So, from our March trip to our June trip many, many things had changed.
And I went from having a relatively simple job at my dad's company working about 16 hours a week to having multiple jobs at my dad's company working 60 hours a week.
So my normal uber-planned Disney trip had gotten shoved into such a dark and tiny corner it was hard to get excited about it. Emmy knew about our previous trips and had ordered herself tshirts and was expecting her 32 page color itinerary.
But guess what? I didn't really have much time to do such (this next part will be shocking!) unnecessary things. I know, I know. They seem so important. But the truth is, it is possible to go to WDW withOUT an itinerary and withOUT matching tshirts. And so, because there were other pressing things, I shoved them to the side.
But we all know, that I am me. Some days I wish I were some one else. But not all wishes come true and I'm always me. And being me, I discovered that you may shove unimportant things aside temporarily, but in the long run I must accomplish everything on my to do list, even the things that with a simple explanation could be left undone.
And so the days leading up to our trip found Suzy and I making tshirts and me staying up late making a 32 page color itinerary. And gathering all of our stuff and, and, and. That's right, there is almost nothing that I normally do for WDW trips that I gave up. I simply couldn't.
Which is why at 6:30 a.m. on Friday, the day we were to leave, I woke up not panicked at all. Because I knew I was done.
We were packed. Tshirts were made and organized into days. Itineraries were printed and made into books.
I got up, got dressed, and went to work. Just like that. No big whoop.
But that is where things went slightly awry. The guy I wanted to hand the management off to was going on vacation the second week of our vacation. Which meant I had to hand off and plan for two weeks to two different guys. Despite being uber-prepared and, yes, micromanaging, it was actually fairly difficult to teach two guys with different thought processes how to run a multi-million dollar company. Shocking, I know.
I knew we were perhaps in a bit of trouble when they couldn't figure out how to get onto the main computer program we use.
We had told Emmy, who knows us VERY well, to be at our house at 11:00 a.m. so we could get her stuff in our van for an 11:30 am departure. At 11:25 she texted me: "Am I at the right house? Did I get the very first directive wrong?"
Imagine her surprise when I called her and said, "Nope, you are right. But none of us can make it there on time."
She was so confused.
So I sent her to the store and bank and asked Suzy and Milo to pick us up lunch. Sigh. I'm NEVER the one who makes us late. I'm like the opposite of late. But seriously. Passing off the company did not go smoothly.
I left work at 11:35, 5 minutes AFTER we should have been pulling out. I literally came home and RAN. RAN. This was the scene as I pulled in:
That's Suzy dividing up our lunch (no fancy Mickey empanadas this time.) I had a taco which I scarfed down.
And Donald making sure we got it together:
We started to pull out of our driveway a total of THREE times. That just shows you how frazzled I was. The third time we pulled back in I insisted that my entire car group get out and use the potty. Out we piled, back we piled.
At noon, we pulled out for the final time. Whew.
To say that we left our house trashed is an understatement.
Ok, by a show of thumbs, who cannot go on vacation with a messy house?
Me! I cannot. However, in addition to the other insanities in my life at this time, my 22 year old neice had asked if she could move in with us. I told her she could move in while we were at WDW. And so. She did.
So as we pulled out I called her. And I said, "Hey, K. We left the house trashed. Absolutely trashed. Could you clean it for us?"
Well, she is a terrible cleaner. Just awful. But her sister also ended up living with us for 3 months. And she is an amazing cleaner! So we came home to a clean house despite us leaving it in shambles.
It took me a good hour of driving to get my heart back to a normal speed. And traffic was heavy so that didn't help. AND Suzy's DVD players weren't working so that was stressful for her.
About two hours in, Jack-Jack had to go potty. We just went to a gas station but the bathroom was spotless so we felt that was a score and everyone went. A few hours later, we stopped again. Buzz was about to die without a DVD player and Suzy wanted someone to kill her. I guess their car was a little more stressful than ours. Sadly, they way we were set-up was not really ideal for trading kids so they all had to deal with the lack of entertainment. Suzy was the true sufferer, despite Buzz's complaints, because to keep the whining down she let them play with HER entertainment. Leaving her bored to tears.
And a short hour after that, we were hungry. We eat fairly early and I'd only had a taco. So it was probably around 5.
For any of you who travel down 77, cell phone service in WV, VA, NC is very sketchy. So we had discussed where to stop but Suzy had caught a bit of 3G and was talking to her realtor (remember, they were buying/selling/etc houses) and missed the exit we got off. So they just texted to pick something and they'd deal with our decision.
