momof3kids-Yvonne

My friend will not be able to make it. 

So currently Eric is holding on to his site. PM him if you would like it. 

Sadly GradyBunch will not be able to join us. I updated the site list. 

3 hours ago, Grumpy and Grandma said:

We came out of Cincinnati so we did 71 to 65.

We did not do 65 to 40. .

Take 231 out of Bowling Green then left on RT 25 Dixon Springs Hwy, then left on  RT 80 Pleasant Shade Rd, then right on 85 Defeated Creek Hwy, then turn right into the Park

That's about 4 1/2 hours coming from Indy.

I knew you would be the one to ask. 

Thank you.

3 hours ago, Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie said:

Coming from Indianapolis. The Google says to take 65 to the Cave City exit. Then it wants us on Happy Valley Road/90 then on to 249 etc. This route takes us into a bunch of small towns. Total 5 hours

Called the Defeated Creek front desk and they said take 65 down to 40 and over. Then up by Carthage. 7 hours. 

Anyone familiar with the drive that can advise?

I agree with the folks from the campground. Grumpy and Grandpa came down one year on their way to the Fort I believe. Hopefully Dave will chime in with some advice. If he doesn't,  you may want to PM him. 

So Tim had to cancel too. I updated the first post. Is Everyone else still planning to be there? Now may be a good time to update how many will be in your group. You know for those pot luck over planners like me. 

I will be there with my 2 teen daughters and possibly one of their friends.  My friend Kathy will be there with her husband, her son (13), her daughter and her daughter's husband. 

14 days until Defeated Creek 2020!

Great job! She has such a fun personality.

I entered. I have been having dreams about going on a cruise lately. Clearly these are signs that I am going to win this sweepstakes. No need for anyone else to enter the contest. 

Thanks for the review.  

21 Days until the Defeated Creek GG!!!!

I'm in. Jessica had to cheer in Montgomery on Friday. Do you know how hard it was not to just skip the game and continue south?

On 8/26/2019 at 10:31 AM, mouseketab.....Carol said:

Just bumping!! I'm getting excited!!

Thanks for bumping this up Carol. 

On 8/26/2019 at 11:20 AM, Katman1356...Jason said:

I am sorry to say I am going to have to cancel. I was really hoping to find a way to make it work but it's just not possible. Maybe next year. 

I hate that you have to cancel. Glad you are looking ahead to next year though.

I have been obsessively checking to see if the football schedule is out for the team Jessica cheers for and some games have been scheduled. There is one that Friday evening. The good news is though it is in Franklin, TN. They are playing against Franklin ChristIan Academy. 

7 minutes ago, DaveInTN said:

I will be cancelling my site.   If anyone wants to coordinate with me to book it when I release it let me know.

You should have written in the sales contract with Johnny Cash's daughter that you got to use it for the Defeated Creek GG. 😂

4 hours ago, Travisma said:

You bunch of drugged out hippie freaks!!!  

Probably true of some there. Not me though. I think that is why the memory has stuck with me. It was pure joy. 

On 5/4/2019 at 7:52 PM, kadancer said:

Salisbury has changed a lot, especially the college.  I worked for the theatre through the 80's and most of the 90's - it was a great job for a single gal, but not for raising a family.

I just thought of something and you will probably remember this too. One of the best concerts I ever attended at Merriweather was a Beach Boys concert. It was pouring down rain. My friends and I were sitting in the lawn. Katrina and the Waves open up for them. They started playing "Walking on Sunshine." Everyone was dancing in the rain and beach balls were flying through the air. 

On 5/4/2019 at 7:52 PM, kadancer said:

Salisbury has changed a lot, especially the college.  I worked for the theatre through the 80's and most of the 90's - it was a great job for a single gal, but not for raising a family.

That was when I was going to concerts there. I also worked at the Ryland corporate office right across from Merriweather in the 90s. I was one of the payroll admins. 

It really is a small world! 

On 5/2/2019 at 5:46 AM, kadancer said:

My Mom lives in Salisbury.  I also worked for Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia for 17 years.

I enjoyed many concerts there in my teens and 20's. 

I like Salisbury. Of course it probably looks nothing like it did back in the late 80s and early 90s. 

Jessica's latest painting. She plans to give this to her dad for Father's Day.

Thank you all for joining in and patiently waiting for the update. I apologize that it has taken me so long to get back to this report. 

So, Friday started off late and slow for most of us. Not for Sarah though she had an early morning flight and before we knew it she was at the Outpost. Marty took off on the golf cart to pick her up. Gretchen was going t be joining us for the weekend as well and would be heading over today. Jen had gotten on the road at some point Friday morning.  Aside from Kelly and I having booked some Fastpasses for Soarin that day, as per WWW bylaws there were no plans. Late morning Kelly and I headed over to Epcot. 

