Friday arrived way too quickly, I must say. I prepared a mean Sausage Egg and Cheese breakfast sandwhich and hashbrowns from scratch, even Jason liked it
and we waited for the Amazing Detailing folks to arrive. I did another load of laundry, Dani and I went and filled mugs a couple times, got a slushie from the Meadows, went to the dog park, did some looping
basically killed a couple hours.
Isnt this an amazing view?
Then I convinced the brood to check out the old Swamp trail with me. Hahaha that was fun. The kids were so spooked by every little noise. Its fun (and kinda sad) to imagine what it must have once been like.
At the start of the trail
Someone has a sense of humor
.
You cant tell from the picture but these vines were in the shape of a little dome tent. The kids climbed in.
The dreaded potato vine working its way up a tree
The droppings
like little turds. Are they edible?
This is as far as we went and then we turned back.
So we returned to the campsite and take a pic of our site and our clean and shiny truck and rig. It hasnt looked this good since we picked it up from the dealer, and it will probably be a mess by the time we make it home
.LOL.
Site 547. A good loop choice for us, thanks for recommending it Shan!
I tried to get some sun but it just wasnt happening, too cold. The kids wanted to swim one last time so we went to the pool for an hour and I relaxed in the sun (in my jeans) while they went down the slide a few thousand times. I considered the hot tub and rejected the notion.
We returned to the camper to get ready for the rest of the day. The plan was MK for souvenirs and one last trip down Thunder Mountain. It was COLD. And Crowded. And we hit that darned parade, AGAIN. Cant catch a break when we want to get somewhere quick. Thats Walts way of sending you a message to slow down and enjoy the experience you have and not be in such a rush as youll miss it. And when you get in that rushed mode, you forget to take pictures of all the wonderful things you are experiencing.
Oh look there is the abandoned River Country.
The express monorail was down. Great. He said, take the ferry and then the monorail. Cant I take the resort Monorail? Sure, along with a few thousand other people. We had plenty of layers to keep us warm though. We rode the monorail over and transferred at the TTC to the monorail to Epcot. The plan was to eat dinner there, do the rides, see the fireworks and take advantage of PM EMH. Well
it didnt go as planned. It was COLD. Did I mention how COLD it was? This is Florida for goodness sakes and coming from Chicago I was expecting sunny 70 degrees at least. Not the weather I left behind.
We headed straight to the World, because it was after 7 and we were starving.
Going to the World in the COLD when there isnt much in the way of outdoor dining and everyone else is seeking indoor dining and they all have reservations and you dont, yah, kinda stoopid. So we walk all the way around before we give up and we decide to leave the World, and Dani remembers The Land has a food court. So we make our way over there and score some viddles that are actually edible and I had some delicious soup. She was just excited cuz she knew she would be able to eat Mac N Cheese, they wouldnt card her in a food court.
So we secured the
ECV and headed to Soarin. Soo fun. What was headed downhill quickly (our Epcot experience) quickly rebounded during dinner and Soarin. At this point we were all pretty wiped and cold and decided to hit Test Track and call it a day. Should have done Epcot sooner in the week when we had more energy.
Test Track is a blast. Except when you have to pee and the ride gets stuck 5 cars before you can exit your car. Tis alright, we made the best of it, making hand puppets in the thermal imaging screen at the end of the ride.
We exit the ride and find the local bathrooms and just when we thought we missed Illuminations Boom! came the sound from the bathroom stall. Dani, was that you? LOL we watch the end of Illuminations from the distance and then head to the bus depot. Should have taken the monorail/boat back
.
The bus takes forever to arrive and when it does jammed packed, whats the deal with the combo busses with the Lodge? Too many people. Dave gets off at the Lodge and takes the Resort Launch back to the Marina where he left the golf Cart and Dani and I stay on the bus and we are the sole riders on the internal bus. The bus that everyone else took didnt wait for me, it left before the Epcot driver could undo my ECV. We had the outpost to our selves.
We make it back 2 minutes before Dave and Jace. I heat up some soup, to try and drive off the chill. At this point my jaw is locking up on me
and Im pretty uncomfortable, just exhausted I guess and the Cold air doesnt help things. We crash a little before midnight but Im not sleeping. Too much pain. Meds arent helping.
Time to go:
After a sleepless night we finally get up about 8, everyone cranky cuz we have to leave today. The morning passes by way to quickly and packing up is not nearly as much fun as setting up camp was. We returned the ECV and the GC to Kenny (excellent services and I highly recommend Tee Time and Walker Mobility for their customer service and attention to detail.)
We catch the bus back to the site and finish packing, and depart from our site an hour behind schedule. So now we are on I-75 and Im reflecting on the week and realize if I would have opened this handy guide book they gave us on our arrival a lot of our mistakes could have been avoided, LOL.
Traffic is heavy and very slow thru the turnpike and up North as far as Ocala. We are driving as far as Elko for the night. Then back thru TN tomorrow and home on Monday. Im exhausted!
Dave never did buy those sunglasses.
I guess not now!
I'll post pics in a bit, workin on the last couple of days worth of TR posts. Been too busy enjoying ourselves to type.
A great trip report. We are headed out in 6 days!!! I cant believe what folks like you go through to travel so far to see the mouse! We are about 9 hours away and that seems forever. Of course with our two little DD it makes for an interesting ride!
