Roberta

Let's get this trip report back on track.
We are now up to Thursday morning, November 21- Thanksgiving morning at the Fort!
The weather this year was perfect.  It dipped into the low 60's overnight. I just had the heat strip in the camper set at the lowest setting, and the temperature in the camper was perfect for sleeping.
Of course, I was up just before dawn so I could make it to rope drop at the Comfort Station.  I was the first one there, and got my shower in peace and quiet before the rest of the campers showed up .  Actually, one of the perks about a premium loop is that the comfort stations are so much less busy than they are on the partial loops.  I think we might have been the only campers on our loop who didn't have a full bath. 
I was out and about by 7 am. 
And here I was at 7:10 am, watching the sun rise over the canal (and fence) behind the 300 loop:

I still don't think any bats have moved in to the BABH.  Maybe all of that chain link fencing is off-putting to them:

If you like rope fences, there is plenty of that here now:

Personally, I hate all the fencing, but my favorite spot is still my favorite spot:

This was probably one of the most beautiful Thanksgiving mornings I've been blessed to experience at the Fort:

This is one of those places where a photo can never do justice, but the view from this spot is what makes Disney World better than any of the other Disney resort around the globe:

From here, I headed down to the Settlement.  It was quiet this morning.  No one was heading to the MK for a marathon session:

I love to be in this area when there are no guests around. Guests wreck the Fort.  I like having it all to myself:

All the rocking chairs were available on the porch:

There's my buddy the beach raker.  That beach gets raked every day whether it needs it or not- even Thanksgiving:

Dang, I don't like the look of all the black chain link fencing around the playground.  Why?:

With the burned out light situation, the Settlement Christmas tree looks better in the daylight than it does at night:

Whoever designed this tree did a great job- I love the bows, stars, and especially the horse shoes.  Good job:

I also love the Pioneer Hall decorations:

I was having a great morning.
But, then the battery light lit up on my golf cart:

It was late and dark when I plugged the cart in the night before.  I didn't bother looking at the gauge on the charger, and didn't think of it when I had unplugged that morning.  But, I checked it then.  And the charger didn't appear to be working.  I checked it on a couple of different outlets, and nothing happened.  No movement on the needle of the gauge, no buzzing noise.  The charger was broken, and hadn't done a thing the night before.  And I am finding this out at 7:33 am on Thanksgiving morning.  Not good.
I thought about searching the Fort to find someone I could borrow a charger from.  I knew I could find someone.  But that would be plan B.  Plan A was sending a text to Kelly, Kenny's assistant. She had texted me several times the day before to move back my pick-up time.  I knew it was Thanksgiving, but I figured that Kenny would have someone on call to help with issues.  I figured I would send one text, and leave it at that.  So I did.  I heard back right away from Kelly letting me know that she was off duty today, but had forwarded my text to Kenny.  Within the hour, I had a new charger.  Kenny is not allowed to enter Disney property for anything golf cart related, so it took some effort on his part, and I had to meet him just off property, but he came through.  On Thanksgiving morning.  I mention this because I remember a while ago, some new member here put the bad mouth on Kenny.  I thought that was bull, and now I know it is.  That man personally left his house on Thanksgiving morning to make sure that an occasional customer was taken care of.  A+ 10/10 to Kenny!
I didn't need to start cooking until about 10 am, so I enjoyed the nice, quiet morning.  I was really glad to be on this quiet loop with quiet neighbors.  I just sat there sipping my coffee and watching birds:

This is the view of our site from the picnic table.  You can see my turkey cooker there on the left:

After a while, I decided to take a loop around the 2000 loop to document something we had noticed the night before.
I took the long way through the 1100 loop.  Note that this guy had his Christmas decorations on all night.  I did not get a printed list of decoration rules when I checked in yesterday, and I wonder if the new manager has rescinded them:

Now we are on the 2000 loop.  It doesn't look too bad here at the entrance:

The Disney website says that only tents, pop-up campers and van campers can be accommodated on the partial hook-up loops, yet this hybrid camper was in one of the first sites on the loop:

