Disney 2009, Day 4 pt 2: Hoop Dee Doo

After our Animal Kingdom morning, we got back to the camper about 2:30 p.m. for some naps and swim time. The girls and I got into the pool at 5:30 p.m. and at 6 p.m. the lifeguards blew whistles chasing everyone out of the pool due to an incoming thunderstorm! We returned to the camper to get dressed for our Hoop Dee Doo dinner reservations at 9:30 P.M. After having learned previously that there is no parking for drivers at the Hoop Dee Doo, we had to go to the bus stop to catch a campground bus. Since it was raining, we had to dig out our rain ponchos. DH was very upset to learn that we had only 5 ponchos. I attempted to make one out of a garbage bag for Kangaroo but DH wouldn’t hear of it, deciding to make a run for it through the rain when needed.

We caught the bus, ran for the check in counter, and sat on a bench outside the Pioneer Hall while the rain continued to fall. We got checked in and was told that a greeter would come around to collect our confirmation tickets in about 30 minutes.

DH asked me, “30 minutes? I thought our reservations were for 9 o’clock.”

I told him, ”So did I, but I was mistaken. They are for 9:30.”

He says: “You mean to tell me that I just ran through the rain, got soaking wet for this dinner, only to get here a full hour early!?”

I just don't get him sometimes. I get fussed at for being late to places and now he's gonna fuss because I'm early. Men.....Hmmph!

To make matters worse, during our verbal exchange, the rain stopped. We COULD have waited just a few minutes at the camper and not had to run through the weather to get to our destination. Oh well….live and learn. In times like this, one must learn to tap into their sense of adventure. After all, WE’RE ON VACATION!!!

At 9:30 p.m., the doors opened and we were directed to our table where there was a big bowl of Tossed Green Salad and a slab of cornbread waiting for us with an aluminum pitcher of ice cold water to pour into our Ball drink “glasses”. Our waiter, Mark, came around to get our drink orders. He brought even bigger Ball jars filled with our drinks.

You put your right foot in....

You put your right foot out....

You do the Hokey Pokey and sing along with the rest of the cast.

While we enjoyed the “pre-dinner” fixin’s, the entertainment arrived via fake stagecoach and provided us with some song and dance before the waiters returned to our tables with metal pails filled to the rim with fried chicken and BBQ ribs. DH remarked that if he’d know we were having ribs for dinner, he wouldn’t have ordered them at the Flame Tree for lunch!

A few minutes later, the waiter returned to our table with big bowls of garlic mashed potatoes (with the potato peelings) and baked beans. We ate dinner while enjoying more fun, rollicking, Western themed vaudeville entertainment. Included in the entertainment was an introduction to the dessert in which the waiters appeared on stage while balancing platters of strawberry shortcake in their hands before descending into the dining room to distribute the sweet concoctions to the dining patrons.

That's the Hoop Dee Doo!

Disney 2009, Day 3: Princess Breakfast & Epcot

We woke early and left the camper at 7 a.m. driving to Epcot. About a mile away, I remembered that I needed our parking pass that I had forgotten to bring with us and had left at the camper. We turned around to go back and get it and were finally on our way. We arrived at Epcot @ 8 a.m., took some family pictures in front of the big golf ball, and walked very fast towards Norway in the World Showcase.

We arrived and checked in there at 8:10 and were greeted with “Guten Morgen!” We were ushered in by Agnes and introduced to Belle before being seated at our table. Our waiter was a cute little guy named Knut (pronounced Kah-Noot). We were served two platters of scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, and hash browns. We also had a huge fruit and pastry bar to choose from as well. It was all you can eat while we waited for the other princesses to come around to visit each one of the tables.

First up was Cinderella, who was very pretty and sweet. Sleeping Beauty (Aurora) was very chatty and kept going on and on about the fairies and how they couldn’t make up their minds about what color her dress should be. She says one fairy likes pink and another likes blue. She saw our tie-dye shirts and couldn’t stop talking about the fairies changing her dress color every time she turned around and that several times she’s left the house in a tie-dye design! She was just amazing!

