The Whirlwind Trippers take a 12 dayer - The Husbands first ever report! w/pics pg 7

[Minniespal]

Fantastic report ~ Thanx for posting.

 

[fan of the TTA]

yes. how about the pictures.

we need them

 

[1000thhappyhaunt]

I'm still all in. I particularily like how you sprinkle in the colloquialisms throughout. "Dadgummit" ya "cain't" beat that, in my opinion! It's like hearing your real voice. So... I'm about to "hightail" it to our Wal-Mart Supersinner where I'll sprinkle MY speech with "dadgums" as I shop. Curious to see how THAT'LL go over up here in The Great White North?! Keep it up Mark. Git-R-Done, EH!

P.S. That whole business of yours with the "fried bologna, bacon, beanie wienies, hot dogs and juice" phrase left me a little dizzy with nausea. So... GOOD ONE! You win.

 

[FSUMARCHIEF]

nothing here either

 

[rwenzel2]

And rwenzel2 - where is Buda UMC? Just wondering!

Blessings,
Mark

Buda UMC is in a small Texas town, the first exit south of Austin (home of the National Chamion UT Longhorns) on Interstate 35. We have two wonderful pastors, who, thankfully, have senses of humor to rival yours! Keeps me awake on Sunday mornings!

Ruth

 

[FSUMARCHIEF]

or here for that mattter

 

[FSUMARCHIEF]

I'll see about adding some more later...

Mark

 

[Lan]

I understand about driving down I-75 South. I live in Atlanta but I am from Fort Valley. I always slow down in Cordele and Adel.

 

[Mike and Natalie]

WOW!! I love your trip report. I am waiting in eger anticipaton. I feel like I'm watching Lost and the episode is over with me wanting to see wat's next. This is crazy, I am actuall checking this thread every couple of hours to get the next day. You are doing a great job, I feel like I'm on vacation with you.

P.S. I agree with you on the wine thing. It's not like your getting lit up at WDW. What church do you minister to and do they have a web site?

 

[fan of the TTA]

i know this is a bit off topic but i could never get in to lost!

hmmm.....guess it never apealed

but keep that report coming

 

[Ghost]

See... this is not the picture we asked for

Where all all you pictures of the hotties? We know you have them... take them out your hiding place and share...

Waiting for part IV

 

[2vets]

Great report!! Quite entertaining...

But come on...ease up the Gators, OK??? I went there for a postgrad program that doesn't exist elsewhere in FL (you may be able to figure out which one from my super-cryptic name), but still...can't we all just get along???? I'm sure there are plenty of Vols and 'Canes who can spell...give a few of us some credit (as I hurriedly scan this for typos)!!

If you think not, do what I did - move up north for a while...you'll soon see that we Southern folk should all stick together (with the exception of football days)...

Awaiting part IV, anyways...and I won't even stick a GO GATORS in...

 

[FSUMARCHIEF]

So, here we are again. I still hab a code in my nose (and my throat hurts like the dickens.) Which by the way, has anybody else ever heard of something hurting like the dickens? My grandmother used to say that all the time and I guess I picked it up from her. But I don’t have a clue what it means. And remember, this is a family affair so no one try to tell me the 8th grade version of what it might mean. Thank you.

I went to the doctor this morning to get some medicine for this stinking cold. I usually wouldn’t have gone for something like this, but I have a HUGE week next week. I chair a big Conference Committee (If You’re not Methodist it would take too long to explain). But we’re responsible for this big event on St. Simons Island called Winter Camp Meeting. I have to go be like the head of the thing and I don’t want to have to do it with a code in my nose and a sore throat – hence the doctor visit this morning. Got some kind of antibiotic – in case it’s bacterial and some stuff to dry me up. We’ll see if it works. Needless to say, this is about all I feel like doing today, so here goes maybe a couple days worth of trip report.

We woke up Sunday morning with the plan of spending the whole day at the Animal Kingdom. Which we did manage to accomplish. We had dinner reservations at Boma’s at 6 that night (which is my favorite) so it didn’t make sense to go somewhere else. Having only spent a few hours at Animal Kingdom we wanted to give it a better chance to impress us by spending mucho time there – at least a whole day.

As we pulled into the parking lot, I think everyone must have had the same idea we had. I really don’t think there was anyone in any other park. Cause they were ALL here at the Animal Kingdom. We got the sink into the stroller and headed to the park entrance. It was packed. Now, I don’t mean just that it was busy – I mean packed. Everyone was pretty much shoulder to shoulder trying to get in this place. Someone behind us said they thought it was because the park opened at 10. Oh – we were trying to get in around 10:15. I didn’t have the heart to tell them that the park had been open for an hour and that there were this many people already in line for all the big stuff. Why ruin their day so early in the morning, huh?

