Some crazy stats in your sig, dvc. Wow.
It was by accident a few years ago while cleaning out an old box from my parents house I found records my dad had of our trips to Florida. Back in 1973, my brother got stationed at Homestead afb. A few years before that, my aunt and uncle moved to Stone Mountain Ga. My father decided Christmas 1973, I was 8, we were going visiting. We loaded up the Plymouth Fury III and headed to Ga. Back then I95 wasn't complete so it was an adventure. We would stop to visit my aunt and uncle then head to Homestead. I live with in one hour of Dorney park, Hershey park and six flags great adventure. I hated amusement parks when I was little. My dad insisted we go to Walt Disney World. ( today known as the magic kingdom) We got there around noon and were turned away. We ended up parked along the main road heading into the mk where just about the monorail tracks end today. Back then it was pine trees.
Around 2pm, we were let into the parking lot. Loaded on an orange tram and headed to the ticket center. Waited in line another 2 hours to get tickets. Loaded on the monorail and finally got into the
My mom was not a fan of rides and my father, 6' 3", 230lb past Marine, haaaad to do this. Lol
We got on a few rides, I remember the carousel of progress, mission to Mars, people mover and haunted mansion.
We stayed to watch the parade and sat in front of Main Street theater. We all loved it. My dad said we'll come back next year and stay a few days. We stayed on rt192 which at the time was a small, two lane road. We stayed at the days inn, which I believe is still there.
Every year, sometime twice we would drive down, do our visiting and hit wdw for two days. My mom passed away in 1981 and my dad in 1984. Those few years I would drive down with my dad. In 1985 I got married and guess where we honeymooned?
The rest is history. I saved tickets, maps etc... From our visits all the way up to two years ago. I added up the trips, days and to my surprise, got a total. Now I don't save to much but still keep track of days and trip.
In 2000, I started keeping track of what attractions we did.lol ( I still do that today and it's cool to see how many times you ride something.lol)
In 2013, my dd dream came true, she always wanted to work in the mk. I learned a lot from her experiences, good, the bad and the ugly.lol
It's been one heck of a ride. We do it every year. Little slower, and in September now. Lol Dw and I have a 16 day trip booked in a one bedroom at the Boardwalk again this September and are counting the days. Yes, people think we are nuts, our house is all, I mean all Disney. 40 plus years of memories fill our house.
We still don't sleep two nights before our drive and still look forward to every trip the same as the one we looked forward to 32 years ago.
