Twenty One!: The TCD Twins' 21st Birthday Jamboree at the Fort

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Time for today's update.

We have now made it all the way to Monday morning, May 30th.

AKA Memorial Day.

My oldest DD had an early flight out of Orlando that morning, and the twins' friend from Alabama had one a bit later.

Today was the day that we would be vacating the cabin.  By the end of the day, it would only be the twins and me left, and we would spend tonight in the camper.  The girls asked if I could call and get a late checkout for the cabin, and I told them that I doubted that was even a possibility on a holiday weekend, and I didn't want to waste my time.  Twin #1 said she'd give it a try, and called and got a 1 pm checkout for the cabin.  That was awesome, because it meant we could take it easy today plus enjoy the cabin for a bit longer.

When I say early flight, I mean early.  My oldest and I left the Fort at 5:30 am, and I ran her out to the airport.  I was surprised by how busy it was.

One thing that was unique about this trip was how many times I had driven.  There are some trips when I park the truck on the site and it doesn't move until it's time to go home.  Not this trip- I had two runs out to the airport, and for the golf carts, and groceries, and donuts, and Chick-Fil-A, and then the driving to Disney Springs and AK.  All together, I ended up driving over 200 miles in the 3 days we had been at the Fort.  I hope to not do that again.

I thought that I had plenty of gas in the truck when I headed here on Thursday, but I now had to get some gas.

I intended to stop at a RaceTrack station on the way back from the airport, but I missed the turn. 

So, instead, I stopped at the former Hess station across from Disney Springs.  Here's how things looked at Disney Springs at 6:30 am on Memorial Day:

It's hard to believe how different this all looks now.

Turned to the left, you can see the Orange parking garage- this is the one that you want to use if you're going to the AMC Movie Theater, or Splitsville, or HOB, or the rest of the stuff on that end of Disney Springs:

Turned to the right, you can see the Lime parking garage-this is the one that you want to use if you're going to Rainforest Café, or Earl of Sandwich, or the Disney Store or the stuff on that end of Disney Springs:

I headed back to the campsite, and got the golf cart, and headed out for some early morning looping.

This was one of my new neighbors on the 2000 loop- it looks like they had an interesting time on their way to the Fort:

This was another neighbor on 2000- they had been here all weekend.  I never actually say them, but you can see they have a stroller stowed under their car.  I admire how they kept it simple.  I also think they have no idea how lucky they were that we didn't have any rain or as much heat and humidity as is typical this time of year:

I snapped this photo to show this fellow's firepit, which has just a domed mesh top.  I had seen him using it a couple of times at night without even that cover over his open flames.  I can only guess that no one said anything to him.  This is not a Fort legal fire pit:

I headed out the back entrance of the 300 loop toward my favorite spot:

Do you see that Turkey family over there on the right?:

They had turkey babies:

This big pump was running this morning:

And it was pumping water out of the canal and into Bay Lake:

It isn't going to be too much longer until we won't be able so see the old cabin from this side of the canal:

I brought a cup of coffee with me and enjoyed a moment at my favorite spot:

There was some kind of commotion going on at the marina- look a big white security SUV is parked down there:

As best I could tell, a guest has some kind of issue going on with his golf cart.  Maybe it had been vandalized, or maybe he crashed into someone, but I could see Disney Security types talking to a guy who was gesturing toward a parked cart.

I headed over to the dining pavilion and got some shots of it:

And then I headed over to the old windmill to check on it.  The jasmine was still in bloom, but not to the extent that it was last month.  It wasn't quite enough to cover the horse stench in the area, but up close it still smelled heavenly:

It was still early, and I decided to enjoy the Meadow Trading Post before it got swarmed by the morning rush:

The rocking chair supply was still OK, but they music wasn't playing yet, and I still had the rocking chairs on our cabin porch to enjoy, so I just looked this morning:

I headed around the side:

And caught this pretty nice nature photo op:

With a little editing, this shot would make a nice Fort Wilderness post card:

I walked over to Bob's Bobber Tree and took this shot looking back toward Bob's Dock:

The water level in the Old Fishin' Hole is the highest I've seen in a long, long time:

There was a good crop of bobbers on Bob's Bobber Tree:

I love the back porch of the Meadow Trading Post:

And I also love that footbridge over there.  Note how high the water is around Bear Rock:

It looks like this is a good place to stop.

