Disney dangled the visual weinee & Mickeystoontown gobbled it up! 10/26

[COTeacher]

Hello, I lurked on your last trip report but am finally coming out. I loved following your family on your last report and can't wait for the fun this time.

 

[RooRach0906]

Joining in! Looking forward to hearing about your trip.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Page 4? Really? Lol. I am such a slacker.

Can't wait to hear about your trip!

Girl you are not a slacker! You've been to Hawaii! So, how was it? Give us details?

Time to abandon your PTR to follow along with your TR.

The first few pages of PTRs and TRs sometime make me think of a scene from Phantom of the Opera during the second act. It starts just before they perform the opera the Phantom has written and police officer is on the stage and calls out to officers offstage and they play a sound of doors being closed flowed by saying thath tey were secured. The phantom then mocks them by projecting his voice around the theatre.

Welcome! Love the Phantom of the Opera reference!

I'm in. Can't wait to read all about it!

Welcome aboard!

I look forward to reading about your latest Disney adventure.

Glad to have you here!

I'm here, can't wait to hear about your trip. Saw the meet with Mary and Kathy photos posted on Facebook.

Welcome! It was so nice finally meeting Kathy and seeing Mary and the girls again!

sounds like fun!! I see quite a few old pals from hubby Nebo's reports. and he, too, would draw out his reports, and "tell it like it is". I came over from the CBR thread, as we will be there for free dining in sept.

I can't wait to hear about your trip!!!

Welcome! I hope that you enjoy the report! I want to tell everything and everything and that makes for one heck of a long report.

oh my goodness you have a lot of friends! Nothing like bringing up the rear LOL! Oh well better I am last than never I guess. Well any way I am here and ready for the show!

Welcome to my report! I hope that you'll continue to post!

Looking forward Tao remainder of report

Welcome aboard!

 

[Millie12591]

Camille! Ahhh, the Disney visual weinee! I just had to get a taste.

I'm tellin you, I think we'd have a blast together.

 

[racefanof88]

Hey I made it!!! I had to work this weekend so I am slow getting in!! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip and especially finding out if y'all liked the Mine Train!!

 

[Octoberbeauty]

I just recently read through your last trip report and loved it. Glad to be here for this one.

 

[jdfmommy]

Oh and I almost forgot to say something. I have made a lot of friends on the Disboards (some of which will make an appearance in this report) and love makin’ new ones. If you are a reader (new or old), please feel free to post. Don’t just sit out there in lurkdom. It’s not near as fun as chattin’!

Now, ya’ll go on and get a cup of coffee, or a coke or whatever tickles your fancy, because this is going to be one heckofa ride! [/COLOR][/SIZE][/FONT]

Ok - this is me following instructions - because you're right, chatting is more fun than lurking! Hi! Welcome back! Can't wait to read this year's adventures!!

- Jennifer

 

[mickeystoontown]

Looking forward to another report! Hope you all had a fabulous trip!

Welcome! The trip was, indeed, fabulous!

Excited to read your trip report! I hope you had a great time!

Welcome aboard the crazy train!

Count me in! I'm excited to be here from the beginning this time!

Glad to see you again!

Here! And for once I have joined in at the beginning !!

Welcome! Yay for hopping on at the beginning!

Yay!!! Excited to read!

So happy to have you here!

Cant wait to hear all about your trip

Welcome! Welcome!

well, I may be on page 6, but at least all I missed was the intro and ALL those other people joining in the fun!!!
I can't wait to hear all about your big trip!!

Welcome! I can't believe how fast this thread grew!

Hello, I lurked on your last trip report but am finally coming out. I loved following your family on your last report and can't wait for the fun this time.

Thanks for coming out of lurkdom! I hope that you'll continue to post!

Joining in! Looking forward to hearing about your trip.

Welcome! I will be posting more today!

I'm tellin you, I think we'd have a blast together.

I know for a fact that we would!

Hey I made it!!! I had to work this weekend so I am slow getting in!! Looking forward to hearing all about your trip and especially finding out if y'all liked the Mine Train!!

Dana! Work? Yuck! I'll go ahead and tell you that we loved it!

I just recently read through your last trip report and loved it. Glad to be here for this one.

Welcome! Glad to have you aboard!

Ok - this is me following instructions - because you're right, chatting is more fun than lurking! Hi! Welcome back! Can't wait to read this year's adventures!!

- Jennifer

Welcome Jennifer! Please feel free to chat all you want!