Snow White visited us next and she was chatty as well but we couldn’t hear her as she was so soft spoken. She also spoke with a very high pitched voice very much like the cartoon character. Next up we were greeted by Ariel in her human form. She was very sweet and kept calling the girls, “Starfishes”. “What a beautiful Starfish you are!” etc. etc. She was so cute!

Since this was our first time using our tickets for the prepaid dining plan, I wasn’t sure how I should settle up with the ticket. So, when Knut brought our ticket, we just signed it and got up to leave. We sent The Teen off as our Fast Pass volunteer for Soarin’ and we settled in to walk over. We didn’t get too far when here comes poor Knut chasing us down. It seems that he needed to swipe the multi-day plastic card/park ticket thing. Oops!!!

Then we walked in circles for a little bit before finding The Land for the Soarin’ ride. Fastpasses in hand, we went on to The Seas with Nemo story ride and then sat in for a visit with Crush at Turtle Talk. Crush actually can see into the "people tank" and talk to the people in the audience. It's one of those things that make you think, "How do they do that!?"

When we left there, we were undecided about what to do next. Hubby decided that he wanted to try the Ellen’s Energy Adventure ride so we went over there. I last saw this exhibit 21 years ago when it was sponsored by Exxon as Universe of Energy. Back then, you would stand in a large preshow room, just like today, but then the film screen was made of 100 turning sections that resembled cubes.

Today's story is more comical than in the past with the script following Ellen DeGeneres as she dreams about the various sources of energy when she dozes off while watching a Jeopardy contest about it. A former high school friend is competing on Jeopardy prompting the dream sequence.

This attraction also features Bill Nye the Science Guy and Jamie Lee Curtis. Yes, it’s mostly a film. However, the highlight is when your seated theatre starts moving, slowly, past some moving dinos. At its worst, it’s a good place to escape the sun or afternoon rains and relax. The entire show is 45 minutes long.

After experiencing the stroll back in time, we lit out into the shade for some other attractions. DQ and The Teen wanted to experience Mission: Space but I didn’t think the girls could or would like this ride. So, DH & I opted out and sat in the shade with a Popsicle waiting on DQ & The Teen to do the ride and get out. In the meantime, we also explored Innoventions East where the girls played in the Test Labs.

At this time it was nearly 1 p.m. and the girls were experiencing melt downs. Leaving DQ & The Teen at Epcot, DH & I decided it would be wise to head back the camper for a mid day break.

Oh, and NO, she did not eat an apple.

After our nap, we returned to Epcot at approx. 3 p.m. As we were walking from the parking lot, it began to rain on us, though not too heavily…just enough to cool things off for a bit. I phoned DQ (cell phones at Disney are a great thing to have, though we experienced spotty reception) and had her and The Teen meet us a Spaceship Earth where we just walked right on this ride.

During my visit 2 decades ago, I remember wanting to experience S.E. but not being able to for whatever reason. I was so excited to ride it this time with my hubby and kids by my side!!! What a neat ride! After this one, we went straight over to Soarin’ to use our Fastpasses. We were waved on through after Kangaroo was measured to see if she was tall enough to ride. Then we hiked for what seemed like a half mile to the next “station” where the cast member would take our fastpasses before directing us to the ride. We were just walking up to the second “station” when Little Bird announced that she needed to go to the restroom.....AGAIN. DH and I looked at each other, asked for the RR location, and proceed to march ALL THE WAY back the way we had come to take Little Bird to pee. THEN we hiked ALL THE WAY back to the second station for our 2nd attempt to board Soarin’. Whew!

Soarin' ride is a multi-sensory simulator attraction where you sit in “flight” seats while you are lifted 40 feet in the air while your feet dangle below. An IMAX projection dome wraps 180 degrees around you so you’re surrounded by scenery!!! You actually feel the wind in your hair and smell the orange groves, sea breeze, and evergreens! You will even pick up your feet to keep them from hitting the tops of the trees! I did! However, it is my professional tourist opinion that although Soarin’ is a great ride, I don’t think it quite lives up to the “hype” that has built around it.

