We woke up on Tuesday, resigned. It was time to go home. With no park to go to today, I slept a little later, but was still up by 8:00 a.m. I made a last pot of coffee in my kitchen, and then scrounged up whatever could be eaten as breakfast before we cleaned out the fridge. Stuff got packed, I checked the laundry room for lost socks, peeled off my LGMH window cling, and removed the LGMHPC card that Id stuck over the peephole so the porch light couldnt shine in at night. Then I opened the door to remove the LGMHPC that had been on the outside of our door for the last 7 days, advertising, in not so many words, that A DISer Lives Here! There was a laundry basket outside the door, as there had been most days around that time, waiting for the housekeepers to bring it in after wed left for the day. Only this time we were leaving almost forever. I said to my son, Oh. This stuff must be for the next people. And we looked at each other in a rare moment of mental communion and moaned, in unison, The NEXT PEOPLE!
Nooooooo! This was OUR villa! Our WDW home! We didnt want to go, and we certainly didn't want to let THOSE people come in and take over!
But time was running out and DH, who was feeling less nostalgic about our departure, was hurrying us along. Its funny. DS and I did miss home, particularly the cats, but wed much rather have stayed another week and missed them just a little bit more. DH and DD were both really missing home, enough that they were both eager to get going and on the plane.
Now, our flight was scheduled to leave at 1:17 p.m. DME (which, you will remember, we didnt need because of the car) wanted to pick us up at 10:30. Well, part of the reason we got the car was so we wouldnt be bound by DME schedules, and yet here DH was trying to get us on the road at
you guessed it
10:30!!! When I said we could leave a bit later than that since the airport was not nearly as far away from WDW as LAX is from our house, he got kind of irate. He needed to put gas in the car, dont you know, and check out (of course, no, you dont have to do this if youre using a credit card, but he found that out after he tried to check out. Heh.), and all manner of other little things needed to be done that could make us late, and if we had to spend another $1500 or more getting tickets home because we missed our flight, we were never coming back, that was for sure, blah blah, and you get the picture. Vacations over! Time to stress out now!!! So, we ended up leaving the room at 10:40, all of us irritated
DH and I because we felt the other was being unreasonable and didnt understand our point of view, and the kids because they really didnt want to hear us bicker in our last moments at WDW.
So, we left 2.5 hours early. It took us 5 full minutes to get gas, 25 minutes to drive to MCO, 10 minutes to drop off the rental car, 15 minutes to check the luggage at the curb, 20 minutes to get through security, 5 minutes for the monorail trip and the walk to the terminal, and then we sat in the airport for more than an hour. Thank heavens for the MCO wireless connection. DD played VMK and I DISed, which made my being right about not needing to leave that early a little less annoying.
The flight home was uneventful, with the possible exception of the approximately 12 year old girl sitting behind me who kept kicking my seat really really hard. DH and DS had window seats, but DS was generous enough to trade my aisle seat
right over rural Texas. Thanks, buddy. You get to see all the islands and tropical water and I get to see
.dirt. All the way home.
I read my new book and soon, as I glanced out the window, there was Palm Springs below us, which meant we were almost home. Its funny; I didnt know our homeward bound flight path went almost right over our house. I mean, its not right on top of it, but if I look out the south upstairs windows at the right time, just before 3:00 p.m., I can see the plane thats carrying all those people from Orlando. I rather wish I could see the morning plane instead
thats a happier plane, full of anticipation and giddiness, hopes and wishes, grand expectations and carefree people who will fall gently into the lap of childish fun. That westbound afternoon plane is full of people who will soon be belched out into LA traffic, smog, and other annoyances.
We landed at LAX a little bit early, but the joy of that was killed when the previous plane in our spot at the terminal was delayed and we had to sit on the taxiway for 25 minutes until it got out of there. Keep in mind that, at any time of day, we were already driving straight into the maw of hell that is So Cal traffic, but at 4:30 p.m. it is at its very worst. Long story short, it took us 2.5 hours to drive 75 miles. After stopping off for a to-go order from our favorite real actual authentic Mexican food restaurant (at 7:00 p.m. which, incidentally, is 10:00 p.m. Orlando time and no, we were not allowed to stop to eat before this even though we were very hungry. No food, no potty breaks, no stopping for any reason until we were back in our town; I believe this is what is known as a man thing), we finally pulled into our own driveway and were home.
Straight in the door, we chowed down the food, and let the cats in. The poor neglected kitties forgave us, surprisingly quickly, for abandoning them for a week. It WAS good to be home. I had forced the family to clean the house before wed left the week before and so it was clean and fresh and welcoming. After we were full and relaxed and stretched out on the couches, we got out the backpack full of our souvenirs and WDW-generated paper and began already reliving the trip that had ended just hours ago.
The next morning, after an excellent nights sleep in my own bed, I got out what had been my constant companion for the last week: my trip report notebook.
Just moments ago, I finished ripping out the last little page of shorthand and tossing it into the recycle bin, where the others have gone each time after Ive posted an installment of my TR. The story has been written and now there are no more nostalgic notes. What is left in that trusty notebook, however, is equally precious: a lot of fresh blank pages, all ready for the next adventure
.
Before Soarin opened up there, the place was EMPTY all the time. Soarin really revitalized the place!
I'm STILL on Day 1...of a 11 Day TR! 
Looking forward to creating those memories with my little ones soon!
, has now been saying 2009). Grrr!
