Onkel Hans

After several "adventures" on the road, we now travel with:
Big tool box (stays in the truck all the time) - equipped with enough stuff to change a starter, or other repairs not requiring an actual lift. I think that thing weighs 100 lbs by itself.
Truck parts (long trips only) - not kidding, I think there's at least an alternator in there, quite probably spark plugs and a few other things. Those were added after our alternator went at 2am in Mt. Kisco, NY one year.
Fully stocked first aid kit (all the time) - with enough stuff to do minor surgery (hey, I travel with crazy border collies)
Flashlight
Paper towels
Duct Tape
Bungees/Tie down straps
Water
Beach towels
Frisbees
Extra leashes
Ok so some of that last stuff has more to do with the dogs than anything, but I really don't worry about ever getting stranded in a snowstorm in that truck. I'm pretty sure there are snacks in the console.

fuses for your camper and your tow vehicle
quart of oil
wd40
duct tape
goo gone
sunscreen
mosquito repellent
rain ponchos
first aid kit
hats
jackets
waterproof matches
collapsable water container
extra blanket & pillow per person
deck of cards
flashlights w/ extra batteries
portable radio
antiseptic wipes (for cleaning food prep area)
handsoap
anti-itch lotion

Water Hoses 25 ft and 50 ft
water hose splitter
Wheel Chocks
50 ft of cable coax
30 amp cord and 30 amp extension cord
30 - 15 amp adapter
50 - 30 amp adapter
15-30 amp adpater'
(i've been to campgrounds where the 30 amp didn't work, but the 50 amp did, so just used an adapter)
simple circuit tester that shows campsite is wired correctly
grey water container
40 ft of sewer hose
BAL Leveler or leveling blocks
WATER PRESSURE REDUCER
Rubber Gloves
Tire Pressure Gauge

Visa card. You're gonna be running for SOMETHING!
Never fails. Especially with a new camper. You're going to hear "Hey! I know what we don't have..."

Starla was working on this over Thanksgiving but my stepdad became ill and, between the daily hospital runs, we goofed and forgot to post it. Thought I'd share it now to wish everyone the happiest of holiday seasons...

Hi all,
So excited we are heading to Fort Wilderness for 2 weeks. One week before Christmas then over to camp for a week on the beach and then back for a week. I have camped many times there with my grandparents and their pop up trailer. We would always get Spanish Moss lane. But now we have almost grown kids of our own and we have a 5th wheel. I am so excited to finally be going back to camp.
We are taking our dogs who love to camp. I didn't plan years in advance so was only able to secure the reservations by booking chunks at a time. We were able to get full service.
My husband is very adept at driving trailers since he drives a work truck and trailer every day but our 5th wheel is a toy hauler and pretty big. We've only had it a year now. So I am thinking 1700 or 1800 loops. Any suggestions? We'd rather be away from the comfort stations and the comings and goings. We'd rather walk and have more quiet.
Thanks
Michelle
:wave1:

We arrived at the fort about two hours ago and my husband was already almost in a fist fight. My family (sans Momma and Baby) we riding their bikes through the loop (200) and they were yelled at to get out of the way. Now my 8 year old is just learning how to ride without training wheels - he is a bit "all over the place" - but come on - yelling at a little guy to get out of the way - hold your freakin horses. All I can say is that guy is lucky it wasnt Momma bear on the lead bike - he would be having an 18 speed surgically removed right about now.

Ed did his first half marathon this morning. It started in Apalachicola. I took quite a few pictures as we waited for him to finish. I know I complain about the HOT all the time and maybe I forget how fortunate we are to live in an area with so many gorgeous places. So here we go!
We set out at 5:15 AM. Yes, that's right way to early to be out of bed much less on the road! We drop Ed off at the Race start! Notice the hat!

By now Mama is starving. This area is not famous for their restaurants, so we end up here for breakfast.



My Ham and Cheese Omelet

So I know some of the runners will be coming across the bridge and hitting the corner near us soon, so I eat a few bites and head out to see what I can see.



I thought this was interesting! This is on the main coastal road of the panhandle!

Check out these mods!

I have walked probably a half a mile to a mile down the road. When I get back this is what I discover!

She quickly informed me that she was hungry and had also eaten my hashbrowns! lol
Think I'll continue in another post!

