National parks, natural beauty and a bit of Disney wonder! COMPLETED - Page 62 - 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 The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk.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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What a beautiful country I live in (that I have never been to in my 50 years). I was showing Katie the pictures and telling her it was you and Mark visiting our National Parks and she said "it isn't fair....they are so lucky"
Have fun in Amsterdam!!!
You guys do live in a beautiful country and I always say this, but I'd encourage you to explore it as much as you can. It never ceases to amaze us!
See, I knew she really meant an elephant "butte". If you don't mind me asking, are you using Photoshop to edit those pictures? It turned out beautifully. It's amazing what you can do to a photograph with the right program.
Yes ,I use photoshop. I tweak all my pictures...some need next to nothing...and then some....well they need a lot of help. LOL!
Quote:
Originally Posted by chezp
It may not be quite what you wanted, but it's still excellent!
Your latest pictures are my favorite of the trip so far! The colors are just beautiful and the rock formations are so interesting! Hope you're enjoying Amsterdam
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All right, Chez, just so you know I booked our Jackson Hole/Yellowstone trip tonight! All your influence! We are staying at the Wort Hotel in Jackson Hole for 2 nights, then moving to Lake Yellowstone Hotel for 2 more nights (EVERYTHING else in Yellowstone was already completely booked!). Going August 15-19.
All right, Chez, just so you know I booked our Jackson Hole/Yellowstone trip tonight! All your influence! We are staying at the Wort Hotel in Jackson Hole for 2 nights, then moving to Lake Yellowstone Hotel for 2 more nights (EVERYTHING else in Yellowstone was already completely booked!). Going August 15-19.
Yay! I am so pleased you're going to do this - I can't wait to hear all about it!
Wednesday 14 September – part six: that was some storm!
We headed out of the park and sadly I couldn’t get the goats that were on the wrong side of the fence or the closest cow encounter yet – he was munching right by the road, also on the wrong side of the fence - as my camera battery needed changing.
As we drove along, we could see the storm in the distance and could tell that someone was having a bad time of it. There were even people standing in the road, photographing what was going on.
Fortunately, we were going the right way and left the storm behind, seeing some very pleasant sights along the way.
I was delighted to get a glimpse of Valley of the Gods, where they’d filmed Doctor Who almost a year ago.
Soon we came into Bluff, which is where I had considered staying the night. It was a pretty small place and I think it’s fair to say that Mark and I were glad we weren’t going to be staying there...
We made it into Blanding, which was a lot bigger and, although the true mark of civilisation, a McDonald’s was missing, it wasn’t a bad place to stay the night.
We found our hotel, although confusingly, it was still called the Comfort Inn, even though it’s now supposed to be the Blue Mountain Inn. We were waiting to turn when a car slowed down and then finally signalled in front of us. I tried to get in in front of the guy who got out, but didn’t manage it. He was an older guy and my goodness, he was painful! He asked all about the TV options (the sign outside that said “cable TV” gave that one away to me! ) and then decided to get a room.
He ended up with the room next to ours, but I studied the map a bit closer and we parked right by it. I was amazed when I opened the door to ours and saw this:
My goodness, this is the life for only $92 for the night. I think that’s excellent value for money!
We settled down in the room for a while and then decided that it was time to go and get some food. I did some research online, as I was going to go for the Old Tymer restaurant next door, but when I saw the menu and the prices (entrees were $20, which I thought was crazy ), I decided to see if I could find somewhere else.
I did and we headed for the car only to see the most amazing lightning streak across the sky just as we walked outside. A couple looked at us and said “you’re going to go out in this rain?” Well, they had a point, as it had just started to come down, so we retreated back inside.
Mark went to reception to check out the vending machine options, in case we were stuck here all night in the storm and we got some cookies. I joined him for a while and watched the storm outside raging. I have never seen lightning like it before in my life – it lit up literally as far as the eye could see whenever it came. I have to say that we really don’t get storms in the UK. In fact, when it comes to weather, we don’t get much of anything – earthquakes, tornadoes, really cold weather, lots of snow etc. Nothing like that. : So, to me, this was scary. I’ve never liked storms that much, so we retreated back to the room again and had our cookies, while Mark tried to reassure me. However, repeating what some girls said in the lobby about the power regularly going out here did not work. :
I decided that perhaps some of the last of the White Zinfandel we had with us would help to calm me down, as I occasionally went to the window to look at what was going on. the lightning and thunder were still going on.
We headed out around 8:00pm, but as we got to the exit door, there was another huge flash of lightning that lit up the whole sky again. Mark said we’d still go and we set off, then he saw someone pull up to check in and reversed back into our space, as he didn’t want to lose it, as it was perfect. I then said at that point we’d just eat in the room, so we grabbed all the food we had in the car and headed back to the room.
I knew we’d done the right thing, as just getting the food out of the car left me really wet. A few minutes later, there was the most almighty clap of thunder and it felt as if the room vibrated. That was it – to me, right decision made. OK, so maybe chocolate chip cookies and honey roasted cashew nuts really isn’t a healthy dinner, but I so did not want to go out in that. :
After we’d finished eating and watching Survivor we set about re-packing the smallest of our cases, so that it had as many of our souvenirs in it as possible. I was amazed at how much we were able to put it in and it still came in just under weight. Good start!
The storm subsided, but the rain was still coming down as we went to bed. It had certainly been an eventful night, but in the end, it had proved to be productive. Hopefully everything would fit into four cases...
The weather today was mainly dry with temperatures in the 80s, although with storms later on in the evening. The best thing today was visiting Monument Valley. The worst thing today was the storm in the evening. Today we tried going to Monument Valley And the result was it’s a wonderful place and definitely worth a visit, although you have to be a very confident drive to navigate it yourself and not take a guided tour. The most magical moment today was seeing the view from Artist Point.
That was some storm! I don't think I'd want to be out in that bad of a lightning storm. I'm amazed you didn't lose power or at least the cable TV. Mine always goes out in storms. Hope you got a good breakfast after having no real dinner!
Whew, that storm would have had me freak out too! Like you, I'm not used to any kind of severe weather I guess staying in the room was the wise decision - even if it meant cookies and cashew nuts for dinner
By the way, I can't believe how long your trip report has been going on! You've posted a new installment almost every day since - when? October??? You are incredible, Chez!
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Whew, that storm would have had me freak out too! Like you, I'm not used to any kind of severe weather I guess staying in the room was the wise decision - even if it meant cookies and cashew nuts for dinner
By the way, I can't believe how long your trip report has been going on! You've posted a new installment almost every day since - when? October??? You are incredible, Chez!
We do get crazy storms out here. Usually they don't last very long, so I'm surprised your storm that night seemed to last forever!!
By the way, I think Blanding is the worst name for a town! It just sounds so *blah*. Not very exciting. But I'm glad to see it is a very cute little town.
We do get crazy storms out here. Usually they don't last very long, so I'm surprised your storm that night seemed to last forever!!
By the way, I think Blanding is the worst name for a town! It just sounds so *blah*. Not very exciting. But I'm glad to see it is a very cute little town.
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If you don't mind me asking, are you using Photoshop to edit those pictures? It turned out beautifully. It's amazing what you can do to a photograph with the right program.
Tricia
- as my camera battery needed changing. 
was missing, it wasn’t a bad place to stay the night. 
: So, to me, this was scary. I’ve never liked storms that much, so we retreated back to the room again and had our cookies, while Mark tried to reassure me. However, repeating what some girls said in the lobby about the power regularly going out here did not work. 
I guess staying in the room was the wise decision - even if it meant cookies and cashew nuts for dinner 
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