CCIntrigue...aka Gwen

Hey, y'all!  I'm back!  And my little finger is working better now, as you can tell. I have about 4" of incisions on my elbow,   I had a severe case of ulnar nerve entrapment in my elbow that was corrected.  Basically I had the same thing as carpal tunnel syndrome, only it was in my elbow. I ignored it too long, and it was to the point that it was either surgery or lose the use of my hand.  
I'm 10 days post surgery, and you wouldn't believe how well I'm healing.  I was unbelievably blessed with a wonderful surgeon, no pain, not even having to take pain pills after surgery, just everything went so well.  
Anyway, in 10 more days, if everything goes as planned, we're scheduled to make another quick trip to WDW, thanks to a wonderful friend you all know, but there are some circumstances that make this next trip iffy.  Anyway, I want to get this TR wrapped up before the next trip starts. 
So over the weekend I'm gonna try to make a huge dent in finishing it.  

Monday morning the weather wasn't great, but by lunchtime it had improved.  We went to the Magic kingdom for the last time this trip ... always a sad visit.  Neither of us was in the mood to stand in a long line, so we went to the Country Bear Jamboree just because a show was getting ready to start just as we went by.

Then we saw Goofy's cavalcade again.  That seemed to be the one that came by way more often than any of the others.

A little while later another cavalcade came by. 

Does this float look familiar?

Next we went to the Hall of Presidents.

At the end of the presentation, the audience cheered!
We wandered around awhile.

And then it was time for lunch at Liberty Tree Tavern.  Only we didn't get seated at the tavern.  Due to COVID, the tavern doesn't seat very many people right now.  So they have opened up the Diamond Horseshoe right now to use for tavern seating.  


This brought back great memories of having lunch at the Diamond Horseshoe Revue and enjoying the saloon-style show when the kids were little.  With the exception of the mediocre tossed salad and the tough roast pork, our meal was delicious.  The roast turkey and dressing was the best I've ever had.  And that Ooey Gooey Toffee Cake!  We both ate way too much.
After the meal we just wandered around MK for awhile longer.







The Dapper Dans serenaded us as we left.


One last glimpse of the castle:

Up next:  pros and cons of visiting WDW during the COVID pandemic.

Saturday morning weather wasn't the greatest.  It was cool with a misty rain.  After breakfast we drove over to DHS ro ride the skyliner over to the new Riviera Resort.  It was the only way we could figure out to see the resort because Disney was being very strict about letting us on properties other than the Fort. I had hoped to get some good photos from the air, but between the rain and the black film on our skyliner car they didn't turn out very well;

Anyway, we weren't very impressed with the resort.
Then we went over to EPCOT.  By the time we arrived the rain had stopped.

Because of COVID, the Festival of the Holidays wasn't like it normally is.  The food booths were open and there were some decorations in World Showcase, but that's it.  We checked out the food, but nothing really interested us.  Seemed to be mostly desserts.
We walked around World Showcase and saw Santa's cavalcade.

And then had an early dinner at Chefs de France.  I started with the charcuterie plate.  It looks small, but it was very filling and really good.

David had the French onion soup.

He thought it was really good.  I thought it was just so-so.  I think it was plant-based.  Tasted like it had no beef stock in it.  I.e., very weak flavor.  And then (gulp, I can't believe I'm saying this) it had way too much cheese in it.  
Then we both had Boeuf Bourguignon, which was delicious,

followed by Creme Brulee, which neither of us cared for.  It was pretty tasteless.  I think whoever made it forgot to add the vanilla to that batch.
We've eaten at Chefs de France several times in the past, but always with the French servers, chefs, and management. I have to say it wasn't quite as good with the American staff.  I'm surprising myself by admitting that, but i do believe the French staff paid better attention to detail and therefore gave us a much better dining experience.  
EPCOT's tree is beautiful at night:

Sunday was our next-to-the-last day at the Fort.  Normally it would have been our EPCOT day, and we would have spent our last morning at the Magic Kingdom.  Then in the next afternoon we would have come back to the Fort to clean up the motorhome and get ready to pull out the next morning.  And if we had time that evening we'd go back to MK for a last goodbye.
So this year with not having annual passes and being constricted with that dang 7-day park pass, we decided to forego a park on Sunday and do all our cleaning up and packing away on Sunday.  Our plan was to get everything but last-minute things done that day so we could play all day on Monday.
 And we were planning to leave on Tuesday and arrive home on Wednesday.  But we found out we were expecting bad weather at home.  Really bad.  Maybe ice and snow.  Like we may not even be able to make it home.  And we had to get winterized before we even tried to make it because the forecast temps were in the 20s.  
So Sunday morning we again had breakfast at Chef Mickey.  We came back to the Fort and spent all afternoon cleaning up Dolly and getting everything all packed away.  We got DeeDee, the golf cart, loaded on the Mighty Hauler.  The rugs and chairs packed away.  Inside the floors and the bathroom were scrubbed.  All the countertops were Gel-Glossed.  Literally everything but last-minute items were done.  Dolly looked forlorn.

I felt like she looked.  This had been a strange vacation, and it was almost over.
Next up:  our last day there and going home.

Hey, y'all!  I'm back!  And my little finger is working better now, as you can tell. I have about 4" of incisions on my elbow,   I had a severe case of ulnar nerve entrapment in my elbow that was corrected.  Basically I had the same thing as carpal tunnel syndrome, only it was in my elbow. I ignored it too long, and it was to the point that it was either surgery or lose the use of my hand.  
I'm 10 days post surgery, and you wouldn't believe how well I'm healing.  I was unbelievably blessed with a wonderful surgeon, no pain, not even having to take pain pills after surgery, just everything went so well.  
Anyway, in 10 more days, if everything goes as planned, we're scheduled to make another quick trip to WDW, thanks to a wonderful friend you all know, but there are some circumstances that make this next trip iffy.  Anyway, I want to get this TR wrapped up before the next trip starts. 
So over the weekend I'm gonna try to make a huge dent in finishing it.  

I know that camping gatherings are on hold until all this junk is behind us, but I still wanted to thank each and every one of you for sticking around and keeping the "dream" alive of one day getting together again.  On this day, 10 years ago, a couple of minutes after midnight, this forum began.  (I then, 10 minutes later, was unceremoniously banned from Voldemort, lol)
We recently had our Wild Womenz Weekend 2021, with COVID restrictions of course, and it was one of the best evah!  Some of our regulars couldn't make it at the last minute, but we knew they were there in spirit.  
COVID has been especially hard on teachers and being one, I have never, ever, been so swamped in my life.  We all know that life gets in the way for all of us and for anyone who is still really hurting from COVID, you are in my prayers.  
As I enter the twilight years of my education career, I am stepping up our focus on social media for FortFiends and beyond.  We will be moving forward with an Instagram and Ticktok page for FortFiends and this year renewing our trademark and applying for a logo mark (I think that is how you say it?  TCD?  help me out here) for Snarky, our mascot.   You may see in the coming weeks a tiny change to the bottom of the website.  Chris and I are merging the three businesses into one LLC.  FortFiends will be a DBA of Snarky Enterprises, along with the other two companies.  Nothing that you are used to will change, except names.  This will make things much easier come each tax season.  I will be updating the store to include our logo for the year and take out old and dated things and freshen up the look, with SuperGeek's help of course.  
Chris and I appreciate each of you and treasure the people who help behind the scenes.  They help in ways most of you will never know, but count on to keep things moving along.   Over the years, we have had many ups and downs, but all in all, I would say that my most treasured friends are fiends.  Fiends are the type of friends that just pick up where they left off, now matter how long of a time apart.  I look forward so much to WWW each year that if I dare say I am too busy to go, Chris will physically push me out of the door.  Even the girls know I am a squirrel and get distracted and call to make sure I am on the road.  You just can't find people like that in the normal universe.  They are friends you hold dear to your heart.
I challenge each of you, myself included, to make yourself get out of the house and go camping this year if you have been in hiatus. If you haven't, I challenge you to go more.   I also challenge you to invite people to this forum to discuss and share the love of camping.  We have regulars, yes.  We always need more regulars!  I plan on going camping more to just get out of the house.  We keep going virtual school then in person, then virtual and so on.  It is nice for a change and I know if I need it, so do you.  
If and when the world gets back to some kind of normal, we will be planning a 10th anniversary grand gathering.  I have no clue where or when because...COVID.  I do however seem to think it needs to be somewhere a little more affordable than the current rates at Disney.  Some of the WWW womenz have suggested a couple of new RV parks that will be opening soon around the area.  I will be checking them out for upcoming events.  I do know that WWW is expanding (hopefully) to a twice a year event.  Honestly, that makes me giddy!  Maybe the men can start to have a weekend without the women????
Please give a shout out to Monique, who is our trusted and love logo makers of all things Snarky, who designed our anniversary logo again.  We could not survive without her.
Until we meet again in person
Jen (and Chris, aka SuperGeek)

