GreatBiscuit
Golden but never flaky
- Joined
- Aug 20, 1999
Episode 48 - Biscuit's Return to Paradise
Greetings friends! Six months and four dozen episodes ago, I shared with you a dream to return to that place we all know and love. I am happy to report that this trip was all that I had hoped it would be and more.
Let’s begin by reintroducing the cast shall we?
From left to right, we have First Lady Biscuit, GreatBiscuit, my nephew Preston (6) , DD Hailee (5) , Aunt Janna, DD Tahli (ALMOST 7) , Papa (AKA FatherLoaf) & Nana (AKA MotherLoaf).
Day zero began with some last minute packing and the requisite straightening up of the house. Our original plan was to leave home at 3:30 PM, meet up with my parents at their house, and then head down to Houston, eat at my sister’s house and finally to check into our motel for the night.
I began loading up the car at 3:45, and managed to get our 4 checked suitcases, 4 carry-ons and 1 laptop case all crammed into the trunk & backseat. After everyone did their final duties, it was time to load up. That’s when we noticed Tracy’s cell phone was missing. So I unpacked the car and began digging in suitcases. Then she remembered that she had shaken her purse out over the trash to rid it of some confetti one of the girls had dumped in it. Her phone normally rides in a pocket on the outside, so she thought maybe it had fallen out unobserved. I headed outside and dialed it, then heard it faintly ringing in the big can we roll down to the curb.
By 4:30 I had reloaded the suitcases back into the car and we were off to Kohls. There was something we needed, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. Whatever we were looking for, we did not find and so we headed off to my mom’s house. (Correction...FLB tells me it was Wal-Mart which is NEXT to Kohls and we found everything we needed except Silly Putty which we were going to add to the girls travel suitcase.) Normally, this would be a 15 minute journey, but as you know, when it comes to travel, the Biscuit clan is far from normal.
We wound up gridlocked in traffic and at the first red light, I noticed a car in the right hand lane was smoking. The driver jumped out and opened the door, and I saw the smoke was coming from the door itself. The window was down and it was billowing out of the slot the window lowers into. (My guess is the window motor caught fire.) He got back in and pulled the car to the shoulder. Luckily he had a case of water in the car and started dousing the door with it. I wished him well and continued on our journey.
We finally arrived at my parents’ house at six and after another run to the facilities, we loaded up and pulled away at 6:15 PM. The Biscuit clan was finally on the road! Trip 7 had officially begun. WOOHOOO! We knew we couldn’t wait three hours for dinner, so we decided to pinch hit some Burger King at our highway cutoff about 20 miles down the road, but there happened to be a Subway in close proximity and the BK got vetoed.
Sandwiches in hand, we set off cross country on the back roads of Central Texas. Let’s see, there were cows, horses, cows, sorghum, chickens, more cows, three trains, some cows, a dead armadillo, cows, a creek, more horses, and oh yeah, some cows. In short, there were a lot of cows.
The drive also set a precedent that would be repeated throughout our trip. Before I proceed any further, I must point out that I love having two daughters. It’s a wonderful and awesome privilege and I count it a joy every day. That said, may I make an observation? Little girls need to potty at inopportune times. Whether it’s out in the middle of nowhere, or 2 min before a show is about to begin, they have a knack for poor bladder timing. But, what can you do? Not much, but roll with it and seek out the nearest facility.
I snapped this during one of our many RR breaks.
There was also one other stop that we had to make on the way down. As you may recall from the Season 7 PTR, Aunt Jana recently took a job in Florida. Her house in Texas is still on the market and there were a few things still there that she needed, so we stopped and picked them up for her.
We finally arrived at the motel at 11 PM and lugged all our stuff to the room. By the time everyone was settled in and sleeping it was near 1 AM. I slept lightly at best and seemed to awake every 30 min or so.
Finally at 4 AM, I rolled my eager self into the shower and was soon rearing to go. We called down to the desk at 4;30 to confirm we needed an airport shuttle for 7 at 5:00 AM. We arrived in the lobby at 4:58 and discovered the shuttle had just left. The desk clerk advised we should have called. I advised we did call. She advised they just left with a family of four. I advised that we called and told them we had a group of 7 so it seems odd they would assume the group of 4 was us. She advised it would be 20 minutes. I advised I needed some coffee.