We finally get in and head straight for the Safari ride. On the way we noticed that Flik was out for pictures. He was hidden behind some big bushes, aw heck, they were trees. And I do have the eagle eye. That’s what my friends always told me when I used to play golf a lot. Lose a ball in the woods? Never fear – eagle eye is here. I could spot a golf ball buried under roots, leaves etc. Hence the eagle eye. So I spotted Flik behind the big bush/tree. Only one family was there. So we got in line. The handler said they were the last family and Flik would be back out. So there went my theory. I thought I had resurrected my eagle eye. Turns out it was just that everyone else decided not to stay. Oh well. We stayed. We’d never seen Flik before and how cool is that? We took pictures – remember the photopass train I mentioned earlier? Awwww yeah!

Then we hightailed it on to the safari. The wait was about 40 minutes, as I remember. We got a fastpass and could return in an hour. So we went to the Rafiki Conservation Station. That was fairly neat. I was intrigued by the sideways seats on the train. Never seen that before – still haven’t quite figured it out. Anyway, we had planned to do this because that’s where Stanley was (from playhouse disney) Rhonda loves Stanley. It is a pretty good show, I must admit. Teaches kids a lot about animas and such. Which is why we let Wesley watch the Disney channel. They teach kids good things. Anyway, we got over there and walked in the main building. There really weren’t that many folks here at the moment (they were all lined up to take the train back to the mainland). There was no line to see any of the three characters there – Pocohantas, Rafiki and Stanley. We got to pet a lizard that a cast member was holding in the lobby. Also did the sound stage thing where you go into a sound booth and put headphones on your ears. Wesley wasn’t to sure of that. I think it scared him a little bit. It was fairly neat, but now that I’ve done it, I don’t have to do it again!

We the walked out to let him pet the goats. I must say I was a little disappointed in the whole goat petting thing. I mean this is Disney. We can pet goats in Macon. They had some other animals out there but they were closed off to just look at. I want something different to pet. Goats? Big Deal! Give me a duck billed platypus or a ring tailed lemur or something. You know like they bring on the Tonight show with Jay Leno. Give me something like that! Goats?

We realize that it’s almost time for our fastpasses for the safari so we wash our hands and head for the train station. Well whadayaknow – there was a train waiting for us at the station and it was nowhere near full! So we’re hightailing it through the little walkway, only to have the Cast Member at the gate let the family ahead of us go in, but then close the gate on us. “Train cain’t be late you know?” That’s what he said. It sat there for another minute while the engineer talked about something with another cast member. The whole time I’m thinking that we could have been sitting sideways just like everyone else on that train – and had time to spare before that train left. I was a little miffed that we couldn’t get on. So we had to wait for the next train. Bummer.

By this time it was about 11 AM (our normal worship time on Sundays) and we prayed for our church back home hoping things would go well and knowing that they would. We used our Fastpasses for the safari – still had to wait about 5 minutes – but not near as long as those poor folks in the standby line. The ride was okay. The little bridge thing that makes the truck shake was a little on the cheesy side. We did get to see some cool animals though. A giraffe walked directly at us and for a minute I thought it was going to play chicken with our driver. But it moved out of the way and walked behind us. Overall I’d say it was just okay. Nothing fantastic. Nothing awful. Just kinda middle of the road okay.

By this time I was hungry. We had decided before the trip to eat at Pizzafari. I was jones’ing a little bit for some BBQ, but I new I was going to eat like a pig that night at Bomas so we just had a sandwich. I waited line for like 2 hours. Not really, but that’s what it felt like. It was very crowded. Rhonda and Wesley waited at a table while I inched my way towards the counter. Sandwiches were fine. I’d go back.

Right outside the window from where we were sitting just happened to be the place where Chip and Dale were signing autographs etc. So we got in line for that. Saw Flik again, and then crossed the bridge into Camp Minnie Mickey. We wanted to see the Lion King Show again – in it’s entirety and also wanted to see the Pocohantas show. But we just missed the start of one show, so we got in line to see some more characters. For some reason, the first day when we saw Koda and Kenai, we didn’t have them sign the sweatshirt. But Dinah (from the Princess room) had Kenai sign it. So we still needed Koda’s. We got in line right as they were going to take a break. There was one family ahead of us. We waited for a few minutes – in line – and they came back out. Well, there was this group of girls that we had seen all morning at the parks that really needed to have an adult with them. They didn’t. They totally ignored the fact that there was a line. Didn’t even care. Just walked up and started taking pictures.

