Booked a month off to go to WDW, think that's enough?

[Queenofallthings]

Yeah...what Disney Brat said!!!! Continue to have a great time, cannot wait to hear all about it and see your amazing pics

 

[Shir Kahn]

We're back and have a ton of pictures to share, as usual! I'll start uploading them over the next day or two and then really start updating. We had a great trip, everything went really smoothly. The weather was a real mixture of rain and sun, but mostly sun. We ate a ton, used that Tables in Wonderland card a million times, so it was definitely worth it. I think we made it about 2 weeks or so before we stopped writing everything down, so yet again, a lot of this report will be pictures with dialogue underneath. My usual method of operation.
Since we've been back, the weather here in Winnipeg has been miserable and someone broke into our car, smashing the passenger side window to steal the cord that connects my ipod to the stereo, the GPS mount and 2 golf balls... Nice unexpected $200 deductible! I want to go back to Florida!

 

[Mindy5767]

Can't wait to hear about your month long trip. On our first day in the park, within the first 20 minutes, on our first ride (Tomorrowland Motorspeedway) we got caught in a major downpour and our camera got ruined. It wouldn't work properly after that, so we got few good pictures with it. We had to use my MIL's old camera which is OK, but not as good as mine was. I don't write things down, too busy, so the camera is usually my record. Without that.. my TR was out the window on day 1!

 

[Queenofallthings]

We're back and have a ton of pictures to share, as usual! I'll start uploading them over the next day or two and then really start updating. We had a great trip, everything went really smoothly. The weather was a real mixture of rain and sun, but mostly sun. We ate a ton, used that Tables in Wonderland card a million times, so it was definitely worth it. I think we made it about 2 weeks or so before we stopped writing everything down, so yet again, a lot of this report will be pictures with dialogue underneath. My usual method of operation.
Since we've been back, the weather here in Winnipeg has been miserable and someone broke into our car, smashing the passenger side window to steal the cord that connects my ipod to the stereo, the GPS mount and 2 golf balls... Nice unexpected $200 deductible! I want to go back to Florida!

Just what you need when you get home from holidays...that happened to Peg and Geodoc last year I think right before we went to Florida. They were at Tony Roma's on St. James and someone smashed their passenger window and all they got was their GPS mount....guess they were hoping the actual GPS was in there Ya gotta love our fair city, if they're not stealing your car they're vandalizing it....makes me so mad

Onto a better subject, can't wait to read your report, but I guess it will be when we return. That will help us get over the depression that sets in when we return

 

[Shir Kahn]

Can't wait to hear about your month long trip. On our first day in the park, within the first 20 minutes, on our first ride (Tomorrowland Motorspeedway) we got caught in a major downpour and our camera got ruined. It wouldn't work properly after that, so we got few good pictures with it. We had to use my MIL's old camera which is OK, but not as good as mine was. I don't write things down, too busy, so the camera is usually my record. Without that.. my TR was out the window on day 1!

Ouch, sorry to hear that! Would have driven me crazy, not having a camera to use! I did however take 4 different cameras and a camcorder with us on this trip though, so we were prepared for anything!

Just what you need when you get home from holidays...that happened to Peg and Geodoc last year I think right before we went to Florida. They were at Tony Roma's on St. James and someone smashed their passenger window and all they got was their GPS mount....guess they were hoping the actual GPS was in there Ya gotta love our fair city, if they're not stealing your car they're vandalizing it....makes me so mad

Onto a better subject, can't wait to read your report, but I guess it will be when we return. That will help us get over the depression that sets in when we return

There must be a GPS mount black market somewhere in Winnipeg! Maybe I should start collecting the old ones from work!

 

[Shir Kahn]

Ok, here goes the very first picture upload of the TR! Just a test picture really, to see how big it is and to figure out how to do this again!

This is pretty much how the first two days of driving looked. It really poured!

 

[flipflopmom]

Glad you got back safely! Can't wait to read the rest!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

Welcome home! I'm looking forward to hearing more about your trip!

 

[Disney Brat]

Welcome home!!! I am glad to hear that you arrived safely..I am really sorry to hear about your car when you got home! Glad to hear you had a great trip though! Can't wait to hear and see all about it!!

 

[All7OfUs]

That certainly went by quickly! I 've been checking every day for live updates and to check if you'd gotten back. Hooray!

Your "test" photo" looks wet, but good! HA!

Looking forward to seeing how the rest of your month went.

 

[Shir Kahn]

And at long last, I have finally returned! Sorry about that, I've been working hard and also looking for another job, as I'm pretty much done with sales. I sell appliances for a living but I have a problem with my back, so the doctor told me that I would definitely have to start looking at different possibilities very soon. Lots of long days, but I'm pretty much done now, so I have time to devote to this project finally!

As with my previous TR, this one is mainly going to be pictures with some dialogue under them here and there. I will be including all pictures, as with last time, even the really bad ones. I took most of these with my Canon 880 IS, which is presumably an upgrade from the Canon 870 IS I used last time, but I was still really disappointed in the night shots. The day shots worked great however.

