Wise Women, Good Looking Men and Way Cool Teens
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oldmom · 12-26-2009, 10:58 AM

With work and the holidays, this trip report didn't make it to the computer as fast as it should have. But that's life sometimes. Our pre-trip report explains the who and why of this trip http://www.passporterboards.com/foru...come-afar.html . Someday I'll get the hang of getting the link so it just shows as a title, but till then we'll make do. It was a wonderful trip and I loved meeting up with the other Wise Women. Lots of planning, lots of life changes--it's been a wild year. One of the hurdles for me was to see how easy it is to visit WDW as a newly diagnosed diabetic. I've also been doing the Challenge here and have lost 50 pounds! So I was working on adjusting to eating less, eating the right stuff and using that free Disney Dining to its fullest!

Since Betty Sue likes the road trip reports, I'll get started with that. Dbf and I drove from Missouri. We have a Prius and for those who wonder, it got an average of 42 mpg, sometimes it was getting 54 mpg but trip total was 42.3. Not bad all in all. The GPS came in handy several times. Our maps, and print outs of our route sometimes deviated from real life. One section of road was supposed to have opened in November but wasn't yet. We went into a handy conviene store where they gave us one of their photocopies of the way around the construction. Guess we weren't the first folks to stop in there.

Dec 5
We said good-bye to my dd the night before since she's not much of a morning person. We woke early, threw the last items into the suitcase and headed out the door. Yes, its true. I had the suitcases packed for sometime, like a month or so. I re-packed and adjusted for the weather the last week. Can you tell Mickey Magic was needed?

We got to IHOP at 6:41 and had breakfast and got coffe for the road. Its a good thing I don't believe in omens because while we were there, my special Mickey necklace broke. Danny made it for me and I've worn it everyday since he gave it to me. It's my worry stone; it's my micky magic.

Luckily Wal-Mart is next door to IHOP so we stopped in there for some small tools. He fixed Mickey and we were on the road by 7:30.

It was somewhere around St Louis that my body decided that it was going to be a long trip. For some reason, my bladder dediced that it always needed to go. No other symptoms of a UTI so it seemed like a good idea to keep going. Surely there are reststops and bathrooms all the way to Florida. Sadly, this proved to be so not true. I think every reststop in Missouri was closed.

I don't think we found many in Arkansas and there is a LOOOOOOONG stretch in Alabama with no reststops, gas stations or food places. It looked like that camping "outdoor" training was going to come in handy.

Two potty stops into the trip, we came to the Pony Express Pizza on I-55. The place is decorated in John Wayne and cowboys. They have the walls covered with pictures with him in movies from "The Big Sky" to "The Shootist." They even had a display case with John Wayne memorabilia, including John Wayne toilet paper--it's rough and tough.

I don't think its right to use a places bathroom without buying something, so we had something to drink and eat. Dbf decided to try fried pickle chips since he had never had them before. They were excellent and I had one biscuit with a little real sausage gravy. And then we were off again to the next potty stop. It's really hard to drink alot of water when you have no idea where the next potty is.

By 12:45 we had made it to Lambert's.

I don't think I've ever seen them as crowded as they were that day! The guy thought the wait would be an hour.

I really think he overestimated with the crowd size, but we decided throwed rolls could wait until the trip home.

One of the things the kids always did on road trips was look for birds of prey--all those hawks, etc that sit in trees beside the road and on road signs. I think I did it on this trip out of habit. It was amazing how many there were along that stretch of highway! Missouri and Arkansas had lots with the number decreasing the further south we went. Don't know why that is, guess I'll have to find out.

at last, a rest stop!

Really flat land.

Missouri is rolling hills and prairie in the middle where I'm from. Then there are the Ozarks which are major hills, junior mountains so really flat land are different. We generally only get flat lands like this between river bluffs aren't really all that far apart.

