I wake up.
I look.
I almost scream. Yep, the dreaded envelope is hanging from the door
knob. Now, normally, this can put you into a rapid state of depression.
No, it wasn't a dark and stormy night.
It was a bright and sunny morning.
And the envelop? I don't care. Just means it's time to move on.
We get all packed up, and let Disney come and transfer our stuff.
We keep out what we need, they say we should be reunited with the rest
about 3:30 at Wilderness Lodge.
So, it's back down to the pool we go.
About 9: 30 by now.
We approach the pool.
"Wait here."
I run a quick surveilance of the entire area.
No Brady Bunch family. No crows, blackbirds or Pteradactlys.
( yeah, yeah, pick a word to correct the spelling on, the choices are there.)
I've got the pith helmet on, camoflage outfit, Swiss Army Knife, MRE's.
I'm ready.
No bird's walking on my wife's back this morning!
All clear.
I give the two short blasts, one long one on the duck caller thingy.
She crouches low, runs to the next bush.
I do it again.
She crouches low, runs to the next bush.
Geesh!
At this rate she might make poolside by midnight.
Guess she doesn't get the " all clear sign".
I break cover, walk up to her and grab her hand,
lead her to the lawn chair.
"Nothing to be afraid of miss, this soldier has sentry duty while you repose."
She sits down for a couple minutes, then heads to the food court.
Did I say geesh yet this installment? Oh, yeah, there it is.
She comes back with an order of Beignets? (sp).
There were 3 of these pastries per order, and eligible for a snack.
Cool. I had one. Of coarse I had to taste it first, being the good
soldier that I am. Not bad.
Well, even with the pastry bait, no aviary attacks this time.
Swell, now I look really stupid in my Steve Irwin outfit and yelling "crikey"
everytime a sparrow flew kind of close.
( yeah, I know, I miss him.)
After a couple hours, we got antsy to get over to the WL.
I'm collecting our stuff while she goes in to change.
As I'm strolling up to the restrooms to meet her, I'm behind a man and his young son.
Then, I saw it about the same time they did.
"Daddy, Daddy, look, what is that?"
"Oh, that's a chameleon son, try to catch him."
grr
" If you can get a few of them, we can put them in the peanut butter
jar and bring them back to Ohio with us."
grr, to the second power.
Well, before I even really thought, I found out my mouth was
playing the "annoying card" already.
"No, not chameleons."
"Anoles." "Yes, anoles, that's what they are called. No relation to chameleons whatsoever. Only thing they have in common is that they both can change their skin color to suit their surroundings a bit."
" You might want to think twice about trying to bring any back to Ohio.
It's against the law to transfer indigenous Florida reptiles out of state."
"Not to mention, I promise you, they will be dead by the time you hit Ohio,
living in a peanut butter jar.
"Not you, the lizards."
"Are you sure"? this from the dad "We always called them chameleons."
"Yeah, and I had a cat I used to call "Tiger".
"Not."
Well, mr. anole thought this was a good time to make his escape.
Unfortunately, little boy found me boring and was still watching him.
When the little lizard ran, he did the only thing he could think of to keep
him there.
STOMP!
All three of us looked at the stomp, then the two of them looked up
at me, like I was the lizard police or something.
Just shook my head and walked away.
I'm sorry, yeah, guess I shoulda kept my mouth shut, but I was
a member of the Chicago Herpetoligical ociety a few years back.
One of the biggest highlights of my life was the evening that my corn
snakes that I had mated, well, the night that the eggs I had worked on
incubating hatched.
I had never done that before, and at the end of gestation, the eggs started
shriveling up. I thought they were dead. And one night when we came
home at midnight, I checked the cigar box one last time, so I thought.
And it looked like a little "Indiana Jones" thing going on in there.
I yelped, Diane came running over, my younger son woke up wanting
to know what all the noise is about.
So the three of us sat at the table with little squirming baby snakes
trying to count them when my oldest son walked in.
Looked around. Looked at us. Looked at the snakes.
" I must have been adopted, right?"
Diane comes out, and we hit the road.
Now, with her as "navigator", looking for the French Quarter, we ended
up in Epcot. So this time, Uh uh. Give me the map. I'll plot the course to Wilderness.
And , wouldn't you know it? Not one wrong turn.
We pull into the lot, I'm beaming, she's kinda glaring, " Yeah, this was
the easy part."
And then my heart jumps up to my throat again.
It's the dreaded check in time again.
I would like to say, we enjoyed FQ alot. I'm not sure though which I prefer,
that or Riverside/mansion section. French is cozier, a lot more compact.
No far walks. Food court is great. But I really don't like the pool much.
The serpent slide to me just looks ridiculous, and it's just for little ones.
And that's the only pool they have over there. Don't believe it
when they tell you feel free to use the pools at Riverside too.
You will be dead by the time you walk to them in the summer.