I have another large batch of early morning Fort photos to share, and this post will be too long if I keep going.

I'll start the next post with those.

TCD

[campingdawgs 4]

It sounds like the girls had a great time and things didn't get too crazy. You and Mrs. TCD are very thoughtful hosts! The breakfasts and cookout were just the sort of thing my kids and their friends would appreciate! I love the decorations at the cabin- the twine is still there, by the way. We just got back from the Fort last night and we saw the twine while looping. It almost looks like Spanish moss?

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

19 minutes ago, campingdawgs said:

It sounds like the girls had a great time and things didn't get too crazy. You and Mrs. TCD are very thoughtful hosts! The breakfasts and cookout were just the sort of thing my kids and their friends would appreciate! I love the decorations at the cabin- the twine is still there, by the way. We just got back from the Fort last night and we saw the twine while looping. It almost looks like Spanish moss?

Whoops, I wasn't going to mention that there were a couple of pieces of twine that got left behind.

I try to leave no trace, but in this case I failed.  I used a slipknot, though, so the trees are going to be fine.

We are planning to see how long the twine remains.  One Halloween we had one of those fake neon colored spider webs in a bush by our campsite, and a couple of pieces of that got left behind.  There were traces of that spider web in that bush for two years, and the traces might still be there now, but that bush got whacked by chainsaw guy when the loop was converted to a premium loop.

We'll see how long the twine sticks around.  Who knows, maybe another cabin stay is in our future, and we can hang those lanterns back up?

So, how was your stay at the Fort?  Were you there for the tropical storm?  I hope not.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Going back to the discussion about the combination microwave/convection oven, I noticed something interesting today.

This is my photo of the oven in our cabin:

And this is a photo posted by Josh of EasyWDW fame:

http://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/disneys-fort-wilderness-resort-refurbished-cabin-review/

See how his oven has that instruction sticker on it?

(and a very frightening reflection in it)

Ours didn't.

And we sure could have used those instructions.

I wonder how many of the cabins lack those instructions?

It seems like something that should be addressed by management.

TCD

 

[bhall 115]

Great TR.  As for the instruction sticker, do you think a guest who stayed previous to you could have torn it off?

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Haven't read the last update, but I can't believe I forgot to comment on Big Wendy! What was she up to?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[campingdawgs 4]

19 hours ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Whoops, I wasn't going to mention that there were a couple of pieces of twine that got left behind.

I try to leave no trace, but in this case I failed.  I used a slipknot, though, so the trees are going to be fine.

We are planning to see how long the twine remains.  One Halloween we had one of those fake neon colored spider webs in a bush by our campsite, and a couple of pieces of that got left behind.  There were traces of that spider web in that bush for two years, and the traces might still be there now, but that bush got whacked by chainsaw guy when the loop was converted to a premium loop.

We'll see how long the twine sticks around.  Who knows, maybe another cabin stay is in our future, and we can hang those lanterns back up?

So, how was your stay at the Fort?  Were you there for the tropical storm?  I hope not.

TCD

It really does look like Spanish moss unless you know what you're looking at. And I think there is a champagne cork in a tree in the 1400 loop that we may or may not have left there?

We saw the tropical storm and since it looked like it would be gone before we got there, we took the chance and booked the weekend. We got there Friday the 10th around noon. We were in 1008, and for a long time there was only us and one other family on that loop. It did fill up by Saturday, though. The only stormy weather we saw was Friday evening, but since we were inside Raglan Road at the time celebrating my husband's birthday, we didn't mind.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

18 hours ago, bhall said:

Great TR.  As for the instruction sticker, do you think a guest who stayed previous to you could have torn it off?

That could be.  But, I don't know why a guest would do that.  A more likely scenario is that whoever was in charge of putting the stickers on the ovens missed this one.

11 minutes ago, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said:

Haven't read the last update, but I can't believe I forgot to comment on Big Wendy! What was she up to?