Hey, y'all!  I'm back!  And my little finger is working better now, as you can tell. I have about 4" of incisions on my elbow,   I had a severe case of ulnar nerve entrapment in my elbow that was corrected.  Basically I had the same thing as carpal tunnel syndrome, only it was in my elbow. I ignored it too long, and it was to the point that it was either surgery or lose the use of my hand.  
I'm 10 days post surgery, and you wouldn't believe how well I'm healing.  I was unbelievably blessed with a wonderful surgeon, no pain, not even having to take pain pills after surgery, just everything went so well.  
Anyway, in 10 more days, if everything goes as planned, we're scheduled to make another quick trip to WDW, thanks to a wonderful friend you all know, but there are some circumstances that make this next trip iffy.  Anyway, I want to get this TR wrapped up before the next trip starts. 
So over the weekend I'm gonna try to make a huge dent in finishing it.  

Friday was our second MK day.  And it was finally in the low 70s, beautul, sunny, not a cloud in the sky.

  
We rode Peter Pan's Flight and Haunted Mansion, walked around awhile, had some popcorn in the shadow of the castle, and left.
It was time for us to visit the horse barn.  Wow!




This horse's name is Owen. He was being groomed for an event at Golden Oak that evening.  The groomer said he's young and a little hard-headed.  He listened to her pretty well.  She would say 'Owen, put your head down,' and other things like that, and he would do it.  But then he would also show his impatience and a little temper once in awhile.  We watched the process for a good while.

Later we went back over to the MK for dinner at the Plaza Restaurant.  As we were walking in, Goofy's Cavalcade came down Main Street.


The Plaza, like all other Disney restaurants, has really cut back on their menu.  Other than the plant-based option, they only have two sandwiches, a burger, and meat loaf to choose from.  The burger was pretty good, but David didn't like the meat loaf too much.  The only good thing about eating there is you can order items from the Plaza Ice Cream Shop even though it's closed. I blew my diet again and got this beauty:

That's a hot fudge sundae made with raspberry sorbet.  Yum!
I don't like the projections on the castle any more than I like the new paint scheme.  Nevertheless, I did take several pictures.  I'll share a few.




The view from the balcony:

A closer look at the Christmas tree:

As we were leaving:

Thursday was another non-park day for us, so we went to Disney Springs.  We arrived around 11;00 and made our way to the second floor of the parking garage to get in the long line for our temperature check and then the security check.  It took a good while to get cleared.  

There was a long line waiting to get in World of Disney, so we skipped it for the meantime. We had lunch at the Polite Pig and did the Christmas Tree Stroll.  I took pictures of all the trees, I won't post all of them here unless someone requests them.  Here are three of the most unusual ones.
The Lion King:

Star Wars:

And this one needs no explanation!

Later that afternoon David had his own "I Need to Do WHAT" moment when he got carded at the trading post for buying a bottle of wine.
 

On Wednesday morning we had breakfast again at Whispering Canyon Cafe.  i'm sure you all know that the shenanigans there have been discontinued because of COVID.  Instead our server decided to provide his own entertainment.  As we came out of the Cafe, we had greeters:

Then we drove over to EPCOT.  It was another really cold day. We got in line to enter the temporary MouseGears.