After Soarin’, we got a Popsicle snack and headed for the World Showcase to collect passport stamps in our home made Showcase passports. We started at the Kid Cot station in Canada for a passport stamp and a handwritten greeting. The girls got a poster board mask and began to decorate it with Sharpie markers that were provided. Each country also attaches a paper “charm” to the mask. You can visit all of the countries in a day! Or do as we did and split it up into 2 days.

Due to time constraints for our first full day at the World, we stopped collecting passport stamps at Japan and headed back up to the front of the Showcase where it meets Future World to stake out a fireworks viewing spot. DQ & The Teen each had fastpasses for Test Track and went off to make good use of those while DH, the girls, and I enjoyed the fireworks.
Then we joined the rest of the world in the mass exit. This is the first time that I think to myself, “I’m sure glad we drove over here!”

Making it through the crowds, we made it to the camper and were in bed fast asleep by 11 p.m.

Disney 2009, Day 2: Destination Walt Disney World!!!

I started this day with waking up at 3:30 a.m.!! I guess that was due to us going to bed so early! Thinking it was too early to get up, we laid there a while longer listening to the wildlife around us come awake. Finally, at 5 a.m., DH decided it was time to hit the road.

Getting back into the town of Marianna, we plugged Ft. Wilderness address into the Magellan and away we went. Soon it was brought to my attention that though I thought the Florida Caverns State Park was the halfway point of our original destination of WDW.....apparently, I had thought wrong. It seems that I was about an hour and a half off from that assumption.

Further down the road, we discovered that when we plugged the Fort Wilderness address in, we also chose “fastest time”. The Magellan had decided to take us far out of our way by routing us through Jacksonville, FL to go down I-95!!! At the Lake City exit, we discovered the error of her ways, corrected our route, and were once again heading the right direction.

We arrived at Fort Wilderness at approx. 2 p.m. I had previously had grand plans to find the Trail’s End Restaurant and Buffet to eat dinner with the family. I later discovered that Trail’s End is a table service restaurant….not a counter or quick service. Since I was already over booked for TS’s for the week, I mentioned doing something else. So, after setting up the camper, my hubs mentioned going into Orlando to find a place to eat. This suggestion didn't really make any sense because we had hot dogs and lunch meat stuff to eat at the camper. However, I guess no one was really in the mood for that.

We ended up at the UNO Chicago Grill which turned out to be a very expensive pizza joint. He had the Fisherman’s Platter with fried shrimp, French fries, fried onions, & house salad with blue cheese dressing. DQ and I both ordered (I won’t say we enjoyed it) the steak & shrimp dinner with steamed broccoli and rice pilaf. The girls and The Teen each had a personal pizza. This dinner costs $95 before tips and taxes!!!!

Then we went to Winn Dixie to grab a few more food items before heading back to the campground. The kids and I decided to kill some time by exploring the Disney Transportation system. We hopped on a campground bus, rode to Pioneer Hall and Marine Ferry, rode the boat over to Magic Kingdom, got on the monorail to go to Epcot but had to switch monorails at the TTA. It took 2 hours to get from Fort Wilderness to Epcot…..ONE WAY!!! I’m thinking that tomorrow we’ll attempt to ride the bus from Fort Wilderness to Epcot….or drive since as resort guests we have free parking.

On the return trip to the campground, we passed by Pioneer Hall where there was a horse drawn carriage for hire. The Percheron Draft horse named Dutch was standing by. Little Bird wanted to pet the horse but there’s a sign posted disallowing any touching or petting. She began crying when she was told that she was not allowed to pet Dutch. The carriage driver, Ashley, was outstanding in her magical ability to get down to eye level with Little Bird and explain to her the reasons for those rules. She explained that just like we humans don’t like getting poked in the eyes or having little hands waved in our faces, Dutch doesn’t care for it either. However, Ashley asked Dutch if it would be okay to give him a special scratch on the neck when it was bed time for him and that special scratch would be from Little Bird. Dutch “magically” turned his head and looked right at Little Bird and nodded “yes” that he would enjoy a special scratch for Ashley to give him for Little Bird.

