TroianRae's Crazy Adventures in the World - DAY 5, PART 1- UPDATED 8/15 About This Page:

[Colexis Mom]

Welcome back Jana Can't wait to hear all about it

[DawnDenise]

Welcome back Jana!!! Looking forward to reading all about your trip!!

[TroianRae]

<font color="black"> <u> Friday, July 1, 2005 Day 1 </u>


<font color="red"> Our Cast of Adventurers:
Me (Jana AKA TroianRae) - 32 - 4th trip to WDW
DH (Nathan) - turning 32 at WDW on 7/13 - 3rd trip to WDW
DS (Benjamin) - 6 - 3rd trip to WDW
DD (Troian Rae) - 2.5 - 2nd trip to WDW
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<font color="blue">
Our Journey:

Nate's alarm clock went off at 5 am like usual which is how I managed to sleep through it. He either has it set to go off at 4 am or 5 am depending when he has to go to work so I'm just used to ignoring the sound. Today, I wanted to get up when the alarm went off; instead, I got up at 5:30 am when Nate decided to finally wake me up. He didn't want to fight me for the bathroom. Nate got Troian dressed while Benji got himself ready. I obviously could dress myself.

We were outside at the van, ready to go by 5:45 am, which I thought was pretty good. I had finished pre-packing the van the afternoon before so all we had to do was hop in. Not so fast - we had company waiting for us outside. My mom had come outside to say goodbye (she lives next door), and while we were saying goodbye to her, Nate's dad drove up. Okay, too many people were awake at 5:45 am!! But we got our goodbyes done; hoping that Nate's dad wouldn't bore my mom to death , we hopped into the van and pulled away. Exactly 6:00 am!! Mission accomplished!! Okay, FIRST mission of the day accomplished!!

I was so excited; we were doing really well. Nate was driving first since he's more used to being awake at such a horrific hour. Once I realized that he had driven right past the Beresford Burger King and I didn't even know it, we decided to switch drivers for awhile. He pulled off, and started to pull in to the gas station. Now, know that I should NEVER think "okay everything's going really well" on one of our road trips. I should have known - it happens every trip we take. It used to be Ian (okay, we expected that and knew it was coming); last year it was Cameron, my nephew. This year, it was Benji..........he THREW UP!!! Nate was walking around the van and barely got the van door open in time. Thank God he threw up in the gas station parking lot (I'm sure that some gas station employee just loved the show!!! ); he aimed perfectly and so it didn't get on him or his clothes or the van. YEAH!! Turns out he had been coughing and that's when he threw up ( he used to do that a lot when he younger ). Okay, crisis averted. We pulled back out onto the road and kept going.

Then it happened again............but with TROIAN!!! (Okay, what's going on?? I'm thinking.) Only this time, she threw up on Nathan!! Once again we were lucky that it wasn't anything but mucus; but poor Nathan, he had to clean it off him!!! When she did it again, I pondered turning around and heading back home, but I couldn't do that!! We were going to WDW and by george, we were going!! Luckily, Troian fell asleep for several hours as did Benji so that helped ease their crankiness of the early morning trauma of getting up at 5:30 am.

We were making really good time; I couldn't believe it. We actually made it an hour further than we normally go the first day, in the same amount of time, plus we had hit a lot of construction and bad traffic so we were happy with how far we got. We checked into our hotel in Illinois about 5:30 and then went to get some supper. I found out when I got back to the hotel that they had free wi-fi access (YEAH!!!) so I was able to log on and see what had been happening on the boards. It was lonely though since I knew that Christie (christiejay) wouldn't be there since she was traveling as well.

I fell asleep about 9 pm while Nate and the kids watched Toy Story 2 on Disney. Then I woke up when they were trying to go to sleep. We all woke up at 11 pm with Troian screaming (I still have no idea why, but I can tell you I'm hoping it's NOT a repeat event!!); she fell back asleep by 11:30 but Benji and I were up until almost 1:00 am. I started up my laptop and began playing the Lights Motors Action Stunt Spectacular video I have on it for Benji (he just loves this show - let's hope it enthralls him as much in person) while I went down to the lobby and grabbed a spearmint hot tea, hoping that would relax me. It must have done the trick because I fell asleep while Benji was watching the video and he had to wake me back up to turn off the laptop when he was done.

<font color="black">Coming Up Next: $1.99 gas and What do you mean we don't have a reservation ?!?!
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[christiejay]

Great start, Jana (at least to the report, if not the trip!). Do the kids get carsick? Or just allergic to mornings like me?

