GoofyMom's Even Greater American Road Trip - 2008 - Updated 11/14 - Page 7 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Love the do! I was wondering if you were going to ride around will Bill or if it was a one shot deal. So glad Bill took care of you and that your day was quite uneventful.
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Oct '99: CSR ~ May '02: CR ~ Nov '04: SOG ~ May '06: SOG ~ Dec '07: Solo @ Pop ~ May '08: Pop w/friends ~ Oct '08: SOG ~ Dec '09: Pop w/LeAnn ~ Sept '10: Solo @ Pop ~ Spring '11: AKL ~ Jan '12: Pop for 1/2 Marathon ~ Sept '12: 1st trip for DL 1/2 Marathon? ~ Feb '13: Pop w/pals? ~ Mar '13: Tokyo Disney w/PP's?
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Wednesday, September 17
Today was another pretty uneventful day. Got up really early, so I spent some quality time inspecting the insides of my eyelids while sitting on the backyard swing later this morning. I was starting to really feel the effects of a cold.
Jan was working from home today. She and Abby went to the garden to pick some fresh vegetables. We snacked on green peppers right out of the garden and watched lizards in the backyard.
In the afternoon, Bill and I went for a short motorcycle ride.
I’m figuring out how to balance on the back of his bike. It’s been a lot of years since I’ve been for a motorbike ride.
Alright! Got it figured out! C ya L8r!
Bill drove us around a couple of hours and it was so much fun! We decided that we had to go for a longer ride in a few days!
After our ride, we all climbed into Bill’s truck and drove to Circuit City. I had decided that my camera had let me down for the last time and it was time to buy a new one. I had been goofing around with one of Jan’s cameras and it was pretty much exactly what I was looking for. So I thought that would be the one I would buy. However…. I found a different one. Same brand, different model. I played around with it a bit, as well as a couple other brands, but I kept going back to that one. I got Bill’s opinion and he thought it would likely work good for what I wanted. So I whipped out the ol’ Visa and got me an Olympus Stylus 1010. *excitement!!*
We decided to stop for dinner at TGIFridays, then came home where I played with my new toy and we hung out with Jason and Kristina for a while. And that’s the end of Wednesday!
The weather today was… sunny and 85 The best thing today was…. getting my new camera The worst thing today was… how my cold developed fully The funniest thing today was… Abby at the restaurant, she was using very big-girl manners Today we tried… riding the motorcycle And the result was… it was so fun we decided we needed a longer ride
PassPorter's Free-Book to Walt Disney World It’s hard to believe anything is free at Walt Disney World; but there are actually a number of things you can get or do for little to no cost. This e-book documents over 200 free or cheap tips to do before you go and after you arrive. You could save a considerable amount of money following these tips. Perhaps more importantly; you can discover overlooked attractions and little-known details most people whiz by on their way to spend money. Click here to see free sample pages from the e-book! Get this popular e-book free of extra charges when you join the PassPorter's Club for as little as $4.95. A club pass includes access to all our other e-books; e-worksheets; super-size photos; and more! This e-book is also available for separate purchase in the PassPorter Online Store for just $5.95.
Thursday, September 18
My cold was still bothering me when I woke up. We all had a real lazy morning; then Dan & I drove to McDonald’s and grabbed some breakfast. In the afternoon I played with my camera, and headed next door to hang out with Abby and the neighbours’ kids for a while.
Jan cooked fried green tomatoes for dinner. I had never had them before and she was appalled! She decided that had to be changed and so tonight was the night! After dinner, the kids all played soccer in the back yard while we watched and cheered them on until it started getting dark. Before bedtime, Abby decided we needed to play puppy dog, so she handed me a cloth leash that she has and I was her puppy. She led me around the house and we had a good ol’ time! And…. that was Thursday!
Here are some photos with my new camera. Nothing exciting, but I was very pleased with some of the pictures we were able to take. I mean, look at this - a moving screensaver came out clear as a bell:
One of the oranges on their orange tree. And this shot impressed me because it was on full 7X zoom. But wait....
Then I went full digital zoom on top of the optical zoom! I couldn't hold it still and the image was shaking around all over the place on the camera's screen, but look what happened when the dual stabilizers kicked in!! I my new camera!
Trying out the macro settings on one of the acorn bombs. Oh, I didn't tell you about the acorn bombs, did I?
Bill and Jan have a nice wood deck in the back yard that sits underneath a large oak tree. The problem is that the squirrels are extremely territorial and they don't care who is paying the property taxes... that's their turf, man. So when you are sitting on the deck, minding your own business and enjoying being outside --- they attack! With acorn bombs! Which, I might add, sting like crazy when they hit you after being thrown down on you from 20 or 30 feet above! Bill's actually taken to fighting back and it cracks me up... he's got a loaded Super Soaker and he's not afraid to use it!
Dan stole my camera a few times and tried it out too. He's got some serious camera envy now. Here's some of his shots:
A Passion Flower growing around the neighbour's mailbox
Spanish Moss growing on the tree across the street
These guys were all over one of Jan's plants out front and they were treating it like an all-you-can-eat buffet.
The weather today was… overcast and in the 80s The best thing today was… how pleased I was with my new camera The worst thing today was… how sick I felt from my cold The funniest thing today was… Abby and me playing puppy Today we tried… fried green tomatoes And the result was… I like them when they are cooked so they are still crunchy