Other than stopping at every potty we found the trip was smooth. As trime has past, I've found that I hate driving in/through/around big cities. I grew up in KC and big city traffic, so this baffles me. Two lanes of traffic isn't bad but 3+ lanes of people whizzing around us/each other, the constant lane changing for no reason just drives me crazy. When I need to relax I rub my Mickey neclace....poor guy, his ears were getting lots love going through Birmingham and the construction zone!

The Best Western we intended to stay at turned out to be in the middle of the construction and seemingly there was no easy way to get to it. So we just kept moving to Calara, AL. We found a Hampton Inn there and got the last room they had! Seems there was a Red Hat Lady convention there.

OMG, I love Hampton Inn! We had never stayed in one before, but will certainly stay there on future trips.

Awesome, awesome room and the walk-in shower is big enough for two people!

DawnK · 12-26-2009, 12:01 PM

Great start....looking forward to reading more.

B.M. · 12-26-2009, 01:33 PM

Great start! The Hampton Inn looks nice....

Tigger1221 · 12-26-2009, 03:38 PM

Great start so far, you always have the most interesting adventures on your road trips.

I think I may have to drive one time.

oldmom · 12-26-2009, 04:16 PM

Dec 6
up bright and early after a wonderful nights sleep, even after consuming lots of water upon arrival.

Hampton's serves a large breakfast so we went downstairs so wee what was ready and looked good. They had a very nice meal set up with scrambled eggs, bacon, bagels, a waffle maker, an assortment of cereals, milke, juices, and hot beverages. Dbf got his plate and sat down. I was getting food when the breakfast lady, Juanita spotted my Mickey necklace. When she found out it was made for me, she turned around and called across the dining area "jewelry man, where's the jewelry man?" dbf was somewhat nonplused

and had to tell her that he couldn't/wouldn't sell her a necklace. Copyrights and all, you can't make items like that to sell.
Seems that she is 67 and has been collecting Mickey items since she was 5 years old. Dbf did give her a couple of the Christmas Disney buttons that he was wearing and she was so please with them. The night manager had walked up by now and told me that Juanita had convinced him to take his son to Disney on Dec 19th for his birthday. At this point Juanita tells us that when she goes home and takes off all her Mickey jewelry, and Mickey clothing and she is standing there "bare bu** nekkid" she still has a Mickey on. Yup, she has a tatoo. The manager's face was priceless. Evidently, this was a mental image that he just didn't think he needed.

It put a Mickey spin on my day. We decided to mail more of the Christmas buttons, especially the Capt Jack Sparrow wearing a Santa hat to Juanita and a postcard from Mickey to the manager's son when we got to Disney.

Today's driving was uneventful. Enjoyed the scenery and the numerous potty stops. Yup, that problem was still with me, but with no additional symptoms it didn't seem necessary to stop at an ER or "doc in a box." I figured if it got worse I'd visit a clinic in Fl.

When we crossed into Florida it became obvious that we were arriving ahead of schedule and could easily be in Orlando instead of stopping in Gainsville. Time to call Disney reservations and see if there is any room available, preferrably at POFQ since that's where we were going to be for the week. Sadly, there wasn't a single room left at POFQ and few other choices as well. We were offered the Coronado or POP Century. Tough choice. We haven't stayed at either. My niece is going to be there in July and we could have scouted the place for her. We have talked several times about staying at the POP. We decided on the POP to see how we felt about it.

It was shortly there after that we started to be swarmed by traffice. Lots of lanes of cars moving at least 20 miles over the speed limit and playing the lane change for no reason game. Mickey's ear's were smoking! ( I think we will fly next time.) We opted for the turnpike and loved the decrease in traffic as well as the crazy drivers. Really, I'm used to city driving. People just seemed to be popping in and back to their original lanes like it was a sport.

We arrived safely at the POP. We loved the themeing of the place. And I agree that generally its just a place to sleep. However, it was noisier than we were used to (people walking around outside and "hollering across the courtyards to friends), more herds of people moving around and the room smaller. We paid the same price for the room as the Hampton's the night before and got way more space. The staff at the POP was wonderful. I'm not sure if I'd stay there again. We didn't try the food court. It looked packed and very noisy.

