All right, I kept adding to this sucker so I think you've all got a bit of reading to do.
Have fun!
So, let's see, where the heck are we?
Remember that tv show F Troop?
That was the name of that bumbling indian tribe the Agarn and Sgt. O'Roarke was always bargaining with, the Heckowe tribe, and that's how they said they got there name, by being lost.
We are on our way from Gainesville to Kissimmee and Diane is going through the motel books once again, hopefully the last time for a while.
We had pretty much decided on going back to the Knight's Inn that we've stayed at, mainly cuz it's got a fair pool and it's walking distance to the Ponderosa across 192 and down aways.
(No, I wasn't looking forward to doiing the 192 dash like last time when the main herd left me behind to feed the cars, but , Oh well.
But when Diane called them up the only rooms open were pretty far in the back, which meant a fairly long walk to the pool. We decided to play it by ear and look around when we get there.
We ended up pulling into a Rodeway Inn that was further down the road towards Old Town, the picture of the pool online always looked inviting, and after we got out and found it, we decided to see how much.
The pool was in an inner courtyard, away from highway noises, and they had a room available right across from it, well, she wanted it, we took it.
You could not park right next to the room though like we always do, and frankly, I was surprised she wanted to take it, but she found a big ol luggage cart and that was that.
Final cost with tax, 43. 50, that's more like it! Now, let's go find our room.
I started out walking up to the pool and taking a picture
thenI found our room, and it was just like they said, right across from the pool. Only one problem, it was right under a staircase.
I think Smidgy then asked how to take a video, and I let her go for it this time, heck, you've heard me talk enough:
ONe thing I left out, was that morning in Gainesville, will wonders never cease, but our motel was connected to a Walgreeens. Yes, you heard that correctly, Walgreens, and my plan was to refill my script when we got to Kissimmee, before we went and checked into AKL.
Diane knew all this and when she saw the Walgreens she just shook her head.
We also got some bread and more cottage cheese and I bought a milk jug thing to keep in the cooler so I could forget about it every morning, just to irritate her.
Now, laying by the pool, my Bathroom Reader lost out to Lucifer's Hammer, I couldn't put it down again, it was like meeting a bunch of old friends, never mind that a lot of them die.
Talking about dinner I told her I'd be happy to drive back to the Ponderosa if she wanted, but we found out there is ANOTHER Ponderosa right across the from Old Town, two blocks away, so we changed and walked over to kill some time in the tourist trap for a while.
It so reminds me of the Wisconsin Dells,, lots of ways to spend money and it was fun to wat ch people do just that trying the EXTREME rides out front. You know, like bungee jumping things and free fall and giant swings, all for at least 30 bucks a pop.
We just walked around, got a beer and people watched before we went back across to our side of the street where the Ponderosa was. At least the stoplight here seemed to work and I didn't have to get maimed crossing the street.
But eating at Ponderosa just kills me.
It has a very good buffet, plenty of choices, but as far as I can tell, you have to order a steak to get to use it.
And the steak is going to come with a huge baked potato.
Ok, right there, I am already filled, throw in the bread basket and there's no room for the buffet. I think my sirloin was 11 bucks!
When I was twenty, I could have done some damage here, but I just can't seem to eat that way anymore. And yu can't bring doggie bags from buffets.
So, with my pockets filled with mashed potatoes and gravy, we walked back to the motel.
I had pretty much had it with motel hopping and driving by now, I was ready for some "check in and leave the damn car alone for awhile" time.
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Wednsday, August 1
Packed and ready to go for one more drive, I asked her if she wanted to still look for rye bread that Walgreens didn't have,,,, we have braunschweiger and butter and mustard but it's not the same on white bread, it really should be made on rye bread, she said if we see something we'll stop, otherwise forget it.
On the way back to Sherberth Road, she saw a sign that said supermarket, and I yanked the wheel at the last second and pulled in.
(you in the red pickup truck that was behind me, sorry)
I stayed out front while she went in and after a few minutes, came out empty handed.
"They just stared at me, really, I even went up to the deli and asked and it was like they never heard of rye bread."
We knew there was a Publix further down but we didn't bother, it was time to play the Disney Room Dance!
All in all, except for the downpour in 'Bama and the smeary windshield issue, the Santa Fe was back to being a doll again, and I was able to put car trouble worries behind me.
Funny, out of the 13 trips it's made to Florida, only one time did things go wrong, but that's the one that sticks in your mind. Like a field goal kicker; it's the one you miss that they remember.
