Fort Wilderness Pre-Trip report

[mightyexplorers]

Dayum! I'll be potting my tomato plants outside this weekend in containers and watching the Masters. Is there good fishing in that nearby frozen lake?

Bama Ed

PS - I used to live up in the very North East corner of Ohio and we would get the moisture blowing off Lake Erie dumping massive snowfalls on us (Lake Effects). It could vary 6-12 inches in 20 miles it was so bad. So I understand the snow melting in April but, brother, I don't miss it.

There is decent crappie and bass in that lake. Some small northerns, but where I really shine in my fishing ability is the my ability to catch sunfish off the end of that dock, or more accurately to make my kids do it for me. Once that ice goes away they come into that little bay right at dusk and you can real them in one after the other.

Can't wait to hear more! We have six kids and we are hoping to take our first Fort trip in the fall. We have a new travel trailer (It's really my ten year old daughter's TT. It was her wish from Make-A-Wish!) and we are trying to figure out our organization system. Would love to see more pics of how you pack for a large family!!

disneytriplets, glad to have you along. So happy to hear about your TT, Make-A-Wish is an amazing organization. What they give really cannot be expressed in words.
The Fort and a camper have really made Disney for our family, we have always loved it, but the ability to be able to pack all the snacks we want, cook some of our own meals and have the space that a campsite allows us has made a big difference. We started with a travel trailer but ended up trading to the motor home because 8 kids + 1 small suburban + 3 days and 1700 miles wasn't adding up that well.
The fort is the perfect place for the kids, they are able to explorer, swim, and do chip n dale at night.
I will add more pics of our packing as we load up.

 

[mightyexplorers]

One thing we do to keep in budget and provide incentive to our kids is give them their own gift cards for spending. They got one from Santa and one from us for Christmas, and have the ability to earn one more. We homeschool so this year their bonus card is based on reading.

Don't misunderstand the picture, they cannot earn a card a week We just re-purposed the weekly chore board to be the Disney bonus board until we leave.

We have found that when they kids have their own finite spending money, two things happen. 1. The learn to choose their food/ souvenirs much more carefully based on what they have to spend. And 2. they don't come to us for extra money as much.
It gives them the opportunity to buy food in the park if they want it, but if they prefer souvenirs they will pack snacks for the day from what we bring in the RV.
Of course we do do some family character meals and it isn't prefect at not getting mom or dad to pull out their wallet for something fun, but it helps.

 

[mightyexplorers]

I am excited, my globes for my Mickey Lamp showed up today.
I didn't take a picture but imagine one big ball, and two small ones. That look like Mickey ears.

 

[connor2002]

For those who can't justify the expense

this works just fine for me

 

[connor2002]

The Wife's ride

 

[allaboutthemouse]

Following along as well - we are booked for next year spring break for our first Fort trip, and will have four kids along...youngest will be 9 months - that is a record for us for the youngest on a trip also interested to see how you pack everything. keep it up!

 

[mightyexplorers]

Well, the prep continues. I had a little RV adventure this weekend.

I have been getting excited to get the RV rolling so I thought it would be a good time to take it into town, gas it up, work the tires a little bit and fill up the propane tanks. Then I would feel it would be ready to go.

So I loaded up the kids, who of course were itching to go on this Disney pre-trip adventure. We locked in three cars eats and 4 of the older kids. (our oldest is off at college in MO, we will pick him up on the way to the bid D).

Off we went. The first stop was a quick stop to fill propane, I also had to drop our 16 yo off at work, so I figured propane and I would get gas after. Well, the guy tried and tried to fill our propane tank but couldn't get more than 1/10 of a gallon in the tank. He told us that sometimes when they are very empty they will not take a fill and I would have to go to the gas company.
Well after spending 20 minutes on that, my son was going to be late for work so we gave up on propane but left with a free 1/10 of a gallon, so bonus on that front.
Now most 16 year old boys might feel a little embarrassed to be dropped off for work in a giant motor home requesting to maybe be let off a block away. Not ours. He wanted to be dropped off right outside of the door of Little Caesars (where he works) so he could pop our of the door and make a grand entrance. No shyness in that one.

Next we decided to try another gas station to fill our propane, and get gas, they have filled my to empty tank before and I figured maybe that 1/10 of a gallon from before had now had some time to work a little magic.

We got to the station, pulled up to the propane fill, they guy came out hooked up and guess what? IT WORKED!! woo hoo propane filled, now for gas.

WE pulled forward and I shut down the engine to fill up gas, the kids had a movie playing so I had the generator running. I filled up gas went in and paid my $250 bill. Came out, said, ok lets head home, turned the key and ..... click CRAP! dead battery.

Now I knew the starter battery and the house batteries where kind of starting to go, especially after the house batteries froze last winter in the -1000 degree temps we had, but I figured, hey we have a generator, and a little button that lets us jump start one set from the other set so no problem, if one set of crappy batteries go, then the other set can back me up.

