GreatBiscuit
Golden but never flaky
- Joined
- Aug 20, 1999
- Messages
- 3,009
Welcome one and all to the opening number of what promises to be another grand adventure. If you followed along on my last Trip Report, I am thrilled (and somewhat frightened) that you actually came back. If you are new to my musings, I welcome you.
And you have my pity.
Just so you know.
Writing an actual Pre-Trip Report is a new endeavor for me so I beg your indulgence if I dont quite follow the expected format. Though I included a brief Pre-Trip section in Biscuits Grand Adventure, I wasnt planning to do any type of Pre-Trip narrative this time around. However, as has often been said, every good story must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. It was clear when I was mulling the decision of whether or not to take on another Trip Report that the story itself wouldnt be complete without a proper beginning. Thus this thread was born.
The primary focus of this particular tale will not be touring plans, ADR Lists or itineraries, though they will certainly be mentioned as we go along. Instead this is to be the story of how our trip came into being, what it means to me, and what led to this being dubbed An Adventure in Opposites.
Disney trips can be a funny thing. No matter how confident you are in your expectations, one never truly knows what lies in store. I look forward to seeing where this Adventure takes us. Regardless of how the trip itself goes down, I do hope that as the journey unfurls, I will manage to convey to you the joy that I find in planning, taking and sharing a trip to the Walt Disney World resort. There will no doubt be many surprises in store for all parties involved, and I am eager to have as many of you along to share in them as are willing to tolerate my somewhat quirky narrations.
Having now consumed a multitude of rambling paragraphs without having the decency to invoke an introduction, I suppose this would be a good time to commence with the pleasantries. I am GreatBiscuit. (Obviously you know that I mean its branded over on the left there.) In real life I am known to answer to Bubba, Daddy, Dude, hey you, mister, tech guy, sir, and on occasion Matt.
When I am not blowing like a wind turbine about past and future trips to The World, I keep myself occupied in a number of ways. First there is work. At the time of my last Disney excursion, I was employed as a help desk tech in a mid-sized call center. It is an interesting occupation and certainly had its benefits, but was never really a career. (Those that followed the banter between posts last time no doubt remember the endless rounds of layoffs that accompanied that particular establishment.)
I have since bid farewell to cubicle life and taken up a job as an IT Tech for a school district. I currently am assigned to two campuses as well as the district surplus warehouse. It keeps me busy, is a never ending source of amusing stories, and I am loving it to death. I am also still serving as a volunteer associate pastor at my church where I oversee media ministries. In general terms, it means I handle light / sound / web / video. I get to do cool stuff like producing/directing short films and recording voice overs & podcasts, and I get to do rewarding stuff like hospital visits and writing content for our devotionals. (And, at one point, slipping and nearly falling to my death while trying to baptize someone .its the little things.)
My wife Tracy (known hereafter as First Lady Biscuit) still teaches at the same school as before, though she is now teaching first grade. She enjoys it immensely and is also happy with the change. She is also a bit camera shy but I'll sneak one of her at some point. Or you can just go look at my last TR.
Finally, my two girls have done a tremendous amount of growing since their last mention on these boards, and have both gone and become athletes. (Which I can assure you is pretty humorous if you actually know me.)
My youngest, Hailee, who was only five on our last trip, is now a fourth grader and she full on loves gymnastics. (Her favorite thing to do is the bars.)
From a recent meet.
My oldest, Tahlia, who was not quite seven on our last trip is now in sixth grade which kills me every time I think about it. She is in All Star Cheerleading (cheering as a competitive sport in and of itself rather than cheering for another sports team dont feel bad, I had to look it up too) and she is a flyer. (Thus providing me with a never ending source of ulcers.)
That is her up in the air - mid barrel roll.
Both of them compete on teams that tend to do very well at competitions, and one team has done so well that it has the potential to completely and totally change everything about our trip up to and including postponing it.
Again.
Not that Im nervous about that or anything.
But thats getting ahead of myself.
With all the time spent working, practicing and competing, we need a vacation.