We've run in to her a couple of times.  Twin #1 used her internet stalking skills to find her social media accounts a year or so ago.  She's just one of the many kids who come to WDW for the college program from places that no one wants to return to, and never left.  Last I knew, she was working as a photopass photographer. It seems that her Peter Pan stalking was thankfully just a phase.  I'm not sure about the dragon drawings, though.  That's probably still going on.  We have not, and do not intend to, establish contact with her.

It's funny that we keep running in to her.

8 minutes ago, campingdawgs said:

It really does look like Spanish moss unless you know what you're looking at. And I think there is a champagne cork in a tree in the 1400 loop that we may or may not have left there?

We saw the tropical storm and since it looked like it would be gone before we got there, we took the chance and booked the weekend. We got there Friday the 10th around noon. We were in 1008, and for a long time there was only us and one other family on that loop. It did fill up by Saturday, though. The only stormy weather we saw was Friday evening, but since we were inside Raglan Road at the time celebrating my husband's birthday, we didn't mind.

A champagne cork in a tree?  Must have been some party.

Glad that you missed the bad weather.

TCD

[fladogfan aka Gretchen 259]

Love the way you framed this photo.

 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

12 minutes ago, fladogfan aka Gretchen said:

Love the way you framed this photo.

 

Thanks.

I like how that one turned out too.

It's impossible to capture the beauty of the Fort in photographs, but this one comes close to conveying the feel of being there at that particular moment.

I love the Fort at or around sunrise- and that's why I always come home exhausted.

But happy.

TCD

 

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Update time.

We left off behind the Meadow Trading Post on Monday Morning, May 30th.

And that is exactly where this update begins.

Bob, if you're reading along, and I hope that you are, this one is for you:

I always smile when I see the hop scotch court behind the Trading Post- it reminds me of the good old days:

SQUIRREL!:

This sign has been forever.  By the way, when is the last time you saw a duck at the Fort?:

I hope that it's only a coincidence that the last time I saw one was around the same time they started serving duck at the France booth for the Food and Wine Festival.

As I looped around that morning, I noticed that a camper had vacated his site on the 1000 loop.  I pulled in there to see if I could see my campsite on 2000 across the canal.

Yup:

I stopped by my site to reload on coffee, then headed out to visit the gardenia bushes by the four way stop:

There was enough space for me to pull my cart between the bushes, so I did:

And, I sat there and watched the world go by while sipping my coffee and breathing deeply:

I wish I could begin every day like that.

Earlier that morning, I had looped through the 1500 loop and saw the unruly mob of youths chowing down on their communal site.  They were up early, and ready to go out and wreak havoc somewhere.  I didn't take any photos then, as most folks, including me, frown on strangers taking photos of kids.  When I looped around now, it was just the adults dumping the dishwater around the site:

Why did the turkey cross the road?:

[insert punchline here]

On a previous looping trip, I admired this motorhome which was parked on the inner loop of 1400:

At the time, I knew that I had seen photos of this RV someplace before.

When I got home, I searched here on ff.net, and found out that this was the RV of Fiend Timsmith7:

Here's a link with a zillion photos of his RV:

https://plus.google.com/photos/114249486255854888450/albums/5854492352013041457?banner=pwa

It wasn't until after I had returned home that Tim posted his site number:

And that's too bad, because I would have stopped and said hello had I made the connection there.

Anyway, if you're reading this Tim, I love your RV- it is a true work of art!

Later in the morning, I spent some time packing up the decorations, food and drink at the cabin and moving it to the campsite.

I parked one of the carts in the Pioneer Hall lot so it could charge and we'd eventually have a cart waiting for us on both ends of the campground.

I took this shot of Pioneer Hall after plugging the cart in:

Here's how the campsite looked after the added decorations- note that I have the cooler over there on the right:

I moved the Big Blue Excursion over a bit so Twin #2 would have a space to park.  I see now that I had a couple of wheels slightly off of the pavement.  Whoops:

The kids were all moving very slow this morning, and it was right at 1 pm before we got out of the cabin at the time of our extended check-out.

After that, we decided to head to Epcot.

