"I brushed my teeth, and I don't have cooties." An August DFTW and Disneymoon TR

[MeghanEmily]

I am sooooooo behind on TR's (including my own!) but I cannot wait to see and read all about your wonderful wedding and Disneymoon!

A very belated congratulations to you and Nathan

P.S. Do you know why your TR is under the "completed trip reports" board?

I'm so glad you're here!

Oooh, that's a very good question!! I'm not sure how I managed to do that! I must have just put it wherever my last TR was or something, which would have been completed. Hmm... weird. I wonder if there's a way to get an admin to fix that or something. I should be much better at technology than I am for my generation! lol

OMG so excited to read!!! What a wonderfully long and magical trip! I'm so jealous of your Disney wedding--I have a huge family and weddings are sort of our thing, so it would not have worked out for us, but passing the wedding pavilion at the GF always makes me kind of wish we could do a second wedding! But only almost...ain't nobody got time for the stress of two weddings!

Yay! It was really fabulous, and we didn't want to go home...se we kept putting it off. One wedding is more than enough stress for one lifetime, I agree! Weddings—in the traditional sense—were more important on Nathan's side and less important on mine, but in the end it all worked out. Maybe someday you and Ken will do a Disney vow renewal or something!

 

[kaymil]

Maybe someday you and Ken will do a Disney vow renewal or something!

What a BRILLIANT idea!

 

[Jennyren]

AH! I have been so behind since our trip to Japan, but I finally caught up on your PTR and now I'm here! So a belated CONGRATS!

Can't wait to hear all about it and see all the pics

 

[vamassey1]

I'm here and caught up. I can't wait to read about your wedding and honeymoon adventures.

 

[thumper*]

(Spoiler alert here on the "special guests" at the wedding. Oops. Good thing I don't do those TR contests. I'd be giving away all the answers!)

Love your guests of honor.
Next up I promise to get into the actual trip reporting!!

We understand your busy we're patiently waiting​

 

[Whit64130]

just popping in to say I'm here and hope to start reading this over the weekend!

 

[SOrlando114]

Following along! Congratulations!

 

[MeghanEmily]

Are We There Yet? Please Say We're There Yet?
The Road Trip Days

Alrighty, folks! We're finally about to get this show on the road! Now I may be wrong here, but I have a feeling that most of you don't want a full play-by-play of a three-day car ride. If anyone disagrees, go ahead and lemme know...I'll wait...

...*crickets*...

Yeah, that's what I figured.

So I'll keep it brief and just hit the highlights! I'm going to try to group the entire road trip down into one giant update, and then if you can get through this then the next update will be saturated with Disney fun!

Technically, my road trip included four days of driving. I spent the first day driving from Nova Scotia, Canada, where I live currently, to New Brunswick, Canada, (approx. 6 hours) where N and I have family, and which also borders Maine. I slept that night in my family home, and prepared for the long drive ahead.

The next day was Sunday, and I drove to N's parents' house (40 mins) to pick them up (AFTER church, of course!) If you followed my PTR you'll remember that N had been working in Boston that weekend and had already driven down there with his truck and his painting supplies. To save time, I was going to drive down with his parents in my car to meet him in Mass. a bit above Boston. Then we'd do a switcheroo and his parents would drive his truck home to NB, while he and I would continue south in my car. You'll also remember that I was a little stressed about the drive with his parents because we hadn't spent much time together to that point, especially not alone.

So I picked them up, and we continued on our way...and soon we hit the U.S. border...

I guess it must have looked strange for the border guards. I get that. I got a little flustered as he got more and more confused as I tried to explain that I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia (which is what my license plate says,) N lived in NB (at least that was his permanent address, which he was about to change after we got married and he moved into our place in Halifax full time), his parents lived in NB, and they were travelling with me to pick N up in Mass, take his truck and drive it home, we would continue to Florida together...for our wedding! They were confused...why weren't the parents coming to the wedding?? Well, they were, but later. Why was my car from Nova Scotia if we were crossing in NB? Where did I live again? Where did N live again? (At one point I actually looked over to N's mom in the passenger seat, mortified, to confirm that he did, in fact, live where I said he lived! And I know his address! I'm his wife!) What was he doing in the states? What did he do for a living? What did I do for a living? ...and that's where I made the next mistake...and said I was UNEMPLOYED!

I'm sorry, I panicked!! I quickly followed up and told them I'd just recently left my job because I was returning to school in the fall, but it was TOO LATE! With all the confusion, they took us inside, took all our passports, and were going to search the car. Thank gawd, as soon as the guard went out to search the car it started pouring rain! He opened the back, took one look at the jam-packed car full of wedding stuff, looked up at the rain, and was like *heck no!* and didn't open up a single thing. Obviously we had nothing to hide, but the car was packed like Tetris and I wasn't convinced I'd get everything back in there again if they opened Pandora's box...

