Getting Out of the Cold: A January 2024 Visit To Fort Wilderness

[bama_ed]

Gonna get cold here down in the south in the next few days.

Cold for us, anyway. In Central Alabama, we might get a little light frozen rain to glaze the roads. Many school systems are either delayed starts or cancelled for tomorrow. Milk was non-existent at the grocery store this morning although there was still bread.

Here at home, DS #2 came for a late Christmas visit this weekend (he had to work during the holidays since he was the new guy in the office) but it's time to take down the decorations and get ready for spring.

On our most recent trip last fall, DW and I finished up our multi-year visits to the various Florida Lighthouses around the huge coastline of the state. Some visits were during covid and they were either closed or same for lack of volunteers to open. But I have 13 fridge magnets from Florida lighthouses that are proud momentos of those visits. Always great to climb to the top of them and see the view in 360-degrees. It was a great reason to go camping all over the state.



But something else is coming up. Soon. Again, it will be filled with activities every day but not too many to wear us out. It will have a familiar pattern but with new things to read about. Can't wait to get out of this cold weather.

I booked this trip a year ago - always wanted to try a visit towards late January or early February.

Bama Ed

PS - by 'cold' I mean 20F tonight, sleet/rain overnight. Won't make it to freezing tomorrow during the day and 13F for the low. But Wednesday we start to thaw out above freezing and by Thursday I'm gonna start getting things ready to load.

 

[Teamubr]

That is pretty cold for LA. Bundle up! Glad it won't last long.

j

 

[Part-Time Paradise]

 

[cruising spud]

Ed, thanks for letting me know that my husband is not the only one in the world to collect magnets when we visit a new area.

 

[bama_ed]

Ed, thanks for letting me know that my husband is not the only one in the world to collect magnets when we visit a new area.

Now, now, Spud. It's a cute, cheap souvenir. Especially if we climbed to the top. Here is all my lighthouse magnets on top of my fridge.



Again, we visited and climbed more than these but not all had a gift shop and not all gift shops had a magnet (if you can believe THAT ).

Yep so anyway, I check into the Fort a week from today with DW. We will make our approach in the usual fashion which is to drive into Clermont nearby and stay at a campsite at Lake Louisa State Park the prior night (Monday night). The reason why is although we make the drive in one day, it's 600 miles and 11 hours to the Fort. Then add an hour going from Central to Eastern Time Zones. So if I drove directly to the Fort, I would arrive 5pm or 6pm, do minimal set-up as night fell, then do the rest the next day. I would get whatever campsite was left over as well and pay $102 for the night (Tent weeknight rate). Instead LLSP cuts about 30 minutes off the drive, I pay $24 for a site, plug in, stay hitched up, sleep, and roll over to the Fort around sun-up.

There is a new paved road that basically heads due east from LLSP over to Hwy 429 (it was a dirt road previously) that I'm going to take in the morning to get to WDW. Although 429 is toll, the new paved road merges in to 429 which comes off onto Western Way which comes into Disney by Coronado Springs Resort. It should be one continuous roll from LLSP to CSR. The old way was south from LLSP on Hwy 27 (a few red lights) to Hwy 192 through Kissimmee (bunch of red lights) and then curl up onto World Drive from 192.

I do plan to put the bikes on the front hitch (new thing we did last trip worked pretty good) so if we have to wait in the overflow lot for our site, we can go for a bike ride.

This week I am playing that cat-and-mouse game of checking the Orlando weather forecast daily a week out now and watching the changes. It's showing mainly low 70s for highs and low 60s for lows with some rain sprinkles some days (like 0.04"). Of course it's gonna change between now and then.

Countin' 'em down . . . .

Bama Ed

 

[Teamubr]

Thanks for the heads up on the new paved road from LLSP. I haven't decided on our game plan for November. I was considering a Harvest Host up closer to Gainesville/Ocala, but LLSP is always a great choice.

j

 

[bama_ed]

Thanks for the heads up on the new paved road from LLSP. I haven't decided on our game plan for November. I was considering a Harvest Host up closer to Gainesville/Ocala, but LLSP is always a great choice.

j

Yes. The new paved road is Schofield Road on the maps. It was previously a dirt track most of the way.

Come out of LLSP, turn left (north) and go 1 mile, then Schofield Rd is on the right. It makes a couple 90-degree turns then runs out to Hwy 429.

@TheRustyScupper drove it about a week after it was paved and reported smooth sailing.

Ed

 

[DL1WDW2]

I know this is late but plan for next year to visit
the Yacht& Beach Club Gingerbread Lighthouse Tribute display

 

[DL1WDW2]

Also loved the Disney Springs Tree Stroll addition with the new Ft W Cabin ornament display!

 

[DL1WDW2]

And the decorated golf carts too on the tree !

 

[DL1WDW2]

Hope your trip is fun this year …
Keep us updated !

 

[4077]

As you always say @bama_ed

 

[bama_ed]

Jimmy,

Good pic of the YC/BC Lighthouse gingerbread display.

Wonder if they sell a fridge magnet of those? Or of the lighthouse in general? Me and Mr. Spud might want to know. Gonna hafta get over there and check the gift shops of each when we have our ride-around day. We could count that as another Florida lighthouse, after all . . . .