Ready for more!

[TroianRae]

[ QUOTE ]
Great start, Jana (at least to the report, if not the trip!). Do the kids get carsick? Or just allergic to mornings like me?

Ready for more!

[/ QUOTE ]

<font color="blue"> Benji just coughs too hard, but we have discovered that Troian seems to get carsick if she's had something to eat either shortly before getting into the van or shortly after. It wasn't the end of the "Ralph Chronicles" (as we refer to it) with Troian. </font>

[Colexis Mom]

Great start Jana I hope the kids are doing better for tomorrows drive

[DawnDenise]

Great start Jana!!! Hope things settle down on the drives. More please!

[Jillybean]

Hope the sickies go away by the next day!

Jill

[disneymom9092]

Glad you are back and I can't wait to hear all about it!

[lauren-roxy]

Great start Jana, can't wait to read all about your trip! We usually drive also and kids are so unpredictable in the car!

[RobDVC]

uggh. Too bad about the car ride, but I'm sure things got better.

[TroianRae]

<font color="black"> Saturday, July 2 - Day Two</font>

<font color="blue"> Okay, on with the show!

We managed to leave our hotel about 6 am; we were going to get gas at Mt. Vernon, but I didn't like the price since I knew we could find it cheaper. (I think it was like $2.15 or so. ) We made it to Paducah, Kentucky in a little less than 90 minutes which I think is what I had calculated so we decided to stop there and get gas. Lo and behold, $1.99/gallon gas!! Yippee!!! (When you're driving a van all the way to Florida and you're only getting 21-22 mpg you need that gas to be a little less expensive. We had budgeted $2.25 per gallon in our gas budget but that didn't mean I wanted to pay more when I knew we didn't have to.)

So we drove from Paducah down to Nashville down to Chattanooga and we were making REALLY good time. I could not believe it. We had always caravaned with my mom and sister and had to stop ALL the time,(except when I wanted to. ) This year we were just doing fantastic on time, and we were stopping every 2 1/2 to 3 hours for a bathroom break for Benji as well as gas and food, if needed. The all-in-one stops, my favorite. One thing that floored me - it did NOT rain while we drove through Chattanooga!! I'm NOT kidding every other year we've gone it has rained while driving through Chattanooga which makes it one of the places I least like to drive through ( but not to fear it DID rain in Chattanooga on our way back home )

So we got through Chattanooga and I realized we could actually make it farther than we had planned, depending upon how long it took us to get through Atlanta. Last year we had timed it right and just breezed through; the previous 2 trips we had hit rush hour - not good!! We started discussing changing our hotel, if possible, and going farther. Now, remember, this is the Saturday before 4th of July so I knew finding a new hotel room could prove difficult. (Sidenote: we already were staying at the same hotel where we had stayed last year and I loved it.)

We got through Atlanta in record time, it seemed, and since our hotel was only 15 miles south of Atlanta I decided to see if I could snag us a new hotel room. I called the hotel's 800 to see about availability and to see if it was too late to cancel our reservation (it was about 4 pm). She COULDN'T find our reservation - she couldn't even find our hotel (I found out why on the way home.). I kept telling her that I knew it existed we had stayed there last year; she kept telling me it didn't and that they didn't show any reservation. (Sidenote: As always, I double-checked our reservations the Thursday night before we left and the reservations agent read off both reservations to me (Friday and Saturday). So as of Thursday night midnight, they were there!!! ) So I asked her to check on availability south of Atlanta; of course, being a holiday weekend there was NOTHING available in the locations I knew we could make it to. So I thanked her (okay, it was sarcastically since she hadn't helped, but had argued with me), and we decided to take our chances in McDonough.

I got our my hotel reservation chart so I'd have it when we got to the hotel; I was gearing up for being told "No reservation, sorry". We arrived at the hotel, I went in, she asked for our name, I told her "Loken" waiting with bated breath, and she pulled out our reservation sheet!!! I had NO idea how that phone reservations agent I had talked to not more than 10 minutes earlier had been unable to find our reservation, but at that point it didn't matter. We had our reservation so we had our room!! Yippee!! Two tired, cranky, hungry kids + one starting to get sick husband = a much needed hotel room. We even got a really good room for location so it was easy to bring in the overnight bag and the kids pillows.

