Halloween 2008 at the Fort

[LONE-STAR]

Hey TCD how do you get away with 2 vehicles on your site? We tried that once and got a letter.

 

[DznyRulz]

Excellent as always. Please tell me there's more.

 

[Tri-circle-D]

We ran out of treats at 8pm (over 250 kids) the folks on the corner of 700 ran out just before 9pm with 400 treats/kids

Jeff- I am sorry that we did not meet up. Were you on the 600 or 700 loop? I didn't get pictures of the huge graveyard on the 600 loop. That was well done.

according to what I googled it means

no = no
tratar = to treat
estar = to be
afuera = embankment, in public or get out of here!

Well. that explains things, doesn't it? Don't treat the embankment or get out of here. With three exclamation points!!! This must be serious.

Hey TCD how do you get away with 2 vehicles on your site? We tried that once and got a letter.

Yes, we have received the same letter in the past, and would comply by parking one of the cars in the main parking lot. On our last two visits, Mrs. TCD came over a day after we arrived. Last visit, we were on the new premium 500 loop. As you know, the concrete area has been expanded on each of those sites. I noticed quite a few folks with two vehicles on their sites. No body ever came around with THE LETTER. Same thing on this trip. We were on the new premium 800 loop. Lots of people with two cars. No letter. I know that one of the issues before was they wanted cars parked on the pavement, and it was pretty much impossible to do that with two cars on the old sites. On the new sites, there is plenty of room for two vehicles. I'm not sure if the policy has changed, or if they just let it go. Truthfully, I am in favor of the one car per site policy, as having two cars on every site would create a more congested feel.

Excellent as always. Please tell me there's more.

Not to worry. More is coming right up.

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

One more comment about this photo:

Someone posted this link of a video of the Fort Wilderness Railroad on another thread:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n633qZJJgJc

At the very end of the video, the train pulls up to this little building and water tower.

Here is a screen capture of the scene:

There is our little building. And the two pine trees next to it. You see from the first photo above that one is now a stump.

I encourage you to watch the video. You can see the train go past the area where the dog park is now, and there are totem poles and tee pees in that area.

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

OK, on with the report.

While we are talking about old FW photos, I am sure that you have seen these before:

These apparently are from the 70's. You see those big log slices that were used for signs? I remember a photo of one that served as a sign for the Tri-Circle-D ranch as well. I never got to see any of these in person. I figured they must have rotted, and that they were replaced with more boring signage.

Well, here is a little something interesting.

This past weekend, as I was driving down the main road, I happened to look over to the maintenance area. You can see some of the buildings from the road, but not much. Something back there caught my eye.

This is what I saw:

Now, a little closer:

And closer still:

What, may I ask, is that big log slice doing back there? I have snooped around here a bit before (no surprise there, eh?), and have never seen this big log slice before. And, it looks new, doesn't it? Unfinished even. Hmmmm. If you see a new sliced log sign around the Fort, remember that you saw it here first!

Also, see that towel return box? Where is that from? River Country? As long as I have been coming to the Fort, there haven't been towels at the pools, so no need for a towel return. Maybe at the cabin pool? I don't think so, but maybe.

While taking a look back here, look at all these old picnic tables:

These must be all the old tables from the 800 loop. Wonder what they're going to do with them?

I am going to need to do some better spying around here on a future trip. There was too much activity going on at the time that I took these photos.

Just down the main road from here, as you travel into the campground, if you look to your right, you will see a little clearing in the trees. This is an area that is accessed by castmembers through the 1700 loop. Look at all these trees :

I think these are casualties from the loop improvements. I hate to see that many trees go.

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Keeping this in more or less chronological order, it is now Saturday morning, November 1st.

DD's decide to get up and go to AK for rope drop. They go while Mrs. TCD and I just kick back at the campsite. The deal was that they would just go for a couple of hours, and then come back for a late breakfast. That all worked according to plan. We enjoyed a nice, warm, sunny morning at the Fort.

We looped around a bit to see some more sites.

I finally caught up with Us3- Sonya and Bud, and we had a brief chat. Turns out that Bud is an amateur spy, and that he has some news to report about the pool renovations. I haven't seen that news posted anywhere yet, but keep an eye out.

Some sights from Saturday:

I'm not exactly sure what message the artist was trying to convey with the use of the beer cans, but I give him (or her) an A+ for creativity.

We happened upon the Archery activity.

From the looks of things, this is catching on and becoming popular. Not for me. Twenty Five bucks to shoot a few arrows at a target ten feet away? No thank you.

This heron wisely stayed on the other side of the Bike Barn during the Archery activity:

The hammocks are still MIA down at the beach. But the poles give the hoodlums a new activity:

Who doesn't love to see a photo of a Mama duck and her babies?:

We hung around the Fort for the afternoon. There were some very good college football games going on, and lots of people were outside watching the games. It was fun to watch the game and then hear the cheers (or groans) coming from sites near and far. The TCD gang especially enjoyed watching the Gators obliterate the Bulldogs. Good times.