I heard that Lou is at Monorail driver training. It's so rigorous that he has little time to post.

We rented a pontoon boat at the Fort. I believe 2 hours was 80 dollars or so. You can get a discount with your AP. It was nice! They tell you not to go into the area on the far right of Bay Lake if you are looking out from the dock because they do the water skiing there. Otherwise, you can go where you like. We made the trip over into the Lagoon and circled the by the MK, GF and Poly. It was a gorgeous day! DO NOT EXPECT TO GO FAST! I think they said it would go 9 mph.

OK....I'm the relatively newbie that got my butt handed to me on a platter because all the Dick Tracy's out there on this "public" forum "felt" like my 1st post was a scam also. It was not !! In fact, my EZ GO cart is still for sale ! The format of the "introduction" post is well hidden in a general topic title. I needed the link to find it! Thank you again Katman. I see others struggle with this also. And many get scolded for not introducing themselves 1st, as I received a lashing!
Wonder what scam "feels" like..... If you get that "scam" on you shoes, can you get it off? Or is it simply the feeling of various magnitudes of hypocritical pixie dust?
Here's what I will add to this gossip, that, by the way, eventually ruins good forum boards. Nobody was on the alledged original phone call except the OP, and presumably Kenny. Therefore no body knows what was said or agreed to between them. If you don't believe the OP, then dis-regard his information. NO ONE can ever, under any circumstances (unless the call was recorded) verify, nor deny what was said....
But now let's flip the coin for one second, only if you can imagine....... The lack of professionalism for Kenny to discuss a charge to ones' personal credit card, and the fact of refund information given to a third person that was not party to the original transaction is not only poor business practice, it is in viloation of the credit card merchants agreement contract, and against the law under the federal privacy act II. He not only did this with one "Dick Tracy" on this board that felt so compelled to prove a theory, he has done it with 2 different folks that we now know of. And the funny thing is, they both admit they called Kenny and asked this information openly and without shame. What do you figure is being said and done behind YOUR back?? Just ponder that thought for a moment if you will !! I would suggest any prudent person would see all the possibilties.......
NOW....If anyone needs a cart and does not want to risk a cancellation charge, or not.......mine is still for sale !!!! LOL
Have I worn out my welcome yet

It is too bad this got so blown out of proportion. While I did see what many of the posters were suspecting, I still don't think it was fair to make assumptions about your intents or the reason you joined. Only you know that. I feel very badly about some of the harsh comments that were made.
I haven't been around long enough to have seen what some of the regulars here have witnessed as far as "trolls", "spies", or others who seem to enjoy stirring things up or causing problems for businesses. So when I read your post I just thought you had experienced something negative and were throwing an FYI out for everyone. You were steamed, and reacted. I do it all the time. As many other people probably do, but may not admit it or even recognize it.
I honestly still don't think you signed on to try and single handedly destroy Tee Time's reputation. And, as a regular customer of his, even reading your original post didn't make me think twice. I would call him tomorrow to rent. Just figured it was some kind of misunderstanding. I thought you were just giving a heads up and trying to be helpful. I never read his cancellation policy before renting either. Guess I am a big dummy too, don't do my homework. People should really think twice before they type sometimes.
I know you said you were leaving, and I completely understand. That is a shame. But, if you're still stopping in, know you had one person who looked at it with an open mind. This sure did get way out of hand, fast. Must have touched a nerve. I wish that instead of being accused, that maybe you had just been asked to explain yourself further. Scratching my head over this whole thing.

Here's our 2 cats: Jack as a baby (he's 3 now), Misty, who's 6, walking w/ Kylie --she loves to walk up and down our dead end street. And Jack as an adult. He loves to sit by the computer.

Bandit (4 mnth old yorkie/schnauser hybrid) sitting on the floor after just having asked me, " hey dad, when we heading to the Fort?" Which is kind of hard to believe, when you consider he just joined our family on Thursday. How did he know we were such Fort Fiends already?
Backstory: we lost our beloved Zeus July 6th. The hole in our family was huge, but fate is trying to fill part of it with Bandit. We rescued him from a shelter. He was picked up as a stray, but is in great shape. He has no trust issues and will gladly roll over and let you pet his belly. Health wise he is great and it appears that someone put some potty training effort. While we will never know, we think somebody just couldn't afford to care for this loving pup. We will do our best to give him a great life!