So confident in my ability to start, I held down the jump start button to start up the engine turned the key and ..... click and the generator died

I had enough power to start the gen again, but it was clear that the house batteries had lost most of their charge as well.

My ever helpful kids, were in the mean time planning on settling in, explaining " I think we have enough food in there to last up to two weeks" And the other saying "but what about water? it is still winterized" , "Don't worry we have bottled water stored underneath."

Not wanting to spend the next two weeks boon docked at the local BP station. I went inside and one of the people who worked there, the same guy who rescued our propane tank, was kind enough to jump start me.

So needless to say at this point the next stop was batteries plus. They were kind enough to sell me a new starter battery, as well as two new golf cart batteries for the house set. They also had a nice set of tools and some gravity hooks and let me change them all out right in their parking lot. So another $350 later we are now all set with fresh new batteries. I think batteries plus is pretty reasonably priced, I could have maybe gone to Walmart or fleet farm and saved a bit more, but the few extra $ is more than worth the helpfulness of the guy at batteries plus and the use of their tools that I am pretty sure Walmart or fleet farm would not allow.
The golf cart batteries are actually rated a bit lower in terms of amp hours than the ones I had, but the ones I had were worthless anyway, and we do have a generator and spend most of our time in campgrounds, so the extra 5 minutes of power for another $50 per batter wasn't really worth it to me. Also I have heard good things about the batteries plus golf cart batteries for house batteries so was pretty happy with what I got.

Well it took another 45 minutes, and our 2 year old was starting to cry every time I left the RV, and I didn't bring a bottle for the baby, so it was time to wrap up this $600 quick trip to town.

I am pretty happy with what happened overall though. I had been thinking maybe I could make those batteries last through our trip, but looking back, I am grateful we had the problem in town instead of on the road. WE just boondock at walmarts on the way down and I would not have wanted to have to do that work during the trip

 

[mightyexplorers]

Ok, on to something a little bit more fun.

I got a bit of a start on our Mickey Lamp post over the weekend. It still has a little way to go but here is what we have accomplished.

First I had to scrounge up something for the base. I didn't have a milk can, but wanted to model something similar to that design. We had this old can laying around that I thought would make a good base.

Then it was time to start in on the globes.
I mentioned I had to order them online from Home Depot. Our local store no longer carried the 12" globes, so I ordered the 12" the 6" and the post topper online. I got the globes last week but the topper was backordered and should arrive on Tuesday.
I started by masking off and measuring out for the ear holes.

The saw if you keep it running just shaves through through the globe nicely. In hind site, I probably shouldn't have done this part on the kitchen floor, the little shavings kind of go everywhere. Live and learn.

Dry fit

I taped off and glued in the ears. At first I used the loctite that was recomended in another post, however, I thought that glue was very thin. It worked, but wanted to run down the inside of the globe. Then I got excited and took the tape off too soon and one of my ears fell off. When I re-glued it I used liquid nails UV rated clear silicon. IT was thicker and easier to work with. If I build another lamp ever I will probably just stick with that.

On the table there you can just see another project my wife has been working on with the kids. She is making them autograph books. She stated with a drawing notepad, then re-enforced the cover a bit, covered and decorated it. The autograph books sold in the parks are nice, but $$$. This is a nice unique alternative.

Here is my base with a base coat of paint. I mounted this outlet box in the side of it. I glued it in with J-B weld which should hold it firmly. My idea is to have an extra outlet and a switch that controls the lamp mounted there.

This is as far as I made it this weekend. Still have a lot of painting to do, but it is to cold again to do that probably before Friday.

I had an old metal table top laying around that I cut a hole in the center and am using to cover the base and have it be a bit of a table.

I am just using 2" abs for the post. once I get the topper I will finish wiring and if it warms up a bit I will work on finishing up the paint.

 

[jbrostek]

Nice work on the lamp. When we build one we use the lock-tite gel glue which takes 20 minutes to set. Once it has set, we use outdoor silicon around the ears to add to the adhesive AND smooth out the lines. We use an alluminum post that we cut down just a little bit and prewire the top and bottom with plugs so we can break it down more easilly.

I like the bucket, but that is kind of large and hard for me to transport. I used a 5 gallong bucket and built/secured a base an VPC tube in the bucket that the light post slides right in. The bucket is filled with concrete about 3/4 of the way. We been contemplating using water instead but have not tested a bucket design to make it easier to deal with.

 

[mightyexplorers]

Woohoo
Magic Bands shipped today! We depart in 26 days!

Which is a good thing because remember all that snow that was just about melted? Well its back. I was worried going in the spring would not give us that feeling of leaving winter behind. I guess I didn't need to worry about that.

How are the tomato plants coming bama ed?

 

[bama_ed]

Woohoo
Magic Bands shipped today! We depart in 26 days!

Which is a good thing because remember all that snow that was just about melted? Well its back. I was worried going in the spring would not give us that feeling of leaving winter behind. I guess I didn't need to worry about that.

How are the tomato plants coming bama ed?

