Merry, Magical, and Bright: Late Fall Adventures of Cam & Luke Updated 3/12 About This Page:

[Cam22]

Day 1, Part 1: Sunday, November 5 Travel Day

Luke’s phone alarm sounded early, but it was not bright, not at 4:30 AM. At 2:00 AM Kentucky moved from Central Daylight Time to Central Standard Time, which to our benefit, permitted an extra hour of sleep. The first words out of my mouth were “What do you mean low battery?” My frustration at my iPhone for failing to charge overnight had Luke immediately laughing. I discovered that the plug was loose, but it charged easily on our drive down south. After getting ready, finalizing the packing, and loading four suitcases and two carry on bags into the Edge, we were pulling out of the garage at 5:55. The weather in Owensboro was cloudy and 69 degrees, unusually high for an early morning in Kentucky in November. Orlando was actually a degree cooler at 68 and foggy. The weather forecast the night before predicted the potential for severe weather in Kentucky as a cold front moved in late morning/early afternoon. The forecast was quite ominous, including high winds, hail, and even tornadoes. I remember thinking at least we’d been much further south when all of this bad weather came through. And we indeed we were, but that didn’t mean we wouldn’t still feel the weather’s impact.

Before leaving the house, Luke and I had used the Keurig to brew a coffee for him and a hot chocolate for me, making for a cozy start to our journey. The first part of our travel day involved a two-hour road trip to Nashville, Tennessee, and provided us with a bit of magic when we noticed a family of deer off to the right about 20 minutes into the trip.

001 Two Mile Bridge at Bowling Green-1 (640x427) by Cam Matthews, on Flickr

Since our college days, this bridge has been called the 2 Mile bridge because the sign here says 2 miles to Bowling Green.

003 Sunrise-1 (640x427) by Cam Matthews, on Flickr
The sun was finally beginning to rise.

We did not stop until just past the Tennessee line at a rest stop that we have always found to be very clean and well-maintained. As we were walking to the front doors, suddenly a wee chipmunk ran right in front of us and straight into an area of shrubs. I grabbed Luke’s arm and squealed, “Chipmunk.” My excitement was noted by several other guests at the rest stop. Really that little chipmunk was so cute! At some point on the journey, we heard the train whistle on Luke’s phone announcing a text message. But neither of us checked out the text, must have been too excited that we were heading to Disney. I didn't get a photo of my little friend, but once we were back outside, I did get a few shots to prove we'd been here.

004 Tennessee Rest Strop-1 (640x427) by Cam Matthews, on Flickr

005 Tennessee Rest Strop-1 (640x427) by Cam Matthews, on Flickr

006 Tennessee Rest Strop-1 (640x427) by Cam Matthews, on Flickr
007 Tennessee Rest Strop-1 (640x427) by Cam Matthews, on Flickr

No more photos until Florida.

We made really good time, arriving at Executive Travel & Parking with plenty of time to shuttle over to the airport. We were dropped at the Southwest terminal where we used the Self-Tag Kiosk, checking in and printing the tags we placed on the four bags that would be checked. I noticed on the screen that our flight was delayed. Luke just shrugged his shoulders and said we’d check after we were at our gate. I’m not sure he understood me as he left me behind while I was checking the big screen to see if a new time was posted. He turned around and noticed I was missing. I caught back up quickly and repeated that our flight was delayed. Nothing to do about it now as we were already here, so we made our way through security. I had TSA pre-check so I took all the electronics with me.

Once we were both through security and Luke had gotten his shoes back on, we made our way to Gate 18. After we found seats, we took turns using the restrooms that over the course of this day we’d both become very familiar with. While I was gone, Luke checked his phone and discovered the text he received at 7:30 had been from Southwest letting us know that our flight was delayed. I had had a premonition a few days before the trip that we might experience a flight delay. This has only ever happened to us once before with Southwest, but I just had this feeling.

We were both hungry and now had an extra hour to wait for our flight, so we hauled our bags back up the terminal to a Burger King for some breakfast. Luke got an Eggnormous Burrito with a Coke while I opted for the Bacon, Egg, and Cheese Croissant with a Dr. Pepper. We also got an order of hash browns to share. We sat for a while at the Burger King because while we were eating around 9:20, Luke received a second text that our flight was now delayed by 2 ½ hours. And thus, the flight delay saga begins. We returned to our gate only to discover that another flight’s folks were taking up all the seats. We moved to Gate 17 as we could still see our gate and the screen with the latest on our flights from there. I charged my phone while finishing a novel on my Kindle.

Once the flight boarded at Gate 18, we moved back over. At 11:00, another delay was announced, making it 3 hours past our original departure time. At 12:00, another delay, now at 3 ½ hours late, and an announcement told us our plane was currently taxing for take off from Chicago. The problem was bad weather south of Chicago that kept pushing back the departure of our plane from Midway. Between Nashville and Chicago were the strong band of storms our weather forecaster had predicted last night. Quite a bit of the area was under tornado watches, and eventually, there were several tornado warning. At 1:00 we were now at a nearly 5 hour delay, and then at 1:30 a SWA plane pulled up to our gate. Initially, everyone was excited. But then an announcement was made that we would not be boarding this flight. Instead we would be moving gates. Boo! At least it wasn’t far, just down past the restrooms and across the hall. We’d be getting a new plane and a new crew because the crew on the plane that had just arrived had maxed out on their hours. We were told both a plane and crew were right outside, waiting to board us all. But not so fast, another announcement was made that the new plane had arrived with some “scratches” that would require photos being sent to Boeing officials to determine if this plane was still flight-worthy. My confidence level at this point was not too good. Who wants to fly on a plane with “scratches” that require photos for inspection? At this point we were also told that if we were further delayed due to this planes issues, we would possibly be getting vouchers. My initial thought was I’d rather be in Disney, but then Luke reminded me that those vouchers could pay for our fall 2018 flights. That sounded pretty good for all our waiting. In the end the newly arrived plane was not found worthy to fly, and we did get the vouchers.

Over the wait, I canceled all three FastPasses one by one when I could tell we’d not be making it in time. Both of us took and endless number of restroom breaks. With all the delays, we kept putting off lunch as we felt we would be boarding any moment. But at 2:15, I purchased a banana for us to share. Nothing else that we could get near our gate was appealing to either of us. I went back later and bought an Almond Joy and Raisnets for us to snack on. Finally, at 3:53 I made a note that we were settled on the plane in Row 10 Seats D and E. Hallelujah! At 4:15 our plane was in the air. Porg and I watched almost the first half of Meagan Leavey on my Kindle. I was really liking it, but when the pilot announced that we were begin our descent into Orlando, I eagerly shut it down in preparation for stowing everything for landing. We were going to make it to Disney World today. Now on Eastern Time we landed at around 6:30. After a quick restroom stop, we walked straight through a Disney Magical Express queue and onto a bus for Saratoga Springs. Unfortunately, our bus did not pull out for another 11 minutes, but at least, we had seats for this wait. Port Orleans guests were dropped off first and then we arrived at our resort at 7:55, five minutes past our ADR at Chef Art Smith’s Homecoming.

NEXT: Will we get dinner or not?