This was the last weekend for the Flower and Garden Festival, and we wanted to see if this super FP+ we got last night would work there for Soarin':

On the way in to Epcot, we saw another old friend of the TCD gang- look it's Miss Sundee sitting there watching the scanners:

For those of you who are not old timers around the Fort, Miss Sundee was the star of the nightly campfires for years.  She was a one woman show, and after she sang, you'd see her working in the snack bar and tending the fires.  I swore that sometimes, when necessary, she'd even put on a chipmunk costume.  The twins now tell me that's impossible, but that's what I thought at the time.  Anyway, for those of you who remember her, Sundee is alive and well.

The heat had finally arrived today, and it was hot and sunny as we made the trek back to the Land pavilion;

Your basic monorail shot:

The standby wait for Soarin' was 100 minutes, and, thankfully, our replacement super FP+'s worked!

I thought maybe the queue would look different, but it doesn't:

What is different is that there is now a Concourse C that goes straight ahead from where you used to turn to the right or left:

I was hoping that we would get to try Concourse C, and we did!

The only thing different I noticed here is that they don't have those symbols on the floor that tell guests where to stand in the pre-boarding area:

The theater itself was nice- since everything was brand new.  They used the digital projection, and the film was clear and crisp-like it was when Soarin' was a new ride.  I'm glad that we got to see the original film one last time.  The new film starts in just a couple of days.

After Soarin' we had no other plans in Epcot.

The girls decided they'd like to have one last Violet Lemonade, so we headed there.

They extended the Flower and Garden Festival to run all the way to Memorial Day this year.  But it looks like the length of time exceeded guest interest.  This food booth had zero customers as we passed by at 4:22 pm:

We got our violet lemonade.  When we ordered, we asked the CM how much longer the Flower and Garden Festival was going to run.  She asked us what time it was, and said for about four more hours.  Today was the last day!:

The girls thought that maybe they would have discounted the Flower and Garden Festival merchandise, so we popped into one of the gift shops where they had been selling it.  We found out that it had all been moved to the Festival Center in the old Wonders of Life pavilion.

But, I did get this photo of a cool looking moonshine still they had on display in there:

We walked by the big topiaries they had at the World Showcase entrance for the last time:

And then we headed out.

Up to now, we didn't have a plan for the evening.

But we did now.

We decided to head to Pop Century for dinner, and then to the MK from there.

I took this photo on the way to the Pop bus.  I recall a recent thread where folks were not clear if the Fort and Lodge still share a bus stop at Epcot.

They do:

As luck would have it, a Pop bus was loading just as we walked up.

And we were on our way.

We will pick it up from here in the next update.

TCD

[Momof6....aka Marty 769]

I'm too tired to think of a witty or interesting comment, but did want you to know I am still reading along. Great trip report!

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[caveat lector 181]

I always like the pictures of the topiary in front of the golf ball. Nicely done.

Isn't it strange how blue paint on a sidewalk can evoke such great memories.  I have several vision queues that always bring a smile.

[CCIntrigue...aka Gwen 547]

More great pictures.  I'm still reading along too.  Just not feeling very talkative the last few days.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

I apologize in advance for this very short update.

But, looking at what I have left to post, it makes sense to wrap up Monday with this short post, and then finish up with a couple or three updates from Tuesday.

On Monday, May 30th, we visited Epcot and then popped over to the Pop Century Resort.

Twin #2 loves the chicken parmesan there.  Like a lot.  Like she sometimes will go there by herself just to get that.

We all like it fine, but not as much as Twin #2.

Anyway, that's where we had dinner.

We ate rather early, and were done by 6.

We intended to finish our evening at the MK, but it was too early for that.

So, we needed to go back to the Fort.

Using Disney transportation.

How would you have done that?

We voted to try something new.

We found out on a previous trip that from about 4 pm to 11pm there is a bus that runs from the Settlement bus stop directly to the MK.

It turns out that it's the Wilderness Lodge bus.  In the evening, they hijack it to drive over to the Fort to ferry Hoop Dee Doo guests to the MK bus stops so they can get to wherever they need to go.

This is good information for Fort dwellers, as it provides a good transportation option to get back to the Fort from any resort.

So, we took the MK bus from Pop, and then hopped on the Fort bus at the MK.

