National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 66 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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Absolutely beautiful! Those balanced rock formations and the very tall, thin stacks are amazing, but make me nervous. I know they've been like that for a very long time, but, as you say, sooner or later they're going to fall!
Those balanced rocks are fascinating! We saw one in Colorado and one in Arizona, and you just think it's going to fall! But it doesn't. Those photos with people and the car really give perspective. Wow!
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Thursday 15 September – part four: no room at the car park...
From here, you can either go straight on or turn right. We took the right turn, as this is one of the big attractions in the park. It started to rain, but only lightly, although my goodness, it looked as if it could get a lot worse at any second. Fortunately, it didn’t, which was a relief, after last night.
There was a glorious viewing area just a little way down this road and, to look the other way at the rest of the park, you would have no idea that there was rain anywhere. The sun was playing beautiful shadows over everything we could see and, just like Monument Valley yesterday, it was a wonderful sight to see.
We carried on driving, aiming for the Double Arch and getting some photos on the way.
It’s just as well we did, as when we got to the parking area, it was absolutely packed and not a single space in sight. Doesn’t it just figure? At home, if we go shopping, even in the run-up to Christmas, Mark will always be able to find a space right by the shops. Come out here and that parking luck leaves us!
He drove past slowly enough so that I could get various photos of it, although it was a shame we couldn’t stop. It gave us a glimpse of what this place must be like in the summer months. I would hate to be visiting then.
We returned to the main road and drove to Panorama Point, which certainly lived up to its name.
Now we were off to the park’s other huge sight, the Delicate Arch. We passed the parking area for those hiking up to see it and you won’t be surprised that we weren’t about to join us. However, when we got to the viewing area, I think it’s fair to say that we were both a bit disappointed with what we found. Sure, you could see the Delicate Arch in the distance – and I mean in the distance. The only way to get up close with it was to do the hike. Not happening! : It was a real shame.
We headed back to the car, a bit despondent and Mark found this happy chappy on the way back to the car:
Once back there, we proceeded to eat our lunch from earlier, which was perfect. Today we’d also managed to get lunch at a reasonable hour – a step forward from yesterday’s very late lunch.
Next: not something to do if you don’t like enclosed spaces
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Amazing how that rock stays upright like that. More great photos!
Those photos with people and the car really give perspective. Wow!
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