The store is small.  This picture shows about 25% of it:

It's pretty much just a warehouse experience right now.  Not the fun stop it used to be.  But it was warm in there!
This was the only location in the entire park to get a decent shot of Spaceship Earth:

The tree at the American pavilion;

Voices of Liberty was performing in the America Gardens Theatre.

A little while later we heard some music and were surprised to see this famous couple motoring down the way:


It was a pleasant surprise.  I had no idea cavalcades were happening in EPCOT too.  Notice how they had a barrier between the driver and the characters?  And Mickey and Minnie sure were practicing their social distancing!
We went the rest of the way around World Showcase and then walked the detour around Future World.  The line was short for Spaceship Earth, so we hopped on it before we left. 
We  bundled up and rode the golf cart for just a few minutes that night, but it was really too cold to enjoy it. 

The next day was Tuesday, December 8.  It was cold, cold, cold.  Even David was cold.  It was our Animal Kingdom day.  When it's hot, AK is really hot.  We found out when it's  cold, AK is REALLY cold.  And with all the shows closed, there's no way to stay warm without going from one restaurant to the next.  We rode the safari, walked both trails, and ate at Flame Tree in the small sliver of sunshine we could find.  Here's a few photos:





DID I SAY IT WAS COLD?

I thought Runaway Railway was great too, but David not as much.  I think the long wait really got to him.  It was so much easier for me since I was sitting in my scooter.
The next day was another no-park day.  David develops what to me is a weird affliction while at the Fort.  He has an allergic reaction to the Disney bubble.  The longer he's in contact with it, the worse his reaction becomes until he just has to escape for awhile.  But to me, once inside the bubble, it's almost heresy to even suggest I extend even one toe outside that bubble.  And we'd already ventured out three times -- once to the Disney outlet, another time to a Camping World a couple of hours away to get some special fluid we desperately needed for our HydroHot (and they were the only place we could find it), and a trip to Publix.  But noooooooooooo, that didn't cure him.  So we got in the car and he started driving with no destination in mind.  He just wanted to see a part of Florida he'd never seen before.
We ended up in Frostproof.  We saw a lot of this:

We eventually found a pretty lake in the center of 'town."

We stopped for a snack at what has to be the oldest McDonald's still in existence in America.  Wish I had taken a picture of it.  It hadn't been remodeled.  It looked just like the ones that were built back in the sixties.  No computerized ordering there!  And the employees were so friendly!
On the way back to the Fort we stopped at the Florida's Natural Visitor's Center in Lake Wales.  https://floridasnatural.com/about/visitors-center  It's a great place to stop and stretch your legs for a few minutes.  And it relieved my boredom.
Finally we got back to the Fort.  I COULD HAVE KISSED THE GROUND!  Home again, home again!  I got on my scooter and went up to the Meadow Trading Post to immerse myself in Disney.  I was in desperate need of a Mickey fix.  And there he was!






One of the things we really wanted to do was visit the new horse barn, so we headed up there, only to find out that it closes to the public at 3 pm. That includes pony rides. 
We went back to the motorhome and pulled dinner from the freezer.  Ate early and stayed in.  As usual, once the sun set it was too cold outside to ride the golf cart. 

Thank you Rennie, Themepark, and Ivy, for going along with me for as long as my hand will hold out for this trIp!
I don't often take selfies, but this one sums up our trip pretty well:

 
Anyway, we had reservations to arrive on November 15 and leave on December 15.  But because we couldn't buy an annual pass and also because of the restaurant situation, we decided to move our arrival date up to November 29.  We arrived early that morning and after a bit of wrangling got assigned to 706, which is our new favorite site.  We spent that day and the next six wandering around the Fort, resort hopping, going out to eat, etc.  
it was sunny and cold.  Really cold.  All but our first and last days.  I wore a long sleeved shirt, a turtleneck sweater, and a sherpa-lined heavy hooded sweatshirt over all that.  And I was still freezing.