But they weren't counting on us picking Bojangles
We had never eaten there and were all wanting to be a tiny bit adventurous. They were not really feeling all that adventurous. But they rolled with it.
You know what? It was delicious! We all loved our food. There were these yummy little chicken bites that were roasted chicken and not breaded like so many places. And the green beans were really peppery. I love me some green beans so this made me really happy. Oh, and the biscuits. I always get corn bread at KFC because I think their biscuits are yucky. But Bojangles biscuits: yum! So adventure had won out. But don't get used to it. We only like a little adventure. Otherwise, we like the travel the well beaten path.
Donald needed a break, so I took the steering wheel. I like to drive. Listening to music and Emmy and I chitchatting (she sat up front with me.) And the best part of driving is Donald has to deal with all of the kid's antics. I get a break from being Mom.
He entertained the kids with our old Disney videos. And time just simply flew by. Flew.
Donald had uploaded a BUNCH of cool Disney tunes to his iphone. Which is crazy that that is exciting since we all have a TON of Disney music. But it was totally different stuff than my stuff so we all thoroughly enjoyed that. Work called a couple times, despite it being Friday night. I'm pretty sure people weren't completely happy with our departure. But, again a perk of driving, Donald dealt with most of the calls since I was busy.
And we drove on. We stopped to gas up, our last stop of the day before our hotel, and Emmy was being seriously checked out by the class of men there. Let me just say, when we walked into the gas station there were muddy BAREfeet marks all over the floors. Ewww! Loud music was blasting from all the open truck windows. Emmy and I couldn't stop laughing as she always says the reason she doesn't have a man is the kind of men who appreciate her fabulousness are not really her kind of man. And from the barefooted, toothless wonders at this place, who were practically DROOLING when she walked by, I now understand.
Again, Ew! We could not fill up and leave fast enough.
To distract us from that (or maybe to stop our manic laughter) Donald got us started playing the license plate game in earnest. Emmy had never played before. Really? I had no idea other families didn't play this game. My family is practically obsessed with license plates. Just a few hours into playing Emmy was REALLY into it. She was frustrated that she could never get one we didn't have yet before us. But we are all skilled players.
So at some point, just before dark, she scared the whatever out of me by yelling, "IDAHO!!! IDAHO!!!!"
Seriously. She was so excited.
I also talked to my mom for about a half hour or so. She called to thank me for all my hard work and told me that she felt as though a cloud had been lifted on her entire life.
Well, I don't know if that was true, since it's been a really rough 6 months since then, but it made for a nice conversation at the time.
Anyhow, at 10:20 p.m. we pulled into our hotel for the night. Thanks to my disastrous choice in March, we paid a little more money and got better digs. Or at least cleaner.
We got our little overnight bags and checked in. Sitting outside our room in the hallway all stretched out were two girls texting what seemed to be each other, though that doesn't make much sense. They sat there despite our big group of people kind of taking up the space. It was rather bizarre. I tell you about them, not because at the moment it was important, but because we ran into them again. And that was a memorable moment which led me to remember the weirdness of two girls sitting in a hotel hallway and not moving their legs despite an herd of people needing to get in a doorway. Odd.
And here is out room. Emmy slept on the pull out couch. The tv in the main room was so irritating you cannot really understand unless you were there. But I took a photo to show you.
See? It was maybe 6 inches away from the foot of the bed in the main exit/entrance to the bathroom. Stupid. If it hadn't been bolted down, I would have moved it. AND it had no remote. And we couldn't figure out how to change the channel on the actual tv. It was on Discovery so at least it wasn't bad. Needless to say, we just went to bed.
Emmy's digs:
And that, my friends, was our first day. It was a shaky start but a delightful drive. 11:00 p.m.: into bed. Night John-boy!
)
Ok, at least it FEELS that way.
and get back Friday 6/17) and the only day we'll be at the same park is possibly Thursday, June 16 when we're scheduled for Epcot. However, this may change since on our last visit we did a "Best of..." and park hopped from park to park going on our favorite rides. The kids loved it.
Disney.
This is me in the heat. Or maybe I need a melted puddle smilie. But tigers and Expedition Everest are a huge part of our WDW experience, so we have to go. I really do love AK. I just love it better in November.
Enjoying your travels and the laughs so far!