Turns out, they have to worry a lot about people sneaking over to the states to get married, having no ties to Canada when they leave (e.g. I had no job, and N was a travelling artist) and just trying to stay and never come back home!! And they thought I was trying to sneak into the country!!

I mean...I'd love to live at Disney World...don't get me wrong...but that wasn't the plan. At least not this time.

Also—totally unfair—when N had gone across the border for his work a few days earlier he had a nice leisurely chat with the guard about how great Disney is, was wished well for our wedding, and was on his way! I guess I look extra suspicious. I'm also always the one randomly chosen for metal detectors in security screenings. Oh well.

After that near-miss with border jail, we were on our way, and everything else went pretty smoothly. Just before we hit New Hampshire, through to when we crossed into Mass, we hit some nasty traffic, but fortunately we'd been making good time before that and we arrived at the meeting location just a few minutes before N did. After a quick snack and drink at Dunkin' Donuts, we all got on the road again. N did most of the driving from that point on since I had been driving about 6 hours straight already. Before we hit the road though, I had to show N that Mickey and Minnie had sent us a wedding present!!

Inside was a note from the main mice, our "something blue" magicbands with bride and groom decals, ears for me and a grape soda pin for N, and a couple sets of matching couple's shirts for us both!

It was getting dark soon after, but we wanted to get as far as we could that night. That's when the crazies started to emerge from their caves, and the roads got wild! We had so many near misses avoiding potential accidents with insane drivers who were passing in traffic through nonexistent spaces, crossing four lanes at a time, zooming past us and then immediately slowing to nearly a stop, etc. It was nuts. N has done the drive many times on his own and said he'd never seen anything as bad as what we went through that night. The worst one was actually in fairly dense, slow-moving traffic somewhere around Connecticut: We were in the far-right lane, and the vehicle in front of us suddenly veered into the guard rail beside us, bounced off it, and started rebounding back toward us into traffic. N acted fast and swerved around him to the left just in time, but if there had been someone in the lane beside us we would have been in an accident, and the folks behind and to the side of us would have been, too. To this day I have NO IDEA what caused the car to turn and hit the guard rail. There was NO REASON that I could visibly perceive for it happening. I thanked N for saving our lives, and we continued on! (PTR readers, you'll remember that I was very recently in a lousy car accident that totalled my old car, so I had some intense flashbacks in that moment!)

We really didn't want to drive through NY in morning rush hour, so we pushed on and finally crashed sometime shortly after midnight (which felt like 1am to me) at a Hilton Garden Inn in Jersey, just the other side of the state line. As we were driving across the George Washington Bridge, some dude in a hurry tried to pass and nearly merged directly back into our car, N laid on the horn, and they passed nearly taking off our fender. N yelled out, "What the h*ll?!!" just as we crossed the state line, and our GPS responded with a particularly sarcastic: "Welcome to New Jersey." We dissolved into laughter. (Sorry to friends from NJ! I don't really think your whole state sucks or anything...but it was really funny.)

Here's where I finally have some [lousy] pictures! We lugged ALL of our wedding stuff in from the car to help protect from theft, and parked under a light. It was just a slightly sketchy area, but our hotel was nice and felt very safe. Here's our hotel in NJ:

Real brand-name toiletries!

Our second driving day was pretty frustrating, I won't lie. Most of my memories of us involve being stuck in lousy crawling traffic around DC through till halfway through Virginia. That, and a few pitstops at truck/rest stops: (and massage chairs. Definitely massage chairs.)

Eventually we made it to our resting place for the night toward the bottom of North Carolina. This was when we first noticed the big change in humidity! All the glass doors of the hotel were steamed up, and my glasses started fogging up every time I went outside.

The next morning we got gas, and I was going gaga over the US gas prices:

The lowest gas price we saw in the south was around 1.95 a gallon. This is very exciting for someone from eastern Canada who typically pays over a dollar a litre (1/4 of a gallon!) It usually takes $40+ CAD to fill my tank, and we were filling it for $15-20 USD everywhere.

Along the way we listened to the audio from movies like Emperor's New Groove, and played podcasts and Last Week Tonight videos to pass the time. We stopped at a few welcome centers, including the one for Georgia...where we also stopped for McDonald's...and the heat hit me like a wave! The change in temperature/going from outside to AC so much was affecting me more than I'd anticipated and I was getting carsick more easily this last day.

We when finally hit Florida, it was such a relief! We were almost there! One of my must-dos was stopping at the welcome center for orange juice like I'd done on this road trip as a child...

I forget the citrus-superhero's name already...

And a grueling 4 hours later...we were pulling up to the most magical place on earth...coming soon!!​

 

[missangelalexis]

Phew glad crisis was averted when crossing the border!

Wow you really encountered a lot of crazy drivers! Haha Welcome to NJ indeed

Cute pics from the FL Welcome Center!