But that isn't what I came here to take a picture of.
I was here to count the U-Haul trailers.
There were a bunch here on this loop the last time we were here for Thanksgiving, and they were back.
Here's #1:

#2:

#3:

#4:

and #5 (with three cars parked on the site too!) :

I think I've made my point.  There were a few more U-Haul trailers around the loop, but some of those sites had people on them wondering what I was taking photos of.  So I stopped with the U-Haul documenting.  The point is that the U-Haulers were back.  I still don't get it. Why do you need a U-Haul to camp?
Here's a regular travel trailer that was parked on a 2000 loop site:

The sun was still making its slow ascent as I left the 2000 loop:

There were some dog walkers way out here.  I wonder if they came from the 2000 loop, or where they came from if they didn't?:

I never miss a chance to look at the tee-pees, so I stopped by there:


Time to head back:


There's a fellow pop-up camper on the 2100 loop:

There was a big and rowdy group there on the 2100 loop.  I'll have some photos of them later.
I headed back to camp, as it was time to get started on the Thanksgiving preparations.
TCD
 

And they are being generous with their weekend definition.  They include Friday and Monday.
Go a Lucite framed painting, about 2X4 size, like a big refrigerator magnet.
 

Do the Figment search, it's like the Easter Egg and Ratatouille but you have to go into the Pavilions/shops to find painting with Figment in them.  Takes longer then just walking thru the countries.
 

Late in 2016, Disney announced that there would be a new festival celebrated at Epcot.
Initially, all we knew was that they were calling in the Epcot International Festival of the Arts, and that it would run for six weeks, on weekends only, from mid-January through late February.
Details eventually were provided, but, honestly, I didn't pay much attention to them.  This sounded like a lame cash-grab to me, and I wasn't all that interested.
Epcot is in a pretty sad state with several large empty buildings, some badly dated rides, and almost nothing left in either of the Innovention venues.  Plus, in my most humble opinion, they wrecked both Test Track and Soarin' with the "upgrades" they did on both.  It's next to impossible to ride the new Frozen ride unless you want to wait in a really long line, or you're able to book FP+'s 60 days out.  So, we haven't been to Epcot all that much lately. 
But, some aspects of this Art Festival were intriguing to me, and I wanted to see it with my own eyes.  Also, Disney offered reserved seating to the Disney on Broadway performances for passholders, and I was able to get a reservation for the 5:30 performance on Saturday, January 21.  The TCD twins were available for an afternoon visit that day, so we went.
We only planned to spend the afternoon and evening at Epcot.  No park hopping or resort visits on this trip.  So we parked in the Epcot parking lot, which we don't do very often.  They have a lot of the parking lot blocked off for the big tents and bleachers that they keep up for the Disney and Princess marathons, so we ended up being directed to park way in the back of the Explore lot- like almost in the last row.  It ended up not being a big deal, as they had a tram right there for us, and we were able to board and head to the entrance right away.
When we arrived at the tram drop off, they dropped us off in a new area, and we saw that they had added some new bag check tents and scanners.  Here, they had every single guest go through a metal detector, which is the first time I've seen that done at Epcot.  Based on how things were set up, it looks like that's how things will be done from now on.  The lines were a bit long here, but it wasn't too bad.
We were able to use the Passholder line to enter the park.  Since Twin #2 doesn't currently have a pass, she had to go in one of the regular lines.  She greeted Twin #1 and I as we made our way in to the park- the regular line was faster.  LOL.
We picked up one of the Festival passports, and headed on it.
Our first stop was to check on the animation class that they're holding in the old Vision House area of Innoventions.  That was also where they were distributing the stickers for the reserved seating for the Disney on Broadway performances, and I was able to pick up our stickers for that (only one person had to check in, so I got three stickers-one was supposed to be for my older DD, who is a passholder, but since she wasn't with us, Twin #2 was able to use it).  As far as I have been able to tell, there is no published schedule for the animation classes.  We stopped by there to find a long line, and learned that the next class was full. The class after that would be in about an hour from now.  The CM told us that the classes were scheduled for every 45 minutes, and he told us that if we arrived at about 20 minutes before the next class, we would probably be fine.
In case you're interested, here's what the admission stickers look like for the Broadway show:

So, we had about an hour to kill.  Twin #1 wanted to try one of the fancy pop tarts they're selling, and both twins wanted to paint on the giant paint by numbers mural, so we headed off to find those.
We stopped for the photo op on the way in to the World Showcase:

The Festival passport wasn't very useful in locating where the various activities and food items were located.  We didn't pick up an Epcot map, so maybe that information is on the map, but it's not in the passport.
We found the paint-by-numbers mural over by the walkway that goes toward the Imagination pavilion.
It's a simple set up- they have a giant paint by numbers mural set up, and supposedly it's going to look like the mural depicted in this banner when it's done:

They did a good job making this simple and efficient.  You stand in a line, which moves quickly, and a CM gives you a small container of paint and a brush.  The paint container has a number on it, and you're turned loose to go paint four squares of that color:

This was the second weekend of the Festival, and quite a bit of progress has been made already:


I got yellow, and painted the squares next to the brown squares here:

The twins got different colors, and painted other squares.
It only took a few minutes to participate, and it was strangely fun.
Here's a look back at the mural-you can see that guests are having fun with it- I'll bet it's going to be done by next weekend:

I hope that they put the finished mural on display somewhere.  I am interested in seeing what it looks like in the end.  Somehow, I doubt it will look as good as the banner, but I think it will look OK.
The have two bins at the end to drop off your paint container and brush, and you get a free postcard showing a part of the mural artwork:

There was another mural being painted across the lake- Twin #1 said this was being painted by a professional artist.  We meant to check on that later, but we ended up running out of time:

I snapped a photo of the grass along the lake, because I know in a few weeks this will all be huge flower beds for the Flower and Garden Festival:

The entry area to World Showcase is noticeably under-decorated.  There will no doubt be some giant topiaries in here for the Flower and Garden Festival:

They were selling the pop tarts in the booth next to the World Showcase entrance, so we got a couple. These go for four bucks, which is about three bucks too high.   I thought they were real pop tarts, but they're actually a sugar cookie made to look like pop tarts.  They were good, but very, very sweet:

We headed back to the animation class, and got there about 15 minutes before the next class was set to start.  That ended up being too late, and it meant that we had to wait another hour until the next class.  I suggested to the girls that we skip it, but they wanted to do it.  So, the new plan was to check out MouseGear for a bit, then come and wait for the next class.  And, that's what we did.
We came back about 45 minutes before the next class was set to start.  There were already 10-15 people in line, and I would guess that the class was full and the line cut by about 30 minutes before the class was going to start.  I am not sure if every day will be that busy, but it was on Saturday.
Here we go:

We were big fans of the animation class when it was offered at Hollywood Studios.  Upon entering this room, it was obvious that this event was a less fancy version of that class.  In Hollywood Studios, they provided an 11 x 17 piece of paper and a fancy sketching pencil with no eraser.  Here, we got and 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper, and a number 2 pencil with the eraser pulled off:

There were probably only 5 or 6 Castmember instructors who worked at the animation class in DHS, and we eventually got to know all of them.  We were hoping to see a familiar face here, but the instructor was not anyone we had seen before.  She was nice and friendly, though:

Tabula rasa:

The instructor wasn't like the instructors at the DHS animation class.  There were no helpful hints- we just dove right into drawing, and she went fast.  By the second or third step, I could see the train wreck coming:

The instructor zipped through her drawing- telling us what to do along the way- again without any helpful hints:

You can see the instructor's drawing up there on the screen- she drew a pretty good Daisy Duck:

But I ended up with this:

The twins didn't do as bad as I me.  Twin #1's is on the left, and Twin #2's is on the right in this photo:

We all agreed that Twin #2 won this round.
The class was fun, and we probably try to do it again if we get the chance.  But, it's not as good as it was when it was offered at DHS.
Next on our agenda was a visit to the old Odyssey restaurant.  They are using it as the Festival headquarters, and there are some art exhibits in there that we wanted to see.
The first gallery of art we looked at in the Odyssey was about six or so paintings by Herbert Ryman.  You've probably seen his artwork around before- he's famous for creating a lot of the concept art for Epcot.  I'm pretty sure the mural that we had painted was based on one of his paintings.  The set-up for the gallery creates congestion,  and I wasn't able to get any good photos of the Ryman paintings.  But, there was more artwork on display inside the Odyssey, and this is art that you can buy. 
I don't know why, but I like to look at some of the expensive paintings that they have on display at these Festivals.  For example, here's one:

Interesting, right?
But, I always wonder who would buy something like this, and where they would put it.  Especially when you look at the price tag:

They have a poster that they're selling for the Festival.  I kind of like it.  But, it's $50 unframed:

With Twin #2's 40% merchandise discount, it would only cost us $30 for one of those.  I thought about it, but I don't know where I'd display that if I had it.  So, we passed.  But, I still like it.
Let's look at a bit more art.  This is nice, right?:

And, it's only $2900:

I'm guessing that the Donald Duck in the British phone booth painting there on the end was painted by the same artist who painted the Goofy painting:

Sorry, my photo of the price tag for the Donald painting is blurry, but I think it's also $6300:

When we entered the Odyssey, there was a line of guests outside who were waiting for something.  They were all let in to be seated as we poked around inside:
 
I am not sure how it works for these classes- whether you need to sign up ahead of time, or what.  I know at the Food and Wine and Flower and Garden Festival, there are a lot of classes that require payment and registration, but I'm not sure if this one did.  But, here's a free tip- you can see and hear everything from the back of the room if you want.
A little while after those guests were seated, a lady came out and welcomed them, and asked if they were ready to learn how to make chocolate fondue.  Cool, we all said to ourselves, we like chocolate fondue.  But, the lady was only making a joke, as she quickly corrected herself and said that she was there to teach everyone about aromatherapy.  That was nowhere near as interesting to us as chocolate fondue.
On the other side of the room from the Herbert Ryman display, they had a display of some of Mary Blair's artwork.  This was interesting to us all, as we've heard of her.  We know that she created the look of the Small World attraction, and that she designed the giant mural in the Grand Canyon Concourse of the Contemporary Resort.  But, none of us know much about who she was or how it was she came to work for Disney.
This sign at the beginning of the display tells a bit about her:


I found this all very interesting.  Especially about how much Walt Disney liked her art.
It was the same deal in her gallery- very crowded.
And there was other art for sale on display near the Mary Blair gallery.
I liked this watercolor:

But, I did not like the price:

Twin #1 practically went nuts over this painting, as she does for any Jungle Cruise related item:

I'd love to buy that painting for her, but the price is too rich for my blood:

I thought that this wooden mosaic was cool:

I failed in getting a photo of its price tag:

Next on the agenda was to try one of the food items they were selling here at the Odyssey.  We didn't know this is where they were selling it, but there was one item that we had all agreed ahead of time that we were interesting in trying, and it was for sale here.  I have another batch of photos to share, so I'll share those in a new post, and start with the food item we got here.
TCD

Our last family trip was in 1504.  It is a perfect site!

Haha!  I knew it!

As a matter of fact ....... 

First week of May. 

Bring your drill and a hole dozer.
See? I'm a problem solver.
Sent from my handheld doohickie

So happy everything went so well. 
Have you begun planning your next trip back?  