The plan for the evening was to head out to Epcot, and then over to the MK.

But, that all changed when we happened to notice one of the movies scheduled for the evening:

Some of you loyal readers may remember that the TCD DD's have a thing for the Jonas Brothers. They have seen Camp Rock a lot of times. But, never on a big screen in the great outdoors. That was too good of an opportunity to pass.

So, we dined like kings on a delicious Giddy Yap and Go fried chicken dinner from Trails End, watched a little more football, and headed out for the movie.
It was a beautiful evening. The girls made S'mores and watched Mitchie find her true self (and Shane (Joe) with his shirt off on a giant movie screen). What more could we ask for?

TCD

 

[Gatordad]

OK, who wants some more?

So, the Trick or Treating is done.

Time for TCD to have some fun.

I get into my gorilla costume (nobody is surprised by that, are they?). Middle DD will play the banana:

You know, I didn't know the old costume was looking so bad. This was my 40th birthday present from Mrs. TCD (she is the best), and that was (yikes) 7 years ago. This costume has gotten a lot of use. It won us first prize in a fourth of July parade a few years back. I have scared many a camper with this baby. The rubber parts are getting a little brittle. Oh well, back to our story.

So, here is the plan. We will go down to the campfire area, and DD will run across the front, right in front of the movie screen shouting "Help! Help!" and then a gorilla will come chasing after. That is funny, right?

Well, we go and pull off our prank. DD does a great acting job. The gorilla hams it up. The crowd yawns. All I hear is the crickets chirping. Maybe it was too dark, or they were too into the movie.

So, we head over to the official Dis party site at Us3's site on the 1900 loop. Same act. We get a little more reaction there.

Then, on down to the beach. The Hallowishes fireworks show is going on. BTW, the audio is definitely piped in at the beach for this. It was loud! We did the Banana/Gorilla act here. We got lots of big laughs here. Running up and down the dock and beach. Finally!

We also looped around and enjoyed the decorations at the campsites. Here are a few shots taken of the site that won first prize in the decorating contest. This man comes every year. He typically sets up in the 800 loop (always site 802), but they would not reserve this spot for him this year, as the loop was closed all the way up to 10/30. The man is from Inglis, Florida, and he hand made all of his decorations. These photos do not do it justice:

Hey- I discovered something interesting about the last photo, above. See the man with the Hawaiian Shirt? He must be a Disboard member. I stole these two photos off of Gatordad's trip report. See the guy that the arrows are pointing to? Same guy, right? Who is he?

Small world, isn't it?

TCD

p.s.- still to come . . . .some top notch TCD spy photos!

it was BDR, notice you don't get his face.

 

[Gatordad]

Hey- I discovered something interesting about the last photo, above. See the man with the Hawaiian Shirt? He must be a Disboard member. I stole these two photos off of Gatordad's trip report. See the guy that the arrows are pointing to? Same guy, right? Who is he?

Small world, isn't it?

TCD

p.s.- still to come . . . .some top notch TCD spy photos!

I can fill you in. We didn't stay long because I had my best friend visiting. She and her fiance, Bobby, pictured with the Hawaiian Shirt, were looping with us. They live in Orlando. My DH and my 2 boys were with them looking at the graveyard too at that time. Missie and I took the girls around the 1700 loop. I wanted to meet y'all so we stopped by. That's my DD 9 in the Cinderella dress, she was the one with the hearing aides. Having all 5 of them plus Missie and Bobby's DD with us made us real party crashers. BTW, I forgot to leave the margaritas with you. I took the bottle of Tequilla out of the cooler and went oh s***. Did anyone try the drunken hotdogs? I threw alot away.
Loretta[/QUOTE]

I tried the hot dogs, they were very good. I had eaten a ton of stuff, plus about 12 beers, so i was quite stuffed. very good dogs.

 

[Pirate-Jeff]

We were in the 700 loop near the settlement end. The site with the graveyard on the little hill.

I think I have pictures of the 600 loop grave yards and will post them soon.

The 600 loop is where they assigned Gatordad a site. If he'd tried to back into there there would have been crushed ghosts and tombstones everywhere and security would have Been called out for the Gator/Ghost Rumble.

 

[Gatordad]

We were in the 700 loop near the settlement end. The site with the graveyard on the little hill.

I think I have pictures of the 600 loop grave yards and will post them soon.

The 600 loop is where they assigned Gatordad a site. If he'd tried to back into there there would have been crushed ghosts and tombstones everywhere and security would have Been called out for the Gator/Ghost Rumble.

I still have nightmares about getting into that site. They should have made it a pullthru.

 

[Us3]

I looped past that grave yard on Tuesday night with Nicole (Seabea) and all of our girls. We were on the cart moving at a snails pace looking at all of the ghost and mangled pieces of whatever in the grave yard. The ghostly statues they had were quite realistic and we took time to study each one. As we approached the last "ghostly statue" it made a sudden move toward us! I couldn't get that electric cart out of there fast enough! It was pretty cool...the only freight we had all week.