Halloween 2010

Here's another one I've made. The boys all like the polo shirts better than regular Tee's.

Here are a few of the shirts I have been working on for our next trip. I've been using a combination of applique and embroidery.

my wife and I just spent our 26th wedding anniversary at Fort Wilderness
new to Fort Fiends not to Disney

I forgot to mention that at some point on Tuesday I saw something floating in the canal. Luckily it wasn't a gator. Seems someone didn't appreciate the yellow pole telling them not to drive their carts somewhere and deposited it in the canal.

You can see just how close to the pool we were. I thought it was fine. Justin, the teacher, thought it sounded like recess 12 hours a day and wasn't as happy.
And since I'm backtracking, we'll call this "Dusk in the 1300 loop". I must have taken this while we were eating on Tuesday.

Yes, this TR is very disorganized.
I promise I'll try to get it back on track.
Wednesday morning was July 4th and I was DETERMINED I wasn't going to miss the golf cart parade, even though Lorna and Doodle had been bad influences the night before and kept me up until near dawn. Ok, well 2:30am. Same difference to me.
As we were waiting for the parade to start we saw Lorna and Chris across the street. Donnie eventually got some free coffee from someone and came to join us. At some point we saw the traditional bagpiper go down the street on a Fort cart in his kilt with the bagpipe. We were confused. He didn't start the parade this year. These guys did.

I think someone told me the driver was a ranger. No comment.
There was the parade marshals, I guess. No idea. They were awake and smiling though.

It's not the 4th at the Fort without Goofy!

The Haunted Mansion Cart

That's all I have from the parade. It was fun. I was tired. Etc. I went back and had some more coffee and we discussed the day a little. We had a little cabin pool time again and that's about it. I think there was some napping. And I looped a little. I think Bob and Lou stopped by at some point, but it's a little blurry.
At some point GrumpyRVer Gary came by when he was walking his dog. Very nice guy. He and PartlyConfused Marilyn were in our loop, but we hadn't seen them outside yet. We talked for a while, but we both had to get ready for the potluck.
We loaded the cart up with crockpots, chairs, adult beverages, etc and gently headed off to the 1700 loop for the potluck. As was passed their site, Gary waved me down. Being the great folks that they are, they had more dishes than would fit on their golf cart. I'm not kidding you people! So, we loaded what we could fit on ours and then we caravanned over. Only to discover there wasn't anyone around. I'm pretty sure Lorna was napping, not "napping", inside so we sat outside and talked until others showed up. I guess we made so much noise Lorna woke up and we got the party started.
I met a whole bunch of Fiends. It was great. I can't even begin to remember who all was there. The highlight (other than dropping a meatball on my shirt) was meeting Family of Bears and Blondebunny. They were hilarious. Blondebunny's husband won the award of the day from me because, unlike me, he had brought a bottle opener.
At some point we all caravanned to the fireworks and made it just as they were starting. Feisty served as the official "horn" of the caravan.
The fireworks were good. please see Devores' pictures as I took none. After (we had parked at Judy's site) we had no problems getting out. Somehow, Rita and Linda had gotten down there but had no way to get back, so we loaded them onto the cart... where I discovered that we were actually moving slower than Bob. It just made it easier for Linda to harass him on the drive back, though.
After, we sat around and talked, then broke for a while, then went to Bob's and talked some more.
Thursday I was moving a little slower. We had leftovers for lunch and then hit Blizzard Beach for a while. It was crowded with tour groups so we went back, showered and went to DTD for some reason. I'm not sure what because I didn't get to go in. I circled the parking lot for 25 min looking for a parking space while Justin went and got what he needed. Another dinner at Sweet Tomatoes and then a few drinks.
The final night at Bob's was great. We all stayed up too late again. I got Disney PoPo'd on the way back to get more beer (driving the wrong way in a loop). We said our goodbyes and then headed off to get a little sleep before the drive home.
So that's all there is. Long on words, longer on memories, but short on photos.
It was great meeting everyone and I can't wait to see you all again! If I have anymore thoughts, I'll do my best to add them.

This is our Little Jack, a rescued Border Collie with this freakishly long tongue......... When he gets tired from running, it hangs out the side of his mouth about 6"!