Thanks for the vote of confidence.
As Travisma said, because the 2000 loop has two comfort stations, there are more sites on that loop that will meet the requested criteria than on the 1500 loop.
The sites closest to and in view of the 1500 loop comfort station are: 1501, 1502, 1503, 1504, 1505 and 1506.  Site 1501 backs up to the bus stop and is the first site on the loop -not very private.  Site 1503 is right next to the comfort station and the walkway to it- lots of foot traffic around that site.  1502 is across the loop road from the walkway to the comfort station, and is next to a mulched path that campers at the end of the loop use to access the comfort station.  There is also a tetherball court next to this site, where kids congregate.  So, there may be privacy issues with 1502.  That leaves only 1504, 1505 and 1506 which meet your criteria.
There are a lot of sites on 2000 that might work, especially around the comfort station that sits in the middle of the loop- sites 2025, 2027, 2030, 2033 and 2035 back up to the comfort station, and are in view of it.  Sites 2022, 2023, 2024, 2026, 2028 and 2029 are near the path to the comfort station, but because of trees and other campers, you can't necessarily see the comfort station from these sites.  This stretch of the 2000 loop is kind of quiet and private.  There are a bunch of sites close to the other comfort station, but since the bus stop is right behind that one, there is more foot traffic around there.
I agree with the suggestion that you tell Disney that you have a guest with special needs, and ask them to accommodate your request.  I'll bet they will do their best.
TCD

Glad the trip went well. Especially glad to hear how your son did.
Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

Glad you had a great trip!

Awesome! Glad it went well!

Glad to hear your trip was "Magical"..

Just wanted to update. Joan got a name change to Addie a few days after being here. It's short for Adilee, a German name that means "powerful." Our son really loved the meaning of it as he feels like he has lost most power over his life. Addie will be giving some of that back to him. We tried it out to see if she would respond to it, as we didn't want to traumatize her. She seemed to know immediately that it was her. So she is now "Addie."

She has been in training since a week after we got her. She is so smart and amazing. She picked up all her commands within a few minutes and has perfected all of them. She walks on a lead so beautifully now. She stays a few inches from our side with her front legs just behind ours. She sits when we stop, automatically. As much fun as this is to see, I do resist stopped 10 times in 20' just to watch our sweet, smart girl and marvel in her goodness.
We love her so very much, that I cannot imagine life without her. She has been a huge blessing. Not long after we got Addie, our oldest, a Newfoundland/Shepherd mix, had a stroke and had to be euthanized. She was almost 15 years old. It was a very hard time for all of us. She had been born in our home, to a mother to young to have her. We had the pregnant mama from a neighbor who kept her on a chain outside. We didn't even know she was pregnant, she was only about 10 months old and fairly thin.

We had an appointment to get her fixed and get her shots. So, imagine our shock, when she ran across the living room just a few days prior the appointment and a puppy fell out of her! That puppy was followed by 10 more. The mama didn't want anything to do with the pups. Poor thing was just a baby herself. We tried  holding her down to let the babies nurse, but wasn't working. I went to Tractor Supply and got puppy milk and bottles and began bottle feeding them. Eight of the pups went to heaven in short order. I took the remaining to the vet and found out they were terribly premature. Only two survived the next week, girls - Faith and Hope.

We found a good home for one puppy, and they chose Hope. We kept Faith, who we always called Faithie. She grew to be a strong, 140 lb alpha dog of our family for many, many years. Her and I had a special bond, as I was the one that bottle nursed her 24/7 in the beginning of her life. She slept with me until she was too old to get on the bed. For her last years, she was on pain medicine and had difficulty with steps. On her worst days, my husband or son would carry her up and down to do her business. I knew she was way past her life expectancy, but honestly couldn't part with her as long as we could keep her from being in pain most of the time.

So, anyway, this post was supposed to be about Addie ... When Faithie had a stroke and had to go to heaven, Addie filled that spot in my broken heart. I didn't realize "I" needed her, but I certainly did. Faithie can never be replaced, as no person or dog can, but Addie has brought me so much love and happiness that the grieving process was lessened. Addie and her training fill us all with the beauty of fresh, new life. She is yet a baby, although a big one. Although she will eventually be a service dog for our son, she is so incredibly loved by every member of our family. I would take a bullet for her, or our other dogs, and I know they would for me as well.

Something that I never told Andy, as I didn't want to make the separation worse on him or his mom - for the first few days Addie was here, while she was still Joan, she would ask me to get her travel bag down for her to sniff and then lay her head on it. I always kept it up, but in her sight as I know she really wanted it her first night. When she would go to it, and want it down, I would sit with her, rub her, and tell her how loved she was. I would assure her that she was loved and that's why she was here. Just like an adopted child. After three days, she kept asking to have her travel bag. That's when we took the chance on changing her name. I left the travel bag out for another two weeks, but she never asked for it again, so I finally put it up.