 

[Us3]

Thanks for coming by Loretta! I only wish you guys could have stayed longer! Thanks for bringing the drunken dogs...Bud and I had some too! There was a ton of food left over! I took a lot of the leftovers over to Gatordad's site the next evening. (sorry about the hot dogs Pete, we didn't find those until the next morning over by the grill! )

 

[Tri-circle-D]

After enjoying Camp Rock, we headed back to the site for hot cocoa. The DD's had gotten up early for AK rope drop, so no problem getting everyone into bed and to sleep.

Daylight Savings Time ended early Sunday morning, so we got a free hour at the Fort! Sweet. An extra hour to keep the cart and the site.

I headed out to see what goes on at the Fort early on a Sunday morning.

First, a report on the cable situation in the 1100 loop.

I spotted this Ditch Witch behind one of the sites:

Here's the site number if you are interested:

See the light green/gray pole back there by the Ditch Witch? That is a cable connection box:

And, here you can see that there is already cable pulled into the box at the site:

The 1200 and 1300 loops were in this condition at the beginning of October, and the cable was operational by the end of October. So 1100 will have cable real soon.

Wonder what is going on down at the Meadows area?

Not much:

Wonder if anyone is swimming at this early hour?

What do you think?

Let's take a look.

Sure enough, two people and a duck!

Yes I said a duck! See?:

You got a problem with that?

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

Next, I head down to the Settlement area.

I am looking for the location from which this old photo from the 70's was taken:

I think this is it:

I don't think that I got quite the right angle, but I'm pretty sure that is the right place.

Not a whole lot changed here in the past thirty years.

TCD

 

[RvUsa]

I swear TCD, I don't care how down I am, or how bummed I am because it is a year till we get back to the fort. When I read your stories, I always feel better.

As soon as I log on, the first thing I look for is your posts, you do such a wonderful job telling a story about your trip, it feels like we are all there with you. Thank you Sir, you are true FORT FIEND!

 

[OK GRUMPY]

I swear TCD, I don't care how down I am, or how bummed I am because it is a year till we get back to the fort. When I read your stories, I always feel better.

As soon as I log on, the first thing I look for is your posts, you do such a wonderful job telling a story about your trip, it feels like we are all there with you. Thank you Sir, you are true FORT FIEND!

I agree to all the above! I didn't get to go this Holloween so it's great to get to read your report. You always do a Great Report!

 

[DznyRulz]

I swear TCD, I don't care how down I am, or how bummed I am because it is a year till we get back to the fort. When I read your stories, I always feel better.

As soon as I log on, the first thing I look for is your posts, you do such a wonderful job telling a story about your trip, it feels like we are all there with you. Thank you Sir, you are true FORT FIEND!

I agree to all the above! I didn't get to go this Halloween so it's great to get to read your report. You always do a Great Report!

I agree as well. The good thing is we're down to 10 months until our next visit. Thanks for the memories.

 

[Tri-circle-D]

I swear TCD, I don't care how down I am, or how bummed I am because it is a year till we get back to the fort. When I read your stories, I always feel better.

As soon as I log on, the first thing I look for is your posts, you do such a wonderful job telling a story about your trip, it feels like we are all there with you. Thank you Sir, you are true FORT FIEND!

I agree to all the above! I didn't get to go this Holloween so it's great to get to read your report. You always do a Great Report!

I agree as well. The good thing is we're down to 10 months until our next visit. Thanks for the memories.

Thanks, guys.

I enjoy a nice trip report myself, so I always try to pay it back when I get to the Fort.

I hope you like the next installment on this thread- TCD spies on River Country!

TCD

 

[Tri-circle-D]

On my early October trip, I noticed that they had moved the entrance for the Backyard Barbecue over to the old River Country entrance.

This is what the River Country entrance looked like for the past few years:

Now, they have taken down the plywood barricade, and spruced the place up:

And, on my two October visits, the area has not been roped off during the day, which allows guests to mosey on back for a look-see.

Which is what I did on Sunday morning, November 2.

I have a bunch of photos!

First, let's take a look at what River Country used to be.

Here is an old map to the water park. You can see the ticket booth that is shown in the photos I posted above there at the bottom of the map, and you can see the water tower, too:

See the area off to the left center of the map called Slippery Slide Falls, and Upstream Plunge? Here is a photo I found on-line that shows what this area used to look like:

Well, by use of my spy skills, I was able to get a photo of what this area looks like today:

It, along with the rest of the old attraction areas, is concealed behind the green fencing that you see in these photos. But, there are rocks and picnic tables around that allow a view, and there are a few gaps in the fencing near the gates where you can sneak a peak.

Kind of a tragedy, wouldn't you say?

TCD

 

[Donna]

wow, one of the true original water parks. that old picture reminds me of the fun we used to have there. the pool wasn't quite as big as that picture made it seem but it was a blast; they just don't make em like that anymore!