Who will join us Late December - January, Trip Reports

[bjschil]

We made it home, all 1361 miles each way tired, laughing, sharing pictures, and deciding who else can join our group. The new tire acted as it should, we avoided Atlanta, therefore enjoyed the beauty of Alabama, stopped in Birrpmingham for night. we had pizza and started Out today on a quick breakfast. Hit heavy rains west of Nashville, but cleared by Paducah. Drove the 16 1/2 hours from Birmingham to SW Wisconsin today. LONG day. We are looking at next December, and already it seems full. Not too worried yet! We had the best time, Bill and myself, our daughter, husband and three precious grandkids. Troopers they were on the way home. Loved meeting you all, hiking, exploring trails, looping, dancing New Year's Eve, so much to see and do. Blessings to all for a wonderful 2017.

 

[2goofycampers]

Finally made it home, safe, but the truck is still not sound. We got on the road yesterday about 5pm made it 15 miles and boom, sitting along side the interstate once again. In the 10 years we have had this truck it is the first time it has ever failed us. This time we just had them tow us the 90 miles to home. Finally made it in about 8:30pm unloaded the frig, shower and bed.

 

[Teamubr]

Finally made it home, safe, but the truck is still not sound.

Sorry about the truck, Denise. Pretty frustrating when you feel stuck.

Glad everyone has made it home safe and sound and thank you for the great pics and trip details. I'm with Melissa. Everyone's reports have made me want to go even more. I'm considering converting my tickets in September to an annual pass, coming down to the Rolex 24 the end of January 2018 and spending the week after at the Fort.

Thank you everyone for contributing to the addiction.

j

 

[tiggerdad]

Bravo!

You guys have done a great job and glad you have all made it in safe, though some of you later than expected.

 

[garneska]

Glad we broke the curse mostly. We made it back safe. Let's recap Saturday. First I went for a run, I was a little sore from that horsey ride, but finished. Then we went to trails end for brunch. I kind of liked it. All the usual breakfast buffet plus a lot of the dinner buffet. I had my brunch ressie at 10:30 and FP for 7 dwarves at 11. I firgured we would just skip it. We left TE at 11:29 and the moon and stars all aligned, we were at the FP check in at 12:03. First we got lucky the boat was just coming from WL, just missed the MK boat, but that was a good thing. No problem just walk from contemporary. That was perfect as they had a separate security check point for those walking from there. 2 people in front of us. We did have a line to go through ticketing but found a short one. I could not believe we made the FP.

After that it started to lightly rain, and MK was a freaking zoo, so we left. Which was good because next it was shut down. I did lots of laundry and cleaning, plus winterize the RV. Basically all day till dinner ressie at 7:30 at artist point. Then back to bed to awake early on Sunday.

We woke up at 6, luckily bert had to use the facilities so once he was up it was time to move. We did great left the fort at 8 am.

Drive was uneventful and no "Squirts" for those remembering my nov trip. We stopped 3 times and got to storage in 8.5 hours it was 4:30 and plenty of light.

Here was our small issue. The driveway to get into storage was blocked a bit and I was in no mood to try and wedge the RV in. So I said park it next to the other one and they can move it. I am glad it is warm and we winterized. Will go check on it next weekend.

We made it to the condo by 6:15. I think we did pretty good.

Looking forward to the next set of reports, waiting on Melissa.

 

[ilovedisneymm]

Frank & Denise - So sorry about the truck! Good call on just towing you back home.

Barb & Kris - Good to hear you made it back home. Thank you Kris for breaking the curse! Good job on that.

 

[Boomer1]

There has been a great exodus out of the Fort this morning. DH and I went out to Camping World and Disney Springs this morning. When we returned there were cast members directing traffic out including sending traffic out the service road located near the Outpost.
I would estimate that the 800 loop is almost half empty now; whereas, last night it was almost full. RVs have been trickling in, so we will see how things look when we return tonight after visiting DHS.

 

[tltay2005]

Terri, Lake Louisa is a "nice" state park. My four experiences have all been 1-nighters but the sites are laid out well, the bathhouses are clean (not a/c'd), and it is close to WDW. I don't know what there is to do there. I bet it's brutal in July because most sites are in the open although there are some trees (tall ones) down around the lake near the campsite. (Loop C where I was this time had more tall trees among the sites than A or B loops). Can't beat the price.


