kid you not haha!

You are making we want to go during NYE!

I'm here!!!

I can't wait to hear all about your trip and all that happened with the extra family in tow!

Welcome Steph! I'm so glad that you are here!

Super excited for another trip report from you!!

Welcome aboard the crazy train!

Very excited to read about your new adventure, loved reading your last report!

Thank you! It's wonderful to have you here!

I'm ready for another entertaining trip report!

Welcome! Welcome!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Lisa. No trips to Knoxville this year.

 

[theskyisawake]

Yay! I read your last TR and I'm excited to see a new one!

 

[EastYorkDisneyFan]

I can't believe I missed the start of a new TR but I have a valid excuse I was in Cancun Mexico for my brothers wedding

 

[PrncessA]

Woohoo your new report! I am here, a little late, but for a good reason. Now I am going to go back and read up!

 

[mickeystoontown]

Looking forward to it, as always! So glad you have both your kiddos close now.

Thanks for joining in! I'm very very glad to have my kids living nearby!

Joining in!

Welcome aboard! I hope that you will post often!

Joining in too!

Thanks for coming along for the ride!

So excited to read about your trip!

Welcome! I had hoped to get an update posted but life happened.

In!

So very glad to have you onboard!

What can I say...I NEED more...LOL! Can't wait to read this adventure! I can't remember what part of LA you are in, but my son is currently a Junior at LSU (lives in Geismar).

Can't wait to read more adventures!

Lynn

Hi Lynn! We are at the top of the State.

Yay! I love your trip reports! I'm looking forward to reading another one!

Welcome! Welcome!

Hey! New TR started!
Can't wait to see what you find to do this year. So glad you have Jessie and Lacey with you. Excited to see what the newbies think of your favorite place.
Love having another Lisa trip to get me through a cold winter(starting with snow today in IL!)

Welcome! I'm hoping to get another installment posted soon and it will have some sunny pictures!

Hiiii Lisa! I'm here.

Thanks for coming along for what is sure to be a crazy ride!

Joining in! Can't wait to read all about your trip!

Welcome! Hope to get an installment posted in a bit.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Yay! Another trip report! You are my very favorite trip report writer, Lisa. I love to read about how much fun your family has at Disney World, even after all these years. I especially loved reading about the time when you lost your crown, and made a bad situation seem funny. I am looking forward to reading about your latest adventures!

Welcome! We still laugh about that day! Actually, we laugh about it every time we eat at The Electric Umbrella.

I'm finally here. So sorry to be late to the party! You may now begin posting all about your trip. Thanks for waiting for me!

Welcome! I'm glad to have you!

I'm here!

Welcome super Mama! You are THE woman to be able to keep up with two little ones and still read.

Oh my goodness! I am so happy you have started your trip report! Looking forward to reading about your adventures.

Welcome aboard the crazy train!

Yippee! I can't wait to hear the latest tale!

Glad to have you! You know that there will be at least one crazy tale to tell.

eek! So excited!

Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!

I hope you and yours have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Lisa. No trips to Knoxville this year.

Nope no trip to Knoxville! I was actually very sad that we weren't going anywhere this year.

Yay! I read your last TR and I'm excited to see a new one!

Thanks so much for coming along for the ride!

I can't believe I missed the start of a new TR but I have a valid excuse I was in Cancun Mexico for my brothers wedding

Welcome! What a great reason to be late to the party!

Woohoo your new report! I am here, a little late, but for a good reason. Now I am going to go back and read up!

I'm glad that you are here!

 

[mickeystoontown]

As it always seems to be the case around the holidays, life gets in the way of my Dis time. I've finally had the time to reply to all of you wonderful people and am now working on the first "real" installment of my report. It will be "live" in just a few.

 

[oopsiDAISY]

 

[mickeystoontown]

I'm a spreadsheet and notes kinda gal. I don't plan every single thing that we do, minute by minute, but I like to have a plan. That includes our driving plans. We live over 800 miles away from Walt Disney World which means that, depending on the traffic, it can take anywhere from 13 to 16 hours to get there.

