"I Like Mine with Lettuce and Tomatoes...." - Page 3 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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After a good night’s sleep at my sisters, we foraged for breakfast and had important errands to run before we packed the van and truck for the camping portion of our trip. When I say important, it’s our annual trip to “The Meijer”. Ohioans, Michiganers, Indianans will all know what The Meijer is. We don’t have one in Maryland, so it’s an important part of our Midwest America experience. It’s somewhat like a SuperWalmart (something else we don’t have near us in Annapolis). It’s part grocery, part department store. Some brand names, some names we’ve never heard of. $250 later, which for me included a new sport watch, two pairs of shorts, a tank top, school shoes for Rachel, and Pat, Mr. Fashionable (said in a French accent), got himself 4 shirts and a pair of Frocs. He got them because he wore Grace’s hot pink ones last year to the bathroom and we never let him forget it.
We got back to my sisters and loaded up everything. It was starting to sprinkle, and I had some concerns about camping in rainy weather. We kept on, and headed east and north towards Flint. We stopped at a rest area at one point, and it was a torrential downpour. Rachel got out of the van, and her flipflip fell off and was being swept away in the gulley. She got soaked, she retrieved it, attempted to dry herself off in the restroom with the hand dryer. It’s the only time we’ve ever really used one, I hate drying my hands with one.
We parted from tradition this year, and did not stop at Lefty’s Drive In, home of fried pickles, car hop service and other totally fattening things. We opted for another Foodnetwork Find, Tony’s Diner in Birch Run, Michigan. OMG. A BLT is made with a pound of bacon. That’s right a pound. Cooked down, it’s probably only 1/3, but still.
Grace ordered the BLT, Rachel and I split the Club (turkey and bacon, and equally large on the filling),
Pat got “deli meat”, which was pastrami, corned beef and possibly ham. An artery clogging delight. I bet it was a pound of meat.
I also ordered the chili cheese fries to share. My sister and her DH split the BLT and a basket of onion rings and fries. All very delish. We will be stopping by there again.
By now the rain had tapered off to a drizzle, and we headed more north into the “thumb” of Michigan. Hold up your left hand, this is the shape of Michigan, minus Tina’s area, the UP. We traveled from the middle of the hand into the tip of the thumb.
We got to the campsite, and proceeded to set up.
We camp in a campsite that is mainly used by campers and trailers, because there is electricity and running water. We have coffee needs and need to plug in our camp decorations!
By nightfall, we built a campfire, and roasted a few hot dogs. I was still full from Tony’s, so I don’t know that I even had one. We got ready for bed, checked our Aerobeds for firmness, and went to bed. It was pretty humid that night.
Camping in tents lets the sun shine in very early. Like 6:00 am early. I fought the sunshine by putting a sheet over my eyes. I got up at 7:00 when I could no longer wait to get to the bathroom. However, the zipper on the tent was stuck in the flap fabric, so I was waving my hand through the open part crying for assistance. Rachel came and fixed the flap and I started my day.
We started cooking breakfast. On today’s menu was pancakes and sausage, coffee and Sunny Delight. If you notice our habits this trip, there is very little fresh fruit and veggies. Or cooked veggies. Carbs and meat, carbs and cheese.
We used a Bisquick Shake Mix, which involved a little dance move by Dennis.
After cleanup, we got ready for the opening day of Cheeseburger in Paradise Festival in Caseville, Michigan, about 15 miles further north than our campsite in Sebewaing. We wore swimsuits under our clothes, and packed chairs and towels. We arrived in town to see the street was properly Festified.
We set up our chairs and towels for swimming after we strolled around town and had our first Cheeseburger of the Fest.
The water level is pretty low, and you have to walk our really far into the water to be able to actually float on a raft.
My cheeseburger of the day was a Bleu cheese burger, with bourbon onions, lettuce and tomato. Chips and a pickle and a cold Coors. Life is good. We wandered around town a little more, then came back to our spot on the beach and floated for a while.
We decided to head back to Sebewaing to see if the rest of the camping family had arrived. Dennis’ brother, sister in law, and two more sisters were arriving. Their grandmother was celebrating her 100th birthday in the next town, so there was a dual purpose in the trip for them. We arrived back at the campsite and they had indeed arrived, and set up. Happy hour was in session, so I pulled my camp chair right up. We also got to meet their new dog, Rudy, a “chiweenie”, a half Chihuahua half Dachshund. He looks like a Gremlin with big ears, and he trembles like a Chihuahua does. The girls were thrilled to have him camping with us. I think Rudy wanted to go back to Lansing to the comfort of his dog bed.
Rachel got a little sun and wind burn. .
We did a pot luck supper, and Sue, Dennis’ SIL, pulled out a few pasta salads, one with chicken, penne, pecans, and grapes, which I ate like a lumberjack. Must have been the fresh air and lake swimming. Some cooked hot dogs and the obligatory s’mores. We sat around the campfire telling stories, favorite Saturday Night Live episodes and Seinfeld episodes too.
We hit the aerobeds with force that night, and I turned on the little portable fan in our tent. I too got some sun, and was radiating heat.
Total miles driven today – 30.
PS I forgot to mention the Sunny Delight significance. My loving children drink it in front of me, knowing I have an aversion to it. In 1983, my roommate and I (three years before I dated Pat), went to the Bahamas on some cheapie week long trip in a skank hotel. The cheapest mixer we could find was Sunny Delight, and I have had enough to last a lifetime. I gag at the smell of it.
I think most small towns in Michigan are looking for a "hook" to bring in tourism dollars, so they sponsor festivals in each town. Caseville must have some Parrotheads, and they call themselves Key North. The first year we went it was 30 at night in August. Not very Key weather. So far no Jimmy sightings, but I hear he is invited every year, since it's inception in 1999. The bands that play are pretty awesome too. I'm partial to the IGA grocery store that puts grass skirts on their shopping carts and also participate in the town Parade of Fools.
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Those sandwiches looked delish 
Glad you had a great time at the RRHF, but too bad you couldn't go in the Christmas Story house 
!!! Can't wait to read more!
The water level is pretty low, and you have to walk our really far into the water to be able to actually float on a raft.
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