We saw a few of the sights and decided to call it a night.

**Colexis Mom** · 12-26-2009, 06:29 PM

Great start! Glad you arrived early and got to stay onsite an extra night!

magic mickey · 12-26-2009, 06:44 PM

Great start! It was very nice meeting you and your DBF. Sorry you had a noisy stay at Pop. I actually had a great stay there. I had a very quiet room facing the parking lot. At first I wasn't thrilled about facing the parking lot, but it proved to be very quiet. This was my give Pop another chance stay, after a bad stay a few years ago. I would go back again after this visit. I can't wait to read more.

B.M. · 12-26-2009, 09:35 PM

Glad you made it to Pop! We stayed there in 08' and loved it!

Tigger1221 · 12-27-2009, 01:13 AM

Sorry about the noisey stay. We have stayed there twice before and it's our favorite of the values, but both times we were in the 50's buildings. I wonder if it really just depends on your room location for the noise factor.

skateycat · 12-27-2009, 08:43 AM

love the beginning of the report, elaine! i agree, the values are just a place to sleep. and i am always in awe of all the mickey magic that constantly surrounds you! keep going...i wanna know what the two of you were up to while i was waiting to join up!

**Cam22** · 12-27-2009, 07:15 PM

Great start!

Can't wait for more!

Mauimouse · 12-27-2009, 07:41 PM

Glad that you arrived safe and sound at Pop. Sorry about the noise factor at Pop. We were over at the All-Stars during this same time frame and Pop Warner was alive and well noise wise.

Looking forward to hearing more about your trip.

oldmom · 12-27-2009, 08:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by skateycat

love the beginning of the report, elaine! i agree, the values are just a place to sleep. and i am always in awe of all the mickey magic that constantly surrounds you! keep going...i wanna know what the two of you were up to while i was waiting to join up!

personally, i think its just that we are generally on "mosey" and into chatting with folks as opportunities come up. My dd says its because we tend to recognize and be nice to folks in the service industry. For whatever reason this trip is particular seemed to be full of wonderful moments.

As i said earlier, i've only known i'm diabetic for 6 months. At this point its diet/exercise controlled. let me take just a few minutes to talk about that in relation to this trip. if you want, you all can skip these few paragraphs.

My cde (diabetes instructor) here is known to the Challenger group as Ms skinnie minnie. she is very slender, a marathon runner, and believes totally in Fiber One as the perfect food and snack! She really felt like Disney dining was impossible for me to work with and my beloved chocolate covered strawberries were verboten!

I toyed with the idea of canceling the trip completely. She pretty much painted a picture of my sugars running totally out of control and the total devastation it would have on my body.

However, PassPorter to the rescue! Skatecat thought I could do it. And disneymom90992 is also a cde and she thought it could be done. In fact she pm'ed me the nutritional facts on chocolate covered strawberries and I could have one for a snack with no problems or 3-5 if i counted it as a carb. So I worked at learning more about controlling the carbs and worked at making menus work for me. Printing out the menus from resturants that we were going to eat at gave me a chance to work numbers, look at actual recipes and get a better handle on things. My plan was to work with the existing menus and not ask for special items or extra help from the Chef, if possible. Again, I'm not on meds/insulin so this may have made this easier. For those who want to know, my sugars ran within norms the whole trip. Just a mite high after O'Hana's but acceptable. People can be a bit weird about your testing if they see it, but I suspect they are worried you will bleed on everything and pass on some disease. I did see some parents testing a 2 year olds sugar and it was 243. Folks passing weren't sure what to make of them filling a syringe and using it. So Disney is do-able with some planning.

Dec 7
Woohooo time for our real vacation to begin. When we started planning this trip to meet up with the folks, I talked with dbf about our meals and plans. Priorities for this vacation were having fun, meeting folks and relaxing. Disney gave me a pin code for free dining so we went with the deluxe plan for the money. Holey moley for a person raised by depression-aged parents that is one amazing, tough plan. I left every meal feeling guilty for leaving food that "staving children in China" would surely want if I could box and send it. Meals were planned with the group and we were going to get to try new places as well as old favorites.