For our first ten or so trips, we'd leave really early in the morning but still didn't drive all the way. Years ago, we thought to ourselves "ourselves, why not leave after work and get at least four or five, maybe six hours under your belt?". Don't know why ourselves didn't think of that earlier. Depending on what time we left and how the traffic was, we'd sometimes stop in Mobile, Alabama or in Pensacola, Florida. That was back in the day when the kids were younger (our first trip was when Hunter was 1 and Lacey was 11) and we had to make more pit stops. The last few years, we've made it to Crestview, Florida which is between Mobile, Alabama and Tallahassee, Florida. That put us almost to the halfway point.

​

Then, John's boss changed their schedules and they had Fridays off! Meaning, when I get off work at Noon, the guys would be at home and waiting on me! For our 2014 trip, we left before 1:00 p.m. instead of between 5 and 6 p.m.

Well, about a month before we were set to leave on this trip, the schedule changed and they were back to working on Fridays. Boo! Hiss! It was beginning to look like we'd be back to leaving later in the day again. Frick and Frack! However, John told his boss what was up and he was able to leave at Noon. Take back that Frick and Frack and replace it with Baby's Got Back!

I spent my time at work on Friday calming my boss's nerves. I'm going to tell y'all like it is. He's a big booty. I'm not saying anything that he doesn't already know. He is a big time family law attorney here and people pay him to be a booty and, let's just say, that he does his job well and they get their money's worth...and then some. Having said that, he is a teddy bear when it comes to things that he loves. He loves his routine. He loves his Mama. He loves his cat. He loves our working relationship ('cause I tell him like it is which is not what most people do but he loves it). He despises change. He despises temps. He despises it when I leave. So, I kept reassuring him that everything would be fine and dandy. The temp had worked in a law office before (forget the fact that she worked for a collection attorney and not a divorce lawyer) so she knew how to handle people. The temp had been one of his clients so she knew of his temperament. The temp had a four page, step-by-step guide on what to do while I was away which, by the way, was little more than answering the phone and maybe making a copy or two.

Annnyway, because I was busy getting last minute things done and patting my boss's hand, the time pretty much flew by. It also meant that I didn't have time to make changes to our driving itinerary which wasn't a big deal because the only thing that changed was the fact that John wasn't actually off. He would be home about the same time that I would. At a few minutes after Noon, I was outta there!

This was the first page in our daily itinerary:

Friday: May 22nd

John and Hunter are off so they’ll load any suitcases that haven’t already been loaded into the car. They will also pick up lunch and have it at the house when I get home which should be somewhere around 12:15 p.m. Eat lunch. I’ll change clothes. Do one last check of the house. Try to be on the road by 1:00 p.m.

Dinner on the road.

Drive as far as we can before stopping for the night.

Drive time from our house to Crestview:
6 hours 35 minutes 404.34 miles
Arrive at approximately 8:00 p.m.


Drive time from our house to: DeFuniak Springs:
7 hours 8 minutes 436.68 miles
Arrive at approximately 8:15 p.m.

Drive time from our house to Bonifay:
7 hours 28 minutes 460.07 miles
Arrive at approximately 8:30 p.m.


Drive time from our house to Marianna:
7 hours 53 minutes 490.10 miles
Arrive at approximately 9:00 p.m.


Drive time from our house to Quincy:
8 hours 26 minutes 529.28 miles
* Arrive at approximately 10:30 p.m. because of time change


Drive time from our house to dead center Tallahassee:
8 hours 46 minutes 549.60 miles
Arrive at approximately 10:50 p.m.


Drive time from our house to a little past Tallahassee:
8 hours 58 minutes 560.65 miles
Arrive at approximately 11:00 p.m.


Drive time from our house to Madison:
9 hours 41 minutes 608.76 miles
Arrive at approximately 11:45 p.m.


