MetalDad

Day One: Music: Heart, Aerosmith, Mott The Hoople, T. Rex Drink: Diet Dr. Pepper and Kool-Aid...Ok, I packed some beer too! Smell: Low Tide and Canvas Yes indeed dear reader…you’ve tuned into a TR from a KOA. I’ll wait a minute til’ you get that chuckle out of your system. And you in the back that’s just getting ready to check out…that’s cool…but you’ll miss a nice one, plus it’s short! You’ll see some regular MetalDad stuff… Beer, Fire, Food, and the Hat! Well both hats…camo and Magic… Some things you won’t see… the moustache. Ben’s not in this one. You also won’t see the daughter with all th

My first trip to the Fort was in the cabins for a weekend in 2007. We invited another family, one of my best friends, to join us. His wife was pregnant and our third wasn't quite a year yet. The two of us sat on the cabin porch until 4am listening to old Neil Young records. All I remember of the next day is being exhausted, hungover, and being "that family" with the gaggle of kids and strollers. Walking to the bus and pool... rookies! Now we go up often, with the PUP. Kenny carts, and Ben! But somehow someway, I still remember that first trip, as I, like a dumbass, put the whole thing on a cr

That might work in theory, however, the Fort hosts events that are attractions in and of themselves, BYBBQ, HDDR, Campfire Sing-a-Long, and in the distant past, River Country. That makes for a lot of non-camper incoming traffic. I really don't see where hopping in the WL pool is an issue. I mean heck... I'm sure that was partially in mind when they hatched the idea of resort-to-resort boats. Not to mention, I always seem to drop some dough at the bar... pay to play!

Thanks! We're heading up there for New Years! Might your crew be around?

What the heck? I come home from work, eat dinner, and you already slap down a 2 pager? You win...I quit!

I write the TR update in MS Word, add the photobucket photo codes to the word document, then copy/paste the whole segment into FF.net. My TR's generally end up in 2 segments per day, 3 if really busy or lots of photos. If it's a big report, like my last one, I carry around my latest update on a flash drive so I can work on it during a break at work, or at home. It is time consuming, but what's really cool, is going back and reading your old TR like 6-9 months later, all the details come right back to mind, and it's way more thorough than thumbing through an album. Not to mention, your group ca

Very Nice! Welcome! This was my favorite line. I laughed out loud! The ice machine was out of order so I called the front desk and demanded an upgrade to the Grand Floridian You'll fit in perfectly here!

Better than a landfill, and at least they look cool and draw attention to the place that sells new ones! Cool, let us know what you think when you get back here! Holy crappola, I forgot about beer balls, or, at least they're different now. Thanks Stef! Thanks! By the way, on the saturday, I think you guys passed me. I was taking a photo and heard someone yell a compliment about the flamingo on my windshield. By the time I turned around and saw it was a green cart, it was too late! Looks like you were heading to TE, if it was you. Exactly. Ben was here tonight. We're talking about New Year

Last time I was in Grand Floridian it was 1992. I feel like a Beverly Hillbilly even passing it on the monorail. "Sir....we have no cee-ment pond here!" I may have to sneak a trip with just my girls and bring them to the tea. I'd even do something I've never done camping....shave.

Day Five: Music: Motown Drink: Diet Coke and Water, not mixed. Smell: Sweat, Lysol wipes, breakfast The Last Day! As per usual, I’m up early, before anyone else, Ben is not far behind. I’m not sure why this happens, because I can’t wakeup to save me at home! The routine begins, Lysol wipes, folding, rolling, stacking, packing. It’s so much easier before the kids wake-up. Then when they wake, we try to get them involved, takes longer, but they need to participate. The first order of business is to go out to overflow to get the boxes and doo-dads to pack the truck, van, and trailer. Once we make

You guys see what I have to deal with? Indeed indeed. Next time we hope to achieve sloth! I don't miss it, to be absolutely honest. We go up by you guys kind of often. My sister lives in Orange Park.

<------Yeah, who would think an insurance agent would be reckless...especially whilst camping. Anyone, anyone? Bueller?