Now I don’t know about y’all but that just hacks me off. If there is a line – and people ignore it – or let 50 people jump in, it just hacks me off. If we’re going to do that, why have a line in the first place. The handler thankfully saw what happened and shooed them to the back of the line. I’m gritting my teeth the whole way as I heard them walk past saying bad things about the Cast Member who made them move. I had to remember that I am a preacher. Grrrrrr!

Anyway, we then went on into the Lion King show. Again. What an amazing show. Great performers all around. Class. Real class. Then we went to the Pocohantas show. This was really neat. All the children were encouraged to sit up front without the parents so they could see. We weren’t sure how Wesley would react, but he did fine. Didn’t want to sit with us! I think he was enjoying his independence. Neat show. Neat animals. You should see it.

Well, by this time it was nap time – at least that’s what Rhonda and I thought. Wesley however had a different plan. He lay down in his stroller but did not go to sleep. We walked around Discovery Island looking at things we hadn’t seen. We figured he would eventually nod off and we could go find a spot for the parade. It did not happen. So we found a spot for the parade and just chilled out for about 30 minutes. I went back to Pizzafari and got us a Diet Coke to share (and she says I never share). We saw the parade which was pretty neat. Wesley waved at everyone and most of them waved at him. I’m not a huge basketball fan, but I swear that one of the honorary families was Grant Hill’s. He played at UNC when I was at Florida State. I don’t have a clue what he’s doing now. But I swear that was him. Anyway, after the parade we decided to try and check in at Boma’s early. We didn’t have anything we wanted to do in the Animal Kingdom at that point, and I couldn’t wait to get to Boma’s. So we fought the crowd, who apparently had the same idea, and left.

We arrived at Boma’s – didn’t have to wait but a few minutes and then were seated. Right next to this family who needs parenting training. My gosh. You could hear this baby scream across the entire restaurant. Now that’s a fairly big facility. And this little kid – probably a year and a half old would just scream at the top of her little lungs. NOT ONCE did the adults that were with her say anything to her. I thought, if you would just look at her every once in a while perhaps she wouldn’t scream. And it wasn’t a long, continuous scream. She would sit there for a minute, eat something or play or something, and then all of a sudden give a short 3 second, ear deafening shout. I did think that perhaps I could use her to wake up the woman who sleeps through my sermon, but it was way too painful. Just give me a Disney toilet instead.

All of dinner we endured this little blessing. The food was excellent. I love Boma’s If you haven’t eaten there what are you waiting for? No Dawdling. Get to it!

After dinner we decided to do the Extra Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom for a little bit. We went back to the Wilderness Lodge, got on the boat and headed over. There was a long line for wristbands at the main gate and a cast member said there were other places around the Magic Kingdom to get them, so we left. It was getting pretty close to park closing and we knew we needed to get our wristbands, so we looked at the trusty times guide to see the location. Okay – across from Pooh. No biggie, we want to ride Pooh anyway. We got across from Pooh and saw…nothing. No line, no cast members, no nothing. I walked over to the ride and asked. The Cast member said that it was over past the Carousel it Pinnochio Village Haus. Now that was NOT on the Times Guide. We got the wristbands and headed to ToonTown – which was closed.

We then went over to Splash Mountain and walked on – I’ve never done that before. We got soaked. But it was fun. Since we were wet though, we decided to call it a night and head back to the room. Saw a few characters in the square, then went back to the room.

More later…

Mark

 

[dutton]

Hey I am loving your report b/c, I too, am a Georgia girl -- raised on St. Simons Island!! Hope you have a great time while you are there! I live in Glennville now, but my sis and family and my parents still live there so we go down to visit about once a month. My dh and I had a Methodist minister who had the same theory about drinking as you--relief to us as my dh and I grew up Catholic and then when we moved to G'ville and the first church we attended was Baptist (WOW!);that was culture shock-- so we moved on to Methodist and loved that preacher. However, he has since left the ministry. OK, so maybe that was a little too much info, but hey -- us Georgia women love to talk!!

Suzanne

 

[jennymouse]

Just started reading your reports and you've gotten me through a boring Friday at work. Looking forward to more!

 

[berly1657]

Who is Koda and Kenai?

I love reading your reports!

 

[FSUMARCHIEF]

Koda and Kenai are the bears from Brother Bear. Movie was just alright. I like Ariel a lot better. Sorry I haven't written more today. I'll try to hit a little bit tomorrow.

Blessings!
Mark

 

[fan of the TTA]

brother bear is grate!

 

[TLinden16]

Wow! What a great trip report! You all kept really busy! I'm really enjoying it.

 

[fizz13]

had to subscribe, what a great report! I know I read Rhonda's as well, so nice to get it from two perspectives. Keep em coming,

Claire xx