One year to the day - better late than never?? - Apr 24 - May 02, 09

BubbaKev

Earning My Ears
Joined
Jan 25, 2010
Messages
3
That's right. It has been a year today since our last family trip to WDW commenced and it just seems like, oh say, about 3. We can just never get enough of the World. Since my last return from the World I found truth and love and spiritual enlightenment here on the DIS by reading some of the wonderful TRs that are out there. I was inspired to write my own and what better day to post it than the 1 year anniversary of the kickoff? So, with that said, enough of the silliness. On with the....well, silliness.

Chapter 1 – the introductions

Here is my much anticipated and long awaited trip report on our family trip to WDW this year. A family trip you say. Why would we call it that? Well mostly because it involves my small – but loving – family. Who are we you ask? Who are any of us? It’s a question to be pondered. Well here is the cast of characters and characters they be, matey:

DW – Lauren is her given name. I’m thinking about not putting her age here due to my unhealthy fear of an early death by slow and painful dismemberment. Lauren is this cute little blond woman that I have been married to for 15 years this August. She is a Realtor by trade so anytime we plan a trip you just know business is gonna pick up like crazy.

DS – Will by birth a.k.a. Willster, the mighty Willster, Bubbie or as his mommy still affectionately refers to the little bugger – baby. I guess he will always be mom’s baby. He’s 6 now but when the trip commenced he was a mere 5. What a great time to go to WDW, huh? Why is it a great time? Cause in about 4 or 5 months he started kindergarten and basically life as he knew it was over. Since its almost time to face the real world let’s face Disney World first!

Me – Kevin, 42 years old, engineer/Realtor right now. Really having a hard time here deciding what it is that I want to be if and when I actually grow up. From the looks of it that’s probably not gonna happen anytime during my lifetime. I still feel (and act according to DW) like a kid. It’s cool knowing that at some point in the next couple of years my DS will be more mature than I am. I attribute this to my desire to maintain my youthful good looks.

DD & DM – my father and mother. Yep that’s right my parentals met us at the WDW. They just couldn’t stand the thought of missing their one and only grandson’s first visit to the world. I think they actually believe that, if he didn’t hang the moon, he at least knew the guy personally that did. DS loves him some Memaw and Papaw and I can’t blame him. They are good folks if I do say so.

Here’s how it’s gonna work. DM has a whoa-you-ain’t-gonna-get-me-on-another-one fear of airplanes. The last time we ventured off to the world we flew. Yes, as in a plane. Me and my sister convinced her that it was no big deal. It wasn’t a big deal until we started back home and I’m pretty sure I overheard the pilots say that the big black storm that we were about to pass through was in fact a big deal. Needless to say the bumpity bumpity stuff was enough for DM to declare an end to her days in the air and that was it for our Amelia Earhart visions. I’m still not sure how that riding with dad down interstate 95 would be considered safer than falling 30,000 feet out of the air in a large aluminum tube but who am I to question the logic of the woman that brought me into this world? So flying was out. What else was out you may be asking at this point. Strangely enough sleeping in any bed other than her own was also off the table. DM and DD love the RV and they have watched maybe just one or two too many of those reality documentaries on Foxnews showing what sort of nastiness the CSI people find in the sheets of hotel rooms. Here’s a quick aside – why is it that the CSI folks, given the obvious abundance of training and technology that they possess- go into a room in the middle of the night without turning on any lights and use this little Maglite flashlight with 2 AA batteries to find clues that may convict a murderer? I’m thinking there is a light switch on that wall that may actually help here people.

So the DM and DD are gonna be taking the RV and staying in the Fort Wilderness. My DW on the other hand has decided over the years that she would much prefer a hotel room. Given that I’m getting to go to the World and she has done all the planning and reservations who am I to deny this sweet woman – this saint in mouse ears that can tolerate and put up with her DH and DS – the luxury of sleeping in a bed that doesn’t have wheels under it. Don’t get me wrong we love to camp but for this trip it was gonna be All-Star Movies or so we thought.

Some of my earliest and best memories of WDW revolve around Ft. Wilderness and some of the sights and sounds that you just don’t get anywhere else. There was the old musket gun that I bought at the trading post and still have somewhere in a closet. And the smell of the Trading Post. I can still smell that smell in my memory and it takes me there immediately. It’s like no place on Earth.

The plans are laid, the reservations made, the dreams closer and closer to becoming reality. What could be better?
 
Chapter 2 – we’re off to…. the rest area on i-4!?!