We said our goodbyes and the girls blew kisses to Dutch, who again “magically” turned his head and nodded night night to the girls and even “blew” a kiss back!!! Isn’t funny how a horsey snort can be translated into a kiss?

We finally returned to the camper at 10 p.m. to eat a quick hot dog and listen to the fireworks show that we couldn’t see due to the trees. The girls were tired and getting quite cranky, so DQ & I took them with us to the bathhouse to shower. I also gathered up some laundry to wash & dry. Laundry is $2 per load!!!! Well, $4 if you wash AND dry your laundry. Plus the little box of detergent for $1 that I purchased BEFORE I found my detergent in the camper!

Disney 2009, Day 1: Traveling & FL Caverns SP

We woke up and got everything and everyone loaded into the camper and suburban for 6:30 a.m. We were all buckled in when DH turned the key to start the truck and rec’d a “click” instead. Seems someone had left some lights on the night before. Hmmm. So, we rounded up some jumper cables and jumped it off. THEN at 7 a.m. we were on our way.

We arrived in Marianna, FL @ 2 p.m. where we set up camp at Florida Caverns State Park. Upon setting up the camper, DH suggested that we find a place to eat and then stop by a Winn Dixie for some groceries. We found a little hole in the wall restaurant, The Waffle Iron, and went in to eat. As soon as we placed our order, the rain began. It rained a couple of drops when the bottom fell out. Suddenly it was raining AND HAILING sideways!!! There was hail the size of large marbles was falling all around!

We sat and continued to eat our meal, enjoying the sound of the pounding rain and hail. It stopped as soon as it had started and the sun was shining again as we exited the restaurant and headed back to the camper.

Once back in the campground, DH wanted to sightsee a little so we explored the nature center and took a few pictures at the entrance to the Cave. This area is very neat with caves, swamps, and sinkholes existing side by side. It truly is a geographical wonder.

At the cave entrance with my GPS.

Of course, I couldn’t visit such an area without looking for a few geocaches. After finding only one and nearly smothering to death on the swarm of mosquitoes I was trying to avoid inhaling, I gave up and decided not to bother with geocaches for the rest of this trip. I have never in my life seen mosquitoes so bad!!!

We finished the evening up with a sandwich dinner followed by collapsing into bed @ approx. 7:30 pm CST. Needless to say, we all slept very well!!!

The Blue Hole swimming area. This area is currently closed due to turbidity. As you can see from the picture, the water is very cloudy.
One of the many sinkholes in the area.

Now on to Day 2 of our Trip.

2008 Vacation: Day 10

We got up at 4 a.m. Little Bird says, “Mommy it’s still nighttime!”. DH had fueled up the night before and our tires are all taken care of due to yesterday’s stop, so we had no delays getting started. We managed to get as far as Dallas, TX before stopping for a fuel up.

Our goal today is just to get home. We’re tired and worn out from all our excitement and want to sleep in our own beds.

I see the big blue sign welcoming us home! Woo Hoo!

We enter Louisiana and immediately notice a change in the pavement. We begin bouncing so badly that DH jokes we should name the roads “Whiplash Highway”. Thinking it would ease up further down the road, I laugh. To my dismay, it never let up!

My girls spent the entire day in their carseats today, getting out only for potty breaks. We didn’t even stop for lunch. I kept a well stocked bag of snacks in the front seat and handed them out to anyone who whimpered.

We arrived home at approximately 5:30 p.m. and immediately set to work emptying stuff out of the camper.

I take mental notes about the things I packed. We didn’t need or even use half of it. I’ll remember for next time. Get all the clothes laid out and take only half of what I think I need. What a trip. A truly enjoyable experience. I can’t wait to go on another trip next summer!

2008 Vacation: Day 9

We got up early, before daylight, with plans to end up in Vernon, TX back at the Rocking “A” RV Park. Our agenda today included only two stops en route. Quirky little stops really.

