YENSIDCAMPER

6:30 pm just home from work, the packing begins for real. I hope by bedtime that everything that can be in the van is in the van. Check back and see the pictures.

@Norm, I will have to check out Canvas Campers for sure, thanks for the tip.

Last night and this morning were crazy, but not as crazy as tonight will be. I got an SD card reader to use to download pictures and made sure my Android phone will work well as a hotspot. It was working great last night. Even chatted with DaveINTn, TnBob, Kimski, and Pirate Jeff using it. It stopped working in the middle of my Thanksgiving tirp last year.

I got some bins packed with clothes and I hope late tonight to show you all the packing that has been done. IF things go well we will be on the road by 3:00 central time tomorrow. We will stay just south of Macon and drive in on Saturday morning.

Here is yet another Disney mug to start my day and yours.

Norm,

They have been great and fit right behind the seats in the Odyssey van as well as on the counters beside the bed in the PUP. The big ones are 20" wide by 17" deep by 10.5" tall. The smaller ones are 15.5 wide by 17 deep and 9 tall. The smaller ones were great when the boys were little but we need to bump them up to the larger ones now that they are older. This bins are sold individually not on the roll around stacks of three.

The roof is in great shape so far, except I have now seen my first hair line cracks appearing after winter. I am going to MEK/ABS goo them and then coat the whole top in grizzly grip. Hopefully I can get another 10 years out of her. She is a 2002 model. Have you ever checked out the PUX website?

YC

This is so fun! I would start a PTR, but I still have 6 months to go so I will wait. But in the meantime I will enjoy the heck out of yours!!

And bring on the Seinfeld lines!! DH and I always say everything that happens in our life can be summed up with either a line from Seinfeld or Family Guy. :rofl2:

We love Seinfeld. Six months will pass fast the last week will take forever. The PTR is really helping my time to go faster. The next two days will be jammed packed and hopefully worth reading. Thanks for checking in.

Hi YC:

I'm in on the pre-trip report - love the coffee cups - a bit of Disney is a great way to start everyday, especially when your reading pre-trip reports from the coziness of your MH after a big breakfast at Trails End, and a bike ride to Meadows for a Happy Camper mug - currently filled with concoctions other than coffee! :-)

:10220:

Looking forward to your arrival!

Thanks for the reply, I am jealous of your concoction and your location. I hope you are around when we get down there.

Last night, I got all the camera batteries charged, SD cards cleared, and cameras packed and ready to go. We picked up a reservation at Kona Café and Biergarten. We have mapped out which parks we are going which days. Added to our list of things to do and not forget. Most importantly I put the annual passes in my wallet.

The little league team ran into a buzz saw last night. This kid was throwing gas, we lost 3-1. That makes my team .500 going into spring break. The fever is building really high can’t wait to leave.

Here was my morning mug. Not one of my favorites…but it is still a WDW product.

Love the mugs. We've got a growing collection as well. It's like starting your day with a little bit of WDW.

I love that pre-trip excitement, the packing, etc.

DVCcamper, thanks for the response. The pre-trip excitement is overtaking me, however the pre-trip stress of packing and keeping up a daily schedule is overtaking me as well. Oh well, got to keep moving forward.

I love those drawer bins. I never did get it figured out how to pack clothes. Always in bags, then bags are everywhere. This is brilliant. See, your pre TR is already paying off. Looking forward to more! When will you be there? We will be there most likely easter weekend...hopefully!

Family of Bears, Thanks for the feedback. We got our bins at Target and they easily stack beside both beds on the counters in our Coleman Bayside. We could stack more but don't need them. We will be there until Easter morning. I hope you guys make it and we get to say hello.

YC

We are going to be there on Saturday. How long are you staying?

This mug is for all you dog lovers out there. Baseball this evening so I am hoping to accomplish getting all the cameras charged, packed, and ready to go.

Have a great day!

I am reading up on TR's, thanks for sharing. Your grandchildren are a good looking and talented group! You seem very blessed!

Wow, that must have been some beer or it sounds like someone broke out the old Kungaloosh recipe and went to town. I am picturing the movie Hangover for some reason.

This evenings installment starts with the drive home from work. I had a meeting in one of the more rural areas of TN today and the drive home was beautiful! The way the sun filtered through the trees I got that excited anticipatory feeling of being at the Fort.

I got home and pulled the camper out from under the carport to pop up and check supplies. My wife put the sheets on the beds and we stocked up on all the supplies and loaded some things that are stored inside during the winter.