We made our way over to Soarin and got in the Fastpass line. 

After that, we headed over to the World Showcase. When in the World Showcase one must do what the World Showcasians do. So we did.

K

Marty and Sarah caught up with Kelly and me in Mexico.

 At some point, Jen made it to Epcot to and after stopping to pick up these joined us too.

Did I mention we were in Mexico?

Following our visit to Mexico,  Kelly decided to head off by herself for a bit.  I am not sure where she went, but from the looks of this, it was somewhere that required her to ride the monorail.

That's the thing about WWW everything is so flexible. It's like a being on a retreat.

We met up with Carol and rode Frozen Ever.

As you saw it was the Festival of the Arts while we were here so here are some pictures relating to the Festival itself.

On 4/10/2019 at 4:24 PM, geoffdaddy said:

I think a lot of that is probably Florida campers. If you're close it's a lot easier to justify a bunch of trips. For us, a 10 hour one way drive more than a couple times a year kind of kills the magic for us. Your mileage may vary. At my job I get 4 weeks vacation annually currently. Wife doesn't work, so getting time off is not too much of an issue. Our girls are in a half-homeschool/half-public school program (they are in 2nd and 4th grade) that is flexible where we can take off a week at a time even during the school season, so you can bet with the way the prices are now we are watching for the lowest cost days at the fort, balancing that against the super-hot summer weather. 🙂 We have two trips this year, one in May which is 4 nights and another for a week in August. Cost of fuel is a major deal since we do a 1400 mile round trip tow for each trip down to central Florida, so being able to cost-average the fuel costs over more days is a must. The first half of the May trip we are staying at a much cheaper campground for three days away from Disney and then driving an hour over to the Fort for the second half of the trip. The week-long trip we were able to get a deal on a Premium site that was almost as cheap as a partial hook up loop (using the Sun and Fun room offer), so deals can be had if you book early and can be flexible. I agree the prices are getting out of hand though.

We save up our credit card points for Disney to offset the cost, which helps. I have "gamed" the Disney Visa a few times when they've had the $200 gift card promos by signing up for new cards in the past.

As far as visiting the parks though, that's another story! We haven't done a multi-day park-hopping extravaganza in several years. Been there, done that... a lot of fun when we did but on top of being expensive, we have realized we're getting older and it just wears us out and we get tired so we typically limit ourselves to 1, maybe 2 single park days on any trip lasting a week. We love the Fort and visiting the other resorts and buying drinks and snacks when we're not penny pinching theme park tix. We bought season park tickets to the water parks last October which are of course still good til October this year. We love the water parks and for the most part they are MUCH more relaxing than the theme parks are. We don't plan to visit any of the normal theme parks at all in May, and we're only going to do the Not So Scary Halloween Party in August. The water park tickets will still be good for both trips, so that helps a lot on the cost. Again, that was cost-averaged for several park visits over three trips and it's just a little more than a single theme park day's ticket cost for each person and is good for a year.

To save money in the past we have also tent camped several times instead of towing our camper down in the cooler months (late Oct-late March). For those trips we can use our Prius which gets about 42MPG on the highway, vs towing our camper at 8MPG.

We have said this several years in a row now that this will be our year visiting the Fort for a couple years. It's not a stretch to say that it's getting to the point where it's not worth it. I have a feeling this year might be the last for a year or two for real though. I know this is cynical and a bit mean-spirited of me but Disney World is lots of fun of course and I always say there's nothing wrong with Disney World that a "good" recession wouldn't cure IMO.

 

EDIT: Oh yeah, most importantly for a few trips, our camper has three queen beds, so we have been able to split costs between our family and another on several trips! Sometimes with family, sometimes with friends. Our girls are getting a little too big to split a bunk more than two ways though, so I think those days are over, unless we split a tent site with separate tents.

 

If I remember correctly, you are from Madison, AL. I think you actually know one of my friends (Jessica Havin.) If you are able please consider joining us at the Defeated Creek GG in September. 

A friend of mine booked site 76. 

I was searching back through the previous threads and came across this information that I posted about site 72. 

Oh and just a note if you go to book a site there and end up choosing site 72 which was the one next to mine. The hookups are on the opposite side of where yours would be on your camper. If you were camping in a tent or had Carol's cool remote control it probablywould not be much of a problem, but with a larger camper you might want to choose a different site

7 hours ago, GradyBunch said:

We are in site 52...booked and ready to begin camping again. 

Glad you will be joining us! 

4 hours ago, h2odivers...Ray said:

Sometimes I wish we still had the stroller. I’m tired of lugging around a back pack all day. 😂 

I had that same thought when I was out shopping at the mall recently. 😂