It's easy to find- it's even labeled:

We had a cart parked in the Pioneer Hall lot, and another up front at the Outpost.  I wanted to get the one we had at the Outpost, because it was way faster than the other, so we hopped on the Purple Outpost bus that was sitting there at the Settlement Bus Stop and headed to the front.

We saw plenty of deer along the off-limits road into the campground:

We got our cart and headed out.

Ugg.

The Abomination!:

We did a little early evening looping.  It was still very nice out then, and it looked like this was going to be one of those trips where we lucked out and didn't get any serious rain.

I think I forgot to mention an important plot point.  When we came back from Animal Kingdom the night before, I was surprised to find that it had not rained at the Fort.  It had rained like crazy at Animal Kingdom, but the Fort was still bone dry.

Some new campers had moved into the 700 loop.  They had a nice collection of blow-ups.  I wish my old buddy Lou could have seen this:

We did a lot of looping that night.

We even grabbed our s'mores stuff and visited the campfire for a while.  I hadn't checked to see what movie was playing.  It was Lilo and Stitch.  It's not a bad movie.  My dislike for Stitch comes from the MK attraction, not the movie.

Then it was time to finish off our evening at the MK.

We were kind of tired, but it was too early for bed, so we went.

There was a bit of thunder, and some distant lightning, but we really didn't expect any weather issues.

We parked our fast cart next to our slow one and took the bus to the MK.

It's faster.

As we got to the MK, the wind started to blow, and it was obvious that a storm was blowing in.

We got to the hub area just before 10, and planned to watch Wishes from there, but an announcement came on that it was delayed.

We tried to clear out of there, which wasn't very easy.  All of the red-vested CM's who direct traffic were MIA.  I have definitely seen worse, but it was a bad scene.

We had Mine Train FP+'s to use, and headed there.

It had been shut down for weather.

A CM confirmed that all outside attractions were currently closed.

And it wasn't even raining.

But it was coming.

We decided to bail.

We started heading out.

And the rain hit.

Hard.

I broke out the ponchos, and we marched on.

We headed through Tomorrowland and turned to go through Tomorrowland Terrace.  It was a mess there as guests were taking cover in the walkways and doing a good job of blocking them.

We pressed on.

Sorry for the poor quality of this photo, but I took it as we were walking swiftly through there.

It shows about 40 of the CM's who should have been out preventing the chaos and blocked walkways.  They were nice and safe and dry under cover.  Screw the guests:

These ding-dongs were obstructing traffic, but not as bad as the guests we ran into when we turned the corner and ran into a solid mob of people who were just standing in the walkway, blocking it.  With 40 CM's not 20' away playing with their lightsabers.  Grrrr.

Fortunately, the bypass was open, and we were able to get out.

The WL/FW bus came fast.  It was the same bus driver who had brought us to the MK.  He said "back so soon?"  We told him we were cutting our losses with the storm.  He said good move.

Then the bottom let out.

Crazy heavy rain.

All the way to the Lodge and then to the Fort.

We got off at the Settlement Bus Stop.

I suggested that we bus it back to 2000 and leave the carts.  We would stay dryer that way.

The girls voted down that suggestion.

So, we made a run for it.

As we drove back to the 2000 loop, I kept thinking of the old Backlot Tour at DHS.  You know the part where the tidal wave washes over the radio operator?  That's how hard it was raining.

We got back to our site, and found a gigantic puddle all around our picnic table.

And mud.

It was squishing up through my patio mat.

It was raining too hard for my site to drain.

I was glad we weren't in a tent.

There was nothing else to do but go to bed then.

It rained hard for about an hour.

Then it drizzled on and off through the night.

And tomorrow was the day I had to pack up and go home.

I hate packing up a wet camper.

Dang.

But, if it had to rain, I'm glad it rained when it did, and not on the girls' birthday night.

We will pick back up with our soggy last morning at the Fort.

TCD

[CoachClough 12]

We've yet to get a golf cart, so we have totally missed out on the joys of looping.  Something we'll need to consider in the future.

 

Great update btw.

[Dalspot ... Karen 21]

So that kinda begs the question (besides what ducks?) Can you feed the ducks if YOU'RE not on the porch, or are you just not supposed to feed the ducks if THEY are on the porch?

