We're up for planned and unplanned gatherings! We should be on 300 (I'll post if we end up somewhere else) - won't be hard to spot us. If we're not there when you come by, please leave a note with a site and/or cell number so we can catch up with you another time.
Great Rocky pics! I especially love Tetherball Rocky! He definitely needs one at home, what a great way for him to get some exercise. I can't begin to tell you how many times that same thing has happened at the dog park. We don't even visit that much anymore, unless it's empty. No matter how small I may be, I doubt any canine would enjoy my foot in their ass, after they went after Mason. He's just as happy to ride in the cart. You should have called me, I would have drove over and babysat Rocky for free! :heart:
It’s hard to believe. 50. A half century. I remember when I thought 30 was old. Then I thought 40 was old. It turns out that neither really is. But 50? There is no doubt that is old. And, I will hit that milestone in just a few days. For a long time, Mrs. TCD and the girls have asked me what I would like to do for my 50th birthday. What kind of question is that? Of course I wanted to celebrate my 50th at the Hoop Dee Doo Review. Duh! In fact, I had even specifically discussed Six Bit’s schedule with him so I could make sure to attend on a night when he would be there. So, months ago, I planned the whole thing out. My birthday fell on a Thursday, so we would celebrate a day later, on Friday September 30th. As a bonus, this is also the night the Haunted Carriage Rides begin. I booked a reservation for the very first one. FSU has a bye on Saturday, so my oldest DD would be able to drive down from Tallahassee. October 1st is the 40th anniversary of the opening of WDW- we would be there for whatever special events were planned. Plus, the Food and Wine Festival begins at Epcot on October 1st. Everything was set. It would be an epic weekend! Then the TCD twins went back to school. And found out that their Homecoming weekend is the weekend of September 30th. The Homecoming football game is on the 30th, and the dance is on October 1st. Fail. All the plans went out the window. As luck would have it, Friday, September 23 was a random school holiday for our local school district. That meant that we could head over to the Fort on Thursday night, and make it into a three day weekend. I was able to make new reservations, and we were all set. We would celebrate my birthday a week early. So, on Thursday, September 22, as soon as the TCD twins got home from school, we hit the road. We left home just before 3 pm. We timed things perfectly. We missed all of the typical afternoon traffic in Tampa, and made it to the Fort in less than two hours. Three of the check-in lanes were open, and a guest was pulling forward from one just as we pulled up. Sweet. We got checked in quickly. And we were assigned to site 1509. Awesome. The weather report for Thursday was scattered thunderstorms. We hit a doozy of a storm heading through Lakeland. Unfortunately, it followed us to the Fort. As soon as we got to the site, the rain started. My oldest daughter would not be arriving from Tallahassee until a bit later, so I sent the twins off with some ponchos to the MK, and got busy getting set up. I had just gotten started when I got a phone call from the twins. The boats from FW were all suspended because of lightning. They let me know that they were going to head over to Wilderness Lodge by bus, and decide what to do from there. The rain was light, but it didn’t stop for my entire set-up. I heard from the girls after a bit, and they decided that they were going to just take the bus back to the Fort. Just as I was finishing up, the girls came driving up in my oldest DD’s car. She had been driving by the bus stop just as they were exiting. It was about 7 pm. Luckily, the rain let up for a bit, and we were able to head down to Trail’s End to get our Giddyup and Go. It was pretty damp out, so we ate inside the camper. Originally, we had plans to hit a park at the end of the evening. But, there were no EMH’s tonight, and everything would be closed by 9 pm. Plus, it wasn’t done raining. So, we hung around the Fort. When the rain let up we looped. We got ice cream from the Trading Post right before it closed at 10, and we caught the very end of UP! At the Theater under the stars. There were maybe 20 people there. There’s not much to tell about our Thursday evening. In fact, I think I’ve told it all. Because of the rain, I have no photos from Thursday. Not even one! So the photos and our story begin on Friday morning. Don’t worry about the slow start. There is plenty to tell in this trip report. In fact, I have six