We are packing up to leave for the Fort for 5 nights on Sunday. I did cut it down by one day, as we were originally scheduled for six nights. Our younger son (23) will be staying home with the dogs and will not be working for the week. He will be here full time with the dogs. Even so, I am stressed about going away for that long without the dogs. I came very close to canceling our trip. Depending on things go with us humans, we may end up cutting it short. We were away from Blaze, our other dog, for the first time in December and everything went fine. I was just as stressed leaving him for the first time. I'll be talking to Levi several times a day to check on them both. 

We are frequent campers, but our dogs go where we go. Can't do this in Disney. Once Addie goes through her service dog training, which she will easily ace, she will be able to go on cruises with us as well. That is about the only other vacation we take. 

Well, I know I've been babbling. Just wanted to update everyone how this story is going. I believe with all of my heart that Addie was meant to be with our family since birth, just none of us knew that. She will giving our son back his power and she filled what would have been an empty spot in all of our lives. 

Just wanted to update. Joan got a name change to Addie a few days after being here. It's short for Adilee, a German name that means "powerful." Our son really loved the meaning of it as he feels like he has lost most power over his life. Addie will be giving some of that back to him. We tried it out to see if she would respond to it, as we didn't want to traumatize her. She seemed to know immediately that it was her. So she is now "Addie."

She has been in training since a week after we got her. She is so smart and amazing. She picked up all her commands within a few minutes and has perfected all of them. She walks on a lead so beautifully now. She stays a few inches from our side with her front legs just behind ours. She sits when we stop, automatically. As much fun as this is to see, I do resist stopped 10 times in 20' just to watch our sweet, smart girl and marvel in her goodness.
We love her so very much, that I cannot imagine life without her. She has been a huge blessing. Not long after we got Addie, our oldest, a Newfoundland/Shepherd mix, had a stroke and had to be euthanized. She was almost 15 years old. It was a very hard time for all of us. She had been born in our home, to a mother to young to have her. We had the pregnant mama from a neighbor who kept her on a chain outside. We didn't even know she was pregnant, she was only about 10 months old and fairly thin.

We had an appointment to get her fixed and get her shots. So, imagine our shock, when she ran across the living room just a few days prior the appointment and a puppy fell out of her! That puppy was followed by 10 more. The mama didn't want anything to do with the pups. Poor thing was just a baby herself. We tried  holding her down to let the babies nurse, but wasn't working. I went to Tractor Supply and got puppy milk and bottles and began bottle feeding them. Eight of the pups went to heaven in short order. I took the remaining to the vet and found out they were terribly premature. Only two survived the next week, girls - Faith and Hope.

We found a good home for one puppy, and they chose Hope. We kept Faith, who we always called Faithie. She grew to be a strong, 140 lb alpha dog of our family for many, many years. Her and I had a special bond, as I was the one that bottle nursed her 24/7 in the beginning of her life. She slept with me until she was too old to get on the bed. For her last years, she was on pain medicine and had difficulty with steps. On her worst days, my husband or son would carry her up and down to do her business. I knew she was way past her life expectancy, but honestly couldn't part with her as long as we could keep her from being in pain most of the time.

So, anyway, this post was supposed to be about Addie ... When Faithie had a stroke and had to go to heaven, Addie filled that spot in my broken heart. I didn't realize "I" needed her, but I certainly did. Faithie can never be replaced, as no person or dog can, but Addie has brought me so much love and happiness that the grieving process was lessened. Addie and her training fill us all with the beauty of fresh, new life. She is yet a baby, although a big one. Although she will eventually be a service dog for our son, she is so incredibly loved by every member of our family. I would take a bullet for her, or our other dogs, and I know they would for me as well.

