Is this the final chapter?
Will Smidgy sleep through to Chicago? Will Nebo eat the two week old liver sausage?
Stay tuned for the answers after this important announcement!
Probably.
I never know for sure until I'm done typing.
I usually know I'm done when I stop typing, too!
Or when I fall asleep with my laptop on my lap.
Or fall off my chair.
Whatever...
But I know there won't be any pictures this chapter.
I understand. Pictures going to WDW?

Pictures leaving WDW?
I am not busting the trip home into two different chapters. Well, I hope I don't have to, we'll see.
Sorry, dude. Looks like ya got at least one more to do... Plus, the natives are getting restless and demanding even more.
Oh, sure.

you're talking about your cat, right?
he remembers us.
And he's still not done with us!
Look on the bright side. With all the bad luck you've had with the drive, if you'd taken the aluminum tube of death, it would've almost certainly lived up to its name.
Wednsday morning arrived and we were playing it by ear for a change,, no set time to leave,
If we tried that, I know that we wouldn't be leaving in the
morning.
"I'd like to leave around 8am, or so. But let's just play it by ear."
...
"Ummm.... guys? It's almost 11am, are you going to get out of bed soon?"
I couldn't believe how many different display there were to look at, artifacts under glass, pictures, murals, sculptors,
tapestries,,,,I've been here for 6 nights,, why haven't I looked at this stuff before?
Because you had all the time in the world, before. Except, now you don't. That's human nature right there.
The old Santa Fe hadn't been touched in a few days now... I pulled around to the front.
Not telling you what to do, or anything. But, just a suggestion, next time, instead of pulling it around to the front, just drive it over instead. Try it, you might find it's easier that way.
We ended up pulling out around 8 o'clock.
You got Smidgy to pull too?
Man. That's just mean. Are gas prices
that much higher in Florida?
A lot of you may look at this as a good omen, being that we are leaving right before crappy weather is setting in,,,
um,,, no,,, we look at it as "we are leaving just as
crappy weather is setting in."
I look at it more as, "At least I won't have to drive with the sun in my eyes."
I still hope it won't rain/snow, though.
We've had our fill of that shi,,, stuff, when driving.
shiny stuff?
The hard part was having to head back into deeper Disney territory to the Hess station to fill up,
Oooohhhh...
Now I understand. You had to pull the Santa Fe 'cause it was out of gas! Okay, I'm with ya now. I'd suggest a membership with
AAA, they'll bring out enough gas to get you going (or tow you).
Strange thing though on the Western Way bypass, you will be driving for ten minutes,,,, nothing Disney- like will look familiar and finally you get to a road that I believe says
Bear Stearns Road,,and not far after that,,, the huge Disney sign saying "Come Back Soon!"
I looked on Google Maps and this is what I found.
The road you refer to is probably Bear Island Rd. It crosses Western Way about 1 mile before 429. It looks like Disney property extends out along Western Way to about 1/5th of a mile before it meets 429. So it makes sense that if Disney wants a sign on their property that there'd be one there.
but now there's Mickey saying "Come Back Soon!"
It's brutal.
Talk about an incentive to turn around!
We are rolling along pretty much in silence, but my mind is firing, and not blanks.
I am
so not touching that loaded line.
This was the trip that was going to make right the frigid Nov/Dec trip where my back went out when the nasty pool cleaner guy cursed me, and well, that didn't work out that way.
Maybe he didn't curse your back. That was for some forgotten snub to some forgotten person. His curse was for your next trip.
Powerful stuff, those curses.
I also had a feeling that once we hit the interstate she would give me the, " would you mind if I tried to take a nap?" routine
Yup. My DW does the same thing.
"I'm just going to have a little snooze."
"Okay, I'll wake you when we get to the hotel in 8 hours."
Some of our road trips have been very quite.
,,,, so I couldn't put it off, my head would explode if we didn't talk at least a little about it.
I know the feeling. As soon as one vacation ends, I start planning the next one. DW usually doesn't want to hear it though, so while she's like this:
I'm like this:
we only made it,,,, once again,,,, as far as,,,,, Murfreesboro again, that night.
Well, that's pretty good. That gets you about halfway home, right?
Staying here almost made things worse for me,,,, "Wait, two weeks ago we were heading south, not north!"
Kind of like the "Come back soon" sign.
You have to understand, I really, really really want to live in Florida, but,,,,,,,who knows if that will happen.
Start looking at places, before you know it you'll have figured out a way to make it work.
What we had for dinner that night I have no clue in the slightest, gee, I hope it wasn't liver sausage again, that stuff should have been thrown out by now!