We didn't leave Winnipeg until around noon on the 3rd of July. We went to the bank, transferred some money over, then stopped at Future Shop to buy some last minute bits and pieces we needed to put all our electronics together in the car. I swear we had about a thousand cords running all over the place, with the portable cooler, the ipods, the gps and the PSPs. We stopped for our traditional McDonalds and were off! The roads going from Winnipeg to the border were actually good for once, usually they're potholed like crazy. They also upped the speed limit a bit, which was nice, but it's still not nearly as good as the speed limits in the states. The border was pretty easy to get by, the fact that we were going down for a month vacation didn't even phase the, although there was one guy in the booth that was just staring with an "I'm going to get you if you so much as sneeze" type of look! Good old US customs. Skipping ahead a bit, the guy at the Canadian border was more like "I'm going to get you....a Tim Hortons coffee and some maple syrup! Welcome to Canada!" There's a definite difference between entering the US and entering Canada! At long last, after all the planning, we finally were in North Dakota, barreling along at 75mph! Ok, 80. Yeah ok, 85! I was determined to get as far as possible on the first day. As I'm sure the first picture of the TR advised you, it wasn't wonderful driving weather. It absolutely poured down for the first two days of our drive!

Felt sorry for this guy, we actually passed quite a few people on motorcycles.

Made it to our first hotel, think we paid about $35 for the night. Pretty good deal! It was in Wisconsin somewhere, some small town. Pretty sure it was an Econolodge. I had thought that Econolodges would be kind of grundgy and poorly kept overall, but the ones we stayed at were actually really nice with clean rooms. I took advantage of the free WiFi there to download a patch to fix my GPS, as it wasn't working well at all.

Our one and only stop at one of our favorite restaurants, Cracker Barrel! I don't know why we didn't end up stopping more than once, but I regret missing the chance!

Normally I take pictures of all the meals we eat during a trip, but I was horribly forgetful during this trip. I did get some of them though! I'm not sure how this plate looks to you all, but it was heaven! I have never had a bad meal at Cracker Barrel.

More rain, blech!

I didn't take many pictures while I was driving down, most of these were taken by Tammy with my camera. She took a ton more of the scenery with her own camera, which I'll be posting after I post the pictures from my own. It's actually going to make it seem like to TRs, taken from two different persons perspective! Our GPS accidentally took us through Chicago instead of around it, as I hadn't set a way-point to bypass Chicago and the GPS was going by the shortest distance. I think there was maybe a 2 mile shorter difference by going through Chicago instead of around it, but the GPS doesn't really figure on traffic. It was definitely an interesting experience and I'm glad we got the chance to see the city, or at least parts of it. It looks like an old city, everything seems to be grimy and dull looking, but again, we only got to see the parts visible from the road going through it, which doesn't nearly show the whole picture. (by the way, the above picture is not Chicago, it just reminded me that we have a bunch of pictures of Chicago, but they're on Tammys camera!)

 

[Shir Kahn]

Getting closer!

See? I told you I would post all the pictures, no matter how bad they were!

Another state down!

Weird, no rain!

Tammy rolled her eyes when I asked her to take a picture of this, but I kind of thought it looked interesting.

First sign with a Florida location on it!

 

[Shir Kahn]

You know you're in Georgia when you spot a giant peach on a stick!

The actual official Florida Welcome Center, not like the million other ones that try and timeshare you to death! Again, we completely failed to stop and get our complimentary free orange juice, mainly because I was driving and I'm a man. Men don't stop for anything!

 

[Disney Brat]

Great pics!!! Can't wait to hear and see more of your trip when we get back from ours!! Our flight leaves Winnipeg at 5:20 am tomorrow!!!!

 

[Shir Kahn]

Great pics!!! Can't wait to hear and see more of your trip when we get back from ours!! Our flight leaves Winnipeg at 5:20 am tomorrow!!!!

Yay! Have a great time!

 

[All7OfUs]

Well, well, well!!! Looky who's back!!

I sincerely DO hope that you did find a job that will be easier on your back! You don't want to end up on disability!

That drive looks greuling!! Exactly how many days was that??!!!
My guess is 4.

Anyway. driving in rain sucks no matter how long you have to do it.

Men You wouldn't even stop for OJ??

I've never had a bad meal at CB's either. I love their food, a bit salty, and a bit heavy on the carbs, but if you looking for a good homestyle fill-up, that's the place!

WElcome back, we missed you!

 

[Born 2B a Princess]

I'm so glad you're back! I know exactly where in Georgia that peach on a stick is located!

Sorry about the rain...I don't like driving in rain. Love your TR!

 

[purplepeg]

So glad you're back and have started postingBoy nothing like a long drive with rain, rain, and more rain!Can't wait for more.

 

[Shir Kahn]

I'm about to try my first ever post from my new blackberry! Ill be adding another update tonight when I get home from work. Thanks for all the replies so far, hope you're all having a great day!

 

[Shir Kahn]

We got to our hotel, the Best Western Lakeside, which is fantastic for $28 a night booked on hotwire by the way, as long as you can get by the timeshare people! We dragged everything into our room and headed straight off to the Magic Kingdom!

I was smart enough to take a picture of where we parked for once!