 

[DisneyChick84]

I've been watching for this trip report as well. We were also at WDW and the CBR from May 25-30!! Can't wait to read all about your adventures

 

[bigsis1970]

Joining in the fun... I also have a husband with Epilepsy but thankfully the meds keep the seizures at bay (knock on wood they have for the past 17 years!) I look forward to reading along! Michelle

 

[mickeystoontown]

I've been watching for this trip report as well. We were also at WDW and the CBR from May 25-30!! Can't wait to read all about your adventures

Welcome! Ya'll were there the same time as we were! Are you doing a trip report?

Joining in the fun... I also have a husband with Epilepsy but thankfully the meds keep the seizures at bay (knock on wood they have for the past 17 years!) I look forward to reading along! Michelle

Welcome aboard! Thank you Jesus that your husband's meds control his seizures! John hasn't had a "seizure seizure" in years but does have the facial twitches and auras.

 

[mickeystoontown]

Let me just start out by saying, thank you all for jumping onboard the Mickeystoontown crazy train! I hope that this report will keep you entertained and keeps the Disney blues at bay for me. I’ll tell you right now that my entire family is already countin’ down the days until we leave for Disney again. John left a note for me the Sunday after we arrived home that said “11 more months until we leave for Disney again”. In the meantime, I’m keeping myself busy with my sewing, garden work and planning a possible Thanksgiving trip to Tennessee.

Okay, let’s get to the next trip report update shall we? It’s going to be a little bit boring because it starts out with a lot of talking and no pictures but isn’t that pretty much the case in most trip reports? I promise that pictures will be included after I get through with the “office talk”.

Take pictures of anything that looks weird!

In the past, our trips have been a couple of days shorter and we leave on a Wednesday evening after I get off work. The day would be completely chaotic because my boss would be bellowing orders and I’d be running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off. Don’t know what that looks like? Well, let me just give you a visual...no, scratch that, the visual is pretty ugly....let’s just say that I normally look a little like this on my last day at work:

However, this departure day, a Friday, was totally different. You see, my boss was in Pennsylvania for his sister’s wedding and had left on Wednesday. That gave me a day and a half by myself at the office to get things done and organized prior to my leaving. My temp came in on Tuesday afternoon to get reacquainted (she had filled in for me before) with the office set up. Wednesday morning, I dropped off my boss at the airport and I was free! Free at last! In all actuality, I wasn’t free yet but it sure felt like it.

My boss called me Wednesday afternoon, twice on Thursday and once Friday morning. He would have called me more, I know, but he had very spotty reception where he was staying. By the time Friday morning rolled around, I had everything done that needed to be done including going by my boss’ house and feeding his cats. At the office, I printed off my “Lisa List” (it’s the one where I have all of my outfits written down by day), made sure I had memory cards in both cameras, transferred everything from my purse into my “traveling” purse and then started counting down the minutes.

Our office closes at Noon and it seemed like the morning drug on forever and ever and ever. John called me and asked if I was going to leave early. We all know that old saying “when the cat’s away, the mice will play” but I can’t make myself do it. Do it? Leave early without asking permission. Don’t get me wrong, I can and do Dis when I am at work. As a matter of fact, I’m doing it now. But, I don’t do it unless I’m done with my work. John pointed out that I was done with my work. If my boss were here in town and saw how anxious I was to hit the road, he would tell me to leave early. He was right. I shut everything down, locked the office up and was gone by 11:40. A whoppin’ big 20 minutes early.

When I got home, I helped load the last bit of stuff into the car and changed into my shorts and t-shirt. Mama came over for last instructions on how to feed our dog, Oddball, and to give us hugs goodbye.

It was almost Noon and we were hungry so we stopped at the local travel center which had a Subway and a Wendy’s and picked up some chicken nuggets and sandwiches. I left my notes in the car but I believe that we were on the road at 12:15 or so.

I usually do all of the driving because I don’t like the way that John drives. Let me rephrase that, John’s driving scares the bejeezers out of me. He notices every single thing on the side of the road, in the median, off in the distance and, in my opinion, doesn’t pay enough attention to the actual traffic. So, how did John end up being the one in the driver’s seat? He got behind the wheel when Hunter and I went in to get the food. Okay, okay, I could deal with it.

We were on the Interstate, truckin’ along at a good speed and were all happy to finally be going back to our happy place!







The top part of Louisiana is pretty much made up of swamps and acres and acres of farmland. This time of year, you’ll see lots of crops growing alongside almost every road, even the interstate:



The picture above represents what we saw for miles and miles and miles. Field after field of crops. I meant to take pictures of the water tower in Start, Louisiana which is the hometown of the one and only, good lookin’ Tim McGraw but I didn’t think about it until we were almost past it. Believe me when I tell you there’s not much more to Start, the town, I mean.