Excellent! I applaud your taste in pop culture! Looking back at the B&W photo, kinda has a Gilligan's Island timbre, ahhh, it's probably just me. Utica. I grew up on either side of it! I was born and raised in Orange County, NY, and lived in Syracuse for a few years before becoming a Floridian way back when. You must remember Old Vienna, and the case of 40 little ones, "OV splits". Thanks, appreciate you riding along. One more update, then time to plan for the next one! Thank ya' sir. That's the first time I saw GCA in years. Thought it might be a comical take on the BTS.

Heck yeah! Great TR. First of all... Rays! Awesome. I was quoted with the fake tats. As Eeyore would say! "Thanks for noticin'" And Jarts! The very last time we played Jarts, we were dumb enough to say "Let's play catch with them!" Either Mom or Dad got wind and tossed 'em. I love how your family is content with jarts, basketball, and tetherball, makes that over-priced hot dog taste that much better! I can't sit in a stadium without a bag of roasted, salted shell peanuts...ballgame, concert, seminar... I'm a mess with shell shrapnel.

Day Four Concluded: As the afternoon began to cool, the MetalFamily headed up to the Marina to start our next adventure! We hopped aboard the boat to the Contemporary. We had never taken a standard Contemporary photo, so time to fix that! Again, we took a walk-through the gift shops and arcade before heading up to the monorail platform. I still think that place looks like an airport. There’s always people napping in that lounge area in front of check-in. I was just waiting to hear a boarding call over the PA. We monorailed over to Poly. The goils posed for another silly one once we were insi

I see TCD just got back and has some more photos of the nature trail area. I would absolutely get one of those! Yes, next time we'll work a new concept, "INSTEAD OF". As in, bring a nice multi-purpose cooler like this INSTEAD OF that raggedy old Gators styrofoam job from the your graduation (what year was that 75-76?). You know that one that you store dirt, worms, AND food in? I bet that thing's radiocative and has an infection of some sort. Funny though, the Less is More bit comes up in the next update, that I just wrote before I saw this!

Back where you belong...in a popup!

I started getting those packets as well, trying to curb my Diet Dr. Pepper habit. She's doing much better, it still looks scarred a bit and is itchy, I'm sure it'll be all gone in a few weeks. The most confusing thing about the signs is that it says "No Carts Beyond This Point", does that mean they were allowed up to that sign? If so, I'm pissed at the guy in the cowboy hat that yelled at me last year for being past the stables! I helped take good care of her, I did laugh eventually, and she got the kids mad at me for taking the picture, which made me laugh harder! By the time she got to "you

Elvis, BigFoot, TCD... I see a pattern forming.

Sommer, I was able to get a photo that you were trying to snag. The EWP barges docked at the staging area as seen from the passing monorail.

Day Four Continued: We left off with the whole crew planning to meet back at the camper for lunch. Today it was clean-out the fridge and cooler day. So we heated up everything in one big pot, and spooned it out into sandwiches comprised of cheddar and provolone and a pile of miscellaneous meat (leftover bbq brisket, pork, and buffalo chicken…all mixed together!) Today was also a bit of the “bottom of the barrel” day. For instance, our Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce was now gone, and we were left with this. Which, all things considered, was freaking amazing! We also finished the rest of the brats

Really enjoyed this. I doubt the mrs. would ever let me go any further than our street truck, but I can hit a puddle like no one's business. Thanks for sharing!

Yikes! My sister still teases me about a camping trip we took in the 90's whence Itook what I thought was a burnable object and threw it on the fire. It turned out to be a dead, flattened horseshoe crab. Talk about smoke, and stinky!

That's right. I forgot about that. Some tent campers had a fire that made even me go "damn, that's a dangerous fire". It was big and crackly, and smelled of pine, I'm sure they were burning lumber. I was between angry, annoyed, and jealous. It was still going the next morning whilst everyone was still sleeping, my son pointed that out!

Annie loves that song, as it's about a doll...sort of. It's absolutely my favorite record of the year for 2012!