On 6/15/2016 at 1:02 PM, Tri-Circle-D said:

This sign has been forever.  By the way, when is the last time you saw a duck at the Fort?:

 

[DramaMama .......... Janet 75]

On 6/9/2016 at 0:30 PM, Tri-Circle-D said:

Some random ballerina was having a photo shoot in front of the castle.  OK:

Ok.  Weird!  I had to zoom in a little on the pics to see for sure.  One of Thrill's just graduated seniors had pics made at GF and on the monorail around that weekend. She is a beautiful and an incredible dancer and had her pics made wearing pink and holding a pink Mickey balloon.  The photos were absolutely gorgeous!

This, however, was not "our" ballerina.  Not even close.

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

21 hours ago, CoachClough said:

We've yet to get a golf cart, so we have totally missed out on the joys of looping.  Something we'll need to consider in the future.

 

Great update btw.

Be careful.  Once you try the golf cart, you may have a hard time staying at the Fort without it.

I think I could get by fine with just a bike, but I got a lot of complaints from the TCD gang the one or two times we camped without having a cart.

21 hours ago, Dalspot ... Karen said:

So that kinda begs the question (besides what ducks?) Can you feed the ducks if YOU'RE not on the porch, or are you just not supposed to feed the ducks if THEY are on the porch?

 

LOL.

It's a good question.

And harkens back to the good old days when you could feed the critters whatever you wanted.  Now, there are signs posted on every picnic table stating that guests should not feed the wildlife.  So, current policy is that the ducks cannot be fed on or off the porch. 

Now that we've pointed that out, I wonder how long it will be before that sign disappears?

13 hours ago, DramaMama .......... Janet said:

Ok.  Weird!  I had to zoom in a little on the pics to see for sure.  One of Thrill's just graduated seniors had pics made at GF and on the monorail around that weekend. She is a beautiful and an incredible dancer and had her pics made wearing pink and holding a pink Mickey balloon.  The photos were absolutely gorgeous!

This, however, was not "our" ballerina.  Not even close.

That would be quite the coincidence if that was your ballerina.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Well, we have arrived at Tuesday morning, May 31st.

We have to pack up and go home today.

And everything was soaking wet from the night before.

Wonderful.

But, it happens.

It actually happens a lot to me.

I had a good run of trips where it hadn't, so I was due.

It's not the end of the world, and at least the storms had passed, and sunny day was dawning.

I got up early, made some coffee, and checked to see if the bridge across the canal behind my site was still passable.  It was.

As I stood back there sipping my coffee, I noticed something walking around on my neighbors' campsite.  These folks had just moved in yesterday, and I hadn't met them yet.   They just had tents, and I wondered how they had done with the storms the night before.  They seemed to be fine.  And so did their big dog:

Wait, aren't there rules about not having dogs in tents?

And isn't the 2000 loop a non-pet loop?

I don't know.

Where are the rules?

I didn't get any when I checked in.

I reckon those folks didn't either.

I hopped on the cart and headed out for some more early morning looping.

Nobody looked like they had a complete disaster from last night's storm.

These folks had kept all of their food out on their picnic table all weekend.  It looks like they got most of it undercover before the storm:

As I headed toward Fort Wilderness Trail, the sun was already getting high in the sky and starting to dry stuff out- I took this photo at 7:27 am:

We had nice blue skies this morning:

Here's a fisherman going at it early:

There were no early birds at the dog park or playground:

I headed back out the back exit on the 300 loop- again.

On the way around 300 I admired this tastefully decorated site:

Go Gata!

All that rain meant a lot of mist this morning:

Here we are again- sipping coffee and watching the world come to life:

There goes the MK ferry heading to the Transportation and Ticket Center:

These fire pit things didn't move all weekend. I'm still not sure what they're doing here:

What a beautiful morning after a stormy night:

Hey look, now there's one of the WL/FW MK boats there next to the big ferry boat:

Is it me, or has that MK ferry not moved?:

The MK boat looked like it was leaving the ferry behind:

But then it came back:

About 6 or 7 minutes passed, and that MK ferry stayed put.

Something was up, but I couldn't sit there all morning waiting to find out what.

I had things to do.