Came up with a silly stupid idea I'm going to roll out starting tomorrow for the pre-trip portion of this. It will run over multiple days but hey I'm looking for new material here.

And hey, size doesn't matter. Anyone can also just go with this:

 

[4077]

Jimmy,

Good pic of the YC/BC Lighthouse gingerbread display.

Wonder if they sell a fridge magnet of those? Or of the lighthouse in general? Me and Mr. Spud might want to know. Gonna hafta get over there and check the gift shops of each when we have our ride-around day. We could count that as another Florida lighthouse, after all . . . .

Came up with a silly stupid idea I'm going to roll out starting tomorrow for the pre-trip portion of this. It will run over multiple days but hey I'm looking for new material here.

And hey, size doesn't matter. Anyone can also just go with this:

I agree about the gingerbread pic but, credit where due... I just "liked" the post.... @DL1WDW2 took and posted those "sweet" (get it?) gingerbread lighthouse pics....

 

[bama_ed]

I agree about the gingerbread pic but, credit where due... I just "liked" the post.... @DL1WDW2 took and posted those "sweet" (get it?) gingerbread lighthouse pics....

You're right, my apologies. Thanks @DL1WDW2!

Put my hands on those Gen1 MagicBands. They're on the kitchen windowsill now ready to go.

 

[bama_ed]

Came up with a silly stupid idea I'm going to roll out starting tomorrow for the pre-trip portion of this trip report. It will run over multiple days but hey I'm looking for new material here.

My plan this week was to make sure the clothes I was going to take to Florida next week would get pushed through the laundry process. And in doing so, I am realizing that I have more WDW "wearables" than I realized. We've been going to the Fort for a long time so I'm going to post pics of most of them over the course of a few days.

Now most of them are t-shirts and they are, for the most part, many years old so they look old and faded (and comfortable). But hey, let's see if any of ya'll have these same wearables.

We'll start with some of the oldest and most faded.

First is the front and back of my only Fort Wilderness tshirt.





Next, on a more recent trip, my dad sent me over to the Shades of Green resort area specifically to the Palm & Magnolia Golf Pro Shop to get him a polo shirt with Mickey swinging a club embroidered on it. I got it for him but also found this t-shirt on sale. DD likes to borrow it and I like to get it back.



Got these next two on two different trips while DD was doing the College Program at WDW which means she took us to the CM discount merchandise store, Cast Connection, as her guests.





DD has a gray sweatshirt with the same graphic as the red shirt above.

That's all for today. I'll share a few more tomorrow that are more colorful and interesting.

Bama Ed

 

[DL1WDW2]

Love the golf t shirt !
And just to let you know it is still kinda chilly today in Celebration .

 

[bama_ed]

Looking at ebay, the brown t-shirt (first 2 pics in my previous post) is listed for $60 OBO.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/335177757144?hash=item4e0a26b1d8:g:MY8AAOSw9xllhe43&amdata=enc:AQAIAAAA8ArKziJlqKt6Nj9gPQ6iLZ+DzxHH+Nsb0xBfn6S/bjbghfWGAbpfSOKwRTN5+TT4Ze98UQQBKCj/GaWAjW/WTiBSwXt3xPdR3jfMKdL2rdZpNg63J9RhsChWOTNJE8ew0Ndm+8HlOmFNdOfib9UzArtge+Y6U5gFUAu4CLisqt09GKIIoqTDwi14YELO17JinFWja4I8FfWAr91W1i8Efakg8rpY6+VDBmk4r/fQvH8x/0SefMDyLgMXqfUMnl3bOWNzNismgMtOt3kRoJX4Y/PZ97tgWw4A+PwYYKcbQUe6njukhJ89OX966qsc7lOATA==|tkp:Bk9SR_z59ZSjYw&LH_BIN=1

PS - I shouldn't have looked at ebay. Now I see some good deals....

 

[Teamubr]

Pretty sure I have the first one and the last one. I have one whole (big) drawer in my dresser that is nothing but Disney T-shirts.

j

 

[bama_ed]

28F this morning headed for a high of 45F today. Will be sunny and cold over the weekend.

Moving along with the Disney wearables idea . . . .

This one will be no surprise. Bought it in the Emporium many years ago and it's become my #2 go-to shirt for Magic Kingdom visits.



I am a tie-dye fan so I had to get this one. Have a tie-dye Gulf Shores shirt as well.



This one is fun to wear around WDW (to Disney Springs) because it generates a lot of discussion and shout-outs from the faithful.



Bought this sweatshirt a couple years back one night on another January trip at Epcot. I was underdressed and it was very cold after the sun went down so I broke down and bought something in the park so I wouldn't become a statistic. The front pocket comes in handy this time of year at home when I go for my 3- and 6-mile walks to hold gloves, phone, headphones, or keys.



Lastly for today, the #1 go-to shirt for Magic Kingdom visits. I believe this is one of the few "finds" from the Disney Outlet Store across I4 that I ever "found" there. My parents were there with us and my Dad got one of these in his size too.



There were times when we would both be in the MK wearing this shirt, we'd be like Danny Devito and Arnold Schwarzenegger from the movie "Twins".

Tomorrow (last day) will be the good stuff. Only 3 items.

Bama Ed