famsen
DIS Veteran
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2006
- Messages
- 2,074
This was our 7th trip to WDW as a family. There are three of us DH, DD (older teen) and me. Our last trip was 5 years ago just prior to 9/11. Since then, we preferred to visit less crowded places and took the time to see the western states. I do not fly so my family has to put up with me in the car for the LOOOOOONG drive from Chicago to Orlando. This trip was planned for 5 nights at Port Orleans French Quarter. The highlight of the trip was to be there for the Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party on 10/10. This was also our anniversary week.
We left at 2:30am Saturday. We just had new tires installed on the front of our car but the place we took our tires to had only those two left in stock. It would be a week before the tires came in for the back. My DH and I felt confident that the rear tires were still in good enough condition to make the trip to Florida and back and we would replace the rear tires upon our return.
Ten minutes into our journey, we got on the highway. As soon as we hit 55 mph the car began vibrating. At first I thought it was just the terrible roads we have in Chicago. After about 5 minutes, I got up the courage to mention to my DH that this was not good. I could tell he felt the same way but was afraid to say it. We kept driving and tried to think of every logical reason for this vibration. The vibrating subsided when we hit 65mph or higher. My deductive reasoning said it was proably a tire balance issue. We continued on course and decided that once we hit our scheduled stop for breakfast in Indiana, we would look for a tire place to have the car checked out.
By 6:00am EST we reached a Cracker Barrel restaurant. To my surprise, we saw at least 50 young Amish people eating there. Having taken several anthropology courses, I have always been fascinated with the Amish way of life. I have never seen the Amish eating out at an "English" restaurant. The girls were wearing their white bonnets and ate separately from the boys. I found this so interesting. I did not stare, just gave admiring glances.
We decided to take the car to a tire place that was supposedly nearby. After getting directions from the hostess at the restaurant and the manager of the tire store, we headed out on what should have been a 5 to 10 minute trip. It took us over 45 minutes to find the place. The manager rebalanced the tires which he said were slightly out of balance and sent us on our way at no charge. He did not say he saw anything else wrong with the tires. As soon as we hit the highway at 55mph, the vibrating began again.Needless to say there were some salty words spewing from my mouth in the car.
Eventually, I gave up and just decided to go with the flow. I planned too long and hard for this trip.
We drove into Kentucky and stopped for a visit at the Jim Bean distillery. We tasted some good liquor, bought some items and hit the road at about 1pm. Since we already lost about an hour and a half off our schedule due to the car problem, we ditched our plan to stop for the night in Georgia. We all talked it over and figured we would take turns driving through the night until we reached Orlando. I called WDW to see if anything was available at the All Star or Pop Century for 1 night. I deducted that we would have arrived at WDW about 2:00am if we drove straight through without stops. I didn't want to have to hang around a 24 hour Denny's or IHOP in Orlando until check in time at Port Orleans French Quarter. Unfortunately, the reservation's CM told me that the cheapest room left available for the nigbt was for nearly $300 at Saratoga Springs. I passed on that and decided to keep driving through and whenever we got there, we got there.
It seemed like a great idea until we hit a traffic jam outside Atlanta. By 8:00pm, we were exhausted (hey, were not as young as we used to be
). We had those roadside traveler coupon books with us and found a Holiday Inn for $64. Personally, I hate hotels with rooms with outside access. This hotel wasn't the greatest but it was a decent enough place to spend 7 hours and get some rest and it had a chapel on site which somehow comforted me. We hit the sack.
In less than 8 hours, we would be at Port Orleans French Quarter.
We left at 2:30am Saturday. We just had new tires installed on the front of our car but the place we took our tires to had only those two left in stock. It would be a week before the tires came in for the back. My DH and I felt confident that the rear tires were still in good enough condition to make the trip to Florida and back and we would replace the rear tires upon our return.
Ten minutes into our journey, we got on the highway. As soon as we hit 55 mph the car began vibrating. At first I thought it was just the terrible roads we have in Chicago. After about 5 minutes, I got up the courage to mention to my DH that this was not good. I could tell he felt the same way but was afraid to say it. We kept driving and tried to think of every logical reason for this vibration. The vibrating subsided when we hit 65mph or higher. My deductive reasoning said it was proably a tire balance issue. We continued on course and decided that once we hit our scheduled stop for breakfast in Indiana, we would look for a tire place to have the car checked out.
By 6:00am EST we reached a Cracker Barrel restaurant. To my surprise, we saw at least 50 young Amish people eating there. Having taken several anthropology courses, I have always been fascinated with the Amish way of life. I have never seen the Amish eating out at an "English" restaurant. The girls were wearing their white bonnets and ate separately from the boys. I found this so interesting. I did not stare, just gave admiring glances.
We decided to take the car to a tire place that was supposedly nearby. After getting directions from the hostess at the restaurant and the manager of the tire store, we headed out on what should have been a 5 to 10 minute trip. It took us over 45 minutes to find the place. The manager rebalanced the tires which he said were slightly out of balance and sent us on our way at no charge. He did not say he saw anything else wrong with the tires. As soon as we hit the highway at 55mph, the vibrating began again.Needless to say there were some salty words spewing from my mouth in the car.
Eventually, I gave up and just decided to go with the flow. I planned too long and hard for this trip.
We drove into Kentucky and stopped for a visit at the Jim Bean distillery. We tasted some good liquor, bought some items and hit the road at about 1pm. Since we already lost about an hour and a half off our schedule due to the car problem, we ditched our plan to stop for the night in Georgia. We all talked it over and figured we would take turns driving through the night until we reached Orlando. I called WDW to see if anything was available at the All Star or Pop Century for 1 night. I deducted that we would have arrived at WDW about 2:00am if we drove straight through without stops. I didn't want to have to hang around a 24 hour Denny's or IHOP in Orlando until check in time at Port Orleans French Quarter. Unfortunately, the reservation's CM told me that the cheapest room left available for the nigbt was for nearly $300 at Saratoga Springs. I passed on that and decided to keep driving through and whenever we got there, we got there.
It seemed like a great idea until we hit a traffic jam outside Atlanta. By 8:00pm, we were exhausted (hey, were not as young as we used to be
). We had those roadside traveler coupon books with us and found a Holiday Inn for $64. Personally, I hate hotels with rooms with outside access. This hotel wasn't the greatest but it was a decent enough place to spend 7 hours and get some rest and it had a chapel on site which somehow comforted me. We hit the sack. In less than 8 hours, we would be at Port Orleans French Quarter.