Ok, sorry, I have a potential side bar that my incredible brain won't let me ignore, so, this will be really easy, I'll ask a question, and with the knowledge you have been given, you will then come up with your best intelectual guesstimate based on what you already know.
Ok, It's only one question this time, it's possible, I may make up longer quizzes in the future, but anyway, the categorie is our yes, yes STILL beloved Santa Fe. U huh, I'm back to singing it's praises once again.
Given:
It is an '03 six cylinder vehicle, all wheel drive, it was purchased in feb. of '03, and didn't go far for quite a long time, first trip to Disney was in September of the same year, 7 months later.
After that, it wound up making a total (so far) of 13 round trip passes to the land of Disney, or Central Florida if you will, we have driven around a bit down there, from Tampa to Vero Beach.
For the record, it's about 1300 miles one way from townhouse to mousehouse.
One year we did not go to Disney,,, I know, I know, back in '04, we went to Niagara Falls and Cedar Point instead. Yeah, it was nice, but oh so different, no, did not make a good replacement offer.
So, with that info, all you have to tell me is how many miles total are on the always lovely Smidgy mobile.
No, I can't think of anything of value I can give you, I asked her and she said she's not going anywhere, so,,,, but there's a lot to be the closest one to the right answer, isn't there? I mean, pride, the WOW factor, how did you do it? yeah, that can all go far. And to make it official, the drop dead mileage date is Tuesday night, 6 pm. next tuesday.
Meanwhile, back at the Lodge:
Last time we stayed her, last year, we were told we were getting a great upgrade to a studio with a savannah view.
Most standard studio DVC rooms are basically pool view rooms.
As Smidgy was jumping for joy, I asked where the room was, and Smidgy immediately remembered our last experience checking in here, and reality rushed back in on her and me as well. Now, to try to get it out of her where, exactly, the room she want to give us is. and after much hemming and hawwing, and more hemming,,, it turned out to be in the next county, at the very end of the zebra trail.
I even got the feeling that they were trying to give us the same exact room we declined that last time here.
I could hear my son even, "Mom, would you make me a sandwich?"
"No. "
"Oh, that's ok."
"Good."
"Yeah, no problem."
"Ok, what about now?"
And this would continue until she crumbled, and crumble she always did.
The corridors at Jambo house are EXTREMELY long, and after a while, since ther'es nothing to look at in an inside corridor,,, it will get old real fast.
Today we got an older cast member, who told us we are getting upgraded to a savannah room,,,,, and yada yoda yeti.
Yep, Deja View all over again, we turned down the "but it's ready now" room way at the end just like we did before.
Geesh, you think they would learn?
Took a pool view room closer to the lobby.
No, it wasn't ready but that's ok, we are going to be by the pool anyways, what difference does it make to not get in your room?
The one table next to the pool with lounger access also was taken, and we ended up grabbing a table in the outer circle with loungers right next to it. Even though you couldn't see the pool directly by just looking up from here, it was quieter, and also was right across from a sort of animal looking at area, which was mainly cranes and swans and frasiers and pelicans.
I had a great time sitting there.
It felt so good to finally be there again, and this time to not have the strange, heavy feeling we had the last time here, when we had just found out about Diane's dad.
I also don't like taking that long to drive down, it just makes it worse dragging it out and face it, if you have to drive 7 hours, you may as well drive 10, it doesn't matter anymore.
Plus, I have a new prescription all filled and don't have to worry about that, sometimes it can be a problem filling a controlled substance prescription in another state.
But with my back starting to act up from 3 days of driving, I nipped that in the bud once we were settled, and really got comfortable laying there looking around, and reading my cheery book about the end of the world.
Hey, it's no worse than reading Hunger Games the last trip!
So, now that you know I"m all settled in and comfortable waiting for the chemicals to help me out, you know what is going to happen, right?
Yes, it did, and she answered and she was fine at first.
Then I saw the foot start, first.
A subtle twitch, but a twitch just the same.
This traveled up the leg to the knee and then the other foot started.
Once a room has been declared, ours, she just has to go and check on it, make sure it's ok, what the view is, as Kate Blanchett kept saying in the last Indy Jones movie:
"I HAFF TO KNOW!"
If I don't do something immediately she' gonna bolt, so:
I didn't want to go up yet and lose our spot and I told her if she could hang on, I'd go and get a beer for her out of the cooler and bring it down here to the pool.
This seemed to mollify her a bit and I took off.
One problem, i couldn't see back inside now from the bright sunshine. I pushed the wrong button and got off on the second floor when I wanted the third.