Drive from our house to Lake City at junction of I-75:
10 hours 9 minutes 643.85 miles
Arrive at approximately 12:15 p.m.


Time will change somewhere around Quincy/Tallahassee. Time moves forward an hour.

I know what you're thinking right now. She said that she doesn't plan every minute of their day but that itinerary shows otherwise. Well, you see, I like to think ahead, give us options. I was giving us options. Options on whether or not to stop sooner rather than later. Options on staying in a little town or a bigger town. Using MapQuest and Hotels.com, gave me those options. If we knew that we had another hour to drive to XYZ location and we were tired, we'd stop. But, if we just had to drive another 15/20 minutes to XYZ, we'd probably drive on and be a thismuch closer to our destination.

I called John on the way home and told him that I'd stop and pick up lunch and he could go ahead and jump in the shower. We'd eat while packing up the last few things. You know those "things" that you can't pack because you'd use them at the last minute kind of things. We ate our burgers quickly and tossed in the last minute stuff and hugged Mama bye. We were on the road at 1:50 p.m. which is about an hour later than when we wanted to leave. Oh well, it sure beat the heck outta leaving at 5:50 p.m.



If you've read my reports before or if you've traveled I-20 across the State of Louisiana, you know that there's not much to see. I'm talking nothing but fields and, well, fields. Oh and vehicles, small ones, medium ones, big 18 wheelers. Yeah, you can see those too. That is until you reach the Louisiana/Mississippi line. Then you get to drive over the Mississippi River. There are two bridges over the river and you can see them up ahead. They are the white structures in the picture below.



Gettin' closer to Mississippi.




That there, my friends, is the Mighty Mississip.





Now, we were in another State...Mississippi. Apparently, we didn't take any pictures until we neared Jackson, Mississippi, which is near where one of my Dis friends lives and home of what we refer to as "the Epcot ball wannabe" which, I was informed a few years ago, is a sports arena.



About this time, I'm usually trying to snap pictures of all of the giant icons that are in front of businesses or are the actual businesses. Things like a giant knight or the church that looks like an old lighthouse. Or the giant paint can in front of Sherwin Williams or the catfish restaurant that looks somewhat like an igloo. Looks like I took just one of this huge cross. Actually, I didn't take it, John did.


Not long after we made the turn to go down the State of Mississippi, traffic came to a halt. When I say halt, I'm talking, we were sittin' still. Dang it! Not even three hours into our drive and we had hit traffic. We amused ourselves by making up stories about the people in front of us or the people we could see off to the side. Those that knew the area and knew a way around the jam. You know, the ones that were probably sticking their tongues out at us suckers and going "nanny nanny boo boo, stick your head in..." y'all probably know the rest.

Eventually, the traffic inched up and we realized that three of the vehicles that were beside us were being driven by some very famous television stars. Some of our neighbors. The Robertson family, of Duck Commander fame, were beside us. They weren't driving fancy vehicles and they weren't pulling a gigantic boat or rig. They were in plain ol' Suburbans and cars and were pulling what can only be described as an old small sailboat that looked to have been stored for a while. Now, I know that some don't like them. Some don't agree with their stance on religious beliefs. But, I am here to tell you that they have done amazing things for our community. They always always give back. They are humble and not at all stuck up folks. It is refreshing to see a "celebrity" (for lack of a better word) give back to their community and stay "normal".

After about 45 minutes, traffic had finally cleared and we were back up to full speed again. The Robertsons convo pulled their old sailboat and trailer and we drove on with our coffin on top. Not an actual coffin but our luggage carrier that my boss calls a coffin.

At some point, the snacks were pulled out and John was in charge of passing out crackers and squirty cheese. He was doing a fine job too.



We called Mama to check in. She worries about us when we are driving so we check in with her pretty often to calm her fears. About 7:45 p.m., we finally made it to Mobile, Alabama, home of another fellow Dis friend.

**Continued in next post