Today we got up early and got ready for a relaxing day. Dbf knew about the tea at the GF and he knew we were having a photo session at the Poly. He didn't know about the surprise. Since we didn't expect our room to be ready at POFQ and we wouldn't have time to get back to the room between the tea and the photo session, we left the POP ready for the photo session. While dbf loaded the car, I walked back to the main desk to make sure we were all cleared for leaving. Jose and Jim were very helpful and gave dbf a map and instructions to get us fom one hotel to the other.

By 9 am we were at the Poly. I'd done the on-line check-in so things were ready for us. Navin checked us in. I was happy when he told me that I had a magical moment and had been up-graded to a water view, Building 6, room 6124. I gave him one of the santa lollipops. we stopped at Sassagoula for a breakfast. we split the big breakfast and had more than enough food. From there we headed to the bus and the MK where we caught the water taxi to the GF.

First order of buisness was to check out the gingerbread house and decorations. I had a list of things people wanted me to bring back for them and the GF was going to take care of most of the list. While there we had the misfortune to run into some folks with no manners and less social skills. Their aggressive and rude behavior was a way less than magical moment. We didn't find out untill later that security had been called about them. A trip on the monorail seemed like a great idea and we chatted with some nice folks from Long Island, whose mother (a first time EVC driver) apologized for her driving.

We wandered the Poly for awhile and I picked up Poly charms for the girl's bracelets. Before the trip I'd run across my old charm bracelet several times and all the memories attached to those charms. I had decided that my dd and ddil should have such a thing also. All I had to do was pick up some appropriate charms for their past Disney trips. We returned to the GF at 1:30.

The area for the tea is lovely. We were seated by Heather Lynn who noted that we were wearing black slacks, so she took the white napkins from the table and replaced them with black. We selected the Eros tea and a Green tea. He had the Buckingham and I went with the British cheese platter.

Before the trip I had arranged a surprise for dbf. We have been together for 8 wonderful years. He is considerate, sweet, loving...you get the picture. Our anniversary will be next month but I decided to surprise him in Disney. Before the trip I got him an engraved key ring with "my prince" and the other side has the words "happily ever after since 2001. I called the cake line for the GF and talked to Pat. The first cake idea came to waaaaaay too much money. She suggested this wonderful cake with the words happily ever after. When I checked in at the podium, they assured me that the cake was there and the server would bring it out to surprise him.

Back to the meal. After we were served the tea and entrees photos were taken. The lady sitting next to me asked if I was a PassPorter.

Seems the photos of food gave us away. I don't remember her name on the boards but it was nice meeting you!

It was wonderful!

oldmom · 12-27-2009, 09:01 PM

There was really no way for me to tell him not to get his desserts, so he had a jam tart and the swan thing. And then the Heather Lynn snuck up on him with the cake. While he was looking at the cake and wondering which PP had sent me a cake, I put the box with the key ring in front of him. It worked out well. Our neighbor, the PP and her hubby helped us by having a piece of cake. Other tables were asking how they could get a cake but we had no takers for any.

It has a white chocolate castle and rose and tasted wonderful. After he had a piece and the neighbors, the rest went into a box and back to the resort never to be touched again. Way too much food on deluxe dining.

After tea we went to the Poly for the photo session with Barry. Turns out he is a retired homicide detective. We had a great time and I think the photos are good. We were promised that he would use the lens filter that would make us look like Anjolie and Brad. Let me know which photo you think is best.

Photo 1

photo2

photo 3

photo 4

He took 36 or so pictures. We went with the package where we not only got some photos hardcopy but also the cd with all of the photos. It was a ton of fun and I think we will do it again when we go back with dd next fall.

After that we did the monorail back to the MK and took the bus to POFQ. Our room was wonderful, building 6 is a bit farther to the lobby but a straight short walk to the bus stop. We had a great view of the river. We spent a few minutes decorating the windows and then were off to the boat dock to go to DTD.