Something that I never told Andy, as I didn't want to make the separation worse on him or his mom - for the first few days Addie was here, while she was still Joan, she would ask me to get her travel bag down for her to sniff and then lay her head on it. I always kept it up, but in her sight as I know she really wanted it her first night. When she would go to it, and want it down, I would sit with her, rub her, and tell her how loved she was. I would assure her that she was loved and that's why she was here. Just like an adopted child. After three days, she kept asking to have her travel bag. That's when we took the chance on changing her name. I left the travel bag out for another two weeks, but she never asked for it again, so I finally put it up.

We are packing up to leave for the Fort for 5 nights on Sunday. I did cut it down by one day, as we were originally scheduled for six nights. Our younger son (23) will be staying home with the dogs and will not be working for the week. He will be here full time with the dogs. Even so, I am stressed about going away for that long without the dogs. I came very close to canceling our trip. Depending on things go with us humans, we may end up cutting it short. We were away from Blaze, our other dog, for the first time in December and everything went fine. I was just as stressed leaving him for the first time. I'll be talking to Levi several times a day to check on them both. 

We are frequent campers, but our dogs go where we go. Can't do this in Disney. Once Addie goes through her service dog training, which she will easily ace, she will be able to go on cruises with us as well. That is about the only other vacation we take. 

Well, I know I've been babbling. Just wanted to update everyone how this story is going. I believe with all of my heart that Addie was meant to be with our family since birth, just none of us knew that. She will giving our son back his power and she filled what would have been an empty spot in all of our lives. 

That's called chicken stew.... No where in my book would that be called a pot pie!

Yep, I found out last night. DH is now neutral. Really wish Steelers were in it, then won, and came to Disney World. My DH would be the happiest man alive to see the MVP there. We have a cable hook up in our Pop-up, and plenty of space for a 32" tv, so if it rains, will just watch it inside. 

We have a new Dairy Queen next to Inn & Out now. It's an okay place to stay overnight, but that little area of town has declined over the past year. Police are working hard to get it nicer again. What happened, is a business closed, and vagrants took over the empty building, just a block from there. Also, some anonymous town paid for bus tickets and food vouchers to send several bus loads of vagrants to our town last winter! Many set up a tent city in the woods on the opposite side of 90 and, needless to say, there was a big increase in drug traffic and crime in the immediate area.

They finally ran out the tent city. One of the larger local churches put a program in place to help those who are genuinely homeless, and want to get back on their feet. The ones who just wanted to stay street people have been run off, for the most part. There are still a few hanging around. The Inn & Out was actually robbed not too long ago, but they caught both guys the next day. 

The Steak & Shake, right next to the Cracker Barrel, has been the scene of TWO shootings in the past year. One was domestic, involving a Steak & Shake employee, and the other drug related, also involving a Steak & Shake employee. The Steak & Shake is just a very sketchy place all together. Steer clear of it. I went there once, before I knew better, ten years ago. They tried to convince me that our strawberry shakes were the orange cream that we ordered, despite being pink and having actual strawberry seeds in them .....

We do have a probably a dozen or more new places to eat in that stretch of 90 now. A HUGE amount of development has taken place and I hope to see Steak & Shake shut down for good. That place is the only source of any problems on this entire end of town. 
Okay, well no problem. We will be bringing the tv anyway. We are trying for 1500 loop, unless there is a large group camping there. Have to send in my loop/site requests soon. 

Since your team is in, we will be rooting for you! Hopefully you get to run into the MVP while you are there, or some of the other players. 

Crocketts Tavern has a wonderful beer selection. Enjoy the game!

I also start people at Lowe's or Home Depot.   They are dog friendly ( in most places), have a decent amount of space in the aisles,  lot's of different, distracting scents and sounds to work with,  and friendly people to greet but fewer chances of running into an unruly dog, such as you would find at a pet store.   Also, as you say,  no treats at snout level.    A good place to practice! 
My second favorite place to practice is around dog parks,  where the trainee can see other dogs, but has to learn that they cannot interact with the other dogs until given permission.  Helps a lot with dogs that have leash aggression or other dog related issues. 
I agree with your trainers methods,  I've trained long enough to have started with the old choke chain methods, moved to the playtraining methods and then to the positive reinforcement only.   Of all the methods I've trained in,  the positive reinforcement methods have been the most successful.