Yvonne, this is a difficult question to answer quickly.  I think I'm gonna do a mini trip report because I have a lot of pros and cons resulting from this trip that I'd like to share.  
Unfortunately our annual passes expired at the end of our 2019 trip, and since we thought we wouldn't be back for nearly a year we didn't renew.  So we were stuck paying nearly half what the AP would have cost for just a 7-day ticket.
But what a wonderful time you will have not camping!  Such a special time in your lives!
 
ROFL!
Gretchen, we had an accumulation of freezing rain at home on Wednesday morning, but thankfully by the time we made it home in the afternoon the temperature had risen enough that everything had melted enough for us to safely make it home.
 
We're still getting Dolly unpacked and situated for the winter.  (Thankfully we had her winterized right before we left the Fort).  Unhappily settling back into home.  Those of you who know me well understand that Mother Nature and I aren't happy with each other right now.
Anyway, I'm getting my photos off my laptop and onto my desktop ... starting to go through and edit them.  Didn't take nearly as many this trip.  As soon as I can get a handle on them i plan to start a mini trip report.  This was a trip like no other, both good and bad.  Both disappointments and pleasant surprises along the way.  We would absolutely go back and do it all over again.  But at the same time this trip has forever changed our perception of future trips.  Will explain more later.
 

Yvonne, this is a difficult question to answer quickly.  I think I'm gonna do a mini trip report because I have a lot of pros and cons resulting from this trip that I'd like to share.  
Unfortunately our annual passes expired at the end of our 2019 trip, and since we thought we wouldn't be back for nearly a year we didn't renew.  So we were stuck paying nearly half what the AP would have cost for just a 7-day ticket.
But what a wonderful time you will have not camping!  Such a special time in your lives!
 
ROFL!
Gretchen, we had an accumulation of freezing rain at home on Wednesday morning, but thankfully by the time we made it home in the afternoon the temperature had risen enough that everything had melted enough for us to safely make it home.
 
We're still getting Dolly unpacked and situated for the winter.  (Thankfully we had her winterized right before we left the Fort).  Unhappily settling back into home.  Those of you who know me well understand that Mother Nature and I aren't happy with each other right now.
Anyway, I'm getting my photos off my laptop and onto my desktop ... starting to go through and edit them.  Didn't take nearly as many this trip.  As soon as I can get a handle on them i plan to start a mini trip report.  This was a trip like no other, both good and bad.  Both disappointments and pleasant surprises along the way.  We would absolutely go back and do it all over again.  But at the same time this trip has forever changed our perception of future trips.  Will explain more later.
 

Yvonne, this is a difficult question to answer quickly.  I think I'm gonna do a mini trip report because I have a lot of pros and cons resulting from this trip that I'd like to share.  
Unfortunately our annual passes expired at the end of our 2019 trip, and since we thought we wouldn't be back for nearly a year we didn't renew.  So we were stuck paying nearly half what the AP would have cost for just a 7-day ticket.
But what a wonderful time you will have not camping!  Such a special time in your lives!
 
ROFL!
Gretchen, we had an accumulation of freezing rain at home on Wednesday morning, but thankfully by the time we made it home in the afternoon the temperature had risen enough that everything had melted enough for us to safely make it home.
 
We're still getting Dolly unpacked and situated for the winter.  (Thankfully we had her winterized right before we left the Fort).  Unhappily settling back into home.  Those of you who know me well understand that Mother Nature and I aren't happy with each other right now.
Anyway, I'm getting my photos off my laptop and onto my desktop ... starting to go through and edit them.  Didn't take nearly as many this trip.  As soon as I can get a handle on them i plan to start a mini trip report.  This was a trip like no other, both good and bad.  Both disappointments and pleasant surprises along the way.  We would absolutely go back and do it all over again.  But at the same time this trip has forever changed our perception of future trips.  Will explain more later.
 