A REAL vacation.
Not just a weekend here or there, or a long road trip to see family. (Got nothin but love for you Mother-In-Law Biscuit, but Disney World you aint.)
No my friends, what we need more than just about anything right now is a reboot. And a week at Disney is the Hirens Boot CD to my beleaguered internal hard drive. (HatTipMyFellowGeeks)
If you have actually hung in there and are still reading along, I congratulate you. I nodded off a few lines back. Youll find that my writings tend to ramble on a bit; some would even call them cathartic. (You know who you are.)
For this trip we will be joined by First Lady Biscuits sister Tammy and her family. As some of you may recall from the infamous refrigerator incident mentioned on my previous TR, First Lady Biscuit is an identical twin. (If not, Ill probably post it here at some point in time.) While my wife and her sister grew up in Minnesota, I grew up in Texas, which always caused a bit of humor & bantering at family gatherings on both ends of I-35.
I was quite happy when, a couple of years after my own nuptials, Tammy also married a Texan. My brother-in-law Nick and I are now able to join forces and combat such wild notions as eating mild salsa (as if such a thing could even exist), fishing on ice, serving a meal without a pitcher of sweet iced tea, and only grilling in the summertime. (Yes, my brother in law was on a deck in Minneapolis on New Years Eve grilling steaks in sub-zero wind chills.)
Keep the faith brother. Keep the faith.
Among the most humorous things about hanging out with my BIL is that people constantly mistake Nick and I for brothers. I used to try to explain our geographical separation within the impressively massive state of Texas, but its gotten easier to just nod and say yep.
Their daughters Nicki and Sammie will be 8 & 7 respectively. Their girls just started in gymnastics this year and are doing very well at it, so I imagine they will also be hitting the competitive levels quite soon.
This will not be the first time our families have traveled together. A couple of years back we all went to the Kalahari Resort in Wisconsin Dells for a couple of days. (We wound up being upgraded to the presidential suite which ROCKED by the way.)
They had snacks:
Now that you know the who, (NoTommyTheRockOpera) I suppose it would behoove me to move on to the what. The title of this TR has to do with a number of things, but suffice it to say that this trip will in no way, shape or form resemble our last one. Pretty much EVERYTHING that can be changed has been changed. I would give you all the details now, but that would once again be getting ahead of myself. For now, Ill stick with the basics.
First and foremost, were going to Disney World.
(I once again state the obvious .If we were going to Gatorland, this entire thing would have been pointless.)
We are travling the week of July 4th.
You read that right.
Yes I know.
Yes, we probably are crazy.
No, we cant reconsider.
Why?
Because there are multiple forces at work, namely, well, work. I work year round at the schools, but I am off that one week each summer. Nick has to do inventory the last two weeks of June and cant take time off until after that. There are sports camps, work trainings, church camps & other things going on other weeks. In short, thats the one window when everyone can go.
We are staying a week and planning to start the Disneyfied portion of the trip that Monday. Yes, I said portion. There are other factors coming into play this time around. Were gonna shake it up. (NoObnoxiousDanceShowThatMakesMeHaveSeizures) What things do I speak of? How will they affect the trip? Have I once again created The Plan? How are getting there? Where are we staying? Where are we eating?
All this and more shall be revealed soon.
Looking at the calendar, and looking at my PTR topics to cover, I see I will need to post an update every 2 weeks between now and departure day. Its good to have a deadline and set expectations. Not that I ever followed the posting goals I publicly proclaimed the last time I undertook a TR, but hey, a feller can dream.
Until next time, I bid you a fond farewell and thank you for joining the adventure.
Yay! A new adventure! I was here for your first adventure and loved it. Can't wait for this one...
I had hoped that was out of the running and that was why you started this PTR. 
Hi again, FLB!
Okay, yes, my own child has aged at the same rate, of course, but still... has it really been that long??? Wowsa.
and finding out that Woody's Roundup is about to start! 
You are indeed! 
(I've missed that emoticon...)