After a little while, we were approaching the Mississippi River which meant that we had covered one entire State....the State of Louisiana...and crossing over into another....the State of Mississippi. For the record, the Clark Griswold version of “deeeeep river” did come out of our mouths.









See, I told you that we were about to enter Mississippi:



Vicksburg is a neat town. It’s the city in which one of the most significant Civil War battles was fought, home to the Vicksburg National Cemetery and Vicksburg National Military Park. Vicksburg is also where the first Coca Cola was bottled.

**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

We passed on through Vicksburg and were almost to Jackson, Mississippi when we figured now would be a good time to top off the gas tank and take a potty break. Usually, my mind and bladder play tricks on me and I have to stop at the Mississippi Welcome Center. Every year, when going to either Disney World or to Georgia/Tennessee, we pass what we call the “play like Epcot ball building”. It’s actually a sports arena. It just so happened that the exit that we took to the gas station was near the arena and I had Hunter take pictures while I was taking my bathroom break:







In this picture, you can also see the price of gas:



When I came back out, John had switched seats and I was the designated driver which was fine by me. I would much rather drive than ride. We went through stupid road construction which always seems to be going on in Jackson and finally got off and onto Highway 49 which would take us down the State of Mississippi.

I told Hunter to keep the camera handy and take pictures of anything that looked weird or odd. Those things apparently include a large bucket of paint outside of Ace Hardware:



Every time we see this church we wonder if the lighthouse looking structure was there first and they built around it or if it were all built at the same time:



There’s a giant knight on the left hand side of this picture:



Looks like we made it to Magee, Mississippi:



Hum, looks like we didn’t take a single picture when we were in Hattiesburg. I think that was due to the fact that we ran into more road construction. Seems like I remember that being the case. John would call Mama every now and then and tell her where we were and she’d always say “ya’ll are making good time.” or “that’s about where I thought ya’ll would be by now.”

The drive between Hattiesburg and Mobile, Alabama was uneventful until we got closer to Mobile. Then, we saw traffic slowing down a lot and lines of traffic ahead of us. Crap! I don’t like driving in Mobile anyway and throw in road construction and lanes of traffic and I get a tad bit stressed. We inched our way forward and, you can’t really see it much from the next picture, but traffic was almost at a standstill for a long way ahead of us and behind us.



We would see people trying to get into another lane and squeeze ahead of someone but I kept to the left lane and stayed there. Untilllllllllll, there was a sign saying that the left lane would end so-and-so feet ahead. Super! Great! Terrific! Not! Thankfully, a gentleman allowed me to get in front of him and we all waved a “Thanks for taking pity on us out of town travelers” wave.

After quite some time, we could see that road construction on one of the on-ramps was what seemed to be causing the traffic jam. Or, at least, that’s what it looked like to us. Finally, we made it to the tunnel:









**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Even though we were past what seemed to be the problem, traffic was still a bit heavy and slow. Slow enough that Hunter was able to get a decent picture of the battleship:





Finally, the traffic lightened and we were able to move along at the actual speed limit. While we didn’t make up for the time that we spent in the traffic, we did make it a little further than Tallahassee which was our goal. One of my Dis friends said that she and her family had stayed in a Country Inn outside of Tallahassee and that it was clean and in a good location so that’s where we stopped. Like her, I’d recommend it to anyone looking for accommodations in the Tallahassee area.

Because of the time change (it jumped ahead an hour) and due to the traffic, it was around midnight when we stopped and I didn’t take a single picture of the room or even the hotel. It was a typical hotel with two beds, a desk, a microwave and a dorm size fridge complete with leftover ribs, two beers, a packet of bologna and some cheese. Yep, the fridge came fully stocked. Not on purpose, I am sure. As I said, it was late and we were only staying for the night so I didn’t make a big deal that the fridge wasn’t cleaned out by housekeeping. But, I did mention it when we left the next morning.

The hotel served a continental breakfast and Hunter and I went down to fix us something while John was in the shower. Again, the typical hotel continental breakfast but it was hot and good and filled our tummies until we stopped for lunch.

I was in the driver’s seat again and John and Hunter napped while we were still crossing the Florida panhandle. It wasn’t until we got to Interstate 75 that John woke up. Just in time to start seeing those We Bare All billboards. Those of you who take this route know the billboards that I am referring to.

Couples are always welcome as are truckers and there are even showers available for use. I just bet they are! I’d be willing to be that you’d need a shower after you left a place like that.

