National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 36 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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Sunday 11 September – part six: civilisation and time to cross the border
Eventually, we came into civilisation, first spotting human beings then pylons, which must mean a town of some kind? Sure enough, it did. We were soon in our first town with thousands of citizens and houses and even a railway line. My goodness, back in the real world again!
It didn’t last long, as we set off again, although we saw life of a different variety just a few short miles further along. I guess if you’re going to have a plant like this, you might as well put it in the middle of nowhere. Makes a lot of sense...
Eventually, we joined a highway, and not long after we did, we saw real-life cowboys rounding up their cattle. It was the coolest sight and something I’ve never seen “in the wild” as it were. Sadly, there was no way I could get photos of it in time, but it was amazing to see.
I soon noticed that there were mile markers counting down to zero, but to what... Now, we were still in Wyoming at this point so I figured that maybe it was counting down to the state border and I was right, so I was able to get a great shot of it!
It was really odd, but almost as soon as we moved into Utah, the landscape started to change and the rocks became a lot more colourful. As I said to Mark, I suspect we’ll be seeing a lot more of that over the next couple of days...
My first impressions of the state was that it was a lot less spread out and remote than Wyoming, but then again, we may not have been getting an accurate picture, as we were now on the Interstate.
We changed on to another Interstate and I started to see names that were familiar to me from my planning, so I knew we were finally nearing our destination. I think that was music to Mark’s ears, who had found the drive very tough, particularly the parts in the wilderness in the middle of nowhere. I did offer to drive a couple of times, but he told me he’d stick with it, otherwise he’d probably fall asleep.
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When I was looking at a Yellowstone trip, I had planned to fly into Salt Lake City (free) and drive - now I know what to expect... LOTS of open nothingness... How long of a drive (timewise) did it end up being from your last stop at Grand Teton to your hotel?
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When I was looking at a Yellowstone trip, I had planned to fly into Salt Lake City (free) and drive - now I know what to expect... LOTS of open nothingness... How long of a drive (timewise) did it end up being from your last stop at Grand Teton to your hotel?
I think it was a good five hours - I remember getting that time on MapQuest. I think we left at around 1.00 - 1.30 and I was going to say that we got there somewhere about 6.00 - 6.30?
Sunday 11 September – part seven: what a fitting 9/11 tribute
Soon, we were passing through Heber and this was a beautiful city. The houses were quite something, as was the town centre:
It also had lots of cows in the fields surrounding it, which obviously scored extra brownie points from me!
They also had a very fitting tribute to 9/11 from the local fire service. We couldn’t work out what this was at first from a distance, but as we got closer, it became apparent. It was the ladder of a fire engine at half mast. Very clever and a wonderful tribute.
Our route then took us through a valley, following the path of a huge lake, giving us some more stunning shots. Son of Tim (our GPS system) had certainly picked a photographic route for us.
Eventually, we started to come into Orem and my goodness, there was a storm starting to whip up, as you can probably see from some of these photos. I was very glad to finally be at the hotel.
We checked in and grabbed a luggage cart for our cases and headed up to the room. Wouldn’t you know it, we were about as far from the elevators as it was possible to be?
It was a lovely room though:
We had a little bit of time in the room to recover from the drive before we needed to head out for dinner with Tricia at the Sundance Resort. We set off just after 7:00pm and the storm that had been threatening just as we arrived was in full pelt down, so no photos as we drove out of town, although I did get some photos of the hotel lobby, which was very nice:
Glad the long drive is over and you found your nice, cozy hotel room. Too bad it was raining again when you set out for dinner-- Can't wait to hear about the dinner.
Being a "city girl" myself, I marvel that people are able to live in such isolated places. It's great for a week or so of vacation, but more than that I don't think I'd survive!
Looking forward to seeing the Sundance Resort, and hearing about dinner!
So glad you made it to the hotel before the storm really let loose. What an interesting drive! Son of Tim...
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then pylons, which must mean a town of some kind? Sure enough, it did. 
We were soon in our first town with thousands of citizens and houses and even a railway line. My goodness, back in the real world again! 
Now, we were still in Wyoming at this point 
so I figured that maybe it was counting down to the state border and I was right, so I was able to get a great shot of it! 
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