I'm gonna go out on a limb and say it wasn't the liver sausage. If you had eaten it, you'd probably remember the after effects and, ergo, what caused them.
We are up around six, but it's still dark out and I don't want to leave until dawn. Did I ever tell you the true definition of dawn?
Why, no! Would you like to discuss it?
Never mind, just kidding.
Me too.
It's barely six o'clock, only been awake for 15 minutes and I almost lost it permanently!
Could you define 'almost'?
I started laughing and I was afraid I wouldn't be able to stop.
Ah. Thank you. Take away the almost and you wouldn't be afraid, you just wouldn't stop.
That's something we haven't had to deal with yet this trip, all that's missing now is locusts!
Pretty much. Here's the list from about.com
1. Water to blood. You had blood from a water glass. That counts.
2. Frogs. OK, you need locusts
and frogs.
3. Gnats. See 4
4. Flies. I think gnats and flies equals love bugs. That counts.
5. Diseased livestock. Ummm.... would two week old liver sausage count?
6. Boils. The guy at the car care center made your blood boil. That counts.
7. Thunder and hail. I see your hail and raise you a tornado. That counts.
8. Locusts. Coming soon to a drive near you.
9. Darkness. Do we have to get into the definition of dawn? It counts.
10. Death of the firstborn. Okay, now it's just getting creepy.
I pulled the car around to the lobby
Ran out of gas again, huh?
and we went in for coffee, tea, and these tasteless little plain donuts in this huge plastic cannister.
Wow! And that's exactly what flight attendants say now. "Coffee, tea or these tasteless little plain donuts in this huge plastic cannister."
All the perks of flying without the annoying 'dying a fiery death' part.
Only now it's gotten sinister, lot's of wrecks on highways 24, (ours), and route 65, (considering).
At this point I think the only thing I'd be considering is whether to leave later in the day or just stay on for one more night.
Phil Collins, anyone?
As Diane is starting the hand wringing already, I went and stood outside as it was starting to get light out.
What would you call that? When it's starting to get light out?
No sign of fog at all here, Nashville is about 35 miles away, how bad could it be? And the sky looks pretty clear,
by the time we get there the sun should burn it off, right?
That's a pretty good thought. Which is why I'd probably decide to wait a bit and not overnight. If you wait, it should burn off. If you overnight, there's a good chance it would reform in the morning, again.
We then proceeded to crawl the rest of the way to the Briley Parkway which we always take now around Nashville.
Those 8 miles to get there took us over an hour!
We had a similar experience last time we drove. There'd been an accident of some sort and our leisurely 8.5 hour drive to Chattanooga took 13 hours. About 10 or so hours in, I spotted a
Walmart off the highway and bought the kids a new movie. Boy, they sure deserved it. Not one complaint the whole day... and they had every right to.
When we finally made it to the Briley Parkway, I couldn't believe more people weren't getting off there also.
so to speak
ahem. Family board!
About half way around, the world disappeared.
Boy that sounds like a line right out of Hitchhikers Guide.
The fog seemed to be operated by the moon, just like tides, or waves,,, that's better it kept washing over us like waves, and I say the moon because the fog totally obliterated the sun, the sun just made it "whiter", like going through the clouds in the aluminum tube of death.
Except that if you enter a cloud in a plane and it stops, it's because the cloud you entered was infront of some cumulo granite.
Although I can't say I've felt too friggin safe in the "air conditioned coffin on wheels" lately.
But at least I can play my own CD's in my coffin.
You really gotta invest in a nice tiny MP3 player, dude.
I would have given anything for a traffic jam up like on 24 where you can only crawl along, in this fog.
Were you worried about running into someone at a standstill in the fog bank ahead? Or about someone doing the same to you?
Or both?
Ten miles down the road I engage the cruise again at 75, got a lot of time to make up for, but I was happy that was over with, it's back to business as usual.
I read this line and thought, "Now what."
But more importantly, I wanted to keep the upbeat mood, and I started singing an old song we both use to sing in our partying boating days:
Never heard that song, I think. Have to check out the
youtube link when I'm at home.
I was still happy about getting through Nashville dent free, injury free, death free.
I can see where you'd be pleased at that.
"Hey Honey," I said when we were done singing, " We beat him this time quickly and with no damage, the Beast has lost his power over us!"
Oh, foolish, foolish man. Have you never heard of the word 'jinx'????
the Beast just laughed, he had already gone ahead to southern Illinois to meet us there later, and he really wants to say howdy one more time.
See? Toldja.
But really. Isn't enough, enough?
Thanks for the chapter (I think).