I now find myself in a no-mans land, over looking the restarurants below, but with now staircase to either them, or the main lobby, above. This is a totally interior corridor with no windows looking out anywhere, and believe me, no light from Jiko was making it's way up to here.
The one corridor went on to rooms, but that didn't do me any good, my only option was back in an elevator and trying another button.
Now, I'm trying to rememberr where the elevator was!
Aftter walking around looking for one I realized I was really in trouble , at least until somebody else got off up here,
Or down here.
I went back and found the elevator "wall" again, but darned if I could find the buttons for it. I just kept moving along in a grid fashion pushin on the wall, kinda like Indiana Jones trying to find the secret passageway.
Finally I found it, and did it right this time.
I'm really in a hurry by now, and only banged my shins twice trying to get out of the Lobby of Darkness.
But as much as I tried, I couldn't "bark" my shins, I'm not sure what you have to do to be able to Bark them..
I jogged down to the car, brought a few beers back and was better on the return trip, untill it was time to find where our table was hiding, and I just know I'm goin to get hit with the dreaded "Where ya' been?" And I'd have to kill her!
I handed her two beers and said "Don't ask" and that was that.
And I got back just in time for the yellow jackets to make their grand appearance. Shoot, never occurred to me that they were still on the menu and it wasn't as nice to lay there anymore.
Diane's "find the new room" twitching was rapidly returning so I figured all right, let's go see what we've got this time.
The fifth floor in Jambo House, which is the main AKL building is where the DVC rooms are, so we know at least what floor we were going to get.
Back in the lobby, I am once again amazed at how dark this place is,,, I mean, really, really dark. I've heard they have to keep rotating cast members in and out of working here so they don't all lose their hair and pigmentation and become albinos.
Soon, we come to our room number and go in.
Ok, care to join me for the video? You know the routine, don't forget to turn the speakers on and click on the picture:
No kidding!
I knew before we opened the door that it was the same room.
Smidgy took one look around and went, "Oh my God!"
And she got all misty eyed.
As she put it, it was like it was her Dad's way of saying everything's all right this time, now enjoy your stay here and don't worry about anything. Well, she can probably say her feelings better than I can right now, but I definately caught what she meant at the time.
There was a part of me that hoped for just this occurance to happen, and why I wanted to reject the savannah room, no matter where it was located, just to see if given the opportunity, this could happen.
And it did!
I know this may not sound like much, but you have to understand how tough that last trip was here, and if you believe in signs, well,,, there you have it. It made us both feel good, anyway.
We semi unpacked for our 3 night stay, and just kind of hung around the resort looking around that night, we debated on eating dinner at Mara, but that kind of defeated the whole purpose of getting a studio with a kitchenette.
(ok, what is that, a baby kitchen?)
Dinner turned out to be tuna fish, (as opposed to tuna pig), on toast and macaroni salad and,,,,,,
CHEETOHS!
Only, it wasn't quite;
the toaster barely worked and kept popping the GFI button so she gave up when it was barely browned.
Thursday
Today is a just hang around day and enjoy the resort until we go for the early Luau over at the Poly.
Diane told me she slept terrible due to somebody snoring in her ear all night.
"Yeah, I heard it too, must be that fat guy in the room next to us."
And she went and pulled open the pull out bed around 4 in the morning. Whe wanted to catch a little bit more sleep so it was up to me again to go and find us a good pool spot.
Made coffee in the room and I was loaded when I went down around 8:30 that morning and stopped and bought a newspaper.
That paper may have cost me, cuz a woman was setting up shop in the one table available.
I didn't know if she was there for th long haul or just a temp sitter with her coffee, so I took a couple of loungers right next to her.
This freaked her out.
Suddenly, she was running around throwing towels on anything that didn't move, by the time she was done, she had claimed the only table, 4 chairs, and six loungers.
And was still eyeing the two lounge chairs I took for me and the Smidge.
If you remember the Oil's Well report, she was Turtle Lady reincarnated.
But I knew I needed a table also, so I grabbed my stuff back up and said as I left, "Don't panic, all yours."
I kind of liked where we were yesterday, and didn't want to lose that one too, which I didn't.
It was going to be a very nice morning sitting down here, the worst part about it?
It was one day closer to the Hammer!
.
I knew a guy who wanted to surprise his girlfriend who only liked red smarties. (Don't they all taste the same? 
) He wrote the company who replied that they couldn't send him red only smarties... but they did send him a case of smarties so he could sort 'em out himself.
I'm just glad you are okay now.