So, I headed down to the Settlement Trading Post:

Things were quiet at the marina on this Tuesday after a big holiday weekend:

I headed down to Clementine's Beach.  That MK ferry was still sitting there, and it was getting near 15 minutes now since I first spotted it there:

It wasn't quite a mob, but there were quite a few folks standing on the dock waiting for the MK boat- I don't think one had come the whole time I was watching that stalled ferry. That stinks for them:

A small boat showed up right before 8 am:

And that MK ferry was still sitting there:

I would have stayed and watched this all play out, but I told the girls that I would wake them at 8:30, and that I would bring them one of the new breakfast sandwiches on the Trail's End takeout menu.

You read that right.

There are breakfast sandwiches on the Trail's End take-out menu.

Those have been missing for a couple of years.

They're back.

Kind of.

I'll tell you about them and show you what they look like in the next update.

TCD

[CoachClough 12]

I lack for quality campsite decor as well.  I need to step up all my games it seems.

[AC in A2......Aaron 693]

I just read your April TR and now caught up on this one.

Kungaloosh for the younglings. Check

Lots of morning Fort pics.  Check

Settlement Wagon still rotting bc a piece of canvas was too difficult and or expensive to fix.  Check

Rockers still missing. Check

That last MK night would have been a major bummer......i think we have had rain on our last night a few times......not a fan of final night rain.

Will there be any shimmying on your final morning?

 

[GaDawgFan.....Kelly 799]

Great updates!

We hate packing up wet too, but it's worth the memories.

Breakfast sandwiches?!?!?!

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[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

On ‎6‎/‎17‎/‎2016 at 1:36 PM, CoachClough said:

I lack for quality campsite decor as well.  I need to step up all my games it seems.

Personally, I like the Fort better when there is not a lot of campsite décor on display.

On ‎6‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 0:06 AM, AC in A2 said:

I just read your April TR and now caught up on this one.

Kungaloosh for the younglings. Check

Lots of morning Fort pics.  Check

Settlement Wagon still rotting bc a piece of canvas was too difficult and or expensive to fix.  Check

Rockers still missing. Check

That last MK night would have been a major bummer......i think we have had rain on our last night a few times......not a fan of final night rain.

Will there be any shimmying on your final morning?

 

Great to see a post from you, Aaron.

I hope that you and the fam are doing well.

There was no shimmying on this trip.  I have reached the age when I am reluctant to solo shimmy.  I need a spotter.  When's your next trip?

On ‎6‎/‎18‎/‎2016 at 0:10 AM, GaDawgFan.....Kelly said:

Great updates!

We hate packing up wet too, but it's worth the memories.

Breakfast sandwiches?!?!?!

Agreed.

I have shared my philosophy about life before- sometimes you're the bug; sometimes you're the windshield.   It all evens out.  And so it is with rainy camping trips.  I was due.

Yes breakfast sandwiches.

I would say they're back, but that isn't quite the case.

You'll see in the next update.

Which will be along shortly.

TCD

[Tri-Circle-D 2,059]

Let's get this report finished up.

We left off with me heading to Trail's End to get us some breakfast sandwiches.  I had noticed a couple of new items on the menu:

They used to have a bagel breakfast sandwich on the menu a few years ago.  But that disappeared. For a while, you could still order one even though it wasn't on the menu.  But then that stopped.  Now, they're selling croissant breakfast sandwiches.  I was interested.

I needed the twins to get up and out of the camper so I could pack up, so the deal was that I would get us all a breakfast sandwich which we would eat at the reasonable hour of 8:30.

The way Trails End take-out used to work is that you'd order, and they would give you a pager, and you'd wait for them to prepare your order. It could take a while. That's why I headed in to place my order at 8:00 am sharp.  I figured it might take 10 or 15 minutes, and then I had to get back to the site. 

But, that's not how it works anymore.  Nope.  They have the breakfast sandwiches premade and sitting in a little hot box next to the pizza oven.  I placed my order, paid, and the CM went and got my sandwiches in a bag and handed them right over.  Nice.  If you don't mind pre-made stuff.