My wife left to go help with Inner City Ministries and I worked on getting all the bikes aired up and put on top of the camper. This took a while as i also had to make sure the kids were doing their homework and finish up dinner that my wife had started. I managed to get the bikes on top of the camper which wasn't as easy as it should have been.

Here are some of the snacks that are going down with us on the trip. The main thing that is still missing is sunflower seeds. There is nothing better to ease your mind into a long road trip than chewing on sunflower seeds.

That is all I have tonight and tomorrow is a little league baseball game so I doubt much will get done tomorrow but who knows I might get a burst of energy.

Yeah right, and I am the tooth fairy.....

Great start to the report. Way to jump in with both feet.

No other way to jump in...Are you saying Lou isn't always truthful :dropjaw:

Your getting there on getting ready!! I LOVE those plastic drawers! We use them in all different sizes all over the camper. MUCH better than bins :)

Some friends we camp with started on those and at first we were skeptical but those things have turned out to be great and they fit perfectly inside the camper.

They were enforcing the fast pass times two weeks ago.

Thanks for the news, even if I don't like to hear that. It will ruin the way we usually go around the park. Oh well, something new makes life interesting.

I enjoy reading pre-trip reports from fellow campers. I like to see how everyone else packs and gets ready for vacation.

Love the Mickey mugs.

Michele

Thanks Michelle, I have many more and I don't know why I keep them all. I will show more of my collection off in the morning. I hope to get to some more packing on Wednesday. However, I am sure Thursday will be an all night cram session.

Another mystery to learn. Sounds like the kind I would like.

I am in on this trip report! Have a fantastic trip. My niece is flying home today, said the parks were packed, but she's a novice. I'm sure you will know how to beat the crowds (relaxing at FW!).

Thanks for following along! I bet they will be packed. We won't care, we plan on hitting the rope drops and then coming back to the Fort to relax, and then hitting some of that late night evenings. Did she say if they were enforcing the fast pass times or not?

Lou, this mug is for you!....** I hope you were just kidding about not readiing or this will be really dumb**

(I love using old beer commercial lines, wait till I pull out the Seinfeld lines)

Don't forget to tip your waitress, I am here all week..err and next......

Dave,

It wasn't me, I didn't know about till October last year. Was that you in TCD's TR up on Pioneer Hall?

A very crazy busy day. I got the bike racks back on the camper with some extra foam under the bars to help with bouncing.

I took the back seat out of the van, need to vacuum back there.

I then mowed the yard till I ran out of gas and then had to go coach baseball. I came back got gas and finished mowing the (front yard only) I hope I can get the back done before we leave or it will be a jungle come Easter. Went to church and then came home and got the bins out for packing clothes. These are our "chest of drawers" in the pop up. Not a bad way to pack really. My wife gets the three big ones and the boys and I get one each of the small ones. Just kidding.

And last but not least, I dug out the last site request and I intend to modify it tomorrow. After being there we decided we like the back of the 2000 loop on the outside so that is what we will be requesting this time. We are arriving on Saturday should I fax this tomorrow or Tuesday?

After work tomorrow I will pull the pop up out from under the carport and pop her up to pack her with the essentials.

Good night all, YC,

I'm in, when I talked to you in chat, stupid me didn't realize you were from TN, where are you from in the great state if TN?

Bob, I grew up in Madison on the north side of Nashville. I now live south of Nashville in Middle Tennessee.

As you may or may not know, I don't read TRs, so I'm certainly not going to read pre TRs especially from someone with a Mickey mug fetish.

And besides, I'm more into Minnie mugs.

When people know you like going to Disney they give you coffee mugs; don't you have more than you need?

Which Mickey would be you on the mug?

I like the karate chop Mickey (I think that's what he's doing)

I would agree with that or maybe the one on the far left in the first picture. Which one would you say is Lou?

Enjoying my cup of coffee this morning before the crazy day begins. Off to church, then baseball practice, and then I can focus on some things for the trip.

Did I mention I need to mow the lawn?

I am hoping today to get the bike rack fixed up on the camper and the rear seat removed from the van. Yes I remove the rear seat on the way to Disney to save weight.

That thing weighs more than my youngest child. It also gives us more room. We didn't take the bikes our last trip and boy did we miss them. I want to stabilize the bars on the

rack a little becuase the ABS roof on my camper is prone to cracking.

If time allows, I will pull down the plastic bins we use as a chest of drawers and begin packing.

Here are some pictures of my second favorite mug, which Mickey looks the snarkiest?

Post #7 is the start of your first trip report...