We went to the Wal-Mart down the street for some supper; they have mac and cheese which Benji loves!!!! I can't remember what the rest of us got; I don't think Nate and I even ate much we were just too tired. So we settled in for the night. Only problem with the hotel - no internet access!!! Oh well, tomorrow I'd be in Disney - that was all that mattered. We all went to bed pretty early considering we knew that 5 am comes quickly. </font>

<font color="black"> Coming up: Getting to Disney
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[RobDVC]

I would have been flipping out if they lost my reservation!
Glad to hear there was smooth sailing on Day2 for you!

[TroianRae]

[b] <font color="black"> Sunday, July 3 - Day Three: Part One </font>

<font color="blue"> Nate got up at 5 am when the alarm when off; he wanted to go put the van topper back up top (we took it down each night to avoid loosing our luggage) before he brought our stuff back out to the van. Fine with me. I went ahead and got ready while he was gone. I got the kids up and partly dressed (I think they stayed in pajamas for most of the morning) and we waited for Nate to come back. When he did, we found why he'd been gone longer than expected - he had gone down to the hotel's continental breakfast. It didn't start until 6 am so there wasn't too much there, just juice. Nate loaded the rest of our stuff into the van and took off about 5:58 am. Another good start!!

The kids went back to sleep as did I since Nate was driving. I think the kids slept until almost 10, but
i was awake by 8:30.

It was a very uneventful drive until we were about 10 miles north of Ocala; that's when the sky opened up and buckets of rain came down. It stopped raining just as we got to Ocala.

This was going to be one of those all-in-one stops - Disney Information Center (a required stop on EVERY Disney trip, both going to Disney and going home), lunch (Burger King drive-thru), and gas (BP right next door to BK). Plus we thru in a stop at Dunkin' Donuts - what can I say?? (We don't have Dunkin' Donuts or Baskin Robbins in South Dakota anymore so if you see them you've GOT to stop - I believe it's programmed into our van's mentality.)

So we pulled into the Disney Information Center and Troian's asleep again. So just Benji and I went inside. I just love this place!!! I know that I'm almost to Disney when we get here. Yipee!! I needed to activate my annual pass so I'd have it for checkin (that's a joke - more later) so I got in line to do so. The first available CM took me then sent me back into the line because "I don't do those". Okay. Not off to a good start in the friendliness catergory!! So I waited again and when it was my turn I was directed to the ONLY CM that did AP's (maybe it's a computer thing??). She was nice enough except I had trouble getting my license out so I just gave her the wallet. That was "too much of a headache" so she gave it back to me and had me just give her the information. Anyway, long story short (too late), I got my AP activated and Benji and I went browsing out into the store. I saw lots of things I liked but I didn't buy anything. (Oh no, are you sick??) I didn't buy anything because we were headed for Downtown Disney that afternoon/evening and I wanted to get as much as I could from World of Disney so as to utilize my AP disount!!

Benji and I were out of the Disney Info Center in less than 20 minutes, I think; we got out to the van only to find Nate and Troian heading inside (he thought I'd be shopping!!). Troian started screaming when we got back into the van; she was NOT happy that Benji had gotten to go inside and not HER!! We drove thru Burger King for lunch, went and got gas, and then crossed the street to Dunkin' Donuts. Okay, it was more of an ordeal than that. They had those median things in the middle so you couldn't cross ANYWHERE so it took some manuevering and some u-turns to make it to the Dunkin' Donuts. (I got a box of the chocolate munchkins(Thanks Marnie!!) and had a few; good thing because Nate and Benji ate the rest of the them when I wasn't paying attention.)

We left Ocala headed to Orlando; it really doesn't take too long, especially when it's NOT raining (you can see the road - that helps). We got onto I-4 and headed towards WDW. Not knowing exactly what exit to take (couldn't find the paper), we just got off at the Epcot exit and wandered around WDW for what seemed like forever (it wasn't - it might have been 10 minutes), but we couldn't find ANY signs for Pop Century.

I knew it was close to MGM so we headed that way and lo and behold a sign!! Yeah!! Benji starting freaking out. He can't read yet, but if it's a Disney word, he can!! So when he saw the words Pop Century, the yelling began and didn't stop until the day after we left. He's a Pop Century freak!!! What can I say? If I've achieved anything in my life so far, besides having Ian for almost 8 years, it would undoubtedly be turning Benji into a Disney kid!!! He's turning Troian into one too!!

</font> <font color="black"> Coming Up: Day Three:Part Two with Checking in to Pop Century and Downtown Disney

[Colexis Mom]

More great updates Jana

Chocolate munchkins, not midgets We have them every weekend

More please, you're so close