The shuttle eventually returned and we loaded up, but we were now a bit pressed for time.
You can't tell they are going on 3 hours sleep!
Our driver was nice, but she let us off at the wrong spot. We then had to swim upstream with a monstrous pile of luggage and three small children.
We finally got to the correct place, checked ourselves in, and headed through the security line. This was a trip in and of itself. I’m sure if someone would have had a video of us it would win an award somewhere. There was a lot of “put your shoes up here, put that down, don’t touch that, wait for us, don’t go behind there, we’ll potty in a minute” and so on and so forth.
By the time we made it through, it was nearing time to board. Tracy and Nana took the young uns to make use of the facilities. No sooner had they left than the "way too happy for 6 in the morning" gate agent announced it was time to board. I was a bit flustered at that point. After all, why get up at the butt crack of dawn to do online check-in the day before to ensure you are in the first boarding group, only to be the last ones on the plane? But alas, the Southwest Agent was over-eager and it was about 10 minutes before we actually started boarding so all was well in the world. We were on the Southwest Shamu plane, but it was too dark for a good photo. If you really feel the urge, just Google it and I’m sure there are many photos to be found.
We wound up in three rows, with Tahli and myself in a row of our own, sitting across from Hailee and Tracy in a row of their own, and Nana, Papa & Preston sitting in front of them.
Of course this did not last long, and soon all the kids were in the same row watching a video. (I picked up this handy Belkin splitter at Best Buy that lets you run 5 sets of headphones on one jack.)
The flight lasted two hours, and we were soon gliding over Orlando. The kids all returned to their original seats to watch for Disney World.
I watched out the window with Tahli as we circled around to land, and soon, we felt the wheels touch the ground.
Though it had taken longer than I had hoped, I was back. In a few short moments, we would be getting off the plane and heading to The World. As we were pulling to the gate, Tahli turned from the window, smiled at me and said “I’m so excited!” Me too princess! Now let’s go have an adventure!
Coming up on Episode 49 – Bring on the Magic!
Greetings friends! Six months and four dozen episodes ago, I shared with you a dream to return to that place we all know and love. I am happy to report that this trip was all that I had hoped it would be and more.
Let’s begin by reintroducing the cast shall we?
From left to right, we have First Lady Biscuit, GreatBiscuit, my nephew Preston (6) , DD Hailee (5) , Aunt Janna, DD Tahli (ALMOST 7) , Papa (AKA FatherLoaf) & Nana (AKA MotherLoaf).
Day zero began with some last minute packing and the requisite straightening up of the house. Our original plan was to leave home at 3:30 PM, meet up with my parents at their house, and then head down to Houston, eat at my sister’s house and finally to check into our motel for the night.
I began loading up the car at 3:45, and managed to get our 4 checked suitcases, 4 carry-ons and 1 laptop case all crammed into the trunk & backseat. After everyone did their final duties, it was time to load up. That’s when we noticed Tracy’s cell phone was missing. So I unpacked the car and began digging in suitcases. Then she remembered that she had shaken her purse out over the trash to rid it of some confetti one of the girls had dumped in it. Her phone normally rides in a pocket on the outside, so she thought maybe it had fallen out unobserved. I headed outside and dialed it, then heard it faintly ringing in the big can we roll down to the curb.
By 4:30 I had reloaded the suitcases back into the car and we were off to Kohls. There was something we needed, but I cannot for the life of me remember what it was. Whatever we were looking for, we did not find and so we headed off to my mom’s house. (Correction...FLB tells me it was Wal-Mart which is NEXT to Kohls and we found everything we needed except Silly Putty which we were going to add to the girls travel suitcase.) Normally, this would be a 15 minute journey, but as you know, when it comes to travel, the Biscuit clan is far from normal.
We wound up gridlocked in traffic and at the first red light, I noticed a car in the right hand lane was smoking. The driver jumped out and opened the door, and I saw the smoke was coming from the door itself. The window was down and it was billowing out of the slot the window lowers into. (My guess is the window motor caught fire.) He got back in and pulled the car to the shoulder. Luckily he had a case of water in the car and started dousing the door with it. I wished him well and continued on our journey.