Bama Ed[/QUOTE]


Ed, was checking out Lake Louisa on Google Earth and noticed a hidden Mickey nearby, thought I'd share it.

 

[Teamubr]

For those that have stayed at Lake Louisa, is it a place I should have reservations for staying the end of September? I generally try to have reservations for overnights, but sometimes l don't know exactly how far I want to go on a particular day.

j

 

[tltay2005]

For those that have stayed at Lake Louisa, is it a place I should have reservations for staying the end of September? I generally try to have reservations for overnights, but sometimes l don't know exactly how far I want to go on a particular day.

j

Fl state parks fill up fast during the winter months with all the winter visitors. I would recommend reservations. There are a few parks that reserve a few sites for walk ups, but you have to be there first thing in the morning to get them. We live here and I have found we have to make reservations 6-11 months out to get a weekend spot at most state parks. If you are coming during mid week, you may have better luck.

 

[bama_ed]

That's cool, Terri. Good find. I'm sure that shape is COMPLETELY coincidental...

For those that have stayed at Lake Louisa, is it a place I should have reservations for staying the end of September? I generally try to have reservations for overnights, but sometimes l don't know exactly how far I want to go on a particular day.

j

Jim, for the end of September, I'd say you would be fine without a reservation if it is a Sunday-Thursday night. The weekend there might be tighter if that's when you are travelling.

However, you have options if you end up coming down Hwy 27. There is also Encore/Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort a few miles south down Hwy 27 past Lake Louisa and ORR is on the left. I believe that's the one 2goofycampers (Denise) and born2fish (Frank) have stayed at in the past.

If you come all the way down Hwy 27 and make the swing around on Hwy 192 towards Disney, pretty soon on the right is another Encore/Thousand Trails property, Lake Magic RV Resort.

I've not stayed at the two Encore properties so I can't say how they would handle a drive-up one night request but it couldn't hurt to carry the phone numbers of all three and when you are coming down I75 and can estimate where you might stop for the night, you could give them a call to check on rates and availability. LL is $24 per night. Also if you are at LL or further down, you have the support system of a nearby Wal-Mart, Lowe's, Home Depot, Autozone, CVS, Walgreen's, etc. in case you need something urgently.

https://www.floridastateparks.org/park/Lake-Louisa

http://www.rvonthego.com/florida/orlando-rv-resort/

http://www.rvonthego.com/florida/lake-magic-rv-resort/

Bama Ed

 

[Teamubr]

Jim, for the end of September, I'd say you would be fine without a reservation if it is a Sunday-Thursday night. The weekend there might be tighter if that's when you are travelling.

Thanks Ed,

I should be fine making it down to Lake Louisa. I plan on leaving Thursday after work and stopping over in Clarksville, TN. It is an easy 4 hours from home and the campground is a nice on and off. From there, it is only 11-12 travel hours (GPS says 10.5) to Lake Louisa. That's manageable. Our check in date is Saturday September 23rd.

We will be traveling with my sister and my 5 year old niece. I'm not sure how either one travel, but my sister is already whining about leaving Thursday night and not driving straight through on Friday. I told her she doesn't have a say since she won't drive the truck and will likely take Dramamine and sleep the whole trip. I'm tempted to by my sister a plane ticket so I don't have to listen to her for 17 hrs each way in the truck. It would be worthwhile money spent.

Fl state parks fill up fast during the winter months with all the winter visitors. I would recommend reservations.

Thanks Terri,

I was wondering when the snow birds and locals starting filling the places. I thought September was still sufficiently hot to keep the locals at bay. Either way, I'll probably make reservations and see how it goes on the way down. If I can get an earlier start on Thursday, I can stop past Nashville and that would make Lake Louisa a definite.

j

 

[Teamubr]

Duplicate

 

[peg110]

That's cool, Terri. Good find. I'm sure that shape is COMPLETELY coincidental...

I went and found it on google. As I zoomed it, I found it interesting to find out that it has a "Name".

 

[JETS70]

I found some information on Mickey's Forest if you are interested......

http://attractionsmagazine.com/the-...ys-forest-disneys-largest-hidden-mickey-1992/

 

[peg110]

I found some information on Mickey's Forest if you are interested......

http://attractionsmagazine.com/the-...ys-forest-disneys-largest-hidden-mickey-1992/

Nice article. Thanks for posting it.