Somewhere along the way, we stopped for gas and a quick lunch. I can’t remember where but I’m pretty sure it was a fastfood burger place and were back on the road again. Finally, we were making good time and it wasn’t raining (it always rains when we are on I-75). Life was good! We came around a curve and BAM! Traffic galore! I’m talking three or four lanes of traffic at a complete standstill. My eyes were all over the road making sure that nobody would going to hit me from either side or rear end me. Thankfully, everybody else was being watchful too.

We sat there and sat there and sat there. People would get out of their vehicles and try to see what was going on. Waaaaaaaaaaay up ahead we could see flashing lights. After about ten minutes, an emergency vehicle came barreling down the shoulder of the road/median. It looked like we were in for a long wait. About six car lengths ahead of me, on my left, was a gravel turn/cut thru which is supposed to be used for emergency vehicles only. Other cars were using it to cut through and go back the way they came. We didn’t know if we should do the same or wait it out. We waited another ten/fifteen minutes and decided that we’d cut back too. Cutting through was the easy part. The hard part was finding an opportunity to turn into traffic that was going 70 or more miles an hour. I finally saw my opportunity, spun out in the gravel and we were going back the way we came.

About five miles down the road, we pulled into a rest area and looked at the Florida map. (I always always carry a map even if I do have mapquest directions.) We could continue going back and take the “old way” into Kissimmee. There’d be a whole lot of stop/start traffic towns but there really wasn’t anything else that we could do. It wouldn’t add a lot of miles but it would add a lot of travel time since we’d be going through so many little towns. Oh well, we didn’t have a choice.

We got back on the Interstate and took the exit to the “old way” and, yep, we had a lot of stopping and starting and slowing down. It had been several years since we had been the old way to Disney and nothing had really changed. Oh look, Hunter took a picture of something “weird” a/k/a big bull statue:



John called Mama somewhere along the route to let her know that we had been delayed because of what appeared to be a major wreck:



Looks like we made it to Fruitland Park:



Finally, after what seemed like forever and two days, we saw the first Disney World sign:



Not something weird but some tractors. I guess Hunter was bored:



In our early travels to Disney, the hills alongside the road (which was, at the time, much smaller lane wise), were covered in orange groves. Now, they are covered in retirement homes and businesses:



Weird building:



The Citrus Tower:





There were still a few orange trees on the roadside:



Cute ice cream stand:



**Continued in next post

 

[mickeystoontown]

Oh my gosh! Finally, 22 miles to Disney World! Yippeeeeeee!



The majority of those 22 miles looked like this:



We have traveled this road many many times over the years and the scenery is always changing because of road construction. We almost missed the exit to Highway 192 to Kissimmee because the sign had been taken up and was lying on the side of the road. Boy was there major construction work going on and traffic was heavy/slow because of it. Hunter was still in charge of the camera and took pictures of the quirky/tacky buildings lining Highway 192/W. Irlo Bronson:



Another ice cream stand:



Most of the business located on Hwy. 192/W. Irlo Bronson will say that they are located near mile marker XYZ so that they are easier to find. They aren’t the typical small mile marker signs. They are up high like stop signs.



There’s no way that I’d risk buying tickets at one of these places:



Ahhhh, palm trees!













For our first, probably, seven, eight, maybe nine trips to Disney, we stayed at a Days Suites at Mile Marker 9 on Highway 192. During the earlier trips, we were perfectly happy to stay there and drive the short way to Disney. During the last couple of stays, however, the suites started to look worn and the staff wasn’t as pleasant. We stayed onsite the next trip and boy, oh boy, what a difference! It’s like they say, once you stay onsite, there’s no going back.

**Up next: Oooh oooh, that smell! Can you smell that smell? The smell that surrounds you!

 

[debsters41]

Thanks for the great update! We used to do a lot of road trips as a kid and Hunter's pictures sure brought back a lot of memories for me!

 

[PrncessA]

Isn't it strange the things that you see on the side of the road on and road trip!!

Yay! Your almost to Disney!!

 

[oopsiDAISY]

Wow, what a nightmare of a road trip this time! So much traffic and construction.

Glad you are finally about to roll right through the gates of heaven, my friend!

 

[Pluto0809]

Whew, all that driving and traffic made me nervous just reading about it! Probably why I fly instead of driving.

You definitely saw some interesting sites along the way though. Some of those stores towards the end look downright scary.

I totally agree with you that once you stay onsite there is no going back!

Beach smell coming up!

 

[PhoenixStrength]

Yay for the first update!! So excited that you got yours started Sorry you had so many traffic troubles, but you made it work by taking the "old" way there. And lots of interesting pictures along the way!

Oh, and that Cafe Risque sign reminds me of a similar establishment in North Carolina that I've passed many times. I think it may even be the same place, just a different location, as the billboard looks the same!