 

[afwdwfan]

Alrighty, folks! We're finally about to get this show on the road! Now I may be wrong here, but I have a feeling that most of you don't want a full play-by-play of a three-day car ride. If anyone disagrees, go ahead and lemme know...I'll wait...

...*crickets*...

I want to know exactly how many times you stopped for gas and where.

I guess it must have looked strange for the border guards. I get that. I got a little flustered as he got more and more confused as I tried to explain that I live in Halifax, Nova Scotia (which is what my license plate says,) N lived in NB (at least that was his permanent address, which he was about to change after we got married and he moved into our place in Halifax full time), his parents lived in NB, and they were travelling with me to pick N up in Mass, take his truck and drive it home, we would continue to Florida together...for our wedding! They were confused...why weren't the parents coming to the wedding?? Well, they were, but later. Why was my car from Nova Scotia if we were crossing in NB? Where did I live again? Where did N live again? What was he doing in the states? What did he do for a living? What did I do for a living? ...and that's where I made the next mistake...and said I was UNEMPLOYED!

Uh oh... way to go and make yourself look shady!

Turns out, they have to worry a lot about people sneaking over to the states to get married, having no ties to Canada when they leave (e.g. I had no job, and N was a travelling artist) and just trying to stay and never come back home!! And they thought I was trying to sneak into the country!!

Never would have thought of that... especially when people in the US have been threatening to move to Canada for the past year or so.

I guess I look extra suspicious. I'm also always the one randomly chosen for metal detectors in security screenings. Oh well.

I can certainly relate to you on that one!

After that near-miss with border jail, we were on our way, and everything else went pretty smoothly. Just before we hit New Hampshire, through to when we crossed into Mass, we hit some nasty traffic, but fortunately we'd been making good time before that and we arrived at the meeting location just a few minutes before N did. After a quick snack and drink at Dunkin' Donuts, we all got on the road again.

Ok... so after all the trepidation about the drive with N's parents... how did it go?

As we were driving across the George Washington Bridge, some dude in a hurry tried to pass and nearly merged directly back into our car, N laid on the horn, and they passed nearly taking off our fender. N yelled out, "What the h*ll?!!" just as we crossed the state line, and our GPS responded with a particularly sarcastic: "Welcome to New Jersey."

How appropriate!!!

The change in temperature/going from outside to AC so much was affecting me more than I'd anticipated and I was getting carsick more easily this last day.

I can definitely understand that. Those big temperature swings can sometimes be harder than just adapting and staying in the heat.

I'm glad you managed to arrive in Florida safely even if there were a couple of close calls.

 

[MeghanEmily]

AH! I have been so behind since our trip to Japan, but I finally caught up on your PTR and now I'm here! So a belated CONGRATS!

Can't wait to hear all about it and see all the pics

Happy you're here!! Thank you!! I know all about how it feels to come back from a trip and be behind on the Dis!! I hope you had an amazing trip to Japan!!

I'm here and caught up. I can't wait to read about your wedding and honeymoon adventures.

Vanessa! I've got lots of pictures and stories coming your way soon

just popping in to say I'm here and hope to start reading this over the weekend!

Whitney! Thanks for joining!

Following along! Congratulations!

and thank you!!

Phew glad crisis was averted when crossing the border!

Wow you really encountered a lot of crazy drivers! Haha Welcome to NJ indeed

Cute pics from the FL Welcome Center!

Oh my goodness, it could have been much worse! I had those poor border guards so confused! I swear everything was 100% as it was supposed to be, but I had a way of managing to make it as confusing as suspicious as possible, apparently!

Oh my gosh, we still say "Welcome to New Jersey" whenever something seriously displeases us. The GPS (who we named Sally) has her attitude on point!

The Welcome Center was something I was NOT willing to miss I remember drinking orange juice there as a kid (at least at one of them—there seem to be several) and getting so excited to finally be in Florida and so close to our destination!

 

[MeghanEmily]

I want to know exactly how many times you stopped for gas and where.

Shoot...I knew the whole not taking notes on the drive thing would come back to bite me... I'm obviously a pretty terrible trip reporter...

Uh oh... way to go and make yourself look shady!

Story of my life! All the shade!

Never would have thought of that... especially when people in the US have been threatening to move to Canada for the past year or so.

RIGHT?!?

Ok... so after all the trepidation about the drive with N's parents... how did it go?

It actually was surprisingly painless! At least compared to how I'd built it up with my anxiety about it. It wasn't the most fun I've ever had for a six-hour stretch of time or anything, but we listened to music and snacked away, barely stopped long enough for gas and bio breaks, and managed just fine. His father slept off and on in the back and his mother is chatty, so the time passed reasonably well. It was good to have someone with me for that part of the drive, whether I wanted it or not, because driving through Maine is pretty boring with lots of long stretches of trees/highway, so it's easy to get tired without company. I think Nathan built it up in their heads though about how I get exhausted driving with my brain condition, etc., because his mom kept checking on me to see if I was okay, especially once we got into 4-5 lanes of traffic! I was fine, but she was very concerned that I wouldn't be able to drive!