The Cadillac Ranch, located along the tatters of historic Route 66, was built in 1974, brainchild of Stanley Marsh 3, the helium millionaire who owns the dusty wheat field where it stands. Marsh and The Ant Farm, a San Francisco art collective, assembled used Cadillacs representing the "Golden Age" of American Automobiles (1949 through 1963). The ten graffiti-covered cars are half-buried, nose-down, facing west "at the same angle as the Cheops' pyramids."
In 1997, development creep forced Marsh to move the entire assemblage about two miles further west. The line of cars is far enough out in a field to allow for suitably bleak photography. The distance from any authority also encourages ever-mutating layers of painted graffiti, which Marsh doesn't seem to mind.

Visitors are encouraged 24/7 - no admission. Bring your own spray paint.

After this little stop, we moved on to Goodnight, TX a community on the edge of Claude, TX where Charlie Goodnight rests.

This is the cemetery way out in the field on a little hill.

Who the heck is Charles Goodnight? You might ask. Well, he was the co-founder of the Goodnight-Loving Trail. Born in Illinois in 1836, he moved with his family to Waco, TX in 1846 when he was ten years old. By the time he was twenty he was working as a cowboy and served with the local militia in the many fights against Comanche raiders. In 1857, he joined the Texas Rangers, where he continued to fight in the Indian wars and served as an Indian scout. Later, when the Civil war began, he again served as a scout.

After the war, he teamed up with Oliver Loving to move cattle from Fort Belknap, TX to Fort Sumner, NM, in what became known as the Goodnight-Loving Trail. It was during this time, that Charlie would invent the chuck wagon when he rebuilt an army surplus Studebaker wagon for more practical use on a long cattle drive.

Unfortunately, Loving was killed by a Comanche war party in 1867, but this did not stop Goodnight from continuing to organize cattle drives on his own.

The novel, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, is based on the historical accounts of Goodnight and Loving (The Real Lonesome Dove). Augustus McCrae is patterned after Oliver Loving and Woodrow F. Call after Charles Goodnight. The movie is also based on these men's lives. Charles Goodnight would be the patron saint of all cowboys as he developed the cattle industry as it stands today.

During our visit here we discovered a geocache full of geojunk. The kids were very excited to dig through this one. We paid our respects to Charlie Goodnight, we moved on toward Vernon, TX.
We weren’t doing too badly on time until we had another blowout on the trailer. This delay caused us to spend more time hunting for a tire place to purchase 3 new tires.

We ended up somewhere in a little town on Old Route 66 for a delay of 2 hours while we took care of this little chore.

Got to Vernon, TX around 7 p.m. The kids and I finally were able to don swimsuits (the ONLY time on this trip) and cool off in the pool. That water felt sooooooo gooood!

After a dinner of frozen, smoked chicken and deli macaroni salad, we got our showers and hit the hay.

2008 Vacation: Day 8

My husband woke us up before daylight to get on the road. He’s eager to get started so nixes my idea for an in camp breakfast. We head out and attempt to locate another Denny’s. Maggie had us doing U turns in places there weren’t any. Besides, U turns with a 30 foot travel trailer isn’t exactly something my husband is fond of performing.

Eventually, we got the rig facing east and stumbled across a trucker’s plaza that featured a coffee shop and a restaurant. There was not any available seating in the restaurant and we were directed to the coffee shop. Any other time, I’d be aggravated but I was pleasantly pleased to see a big screen TV in the coffee shop which was already tuned in to the Backyardigans! The girls were excited to see something familiar and promptly sat down in the big comfy chair to veg out to Pablo and Uniqua until we were served breakfast.

Resuming our drive, we headed out toward Meteor City, AZ. My husband had somehow allowed a housefly to enter the truck. He swatted at it, missed, allowed Kyle to swat at it, he missed too, and finally said, “Roll all the windows down!” We managed to avoid the fly catastrophe and safely continue our drive to Meteor Crater.