#7 seemed like a lucky number to start on. Besides, I am making up for lost time. Got to get my post count up for sure.

Count me in too!! I love Fort adventures. It takes A LOT to bore us, have you seen our thread on Ramen noodles?

Not yet. You know I have never eaten Ramen noodles unless it was in a salad. I have been so neglected.

I'm in! I love to see the pre trip reports, I make plans for months in advance but always seem to procrastinate on the packing.. and organizing of stuff.. thus leading to mass chaos and confusion on the day of departure..

so I enjoy seeing how normal people pull it off :)

Procrastination is my middle name. I doubt you will learn much from me except what not to do.

Thanks to all who said they are reading. Any advice along the way will be greatly appreciated.

Well I was sitting on my deck drinking out of my favorite Mickey mug I had picked up at the World several years back, I was thinking about all the things I had done to prepare for this next 700 mile trek to the Fort. I then thought of all I still have to do. I noticed I really need to mow the yard! As my thoughts came back to me I focused on the mug and thought I really ought to do a pre-trip report leading up to pulling out on Friday. So it begins with a picture of my peaceful morning cup.

I'll post more daily as my family and I prep to leave. I hope this doesn't bore anyone and I hope it helps others to get to know me a little.

YC

I wanted to post my response from the other place so any can see what I have said over there.

Yes, I did figure it out. It was an act of kindness, but not random. If I could only have realized the letter was a D and not a P I would have known a long time ago. Not too smart am I, huh?

Thanks to all who have helped me with this mystery. It has been a lot of fun getting to the bottom of it and reconnecting with folks.

Like me, maybe more people will wise up now. IF they don't shut down the thread.

Wow! Thanks for coming back to explain yourself.

Yeah, you are going to get ribbed.

But, I do have to admit that someone needs to work on his handwriting.

And by someone I mean me.

I don't think I will be around the Fort for Easter, but that first week in June might work for me.

I am sure we will meet up some time.

And get ready to be ribbed.

TCD

Thanks again TCD, it would have been easy for a lesser person to have held a grudge. The responses from you and others here have really shown me what it means to be a Fiend. I have seen the light. Hopefully I will see you in June to say thanks!

Glad to see you posting again here YC! Your thread over there really cracked me up for some reason. Hope your wife doesn't think the Fiends are a bunch of creepy people that snoop around campsites.

Really, TCD is the only creepy one. :rofl2:

My wife didn't know anything about the boards really, but this has perked her up to them. I told her it was like facebook but with people you didn't go to high school with. She commented after reading for a while this was much more interesting than facebook. I think she is hooked. Especially now she realizes what a cool gesture the spike was! I know this is late, but congrats on bringing your daughter home! Have you ever checked out the world's largest tree house in Crossville? Google it if not it is a very cool place to visit. Stay at Cumberland Mtn. State Park and make the trek sometime. You have to see it to believe it.

But he doesn't have an imaginary friend called Melvin.

I am afraid to ask, who is Melvin?

If you had come back here after your one quick post, your mystery would have been solved right away.

And yes, you will get ribbed, but it's all in fun.

Yes, I should have come back! I expect or rather hope to get ribbed.

Glad the mystery for you was solved. Don't worry trying to tell you only got me banned from there for the second or third time. Glad you stopped in here and hopefully we will see you around here every now and then.

Thanks for trying to send the life preserver in the Fall and the olive branch now! I will definitely throw some more posts out there now hoping they will stick.

WOOHOO!! Thanks for checkin back in, and WELCOME TO FORT FIENDS!!

Carol thanks for Welcome! I have always enjoyed seeing your posts over the years. Your set up is awesome! I look forward to reading your posts again!

Glad the mystery was solved and glad you found your way back to the Fiends!

Don't be a stranger..... even though most of us are pretty strange (and don't believe Lou when he tells you he's the only one that's not)

:grpwelcome:

Thanks BradyBz for the kind re-entry!

I feel used.

I think it's strange how he posted on this board about how he wanted to join in the fun, but then went back to the other one to tell everyone how he had been spiked, and act like he knew nothing about it.

It's kind of weird how he just disappeared.

TCD

Don't feel used. I really had hoped to catch back up to you. You are the TCD!

I did know nothing about it--honest--but I should have figured it out before now for sure.

I disappeared because my internet stunk at the Fort and after a 16 hour drive home due to wrecks and my jobs kicking my butt, I just never reconnected. As you guys get to know me you will understand what August, December, January, and May do to my time.

I will be at the Fort for Easter Week and again the first of June. I will look up anyone who is willing to say hey!

YC