The day of our departure arrived. It arrived early for DH because I had decided that it would be a great idea for me to get up at 5 am, go to work for a half day and then drive up into the wee, and I mean weeeee, hours of the next morning. In hindsight that may not have been such a great plan. I guess I’m not quite 10 ft tall and bulletproof anymore. Hmm…go figure. So off to work I go early in the morning. Given our natural propensity to be prepared we had the car all packed and gassed up to pull out at exactly the moment we had planned. Believe that and you are as dumb as I think I look. Well it was mostly packed. The vehicle of conveyance for this trip to the world is a beautiful piece of engineering. It’s called the Chevy Tahoe. A great vehicle for a long trip. It drives good, it offers a comfortable ride, it gets ok mileage but…wait for it….it sucks as a bed. I have slept (if you could call it that) twice in this vehicle. The first time was on the coast of South Carolina last year just as the eye of some unnamed and all too unpleasant tropical storm was attempting to turn our amazing little popup camper into a flag. So the first time was really just self-survival. Not this time though. This was planned torture. So off we go at around 4 in the afternoon. Tahoe loaded, family fed, clothes packed, cameras charged, hopes and dreams loaded in our brains. Our first stop? Our house. You see there is no way that we can leave on a trip without driving around the block and parking in front of the house as I run in and grab the almost forgotten item. In this case I don’t even remember what it was so that sad, pitiful item is yet once again the forgotten item. Off yet again but now with the almost forgotten item safely stored among the thousands of other things. Quite honestly if we have the entire back of the car packed with all of the necessary items of life how could we possibly have forgotten the almost forgotten item? To my simple little brain that makes no sense.

So we are off. Our trip takes us through the beautiful smoky mountains which we call home and down to the heart of South Carolina to pick up i-95 southbound. DS is a pretty good traveler if you consider stopping every 12-14 mins to empty your bladder which must, by definition. be the size of a pea as a characteristic of a good traveler. I don’t. I wanna go, go, go. So what do we do you ask. We stop, stop, stop. And pee, pee, pee. Our trip progressed way up into the night. Now I know that I am going to get some strict words for admitting this but confession is good for the soul. By the time I got halfway through Georgia I was so tired I was cross-eyed. But the Georgia Department of Transportation was kind enough to offer me some visual aids to assist my groggy brain as it steered down the interstate – in the form of these large orange barrels. Thousands and thousands of barrels. Lined up for miles and miles and miles throughout the beautiful – remember beauty is in the eye of the beholder – Georgia countryside. Well after about an hour of watching these barrels flying by the side of my car at 70 or so mph, they start to all run together. It was one big orange blur about 4 foot tall and miles long. It kinda reminded me of what it would be like to be stuck in Knoxville on game day as the Vols midget squad ran past. Enough about this. Moving on.

Florida at last. We entered the sunshine state about as far, chronologically speaking, from the sun as possible. It was dark o’thirty sometime in the wee hours of Friday morning. Passing through Jacksonville perked me up a little because Florida isn’t decorated with barrels like Georgia. No, it’s more decorated with Escalades and Coupe de Villes and speed limit signs that tend to be more of a suggestion than an actual limit. When in Rome do as the Romans do so I lean on the pedal a little more than usual.

Now I know that there are probably some of you (rightfully so) safety minded individuals reading this that would like to take a moment to chastise me for driving over the posted limit with a child in the car in my sleep deprived state. Please lets save those comments for later. There will be a customer satisfaction survey at the end of this report and I would love to hear those comments later rather than sooner.

Finally interstate 4 west bound. Wow it is really early and it is actually getting to the point where I decide we should probably just take a break for the night. Now taking a break for the night for me is significantly different than it is for my wife. Her idea of taking a break is getting a nice cushy motel room with big fluffy pillows on the bed and a continental breakfast. I, on the other hand, am a little more Spartan when it comes to accommodations. Especially given that I would be spending less than 4 hours in a motel room until I was up and at it to get to Disney. Come on people. We are close enough that we can smell the Mouse. So somewhere down I-4 I come across this beautiful oasis disguised as a Florida dept of transportation rest area. Whoever named them rest areas knew what would these areas would eventually be used for and that was for resting. So rest we did. First time I’ve ever fallen asleep in a car in a rest area but, as tired as I was, I could have fallen asleep under the car. Was it safe? Maybe, maybe not. I do know that someone had attempted to give me that warm, fuzzy feeling about it by posting a sign that said that the rest area was patrolled 24 hours a day by security. I’m rolling the dice on this one people. Besides if anyone wanted to start any trouble with me I had a secret weapon. It’s called a wife that has just spent 12+ hours in a car with me and has thusly been deprived of her God given right to find a Holiday Inn. Now, mess with me punk and I’ll unleash the beast. It was an uneventful rest. By the time all was said and done I did get a good 2.5 hours of sleep before we were up at 6:30 and ready for the next leg of our adventure. We had gotten to within 30 mins of Disney property within the first day and we were not gonna stop until – we went to Cracker Barrel. It’s tough to pass up a Cracker Barrel after you’ve spent a couple of hours sleeping in the most uncomfortable vehicle ever built. There is just something soothing about eating Uncle Herschel’s favorite after a day-long beating. Mmm. Country ham and biscuits and grits and eggs. After breakfast we hit the road again to our next stop. Up next - Day 1 and CBR!!
 
Just would like to say I'm here and enjoying your story so far. Can't wait for the rest.
 













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