MightyX,

Wow - the adventure you had the with RV is, as you said, both good and bad news. Bad news it happened, but good news is it happened close to home.

Question about the milk can base for your Mickey light (which is coming along nicely). Is the can itself heavy enough to be stable or are you going to put something in the can at the bottom to improve stability? Our poster grumpyaggie had his Mickey light this spring blow over and I came across one in 600 loop during my stay that had fallen (a white plastic ear had rolled into the middle of the road and I moved it next to the lamp). I actually lashed my vertical pole to the awning cross-arm to keep it safe but it did wobble a few times in the wind. Every night I took the light/globe section off the post and put it in the car "just in case" and put it back on in the morning.

The tomato plants are in, thank you for asking, as are the pepper plants. I have two tomato plants (same as last year) and four peppers (only had two last year). I got a late start last year on my plants (mid June planting date) so I wanted to do better this year. I came across little Tabasco pepper plants last year (and I LOVE Tabasco sauce - the original Red and the Garlic (which is like liquid butter to me)) so I thought I would grow them and try to make my own sauce. It produced a half dozen bottles but due to the late start and few plants I was still happy with that. Honestly, it felt like I was making moonshine - boiling the mess, letting it age, bottling it in clear, plain glass bottles, and not having to pay for it (at least directly). So it's shaping up to be a fun summer.







I have to plant in containers because my yard is shaded and the driveway gets the most sun.





The Tabasco sauce I made was really hot. Guess it didn't have time to age in the oak barrels like it does on Avery Island.

Good luck with the Mickey light. Keep the updates coming.

Bama ED

 

[mightyexplorers]

Question about the milk can base for your Mickey light (which is coming along nicely). Is the can itself heavy enough to be stable or are you going to put something in the can at the bottom to improve stability?

Well the technical answer to this question is "I think so" The can has some pretty good weight to it, I had initially planned to put something in it for stability but It seems to be pretty stable as it is.

That said, the base will be mostly hollow, and it wouldn't kill me to bring a couple bricks or large rocks to put it in for added stability. I could even add a bucket of water or something to the bottom. Which would save a little weight in the motor home.

I came across little Tabasco pepper plants last year (and I LOVE Tabasco sauce - the original Red and the Garlic (which is like liquid butter to me)) so I thought I would grow them and try to make my own sauce. It produced a half dozen bottles but due to the late start and few plants I was still happy with that. Honestly, it felt like I was making moonshine - boiling the mess, letting it age, bottling it in clear, plain glass bottles, and not having to pay for it (at least directly). So it's shaping up to be a fun summer.

The Tabasco looks great. Yum. I will have to keep an eye out for some of those. Despite my pessimism about this spring and endless winter, things do actually grow here, my peppers and tomatoes might be a couple weeks behind but they will produce.

 

[mightyexplorers]

Look what came in the mail on Saturday. WOO HOO. Looks like we are going to Disney World.

 

[mightyexplorers]

Well I made a discovery this weekend while constructing my lamp. That is that not all 12" globes are created equal. The base of my globe had the small opening that matched the base of the two 6" globes. After pushing and jamming I could not understand why it would not just slide on to the topper.
That is when I realized that my globe is not the same as the ones I have seen in other builds.

After a few modifications with a grander though it fit fine.

I wired the globe topper with a plug as suggested for easily disassembly.

Then having power to it, I could not resist assembling for a test fire. The paint isn't finished, and the wiring isn't finished but it is starting to look like a mickey lamp.

 

[mightyexplorers]

The weekend also gave me a little bit of time to brew up some essentials for the trip. While I love to pay $9 a Guinness at Rose and Crown (honestly I do, I love the atmosphere) when at the fort I would prefer to stick to my own concoctions.

Boiling

All buttoned up, on schedule for the Fort.

 

[mightyexplorers]

Yesterday afternoon we got the tent out, and set it up to let it air out a bit.

While our motor home is pretty roomy and allows us all to sleep fairly comfortable on the road, once we arrive we like to spread out a little. We have a tent we setup behind the camper. The older boys sleep in the tent and the younger kids sleep in the RV with us.

Our original 10 man tent bit the dust on our first trip to the Fort. It served us well for more than 10 years and we are proud to have given it a proper burial (in a partially buried trash can) at the fort.

We purchased this tent to replace it. It is a Coleman cabin tent. The kids love it. Of course tent camping at the fort isn't exactly roughing it. They bring a TV out there and we have a stand alone AC that we will put in there as well.

 

[bama_ed]

The weekend also gave me a little bit of time to brew up some essentials for the trip. While I love to pay $9 a Guinness at Rose and Crown (honestly I do, I love the atmosphere) when at the fort I would prefer to stick to my own concoctions.

I'm sure, mightyX, you got a LOT of people's attention along with me here.



Bama Ed

 

[Chief Powhatan]

Sounds like a great trip - I look forward to reading more about it.

 

[mightyexplorers]

Looking very Mickey-ish now

 

[tina.tina]

The bottom of your lamp is SO cute!