How appropriate!!!

Oh my gosh, how we laughed! We still say "Welcome to New Jersey" whenever we're seriously unimpressed with something.

I also forgot to mention how incredibly creepy and unsafe the elevator seemed at the hotel in Jersey! It made these terrible screeching sounds and bumped when it stopped at a floor! The first time we rode it we looked at each other with a mix of terror and disgust, and our next "Welcome to New Jersey" moment was born...

I can definitely understand that. Those big temperature swings can sometimes be harder than just adapting and staying in the heat.

It can be rough! And once we got used to the heat, I actually found the AC uncomfortably cold a lot of the time.

I'm glad you managed to arrive in Florida safely even if there were a couple of close calls.

We were SO glad to arrive! The drive was a little nuts, and it was definitely long, but I don't totally regret it. I'd consider doing it again. I may actually be doing it again this spring, as a matter of fact, as it seems I may end up working as Nathan's assistant for some of his big events next year, including a few shows in Florida.

 

[KathyM2]

Wow that sounds like some really crazy driving by others on the roads....I'm glad you guys made it safely...despite some close calls. Ugh.

I'm sorry, I panicked!! I quickly followed up and told them I'd just recently left my job because I was returning to school in the fall, but it was TOO LATE!

This made me laugh because I can totally relate. For some reason I always get a bit nervous crossing borders in and out of the US from Canada, and always end up saying something stupid. Good thing for the rain and them not searching your car...sheesh, that would not have been a good start to the trip.

 

[missjackiemcg]

Inside was a note from the main mice, our "something blue" magicbands with bride and groom decals, ears for me and a grape soda pin for N, and a couple sets of matching couple's shirts for us both!

I just adore this!!!! What a cute idea to make your something blue be your magicbands!!!! Love, love, love!

"What the h*ll?!!" just as we crossed the state line, and our GPS responded with a particularly sarcastic: "Welcome to New Jersey."

HAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[Raeven]

Turns out, they have to worry a lot about people sneaking over to the states to get married, having no ties to Canada when they leave (e.g. I had no job, and N was a travelling artist) and just trying to stay and never come back home!! And they thought I was trying to sneak into the country!!

Better yet there isn't even a wedding you've created a very elaborate lie that even his parent's are in on just so you can sneak into the U.S. and live in Disney World forever

As we were driving across the George Washington Bridge, some dude in a hurry tried to pass and nearly merged directly back into our car, N laid on the horn, and they passed nearly taking off our fender. N yelled out, "What the h*ll?!!" just as we crossed the state line, and our GPS responded with a particularly sarcastic: "Welcome to New Jersey." We dissolved into laughter.

The parts of New Jersey I've been in the roads are not great. They're quite different from the roads around here. There are so many terrible drivers everywhere and it seems like you saw all of them!

The lowest gas price we saw in the south was around 1.95 a gallon. This is very exciting for someone from eastern Canada who typically pays over a dollar a litre (1/4 of a gallon!) It usually takes $40+ CAD to fill my tank, and we were filling it for $15-20 USD everywhere.

A couple years ago before gas prices dropped it was the same way here it used to cost me $40 to fill up my car but now it costs half that.

so much was affecting me more than I'd anticipated and I was getting carsick more easily this last day.

Aw being car sick is awful. I can't even imagine being in a car for that long, I'd be so sick

 

[dolewhipdreams]

Wow what an adventurous road trip! It's crazy that there was so much terrible driving all in one trip. So glad you guys made it through!!

 

[disneyAndi14]

Wow some very interesting things happening to you on your way down to the Most Magical place on earth! Good start to your report, enjoying reading all about it.

 

[the2ndstar2theright]

I had to show N that Mickey and Minnie had sent us a wedding present!!

Inside was a note from the main mice, our "something blue" magicbands with bride and groom decals, ears for me and a grape soda pin for N, and a couple sets of matching couple's shirts for us both!

How cute!

our GPS responded with a particularly sarcastic: "Welcome to New Jersey." We dissolved into laughter.

Okay, this is hilarious

One of my must-dos was stopping at the welcome center for orange juice like I'd done on this road trip as a child...

My mom was just telling me not too long ago that they always did this when she was a kid, too! What a fun tradition!

And a grueling 4 hours later...we were pulling up to the most magical place on earth...coming soon!!

 

[Disneyluv4evr]

Can't wait to read about your adventures. How lucky to get married at the Happiest place on earth!

 

[Disneyluv4evr]

Can't wait to see your pictures!!!