Yvonne, this is a difficult question to answer quickly.  I think I'm gonna do a mini trip report because I have a lot of pros and cons resulting from this trip that I'd like to share.  
Unfortunately our annual passes expired at the end of our 2019 trip, and since we thought we wouldn't be back for nearly a year we didn't renew.  So we were stuck paying nearly half what the AP would have cost for just a 7-day ticket.
But what a wonderful time you will have not camping!  Such a special time in your lives!
 
ROFL!
Gretchen, we had an accumulation of freezing rain at home on Wednesday morning, but thankfully by the time we made it home in the afternoon the temperature had risen enough that everything had melted enough for us to safely make it home.
 
We're still getting Dolly unpacked and situated for the winter.  (Thankfully we had her winterized right before we left the Fort).  Unhappily settling back into home.  Those of you who know me well understand that Mother Nature and I aren't happy with each other right now.
Anyway, I'm getting my photos off my laptop and onto my desktop ... starting to go through and edit them.  Didn't take nearly as many this trip.  As soon as I can get a handle on them i plan to start a mini trip report.  This was a trip like no other, both good and bad.  Both disappointments and pleasant surprises along the way.  We would absolutely go back and do it all over again.  But at the same time this trip has forever changed our perception of future trips.  Will explain more later.
 

The weather must really hate me!  I've been miserably cold the entire time we've been here.  Wishing I'd brought my heavy coat.  Yesterday I wore thermals, a turtleneck sweater, a sherpa-lined hooded sweatshirt, and still froze.  I just hope you're enjoying this, Gretchen!
My aunt and uncle lived in Lakeland before they passed away.  They never admitted to having cold weather down here.  They just called us whenever we had snow and laughed and told us how warm their weather was!
If you all need a good laugh, my 72 year old husband just got carded at the trading post when he tried to buy a bottle of wine!

The weather must really hate me!  I've been miserably cold the entire time we've been here.  Wishing I'd brought my heavy coat.  Yesterday I wore thermals, a turtleneck sweater, a sherpa-lined hooded sweatshirt, and still froze.  I just hope you're enjoying this, Gretchen!
My aunt and uncle lived in Lakeland before they passed away.  They never admitted to having cold weather down here.  They just called us whenever we had snow and laughed and told us how warm their weather was!
If you all need a good laugh, my 72 year old husband just got carded at the trading post when he tried to buy a bottle of wine!

The weather must really hate me!  I've been miserably cold the entire time we've been here.  Wishing I'd brought my heavy coat.  Yesterday I wore thermals, a turtleneck sweater, a sherpa-lined hooded sweatshirt, and still froze.  I just hope you're enjoying this, Gretchen!
My aunt and uncle lived in Lakeland before they passed away.  They never admitted to having cold weather down here.  They just called us whenever we had snow and laughed and told us how warm their weather was!
If you all need a good laugh, my 72 year old husband just got carded at the trading post when he tried to buy a bottle of wine!

Sitting in our "site" at the St. Augustine Flying J eagerly awaiting tomorrow morning when we can make the short hop on down the road to the Fort!
This morning in SC we met a new motorhome owner who is an avid Disney fan who just completed her first trip to the Fort.  I told her all about our group and also about our site app, which she promptly downloaded.  Her name is Michelle, and she and her family drive 1600 miles from Maine to the Fort.  Hopefully you will see her here soon!
 
 

He's less than 2 hours from us and about 4 hours from home.
Being redshirted does have its advantages.  He will be on full scholarship for 5 years instead of 4 and hopefully will get started on his Master's degree.  Thankfully he isn't too upset about it. 

Mine too!

Car.  Use the internal buses to avoid the long walk to the Settlement.

Fiends are the greatest!  I received a wonderful surprise from Littleolwoman.aka.Kristie and her family a few days ago:

I only have to look at them to be happy.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!
Meanwhile I apologize to everyone that I haven't been able to keep up with this TR.  It's just been too difficult to sit in a straight chair long enough to get my photos processed.  I promise to finish it up, but it's going to be after we get home.

If you guys think it's cool now, wait until I can take pics of it at night.  It's amazing!
Kristie, it was great to meet you last night.  Hope we can spend more time together before we both have to leave.