new things to tell you about. Six. All at the Fort. I also have a bit of important news about a favorite place at WDW that we almost always visit. And, I even have a solved mystery to share. Plus there is a new TCD Real Man of Genius that you will be hearing all about. I would say that it was a successful trip. But, we must begin at the beginning. . . If you have ever read a TCD trip report, you know that I was up early on Friday. We were planning to do rope drop at Epcot at 9 am. But, I was up way before that. First stop was the canal behind the 300 loop. We have had plenty of rain in central Florida lately, so the canals are pretty full. But, Bay Lake is full too, so the canals are not flowing out into the lake. Which means that the water is starting to stagnate. You can see a green sheen on top of the water here:
The pumps that were here earlier in the year are gone. Water is not being let out in to the lake. The dams are shut. Here you can see that the water from the lake is slowly leaking in to the canal:
This is where the pump was. You can see it is gone now:
This is an interesting piece of equipment:
I have no idea what it is. If you look at this tag, you can make out that it says U.S. Government Property on the top line:
I came back here to enjoy one of my favorite vistas in the Fort. This:
I was still too early for my coffee from Trail’s End, so I popped in to River Country for a look around. These slides look worse than ever. The photos are a little dark since the sun was still rising, but you can see that the rock work is really crumbling:
There is a lot of water in the old pool:
The area that the public has access to is in decent shape:
The new landscaping planted when Pop’s Place was removed has really grown in:
7:30 finally rolled around, and it was time to get some coffee. There was something new here at the Trail’s End drink station. This sign:
You don’t think that’s new? Well it is. Here’s the old one:
I guess they wanted to make sure everyone knows the rules. I don’t know why it doesn’t mention the Meadow Trading Post. The coffee machine is still there. And, you can refill your mugs there. Also, you used to be able to get iced tea here at Trail’s End. Now it says just hot tea. But, guess what? There’s a new Sweet Tea dispenser here:
And, it’s good Sweet Tea. All of the other resort drink stations use a machine that dispenses Peak iced tea. That stuff isn't bad, but it tastes like instant tea. You can see that this sweet tea is real brewed tea. This is a very good thing. I’m sure it won’t last. If you are keeping score, that makes two new things. The sign on the drink machine and the sweet tea dispenser. There are still four more new things to come! Back at the site, I got the girls moving. While waiting for them, this DVC van came by:
I see them from time to time at the Fort. If you want to take a tour of a DVC resort, they will come and pick you up at the Fort. I spoke to this fellow for a while. I asked him what he knew about new DVC resorts. He said all he knew was what he read on Discussion Boards- they don’t tell him anything. We discussed the Grand Floridian project, which I didn’t realize still has not been officially announced. He didn’t know much about the Fort Wilderness DVC- just rumors. We were just a little late for Rope Drop at Epcot. We were pulling in the parking lot at 9. There were no lines at the turnstiles, and we were able to get Soarin’ Fastpasses without having to fight a mob. Epcot was not busy. We rode Test Track, Sum of All Thrills and Soarin’. At 11, we headed over to Mexico, and had lunch at the San Angel Cantina when it opened at 11:30. It was hot and sunny then, so we decided to head back to the Fort for a little break. The loose plan was to visit the MK in the afternoon. There was going to be a Halloween party that night, so the MK would be closing at 7. Usually that means lighter crowds during the day. We spent the afternoon at the Fort looping and visiting the pool. On one of our looping runs, we noticed a bunch of buzzards around the 500 loop:
There’s a bunch up here in this tree:
There were some picking at a dead armadillo on the other side of the road:
I’m not sure if there was something else attracting them. It seems like a lot of birds showing up for just one armadillo. I have noticed that a few trees have been removed around the Fort lately. There was a crew right at the entrance of the 500 loop taking a tree down:
At some point that afternoon, I stopped by and picked up our Hoop Dee Doo tickets. As I was being helped, I Iooked behind the castmember, and noticed a really cool photo on the wall. It was an old photo of the Fort entrance. I asked the castmember about it. He said it was from 1974. I asked him if he would mind taking a photo of it for me. He said sure. I handed him my camera. He didn’t do such a good job. But, you can still make out the highlights. You can see the check-in lanes, but the lobby building did not exist then. The guard shack looks like it’s in the same place, as is the Outpost bus stop:
I will have to go back for a better photo some time. I would really like a chance to study the photo up close. While I was in the area, I snapped a photo from the Trail’s End porch. You can see that it was kind of dead around the Fort on this Friday afternoon:
If fact, the Fort was kind of dead all weekend. The 800 loop was empty. Completely empty! It’s hard to take a photo of an empty loop, but here are a couple shots of the 800 loop on Friday afternoon:
The girls did some decorating around the campsite for my birthday. Here is some of their handiwork:
As Friday afternoon moved along, nobody really felt like heading over to the MK. We were pacing ourselves, as our reservations for the Hoop Dee Doo were for the 9:30 show. Since this was a special weekend, Mrs. TCD was going to be joining us for the evening. And that’s not all! The TCD dog, Rocky, was also coming along. Mrs. TCD was planning to bring Rocky by for the afternoon, and she and he would be spending the night. Mrs. TCD and Rocky arrived at about 4. Then the fun really began! You’ll hear all about it in the next post ! TCD
I'm so excited for Halloween!! I'm barely sit still, I NEED one of those canisters! :banana: :banana: I'm not sure it's normal to be this excited about going to WDW at my age..
Expedition Everest 5K in 53:04; Total time with Scavenger Hunt (which was close to another 5K - 1:42:33 ... and I was FAR from last! Parking was a LONG way from the Start, etc. There were NO bleachers or anything for 'watchers' to sit on - which sort of sucked for OldeKoot! The start was set up with 8 'waves' starting 5 minutes apart - I was in Wave 2. Waves were not based upon your run time, like you normally find - there were based on your registration date . 8:35pm - I'm on my way. We loop the entire Animal Kingdom parking lot. Just before the main entrance, we go off of the pavement for our first 'obstacle' - 5 rows of hay bales to hurdle; run across; walk over ... whatever. Into the front of the park and to the left at The Oasis and Tree of Life Gardens - starting a long uphill slog. Have I told you I hate hills! AK looks MUCH different at night, so there are signs all over directing you for the 5K. There are also CMs lining the route all over, cheering, high fiving; etc. :banana: Right turn at Tusker House and then a quick left into Backstage AK :banana: . We run almost to Conservation Station and then out another gate into AK. Along that loop you hit the 1 & 2 miles Markers as well as two shots at a Water Station. You also hit Obstacle 2 - 3 rows of tires to run through aka football practice. You run back toward Tusker House, and then head back on the right side of The Oasis. Can it REALLY be up hill both ways? It sure seemed that way! Before the Main Entrance, you head through a gate on the left into Backstage AK again. A close look at Everest from a side you don't normally see; a "lake"; Mile Marker 3; out into the parking lot area and Obstacle 3 - your choice - up & down a Cargo Net; under a net (sort of like crawling under barbed wire; or run around it all. Then a short sprint to the finish line! Whew! I'm finished - not! Now you receive a small led flashlight and marker pen along with your first clue. Back into AK - from the far side of the Parking Lot :argh: Just past the Bag Check Stations I find my first location. Solve Clue #1 and now I'm off to Camp Minnie-Mickey and Daisy Duck. Clue #2 is the worst of the lot - but I get it, and now I'm headed to Africa ... almost back to the Safari entrance. This one is easy, and it's time to head to Asia - and my station is almost to Kali River Rapids. Do you see a theme here? Every one of my clues led me to the furthest station of them all. Another easy Clue, and it's off to the Finish Line - almost. You have to take the results from the first 4 Clues to solve Clue #5 - which is your ticket to the finish line. Finish at a cluster of cheering CM's and get my Bling on! I had planned on riding Expedition Everest in the dark. No way in HELL! It was worse than any day at AK. Off to Dino-Land to meet up with PureTCrazy and OldeKoot. Do I want to "party" - no! Too loud; not my style of party at all. Back out to the Front Gate, and OMG - they have a Tram running. Hop on and head to the Unicorn parking lot. Into The Beast and head back to the Fort! I made a quick post of the Bling, and it was time to snooze!
