Chapter Twenty Two: Miles To Go Before I Sleep
The day after the night before, we slept in. Read the paper. Ate lunch.
We did
not go to the movies.
We had a full day ahead of us with ambitious plans.
It was, after all, a day in Disney World.
For a variety of reasons less interesting than Alec Baldwins excuses for the verbal abuse he directed at his eleven or twelve year old daughter, I did not compete in the Waterslide Olympics during this trip. I did, however, compete in the first ever Speedboat Olympics.
For some reason, the "Speed"boat Olympics are a men-only sport. Like curling. Assuming curling is a sport. And is for men only. I don't know. Or care. The point is: the women didn't go out on the boats. My brother in law and my nephews met me at the Lodge and we took the boys out on the so-called speed boats. Sadly, the boats were speed in name only.
Like Arlen Specter is a Republican in name only. Hes a RINO.
The speed boats at Disney World are SINOboats. I could have gotten in the water behind my boat and moved it quicker with fart bubbles.
If I did that kind of thing.
Of the four of us, only one boat was moving at a clip which could arguably have been called speed. If the standard we use to define speed is: moving forward.
We were out on the sinoboats for about 5 minutes before three of us realized our sinoboats were slow. We decided to take them back to the dock and ask for new ones. Which we did and which they did. The replacement boats were marginally faster. If, in fact, the pace was judged by narcoleptic senior citizens. With cataracts.
Because the boats sit low in the water, there is the illusion of speed. So we headed off onto Bay Lake. I went towards Ft. Wilderness and what used to be called Discovery Island. Out in the open water I did a few 360s and a Figure 8. But what won me Olympic Gold was the 420 I did right before I did the Figure 21.5. I would have also done Script Ohio but Im a Bama fan and we in the SEC enjoy beating the hapless Buckeyes too much to want to dot the i.
For my last competitive move, I jumped the wake of another boat and then quickly cut a sharp U turn and hit it again. Which created a huge honkin' splash dousing me and my tiny sino boat. I have no idea what it looked like to anyone else, but from where I was sitting, it looked amazing. It was this move that brought the water patrol out with a stern warning. Evidently even Gold Medal winners must adhere to Disneys strict you-can-be-on-the-water-but-you-cannot-be-in-the-water policy.
My Olympic runs completed, I abandoned my party and headed off for a little alone time on the Seven Seas Lagoon in front of the Magic Kingdom. I set a course under the Monorail track passing right by the Contemporary Resort. I didnt take this picture from my sino boat but rather from the Lodge boat. But its roughly the same view.
About 27 years ago, my Dad, me, my uncle and cousin rented what were then speed boats and cruised the waters of Walt Disney World. In the movie in my mind, that day lasted for hours and my Dad and I had a blast on the water. It was so cool to be in that little boat, so close to the water, moving at a decent speed, cruising around in front of the Polynesian, in front of the Contemporary and in front of the Magic Kingdom.
I havent been on a small boat at Disney World since then.
Hard to say why. Except I thought you only rented boats when you had a ton of time. And for so many years, our trips were short and fast, jam packed with activity. Renting boats seemed a luxury. But it was something I wanted to do for a long time because I remembered really enjoying it with my Dad. I wanted to sit a spell in front of the Magic Kingdom and just look at it.
Growing up, we went to Disney World every year. Most years we went more than once. We lived a few hours away and it was something my family did a lot. My best memories of childhood are in Walt Disney World. My Mom and Dad were more relaxed and more fun there. And like most kids, my sister and I loved going to Walt Disney World. That my Mom and Dad were happy there, well that was just gravy for us.
When my parents split up we lost a lot of things. One of the things we lost was Walt Disney World. Maybe it was because they were now supporting two households with the same income or maybe it was because they didnt feel like going anymore or maybe it was for reasons I dont understand. But we stopped going.
And I missed it. I missed Space Mountain, I missed 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, I missed the Carrousel of Progress and the PeopleMover. I missed the Concourse Buffeteria. My Dad had a Walt Disney World guide book from one of our earlier trips and I would sit and study it. For days it seemed. It had all kinds of construction photos and pictures of the Magic Kingdom and the two resorts. Pictures and maps. I would look at the pictures and imagine being back there. The Jungle Cruise. The Grand Canyon Concourse of the Contemporary. Mainstreet USA; its alleys cluttered with the baskets of fruit and flowers that looked so real. I wondered what was behind the windows on the second floor.
What I didnt realize until years later was that when I was looking at those pictures, trying to remember what it felt like to be there, I was trying to remember what it felt like to be in a happy family. At home.
Ive written about this some before, but after my parents split up, we moved around a lot. Allow me to illustrate this point for you: between 1979 and 1985 I lived in nine different places. Nine.
When I was away in Alabama, both my parents continued their quasi-nomadic lifestyles, although both settled down after that. But neither parent lives in a home that I ever lived in.
So when I say home for me is Walt Disney World. Im saying something.
Save for my grandparents condominium, it is the only familiar place from my childhood that I ever get to visit. When I go to Walt Disney World, I go home. I am reminded of the happiest times and I am reminded of long afternoons studying pictures in a guide book and wishing so much that I could be back there.
Theres a remorse I feel every time I leave Disney World. A fear that we wont be back. Because there was a time in my life when we didnt go back. So Im always wanting to savor it. And getting to park a small boat in front of the Magic Kingdom for a few minutes and just look at it. Well that was something for me.
I pulled my boat up to the front of the Magic Kingdom and watched as the Monorail went by. I could hear the train's toot, the turnstile music and the pleasant hum created by so many people coming and going. Moms double checking to make sure they have everyones tickets, and Dads double checking to make sure they have enough cash in their pockets and little boys and girls chattering away about Mickey and Cinderella, Pirates and prizes.
In winter time, when Ive got a fire going in the fireplace, I like to walk outside my house to smell the smoke coming from my chimney. Watch it rise above our house. Smell the pleasing aroma of burning wood. And know its mine.
Sitting in front of the Magic Kingdom, I had the same feeling.
I savored it for a while. Well as long as I could before the oppressive heat made me want to move again. I headed over to the Polynesian to look at the pictures from our one stay there so many years ago and then looped around and came back up to the Magic Kingdom to study it again. To look at those halcyon hazy days from the mid-1970s and to look at the recent trips with my wife and my little girl.
It is so beautiful.
I backed my boat up, did a few 360s in the water in front of the Magic Kingdom and then set a course back to the Wilderness Lodge. I had promises to keep.
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Moped. It's the old moped.