This was a really neat stop. This 150 ft, multi-ton, extremely dense, iron/nickel meteor struck the earth about 50,000 years ago with a force 1,000 times greater than the atomic bomb that struck Hiroshima. When the meteor struck the Earth, it was traveling at 11 miles per second. Upon impact, the meteor was obliterated into tiny microscopic fragments. The only measurable fragments are those that broke off before impact and this accounts for less than 1% of the actual size of the meteor. Really cool place to visit!! This pic shows the largest discovered meteorite fragment of the meteor that created Meteor Crater.

This picture shows Meteor Crater. But......
If you zoom in a bit you can see where the scientists had drilled holes to get samples, etc. and......

Zooming in a little more shows a 6 foot plywood astronaut on the fence of the sample boring area. The flag is also plywood and measure 3 x 6 feet. Isn't that something?

After gaping at the hole for a while, we continued our travels east. The next stop planned was Winslow, AZ where I wanted to get a picture with the guy that’s standing on the corner. DH had agreed to do this just for me. It’s another virtual geo and I needed to collect some information. Unfortunately for me, this particular area is under construction resulting in more traffic. As we approached the corner, DH needed to find a place to pull off the road and park the trailer. We finally found a spot and The Teen and myself got out of the truck to walk to the corner.

Returning to the truck, I told DH that I needed one more stop for another geo. He snarled but said okay. I should have looked around a little bit before making him move the rig. After the fact, I discovered I only needed to go a short walk away from our current location. Needless to say, he was not a happy camper. We returned to I-40 E (a.k.a. Historic Route 66) and began a nice little drive to the Petrified Forest National Park.

This intriguing park boasts an amazing display of colorful hills made out of clay which was deposited in this area about 225 million years ago! After continuous erosion, the soft sandstone revealed many fossilized organisms from the Triassic period of the Mesozoic (when the dinosaur era was just beginning). The petrified logs, still abundant in the park, are remains of trees from a huge flooded forest. At that time, the logs' wood tissue were filled by a silica-rich water which combined with oxygen replaced their organic matter by crystals of quartz. They've got all the looks of wooden logs but are truly made of hard rock!

The following picture shows the Crystal forest.
This is the reason why it's call the Crystal Forest. The inside of the tree trunk has turned into colorful crystals.

What a fantastic place this is! The rig was dwarfed by the size of the colorful clay hills which are so soft and have been exposed to so much erosion I can't imagine how tall they must have been. The petrified logs are beautiful and so intriguing - even after reading the scientific explanation, I still keep asking myself: are these pieces of wood that feel like rock to the touch or are they real rocks that for some reason resemble tree logs so much? Providing a curious show, some logs still lie on the edge of cliffs, some start to come out of the ground as the rain washes down the clay, lots of them tumbled down to the desert floor where they lie in all imaginable arrangements and positions, delicate desert flowers growing here and there among them.

Fragments of petrified logs scatter the area. The ones that come from the bark or the outer part of the logs look so precious. They are remains of a distant, fascinating past. I took as many pictures as I could but what I really want is them to make an imprint in my memory so that when I am 79 and close my eyes in bed I can remember myself walking amongst the awesome 225 million years old petrified logs!

Along the Park Drive, one sort of slides from the Petrified Forest into the Painted Desert. “Painted Desert” is the poetic name given to a huge sweep of Chinle Group rocks that show a variety of colors from different minerals in the rock. The distinct white layers are sandstone. The cap of the Tepees is clay. Dark layers are caused by high carbon content. Darker reds are iron-stained sandstone. Reddish bases are stained by iron-oxide, which is also called hematite. The mixed reds, grays, whites, and blacks of the different rock layers combine to produce something that really looks like the result of an artist gone berserk with some REALLY BIG paint brushes. It’s like this everywhere you look in this part of the park.

Kangaroo tries to explain about her favorite part of the desert.
I’ve always heard that though it’s hot here, it’s a “different” kind of hot. The wind is always blowing. The thermostat in the truck was showing 99 degrees Fahrenheit but it really didn’t feel that hot!