We finally arrived at my parents’ house at six and after another run to the facilities, we loaded up and pulled away at 6:15 PM. The Biscuit clan was finally on the road! Trip 7 had officially begun. WOOHOOO! We knew we couldn’t wait three hours for dinner, so we decided to pinch hit some Burger King at our highway cutoff about 20 miles down the road, but there happened to be a Subway in close proximity and the BK got vetoed.
Sandwiches in hand, we set off cross country on the back roads of Central Texas. Let’s see, there were cows, horses, cows, sorghum, chickens, more cows, three trains, some cows, a dead armadillo, cows, a creek, more horses, and oh yeah, some cows. In short, there were a lot of cows.
The drive also set a precedent that would be repeated throughout our trip. Before I proceed any further, I must point out that I love having two daughters. It’s a wonderful and awesome privilege and I count it a joy every day. That said, may I make an observation? Little girls need to potty at inopportune times. Whether it’s out in the middle of nowhere, or 2 min before a show is about to begin, they have a knack for poor bladder timing. But, what can you do? Not much, but roll with it and seek out the nearest facility.
I snapped this during one of our many RR breaks.
There was also one other stop that we had to make on the way down. As you may recall from the Season 7 PTR, Aunt Jana recently took a job in Florida. Her house in Texas is still on the market and there were a few things still there that she needed, so we stopped and picked them up for her.
We finally arrived at the motel at 11 PM and lugged all our stuff to the room. By the time everyone was settled in and sleeping it was near 1 AM. I slept lightly at best and seemed to awake every 30 min or so.
Finally at 4 AM, I rolled my eager self into the shower and was soon rearing to go. We called down to the desk at 4;30 to confirm we needed an airport shuttle for 7 at 5:00 AM. We arrived in the lobby at 4:58 and discovered the shuttle had just left. The desk clerk advised we should have called. I advised we did call. She advised they just left with a family of four. I advised that we called and told them we had a group of 7 so it seems odd they would assume the group of 4 was us. She advised it would be 20 minutes. I advised I needed some coffee.
The shuttle eventually returned and we loaded up, but we were now a bit pressed for time.
You can't tell they are going on 3 hours sleep!
Our driver was nice, but she let us off at the wrong spot. We then had to swim upstream with a monstrous pile of luggage and three small children.
We finally got to the correct place, checked ourselves in, and headed through the security line. This was a trip in and of itself. I’m sure if someone would have had a video of us it would win an award somewhere. There was a lot of “put your shoes up here, put that down, don’t touch that, wait for us, don’t go behind there, we’ll potty in a minute” and so on and so forth.
By the time we made it through, it was nearing time to board. Tracy and Nana took the young uns to make use of the facilities. No sooner had they left than the "way too happy for 6 in the morning" gate agent announced it was time to board. I was a bit flustered at that point. After all, why get up at the butt crack of dawn to do online check-in the day before to ensure you are in the first boarding group, only to be the last ones on the plane? But alas, the Southwest Agent was over-eager and it was about 10 minutes before we actually started boarding so all was well in the world. We were on the Southwest Shamu plane, but it was too dark for a good photo. If you really feel the urge, just Google it and I’m sure there are many photos to be found.
We wound up in three rows, with Tahli and myself in a row of our own, sitting across from Hailee and Tracy in a row of their own, and Nana, Papa & Preston sitting in front of them.
Of course this did not last long, and soon all the kids were in the same row watching a video. (I picked up this handy Belkin splitter at Best Buy that lets you run 5 sets of headphones on one jack.)
The flight lasted two hours, and we were soon gliding over Orlando. The kids all returned to their original seats to watch for Disney World.
I watched out the window with Tahli as we circled around to land, and soon, we felt the wheels touch the ground.
Though it had taken longer than I had hoped, I was back. In a few short moments, we would be getting off the plane and heading to The World. As we were pulling to the gate, Tahli turned from the window, smiled at me and said “I’m so excited!” Me too princess! Now let’s go have an adventure!
Coming up on Episode 49 – Bring on the Magic!
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Your girls are beautiful!
Big girls, too. 
Thanks, that would be great!! Feel free to PM me and I'll send you my email, etc. 