Trust me. Not close.
Pulling into the Wilderness Lodge, it's breathtaking.
Whatever breath you have left is "wooshed " out of you
when you step inside.
When we went through the security gate, the guard said "welcome home"
I responded, " did mom leave my room the same? All my stuff is still there,
right?" Diane rolled her eyes, he gave me that "what planet you from"
look.
Oh well.
Walk up to the counter.
"Steve and Diane, two, smoking room."
Ah yes, here it is. Floor 3, be ready in two hours.
Well, alarms went off in my head. "Is that a smoking room"?
No, you didn't request a smoking room.
Yep, gonna go this way this time.
" Here's my confirmation that you sent me with the words "smoking
room " highlighted."
Oh, but we don't have any smoking rooms available.
"Ah, but you did when we made these reservations. You see, that's how reservations work, I call up, ask if you have the room I want, and if you do
you say yes, and take my money."
Like you did.
Yes, but we don't have any smoking rooms.
I suddenly feel like I'm back in that Seinfeld episode, renting a car.
Ok, let's save time, get the manager, we DIS, and don't go down without a fight.
"Sir, we don't have smoking rooms here at all anymore, I'm sorry"
yes you do. South side of the south wing, facing the villa's pool, floor 5 and six.
"Wellllll, evidently you know more about this resort than I do that
only works here."
Ok, we're finally in agreement, now will you get the manager?
Frazzle faced worker comes back a few minutes late with "smiley" faced
manager. You could see them talking over on the end.
smiley: problem here?
me: I roll my eyes
diane: yes, we want the room that you took our money for.
smiley: ok, let's look. Oh, here's one. It's on the sixth floor, facing
the villa's.
me: I give that knowing smile/smirk out of the corner of my elbow to
Diane, knowing that they are watching me.
diane; fine, fine, that will do just nicely.
smiley: just make sure you call room service to have them send up
a couple ashtrays.
huh?
We get up to our room and it's a great view,,,,, of the pool next door...
well, if you can kinda look through the branches that is.
And then I step out side and look at the door.
It has the non smoking insignia on it. Hmm. These are the rooms
that the Passporter guide said were smoking.
Do I feel stupid for being sarcastic to the first front desk clerk?
Not even a little. They still promised us a smoking room.
Though I do think it won't be long before there won't be any left
and the evil, pathetic smokers are going to be s.o.l.
But it was nice anyway getting into our room right away, even if our luggage
isn't there yet. So we put out suits back on, and go on down exploring.
When it comes to pure "shock and awe" I'm not sure which one wins.
Here or Animal kingdom Lodge.
We walk down to Silver Springs Pool. It's about 1:30 now.
And my goodness is it packed. Ok, for me, strike one, this pool is no
where big enough for this size resort.
It's beautiful, the landscaping is incredible, but we really wanted a place to
sit and relax, cuz, believe me, the check-in process took a lot out.
As we stood there looking at all the full lawn chairs, it ocurred to me it
was time to step up.
" Want a margarita?"
"Now you're talkin' sailor"
We sat down at the , hmm, uh oh, memories fading, uh, OH!
Trout pass bar. Yeah, I'm right, you guys take your white coats and come
back when I call you.
Margarita's sound good , so we both order them.
Now, here comes strike two already: Even though it's not really busy,
the bartender is acting like it's reallly busy.
He's not looking at anything he's doing, just looking around to see what
he can be doing next. When he puts the ice in the glass and starts to
pour the tequila , with the premeasured stopper/pourer in the nozzle,
he's not watching, and even though the bottle is over the glass, the
pourer is shooting it onto the "catch" rail..
"Hey, wanna put some in the glass this time?"
He looks at me like I have that third eye thing going again, then looks
at the spillage, "Oh, sorry".
Now, he does it again, only now he is definately way behind schedule
since I interrupted him, and he's doing the same thing again.
"Hey! What, is this a Candid Camera thing?"
He looks back, only this time annoyed, and I realize he didn't get the Candid
camera thing since he can barely understand english. So I just point at
the ever growing tequila pool in front of him.
The last time he watches, Hooray!, and he makes two "ok" drinks.
I think maybe he thought the "lizard police badge" also included margaritas.
good night folks, I'm pooped
coming:
They came from alfred hitchcock
Ok, I know I started this report late, it really was supposed to be a lot further along than it is right now. I had no idea I was going to have the posting problems that I did in the beginning though. Hopefully, I'm learning. Well, at least I was till the last chapter posted running off the page.
I can"t go on not know how it ends.
I'm back and you're there, not liking you much right now, nebo and smidgy. If I ever finish reading yours, I'll start writing mine...
how did you like WL? Also can't wait to hear if you finally saw Devine. We saw her at AK near Asia 2 weeks ago. She must have been new because she could hardly walk on the stilts. Waiting for the rest.