In case you're interested, here's a look at the dusty muffins and not from Main Street cinnamon rolls they have for sale:

There is no signage anywhere around Trail's End identifying the name of the take out place as P and J's Southern Take Out, but the receipts still say that:

On my way back to the 2000 loop, I passed 2100 and saw that the gates were open, and the place was crawling with noisy construction workers:

The girls both ordered sausage, egg and cheese sandwiches.  Here's what they got:

I intended to order a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich, and thought that I had.  Imagine my disappointment when I opened mine and saw it was just egg and cheese:

I was prepared to go all the way back to right this wrong, and fished my receipt out of my pocket.  Even though I took a photo of it, I hadn't read it.  Then I did.  And, I saw that I got rung up for the baconless sandwich.  I'm sure that isn't what I ordered.  But, at least I wasn't charged for it.  I didn't feel like going all the way back to Trail's End, so I shut up and ate my sandwich.  It wasn't bad.  But, it would have been better with bacon.

After breakfast, we had time for one last loop.

As we rode around the 1800 loop,  I could see that there was a truck out by the canal.

I wondered why.

So, I took this photo:

The sign on the side said the truck was from the USDA.

Like the US Food Department of Agriculture.

Why was he here?

Look closer:

That says USDA Wildlife Services.

That photo was taken May 31st.

A couple of weeks later, an alligator killed a child at the Grand Floridian Resort.

I wonder if that guy was there to remove an alligator or for some other reason.

I will say it's the first time I've ever seen a truck from the USDA anywhere on property.

And, I didn't even know the federal government was involved in wildlife issues on private property.

When we got back from looping, I had one more errand to run before I returned the golf carts.

I had to return the cable box to the Meadow Trading Post.

I ran into some Real Kids of Genius who thought it was a good idea to park their bikes right at the door:

After returning the cable kit, I went through the lengthy process of returning the golf carts.  Getting both of the carts onto Kenny's trailer was tricky, but I got it done. 

Right as I was trying to keep one of the carts from falling off the side of the ramp, Fiends Tim and Shiela rode by on their golf cart.  I was so focused on not killing myself that I didn't even notice it was them until they were past me.  If y'all are reading this-sorry for not saying howdy.

It was about here that Twin #2 took off.  She had a class to go to that morning, so off she went.  Twin #1 was going to ride back home with me.  She had some schoolwork to do, and had the smart idea of hanging out at the Lodge to do that.  Free WiFi and AC.  Perfect.

I got busy packing.  I got all the food and extra gear out of the camper.  There were a couple of donuts left, and I ate one, and left the other on the picnic table- still in a Dunkin Donuts box.  I was going to enjoy that last one as a treat when I was done packing up.

I was close to done when I noticed a squirrel run off of the picnic table with a large object in its mouth.

That little booger had my donut!:

He ran right up into a tree with it and started munching away:

You remember Pizza Rat from a couple of years ago?

Well, here's his cousin- Donut Squirrel:

It was all for the best.

I didn't need to eat another donut.

When I was about done, I texted Twin #1 and told her to catch the bus out to the Outpost, and that I'd meet her there.

And I headed out.

On the way out, I saw a BAGC that I had seen around the Fort all weekend.  I wanted a photo of it, but hadn't gotten one, so I tried a last time:

I met Twin #1 in the overflow lot, and we headed out.

Check out these CM's riding horses in the grassy area that they use as overflow for the overflow:

From there, we headed west.

I love the last part of my drive after I get through Tampa and am almost home.  I cross Tampa Bay via the Courtney Campbell Causeway:

I am blessed to live in a beautiful place that is only an hour and a half from the Fort.

And then I was home.

I had to pop the camper up to let it dry, but we had no more rain, so I was able to get everything put away that evening.

And that's all I got.

There might be some bonus content coming.

But, that depends on whether I end up heading over to Epcot tomorrow to ride the new Frozen ride.

It's supposed to start tomorrow, and I have FP+'s for it.

But, as far as I know, they haven't done any testing or a soft opening.

And I have a hard time believing that it's really going to happen.

If it does, I'll be there, and take some pics.

If not, we're done here.

Thanks for reading.

And, so you don't have to ask- don't worry, another trip is coming soon.

Like this coming weekend.

It's not a Fort trip though.

Or even a WDW trip.

I think it's about time for another TCD Gang Disney Cruise.

Don't you?

TCD