I too agree with the others who have posted, this story is so awesome.  Kind of gives a new meaning to a "live trip report"!

I love happy endings! 
Joan is so beautiful and only 8-9 months old.  What a dog she will be!  
  I'm glad your trainer is working out well for you.
 
Some people will call this a co-incidence but I think it is a God-incidence.

Joan and the rest of our family send lots of love to yours. None of this would have possible with you two. 

This evening, one of our cats came in. We used the "leave it" command. It took her hearing it three times before she would quit looking at the cat (which is a requirement) so I know it wasn't one that was easy for her. Even so, after the command was given the third time, she turned around and went about her business. Then she got a bacon treat.  

The cats were not around while trainer was here so I anticipated much more trouble with then showed up. Joan chases them and barks at them. This evening we were able to get her to look away and mind her puppy dog business twice, when dealing with the cats. 

I'm as proud of this beautiful girl as if i had given birth to her myself. I'm bragging about her all over the internet. She'll be famous before it's all said and done. 

Thank you, Andy & Carol, for giving us this opportunity add this new member to our family. We are all on cloud 9. 

Sending much love, 
The Wade family. 

Andrew Roberts, 

We have discussed it as a family and we will give your girl a good home. We have no problem with having a dog with separation anxiety. The dog we rescued from a ditch had severe separation anxiety, although he is getting better. Three members of our family are almost always home. We thought he had been hit by a car, but he actually had tick paralysis and is healthy now, just a tad emotional. This is what put us behind in getting a service dog. He needed lots of time an attention, but he is now a strong secure dog. Can't be alone though, which is not a problem with our family. 

Because we live on a rural property, with our daughter & family in another home here, we have a good set up for dogs with separation anxiety. And, for the past six months, plenty of experience with one. 

The organization that will train is called Guardian Angels. http://www.medicalservicedogs.org/  Our son has already been approved and the best age to start training is 1 year old. This may be meant to be. What is her name? She will make a great service dog because she will be by his side 24/7. We considered training Blaze (found dog) but he is a few years old, not the optimal age to start. 

I can give you excellent vet references, and you are welcome to come meet us and see our home and property, and meet our other dogs if you like. We live in Lake City that is right off Interstate 75, if you go home that direction. We do live a good 20 minutes or so outside out town, but let me know what you want to do. If not, we can meet you somewhere to pick her up. I will also be glad to stay in touch with you with photos and updates. 

Roberta

Oh, yes! We started giving her ice on the first night she was here. Our oldest dog loves ices as well, so that one didn't come as a surprise. We bought a bag of baby carrots, and she LOVES them. Our other dogs, of course, want nothing to do with them. We used some of them in our training session today for her big rewards. Used tiny bacon training treats for repetitions. 

We covered so much territory in our session today. Our trainer is amazing and said Joan is amazingly smart so caught on extremely quickly. To be honest, Joan is easier to train than we are. We have a lot of practice to alpha dogs. She recognized the trainer as alpha immediately because she has the whole body language thing going on. We are still students, but will be working with her every day to to get the same results. 

Joan will take commands from us, because she is smart, but we will be working hard on learning "dog language" which involves much body language. She is being trained with something called Natural Dog Training, which simulates the natural behavior of a pack in communicating with each other.

Here are a couple of photos taken during her training today. The first one shows tempting items on the floor that Joan was told not to touch. There were also food and treats on the floor. Joan excelled at training, which is why she has so many things on the floor. The trainer said usually one or two items is all most dogs can handle right away. Joan was just so well behaved that she kept adding distractions and items and Joan was amazing. By the way, Joan was not even allowed to LOOK at the items she was told to leave alone, and as you can see, she's not. Incredible! 

The second photo is of Joan staying on her side of a boundary while our entire family, and the trainer, walked away on the other side. By the end of her first session, no matter how far away we went, Joan remained sitting pretty on her side.